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Sincere (Chapter One, Part Two)

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image“Sanctuary“

By Gary Lee Stuber


imageincere had a fitful night. His emotions flowing up and down like a raging river. On one hand he was excited about reading; learning for himself what secrets were hidden in the scrolls and books in the library he was working in. And, the possibility that somewhere among those secrets was the one he needed the most: how to earn salvation from his present state of damnation to hell. Contrarywise, if ordained as a priest, he would be forced to practice those things that he felt had continued to plague the members of his own class. He didn’t know if he could do that. He fought that persecution all his life. But one thing he knew for sure: Sebastian would have the determination to make all of this happen, with or without his cooperation. He rose early, since he wasn’t getting much sleep anyway, and went down to the library, unlocking the door with its only key. It had been his first night away from it and in his own bed. Sebastian had insisted. He moved inside, bringing the fire with him, that he would need to illuminate the mostly darkened enclosure. He was completely stunned when Sebastian showed up early, barely before he had the room well lit. But more so for what he saw in Sebastian’s attitude. Was that happiness?

He had seen Sebastian happy on occasions, but NEVER when he was tutoring clerics or fellow priests. Then he was always sober, even bitter sometimes when his frustration was showing. But this Sebastian, he was unsure he had ever seen. Sebastian walked right up to him and threw his massive arms around him, giving him a tight squeeze before jumping back. “Today,” he said loudly, with a broad smile, “We begin a new relationship with God.” He held in one hand a priests cloth and mantle. It drew Sincere’s attention even as he spoke.
____”Relationship?” Sincere asked, somewhat puzzled.
____”I know the answer to your question — how a sinner earns salvation.”
____”Tell me quickly.”
____”You cannot earn it.” Sebastian said with a smile.
____”I am damned then.” Sincere shrugged, helplessly.
____”No. No, you are not.” Sebastian said, giggling like a child. “Salvation is NOT something you earn. Nor can you bribe God to get it with ransoms or good deeds no indulgences. It is something you are given – it is a gift of God.”
____”And you have this gift?”
____”Yes!” Sebastian shouted, and tears punctuated his joy. This only served to confuse the young student. “And you can have it too. It’s free – it truly is a gift…”
____”How do I get this gift?”
____”Well, it starts with remorse. It starts with a contrite heart. You must feel such sorrow and regret for your sins that you beg God to forgive you for them.”
____”Sebastian, this I have done a number of times,” Sincere said, “If I had the power to undo the things I have – I would. If I could but bring back to life just one of the people who died because of me I would give my life in his place.”
____”Good. Good.” Sebastian said eagerly, “Christ said, confess your sins and they shall be forgiven you.”
____”Theft?”
____”Yes.”
____”Murder?”
____”Yes.”
____”Why? How?”
____”Because someone a long time ago prayed that you would remember your sin and your guilt, and in your sorrow, you would ask God to forgive it. So God told that someone that if He would pay for your sins right there and then that He would not hold yours against you if you asked for forgiveness in His name. He agreed and He paid for those sins the very next afternoon.”
____”How much did he pay?”
____”Everything a man could possibly pay – all of his tears and all of his blood.”
____”And because of this man,” Sincere began, a sudden rush of tears to his own eyes, “all I have to do is ask God to forgive my sins and I won’t be damned to hell for all eternity.”
____”You will be,” Sebastian said, his voice trembling with joy, “a beloved brother of Christ, welcomed into Heaven!”
____”Forgiven? Welcome?”
____Sebastian, too overcome to speak, only nodded.

Sincere was overcome with a a weakness in his stomach. He didn’t think he could hold himself up and he dropped to his knees. Feeling a little faint, he dropped forward on his hands, trying to hold up a nearly numb body. Then, as if in pain, he began to sob great tears. He began to cry out between the sobs and the labored breathing, “Great God of the universe forgive me of my sins – my most innermost secret sins too. I stole from my parents, I think something I did caused my father’s death. I never knew – I never went back. I held hatred and contempt for all those who knew me and felt envy for those who had power over me. My selfish, arrogant, prideful acts landed me here and caused the deaths of so many men and women and orphaned so many children. Please God forgive me of these awful sins in the name of the one who paid for them, who prayed for me, even though I did not know his name…” After a moment or two of sobbing, Sincere composed himself, rising on one knee to ask:
____”What was the name of the man who took away my sins?”
____”His name is Jesus, the Christ, the only begotten Son of God,” Sebastian sobbed now, as well, “And we will both come to know him well.”

True to his word, Sebastian began to teach the young charge how to read, teaching him daily from scripture which they discussed with a new found enthusiasm. Sincere began to think back to those days when he looked out over the balcony and questioned the existence of God. And somewhere deep in his soul he was still looking for confirmation. He was seeking some miracle that would happen that could suddenly make him believe beyond question; beyond doubt. He was growing however in faith and knowledge. He discovered that he absorbed reading and writing easily. That somehow it was linked with his lifetime skill of being able to see or hear and remember and then recall anything he heard. Suddenly, with his memory he could put sounds to the the marks and scribbles on the parchments and scrolls. And he could link sounds to make words, and remember those words with ease. Sebastian found him an excellent student and his rapid growth was remarkable. He even had a skill that Sebastian had not. He could read, then remember and quote whole passages of scripture; even whole books. Sebastian began to teach him the trade too, the doctrine, rituals and practices of the church. Sebastian without the authority of the church, nor even seeking confirmation, bestowed upon the young Sincere, the title of Priest, and insisted that he dress in the robe of the church and wear on his shoulders the mantle of priesthood. His first day at morning prayers he stunned all the other clergy, but none of them dared to raise an objection. Eventually, each accepted him as one of their own.

Sincere had noticed a change in his mentor as well. Sebastian began to lose girth, spending more time and energy working with the poor than setting at the table. He spent inordinate amounts of time teaching clerics and priests from the books of Romans, Ephesians and Hebrews and lectured incessantly. He watched as Sebastian began sharing the message of hope and salvation to the poor and ill while dispensing food and medicine. He counseled the weak and those without hope and all of this without demanding a reward or the indulgence – the typical bribe for his services. This did not go unnoticed by the other priests in the abbey. But attitude and circumstance within the abbey had grown so positive, the joyous change was welcomed by most of the clergy and if there was talk of “heresy” or “blasphemy” was only in random whispers within the walls.

Between his prayers, duties and studies of scripture in four languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, Sincere spent week after week meticulously copying and checking marks from the tablets onto a single leather scroll. He found not only the energy, but a newfound interest in not only doing God’s work, but doing ALL work in the name of Christ. When asked, he even found time to clean livestock pens and carry water, he did so with a Psalm, or a grateful prayer on his lips. If he were ever looking for a miracle for confirmation that should have been it.

