Sweet Jesus (29 page)

I think it’s going to be a really good day, Connie said. Have you decided what you’re doing, Zeus? Are you staying with us for the weekend? When are you hoping to get to Chimayó? Do you have any money?

That’s too many questions at once, he said. I haven’t decided anything yet.

Is there anything we can do for you?

He shook his head.

Maybe you’ll find the service interesting today.

Or maybe he’s had enough religion to last him a lifetime, Hannah said.

I don’t think he needs you to decide that for him, Connie said.

What I
am
enjoying, Zeus said, is listening to the two of you squabbling over what you think is best for me. It’s kind of
heartwarming. Why do I have to do anything? Why can’t I just follow you around like a little brother?

Well,
I
might go in, Hannah said. I’m sort of curious to see what the Christian right is up to in America these days.

Really? Connie sounded more annoyed than skeptical.

Don’t I get any credit for keeping an open mind? Hannah was speeding up between the stop signs and braking abruptly.

Your mind’s so open, Connie said, I don’t know how anything makes an impression.

They drove back to the church and this time turned towards the big hall. Both lots looked full, and they stopped in front of a young man wearing an orange vest and holding a baton. There were still a few spaces left on the far side, he told them, so they drove slowly across the busy lot. It was Saturday morning and people were filing into the hall, locking up their cars with licence plates from Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Colorado, men tipping their baseball caps, women pushing up their sunglasses to talk to one another. Hannah parked the truck facing a large vacant lot behind the building, overgrown with scrub and a dense thicket of young trees.

They all went in. There was a crush around the registration table and a lawlessness to the way people cut into the line. I’ll go get the tickets, Hannah said, and meet you at the entrance.

Behind the registration table, two teenaged girls in jean miniskirts and tight t-shirts leaned against the wall. They had the ease and idleness of staff kids. One of them started to sing a worship song and the other one cut her off, Don’t pretend you know how to sing.

I’m not the only one around here who can’t sing, the other one said. Why do you think they turn your microphone down every time you get on stage?

The woman in front of her was buying seven passes for
the weekend. She was wearing a loose, hand-sewn cotton dress, and her brown hair, streaked with grey, was pulled back into a bun and held in place by a white, elasticized doily. In contrast, the woman seated at the table wore heavy makeup and several gold rings on her fingers. She closed the lid on a black tin box and said, Next, please?

Hannah bought three tickets and then it occurred to her, this is
simony
. The crime of paying for religious advice. It was a word she’d learned in an undergraduate class on James Joyce. She’d never thought of it in any context until now. She joined Zeus and Connie at the entrance, and together they followed the general flow into a huge auditorium, cavernous and acoustically absorbent as an airplane hangar, noisy and hushed at the same time.

They stood inside as if spellbound. On the left was an elevated carpeted stage, behind which were long, draped lengths of yellow and purple cloth. On either side of the stage were two white projection screens that hung suspended thirty feet in the air. Microphones and music stands and two drum kits on stage, and endless rows of grey metal chairs arranged on the floor. At the back, a hillside of bleachers. Let’s go sit up there, Hannah said.

That’s Hannah for you, Connie said to Zeus. Prefers to sit above the proceedings, instead of down on the ground, in the thick of it.

Okay, so we’ll meet up after the service, Hannah said.

What about the prophetic ministry? Connie said.

Sign-up table’s at the other end, a man said in passing.

Thank you, she said.

You seem really determined about this, Hannah said.

Well, it’s half the reason I came here in the first place, Connie said.

Maybe we should all go, Hannah said. I’ve never got a reading from a Christian psychic before.

It’s not like that, Connie said. But I guess you can find that out for yourself.

The three siblings walked through the crowd, gathered like factory workers before a shift, the air thrumming with voices, abuzz with spiritual industry. Some people sat, while others wandered or paced or prayed. Some reserved chairs with their jackets and purses, greeted old friends. A young woman sat cross-legged on the floor beside a garbage can, rocking back and forth, braiding her hair.

