Time Travel
Preaching
Pulpit Science Fiction
The Spirit hurled Jesus into the desert. Fresh from the joy and exaltation of his baptism, fresh from hearing the heavenly voice which said, "You are my Son, the Beloved" -- just when he was coming up out of the water, the Spirit seized Jesus and drove him into the wilderness. He could hardly move fast enough to keep up -- running, walking to catch his breath. Out -- away from people, away from villages, into the rocky open spaces. He went back to where his fathers and mothers had lived centuries before. Back to the wandering in the wilderness, back -- for forty days, always farther back, and farther away.
It was, as the book says, "A howling wilderness waste." There was nothing there but rock and sand. Nothing but the hot winds of the day and the cold winds of the night, and the sounds and cries of the desert beasts -- the birds, the crawling things. The birds circling high overhead and the snakes slithering across the rock -- always back.
He awoke in the long ago. He was clothed in skins and furs that scratched and smelled bad, but didn't keep the icy wind out very well. He sat beside a small fire where a few chunks of the woolly mammoth's flesh were roasting. His few companions were exhausted after the violent hunt that had ended with two of them dead. They had had enough to eat for the first time in weeks, and were full and sleepy. The rest of them were snoring loudly. A cold wind blew down from the ice fields a few miles to the north, bearing more snow.
Then he heard a snuffling sound, and looked out into the darkness. Soon a single scrawny wolf appeared at the edge of the firelight. It must have been starving to come close to humans; it must have smelled the food. Maybe it had followed the trail of blood from the hunt.
Without thinking, he had reached for his spear. The message in his brain had been automatic: Beast -- enemy -- kill. Humans had to kill wolves, just as wolves always had to kill humans. He gripped the spear, but then he stopped and looked at the starving wolf. The beast did not look at him. It was gazing at the pieces of uncooked meat that lay on the rock beside him. And he thought, "It's hungry, too -- just the way we were yesterday."
Very slowly, he speared a piece of the meat, and very slowly he reached it out to the beast. The wolf just watched, but its tongue hung out. The man lowered the dripping meat from the end of his spear to the ground. The wolf approached, slowly, warily -- then suddenly seized the chunk and raced out of the firelight. The next night, however, he was back, at the edge of the darkness. And this time he approached the man a little more quickly, and came a bit nearer.
But that would be too late. He had to go farther back.
He crouched behind a tree -- one of a small group of trees on the vast rolling plains of Africa. A few other humans crouched beside him, hidden as if in wait for game. They clutched stones that had been chipped to make rough hand axes. Beasts were coming.
These were the beasts that they hated, not just the ones they hunted for food. These were beasts that looked like humans, and who walked erect like humans -- but they were just beasts. They were different from humans.
The beasts who walked erect looked like humans at a distance, but up close their skins were seen to be pale, and their foreheads were more sloped. They had no hand axes -- only sharp sticks. The grunts they made to each other were different from the grunts of the humans. They were different. They were beasts who had fought with the humans before. They had to be killed.
Now the beast people were coming quietly through the grass, each one looking carefully for edible roots or perhaps some bird eggs or a lizard for food. They were so intent on their search that they did not pick up the scent of the humans, crouched behind the trees. Quickly, at his command, the humans surrounded the beasts-who-looked-human, the fists bearing their axes raised. Sharpened sticks were raised in defiance.
Then, before he could give the command to strike, he happened to look into the eyes of one of the beast people. He saw there the same hate, the same fear, that he had seen in the eyes of his people -- in the eyes of humans. The eyes into which he looked were strange in color and shape, but they were human eyes. Slowly, he lowered his fist. His people looked questioningly at him and grunted, "Kill? Kill?" But no one moved. Then the stranger in front of him slowly lowered his spear and looked at him. Carefully, deliberately, he dropped his axe to the ground. He held out his hands, palms up. The stranger held his spear level for a moment and tensed his muscles -- then dropped it and held out his hands.