Often he would rise in the middle of the night, paranoid that he had gotten a mark or two in error on the leather scroll from the original tablets and go down to the library and check and tirelessly recheck his work, which was always without error. Sebastian too, proof read all the work and could hardly believe that it was proceeding without any human error at all, almost as if God had a divine finger upon the work itself. Two years passed, and the work proceeded.
____”What do you think this is?” Sincere asked one day as Sebasting was perusing his work.
____”Well, it’s not Hebrew, but does share some characters.”
____”No, Sebastian, I don’t mean the language. I mean, what do you think these tablets are?”
____”I think they constitute a single piece of work.”
____”Exactly,” Sincere said, realizing his mentor was on the same thought track, “And written by the same author.”
____”What makes you say that?”
____”This character,” Sincere said, “from the first to the last tablet was made by the same person. Note, no matter where it is, it is made with the same pressure, the same depth. The same slight push to the left that makes the clay rise here. The penmanship is perfect. A perfect man with perfect penmanship.”
____”Or a perfect God.” They both laughed. Neither of them at that point was willing to concede that God wrote this himself. But they did agree it was done by a single author. Sebastian asked, “Anything else?”
____”Well, after carefully studying the lines of text, it doesn’t seem to be arranged like a story or narrative. It seems to be arranged like some kind of..”
____”List.” Sebastian finished for him. “I thought the same thing myself, But a list of what? Men? Generations? Places? What Places? The Bible does speak often of other books: like the Book of Remembrance, or the Book of Wars, if these were they, I would hardly think they would be written out in list form. But I don’t think so, I think these are older from where they were found.”
____”Are you ready to tell me, yet.”
____”No. I am sworn to secrecy.”
____”There does seem to be some kind of order in their arrangement.”
____”What does this mean?”
____”I don’t know, I wish I did, but I have been working on something else.”
____”What?”
____”Pronunciation. I mean, you noted that it looked much like Hebrew. Maybe it is Hebrew. Just older. Maybe a more complex Hebrew than what emerged later. I gave Hebrew sounds to characters that looked like Hebrew characters and experimented giving new sounds to new characters that looked similar to what might become Hebrew characters.”
____”Why would you do this?”
____”I mean if I pronounce this in my slurred version of Hebrew I get: ‘koraff-fravdah-tah-moyhev.’ Nonsense. But listen, I mean really listen as I slur it again. Listen to the sounds, not the words. what does it seem to say to you?”

Sebastian struggled. It kept sounding like the gibberish it was, and then, suddenly he seamed to hear it.
____”The great proud one.” Sebastian said, “Yes I heard it. But what does it mean?”
____”I’m not sure. There are other lines just like it.”

Sincere began to read random lines from the tablet, but clarifying them for Sebastian in to what he thought they sounded like without the slur in Hebrew. Here is ‘Chief of the mountains‘. And another, ‘green tree in spring‘, and ‘lovely white peace‘ and even ‘flower from the sand‘… and…”

Suddenly, right in the middle of his reading, Sebastian’s white dove, leaped from the shoulder of his master and onto the forearm of Sincere who was still reading lines.
____”White One?” A stunned Sincere stroked him.
____”I don’t know,” Sebastian shrugged, “Maybe she’s beginning to like you. This has never happened before.”
____”Do you like my words? Do you like my voice?” Sincere continued to stroke the dove that made no effort to move on. “Or do you just like the language? Maybe it makes more sense to you than it does to me.” He laughed.
____”It doesn’t make ANY sense. But you may have struck on something. If the list is nothing more than thousands of nonsensical phrases then how practical or how sacred could this list be?”
____”Maybe if I knew where it was found.” Sincere tested.
____”No.”
____”Well, maybe I have to see the bigger picture. If I memorize the whole document, I can see how they relate to each other. Do you think these could be names? I mean we know they are not geneologies, since they don’t repeat a father to son in the way the Hebrews do, line to line. But maybe they are place names? Places precious to God.”
____”Flower from the sand?” Sebastian said. Then they both broke out in a laugh. They couldn’t help it, considering a place with such a name. Sebastian got serious for a moment. “You know the work is almost completed. A couple more weeks and we will have to return the tablets to Graysant.”
____”Do you think we should suggest our verbal translation?”
____”Not until, or unless it begins to make more sense,” Sebastian retorted. “There is already talk within these walls that I am crazy. I don’t need your theory to confirm it.”

The days passed, and the work was completed. An armed division of church soldiers, sent by the Vatican left the abbey with the crate on its way to Rome. The scroll, however, it’s existence unknown to Rome, remained with Sebastian until the secret group who commissioned it, would return to claim it.
____”Has it ever crossed your mind that after all these years, especially with my service to the community, that if I did slip out that no one would have the time or interest in hunting me down? That in effect I could just slip out and disappear some night?”
____”Yes, I thought about that and have often wondered why you didn’t.”
____”Maybe I was waiting on the scroll. Until it was completed.”
____”So you could steal it?” Sebastian laughed.
____”Yes, so I can steal it.”
____”Sincere. You cannot steal that which you already own. I know you have memorized the scroll. In fact, you have memorized every scroll here. You know all the scriptures by heart. You could, given the time, write back ever written work in this building. Without error, I might add. The scroll is not what keeps you here.”
____”I had to watch out for you, old man. I mean, there are rumors in this abby that you are crazy.” He grinned.
____”I would be flattered if that were true. But what kept you here was Christ. He beckons you, he calls you to his service and you hear the call. Why is it that you resist?”
____”A red sea. A burning bush. A whale come to swallow me.”
____”What?”
____”I once imagined that God was sitting back laughing, pleased that I was parcelling out stolen goods. That was my imagination. If there was laughter it was from the Lord of Chaos – whom I had served in my youth. I guess I just want to know there are real miracles and that they can change lives.”
____”Is not your own story not such a miracle. The children you helped raise, whose parents your ignorance helped to kill – do not these young people now love you and show you the respect they would any other priest? A young thief, and murderer, like the one that hung on the cross beside Christ – did he not redeem you like him? He spared your life, made it useful to Him, and to others – and has provided for you an eternity in Heaven.”
____”I know, and I am grateful, and sometimes I am so convinced he has a great plan for my life. But every now and then, I wonder, where is God, when will he deliver those around me from the persecutors. I wonder why he does not act. I wander what he waits for.”
____”Perhaps,” Sebastian said, “He waits for you.”

Sincere laughed, but deep inside he knew Sebastian’s record of being a modern day prophet and wondered if God still had some hidden fate, some hidden surprise that only a miracle would launch.
____”You need to make an early night of it.” Sebastian said, “Some of the council are arriving in secret tonight so they can take the scroll out of here without the fear of its becoming an event. So – off to bed with you early – some on the council still think of you the way they saw you dragged in here – as an unredeemable criminal. You can’t be down here when they arrive.”
____”Would you mind terribly if I just sat up in the library and studied?”
____”No. You are welcome to, but keep it quiet, lock yourself in and under no circumstances should you come down stairs while the council is here.”
____”Understood.”
____”And keep this bird with you.” Sebastian said, pulling White One off of his shoulder, “You know how Graysant hates him. He calls all fowls dirty and disgusting. Keep him in the library with you. Besides you know he likes you. Study your scriptures, make an early night of it. The Lord has need of your services in the morning.”

He did as he was bidden. He took the dove to the library with him, he lit several lamps and sprawled out on the tables a number of the sacred scrolls. He took out a small cloth bundle and unwrapped a small piece of bread. It was warm when he first wrapped it but was now cold. He ate a small piece and shared the rest with White One. A number of wild doves and pigeons voiced their objection in the rafters with their cooing. He pulled down in front of him one of the unrolled scrolls and began reading. It wasn’t very long before something caught his attention and the hairs on the back of his scalp began to stand up. He read the passage out loud:
_____”And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”

Suddenly like a man possessed he began to write down phrases he could recall from that day when he introduced his theory to Sebastian. He began to write from the beginning, “great proud one. chief of the mountains. green tree in spring.” and as he wrote he pronounced each in the slurred Hebrew aloud, “lovely white peace.” Again, as if by command, White One flew up from his spot on the table and onto the forearm of Sincere. Sincere sat back in amazement, stunned by the move. “Lovely white peace,” he said again, louder this time.

