BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 9

LIEUTENANT LOUIS LEWIS

TO GIVE THEM BEAUTY FOR ASHES (Isaiah 61:3)

            The Sallie’s home was a total loss. But all was not lost. In a large fire proof safe covered in ashes, they retrieved family heirlooms, pictures and financial records. Most importantly, they had their health. They also had the support of friends and family. In particular, Seven’s cousin Brock Storm and his lovely wife Destiny Knight-Storm.

            The Storm’s lived in an old renovated eight bedroom farmhouse on about a dozen acres way out in the boondocks. Brock had been a high level body guard, protecting celebrities and those of great financial wealth. I had first become aware of him when a big city gangster sent several of his goons to our area to seek revenge on the couple.

            Many moons ago, Brock’s wife Destiny had been an exotic dancer. In other words, she was a stripper. Brock had been a bouncer at the so called gentleman’s club where she performed. He had gotten wind that a certain notorious gangster was going to follow his future wife home. So Brock followed her home as well.

            Just as the said gangster was about to consummate a sexual assault, Brock ran interference, knocking the gangster out with a round house kick to the noggin. When the gangster regained consciousness, the first thing he saw were several police officers with guns drawn. When all was said and done, he ended up doing ten years in the pen.

            After the skirmish, the future spouses went their separate ways. Fortunately, being nearly raped, the episode convinced Destiny to put an end to her dancing career. Unfortunately, she turned to nude modeling and porn instead. Brock on the other hand was offered a job with the high end security company where Inga Cognito’s brother was currently employed.

            A decade later, Brock began to experience a Christian conversion. After reading a book authored by Pastor Kirk Samson, a retired Army Chaplain who was affectionately known as Captain Kirk by his congregation, Brock stopped to visit the country church the former Army Captain pastored and never left the area.

            About a year after he began attending, low and behold, Destiny showed up. The pair couldn’t have been more surprised by their reunion, especially given the circumstances of their association. Who would have thought they would meet again at a country church in Iowa? Coincidence? More like providence.

            Although sparks flew between the couple, Brock was in a complicated relationship with a woman named Nora Medora. This is the same Nora Medora that became an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The same agent I had briefly worked with monitoring Seven Sallie’s podcast. We met up again in the aftermath of the Sallie’s housefire.

            Agent Medora’s involvement with the enforcement of national Sunday laws had increased, whereas mine had decreased. One of her tasks was to still keep tabs on Seven Sallie’s podcast. She was keeping an eye out for anything deemed hate speech. Also she was monitoring if he was encouraging defiance of the ever increasing push for mandatory worship, which could lead to a charge of civil disobedience.

            I had just finished talking to the chief fire inspector when Agent Medora arrived. The inspector confirmed what we already suspected. Arson. In black spandex pants and orange spandex shirt with florescent orange running shoes, she looked more ready to run a race rather than do detective work.

            I reflexively sucked in my gut as she approached me. But I had made a covenant with my eyes (Job 31:1) and kept them trained on hers rather than her painted on clothes that clung to her like a second skin.

            “Lieutenant Lewis,” she greeted.

            “Agent Medora.”

            “Any clues on who did this or how it started?” she asked.

            “I don’t believe this is a federal investigation.”

            “I beg to differ. Seven Sallie is of national interest.”

            “So are you building a case against him?”

            “Let’s just say we’re watching. Seven walks a fine line with his rhetoric.”

            “So free speech has become a thing of the past.”

            She frowned. “Whose side are you on, Lieutenant? You were once in charge of Sunday ordinances in this neck of the woods. What happened?”

            I shrugged. “I guess I’m desiring truth in the inward parts.” (Psalm 51:6)

            Her frown deepened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “It means I’ve been studying out this Sabbath issue from both sides, and I’ve come to believe that those pointing to scripture after scripture advocating the Seventh Day Sabbath are correct. God established it at creation, and He wrote it in the middle of the Decalogue with his own finger.”

