We begin our Halloween-themed series of articles this week with one of my favourite topics; Vampires. I love vampires. So, when the new Netflix show Midnight Mass finally dropped, you bet, I was all about it. But get this, not only was this a show about vampires, which I love. But this was a show about a Pastor who was a vampire! You may be unaware of this; but, I’m a pastor!
So naturally, my wife and I had to marathon this show straight through. I think it took maybe two sittings. It was great. But I’m not just sitting here at my desk writing to you to simply recommend and give a good review of this show. I’m sitting here because there is, in this show, an undercurrent of proclamation that needs to be brought up out of its coffin and unleashed on the world which finds itself cloaked in the darkness of what seems to be an eternal night.
This undercurrent of proclamation is probably not what you expect it is. We’re so used to hearing messages of hope. And there’s a good reason for that. That’s what we need to hear. In a world where there’s simply so much suffering, so much darkness, we need a light at the end of this tunnel. And in fact, there have been other attempts to take a crack at this show that have attempted to spin it as that light at the end of the tunnel. One blog article in particular, in the line of the Romanist persuasion (happy Reformation Day fellow Protestants), writes that this show teaches us that we can always choose to do what’s right.
But that’s the exact problem. There is no hope there. There is no light there. And when this happens with our theology it has the same effect. In fact, it was thinking that goodness and life are in our hands, that caused this mess in the whole place. If you go back to the beginning of the chronological narrative, Monsignor Pruitt encounters the Vampire, THINKS it’s an angel, and receives life from its blood (but is it life?). And with this blood, he then attempts to “save” his church and community, and even usher in the eschaton himself, and there’s so much that can and should be said about the demonic pastime of attempting to usher in the eschaton ourselves, but this is not the place for it.
And not to spoil the whole show, but almost nobody gets out alive, except two of the teens alone, who escape on an ark of sorts while all their family and friend burn to death under the heat and light of the Sun. Everyone else in the show, in the town, well, they all die. They are either killed by the evil wicked force directly or they have succumbed to it, become a vampire them-self, and then through their reckless destruction of all the shelter, have had nowhere to hide from the sun (Son). And that is truly the whole message of this show that we ought to take away from it, especially this Reformation Day; that not only can we NOT freely choose to do good, but that it’s actually in our attempt to do what is good, to do what’s right, even with the intention of saving others from suffering, of healing the sick and prolonging the life of the dying (GOOD THINGS), that we do the most harm. For as Luther proclaimed, EVEN OUR BEST WORKS ARE SINS. It was in Pruitt bringing what he thought was life to these people, that he brought death to all of crocket Island. It’s just so in our own lives. And here’s the thing friends; Pruitt’s story is one that we all share. So many of us have found an “angel” that we think will give us the power to do what’s right, and to help one another. But these things which we think bring “life” to our churches, marriages, friendships, or business ventures so often actually just destroy them faster than natural entropy otherwise would have.
The reality of life is even darker. In reality, nobody gets out alive, not even two teens. Indeed, there is an ark for us to make our escape on, but it isn’t to escape from death. It’s to escape through it. And that is ultimately the undercurrent of proclamation that finds resolution at the conclusion of this shows narrative. Monsignor Pruitt, only at the end of the show, finally understands that good intentions mean nothing, that the eschaton is out of our hands, and salvation and life is to be left entirely to our Father in heaven – and ultimately stops trying to prolong his life, and that of the love of his life, and they together burn down the last remaining shelter for those who have been “turned,” undoing all of their work, and submitting to the only way that Christ has promised for eternal life to come to us, through death.
So, dear reader, surrender under to death; death of self, death of will, and death of the old Adam within you. Be Baptized. Be drowned in the waters of grace and mercy. For there is nothing that you can do to change who or what you are. Stop trying to become what God has already said that you are. Be buried with Him by baptism into death. Be risen. Because at the end of the day, all that you can contribute to your salvation is your sin. All that you can do is be done unto. Live in faith. Live in active passivity. Live in being killed and raised. Be Vampires.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, my undead friends,
Pastor C.