The bird only sat there and looked back at him. But another unusual thing happened.   Another white dove, a wild one, quietly hiding among the rafters flew down and joined White One on his arm. “Lovely white peace.” he said a third time, a little louder this time. A stranger thing happened. Two doves sitting in the trees outside flew into the room, through the open window and lighted upon his arm. All four birds bravely sat there watching as if waiting for instructions. “Fly to the window.” He said, in his own native tongue. All four birds as if discerning his strange words flew to the window sill and sat upon it.”Return to my arm,” he commanded, his excitement barely containable, and they returned to his forearm. “Return to your places unless you are summoned.” Immediately, the two doves flew out the window, the third to the rafters and White One leaped onto the table to nibble at the remaining scraps of bread.

Sincere stood up and pushed away from the table and suddenly dropped to his knees; he had been swallowed by his whale.

Great tears dropped from his eyes and he felt shame because of the doubt he had expressed so recently. “Oh Great God,” he uttered between sobs, “He who numbers the hairs on the heads of all men, who knows when a single sparrow drops or commands it to do his bidding with but the utterance of its name…Great and Awesome God as I promised, I am thy servant. I will do your bidding and live all of my life in your service. I do not understand why you make innocent men to suffer, just as Christ did. I do not pretend to know why evil men prosper, and your own church sometimes persecutes the poor or the powerless, but I promise my life to your service. Do with me what you will…”

He spent an undetermined time in prayer and the utterance of gratitude but rose when he remembered what this would mean to Sebastian. He knew that he had been instructed not to go downstairs, but now, he felt that he must. He felt compelled to go down and to share with Sebastian and with those who were taking possession of the scroll its meaning, and its power and its testimony to the sovereignty of God.

He unlocked the library doors and flew down the stone steps to the great hall. His heart was light and joyful as he approached the table before the great fireplace. He was not prepared for what he would find there. In front of the fire, on the stone hearth, lay the body of Sebastian in a pool of blood. The room was filled with strange soldiers who stood guard – motionless while Graysant, turned towards him, wiping a short sword clean of its blood with the leather scroll that he and Sebastian had spent many years preparing.
____”Good.” Graysant said, motioning his men from all directions toward him. “This spares me from the massive search of this place to find you.” With a causal toss he threw the scroll into the great roaring fire in the fireplace. Graysant crossed to Sincere. ” I don’t think you have any doubts about what I am prepared to do if I don’t get what I want.” He held the blade up under his throat.
____”What do you want?”
____”Don’t pretend with me, you insolent thief, how dare you wear the robe and mantle of priesthood. You will show me the proper respect – take that attitude out of your voice or I will cut it out of you. Give me what I want.”
____”What DO you want, YOUR HOLINESS?”
____”Give me the SCROLL?”
____”The scroll? You held the scroll in your hands, you threw it into the fire.”
____”You test me thief.” Graysant give him a couple of stabbing pricks in the throat with the point of his sword just to make his point,” I mean the REAL scroll.”
____”That was the REAL scroll. It is the ONLY scroll. There is no other.”
____”Don’t lie to me boy. I can tell when someone is lying. You are lying.”
____”That is the truth.”
____”You’re a thief and a liar. That was not written in Sebastian’s handwriting. I know it well. It was something that you scrawled out, so that you could steal the real scroll.”
____”Sebastian’s hands were crippling. He had me spend years transcribing that scroll. He only checked my work. The handwriting was mine, I admit, but, it was the one and only scroll. You destroyed it.”

Graysant released him throwing him to the great wooden chair that sat at the head of the long wooden table in the room in front of the fire. “Bind him there,” he instructed his men, then turned his attention back to Sincere. “Good,” he smiled, “I hope for your sake that you are not lying.” He called at the guard. “Search the place, kill all that you encounter. Leave none alive.”
____”No, you can’t do this!” Sincere cried, “For God’s sake.”
____”Why don’t you know? Thief, Murderer. YOU did this. You lay in wait all these years until time and opportunity presented itself, then you killed your keeper and all his household. Such a tragedy. But after this you took all the treasure out of the abbey and fled, you hid the treasure which was never recovered. But you were chased down by a valiant and righteous army who killed you and dragged your body back here where is was posted in the square to rot in shame and disgust.”
____”You will never get away with this!”
____”Oh, but I already have. You see, whether or not there is another scroll, this will come to pass, just as I have said.

They bound him in the great chair, putting chains around his wrists behind him and closing them with an iron lock, throwing the key in front of him on the great dining room table as if to taunt him with it. Already the screams and cries of servants and staff began to filter down from the upper chambers as the soldiers accomplished their devious work among the unarmed residents of the abbey.
____”Why are you killing for a scroll you destroyed?”
____”You think that I left the tablets here these past few years without first making my own scroll?” His eyes lighted up as he spoke. “Sabastian didn’t tell you? This is interesting. He had you transcribe it and you didn’t even know what he was doing with it or how it got here?” Graysant sat down close to him. Filtered cries continued to pour in from the hallway.
____”A number of years ago a great warming came upon the world. And a goat herder came upon a huge find at the top of a tall mountain in the east. A ship, a great boat — yes, Noah’a ark was recovered. The Church sent an army out to survey it. Aside from wood and waste, dust and old straw, the only thing of any value left in it were these tablets. There were indications that another set of tablets had been there too. But they had been removed with the occupants. It was Sebastian who suggested to me that Noah and his family took those with them as genealogies of both the earth and the families. And these were passed down to Moses who translated them into the Hebrew history we now know as Genesis. But the tables we found were what Noah left behind? Why? Why would he do that?” Graysant waved a hand, “I don’t really expect you to know that. But I had tasked Sebastian to find out what it was that Noah left behind. They seemed older and to me very important.” He looked down at the old priest’s body. “He told me that he did not know what it was, he never discovered what they were. And I have been telling him for years that I always knew when he was lying. I gave him a chance to recant. And now it comes down to you. Before you try to lie to me I will give you a chance to think about this. I will be back shortly, but I will have to leave soon. After all I was never here.” Graysant left the room.

Sincere’s head was swimming. He knew exactly what the tablets were. In fact they may have been written down by Adam as he named each of the kind brought unto him in the garden. He knew also why the tablets were left behind. No one should have the power to call a creature to divinely suffer a task for sinful mankind. He knew God himself must have demanded Noah leave the tablets behind, redefining man’s relationship with all of God’s created creatures on the Earth. He could even recall the verse from Genesis. The words God spoke to Noah about his future on the Earth with his creatures:
“And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.”

Where once man held dominion and command of every creature by calling it to task by the name given to it by Adam, now they would be meat and sacrifice, slave and fearful quarry. And with the secret left behind they would no longer serve as compliant servants to man. Sebastian, if he didn’t know this, must surely have sensed it. Now this information would also shorten his own life. But it was a secret worth keeping. A secret worth dying for.

Sincere began to pray, crying out to God, as tears began to fill his eyes for the victims once again he might be responsible for killing. In the moonlight just outside a window near to him he caught a glimpse of movement. It was a hummingbird flitting in and about the nocturnal flowers, He thought about it for a moment and seemed to recall a phrase from the scroll which aptly seemed to fit it. He cried aloud in his prayer: “flower song stitcher.”

Suddenly before his face danced an eager hummingbird, he could barely make it out between his tears. “Get behind my back,” he quickly shouted before Graysant or one of the guards could witness it. The hummingbird quickly complied with his instructions, but the remark drew the attention of others in the room. They started to move towards him to see whom he was instructing. “Get behind me Satan” he shouted again as they came toward him. He quoted the words of Christ to his enemies.”
___” Satan?” Graysant, who was coming back into the room, suddenly stopped to laugh. “You think I am Satan? And who are you? A Priest? You wear the mantle of priesthood. I’ll bet that good old Sebastian even taught you the scripture. I’ll bet you can do more than copy marks on a scroll. I’ll bet you can read and write. Ironic isn’t it? The thief and murderer becomes a priest; the priest becomes a murderer and thief, again.  You’ll wish I were Satan or one of his demons before this ends for you this night. A demon would be more merciful.
____”I’m sorry I can’t be here for the most pleasurable of activities yet to come, but the rest of the council expects that I am somewhere else and thus I must be there. But don’t worry, my soldiers will carry out my word to the very last jot and tittle.”

