At one time in a pre-scientific age many subscribed to the idea of a "3-decker Universe." Heaven was a realm beyond the upper firmament, which being sky blue indicated a body of water above the earthly realm. Beyond this membrane of water existed heaven, the abode of the gods or God. The topology of this realm varied from culture to culture, religion to religion but it was essentially unreachable. The earth formed the second layer, invariably flat with the abyss beyond the edge of the known world and lying at the centre of the Universe. Underneath the earth lay the third layer, its volcanic, seismic and dark character indicating Sheol, Hades, the Underworld or Hell. Here departed souls faded away, lay imprisoned or suffered in torment.

All this has changed forever, first with Copernicus who dislodged earth from the centre of things, Galileo, Newton and Kepler who described the true nature of the heavens and then at the turn of this century the seismologist Richard Oldham mapped out the earth’s crust, mantle and core. Since then we have learned from Hubble, Hoyle and others that we live on an unremarkable planet around a fairly average star on the rim of one of millions of galaxies that constitute our known Universe, of which there may be several if not many more. All this knowledge must change how we believe in God and Christ Himself. These changes in no way threaten the biblical witness and the Church’s teaching; they reinforce it.

If our notion of God has got rather "provincial" then the Scriptures paint quite a different picture. God is the Lord of the whole Universe, not just the earth. Christ came to gather all things heavenly and earthly together in Himself, expressing that unity and fullness in His Body, the Church. It is Ephesians especially that we have this exalted picture of Christ the Lord of the Universe, the Pantokrator who unites the whole Universe to God in Himself. Again in these references, note the use of the term "fullness," both in relation to time and space. The Incarnation touches on both dimensional realities:-

"… He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all." [1:22-23]

So, our Lord who is the King of the Cosmos came down to this earth, in this solar system, in this galaxy, in this Universe in the form of the most highly developed creature that His hand-guided evolutionary process had created, Man. He came from this exalted infinity to this lowly finitude out of sheer love, to lift humanity out of death into the fullness of his divine life. We are therefore called to a witness not just before our peers on this earth but outward and onward to the stars, preaching the same gospel.

I have no doubt that in the next Millennium we shall make first contact with many alien species. I suspect that when we do make that first contact and when we share with our heavenly visitors the gospel that we have received, our message will not be entirely surprising to them or unheard of. Maybe they will have already had a divine visitation from the Word in their own creaturely form. Maybe they with us will be part of one even greater Church that recognises the Light that enlightens not only all men but also all sentient life. I am quite excited about that prospect although I shall not probably live to see it.

A poet called Alice Meynell has captured this vision well in her poem: "Christ in the Universe."

With this ambiguous earth
His dealings have been told us. These abide:
The signal to a maid, the human birth,
The lesson, and the young Man crucified.

But not a star of all
The innumerable host of stars has heard
How He administered this terrestrial ball.
Our race have kept their Lord's entrusted Word.

Of His earth-visiting feet
None knows the secret, cherished, perilous,
The terrible, shamefast, frightened, whispered, sweet,
Heart-shattering secret of His way with us.

No planet knows that this
Our wayside planet, carrying land and wave,
Love and life multiplied, and pain and bliss,
Bears, as chief treasure, one forsaken grave.

Nor, in our little day,
May His devices with the heavens he guessed,
His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way,
Or His bestowals there, be manifest.

But, in the eternities,
Doubtless we shall compare together, hear
A million alien gospels, in what guise
He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.

Oh be prepared, my soul!
To read the inconceivable, to scan
The infinite forms of God those stars unroll
When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.