Luke 17.11-19, Jeremiah 29.1, 4-7
Lord, we pray that grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works. Amen.
I. Aliens (the good, the bad, the ugly)
My first memories of aliens were the fictionalized characterizations in cartoons of green colored beings from Mars. It always seemed to be Mars, so much so that we dubbed any creature from outer space as a Martian. I’m not sure why Martians don’t come from Jupiter (I know it is a gaseous planet) so maybe Mercury. We might call them Jupiterians or Mercurites.After cartoons, aliens became part of our culture through Star Trek and Star Wars. In these science fiction epics, we encounter beings that mostly walk like humans, speak odd languages but can always be understood with C3PO type interpreters. It was wonderful to imagine human ingenuity taking us to distant planets using hyperspace and warp speed. In the 1980’s the creative imagination of Hollywood introduced us to a more sophisticated, peace-loving alien named E.T, who we watched this past summer in our Popcorn Theology series, when he visited present day California. No longer were the aliens in the distant future or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. There have been numerous alien visitations, on the screen, that have not been so positive (in respect to the future existence of humans), but there is just never enough imagination to explore all the good, the bad, and the ugly of possible alien existences.