            “What’s the Decalogue?”

            I don’t think I was trying to crack wise. But I arched an eyebrow. “Agent Medora. You seem to be rapidly gaining rank enforcing the national Sunday laws, yet you don’t know what the Decalogue is?”

            Her gaze was cool as we had a several second stare down. Then she asked, “Is it the Ten Commandments?”

            “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.” Okay, that was cracking a bit wise. But it was spontaneous, and I was trying to make a point. “Do you see the problem? We have all these leaders making and enforcing moral law, and they don’t even fully understand the issue.”

            She abruptly folded her arms under her chest, cocked her hips to the right, and jutted her left leg so her foot was arched at an angle. The sudden movement caused my gaze to divert down her body. She was in phenomenal shape and the clothing that seemed like a second skin only enhanced her physique. My eyes wanted to linger, but I silently told myself, “Covenant with the eyes, fool.”

            “For my part, I enforce what’s made into law,” she defended.

            “Whether you believe in it or not?”

            “Who said I don’t believe in it?”

            “You told me yourself that you are an agnostic that leans toward atheist.”

            “People evolve. Now I’m an agnostic that leans toward the spiritual. These are volatile times. The revivals across the country are doing a good job combating civil unrest. Something you need to ask yourself, Lieutenant, is can all these religious leaders uniting and coming together for the common good be wrong?”

            “Of course they can. When has the majority ever been right in spiritual matters? Did the majority get on the ark? Did the majority refuse to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image? Did the majority welcome Jesus at his birth?”

            “You’re missing the point. You believe the few radicals bucking the system are correct and the leaders of the prominent churches are wrong?”

            “When the whole world is running toward a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”

            “Really? You see these Sunday laws as running toward a cliff? Look, I admit that I’m not religious. But I have to admit that after the installment of the Sunday laws, crime has been  decreasing. I believe that when, and not if, mandatory worship is put in place, crime will not only continue to decease but dramatically decrease.”

            “I see. So you being, admittedly not religious, will have no problem being forced to go to church every Sunday?”

            “Am I forced to pay my taxes? I think giving an hour of my time once a week will be much easier than being forced to hand over almost a third of my income every year. Plus it will benefit me. I otherwise might not try to get in touch with my higher power.”

            “Your higher power? Right off the bat there’s a problem. You can’t love God without freewill. Mandatory worship will just be the amalgamation of all these different beliefs. God is not the author of confusion.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)

            She shrugged. “You see the glass half empty. I see it as half full. These Sunday laws are helping the world unite. All of us have our own truth, but now we are all uniting under the Sabbath banner.”

            “Sunday is not Sabbath. Even in other languages, for instance Sabado is Saturday in Spanish. Even if it was the Biblical Sabbath being enforced by law, that would still be wrong. Forced worship is not true worship.”

            “Like I said, you have your truth, and I have mine.”

            “Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

            “That’s nice for you. But my destiny is to be a law officer. To use your religious term, I was called to fight evil,” she told me, using air quotes for called. “The revivals that have gone on across the land have led to the Sunday laws. Now that the powers that be have decided on that, that’s where I come in. They were designed to bring about peace, and I’m a spoke in the great wheel to see that they do.”

            “When they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

            Her eyes narrowed. “You know, Lieutenant, if an officer of the law doesn’t like the law, maybe they should resign.”

            I felt a chill go up my spine. She was cold! “Gonna tell my Captain to keep an eye on me again?”

            She didn’t flinch. “No, this time I’m gonna recommend you either change your tune or be discharged.”

            I felt numb. I didn’t know what to say, but something seemingly outside of myself caused my head to nod and mouth to say, “You’re probably right. If I don’t agree with laws being instituted, I have no business being in a position to enforce them.”

            Nora Medora was a hard no nonsense woman. But with my non combative response, I noticed her eyebrows raise a little. “Look, for the time being you have a murder to investigate and now we both have this arson situation that might involve cases we are working on. So back to the beginning. Do you have any clues?”

