First United Methodist Church

Eupora, Mississippi

The Pastor's Pen

"Frankenstein: 'And Are We Yet Alive'"?

Mary Shelley published the novel Frankenstein in 1818. Frankenstein, an eight-foot-tall synthetic man, shows the destructive results of undeveloped affection. The creature craves but is denied ordinary human tenderness. Rejected as a man, he becomes a vengeful monster. Although he is given existence by science, he is never fully alive.

Frankenstein is an adult "inhuman being." Rejected in horror by his maker, he finds no meaning, direction, or even acknowledgment of his existence. Yet, as he discovers what man is, he desperately wants to identify with him, communicate with him, become part of his society. His story is that of someone who desperately seeks family-or at least a mate-and, when that is emphatically denied him, his passion turns into violence.

Seeking friends, the friend found enemies, seeking hope, it found hate. Loathed by humanity, shunned by its own maker, the monster vowed to get revenge for having been born. Unstoppable, unholy, it would travel to the ends of the earth to destroy its creator with its program of revenge by destroying everyone Dr. Victor Frankenstein loved.

The motive of the monster Frankenstein is simple: to reduce his creator to the same state of isolation that he endures.

Frankenstein presents us with one of the most powerful images of human alienation. Who better to play the the part of the vengeful Frankenstein that Boris Karloff, that mute giant who dramatized so vividly that sense of total, frustrated isolation.

Frankenstein may be alive, but he's not living - Are we? We are not fully alive until we have personally received by faith Jesus Christ as our own Lord and Savior and become filled with the Holy Spirit.

Charles Wesley wrote the words to the hymn, "And Are We Yet Alive."  The first verse reads "And are we yet alive, and see each other's face? Glory and thanks to Jesus give for his almighty grace!" The last verse reads, "Let us take up the cross till we the crown obtain, gladly reckon all things loss so we may Jesus gain."

Christ can take our brokenness and heal us. He can put the broken and disjoined pieces of our humanity back together again and make us a new creation. He can take our alienation and isolation and walk with us across the Bridge of the Cross into His arms of love.

We can hear the angels of heaven cry out, "He's alive! He's alive!"

First United Methodist Church
203 West Fox Avenue
Eupora, MS 39744
wesley@telapex.com

Phone: (662) 258-2611

Fax: (662) 258-2600