By Caitlin Ware

Luke 2:22-38 tells the story of Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, taking their infant son to the temple in Jerusalem—the City of God—for the required purification rituals. Upon arrival they encounter two elders of community, a prophet named Anna and a man named Simeon.

Simeon is described in the passage as a good man who waited in prayerful anticipation for the arrival of God’s promises to save God’s people.

The City of God had been taken over by an empire (Rome) who thought IT was God.

It wasn’t enough for the empire to benefit from the exploitation of the Jewish people…the empire demanded the people make sacrifices they could not bear.

The empire came in and reorganized the local government to make sure resistance would be impossible. The empire took a leader (Herod) from amongst the Jewish people and gave him a throne with only enough power to pass along the empire’s lies.

Surely EVERYONE knew that the power behind the throne was the empire’s.

Under that throne of Herod’s, the Jewish high priesthood was for sale to the highest bidder. And so the people sensed that even their Temple in Jerusalem was corrupted.

The people were forced to live between their obligations to God and to the state.

As the people were divided against each other, some chose to leave, others would become part of the system, and the rest were forced to bend beneath the yoke of oppression by the empire.

I KNOW some empires.

Keep your nose on the grindstone

But in the City of God, Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel.

He waited and waited, and he watched as his people and his land were transformed in a way he could not recognize.

He watched as many folks gave in and accepted this new way of life and surrendered to the empire’s lies.

I wonder if Simeon ever expected to see transformation in his lifetime. I wonder if he had bargained with God, in desperation, to see that change before he died. I imagine him wondering, “When will this all end?”

Sound familiar?

Daddy worked like a mule minin’ Pike County coal
‘Til he fucked up his back and couldn’t work anymore
He said one of these days, you’ll get out of these hills
Keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills

See, the ways of this world will just bring you to tears
Keep the Lord in your heart, and you’ll have nothin’ to fear
Live the best that you can and don’t lie and don’t steal
Keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills

Well Daddy, I’ve been tryin’, I just can’t catch a break
There’s too much in this world that I can’t seem to shake
But I remember your words, Lord, they bring me the chills
Keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills

(Tyler Childers, Nose on the Grindstone)

Vampires in Appalachia

There’s a vampire in the holler. Don’t you know it?

It’s so powerful that it works in the very light of day, unchecked, even into the depths of darkness beneath these mountains.

There’s a reason we know those tales. A reason we have familiarity with the things that frighten us and threaten our existence. 

Yes, there IS a vampire in the holler. In fact, there’s a legion.

Vampire lore varies over time and place, but during the time Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written, folks believed that blood tells our story. That blood passes on the stories of those before us.

Our life flows with these stories.

So not only does the vampire slowly drain the life out of us, but it also steals and consumes our ancestor’s stories which flow through our veins.

And their story is clear.

Recently near my home in Taylor County, it was reported that at least eight cases are still pending that contend an active mine has damaged homes and property, causing the land to sink, altering surface waters, and, in the Nestor family’s case, releasing dangerous methane right in their backyard.

That same evening in Upshur County, officials say a violent rainstorm led to more than 4,000 tons of coal being released into the Buckhannon River.

And even more recently live video was shared from Boone County, near the Upper Big Branch Miner’s Memorial, showing mine waste from a local prep plant streaming a cloudy black down through the Big Coal River.

These are only some of the stories that get told. 

But THEY—the vampires of the empire—tell us a different story.

They tell us that all we ever have been and all we ever will be is coal.

They tell us there’s only two ways for us to be saved: 1) we gotta leave to live, or 2) the only way we can live on this land is for the empire to come back and save us.

They promise us a life without the promise of resurrection.

A life that will continue to destroy the land we live on and our people.

And so we ourselves, like Simeon, anticipate the consolation of the coalfields.

The devil we know

Yes, our communities are looking for redemption in what seem to be our last days.

In some areas—communities of the living dead, ghost towns with few souls lingering—both the people and the land are longing for resurrection. There are tunnels that drip with echoes of “used to be’s” and the trains that hauled away our hopes.