            “The gentleman that lives across from the Sallie’s said he noticed a Ryder sprinter van in their driveway about ten minutes before he noticed smoke and flames coming from the backside. Thinking it was Amazon making a delivery, he didn’t think anything of it. I had some officers canvas the area and we actually got a better description of the suspect.”

            “Good,” she replied, vigorously writing in a note pad. I wondered where it materialized from given her skin tight clothing.

            “That’s all I know,” I said.

            “Very well, thank you,” she said and began to briskly walk away.

            “Off to see my Captain?”

            She stopped and turned. “Why, do you want me to?”

            “You do what you gotta do.”

            “Just to be straight, the next time I talk to your Captain, I am gonna voice my concern. However, I do not intend on giving any recommendations. Obviously that’s up to him anyway.”

            “That’s very big of you.”

            I honestly didn’t mean to sound flippant, but I’m afraid it came across that way. She seemed to glare at me for a couple seconds, and then without another word, she turned and left.

            As I started to watch her walk away, I diverted my gaze and told myself, “Covenant with the eyes, fool.”

            The next day was the Sabbath. I was driving around, my head churning with a multitude of topics. I honestly had no destiny in mind but eventually found myself in the parking lot of Cotton Creek Cove. It was the Sallie’s church, made from a renovated barn.

            The service was already underway when I took a seat in the back. I was just in time to hear Seven give a testimonial. I was impressed by his relationship with his personal Savior. With the gratitude he expressed, you would have never guessed his house had just burned to the ground. He was thankful for everyone’s safety. He was grateful to Brock and Destiny Knight-Storm for taking them in. He quoted scriptures written by the Apostle Paul which addressed enduring hardships. He ended by praying for strength to press forward.

            After the service, my cousin Zella greeted me warmly, peace radiating from her face as she expressed pleasure at my presence. Inga too seemed glad to see me. I wanted what these people had! By the world’s standards they had lost almost everything. Yet to watch them, they seemingly had everything. I was now truly convinced. And it came just in time.

            My phone whistled like a choo, choo train indicating an incoming call. “Hey, Captain.”

            “Hey, Lou,” he responded. Then I heard him sigh. “I was just in the chief’s office, and he wanted me to contact you right away.”

            “News on the case?” I asked.

            “No,” he replied. Then thinking of my conversation with Agent Nora Medora the previous day, my gut twisted. “Lou, I’m afraid you’re being suspended indefinitely.”

BLACK SABBATH

CHAPTER 3

LIEUTENANT LOUIS LEWIS

JESUS SAID, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.” (John 14:6)

            “Hey look, it’s Steve Harvey and Selena Gomez,” the feral looking woman sitting at the Sallie’s kitchen table said as FBI agent Nora Medora and I stepped into their home. Seven had invited us in after we told him we had just come to talk, and not to arrest him.

            I recognized the woman immediately. I had seen her singing on the downtown streets several times. I knew she was homeless, so what was she doing in the Sallie’s home? How did they know her? She had a beautiful voice; I’ll give her that. The songs emanating from her gifted vocal cords were usually hymns as well.

            Considering myself a devout Christian, I really wanted to throw the book at her when she was brought in for shoplifting the other day. I couldn’t stand hypocrites; they gave Christianity a bad name. I just didn’t realize back then that I was one myself. Who knows, maybe I still am. For the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

            Rather than become angry at what might have been considered a slight, Agent Medora and I glanced at each other with arched eyebrows. I’m sure we were both thinking, ‘yeah, she kinda does, yeah he kinda does.’ However, Nora Medora’s black hair was short, and she was very fit and muscular, sort of like a female bodybuilder. As a result I tended to suck in my stomach while around her, which became quite tiring.

            Seven’s wife Zella was my cousin, but we were estranged. First when she shamed the family by becoming an erotic model, and second when she started practicing as a so called psychic. Third, ironically, because of a religious conversion. Yet we thought her style of Christianity was odd, fanatical, and it flowed the opposite way of the mainstream.

