Janita Krayniak

It’s October! For me, October holds many wonderful memories of homemade Halloween costumes, spooky movies, and of course those cartoon TV specials come to mind while pumpkin spice lattes arrive in the coffee stores and apple pies begin to appear in window sills!  

One of my childhood favorite movies and subsequent theme song used this catch phrase: “Who you gonna call?” And, if you were a parent OR a child in the 1980s, right about now you are joining me in screaming: “GHOSTBUSTERS!” 

Though I am “all grown up” (I know for some this may be a sticking point), I still sing at the top of my lungs in my car when this tune by Ray Parker, Jr. comes on the radio or a playlist! But as I pondered this question at this season in my life, I have begun to think about the phrase a little bit differently. I invite you to think about it with me:  

"When there's something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! When there's something weird and it don't look good, who you gonna call?”  

Who am I going to call?

1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (NRSVUE) says: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” 

Thinking back on my answer of calling “Ghostbusters” when things got “weird” or “strange,” or things just “don’t look good” as an adult seems quite childish indeed. As an adult I have tried to always remember that “faith, hope and love remain … and the greatest of these is love.” 

So, now when things get “weird” or “strange” or just “don’t look good,” instead of calling on Bill Murray and the gang, I call upon God. I think that is what this scripture passage from 1 Corinthians is sharing with us. It is a gentle reminder that being a child came with innate wonder and awe. We did not have to be reminded to call out for help, we just did it! We called for our parents, our teachers, we even called out to God! Then life happened.  

We have deadlines and a schedule and we have responsibilities and bills that are due. We have times of great joy but we also have real and palpable, fearful moments, when we don’t really seem to know which way we are going next. And that steals all of the wonder and awe from us, leaving us feeling sorry for ourselves, angry, frightened … in a place where one might think that the most sensible thing is to turn toward God. But too often we simply turn into our own selves, justifying why we can do it (whatever it is) alone. That is not what God asks us to do. I believe that God is asking us to make a conscious choice to turn back to God for help. The psalmist in Psalm 121 pens that he “lifts his eyes to the hills where his HELP comes from … my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth!”  

So my friends and neighbors, amidst all the parties, costumes, movies and ALL THE CANDY you are planning on getting at Powell-o-ween, I invite us this October to put an end to the childish ways of thinking that we can do this all on our own. I invite us instead to take notice if something doesn’t look good and make the choice to call out, not to Ghostbusters, but call out to God for help.  

Who am I “gonna call?” “I can’t hear you.” (OK I couldn’t resist one more Ray Parker, Jr. line!) The answer? I hope you heard me calling it.  Perhaps you heard me shouting it? GOD!

(Janita Krayniak is the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Powell and United Methodist Church in Lovell.)