He moved the the captain of the guard, “Scourge the house. Be sure that the scroll is not here and that no one is left alive to tell a different tale. And then, well…” A delirious smile came over the captain of the guard’s face even as Graysant was suggesting it. “Well, you know…enjoy yourself.”

But as they talked and Graysant moved toward the doors and the only other exit other than the window, Sincere looked about the room trying desperately to think of something, anything that would help. The key, he thought, is on the table. The hummingbird could bring it to him, but he would need a distraction so that none would be looking his direction. Then he saw it. A small mound in the corner of the stone hearth. It was an anthill. What did Adam call them? “Glorious Dark Foundation of the Earth,” he shouted. This got the attention of the officers, especially the captain. “Come rescue me,” Sincere called, “Strike at my enemies, burn them, strike them, bring them to their knees before me.”
___”Now he commands the forces of Darkness as well as the powers of Heaven!” One guard laughed, misunderstanding his statement. It was apparent that the emotional utterance made a few of them contemplate such a thing and they looked about them for an invisible enemy. It was not long in coming.
___”Oh! OH!” The captain of the guard screamed as he was bitten by a great host of black ants that were crawling up inside his leggings up under his armor. He flailed at them at first with his hands, and then with his sword and danced around staggering back closer to the hearth until he fell back against the roaring logs. His vest and great mane of dark hair was immediately ignited. He screamed, trying to stand and move away from the fire, but he brought the fire with him. His whole body now engulfed in flame, he fell forward nearly on the body of Sebastian.

This had an immediate reaction on the remainder of the guard in the room. They threw down their weapons and fled in terror chased out by their own guilt and sense of impending doom.
____”Flower song stitcher,” Sincere called as the room cleared. The hummingbird quickly presented itself before his face. “The key, on the table. Put it in my hands.” The bird flew off in obedience and snatched up the key bringing back to his cupped hands locked behind his back, gently placing it in his fingers. It flew back to his face for further instruction. “Now save yourself,” he commanded, “Fly away.”

About that time, the burning mass that had been the captain of the guard, pulled itself up and crawled toward the chair that Sincere was bound into. Sincere desperately clutched at the lock trying to fit the key into it with one hand in a very awkward angle. At the same time the lumbering smoky mass pulled itself with a single arm in his direction. Moment after moment met with failure and frustration as he tried first to fit the key and then turn it. He did this while praying, “Father of the precious Son, Jesus Christ. If you have need of me, use me. And if you need me to live and serve you then make it possible. If you require my life as sacrifice, then take it, I freely offer it to you.” And with those words the key fell to the floor. The sound of it it bouncing on the stone floor echoed over and over in his ears.
____”Blessed be your will.” He breathed and went limp in the chair.

The blackened hand grabbed at his ankle and the hot metal burned itself into his skin. Sincere screamed as the pain penetrated his body. And a miraculous thing happened. The lock fell open and the chains fell off from his hands. With his fingers, he pried the hot, charred, dead hand from his ankle and rose from the chair limping to the widow. The chair where he had been sitting burst into flames, igniting the dining table as well. The heat in the room pressed at him from his position near the window and he moved out as far as he could through it. Outside the window in the moonlight he could see there was a drop the height of many men to a cobbled stone walk. and a small creek beyond too far to leap to in safety. He did consider jumping anyway. He saw them, lining the roof and parapet, and in the trees – doves, pigeons and turtle doves. He called at them, “lovely white peace, help me, save me.” His strength giving out, he fell through the open window toward the stoney ground but never struck it. Nearly a hundred doves grasped at his clothing and his hair, and his fingers and carried him softly to the ground beyond the gate and the creek. When his senses came back to him he saw them. “Thank you my brethren, now save yourselves. I release you.” The birds flew away obediently.

He rose up in the darkness and moved way from the clamor behind him. The dark horizon behind him suddenly burst into orange light as the abbey went up in flame. The frantic yelling of the dying and the desperate shouts of terror and fear from the escaping guard gave him direction but in the dim light he stepped into a creek bed, tripping onto his face. He rose up on his knees there. “Thank you great and glorious one for rescuing me. May I live to see your will done. ”

He washed off the burning ankle in the creek. The stinging fire in it seemed to let up with the splash of cool water on it. He found he could even walk on it somewhat better. He fled deeper into the woods.

By daylight he knew why he was walking better. The charred flesh of his ankle had been completely restored almost as if he had never been burned. Like the chains that had fallen off of him, he knew it was a generous gift of God and there was no earthly explanation for its mystery. Thus he shared a prayer of gratitude as he moved along in the forest.

Near the end of that first day, he stopped a couple of times to pray. He wept once, not for himself, nor his plight, but for the memory of Sebastian whose life and ministry had ended in the hands of a fellow minister. As hunger came upon him, he remembered how God had commanded the ravens to bring Elijah both bread and water, by day and night. So when he saw a raven he called to it. “harbinger of ominous news, I am hungry, bring me something to eat.”

The raven came back in an hour, and two others with it. They brought four worms, a grub and two locusts. He wished he had been more specific. But, he thanked God for the bounty, which did indeed give him the energy to press on.

Two days later, he came into a clearing where a path led him to a hamlet he had never seen before. He tried to exercise some of the stealth of his youth and pass quietly across a barley field without notice, but was spotted by some local peasants who rushed to him.
___”Father,” they cried. He still wore the mantle from the abbey he had escaped from. “Come, Let us take you to our village. We have food and clothes and you need rest. Besides this,” they said, “The Bishop resides at our abbey and he is a just and kind man who exercises his power over the rest of the abbeys in the country. Whatever has been done to you, this man has the power to set it right.”

So he went. He indulged them. They fed him, washed his clothes and mended the holes that the forest had made in his robe. And after a few days rest, they brought him to the abbey to meet Bishop Aekain. There he could file grievances against whomever wronged him.

He arrived at the great hall inside the abbey and waited for his host. But what would he say? “I once was a thief and murderer but I was ordained by a Priest who is now dead, who some such as Priest Graysant – would tell you I killed. And now I seek refuge from the church I serve so that I can save the poor from it’s evil clutches?” Poor argument. He thought about leaving, and began to turn to the door. A familiar voice called out.
____”Guards. Stop that man. He is a murderer and thief.” Sincere turned back to see Graysant. The guards moved to block the exits.
____”I don’t know what you are doing here, Graysant,” Sincere said, “But we are about to get to the truth of all that has transpired. You might want to flee.”
____”Really?” Graysant cooed. “Maybe I will just stay.”
____”Not everyone in the church is as callous and evil as you, Graysant.” Sincere warned. “The truth shall be revealed, and the truth shall set me free.”
____”Who will hear this truth?” Graysant asked.
____”The Bishop Aekain.” Sincere challenged.
____”Bishop Aekain Graysant?” Graysant asked, motioning to a servant who brought him the headpiece worn by a Bishop. He put it on and all those in the room bowed to him except Sincere.
____”In the name of truth,” Graysant shouted, “In the name of justice, in the Holy Name of our Lord, I command that you take this man, this murderer, liar and thief and throw him in the dungeon pending his execution.”

The guards rose off their bowed knees and pressed in on him, restricting all his movement. He could barely breathe, but he could pray. And the guards could hardly believe their ears as they closed the door, leaving him in the darkness. He was praying, but not that God would rescue him, but a prayer of gratitude.