            But eventually I would experience the biggest paradox of my life. I was put in charge of enforcing Sunday laws. And considering myself a devout Christian I went about it with great zeal. I saw Seven Sallie as my main adversary, because he was foremost, via his podcast, at encouraging people to disobey the particular laws I was in charge of.

            However, it was through attempting to keep him in line, and hopefully finding a reason to arrest him, that I began to discover what the Bible actually taught. I came to realize that as a Christian zealot and law officer, who was enforcing moral legislation, I was behaving contrary to The Word of God.

            “We’ll give you some privacy,” my cousin offered.

            “No need,” Agent Medora declared. “It would do well for you two to hear what we have to say. After all, Mr. Sallie has spread his poison very publicly.”

            “Poison?” Seven inquired calmly with an arched eyebrow. “Teaching history is spreading poison?”

            “Today you all but called, arguably, the most revered spiritual leader in the world the beast of Revelation,” Agent Medora continued.

            “I did no such thing,” Seven defended. “I simply spoke about the dark ages. I said that the persecuting power that put millions to death over more than a thousand years would receive a deadly wound and that deadly wound would be healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.” (Revelation 13:3)

            Agent Medora folded her arms abruptly. “You also said that this figure received the deadly wound by Napoleon through his General Berthier. So it was pretty easy to figure out who you were talking about through the internet. My point is, you can’t blame who currently holds that position for those who held it hundreds of years ago.”

            “I’m not. But I am warning that persecution will happen again. You can’t make worship mandatory. And the Bible predicts it will happen again before the end of time. The only thing we don’t know is exactly when and how long.”

            “Nobody in our state is making worship mandatory,” I barked. “The Sunday ordinances are so workers can be guaranteed time with their families. Also a day to give the planet a rest from pollution.”

            Agent Medora looked at me with a contrite expression. Then she said, “To be fair, there is talk on the federal level of mandatory worship. That’s why I was sent to work with you on the Seven Sallie file in particular. He is the foremost voice protesting our government.”

            “Ooooh, I have a file,” Seven said. “Ya know, Nora, I happen to know one of the reasons you and Brock broke up was due to his Christian conversion. Did that change?”

            “It did not,” she replied defiantly. “I’m still somewhere between atheist and agnostic.”

            “So how can you be a defender of moral legislation?”

            “My job is to enforce law, not make them. Just so you know, I asked for this assignment so I could come reason with you as a friend. To keep you out of trouble.”

            “Are we friends? I hope we are, but we hardly know each other. Brock and I weren’t exactly warm and fuzzy back then.”

            She was about to say something on the side of emotional, and I could tell it was making her uncomfortable. “I almost married your cousin, and he still holds a special place in my heart.”

            Seven nodded and bit his lip. I figured he was metaphorically biting his tongue from saying, ‘You have a heart?’

            “The truth is, Sallie,” I said. “You’re just trying to regain the spotlight you lost.”

            “What would you know about truth?” the feral woman at the table spit.

            I glared at her and her name came back to me. One of the arresting officers showed me two different IDs she had on her person when they searched her. A California ID, which proved to be legitimate, had her as Inga Marie Likas. An Arizona ID, which proved to be fake, called her Inga Cognito. “What would a shoplifting liar know about truth?”

            “I know you wear a cross around your neck, yet you do the opposite of what Jesus taught.”

            “Oh, is that right? I’m doing the opposite of what Jesus taught by keeping the public safe?”

            “Safe from what?”

            “Enough!” Agent Medora ordered. “Let’s make this short and sweet. Our little visit is just a friendly warning that you are being watched. So as a friend, Seven, I’m telling you to be careful.”

            “The majority like these Sunday laws,” I added diplomatically. “The majority want these Sunday laws.”

            “When has the majority ever been right?” Zella spoke up. “The greater the number, the more certain the lie.”

