Читать книгу The Cord - Stephen W. Robbins - Страница 8

The main point of Pastor Donovan’s message the following Sunday was that every conversion is a virgin birth, or, as he said more than once to be more accurate, a virgin conception. He shared that being born again was a work of God. “He opens our eyes so we can see. He opens our ears so we can hear. He opens our hearts so we can welcome the gospel.” Pastor Donovan explained that this new life, conceived in us like the One in Mary’s womb, is by the Holy Spirit. While we are yet doubters and unworthy, God proclaims, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Pastor Donovan’s eyes and heart fixed upon his daughter as he preached.

He sensed something different about his sermon. His parishioners sensed it, too. If only these people knew what kind of a week I’ve just had. Pastor Donovan could not help but think this as he shook hands at the close of the service. He smiled, but he did not hear his parishioners, except when a few broke from their usual script.

“Pastor, you sure preached with passion today. It really felt like an angelic announcement when you looked right at Anne and said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.’”

As he held the hand of this sweet elderly parishioner, Pastor Donovan thought, If only you knew, Mrs. Gabriel. If only you knew.

After dutifully listening to a few more customary pleasantries, Pastor Donovan found himself caught off guard when Brother Bob followed up his standard “You really hit a homerun today” with “I’m sure you impressed the search committee that came here today to hear you.”

“Search committee? What search committee?”

“That search committee!” retorted Brother Bob as he pointed to the group of four men gathered at the end of the line.

Pastor Donovan’s heart skipped. Making their way to shake his hand was George Carlson and the team of men that he met last Monday at SarkiSystems. “What are they doing here?” Pastor Donovan intended his query to be a mere thought, but Brother Bob heard it.

“That is the question. If they are not a search committee, then who are they and what are they doing here?”

Pastor Donovan did not want to answer these questions. In this case, he preferred questions to remain questions. He spouted rather nonchalantly, “Oh, they’re just some friends that showed up to surprise me—and that they have.” Eager to curtail further inquiry, he whisked Brother Bob along.

Curious, but not eager, Pastor Donovan anticipated the inevitable encounter about to happen. With his eyes’ fluctuating attention on the team, he greeted the remaining few individuals exiting the church. A decoy to mask dismay, he greeted the men with his pastoral voice. “It was a joy to have you here today.” He was not about to admit that he did not notice them in church. Though he faced the congregation the entire service, he saw only his daughter in the pew and the distractions in his heart. He smiled and continued, “I wish I would have known that you were coming. I would have asked Ashley, my wife, to have prepared more food for lunch.”

Rather perplexed, George asked, “You did not get the phone message that I left last night?”

“No. As a rule, I go to bed early on Saturday nights; and I do not use electronics on Sunday mornings—no phone, no Internet, no television. It is a spiritual discipline to help prepare me for church.”

“I called to let you know that we were coming to hear your decision, meet Anne, and to tell you that everything is in place to begin.”

With peripheral vision, Pastor Donovan noticed that the family stood ready to go have lunch. What he didn’t see was Anne coming to tell him this. She stepped right up to him, leaned her head on his shoulder, and politely interrupted, “Daddy, Mom says the food in the oven will be burnt if we don’t leave now.” She took her eyes off her dad and turned them toward the men. “Hi. I’m Anne, the pastor’s daughter.”

“We know.”

She looked back at her dad. He cleared his throat, and hesitantly revealed, “Precious, these are the men that know about our surprise. They came to find out our decision.”

“Did you tell them?”

“I have not.”

Anne stood up straight, faced the men, and declared, “I am willing, and anxious, to pursue the plan.”

With muffled elation (for there were lingering parishioners nearby), George said, “That’s wonderful! I know that you have questions. That’s why we want you to attend our meeting tomorrow night. Your questions will be answered and the Lord’s return will be accelerated.”

“Will my dad be at the meeting?”

“We would have it no other way.” George nodded to the team, indicating that it was time to go. He looked at Anne and said, “Thank you. We’ll see you tomorrow night.” He looked at Pastor Donovan and said, “And thank you. That was a great sermon.”

Pastor Donovan smiled, and then winced when he saw the suspicious look on his wife’s face. Even from the parking lot she could make her mistrust known. This was not going to be a normal lunch.

* * * * *

Doug quipped, “It’s the way we all like it,” when his mom removed the more than well-done roast from the oven. She was not amused by this stock assessment whenever something went wrong in the kitchen.

