Bratton Clovelly, Sourton, Trinity 20 (Proper 24), 21/10/2012
‘Mankind is no more,
A casualty of the eternal war between angels and demons.
But in the realms where those beings dwell
Man still has one last hope:
The most feared of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
Only Death can account for the sins of the past
And undo mankind’s extinction.
But - at what price?’ [1]
This week I have been educating myself in the world of fantasy video gaming, an activity which engages a very large proportion of our population, especially the young, every day. And the words with which I opened come from a trailer advertising one of the currently most popular games, Darksiders II - 'Death Comes For All'.
The fantasy game world is a place of heroes and anti-heroes, who play out their combat as they move between layers of worlds upon worlds in a fast-flowing series of scenes. As you will have gathered from my opening, their characters and settings often draw on well-known myths and legends, on scripture, on folklore. But the scenarios are usually endless battles, played out over and over again, to gain and regain power of different sorts.
Each character tends to come from a particular class: a class that excels in combat, or magic, a professional or criminal class. The influential fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons features four classes of players: Fighting Men, Thieves, Wizards, and the Clerics, who specialize in healing and supportive magical abilities.
The Priest is a member of the clerical class, usually a member of a religious order, with powers to heal wounds, protect their allies and sometimes resurrect the dead, as well as summon, manipulate and banish the undead. The Nethack guidebook says that ‘Priests and Priestesses are clerics militant, crusaders advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and arts thaumaturgic. Their ability to commune with deities via prayer occasionally extricates them from peril, but can also put them in it.’
Famous priests in the world of fantasy gaming include Nightcrawler, a superhero in the X-Men, from the Marvel Comics Universe, and Father Markus Kane, in Fahrenheit, a paranormal thriller set in New York City. [2] The fantasy genre goes wider than games, of course. Look at the weekend’s mainline TV schedules - Doctor Who, with its fantastic creatures from all manner of orders and worlds; and Merlin, whose chief foe is Morgana: a High Priestess of the Old Religion.
Why this interest in fantasy characters and their powers? It’s because, in revisiting the book of Hebrews, for today’s service, I was struck by the writer’s description of Jesus as The High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek - and my immediate thought was that that sounds like the name of a fantasy hero. What sort of character is The High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek; and what are his powers?
The Order of Melchizedek was the oldest and greatest of all Israel’s priestly lines. The Book of Genesis affirms that Melchizedek was "priest of God Most High" (Genesis 14:18). Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, while in the Psalms David pronounced that the future King of kings or Messiah was a "priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110:1-4). The powers of this priestly order were the greatest of all priestly powers. You would want them on your side in any holy battle. The writer of Hebrews places Jesus at the pinnacle of this order, giving him the title High Priest.
Now you may wonder, why take an interest in this obscure piece of scripture? And why talk about it in terms derived from present-day fantasy films and games? The reason is clear, I hope. It is to help us make connections with the interests and concerns of many people today, especially the young, for whom much of the Christian story, the story of God, is obscure at best, and needs explanation in terms they relate to and understand.
We are all missionaries, sharing our faith with the people we are called to share our lives with. And each generation of believers needs to find new ways of describing Jesus and the faith to those around us. Scripture is so rich that it contains all the stories, all the imagery we need to be able to do this well.
Some of these things are less potent than before - the notion of Jesus as the lamb who was slain is less relevant to us in a society where animal sacrifice is a thing of the past. But other previously obscure parts of scripture can be be reborn, recovered, to suit the interests and values of the times. The notion of Jesus as High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek might just be a way to connect with people obsessed by the world of fantasy. The character of his order, his personal powers, describe him well, in terms which gamers and film-watchers can relate to and understand.
I think that the most fantastic place I’ve visited this year - fantastic in every sense of that word - was the Harry Potter film studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire. In a vast arena of full-size sets created for the series of fantasy films, I was overwhelmed by the scale, the craftsmanship, the creativity and above all the tremendous imagination which went into creating each set, each character, down to the tiniest details. I hadn’t even watched a Harry Potter film before visiting the studios but I was drawn into this wonderland, this world of creation.
One of the more modest displays on the tour featured a quote from Steve Kloves, one of the films’ screenwriters. He discussed why the Harry Potter films appeal so much to their vast worldwide audiences, and surprisingly he did not mention the wondrous sets and fantastic visuals, he spoke about their deeper appeal: ‘The thing about Potter is that it’s very earnest about expressions of things like loyalty, courage and redemption. Audiences were hungry for that’ [3]
Which suggests that beneath the thrill of fantasy films and games, those who take part in them and consume them are hoping to find something deeper in the scenarios they engage in, the characters they embrace. Values which they can take from the stories and develop in their ordinary lives, away from the screen.
Maybe some will find their search for deeper values met by Jesus the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, if we tell them about him. They will certainly find something unique. For of all the heroes of scripture, Jesus plays to a different set of rules. Though the writer of Hebrews pronounced him the future King of kings or Messiah, in the line of David, Jesus didn’t come as a king or rule as a messiah.
The High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek is not a cleric militant, not a crusader advancing the cause of righteousness with arms, armor, and magic. Mark’s gospel makes clear to us that though Jesus has these powers he uses them in a unique way. He is the king who came ‘not to be served but to serve’; he is the messiah who ‘gave his life a ransom for many’.
Jesus breaks the mold. He breaks the rules. If he was a character in an online game he would melt the computer down because he just would not co-operate with the rules of engagement. This is the great appeal of Jesus the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, not so much his absolute holy power, but the way he refuses to use it in violence on others. His self-giving love breaks the cycle of death. Only he can do this. This is very good news in a world of violence, whose online games, TV dramas and big-screen fantasies catch us all in a web from which it seems there is no escape - where we are consigned to play out endless battles, over and over again, to gain and regain power of different sorts.
Point people towards Jesus and you point them to a whole new liberating way of life, in which the loving creator God enables you to live outside conflict, in generosity towards others. In Darksiders II, "Death Comes For All". But this is fantasy. In reality, Jesus comes for all. He comes as a servant, he comes as a gift.
Notes
[1] Soundtrack narrative from the Gameplay Trailer, Darksiders II - 'Death Comes For All'.
[2] Wikipedia, Character class, Cleric, List of fictional clergy and religious figures: Priests.
[3] Steve Kloves quote from a display photographed at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, London.
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