They got in line behind a small Chinese couple who moved forward tentatively, as if unsure of their right to be there. Before the couple reached the table, a woman with a booming voice cut in front of them. She made no apology, her large behind sheathed in an expanse of faded blue denim. Is this where you sign up for the prophetic ministries?

The young man behind the table nodded and handed her an appointment card.

She read the card and complained, But my husband and I wanted to go this morning.

Two o’clock is the earliest I can give you, he said.

Well, that’s just dandy, she said, when we’ve come all this way.

Her husband leaned in around her. We’ll take this afternoon, he said and led his wife towards the stage.

When it was their turn, the young man gave Connie and Hannah both a small blue card with an appointed time of two-thirty. You’ll need these to ensure your spot, he said.

Hannah turned to Zeus. Do you want one? And he shook his head.

Just follow the arrows, it’s on the second floor, the young man said. Enjoy!

Together they moved away from the table and passed two men standing together with their hands on each other’s shoulders and their heads bowed. They passed another small group of men praying together, younger than the last two. They looked like farmers’ sons. One boy had his fists clenched in front of his face and was saying, Yes! with such passion and ecstasy, it was almost sexual.

Through the crowd, against the far wall next to the stage, Hannah could see three young women dressed in pale blue leotards and wraparound skirts, with long hair and supple bodies, stretch and prepare themselves for some kind of dance. She tugged on Zeus’s sleeve and pointed with her eyes.

I feel like I’m at a circus, he said. The anticipation before a show. It’s the same anything-could-happen kind of atmosphere.

They had arrived at the back of the central aisle. Connie headed for a row of chairs and Hannah decided to stick with them. They all sat down, Zeus in the middle.

I feel like something’s heating up inside of me, he said. It’s like a vibration, or a tingling, like I’ve got a light bulb in my stomach or at the back of my throat. He stretched his mouth open. My palms feel like they’re giving off a kind of light. Zeus turned his hands over and stared at them.

Don’t you dare go getting all Holy Spirit on me, Hannah whispered, and the service began with a crashing sound from the electrified worship band on stage.

There was cheering and clapping. People started to lose themselves in the ecstatic mood. Down in front of the stage, a woman ran in circles to the music, with her arms thrown out in jubilation. She was running backwards in a tight circle, with a circumference so small it looked as if she was spinning around at the end of a string. Then the dancers came out on stage, to sway and undulate to the music. A plump, middle-aged woman
in a white turtleneck and a long green skirt jumped out of her chair and ran across the floor. Her glasses bounced on her nose as she ran, her bright yellow hair pulled back by a sky-blue handkerchief. She was very plain and yet the rapture on her face made her beautiful.

There’s a spirit of something here that I approve of, Hannah said. Despite the politics, the gas-guzzling culture, the moral conservatism, the fear of outsiders.

It’s like the release of a good drug trip, Zeus said, and God knows we all need to get high sometimes.

The fact that it’s communal, Hannah said, I think that’s key. People getting emotional in public, looking out for each other.

It’s a rock concert, Zeus said.

My heart and flesh cry out, sang a man at the microphone. I’ve tasted and I’ve seen. Come once again to me.

An older woman pranced like some kind of bird across the floor, dainty on her toes. A man in a baseball cap fell to his knees while the woman beside him stood up, suddenly rigid as if electrified, her back arched, face raised to the ceiling, one fist clenched at her tailbone, the other in front of her mouth, like she was holding a pole through her body.

Better is one day in your house, than thousands in a house of gold!

The whole congregation was moving now, swarming like a hive. A woman sitting at the edge of the central aisle, a few rows ahead, was crying. It was the movement of her shoulders. She got up, knelt in the aisle, and lay face down with her arms straight at her sides. Free at last, Hannah thought, with a sentiment that swung between sympathy and scorn. It was total surrender. Other people were still on the fighting side of that surrender, still needed to shake and flail the resistance out of their bodies, spasm like epileptics. I guess those people have the
hurdle of their
pride
to get over, Hannah thought, before they can let go.