End of Chapter One

You are responsible for Chapter Two

Rules:

  1. Use your imagination, sense of drama
  2. Use scripture, and biblical principals to advance your story and the cause of Christ
  3. Use 5,000 words or less and leave your character alive at the end of the chapter
  4. No hurry.  Have Fun

Suggestions:

  1. Use your ability to call creatures to task, sparingly. Be cautious of their limitations. Be considerate. Reward them if you can.
  2. Try not to exercise divine gifts when others can see it. This will be seen in a superstitious world as occult or witch powers and will certainly not advance the cause of Christ.
  3. Goals should be centered around helping others, and self second. Remember, you are a superhero without superpowers. Integrity rules.

Keep in mind:

  1. There will be no trial. Graysant would not allow the truth to come to light. He is even hiding this from the council.  You probably ruined his plans. Some of his guard died where they should not have been.
  2. He probably thinks you have the scroll, or know its magic, or both. Surviving guards would have told him you called upon the darkness.
  3. Thus, he probably won’t kill you.  Not, at least, until he extracts this power from you.

Final note:

I told you in my original letter (a previous post) that this was originally written in 2002 for my youngest son.  He did not write Chapter Two.  So, I did, and thought quite seriously about turning this into a Christian novel. Some day, in a future post, I may share my version of Chapter Two. For now I leave this in YOUR hands.  Give it a shot. Your digital Chapters of 5,000 words or less can be emailed to me at gary_stuber@yahoo.com if you want to impress me with your creative story-telling.  No hurry. Take your time. Do your best.  In a future blog, I may publish exerpts from the best submissions. Or, for those less wordy who want to comment on the story thus far or speculate on where it should go: leave your comments below.

Pass it along

Sincere (Chapter One, Part One)

Faith, Fiction, Gaming, Life, , , ,
Pass it along

image

“Sanctuary”
By Gary Lee Stuber

imageis name was Sineer, the son of a Sin-Eater, and he was a petty thief. He was very young not yet out of his teens, and thin and somewhat lanky. His wirey form was what gave him his nimbleness and dexterity as he found himself under the cover of darkness slipping into houses and purloining the valuables of the residents of those homes. To look at him he would have seemed quite natural placed against the background of a servant son, or the son of a peasant; not having the distinguishing charm of nobility or wealth. Rather he was raised with the fundamentals of the poor and wanting: full of the curiosities of the world and what spoils that slyness might gain him. His fear of God was limited to what was brought onto him by those in authority within the church. He bowed, now, in the presence of the priests, after his first smack across his back because he looked one in the eyes with his stiff-necked stare. His moral values somewhat less defined he did have a consuming sense of fairness for his fellow peasant class. He was always ready to jump into a fight when he felt someone was treated unfairly. In some quarters, his face was at this young age already posted as a wanted man, who for assault should have been packed off in a warship for military service.

I called him a petty thief, even though, when he tried, he was very good at his craft, but, it seems that his ambitions were never more than petty — bread, meat, a bottle of ale or two — sometimes a warm blanket or coat. These he accumulated successfully and often. Unless, his theft resulted in some one poorer than himself who would be left without a coat for the winter. His sense of fairness then would force him to break back in to return it, or replace it with something similar lifted elsewhere. He was content with life as it was, that is until his last and greatest act of crime.

An Abbey nearby seemed the most improper of targets, however, it was known to have the richest of treasures. The abode of a half dozen clerics, monks and priests and those who served among them; this was the house of God where the souls of the guilty and the lost went to bribe back the favor of God and the hope of admittance into Heaven. And because of the sins of the wealthy lords nearby, the anterooms were filled with indulgences — that proper bribe from the poor that God, through his priests expected for the forgiving of sins. Livestock of all types: horses, goats, swine, sheep, chickens, poulette, quail, doves — all slept quietly in barns. Bread, meats, wheat, barley, oats, ales, wine, salt, brine, all rested on dry floors. Metals: gold, sliver, bronze, iron and more mixed with generous portions of agate and precious stones or gems sat behind locked doors. And while it all belonged to God, it was the priests and clerics which used it, somewhat generously for their own comfort.

Getting behind locked doors was somewhat easier when accomplished through the roof. Waiting out the fat clerics who occupied the treasure rooms as part-time guards was another matter. And the two beneath him, while indulging in some bread and meat, engaged each other in conversation, reading from scrolls as they ate.
____”God would let murders get away with it?” one said.
____”Well, not murderers, exactly. But if you accidentally or perhaps unintentionally killed someone, then yes. God gave you a method to avoid the death penalty.” said another.
____”How is this possible?” asked the first. The second pulled out a scroll and brought his finger through it until he came to a place where he began to read.
____”Here in the Book of Joshua, it says: the Lord also spake unto Joshua, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them. And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime. And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled.” When he finished reading both looked at each other as if in amazement, one with a mouthful finally saying.
____”Killing somebody without punishment.”
____”Not exactly,” said the other. “It is punishment enough, having to live there for the rest of your life, so long as the high priest lived.” The second laughed.
____”He’d have to kill him.” They both laughed and their laughter caught the attention of someone outside the door. Abruptly, they were called away, leaving Sineer alone with his booty.

It was like a dream: he dropped from the rafters swiftly moving about the treasure selecting only that which he could carry and lift through his crawl space along the roof. Mostly practical stuff or that which struck his fancy. Long before dawn he had managed to accumulate more than he could carry and had packed it into a hollow tree some five hundred steps east of the main gate. He left the stuff that would not spoil and carried off the food towards home.

Whether it was his conscience, or perhaps the burden — or just the solitude of the woods — but he began to contemplate the consequences of his act. His own now deceased father had made a career of taking on the sins of the wealthy and he imagined him now in hell paying for the sins of many men. Was he robbing God? Would God punish him for this selfish act? How would the poor eat? There were those whose only meals in some weeks was the bread and wine offered at communion meal. His burden grew greater with every step; with every thought. It was as he passed a hamlet in the glen that he realized that his burden could be somewhat lightened. With a new heart, he began to take sack after sack of meats and vegetables and bread into the homes in the twilight, leaving it at the hearth for the occupants of find in the morning. He chuckled at himself as the thought about his theft in reverse, breaking in to leave instead of take. Oh, he imagined, how God must be laughing too, pleased with him now. He returned home in such joy with the remaining spoils.

Two days later, it was his fortune, no — his duty — to return to the abbey with the other residents of his own hamlet to bribe God. (it was also opportunity to quietly collect the remains of his spoils out of the hollow tree). As he passed through the hamlet he had benefited, he was stunned to see it burned down. The houses and barns and shacks in ashes, everything gone, but his own compliance in its demise did not strike him until he saw them, the men and women hanging just outside the small village and on their bodies were words written that he could not read:  thief, liar, robber of God, blasphemer, and Servant of Satan.

