1 Samuel 28, or, "Saul Prank Calls a Ghost"

Saul is pretty rattled by the upcoming battle with the Philistines. And he's even more rattled, that he's been calling on God, over and over, and hasn't heard a word about it. So he takes matters into his own hands.

This leads to one of the weirdest stories in the entire Hebrew Bible...and one of the only "ghost stories."

Saul puts on a costume to avoid being recognized, and consults a medium--a profession which he specifically had outlawed earlier--and asks her to contact the spirit of Samuel, the prophet who anointed him king when he was younger. This is a Halloween-themed story if I ever read one.

Samuel's response is classic: "Why did you wake me up? God already gave you an answer. You're not going to be king anymore. Leave me alone!"

I get two different things out of this: First, that life and death are God's department. Frankly, this story is one of several reasons why I as a person of faith do not believe in ghosts. In the Hebrew Bible, when we die, we rest. We sleep. We are not active. We are dormant. In the Gospels and the letters of Paul, we learn that at some point, this rest will come to an end, when God raises us. What exactly that looks like is a mystery; but all accounts agree that the resurrection of Christ is both confirmation of that truth, and clue to what it might look like. But still...it's God's department. All we need to know for sure, is that God has it handled better than we ever could.

The second thing I learn from Saul's ridiculous adventure is: sometimes not getting an answer from God, is our answer. That may seem harsh, because sometimes the answer we feel we've gotten is not the one we'd like. But God has given us the scriptures, and the community of faith in which to read them. God has given us the life of Jesus to imitate, and the Holy Spirit, Who gives us the will to do it. Sure, sometimes we still feel doubt, or we may feel as though God has more to say. That's a possibility. But we also have to be ready for the possibility that what God has already said to us, in some way, shape or form, is still in effect. And when that's true, a second opinion won't do us any good.

God, help us to listen. Help us to trust us with our lives and our deaths. Help us to remember that you say what you mean, and you mean what you say. Amen.