Praise Adonai! a voice shouted over the loudspeaker and a cheer was raised, as if a field goal had been scored. Then a Jewish-sounding song with a fast tempo began, and the frenzy and the emotion rose so swiftly and slammed so hard against the rafters, Hannah thought the roof was going to blow right off the building.

Come let us go to the house of the God of Israel! the voice called out. It was Chad Dorian, the star pastor. He had come up to the central microphone and was calling for intercessors, full-time Annas. We need to raise up, he shouted over the music, a lot more Annas! Faithful women of God to intercede on behalf of the church and of this great country of ours, to pray for its leadership in the world, especially as we gather this coming week on Tuesday to elect a president.

A woman, sitting in the row in front of them, jumped up – a biker chick with bleached and feathered hair, tanktop and jeans, a leather jacket on the back of her chair. Two friends on either side of her put a hand on her lower back and bowed their heads. The woman started to shake. When she sat down again, she rubbed her thighs and ran her feet on the ground. She was so excited, she’d been anointed!

The music gradually faded and the congregation, exhausted, subsided in their seats, like a wave sinking into the sand.

Chad Dorian said, Today I want to talk about the battle of Jerusalem. But I want to lay down a pretty extensive foundation.

He said, I know you’re all trying to get to heaven, but, my friends, heaven is just a holy holding pattern until the end times. At the second coming, all the people in heaven are gonna get physical bodies. And after the earth is redeemed, heaven’s gonna be brought to earth and made material.

You see, the pastor said, heaven is a supernatural spiritual realm, while the earth is a material physical realm, involving human emotion and physical sensation. The millennial earth, that Jesus is going to establish after the second coming, will bring the two together – but! – you must have a resurrected body. When Jesus came back after the crucifixion, it was to show how he was both spirit and body. He could walk through walls and yet he still needed to eat and drink. I’m not saying I understand how he did this, I don’t know the details. I’m just painting a broadstroke picture for you here, folks.

Sounds pretty specific to me, Hannah whispered to Zeus, and Connie leaned forward to give her a questioning look.

Chad Dorian called for a theocratic government. Boy, I don’t know how this is gonna happen either, he said, but there are so many chapters about this in the Bible. Go ahead and read them, you’ll be, like, wow.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, he said. I’m sure you’ve all heard that one before. Well, that was Jesus talking about the millennial earth. Jesus was the first millennial theologian, and he was talking about ruling the government of the economics of the earth. What that means is, we, the meek – instead of the wicked! – will rule the world in a theocratic and moral way. And I know I’m stretching minds now, but we can’t dumb this down, folks!

Connie bent forward, with her elbows on her knees, and stared at the floor. Hannah looked at her sister and her heart broke over the shape of her head, the curve of her shoulders.

Satan hates it when somebody’s happy! Chad Dorian shouted. But what he’s really trying to do is keep himself out of hell. He’s been enjoying his freedom. He doesn’t want to give it up. But if Jesus rides back into Jerusalem as the king of the Jews and establishes the kingdom of God on earth,
then Satan is locked up in prison and thrown into the lake of fire. Can you see why he might want to prevent this from happening?

The congregation was captivated, drinking it in.

But the kingdom won’t come until the battle of Jerusalem is won!

Chad Dorian joked about the temple. I don’t want to know everything about it, he said. I want
some
things to be a surprise. I only want to know what’s in the scriptures. People come to me with theories, and I say, I don’t care. I only want to know what the scriptures say.

He talked again about the paradox of heaven and earth becoming one. The throne in the temple, and the temple and the earth being in the place underneath the soles of our feet. And the room where Christ resides, he shouted, is further inside, than even the centre where Ezekiel was!

He had the congregation in his sway. The mood was rising. There were shouts of approval – amens and hallelujah!

Jerusalem is the vortex of God’s end-time drama, he said. I don’t know the exact definition of the word
vortex
, but it’s this fuel, this energy. But friends! he shouted. The kingdom will not come until the leaders of Jerusalem accept Christ as their Messiah! Because Jesus chose Jerusalem – the physical bricks and mortar of that holy city – as his home, the future seat of his government, when he will finally make heaven and earth meet, to fulfill a prophecy foretold even before there were people on the earth.