 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, May 13, 2022 Are you superstitious?   Psalm 148 Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights. Praise him all you angels of his; praise him all his host. Praise him, sun and moon;praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him heaven of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the Name of the Lord; for he commanded, and they were created. He made them stand fast for ever and ever; he gave then a law which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea-monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and fog, tempestuous wind doing his will; Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; Wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged birds; Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the world; Young men and maidens, old and young together. Let them praise the Name of the Lord, for his Name only is exalted, his splendor is over earth and heaven. He has raised up strength for his people and praise for all his loyal servants, the children of Israel, a people who are near him. Hallelujah!  Superstition Friday the 13th is, or used to be, widely seen as a risky day, a day on which people could expect bad things to happen. There are lots of guesses as to why this particular superstition developed, and spread. But right now I’m more interested in the phenomenon of superstition itself. It is “a belief or practice resulting form ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation”. It’s also “an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature or God resulting from superstition”.And it’s also “a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary.”(All from Webster’s dictionary) Faith isn’t superstition, but faith can be superstitious. Faith in God who is Love gives us confidence, even in hard times. But superstitious “faith” is anxious and fearful. And that fear has commonly been fed by bad theology, or by a controlling individual or structure. Faith is trust in a Reality that has been considered, examined, and even doubted. Superstition is fearful because it is anti-intellectual, unexamined, uncritical.   |
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