After the blessing, Ashley immediately asked, “So who were those men that you were talking to after the service?”

“Well, they were not a search committee, if that is what you were wondering.” Believing diversion was the best tactic to avoid his wife’s inquest, he turned to Anne and asked, “More importantly, how did your college admission exam go yesterday? How do you feel you did?”

Ashley interjected, “I’m so sorry, Anne. I completely forgot to ask you about the test.” To her husband’s delight, she continued, “How did it go? What was the essay question? I know you were concerned about that part of the exam.”

“Actually, I couldn’t have felt better about it,” responded Anne. “I felt completely free while taking the test, especially while writing the essay.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“But Mom, you know I’m not supposed to talk about the test, especially the essay.”

Payne looked down at his plate. Anne had told him about the essay when he picked her up from the test site. “Dad,” she had said, “it was like God gave me an opportunity to, I don’t know, work things through. I mean, it’s not as if the admission exam itself matters anymore. But the question, of all things, asked whether or not our lives would be better off with limitless technology. Dad, I got to think, really think, about what we planned to do. This was my thesis statement: Although many believe that rapid advancement in technology trivializes what it means to be human, I think we should yoke ourselves to it because innovation and expansion are core values for humanity.” Still looking at his plate of tough meat, Payne recalled the chill that had gone down his spine when Anne said in the car, “Embrace the future; harness it; and advance it.” He wasn’t sure if the chill had been from fear or awe.

Doug chimed in as his father sat uneasily silent, “How about a little hint for your favorite brother who will have to take the test in a few years?”

“You want a hint? Here’s a hint: Listen to Dad’s mantra, ‘Catch the wave.’”

Doug was clueless as to what his sister (or his dad) meant by this, except that she was not going to discuss the test any further. He asked if he could be excused from the table. Sister and father caught Doug’s wave and exited, too. Mom sat alone in the kitchen. It’s the way they all liked it; well, all but one.

* * * * *

Pastor Donovan thanked God for a no-more-questions Lord’s Day. He repeated this prayer of thanksgiving the next morning. Ashley would be gone all day with a childhood friend that she recently reconnected with. This meant that Anne and he could go to SarkiSystems without explanation, as long as Doug was distracted. Money to order pizza took care of that.

The room was set up the same. As a pastor, Payne entered with ambition; but as a protective dad escorting his daughter through the door, his first thought was, Why is there not one more chair set up for Anne?

George Carlson welcomed the team. With everyone still standing, he announced, “Tonight we place an entry into the book that is in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne in heaven. It’s sealed now, but soon this ultimate ‘World Civilizations’ textbook will be opened.”

Dr. Greybellum exclaimed, “In nine months we will see prosopon pros prosopon the only One worthy to unroll the scroll of God’s sovereign will.”

George reigned in the excitement by inviting the men to take their seats. “Indeed, we will see Him face to face,” echoed George as he motioned to Anne to come to the podium. He prayed a short prayer of grace, mercy, and peace to rest upon her, and wisdom and guidance to be upon the surgeons and all those involved in the procedure. Following a solemn, reverent “Amen,” George unveiled the plan for the evening—a blueprint for the team, a bombshell for Pastor Donovan and Anne.

“The embryo implant will take place tonight. In a moment, a surgeon will come to get Anne. An egg will be removed from one of her ovaries. The nucleus will be removed. Using electricity, this enucleated egg will be fused together with Jesus’ DNA obtained from the cord blood. The embryo created will be implanted. And then, Lord willing and her temperature doesn’t rise, Anne will go home with the Son of Man in her womb.”

The body language of both Donovans conveyed uneasiness. They were not prepared for such haste.

George explained that the whole operation would be projected onto the screen. Though no one from the team would be allowed to be present in the laboratory and surgical room, they would see everything taking place in real time. George would narrate the whole affair with the reliquary by his side.

A man in a white coat entered the room from a side door. He motioned to Anne to follow him. Before he knew it, Pastor Donovan was separated from his daughter and the door to her was locked. All he could think about while he watched the screen was that the next time he sees his little girl prosopon pros prosopon she will be pregnant, and that someday soon he will have to tell Ashley.

