For many of us, “Life on Mars” brings to mind first of all the great TV detective series where Sam, played by John Simm travels back in time to work as a police
officer with the retro, totally un-pc Detective Inspector Gene Hunt, energetically played by Philip Glenister. Or for David Bowie fans, the question he posed in 1973
still rings true; is there life on Mars?
Both the song, and the series that takes its name, are using Mars as a way of describing an utterly different reality, travelling either through time or space. In
1973, the first human footsteps on the moon were only 4 years old and landing on Mars was impossible.
And that men are from Mars was a way of expressing utter incomprehension of supposedly Venusian women.
But the discovery of water on Mars this week makes the planet perhaps less different than we thought………….water flows down the canyons and crater walls during the summer months on Mars, NASA told us this week. Their chief scientist put it succinctly for those of us who are not astronomers: “there is liquid water today on the
surface of Mars”.
Christian religious imagery has long moved away from a pre-modern world view where angels lived in a mirror image of a human court “up there” and mortals lived
“down here”. Ever since photographs have been sent back to us of our own blue planet, we have known that there is no such kingly court just out of reach above our
heads.
But there are plenty of Scriptural descriptions of the universe; imaginative, beautiful language that has God asking Job “were you there when I laid the foundations
of the earth? Where is the dwelling of light and darkness?”. And the apocalyptic Book of Revelation talks of a “new heaven and a new earth”, and a “city that has
no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light”. In these startling images, it’s possible to find words that start to get close to
describing God who for Christians is, in Christ, utterly other and overwhelmingly present not only in our world, which is small, but in all worlds for all time.
The discovery of life on Mars, if it happens, might provide a challenge to some understandings of God incarnate in human beings, but for me, I’m with CS Lewis who, as he often did, found a succinct way to express the totality of the vision of God. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see
it but because by it, I see”.