But that would be too late. He had to go farther back.
Nearly 100 million years ago, no humans walked the earth. The dinosaurs ruled the world. The huge 100-foot-long brontosaurus placidly chewed the tops of the trees; the terrible carnivore tyrannosaurus rex, "tyrant lizard king," ran down its prey on its two hind legs like some caricature of a human, tearing apart whatever it caught with teeth like butcher knives.
Humans had not yet evolved. But this human walked along a path in the garden in the shade of the trees, looking for some fruit for a midday meal. He passed one tree in the center of the garden and saw that its fruit was ripe and beautiful -- but of course that tree was out of bounds. He started to walk on.
Suddenly a huge form reared up and stepped out into the open beside that special tree. It was tyrannosaurus rex. The tyrant lizard looked down at the little human, and bent its huge head down, and opened its jaws with those butcher-knife teeth -- and spoke.
"This is a beautiful tree, isn't it?" asked the dinosaur.
"Yes, it is," said the human.
"Mmm -- beautiful fruit, too. Looks as if it's just ripe for picking. If I weren't carnivorous, I'd probably eat some." Then tyrannosaurus paused. "Tell me," it went on, "is it really true that God told you not to eat from any tree of the garden?"
"No," said the human. "Just from this one. 'In the day that you eat of it you shall die.' "
"Uh-huh," said the tyrant. "I see. That's interesting. You know -- I'll bet you wouldn't really die if you ate some of this fruit! That's probably kind of an exaggeration, don't you think?" The human said nothing.
"In fact, probably nothing would happen if you ate some of this fruit. God just wants to be able to give you an order -- any order -- and have you obey it. Kind of to keep you in your place, you know. And so if you did eat -- you'd be just as good as God. It would be like saying you could tell right from wrong yourself, without any arbitrary rules. God wants to keep you toeing the line, but you can make your own decisions."
The man looked at the tree and looked at the beautiful fruit and said, "No." And he started to walk on.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," yelled tyrannosaurus as he loped after the human. It jumped onto the path in front of him.
"Look," said the dinosaur, its voice no longer so friendly. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Maybe you don't understand who I am. I'm the king. I rule this world. Nobody defies me. God can give all the orders he likes, but I'm the one who has the power here. If you know what's good for you, you'll go back and eat some of that fruit!" Then the dinosaur voice, with an effort, became friendly again: "Be reasonable. You're hungry and...."
"No," said the man, and walked on.
"You'll never get away with this," the tyrant screamed after him. "Nobody disobeys the king! I'm not finished with you yet!"
Jesus turned around and smiled grimly, smiled for the first time in forty days. And then he walked forward.
"And the angels waited on him."
Comment
One of the important influences on the development of this story was Charles L. Harness' book, The Paradox Men. (A short version of this was published in 1949 and it appeared as half of one of the old Ace "double novels" in 1955. An updated version with accompanying essays by George Zebrowski and Brian Aldiss and an "Author's Note" was published by Crown in 1984 as Volume 7 in the "Classics of Modern Science Fiction" series.) Here, as global nuclear war begins in the twenty-second century, the death of the mysterious hero Alar plunges him back in time to the beginnings of the human race to change the very nature of human consciousness and the direction of evolution.
But the idea of "recapitulation" is a significant biblical theme, and that is the immediate point of contact with the biblical stories of the temptation of Christ. In Matthew and Luke's versions, Jesus can be seen as "doing over again right" the testing of Israel in the wilderness. In the shorter Marcan story, he seems to go back to the situation of Adam "with the wild beasts" in Eden.
This story sermon was originally published in George L. Murphy, LaVonne Althouse, and Russell Willis' book, Cosmic Witness (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1996), pp.179-183, and is used here, with minor revisions, by permission. I am not an expert on dinosaurs, and a colleague later pointed out to me that the brontosaurus and tyrannosaurus were not contemporaries. But I decided to leave this as it was originally published. (I was actually more interested in the resonance of the "tyrant lizard king" with the serpent of Genesis 3, who is identified in Revelation 12:9 with the dragon who persecutes the people of God and the Messiah.)