He had a sick feeling as he walked in through the outer gate where armed soldiers everywhere held crude pens of men, women and children awaiting sentencing. The Lord of the kingdom sat in the judgement seat, erected in the square of the abbey, his expression one of intolerance. His own royal guard stood taller than the abbey guard, which looked shabby and smaller standing close to them. He had a number of small, dirty children detained in front of him as he addressed the crowd.
____”Even the children have been taught to lie! They speak of a good generous spirit who came in the night and brought them food from God. Like their parents, they refuse to admit their sin — their own act of theft or that of others on their behalf and instead indulge us with lies.
____”Or perhaps they are not lies. Perhaps they serve a malevolent spirit who lies and steals for them what they cannot. Either way, they too, like their parents are beyond redemption. They too must be punished for their many sins and crimes…”
____”Please,” shouted one of the fat priests, one in a robe which also covered his head so that only his red beard emerged from it. “These are children. Surely they are not beyond redemption.”
____”They are liars and thieves and blaspheme against Christ and the Church.” The Lord, whose name escaped Sineer, shouted with such venom that it silenced any further rebellion among the clergy.
____”Wait!” Sineer shouted, almost instinctively, defending those of his class being treated unfairly. “Perhaps they do not lie. What if someone — someone else — did this awful act and then, without their knowledge, shared it with them?” All eyes turned in his direction. This was an unheard of act. A peasant addressed the Lord of the Kingdom without bowing, or petitioning for an audience or following proper etiquette or protocol. A priest as an emissary of God, might get away with this but not a peasant. Worse, his words contemplated by the emotional audience had aroused both their curiosity and their suspicion.

The Lord’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the peasant boy, who quickly averted his stare. He even had to raise a hand to stop some of the dark garbed soldiers from moving in his direction.
____”Please, your highness.” the boy said, more humble now as he looked at the ground, “Consider this as a possibility.”
____”What is your name, insolent one?”
____”Sineer, Sire.”
____”Sin-ear?” The angry man rose to his feet, “Tell me, Sin-ear, insolent and rebellious one, what man would blaspheme God, rob Him and then place the sin upon the heads of innocent men, women and children?” Sineer thought about at first, just keeping his mouth shut, but the guilt of his conscious would not let him.
____”Perhaps, your highness, one who thought he was doing God’s will by sharing food from a pantry that sat molding while those locked outside went hungry. Perhaps such a man would do this.”
____”God’s will?” the Lord continued to vent. “And what do you know of God’s will? Do you know anything of Christ’s sacrifice for you — for the world? Can you utter any of the seven things he uttered from the cross? God’s will indeed. You expect me to set justice aside and give to these people what YOU think they deserve. Because it is God’s will?”

Sineer held his peace, relieved that perhaps no others might die for his sins.
____”Sergeant, give these people what they deserve.” The Lord said almost casually as he sat back down.
____”SIr?” the confused officer asked.
____”For the wages of sin is death!” He clarified, “Kill all the prisoners?”
____”No!” Shouted the priest who had interrupted earlier, “This is improper. Even Christ himself…”
____”WAIT!” Sineer shouted above the groans and shouts of the crowd, above the priests and clergy and the noise of the crowd, “These people are innocent. They did not steal the food.” The noise of the crowd hushed as they waited for an answer.
____”Sergeant, hold your men,” the Lord was standing again. “And how do you know this?” The guards instinctively moved from their prisoners to Sineer, nearly surrounding him.
____”Because, I did it.” The crowd breathed in with his revelation. “I did this thing and then I parceled out the food to those who did not know I had stolen it. I thought I was appeasing God. I imagined him laughing, happy and pleased with me for feeding his poor. And now, I am guilty of killing them, even as I had no intention to do it. I alone deserve death. Spare them. Take only me.”
____”Such a noble act and out of character for one so guilty.” The Lord brushed his own short scraggly beard. “Do you think your confession now absolves you of your crime and your sin?”
____”No.” Sineer mumbled, “Only that others do not die for my sins.”
____”Maybe you feign this so that your partners can go free. Or maybe you are yourself innocent and just give over yourself because these are family as well as partners. One for the many? Where is your proof?”
____”I came a good distance,”Sineer explained, “and I could not carry all the spoils. So I hid them in a tree barely five hundred steps from the east gate, toward the creek. I meant to come back to claim them today. If I had partners among your prisoners, they would have escaped your wrath, and found a way to warn me away. Or if they knew of the treasure would have stolen my loot and fled. The loot is my proof that I acted alone. Go and see and you will know I alone am responsible. I did not know I was sharing my guilt with others or ruining their lives. I thought my act was feeding the poor.” With a wave of the Lord’s hand, some of the guard were out of the gate in the direction that Sineer indicated.They were soon back and nodded to the man on the dias.
____”Your sin has only brought the vengeance of God upon the people you tried to help. You, not me, not the church, were responsible for what happened to these people. God will punish you for your sin. God will pay you back for what you have done this day. I can only offer earthly justice as slim as it is for your crimes.
____”For your crime of theft,” the Lord continued without a pause, “I absolve you of this crime, this sin against Christ and his church, just as He pardoned the thief from his own cross. But for your crime of placing the crime on others who suffered because of your crime, losing their own lives, you will be tied to a stake here in this place until you perish from the lack of food and water. None shall give you aid, none shall give you food. None shall give you water, except the spit of those whose families you have killed here today. But after death, God will see to it that your soul is damned to an eternal hell, where you will never see comfort or peace again but only the living, burning flames of torment.”
____”Please, your highness,” The red-bearded priest interrupted again, this time pulling the shroud off of his head to reveal his grey-templed red hair, balding at the top. “Are you speaking now for God, too? There has been too much blood spilled already.
____”Many of us have pleaded for these people before this man arrived.” He continued to a stunned Lord. “You have ignored all of our pleas for mercy and have arrogantly pursued your own form of justice. You cannot absolve your own part in this by putting your sins, then your judgement, upon the shoulders of one who admits to only an act of theft with good intentions. Barely more than a child, he admits to his sins, and offers himself for proper punishment. He cannot utter Christ’s words, because we have failed him, but with his heart he reaches for Heaven’s forgiveness. What sins do you confess?”

The Lord, much to the shock of the crowds around him, dropped to his knees and raised his arms toward Heaven. “Lord forgive me my sins. In my zeal for justice I have made your square run red with the blood of the innocent. Forgive my zeal and my ignorance. Make me your servant again, worthy to rule your people righteously.” For a moment everyone held their peace — servant, soldier, priest and peasant — all stood motionless barely knowing how to proceed.
____”Let the innocent prisoners go,” the Lord shouted, “And divide the spoils found in the tree among them. I will make up the difference to the Vatican from my own treasury back to this church, and a great generous gift for my part as well.”
____”And what of the thief?” The arrogant priest wanted clarification.
____”He must die. He must pay the just price for causing the deaths of so many.”
____”Father forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us,” The priest quoted, “You would ask that God forgive you and punish only your enemies?”
____”Sebastian,” the Lord said, rising from his knees, “Would you have me set free one who set into motion so much sin and death? And what of justice to the families standing here who want his head?”

Then it happened. The moment that changed everything. Before Sebastian could even open his mouth to speak, Sineer opened his mouth and spoke. it was a gift he had as a child; the ability to recall word for word what was spoken to him in another place, another time. The words caught the attention of both the Lord and Sebastian:
____”Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto by the hand of Moses: that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. And when he that doeth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into that city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.”

