The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 2.5: The Sermon of Reverend Albit

The Reverend stood in the wings, just to the side of his pulpit, ready to lie once more to his flock of fools.

The Fort, isolated from the world by unknowable things, was his playground, and his master kept him busy each Sunday, slowly turning and twisting each of his neighbors, each of his friends, each mother, child, and father, from all that they knew was good and right, and set them towards what they thought, might be better, but which was not.


Reverend: There is a sickness amongst our flock.

There is greed, and lust.

There is wrath, and avarice.

There is an unwillingness to lay your self before god and ask for his forgiveness.

Why are you so hesitant to let him into your heart?

Mathew 25:1–3 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them"

Children, just because you say it is so, does not make it so.

You are a Christian, but do you deserve heaven?

You say the words, you shout amen, but do you know what they mean?

I am a sinner too....

I have sinful thoughts, and I ask everyday for forgiveness for my wicked ways.

I often think on what god is, and what it is to be godly....

And what I've come to is a startling revelation.

God is not up there, but in your own self.

God is created between two people when they share a kindness, when they speak and speak and get lost in the flow of their own existence.

Will god come and save you?

No.

Is god all powerful?

No.

[murmurs]

Hush, Hush. Quiet down

BE QUIET

Ask yourself.

Is god so powerful that he can do anything?

[sound of an audience saying amen]

Then is god not so powerful that he can create a stone so heavy, and so absolute that even he can not move it? Is god not so powerful he could create a darkness so terrifyingly black, that he could not pierce it with his light?

To deny god this ability to great a great unmovable rock is to prove god is not all powerful, and to allow him this ability to move the rock, is to say god is not so almighty that he can move a rock.

WE MUST SEEK OUR OWN SALVATION.

We are the creators, we are the genesis of our own fates. There are trees with roots that dig so deep that god can not uproot them. There are shadows so dark that god can not pierce them with his divine light. There are whispers he does not hear. There are sicknesses he cannot cure.

 Can I get an amen?

[crowd says amen]

You must make your own deals, and own roads to salvation. You must seek out a tree with roots so deep it cannot be wrenched free from the earth. You must walk into the shadows so dark they cannot be pierced with light, and you must accept it. For accepting these unnatural errs, to speak with them willingly, is to speak to god.

Do not be afraid. Your fear is as unnatural as the rock too heavy, the tree too rooted, and the shadow too dark. Your fear is a malediction of an age before god, created by chaos and disorder. To accept that is to accept god.

And do you accept god and all of his unholy nightmares, which in plaguing god, so too plague us.

As Jesus took our sins upon himself, so too shall we bear the nightmarish things which god cannot smite himself for they are what live in his most holy of minds.

[crowd says amen]

Peter 4:17–18 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God - We must look to god, and ask what kinks and flaws are in his divine armor so we can better know ourselves.

Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves kin - We must examine the nightmares, and the shadows, the trees, and the whispers, for they are our kin too.

[crowd yells amen]



The dear old reverend, who continued in the tradition of those before him, stood proudly, as he saw the fervor he had created, with the help of dark magics which fueled his persuasive words. And then he walked off stage as the organ began to signal the end of Sunday service.

In the front row sat little Peggy LaPonte, as quiet as ever, confused and not fully understanding why everyone seemed so excited and why they kept shouting amen. She watched as the Reverend smiled.

She didn't like his smile, it was unsettling to her, it was sickly, and his scarred top lip which left one of his front teeth, and dark yellow canines exposed at all times, made Peggy sick to her stomach.

As Reverend Albit turned and walked away Peggy could have sworn she saw little things bouncing up and down excitedly under the back of the Reverend's vestment, and those little things looked, to Peggy, like little faces under a blanket trying to wrench themselves free. 

...

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