Harry Potter and the Empty Tomb
Category: Easter
Speaker: The Rev. Shearon Sykes Wiliams
The four Gospels have often been described as Resurrection accounts with extended prologues. When the early Church was telling the story of Jesus, they didn’t begin with his preaching- as powerful as it was. They didn’t begin with his teaching- as instructive as it was. They didn’t even begin with his healing the sick- as amazing as it was. They began with the incredible news that Jesus had been crucified and buried and that God had raised him from the dead just as he had promised.
We like to think of ourselves as highly evolved, well-educated 21st century people, people who are beyond belief in anything as fanciful as the Resurrection, but it is no more challenging now to believe than it was for people in the 1st century. In fact, they were much more connected with death than we are. They knew that when a person died they stayed dead. People didn’t come back to life then any more than they do now. That is why the early Church began at the beginning. They began with what was new and utterly unprecedented. Something that defied the laws of nature and was counter to anything anyone had ever witnessed before.
And the very thing that made this such a revelation was the thing that made it the hardest to believe. They doubted just as people doubt that it is possible today. Many of us here this morning doubt that it is true, but that is not such a terrible thing. Doubt is the most powerful seed of faith. Our questions about life and death take us deeper into what it means to be human and how to make sense of our lives. That is why epic stories appeal to us so much. They capture our imaginations and help us to see that our lives can be so much MORE.
During our Lenten study series we explored the power of imagination in the journey of faith through the lens of the Harry Potter books and movies. Our speaker was Patricia Lyons, a religion teacher at Saint Stephen’s and Saint Agnes Episcopal School in Alexandria. And what a fascinating study it was!
Harry Potter is the most popular book series of all times. Harry Potter is about a boy wizard who goes away to a boarding school to learn his craft. And he becomes a hero as he fights to save the wizarding world from Voldemort, the Dark Lord who is trying to gain control over the wizarding world. Harry fights this battle of good vs. evil with Ron and Hermione, his steadfast friends. And it is a long and arduous battle that goes on for 7 completely spellbinding books.
One of spells that Harry learns in his “Defense Against the Dark Arts” class is the Patronus Charm. The Patronus Charm is the most difficult spell to learn. It requires the most intense focus and practice. And it begins by remembering a time of joy, a time when you knew you were completely and utterly loved without reservation. You allow that memory to fill you up, to totally inhabit you from your head to your toes. You have to keep that memory alive in you, let it’s power radiate from you. And you use this memory when your life literally depends on it, when there is nothing else that will save you. You use it when you are being attacked by a dementor. A dementor is a horrible creature deployed by the Dark Lord to destroy you. A dementor literally swoops down from the sky and overtakes you. They put their mouth on yours and suck your soul out of you.
When a reporter asked J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, how she came up with the dementors, she said she was trying to think of a way of embodying severe depression, something she has struggled with. In the books the dementors leave their victims feeling like they will never be happy again. The only hope against the dementors is the Patronus Charm. Having the memory of feeling love and joy combats the experience of feeling unlovable and completely joy-less in the moment. Believing that that memory of love will indeed allow you to feel love and joy again. The memory that Harry Potter uses is the remembrance of his mother looking at him with unconditional love and joy when he was a baby. Both of Harry’s parents were killed when he was just a year old. But he has this memory of his mother looking at him- just looking at him- that gives him the power to fight back the Dementor’s Kiss, the kiss of death.
What is your Patronus Charm? We all know we need one, but we may not be sure what it is. We know we need something beyond ourselves to give us life when death is trying to claim us. And we all know what the Dementor’s Kiss feels like, those soul-robbing experiences of having the life sucked out of us.
One of the characters in Harry Potter says this about the devastating effects of the Dementor’s Kiss.
“You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and your heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no…anything….There’s no chance of recovery. You’ll just ---exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever…lost.” (Remus Lupin)
Memory is powerful. That is why the Church is so big on it. Memory holds the power of God. We have to know where we came from to know who we are in the present- to have a clear sense of self- and know where we are headed. That is why we are here this morning. To remember- together. We remember the story that has been the Patronus Charm of generation after generation of Christians.
“Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.”
We say it together week after week, year after year. It makes the memory of Christ’s Resurrection real for us in the here and now. And it takes that memory forward into the future. It is a memory of cosmic proportions. We keep saying it week after week, year after year, with all of our doubts and all of our belief. It isn’t magic but it is powerful. It protects us from meaninglessness and rootlessness and infuses our life with hope. And through it we realize that we, like Harry and Ron and Hermione, are companions on an epic adventure, a life worth living. We gather together to claim joy and keep the dementors at bay. It guards our souls.
A Patronus Charm requires practice and focus. And you need your friends around you when you do it. Coming to church is like going to “Defense Against the Dark Arts” class. It’s not a class you want to skip because you never know when you are going to need it! We come together to practice our faith so that we will get better after it- so that we will have it when we most need it. And so that our children will have it when they need it. So that when someone close to us dies, we can stand next to their deathbed and see that death does not have the last word- to see that Jesus is standing there with us. So that when we meet with defeat or loss of any kind we can know that we are not defined by our losses and that we are loved with a fierce love, Resurrection Love, a love that will never be defeated.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
(The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!)
Sources:
Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010. John 20: 1-18 Pastoral Perspective, Martin B. Copenhaver, pp. 370-374
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Books (U.S.A.)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1998
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1999
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 1999
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007
Patricia Lyons, Lenten Series 2014 (The concept of a statement of faith being a Patronus Charm is that of Ms. Lyons)
HarryPotter.wikia.com