* * * * *

Anne assured her dad, “I feel okay.” From the ride home to the days following, she exhibited with each fatherly probe a confidence that mirrored the first Mary. Payne discerned thankfulness deep within her, but mostly relief that the procedure happened so fast. He was not so sure what she might have done if there was a waiting period. He wondered if she would have had a change of heart, like those who abandon their plan to buy a gun, if she would have had more time to think it over. Nonetheless, he knew that it was futile to second-guess the decision and that it was too late to back out. He also knew, as did his daughter, that the next nine months presented a world of hopes and fears, joys and sufferings.

For the moment, while Anne did not show, the surprise could remain a surprise. But could it? How could Payne betray a trust that he had built over the years with his wife? How long could he avoid telling the gospel truth? How long could he hide behind half-truths and diversion tactics? Anne may not have been showing, but his anxiety sure was, and it was starting to kick.

Pastor Donovan called for another family powwow. He hoped that it would go better than the last one, but it was a tenuous hope. With everyone present in the living room, he stood, ready to speak; yet only silence sounded as he pulled back words. No words were adequate to initiate the meeting. With no pulpit to hide behind and no pastoral voice to bring him honor in this home, he stood inert, petrified in his angst.

Anne stood up, approached her dad, reassured him with a gentle squeeze on the arm, and directed him to sit down. Then with poise, she said to the family, “Exactly one week ago today I became pregnant.” She intuitively held her hands out as if to divert verbal harpoons unleashed upon her. “Last Monday Dad and I went to the place where he went the week before—the place where he saw the umbilical cord of Jesus.”

Before her daughter could say another word, Ashley insisted, “This must be some April Fool’s joke.”

“It’s no joke.” Anne’s composure and self-assurance kick started her dad’s ability to take the lead. He concisely explained what happened at SarkiSystems. He divulged that one of her eggs was surgically removed, manipulated, and then implanted back into her. The embryo inside her is completely made up of the DNA of Jesus. Like his daughter, Payne held his hands out in defense. He spoke directly to Ashley, “She is still a virgin.”

The ensuing exchange entailed words and feelings never before expressed in the Donovan home. Payne tried to intersperse the “what” and especially the “why” during his wife’s tirade. When Ashley concluded with insistence that this was no longer, and never was, a funny joke, Anne defended her actions and her dad’s. “Mom, I am eighteen years old. I’m an adult. I can and I did make my own choice regarding this. Dad did not force me to do this. It was my decision.”

“Will Jesus call me Uncle Doug?”

Ashley turned and stared at her son. “This isn’t a joke, Doug.” She turned back to Anne. “Do you realize what you have given up? This isn’t some dream or nightmare that you can just wake up from.”

“Yes, Mom. But I also realize what the world could gain.”

“Anne . . .” Ashley stopped and turned to leave the room. As she passed him, Payne heard her mutter, “I wish it were a joke. I wish I could just wake up.”

* * * * *

Reality hit Pastor Donovan as he prepared for Sunday’s message. There in his office he realized that recent events had distracted him to the point that he forgot that Sunday was Palm Sunday. This meant that the choir was scheduled to perform, as usual, an Easter Cantata. Initially, this awakening brought relief. I don’t have to prepare a sermon this week. Then it brought concern. Easter, the most attended service, is less than two weeks away; and I am so unprepared. What will I say? What will I not say?

With anxiety reaching a dangerous level, Pastor Donovan needed a diversion. Whether stemming from a divine illumination or his own human curiosity, he decided to take a moment to figure out Anne’s due date. Knowing that her pregnancy began on March 25, exactly one week before April 1 (Ashley’s “April Fool’s Day” rant chiseled that date onto his mind), and assuming Anne goes full term, he ascertained that the birth would take place on December 25! Was this a coincidence, or yet another one of George’s surprises? He double-checked his math. It all added up. The re-birth, the re-incarnation of Jesus was scheduled for Christmas Day. Thoughts flooded his heart. What a gift . . . to Anne . . . to our family . . . to the church . . . to the world. He found solace in this diversion, that is, until he got the call.

“This is Officer Bedford. Your wife has been in an accident. An ambulance is on the way to take her to the hospital. She insists, though, on speaking to you. Here she is.”

Payne desperately tried to make sense as Ashley cried every word.