Biblical verses that are quoted from in the sermon are, respectively, Mark 1:11; Deuteronomy 32:10; Genesis 2:17; and Mark 1:13.
It was, as the book says, "A howling wilderness waste." There was nothing there but rock and sand. Nothing but the hot winds of the day and the cold winds of the night, and the sounds and cries of the desert beasts -- the birds, the crawling things. The birds circling high overhead and the snakes slithering across the rock -- always back.
He awoke in the long ago. He was clothed in skins and furs that scratched and smelled bad, but didn't keep the icy wind out very well. He sat beside a small fire where a few chunks of the woolly mammoth's flesh were roasting. His few companions were exhausted after the violent hunt that had ended with two of them dead. They had had enough to eat for the first time in weeks, and were full and sleepy. The rest of them were snoring loudly. A cold wind blew down from the ice fields a few miles to the north, bearing more snow.
Then he heard a snuffling sound, and looked out into the darkness. Soon a single scrawny wolf appeared at the edge of the firelight. It must have been starving to come close to humans; it must have smelled the food. Maybe it had followed the trail of blood from the hunt.
Without thinking, he had reached for his spear. The message in his brain had been automatic: Beast -- enemy -- kill. Humans had to kill wolves, just as wolves always had to kill humans. He gripped the spear, but then he stopped and looked at the starving wolf. The beast did not look at him. It was gazing at the pieces of uncooked meat that lay on the rock beside him. And he thought, "It's hungry, too -- just the way we were yesterday."
Very slowly, he speared a piece of the meat, and very slowly he reached it out to the beast. The wolf just watched, but its tongue hung out. The man lowered the dripping meat from the end of his spear to the ground. The wolf approached, slowly, warily -- then suddenly seized the chunk and raced out of the firelight. The next night, however, he was back, at the edge of the darkness. And this time he approached the man a little more quickly, and came a bit nearer.
But that would be too late. He had to go farther back.
He crouched behind a tree -- one of a small group of trees on the vast rolling plains of Africa. A few other humans crouched beside him, hidden as if in wait for game. They clutched stones that had been chipped to make rough hand axes. Beasts were coming.
These were the beasts that they hated, not just the ones they hunted for food. These were beasts that looked like humans, and who walked erect like humans -- but they were just beasts. They were different from humans.
The beasts who walked erect looked like humans at a distance, but up close their skins were seen to be pale, and their foreheads were more sloped. They had no hand axes -- only sharp sticks. The grunts they made to each other were different from the grunts of the humans. They were different. They were beasts who had fought with the humans before. They had to be killed.
Now the beast people were coming quietly through the grass, each one looking carefully for edible roots or perhaps some bird eggs or a lizard for food. They were so intent on their search that they did not pick up the scent of the humans, crouched behind the trees. Quickly, at his command, the humans surrounded the beasts-who-looked-human, the fists bearing their axes raised. Sharpened sticks were raised in defiance.
Then, before he could give the command to strike, he happened to look into the eyes of one of the beast people. He saw there the same hate, the same fear, that he had seen in the eyes of his people -- in the eyes of humans. The eyes into which he looked were strange in color and shape, but they were human eyes. Slowly, he lowered his fist. His people looked questioningly at him and grunted, "Kill? Kill?" But no one moved. Then the stranger in front of him slowly lowered his spear and looked at him. Carefully, deliberately, he dropped his axe to the ground. He held out his hands, palms up. The stranger held his spear level for a moment and tensed his muscles -- then dropped it and held out his hands.
But that would be too late. He had to go farther back.
Nearly 100 million years ago, no humans walked the earth. The dinosaurs ruled the world. The huge 100-foot-long brontosaurus placidly chewed the tops of the trees; the terrible carnivore tyrannosaurus rex, "tyrant lizard king," ran down its prey on its two hind legs like some caricature of a human, tearing apart whatever it caught with teeth like butcher knives.
