Beckett: Hades (Short Story)

The non-denominational church, Grace Community Church, was even less helpful. Whereas the priest at least entertained the idea of believing him, the pastor didn’t believe him for a second. “That doesn’t sound like anything I’ve read in the Bible,” he had said.

So, one last stop: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Walking into the foyer, he sees an office to his right with a woman sitting at an open cubicle and walks over to her.

“Um, hi,” he says shyly.

She looks up and gives him a warm smile. “Hi! How may I help you?”

“I was wondering if the pastor is available. Might I speak with him?”

“Yes, he should be in his office now. He has an open-door policy. Feel free to walk in.”

“Thanks,” he looks at her nameplate, “Sharon.”

He turns to his left and slowly walks through the door. His office was much like the priest’s—walls lined up with filled bookshelves and his desk piled with books and papers, the pastor typing away on his laptop. His nameplate says Rev. Peter Evans.

“Uh, hi,” he sees him wearing a collar, “uh, Father? Reverend?”

He looks up at Bill and gives him a gentle grin as if he were a naïve child.

Standing up, he walks over to Bill and holds out his hand, “Hi, I’m Pastor Evans. Have a seat.”

“Thanks, I’m Bill.”

Pastor Evans motioned Bill to a chair in front of a small coffee table as he closed the door behind him.

“Would you like some coffee?” Pastor Evans asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Thanks.”

The pastor walked over to a Keurig machine on a dresser and poured him a cup.

As Pastor Evans sits down across from him, he says, “What brings you in today?”

Bill takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh. “You’re my third stop today. First, I went to a Catholic priest, then a Protestant pastor, and now I’m here, which means you’re my last hope. I don’t know anything about Lutherans and what you believe. Like I told them, I wanna’ be upfront first and let you know that I’m an atheist.”

“Okay, that’s helpful. How might I be able to help you?”

For the third time, Bill told him about Hades.

After a brief moment of silence, Pastor Evans said, “Wow, that’s crazy.”

Bill threw his hands up into the air. “See? I knew you wouldn’t believe me!”

Pastor Evans quickly finished the sip of coffee he was on and said, “No, I believe you.”

Bill couldn’t believe it. “Really?”

“Yes. You strike me as an honest guy. You come in here, telling me you’re an atheist and don’t normally believe in supernatural things. Yet you tell me a supernatural story expecting me to believe you. It doesn’t appear to me you have any reason to lie.”

Bill gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

Pastor Evans suddenly got a serious look on his face. “So then, I’m going to be completely honest with you. As I tell everyone who comes into my office—parishioner or no—I will never beat around the bush with you. I will always give it to you straight. Do you want to hear the truth?”

Bill nodded.

“I won’t get into the two different types of demonic possession since this is not a case of possession, but any possession and demonic activity usually occurs because of sin or unbelief, sometimes both. Obviously, there’s the issue of unbelief, since after this encounter with a demon, you still confess to be an atheist, which means despite your experience with this thing, you still don’t believe in God. Am I correct in that estimation?”

Bill nodded nervously.

“Which means there’s a lot of sin you haven’t repented of. But it doesn’t seem to me that a serious manifestation like this would occur for no reason at all. Like you told me, you’ve been an atheist your whole life. So, what would cause this Hades to appear to you now? Has there been some major life event that’s caused some major conflict?”

Suddenly, Bill remembered the college student he let die.

But I can’t tell him that! He’ll turn me into the police! Bill was not aware of the seal of confession—the vow that an ordained minister of the Word takes never to divulge the sins confessed to him.

Bill shakes his head no.

“Are you sure?” Pastor Evans asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Bill lies.

“Okay.” Despite what he said, it didn’t look like the pastor believed him.

“Bill,” Pastor Evans continued. “As much as I’d like to, I don’t think I can help you. The only thing that can help you is the Gospel—that you believe Christ died on the cross for the atonement of your sins and rose again on the third day for your justification, and that you then begin a regular diet of the Word of God to remove this demon’s influence. But you cannot receive the Gospel if you do not confess your sins and believe this Word of God. So, I urge you, do you wish to confess your sins?”

“What kinds of sins would I confess?” Bill asked.

Pastor Evans took out a little blue book and opened it to a certain page. “Here, read these two pages.”

He handed it to Bill and looked at the top of the left page: The Ten Commandments. He read the Commandments with their explanations. His eyes focused on the Fifth Commandment: You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

Bill handed the blue book back to him. “I don’t really believe much of this. Sure, murder, adultery, and stealing are wrong. But dishonoring your parents? It depends. What if they’re abusive, or what if they’re just flat out wrong? Certainly, they must be disobeyed then. And I don’t know about that whole coveting thing. If I see something nice that somebody has, and I want it, and I have the money to get my own, there’s nothing wrong with that. And those first three commandments. I don’t believe in God, so why should I care about taking His name in vain and keeping His stupid Sabbath? Not even you guys keep it, because isn’t it on a Saturday but you guys do church on Sunday?”

Pastor Evans grinned, but it was a sad grin.

“You asked a lot of questions that we don’t have time go get into today. Questions with a lot of misunderstandings. None of these commandments helped reveal any sin in you?”

Bill leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. “No.”

Pastor Evans sighed, “If you ignore the Law of the Lord that might shed some light on why this demon has attached itself to you, then you won’t be able to hear the Gospel to deliver forgiveness of these sins and deliverance from… Hades. But please, don’t let this be your last stop in here.” He took out his wallet. “Here, take my card. If you suddenly realize you’d like to confess your sins, give me a call, and we can meet.”

Bill took his card.

“This is a serious situation,” the pastor continued. “So any time of day, you call me, and we can do Confession and Absolution and equip you with the sword of God’s Word and the shield of faith to fight this evil foe.”

“Thank you,” Bill said without meaning it.

He got up from the chair and walked out of the pastor’s office, throwing his card into the trash as he walked out.