            “The numerical is the most ridiculous parody of the truth,” Inga added.

            Continuing diplomacy, I calmly said, “Look, nobody is stopping you from keeping the Jewish Sabbath. But the majority of us keep Sunday, so that’s the one designated for national rest.”

            Seven grabbed a Bible from a coffee table. He opened it, flipped through pages, settled on one and handed me the open book. “Would you read Mark 2:27?”

            “And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

            “Did Jesus say the Sabbath was for the Jews or mankind?”

            “That’s not the point. We keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection.”

            “We get baptized in honor of the resurrection,” Seven responded. “With all due respect, Lieutenant, God wrote the ten suggestions with his own finger.”

            “You mean Ten Commandments,” I spontaneously interrupted. Then I felt my face flush at being tricked.

            “Right, my bad. Right in the middle is the Sabbath, the only one that starts with remember. Yet most of the Christianity is purposely forgetting. It’s the one commandment that recognizes God as our Creator, and as it’s worded in Deuteronomy chapter five, our Deliverer and Redeemer, if you please. In Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, chapter three and verse six declares the Lord does not change.”

            I was speechless, I had no argument. And the reason I had no argument was it rang true. Another reason this man I used to think obnoxious, wasn’t trying to argue. He was reasoning, as with a friend.

            “Lieutenant, once again with all due respect, I suggest you get out your concordance and study the scriptures that refer to the Sabbath.”

            As Agent Medora and I rode back to the station in my unmarked police car, I called my wife. When I looked Seven in the eye as he suggested a concordance, I felt ashamed of not knowing if we had one. But in front of Agent Medora, an unbeliever, I didn’t care. “Honey, do we have a concordance?”

            “You mean a Bible concordance?” Her voice emanated from the speakers.

            “Yes.”

            “I’m sure we do, but I’ll have to look for it.”

            “Could you?”

            “Sure thing.”

            “Thanks, love you.”

            Agent Medora looked at me with curiosity. “You’re not actually gonna do what Seven told you to do?”

            “He didn’t tell me, he suggested. The way I see it, I wasn’t able to answer him back there. If enforcing Sunday laws are part of my responsibility, I need to understand the issue more than I do.”

            She gave her shoulder a half shrug as if to say whatever. Ten minutes after Agent Medora left the station, my Captain called me into his office. “Have a seat, Lou.”

            Captain Stubing was about a year from tiring and looked ready. He was fifty pounds overweight with seemingly constant circles under his hound dog eyes. He said, “Agent Medora warned me to keep an eye on you.”

            I felt my jaw tighten with anger, betrayal even. Agent Medora and I had been in communication even before Seven had been arrested the other day. A few hours ago, she and I had listened to Seven’s podcast together in my office. Although in different branches of law enforcement, she gave me the impression that we were not only colleagues, but teammates. “I see.”

            “I think she wanted me to keep it to myself, Lou. But you and I have been friends a long time, and I’m not gonna let no uppity Fed come between us. So she says as a long time investigator, her gut tells her that this Seven Sallie character is influencing you. Says you’re gonna read material he told you about.”

            “All that happened, Cap, was he suggested I get a Bible concordance and study this Sabbath issue out for myself. As much as I dislike the man, he’s right. If part of my responsibilities are Sunday laws, I need to understand every angle.”

            “Good thinking, Lou, I couldn’t agree more. I knew I had nothing to worry about, but communication is key to a tight ship.”

            “Thank you, Sir.”

            Before she left, Agent Medora had given me a firm handshake and a warm smile. This only minutes after telling my immediate superior to keep an eye on me. It made me recall one brief element of Seven’s podcast that really resonated with me. It kept echoing in my mind, especially after Agent Medora tried to throw me under the bus.

            I know I’m comparing apples with oranges with what Agent Medora did. But this is what he said, “It is so heartbreaking that Christ, the teacher of love, who is not only loving but Is Love. That He should be betrayed with a kiss. Such is the nature of sin.”