Word for the Wanderer

[Transcript excerpt from Word for the Wanderer, Ep. 18, aired June 7, 1998 on KQNM Public Access Channel 14.5. Recorded live from the fellowship basement of Calvary Grace Baptist, Bernalillo County. Minor edits for clarity.]

PASTOR GLENN: Welcome back. You’re listening to Word for the Wanderer, broadcasting from the fellowship hall of Calvary Grace Baptist on channel 14 and a half.

MISS ABBY: Tonight we’re looking at Matthew nine. Jesus walking from town to town, healing, teaching, reaching out to folks who needed him.

PASTOR GLENN: No horse, no gold, no entourage. Just the road and his sandals.

MISS ABBY: We’ve got a caller. Line one. Go ahead friend.

TREY: Yo—hey, y’all shut up. I’m on—

Uh, yeah, hi. Thanks. I just... I heard that part about Jesus walking. That always stuck with me. I didn’t finish Sunday school but I remember he didn’t ride nothing, right? Just walked. Lotta walking.

PASTOR GLENN: That’s right. Miles and miles.

TREY: So like, hear me out. Was Jesus kinda like Johnny Appleseed?

MISS ABBY: Oh my.

PASTOR GLENN: Uh… explain what you mean there son.

TREY: Just—okay. Johnny Appleseed, right? Dude walks around with a bag of seeds. No shoes. No house. Just vibes and fruit trees. Helps out towns. Doesn’t ask for anything. Kinda like Jesus, minus the miracles and, you know, the crucifixion.

MISS ABBY: That’s a very… folksy comparison.

TREY: Thank you.

PASTOR GLENN: That wasn’t a compliment.

TREY: Yeah, well. Both of ’em walk. They both leave something behind. Apples. Hope. Stories. Whatever.

MISS ABBY: Jesus was the Son of God. Johnny planted trees.

TREY: Okay but—hang on—what about Paul Bunyan?

PASTOR GLENN: Lord have mercy.

TREY: No seriously. Big guy, axe, blue ox. Doesn’t walk so much but he reshaped the land. Made lakes just dragging that axe behind him. Changed the whole country. I’m just saying. Jesus changed people, Bunyan changed geography. Both left a mark.

MISS ABBY: Paul Bunyan is a lumberjack myth.

TREY: Sure, but he made stuff better, right? Cleared space. Built things. Not with love maybe, but with effort and power and big swings.

PASTOR GLENN: Lotta destruction in that effort, too.

TREY: Yeah but that’s part of change, right? You break the old thing, make space for the new. Bunyan clears a forest, Jesus clears a heart.

I mean… And then there’s John Henry.

MISS ABBY: Oh, no.

TREY: Steel-driving man. Hammer in hand, racing the machine. Died doing it. Just like Jesus. Sort of. Not the same stakes. Still. He died helping folks.

MISS ABBY: That’s not the same.

TREY: I didn’t say same, I said similar. All these guys: Bunyan, Appleseed, John Henry, Jesus. They all walk.

They carry something, they leave something, and then? Poof. Gone.

MISS ABBY: Jesus ascended to heaven.

TREY: Sure, sure. Bunyan just disappears into the woods. Johnny dies somewhere quiet. John Henry drops dead beside the tracks. Jesus floats up. Either way they leave. No hanging around after.

PASTOR GLENN: You think they’re all the same?

TREY: I think they rhyme, anyway. I mean look. Johnny’s got seeds. Bunyan’s got an axe. Henry’s got a hammer. Jesus has the cross. Kinda feels like the same guy, just showing up in different outfits, doing different jobs. You know?

MISS ABBY: That’s not theology.

TREY: It’s not not theology. I mean, come on, it lines up a little. Doesn’t it?

PASTOR GLENN: It’s something. It’s… something.

TREY: Right? So you feel me?

MISS ABBY: I do not.

TREY: Pastor?

PASTOR GLENN: Miss Abby, Trey seems to think the pulpit is a place to be clever.

Son, Galatians 6 says “God is not mocked.” That means don’t come on here mixing up fables and the Son of God like it’s all the same story. It isn’t.

TREY: I mean, I’m just asking questions.

PASTOR GLENN: No, you’re not. You’re playing. Proverbs says a fool finds no pleasure in understanding, only "in airing his own opinion."

TREY: …Huh. Alright then.

—No, he said “It’s something.” That counts. That totally counts, bro.

MISS ABBY: And we’re moving on.

[CLICK—CALL ENDS]

MISS ABBY: We shouldn’t have let that go on.

PASTOR GLENN: Amen to that. This ain’t a playground. And it ain’t a joke.