There is a region of communities longing for the consolation of our people amidst an empire of lies from which the vampire legion draws its breath and life.

We need a reclamation of our true story. We need to know that we had an identity long before the empire came.

That old vampire has not yet caused us to lose sight of our past. We know what it’s done and is doing to us. 

Why do we choose the devil we know over the promise that God’s kin-dom will reign forever?

Why do we beg death to spare us over for another year? To fill those trains once again so all we’ll hear are the whistles of them pulling out, loaded down with still more of our life’s blood and our land’s bounty?

Why do we not banish that old vampire from the holler once and for all?

When will it be time to finally lay it to rest? To stop the clocks, turn back the mirrors, open the windows, and build the coffin?

When will we let this soul full of coal dust be washed clean that we might be filled with the very breath of God?

Hope from the hills

You see, Simeon didn’t lose hope that God’s promise to rescue God’s people would be fulfilled.

And in that prayerful anticipation the Holy Spirit comes to Simeon, guiding him toward the Temple which had become so profane.

And here, HERE amidst the decrees of the emperor, Simeon hears the cries of a newborn…and recognizes the Messiah.

Something new from God, brought forth by the lowly people of the hill country, something that even in its early form will grow to reveal a kingdom that will NEVER end.

The old man proclaims that this revealing of God’s promises is enough for him to rest in peace, knowing God is with—and within—God’s people.

Indeed, Simeon would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Even if he did not live to see the end of the empire.

He takes this promise that will grow into his arms, and praises God:

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
    according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
    which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

(Luke 2:29-32)

And then turning to bless the bringers of this Messiah, he says to Mary, 

“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

(Luke 2:34b-35)

Death for resurrection

Simeon receives the good news the Spirit guided him towards and recognizes the rising and falling which will come with it. The deep piercing of our hearts and minds which divides the truth of God’s never-ending kingdom from loyalties to a fleeting empire.

When Simeon asked God to console his oppressed people, he resisted the empire by refusing to resign to powerlessness. He knew who was truly on the throne and whose kingdom would never end. He trusted in God to fulfill God’s promises.

And sometimes that hard, uncomfortable good news might just mean death for resurrection.

Yes, it will be the rise and fall of many here as we ask God to guide us toward a new future. To put our trust in God that even if we will not see that day in our lifetimes, we can trust that a small promise will grow.

And yes, certainly the hope that we have will be a sign that is spoken against.

As the band The Collection sings:

They say, “You ask too many questions
You start too many fires
You dream of resurrection
But you’re too scared to die”

(The Collection, Birds)

Piercing the vampire’s soul

How then are we to free the holler from the vampire?

Do you ever think about why the vampire fears the cross? It reveals the vampire’s greatest fear: death.

A vampire is so desperate to maintain its lifestyle, it sucks the life out of everyone around it…to the point it is willing to forfeit its very soul just to keep its body alive.

The vampire certainly cannot imagine laying down its life for others. The empire can only promise us life without the promise of resurrection.

But we need not, as the empire’s gospel proclaims, earn our souls at the expense of our bodies.

We aren’t called to rush toward the end of our lives to experience wholeness and liberation.

The dawn is breaking across the ridge and will pierce the soul of the vampire below. God is bringing good news to those in the hills from where folks say no good can come.

We must reclaim our story and trust that God always hears the cries of the oppressed and will come to bring justice and peace for all creation.

It is time we prayed for the dead and fight like hell for the living.

Feature image: “Appalachian Draculer.” Art by Lacy Hale

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Caitlin Ware calls Flemington, WV in Taylor County home. She loves outdoor recreation, mystery novels, and sitting in her rocking chair. She is interning this summer with the WV Faith Coalition and the Welch Charge, six United Methodist churches in McDowell County. Caitlin is interested in just transition and environmental work in energy communities. Caitlin is a third-year Master of Divinity student at Duke Divinity School. She graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 2020. She plans to pursue ordination as an elder in the United Methodist Church in West Virginia.