John 1:1-5
July 7, 2024
When Brent and I decided to make our
big trip to Greece and Portugal, we also started doing our research – mainly on
Portugal. In Greece, we have a local connection with my sister. But Lisbon was
much less known to us. So, we watched travel videos about it, and I did
Pinterest searches, and we googled all the recommendations for the things you
must do in Lisbon. One of the sights that is a must see is the Monument to the
Discoveries in Belem, which is the neighborhood that borders one end of the
city. And Belem is the port at the Tagus River where the great Portuguese
explorers like Vasco de Gama departed from on their voyages of discovery.
The discoveries are a huge part of
Portuguese history. The scale of this monument to them reflects that. It is a
large stone sculpture of a Caravel, the ship that allowed the Portuguese
mariners to cross the Atlantic Ocean. There are stone depictions of historical
figures on either side of the Caravel, all leading up to the main one, Prince
Henry the Navigator. Others like de Gama and Magellan are represented, as well
as others who were vital to the discoveries.
Now, as I understand it, for many
generations Portuguese sailors were only able to sail along the coastline
because they didn’t have the ships or the navigational abilities that could
handle the Atlantic. The Atlantic Ocean was the great unknown. Who knew how far
it went or how deep were its waters? Who knew the dangers that awaited in that
great unknown? To say that it was a great risk to sail out into its depths was
an understatement. We learned that in trying to find the right ship that could
take on the Atlantic, at least 70 ships and their large crews were sent out and
never heard from again. To lose that many ships, maybe many more, was a
tremendous cost in lives, in materials, and in hope.
However, with the advent of ships
like the Caravel and innovations in navigational technology like the astrolabe,
that helped sailors chart their path by following the stars, the Portuguese
were able to cross the Atlantic. They were able to sail further and longer and
map new trade routes, and they cornered the market on spices and other riches
from distant lands. It made Portugal rich, and they were a mighty empire in the
15th and 16th centuries. Of course there is a fallout to
this. Because on the other side of those leading these discoveries were
peoples, cultures, and civilizations, who didn’t know they needed to be
discovered. They had been in existence for thousands of years too, so why did
they need to be discovered? They were already there. The reality is that the discoveries
opened the door for slavery, colonization, exploitation of indigenous peoples
and their lands. I read once that our technology is always farther along than
our wisdom to know how to use it. I’m pretty sure this was in reference to the
technology of this century and the last, but it seems to me that it rings true
for every human innovation since figuring out how to start fire and realizing
that a circle that rolls moves things faster. And it would be true of the
discoveries as well.
So, here we are at, maybe not the
dawn of new technology, but certainly in the early days of this technology
known as artificial intelligence. Before I go any further, I need to make a
full discloser. In trying to decide how I would structure a sermon series about
faith and artificial intelligence – from now on known as AI – I used AI to get
started. You may not realize this, but if you have Microsoft you have access to
AI. Microsoft has Copilot, your everyday AI companion. All you have to do is
pull up Copilot, type in a question or key words, and it will generate an
answer. I ran my questions about this sermon series several different times
using different keywords. Copilot gave me some possible outlines, which got me
thinking, and then I put the outline together that I wanted to work with. I sat
and read through a variety of scripture passages, played around with themes for
each Sunday, etc. etc. My point in telling you this is that while AI gave me a
creative nudge, I did the preparation and the theological legwork myself.
I emphasize this, because one of the
ethical landmines of AI is that it does the work that people are supposed to
do. I have a good friend who teaches at Belmont, and she told me that they not
only have to check students’ work for plagiarism, but teachers also must check
to see that it wasn’t written by AI. And now, she told me recently, they have
to check to see that a student’s parent has not tried to “help them” by taking
the student’s work and using AI to clean it up.
AI
is everywhere, more than most of us realize. So, what is it exactly? Here is one
definition of AI that I found from Techopedia.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the
development, deployment, and maintenance of computational systems that can
replicate certain types of human intelligence. Currently, this aspect of computer
science is focused on creating algorithms and
programming machine
learning (ML) models that can analyze
vast amounts of data to gain insights and make data-driven decisions
autonomously.
And then there is also generative
AI, which according to Merriam Webster “is a computer tool that can create text
that sounds like it was written by a human, based on a given starting point.”