The Lord and Sebastian just stared at him incredulously. Did he actually know what he was saying. Was it perhaps coincidental or intentional and partially divine. After a long uncomfortable moment, Sebastian turned to the Lord and spoke.
____”Let the punishment fit the crime. He asks for sanctuary in the Abbey under the old testament principal of refuge. Confine him to the church, to this Abbey where he will serve the poor whom he wronged for as long as I live.”
____”A good and prudent punishment.” The Lord said, “Thus I give you the punishment given unto the children of Israel whose act in ignorance ended in the killing of someone who was innocent. Fly ye to the church and it will be for you, your walled City of Refuge just as in Canaan. And you will remain there for as long a child of Israel was to remain — for the entire life of the high priest. Now go…”

Sebastian and some of the other priests moved to Sineer and pushed him toward the inner gates of the abbey. As prisoners were being released they and the crowd began to understand that this young man, this prisoner, was the reason for all their misery and that he was going away unpunished. The crowd clearly didn’t agree with the judgement and began picking up stones and threw them. One priest who still stood on the platform pulled back his cloak as well, revealing a bald head, and yelled to the crowd. “Only the man who could make it alive to his walled refuge was allowed to remain within. It was the right of the family of the dead to try to kill any man so found guilty before he could escape punishment.” His sentiments were clearly with the crowd and he didn’t need to say it more clearly, the vengeful crowd, without the forceful show of the guards who stepped out of their way, rushed the gate, pressing in on Sineer and the few priests who protected him. Sineer now began to run toward the abbey and made it inside with but a minimum of cuts and abrasions from the rough stones thrown from the streets. Sebastian came in after him. His temple was bleeding, the accidental target likely of the mob trying to extact what revenge they could on Sineer before it was too late.
____”Why did you save me?” Sineer asked.
____”That I did not do.” Sebastian said, wiping the blood from his temple. “That I cannot do. Only Christ can do that, if he will. What I did do was to make your punishment more severe. You will work, and work hard long hours – long nights – until you have restored to these people everything you have taken from them: their homes, their livestock, their clothes, their harvests, their trust in God almighty and His sovereignty!” HIs voice was rising and his face became as red as his beard “Before you count this as a blessing, you may well wish that you had died on the stake.”
____”And how long would that punishment last?”
____”Forever” Sebastian said, and as he did a white dove from the ceiling of the great hall they stood in, flew down and lit onto his shoulder, resting there as if it were home, next to the grey-streaked red beard of the portly priest.
____”I mean, how long am I a prisoner here?” Sineer asked, his eyes on the dove.
____”You heard the punishment, you took sanctuary in a Refuge City.”
____”What does that really mean?”
____”I’m sorry!” Sebastian looked frustrated and then shook his massive locks, almost dislodging the dove. “I often forget how ignorant the masses are of scripture. Anyone who took refuge in a refuge city could remain there without retribution for as long as the high priest lived. That would be me. And I expect to live a long, long time. When I die you’re a free man, unless you kill me and then Heaven help you!”
____”And if I just slip out?”
____”Then every man, woman and child out there whom you wronged could hunt you down like a dog and kill you on the spot. Justly, with the blessing of God.
____”I suggest you stay.”

Sebastian may have been a priest, but he might as well have been a prophet. For he predicted the next three years so accurately. Sineer gained twenty-five pound of muscle as he worked all but four hours out of every twenty-four. He bred livestock, he fed livestock, he milked livestock, he butchered livestock. He cleaned livestock pens. He carried water; he carried wood. He cut wood. He planed wood. He drilled wood. He built furniture, mangers, plows, tools, bins and buildings. He thrashed grain, he ground grain, he sifted grain, he separated grain. He mixed flour, he kneaded bread, he baked bread, he served bread. He served water, he served food, medicine, and spent many nights comforting wounded and orphaned children who rose in the night in screams. He even fed and watered “White One,” Sebastian’s pet white dove who was treated with the respect of a priest within the abbey.

He was tired, but proud, and not once did he say to himself, ‘I don’t deserve this…” In fact, sometimes just about sundown when the priests were in prayers and he was left to himself and his chores, he would look out over the balcony at the setting sun and the woods beyond and wonder why God had let him live that day. The words still rang in his ears, “For the wages of sin is death.”

Sometimes at night, he imagined that he had died and felt the licking flames burn at his body, or the smell of charred flesh and melting brimstone. Sometimes in these nightmares he saw them again, the bodies of those whom he was responsible for killing, hanging over the flames, and the words once written on their bodies that he could not read, they cried at him: Liar, Thief, Blasphemer.  He would awake in fear, which would soon change to gratitude that he was still alive and still cheating the fate that waited for him.

If he deserved death, or damnation as the Lord had suggested, why then was he just grateful to be alive. Even though he wondered if there really was a God, and not just some elaborate scheme built by the priests and Lords of this world to extract the livelihood of the poor for themselves. At times like during these sundowns he secretly wished there was. He imagined a good and merciful God – not a vengeful and hateful God trying to extract revenge.

And if there was such a merciful God, and he had the power to to move mountains and men, “then, Lord God Almighty, bring justice and deliverance to the poor, instead of sitting back and letting men rob them, and kill them all in your name. Then,” he thought, “I would know you are real and I would serve you. “Otherwise,” He believed, “God is no better than the men who now serve him.”

One day, sometime during his fifth year as a prisoner, life changed somewhat for the young ex-thief. There was a gathering in the small abbey of some nobelmen and fellow priests. After seeing to their meal and their comfort he stayed pretty much out of their way. The less he interacted with them, the better. There was a number of them who are pretty much silent. Some were genuinely charming, but one among them, a certain bald priest whose name he discovered was Graysant seemed to be both somber and demanding, and was thus accorded the most respect from the rest of them. They brought with them a huge wooden crate, the contents of which were secret, and they did not speak of it when servants like him were within earshot.

A day later, they were all gone, but the crate and its contents remained, sealed into one of the libraries. Sineer had not inquired after the crate but Sebastian like a true prophet, knew of his curiosity in it.
____”What valuable treasure do you think is in it?” Sebastian baited.
____”Who cares?” Sineer tried to feign disinterest.
____”Oh, right.” Sebastian said, “It’s much too large to carry off, even to hide in a tree.”
____”Those days are over” Sineer said angrily, offended, “I’m not a thief.”
____”No? Then what are you? A tradesman perhaps? A carpenter? I know, a miller. No, a baker. No, that’s right: you are a nurse…”
____”Yes. All these and more. At least it’s a more noble calling than priest.” He regretted at once that he said it. There was a moment of silence. Only White One broke the quietness with a coo, perhaps speaking for the large one on whose shoulder he sat.
____”To you, a robber and thief should be given more respect than a priest?”
____”Yes. At least you expect and deal with loss from someone you know fears and hates you, and sneaks in and takes everything you own. But a priest, why, you rob and steal and extract pain while saying, ‘I love you – God loves you’…”
____”You are right!” Sebastian admitted, “There are such priests as these. Do you think I am one of them?”
____”You concern yourself with the poor, so no – not really. Yet, your girth grows wider every day, so your stomach seems to be of greater concern to you than the poor.”
____”For such a remark I could have you scourged.” Sebastian lamented, feeling hurt himself. “Yet, it is the truth and a man should not be beaten for the truth. So, what other truths have you learned here?”
____”The priest Graysant, he’s not like you or some of the other priests. He drives himself for gain and the approval of other men. He tramples the poor underfoot. He uses them like tools. Perhaps if you were in his way, he would trample you too.”

Sebastian laughed out loud so heartily it brought the attention of a number of monks who entered the room to see what was transpiring. Sebastian waved them away.
____”Aren’t you the observant one. You know Abram got a new name change to Abraham and Jacob to Israel. God knew they were much more than the names their father’s gave them. Thus it is that I bestow upon you a new name. You saw sin that day in the square and addressed it. You saw sin in me and you’ve addressed it. You saw sin in Graysant, and that, well is something that may have yet to be addressed. Thus I name you ‘Sin-seer’,  or rather Sincere, for your gift is a good one from God, the perception to discern truth. With a little direction maybe you can put it to good use.”
____”My name is Sineer.” Pride in the youth, made him object, even though he did not find the name objectionable.
____”What is ‘sneer’ anyway but a proud and haughty look. I know your father named you ‘sin-eater’ after himself, but pride is a better name for your sin. God calls pride sin. Yes, ‘sneer’ was a good name for you, back when you looked on every man outside your own class with disgust and disdain while you tried to out-sly them with your craftiness. But Sincere is much more fitting now, and it is the only name I will address you with or let any of my staff recognize you by from this moment on.”
____”Sincere?” The confused youth breathed.
____”Yes.” Sebastian said, “For you see the truth in all you encounter. Now, about that crate. It is a very special treasure and I am entrusting it to you.”
____”To me?”
____”Unpack it in the library and see that nothing happens to it.”