“I was listening to the radio and they were talking about abortion and I wondered if maybe Anne’s baby could be aborted. But it was such a horrible thought—what if that baby really is Jesus? And then I thought about how it all happened so fast and I wondered if Anne even had a choice in things. I was so angry, so angry at you that I didn’t see it. I didn’t see the light turn.” The words were barely intelligible now.

“Honey, are you hurt?”

The only answer was more crying on the other end of the line and then the officer’s voice, “We need to get her to the hospital right away.”

“How badly is she hurt?”

“Meet us at the hospital and the doctors will be able to fill you in on that.”

Payne opened his mouth, but the officer had already hung up the phone. Slowly, he stood up from his chair and walked out into the little office where the part-time secretary sat, typing up the church bulletin. “Mrs. Fleury, Ashley was in an accident and I need to go to the hospital.” He held up his hand to forestall any questions. “I don’t know how bad things are. I won’t know until I get to the hospital. Let Bernard know that I won’t be able to meet with him about the cantata until later.”

He didn’t wait to see whether Mrs. Fleury had heard him as he rushed out the door to the parking lot.

* * * * *

Pastor Donovan missed the cantata. The church would have understood if he missed Easter, too, since Ashley had only just been released from the hospital; but he chose to be with his flock and to preach. He was a husband, but he was also a shepherd. Resurrection Sunday brought more people to church than expected, possibly because news had spread about the pastor’s wife’s accident.

The message focused on Jesus’ bodily resurrection in history and how this seals His followers’ future bodily resurrection. Knowing that the people knew about the accident, Pastor Donovan spent the second half of the sermon sharing about the frailty of our present bodies. He quoted the Apostle Paul when he wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians that “the outer man is decaying.” He shared how the accident reminded him that our earthly bodies are not built to last forever. To curb the tears, he pointed to his balding head and said with a smile, “Hair today, gone tomorrow.” He told the congregation that in college he weighed 150 pounds and bench-pressed 275 pounds, but that now those numbers are reversed. He used this humor to convey that our bodies are likened to tottering tents, but he got serious about “the eternal weight of glory” awaiting us. “We will exchange our tents for mansions, bodies fit for all eternity. And what will we do with our incorruptible bodies? We will reign with the One who rose from the dead on that first Easter morning. We will be involved in God’s ongoing creative activity—a team effort with eternal significance and productivity.” Pastor Donovan looked right at George and the team seated in the back pew as he delivered this last sentence. A glimmer of hope spanned the entire sanctuary. Eternity was in their hearts.

* * * * *

Payne handed his wife the CD of his Easter sermon when the kids and he returned home after church. He was concerned about her state of being and thought that what he said might be medicine for her soul. She laid the disc on the dresser, and then laid her body on the bed.

As Ashley isolated herself from the world, Payne and Anne marched forward on the road of transformation set before them. They could not dawdle until she accepted the reality of Anne’s pregnancy. There were decisions to make and strategies to execute.

The team, including Anne, met at SarkiSystems to go over the plan. (Doug stayed home with his mom and enjoyed the delivered pizza.) George explained that Anne would perform her normal routines and graduate from high school. Then, before she began to show, she would go away until it was time to give birth. Forming quote signs with his fingers, he indicated that, when asked, they would say that “Anne is studying abroad” and that “she is expanding her horizon.”

George announced to Anne, “You will be going to Israel incognito and on a mission. No one but the team will know what is happening in your womb. While you are in the Holy Land, you will visit various sites. We will film your journey and make a documentary of your pilgrimage.”

George then addressed Pastor Donovan. “Let me reassure you that your daughter and the baby will be well protected and cared for the entire time. She will eat well, sleep well, and receive regular prenatal checkups. And you will receive regular updates.”

Maxwell queried, “What is the purpose of capturing her trip on film?”

“I’m glad you asked this, Maxwell. Through the use of technology, we will be able to show the world that Jesus has indeed returned. We will, in the fullness of time, broadcast worldwide a documentary of the events that have already taken place—the acquisition of the cord and the implantation of the embryo—along with the events that have yet to take place—the pilgrimage of our ‘Virgin Mary’ and the birth of our Coming King.” Then George avowed that when their efforts were presented, “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

At the moment, Pastor Donovan was not interested in every knee and every tongue, just his wife’s. He knew that Anne’s pregnancy and now trip formed Ashley’s curse, not confession. He would pastor the congregation, but he would do so without his helpmate, for she walked on her own pilgrimage, a crusade into the castle of despair.