This is all heady stuff, but what
does it mean for us? What does it mean for the church? What does it mean for our
faith? Is the advancement of AI really that big of a deal when it comes to our
faith, except that we want to make sure Pastor Amy isn’t using AI to write her
sermons for her? Which, on my honor, I did not. I mean technology is with us to
stay. We learned very quickly at the onset of the pandemic that keeping going
as a church meant using technology – whether it was the weekly church emails to
keep everyone informed about protocols to zoom meetings for session and for
bible studies to broadcasting our services on Facebook and YouTube, a practice
that will continue. And most of the time it’s great to have powerful computers
in the palm of our hands. When you’re in a foreign city and you’re trying to
navigate from one site to the next, it's reassuring to have a GPS program literally
at your fingertips that can help you do just that.
But I keep going back to that
statement I referenced earlier. Our technology is always more advanced than our
wisdom to use it. This was true for the technology that powered the discoveries
and it’s true for the technology of AI. It may be helpful to have technology
that can simulate human intelligence, but do we have the wisdom to know how to
use it?
It seems to me that one reality of
human existence is that we are not necessarily born with humility. That’s
something that we have to learn, most often in the hardest of ways. One of the
overarching themes of scripture is that the people of God kept thinking they
knew better than God. It got them kicked out of the garden, it got them stuck
wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, it got them sent into exile. It’s not
just that humans have a hard time listening and trusting God, it’s that we
think we know better. We may not consciously think that, but our actions speak
volumes. And it’s not that I think God created us to be mindless drones, just
following along blindly. We were created with minds that think and given the
gift of reason and free will. God created us with the ability to choose. But
God also created us for relationship, with God and with one another. God
created out of love. And all that we do, say, and learn should be to build up
that love, that relationship.
That is the knowledge that comes
from God, and I think that is the Word that John’s gospel is referring to. In
the beginning was the Word, the logos of God. The logos of God is the knowledge
of God, the wisdom of God, the creative spark of God, the love of God, the
breath of God. The Word of God was at the beginning of creation. This is John’s
version of the creation story. I don’t believe he was trying to rewrite
Genesis, but I do suspect that he was trying to add to the depth of what
creation was and is. In the beginning was the Word – it was the fullness of
God’s wisdom and love for all creation, including us humans, despite our lack
of humility, our lack of trust, our lack of understanding. God loves us in
spite of ourselves, so God the Word, wisdom and knowledge, put on flesh and
came to live among us, for our salvation and to show us what it means to be
fully human, truly human.
As I said earlier, one aspect of
being human is that we’re not necessarily born understanding that knowledge
requires humility. I’m all for intellectual pursuits, I love learning, and
increasing our knowledge. And I’m not opposed to technology. It can help human
life in so many ways. But I have to go back to the knowledge that I possess –
or think that I possess – versus the knowledge of God. I have to return to the
God that knows me and, I think, longs to be known by me. I don’t think God
wants us to not use our minds, our brains, our intellects. But I also think God
wants us to understand that with all we know, we’ll never know all. I think God
wants us to approach knowledge with humility. When Paul wrote about knowledge
puffing up, he was talking specifically about food sacrificed for idols, but
his point about thinking that we know better than others, especially that we
know better than God, can be extended to many subjects – including AI.
We can know a lot. Our knowledge can
be extensive, but if it isn’t used for the purpose of building up others, of
helping others, of creating a better life for others, than we’re just puffed up
and puffing up. We are not building up. We are not extending the love of God.
We are not sharing the love of Christ.
So, where does this leave us? As a
preaching professor of mine used to ask, what does this mean for us on Tuesday?
I’m not sure I have an answer to that yet. That’s what we’ll be grappling with
over the next few Sundays. But I know that AI is with us to stay, and it is
probably going to be present in more and more aspects of our lives, including
church. So, I hope that I will practice what I preach … that I will approach
this subject with humility and the recognition that with all that I know and
all that I may learn, there is more out there in God’s universe than I can ever
possibly understand. And that’s okay. May we all grow in wisdom and love, and
may we more fully know the God who loves us and longs to be known by us. Thanks
be to God.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Alleluia.”
Amen.
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