It was a chore that was accepted with joy and with intrepidness. To think that Sebastian actually trusted him. And yet, he wondered if this was a test – or worse – a trap. He opened the crate carefully. Inside were fifty heavy square stones of three fingers in depth by a forearm in length and bredth. Some kind of marks were on one side in parallel rows and filled the entire side, having been cut deep into the stones He knew these were not natural, but some kind of man-created stones. He laid them all out carefully in order on the wooden tables and for two days, kept a constant vigil upon them as if someone were lurking about trying to steal them. On the third day, Sebastian came into the library.
____”Is this all of them?”
____”Did you not count them before the crate was opened? I have not stolen or lost a single thing left in my care.”
____”No, no, my young charge, I did not mean it that way. i was just inquiring if there were more that needed to be unpacked and there was no more table room.”
____”This is all of them.”
____”Wonderful.” Sebastian said, walking along the tables examining each.
____”Pardon my ignorance, sir,” Sincere said, “How do rocks get such uniform shapes and such markings.”
____”Before these were ‘rocks’ these were clay; soft clay, shaped into that which you see them now. Then someone with a sharp stick, called a wedge, pressed it into the clay and made these marks, which are words and numbers. And when they were done, they baked them like bread making the words last forever like rock on these tablets.”
____”How old are these “tablets’?”
____”Old. Very Old. Probably the oldest in the world.”
____”What do they say?”
____”I don’t know.” Sebastian admitted with a sigh. “No one knows.”
____”Graysant?”
____”No. Not even Graysant. The language is lost. No one know what any of these tables say. Perhaps, if we could read them, we might know the great deeds of someone long ago, or maybe we would know more of the world when it was new and God first made it. We might know some of God’s greatest secrets, revealed for the first time to mankind.”
____”Really?”
____”Oh yes. We know whatever these tablets say it must be very sacred and very important. We know this from where they were found, but I cannot say more about that.”
____”What is to become of them?”
____”They must go to Rome. The church will dispose of them?”
____”Dispose?”
____”I suppose. No one ever knows what happens to that which is sent to Rome and is never seen again.”
____”What are they doing here?”
____”Because, some are convinced that they come from God, that they are indeed divinely inspired if not handwritten by God himself. That is why they are indeed import enough that the truth of them – history, knowledge or power – must be known before they vanish from the earth.”
____”Graysant.” it was more of a statement than a question.
____”Yes,” Sebastian nodded with the word, and “White One” ruffled his feathers at the mention of his name, “And I ageed. These must be studied and copied before they are sent to Rome.”
____”And you can do this?”
____”If I were younger with young nimble fingers. For you see, these tablets must be copied to a scroll so meticulously. There is no room for error in a single stroke. No, this is a work for young hands.”
____”Such as the other priests or monks in this abbey?”
____”No.” Sebastian answered almost too quicky “For their work is important too, maybe much more important than this. They copy the scriptures, keeping the Word of God alive, and duplicate copies of it so that every priest has his own scroll with the revealed Word and the Law of God for his instruction, his edification and for the salvation of others in the world.”
____”You can spare none?” Sincere asked, “or you trust none?”
____”You are aptly named my young student,” Sebastian smiled. “I apologize for trying to conceal my real concern from you. This is a valuable work, but a secret one. None other, outside those who brought these tablets here, myself and now, you, must know of the existence of these tablets. This library I have made off limits to all others but myself and you.”
____”Me? Sir, but why?”
____”For this is the work of young and nimble dexterous hands – your hands.”
____”What???!!?”
____”It is a noble work.”
____”But I don’t know letters, I don’t know how to read or write.”
____”No need. You need not know letters to duplicate them. As I said, I don’t know these letters either. No one does. But that aside, you could be taught to read and write. You have an incredible memory, you quoted that day in the square something that you heard only once. Few men have this power. You can memorize these letters, you can duplicate them with ease. It would be easy to teach you to read and to write. However, that is a skill that only a man of the cloth needs to know.”
____”Why should only the priests learn to read?”
____”Unless you are royal or noble born, it is forbidden for any outside the church to have or possess the Word of God that they might learn or teach it in error. This is how the many cults rise, that the church must crush.”
____”So it is forbidden for all but priests to copy tablets such as these?”
____”Oh no,” Sebastian laughed, “You won’t get out of this chore so easily. If need be I will ordain you myself as a priest so that you will do the work.”
____”A priest who does not read?”
____” I will teach you.”
____”But these tablets, if they are the work of God, what right do I – a thief and a blasphemer – the builder of the evil that fell the hamlet of Owen – and damned for all time for it – what right do I have to even touch these tablets?”
____”Is that what you believe? That you are damned for all time? Do you think because you stole bread and shared it with the poor that God holds you in damnation for all time for your mistake?”
____”The overlord said it..’For the wages of sin is death.’ I have earned damnation. So, how do I earn salvation?”
____”Beg God for your life, offer him you life and service…and then, just as I did, he will forgive your sin and permit you a small corner in Heaven.”
____”Sebastian?” Sincere inquired, “Does this men, you serve God because you need his forgiveness.” Sebastian hung his head.
____”It was a lifetime ago. I can’t discuss it.”
____”Cannot these Words of God that you copy, and read – can they show you how to earn salvation?”
____”Perhaps.”
____”Then teach me to read them, and I will find it. And in exchange, I will do this work for you.”
____”Good. We will begin reading at the beginning in the morning.”
____”Must we begin at the beginning?”
____”Where would you have me start?’
____”We could start where the words are written, ‘For the wages of sin is death‘…”

He had been a servant of the church since he was but a youth himself but that night Sebastian became a servant of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it was because he had busied himself all his life with duties and tasks; but for whatever reason he had never read the Book of Romans, written by the Apostle Paul with spiritual eyes until this night. At least, had never read or contemplated it in it’s entirety. Or perhaps he had, but until this moment, had not read it with his eyes and his heart and mind wide open. He found these words staggeringly profound. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.’ Gift? He would spend the remainder of the night contemplating that question, as he read the rest of the book through tear-filled eyes. He would face the rising sun with joy, and the secret burden on his shoulders fell to the stone floor around him. He attended morning prayers with hope, zeal and a renewed heart. And it was with joyful anticipation that he was eager to meet with his young student in the library. He learned the secret his student wanted to know: how to earn salvation. You don’t. It is a free gift. One gift he was eager to show Sincere.  He ran to the library like a giddy child.

End of Part One

(I really hate to break this here. I really do, but this is the halfway point and while the incredible stuff is still to come, you need a break. Continue on to the next post for Chapter One, Part Two. It will be worth your effort.)

For those who think I am participating in bashing the Catholic Church, I am not.  The church in 900 A.D. bears no resemblance to today’s Catholic Church. After 1521 A.D. Thanks to Martin Luthor the Catholic Church cleaned up its doctrine, returning to principals laid out by Christ, and holds to those doctrines that ALL true Christians do: (1) the Bible is God’s true inspired word (2) Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, gave up his life in exchange for our sins, rose alive on the third day and now sits at the right hand of God  (3) Paid for our sins, and belief in this is thereby our only access to Heaven  (4) that Christ is God, as part of a triune entity that is only one God.   Thus any differences between Catholics and other Christian denominations, such as Protestants or Baptists are mostly tradition in nature and do not conflict with the bigger picture in the four doctrines presented above.

 

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