The Gospel as a Fairy Tale: Evil Close at Hand.
Rev. Eugene Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church, Sebastopol, California
January 6, 2002
Matthew 2:1-12
From Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone…
“Harry sniffed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. And then they heard it – a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed – at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as the troll emerged into a patch of moonlight.
“It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray; its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs, thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.” This is the fearsome creature with which the three friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, must do battle.
From The Fellowship of the Ring…
“Frodo’s spirits had risen for a while after his escape…but now a deep uneasiness, growing to dread, crept over him again. Though he had been healed in Rivendell of the knife-stroke, that grim wound had not been without effect. His senses were sharper and more aware of things that could not be seen. One sign of change that he soon noticed was that he could see more in the dark than any of his companions, save perhaps Gandalf. And he was, in any case the bearer of the Ring; it hung upon its chain against his breast and at whiles, it seemed a heavy weight. He felt the certainty of evil ahead and of evil following; but he said nothing. He gripped tighter on the hilt of his sword and went on doggedly.” And before long, he and his companions find evil, in this case, in the darkness of the mines of Moria.
“Something was coming up behind them. What is was could not be seen; it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater, and a power and terror seemed to be in it and to go before it…In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs.”
Pretty heavy stuff, in both these stories. The film version of Lord of the Rings, which about a hundred of us from the church saw yesterday morning, and which I really l liked by the way, is rated PG-13, and with good reason. There are dark and scary moments, which are vividly portrayed, both on-screen and in the book. And while Harry Potter is not as intense, it also has its own dark moments, again, both in the film and in the book.
But that’s the way it is with stories like this…I guess you could say, that’s the way it is with fairy stories, fairytales. In spite of the “they all lived happily every after” endings, these stories are never afraid to probe the evil and dark side of the world, indeed, of life. Writing about fairytales, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote Fellowship of the Rings, said, “The realm of the fairy story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow, as sharp as swords.”
And so, in Lord of the Rings, we are introduced to the Shire, an idyllic place of peaceful and well-kept fields, inhabited by Hobbits, unobtrusive and peace-loving creatures, who love being just where they are. But soon we learn that on the borders of the Shire, dark riders have been spotted. Forces of evil and destruction are gaining strength, and before long, not even the Shire will be safe, and Frodo must leave with the Ring.
Hogwarts, the school attended by Harry Potter is a wonderful place, literally a magical place. But it is bordered by the Forbidden Forrest, a place of darkness and evil where even young wizards are not safe. Beauty to be sure, but always accompanied by “an ever-present peril.”
It seems that in the fairy story, evil is always a harsh and present reality. And those who must struggle against it always must pay a heavy price. At the very end of the Lord of the Rings, part one, Frodo comes to a realization: “Frodo rose to his feet. A great weariness was on him, but his will was firm…He spoke aloud to himself. ‘I will do now what I must,’ he said. ‘This at least is plain: the evil of the Ring is already at work, even in the Company and the Ring must leave them before it does more harm. I will go alone. Some I cannot trust, and those I can trust are too dear to me…I will go alone. At once.’” He understands that the struggle against evil, against the great evil that is darkening the land, will come at great cost. There are sacrifices to be made, and he cannot ask his friends to make those sacrifices with him. So he turns and heads to the evil land of Mordor all by himself. At this point I can’t help but be reminded of our own religious tradition, of One who is willing to pay a great price in the struggle to overcome darkness and evil, who is willing in the end to walk that lonesome valley all by Himself.
This is Epiphany, as I said, the day celebrated as the day the Wise Men come to visit Jesus. Jesus is revealed as the Light of the World, the Light that shines in any darkness. But even as the Wise Men journey toward the Light, they discover, as in the fairy story, that evil and darkness are close at hand. “Then Herod secretly called for the Wise Men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he said, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I might also go and worship him.’ Herod does not want to worship the child; Herod intends to kill the child. Even Jesus’ birth is touched with the shadow of the cross, the “ever present peril”. He is now only days old, but already we know that if he is to triumph over evil, he will have to pay a great price. To speak a word of love and peace, of reconciliation and justice and forgiveness, in what is often a dark and perilous world, inevitably means that the one who speaks that word, who seeks to live that word, will meet resistance, often-fierce resistance. There is a price to be paid. So why do we even bother?
In the final struggle of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the evil Voldemort orders Professor Quirrell to kill Harry. Harry’s scar is blinding him the pain, yet Quirrell, a powerful wizard himself, seems powerless against the young boy. He cannot touch Harry’s skin without experiencing terrible pain. Indeed, it is Quirrell, not Harry, who in the end is destroyed and Voldemort is driven out. What happened? How can Harry Potter, a boy, a wizard in training, defeat such great evil? There are his friends, of course, who help him and make great sacrifices on his behalf. Indeed, the power of friendship is an important theme in both these stories, but there is more. In the hospital after the last desperate struggle, Harry is visited by Alubus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry wonders, “How can I still be alive?” Dumbledore explains it like this: “Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this very reason. For him, it was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.”
In the fairy tale, in the Gospel, evil and darkness are real and powerful and frightening to be sure. But equally real and powerful are light and love and hope; qualities which evil wants to destroy, but which evil does not understand. One of the elves tells Frodo at one point, ‘The light perceives the very heart of darkness, but its own secret has not been discovered by the darkness.’ The darkness wants to destroy it, but does not understand it. So, in spite of all the manipulations of evil, the light stubbornly shines on. The Wise Men leave Herod and the first thing they see is the light of the star. In that moment, we know that Herod will not have the last word.
We are from California or Arizona, Washington or New York, or any number of places, but you know what, we are also from somewhere else. We are also from Hogwarts and Middle Earth, and Oz and Narnia. And, if with a part of ourselves, we are men and women of the world who share many of the same sad unbeliefs and fears of the world, still within us there is something deeper. A part of ourselves that is willing to believe that just maybe the fairy tale is true after all… that the Gospel is true. Which is to say there is a joy and a beauty and a holiness beyond the walls of this world, underlying it all – a joy, a beauty, and a holiness that remain. Like the light of a bright star, shining in the darkness and always inviting us, weary travelers, to share in its brightness.
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