Back in the days of Hippies and Free Love I was in the Air Force. I was stationed at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas. During my free time I worked at a Christian half-way house for troubled teens. This is where I met Duane Hutchinson.
Duane was a co-worker/volunteer. He drove a beat up Suburu and I remember him wearing yellow, bell bottom pants; the pants were covered with psychedelic flower designs. He also wore a short sleeve, white, button-down collar shirt and a straw cowboy hat. He was thin as a rail and could not sit still.
His thoughts were as hyper-active as his actions. Talking to him was like having three or four conversations going at once. He was very likeable, enthusiastic, entertaining, and when he left the room you had to catch your breath.
At the time, he was reading a book by Erik von Daniken called Chariots of the Gods. It was a book that purported space travelers visited the Earth in ancient times, gave us technology, possibly mated with us, and may be the basis for many of our religious beliefs.
He came into the room carrying a couple of boxes of donuts. "I'm having a prayer meeting for John Wayne tonight. Can you make it?" he asked me.
"I dunno." I said. "What's wrong with John Wayne?"
"Nothin's wrong with him. We're praying for him to be saved."
"Uh . . . That's good. But why John Wayne. You know, in particular?" I asked, watching him set the donuts out on the side table. He snagged one and ate it in three bites.
"Well, I'm reading this book on ancient astronauts. Did you know Ezekiel was describing a landing spacecraft?" I took the question to be rhetorical. "The author thinks a lot of our religious imagery came from primitives trying to interpret and describe advanced technology."
"Is that so? What about revelation from God?" I wondered.
"That's the beauty of it. Why can't God have created these ancient space travelers, sent them to Earth for what ever reason, and used them to inspire the Old Testament writers? Why would God make us the only ones in the universe?" Duane was straightening a stack of hymnals and looked over his shoulder at me as he asked.
"I dunno . . . but--"
"Can you imagine how popular those ancient astronauts must have been? They were treated like gods! Probably a lot of people thought they were gods. They must have hung on every word those guys said!" he enthused.
"Assuming they spoke a language we understood." I needled him.
"That's my point exactly!" he made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "We can't do it without John Wayne!"
I sat there for several seconds just looking at him. Finally I said, "John Wayne?"
"How else are we going to get the Gospel out?" he asked.
"WHAT are you talking about?"
"The ancient astronauts brought us technology but had trouble communicating. So their message from God came as imperfect revelation. We got things all jumbled up. Then Jesus came to Earth to die for our sins but some people misunderstood His message and they persecuted the early church. But we got the Bible out of it. The Gospel. The Good News. So I was thinking we should combine it all."
"Combine what?" I was afraid to ask.
"We have most of the technology of the ancient astronauts -- so we can communicate with the whole world, right? We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, right? All we need is a voice that everyone will listen to. Somebody bigger than life -- like the ancient astronauts were to our ancestors. Somebody like . . . "
"John Wayne." I finished. After a second I said, "I've never really heard, but I don't think he's a born again Christian. Is he?" I hated my self for asking.
"That's why we're having the prayer meeting tonight. We're going to pray that John Wayne gets saved so that he can spread the Gospel." Duane looked at me while devouring another donut. "So, you coming . . . or what?"
No comments:
Post a Comment