Humans had not yet evolved. But this human walked along a path in the garden in the shade of the trees, looking for some fruit for a midday meal. He passed one tree in the center of the garden and saw that its fruit was ripe and beautiful -- but of course that tree was out of bounds. He started to walk on.
Suddenly a huge form reared up and stepped out into the open beside that special tree. It was tyrannosaurus rex. The tyrant lizard looked down at the little human, and bent its huge head down, and opened its jaws with those butcher-knife teeth -- and spoke.
"This is a beautiful tree, isn't it?" asked the dinosaur.
"Yes, it is," said the human.
"Mmm -- beautiful fruit, too. Looks as if it's just ripe for picking. If I weren't carnivorous, I'd probably eat some." Then tyrannosaurus paused. "Tell me," it went on, "is it really true that God told you not to eat from any tree of the garden?"
"No," said the human. "Just from this one. 'In the day that you eat of it you shall die.' "
"Uh-huh," said the tyrant. "I see. That's interesting. You know -- I'll bet you wouldn't really die if you ate some of this fruit! That's probably kind of an exaggeration, don't you think?" The human said nothing.
"In fact, probably nothing would happen if you ate some of this fruit. God just wants to be able to give you an order -- any order -- and have you obey it. Kind of to keep you in your place, you know. And so if you did eat -- you'd be just as good as God. It would be like saying you could tell right from wrong yourself, without any arbitrary rules. God wants to keep you toeing the line, but you can make your own decisions."
The man looked at the tree and looked at the beautiful fruit and said, "No." And he started to walk on.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," yelled tyrannosaurus as he loped after the human. It jumped onto the path in front of him.
"Look," said the dinosaur, its voice no longer so friendly. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Maybe you don't understand who I am. I'm the king. I rule this world. Nobody defies me. God can give all the orders he likes, but I'm the one who has the power here. If you know what's good for you, you'll go back and eat some of that fruit!" Then the dinosaur voice, with an effort, became friendly again: "Be reasonable. You're hungry and...."
"No," said the man, and walked on.
"You'll never get away with this," the tyrant screamed after him. "Nobody disobeys the king! I'm not finished with you yet!"
Jesus turned around and smiled grimly, smiled for the first time in forty days. And then he walked forward.
"And the angels waited on him."
Comment
One of the important influences on the development of this story was Charles L. Harness' book, The Paradox Men. (A short version of this was published in 1949 and it appeared as half of one of the old Ace "double novels" in 1955. An updated version with accompanying essays by George Zebrowski and Brian Aldiss and an "Author's Note" was published by Crown in 1984 as Volume 7 in the "Classics of Modern Science Fiction" series.) Here, as global nuclear war begins in the twenty-second century, the death of the mysterious hero Alar plunges him back in time to the beginnings of the human race to change the very nature of human consciousness and the direction of evolution.
But the idea of "recapitulation" is a significant biblical theme, and that is the immediate point of contact with the biblical stories of the temptation of Christ. In Matthew and Luke's versions, Jesus can be seen as "doing over again right" the testing of Israel in the wilderness. In the shorter Marcan story, he seems to go back to the situation of Adam "with the wild beasts" in Eden.
This story sermon was originally published in George L. Murphy, LaVonne Althouse, and Russell Willis' book, Cosmic Witness (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1996), pp.179-183, and is used here, with minor revisions, by permission. I am not an expert on dinosaurs, and a colleague later pointed out to me that the brontosaurus and tyrannosaurus were not contemporaries. But I decided to leave this as it was originally published. (I was actually more interested in the resonance of the "tyrant lizard king" with the serpent of Genesis 3, who is identified in Revelation 12:9 with the dragon who persecutes the people of God and the Messiah.)
Biblical verses that are quoted from in the sermon are, respectively, Mark 1:11; Deuteronomy 32:10; Genesis 2:17; and Mark 1:13.
