Thought for Today
Exodus 22:18 You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live.
Deuteronomy 18:10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
Acts 8:9 Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great.
Acts 13:6 But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
Do you believe in magic? I don’t mean the magic of the beauty of a flower or the magic of a child’s laughter. I don’t mean prestidigitation, the entertainment provided by a David Copperfield or Harry Houdini. I mean do you believe that the author J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were a fictional account of the real world in which we live. Are we just muggles, living in a world in which there are those who can defy the constraints of the laws of physics?
I truly enjoy the Harry Potter books and movies. One of my favorite fictional series is the Dresden Files, author Jim Butcher’s novels about Harry Dresden, the world’s only White Council wizard and licensed private investigator. Harry exists in a Chicago where magic is real, vampires, ghouls and all sorts of monsters threaten the unsuspecting population and only Harry and his ‘posse’ of friends do anything to combat the threats.
When I was a child, ghost stories were fun to read and hear. The only movies involving magic, monsters and threats were either Abbot and Costello comedies or similar comedic romps . . . at least the only movies my parents allowed me to see. Halloween was a time for young children to dress up like mummies, ghosts, etc. to elicit candy from parents and friends, but no one took any of that very seriously.
It seems to me that in recent years there has been an increase in horror movies featuring zombie apocalypses and other terrifying occurrences. I mentioned above the Harry Potter phenomenon. We now live not too far from Salem, Massachusetts, site of the infamous witch trials. Each year the local newscasts cover increasingly large crowds descending on Salem in October. Most of us take special care to avoid being anywhere near Salem that month. Even during other times of the year, witches and magic are a constant theme in Salem’s economy and commerce. So, I wonder, do you believe in magic? Do all of those people in those crowds believe in magic?
Our ancestors-in-the-faith obviously did believe. The Old Testament verses above indicate just how seriously their faith leaders took the question. Practicing magic was a capital offense punishable by death. The book of Acts relates those occasions above where first Simon the magician heard the gospel, was baptized and then attempted to buy his way into receiving the Holy Spirit. Peter and John rebuked Simon; and, ultimately Simon asked them to pray for his forgiveness. Later Saul and Barnabus confronted Bar-Jesus/Elymas. Did Simon and Bar-Jesus/Elymas believe in magic or were they merely practicing sleight-of-hand (legerdemain)?
For what it’s worth (FWIW as my grandchildren would text), I do not believe in any contravening of the laws of physics, whether called prestidigitation, legerdemain, sleight-of-hand or anything else. Harry Potter and Harry Dresden are fictional characters . . . entertaining, but fictional. There are no magic wands. There are no spells or incantations.
I certainly do believe in the magic of flowers and the laughter of children in play. As a minister, I have witnessed the transformative magic of the gospel message of God’s love. No sermon is going to change lead into gold or diamonds. Many sermons change sinners into saints. FWIW, our word saint is from the Latin word sanctus which was used to translate the Greek ἅγιος which means holy. When I was in Texas, I was blessed to be part of a prison ministry serving a state maximum security facility. I saw lives change by both telling and hearing the message of God’s love, the truth that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” I believe in that magic!
Stay safe, believe in the true magic, trust God,
Pastor Ray