Sermon manuscript:
Lately I’ve spent some free time learning about artificial
intelligence by watching some YouTube videos. Artificial intelligence has made
much progress in the past couple decades. What by now is a long time ago scientists
were able to program a computer that was able to beat a grand master at chess.
A little more recently they were able to do a similar thing with the much more
complicated game of Go. Perhaps you remember watching Jeopardy a few years ago,
when the IBM computer named Watson defeated the most successful human players.
It wasn’t even close. The computer blew away its human opponents.
One of the main reasons why artificial intelligence has
become more powerful is a new technique in programming the computers. Computers
are no longer hard coded with instructions like “if x happens then do y; if y
happens then do z.” Instead the computer is taught almost like you would teach
a human. It is told to “watch this.” Then it is fed millions upon millions of
examples, many lifetimes’ worth of examples, whereby it can make deductions.
Computers are able to process this information more quickly than we can. Neither
do they slumber nor sleep. So they are able to work out an intelligence that
far surpasses our own as the examples I began with have shown.
Thus we might ask, in the words of LBJ: “What hath Man
wrought? And how will Man use his miracles?” The applications seem limitless.
Think of how computers have invaded so much of our lives. Hardly any part has
been left untouched. Artificial intelligence will only increase the power of the
computing that has already been applied. Things will be done much more
efficiently and easily.
So it appears that artificial intelligence is but the latest
step in a long story of progress that we’ve all been taught from our youth. The
way that the story goes is that we have less toil and more free time. We have
less suffering and more pleasure. The standard of living has been raised for
all people.
In the past ditches needed to be dug by ditch diggers. That
was a lot of back breaking work. In the near future, with all the advancements
that have been made, we won’t even have to have the guy in the cab manually
operating the controls. For here’s the thing with all advancements: at first
we’re grateful that the old work has gone away, but soon we get tired of the
new work too. Even though operating an excavator is a whole lot easier than
operating a spade, it still becomes tiresome when you have to do it day in and
day out. So if that too is taken away, then we will be given the freedom to do
those things that we find more enjoyable.
But what then? There is a hole in this optimistic story of
progress. It is always told in such a way where we are all supposed to be fabulously
happy. I’m not so sure about that. Supposedly the people in the past were
wretchedly miserable. We, supposedly, are so much better off than they are. And
in the future people will be happier still. And why? Because we have mechanical
slaves to do the work that we used to do. The future holds out the prospect of
even more and better mechanical slaves. We arrogantly look back at the
relatively slaveless people of times past as almost sub-human.
But this is just a variation of the old Mammon story.
Mammon, the god of wealth, promises that we will be ever so much happier if
only we had a little bit more money. Visions of cars and vacations dance in our
heads. On the other hand, Mammon also threatens. He says that if we don’t have
money then we will have to eat our bread by the sweat of our own brow. Who
wants to do that? So you better do whatever you have to do so that you are
always only increasing your wealth.
This view of life is extremely popular. It dominates how we
talk and what is taught. In school people are educated only with the goal of
making more money. I’m sure that the reason why it is so widespread is because
Mammon’s promises and threats are so compelling. Who, after all, doesn’t like
buying a new car? And who likes doing disagreeable work? Striving after money
and power seems to be the only way that anybody can be happy.
But Jesus
has something to say about this in our Gospel reading today. It certainly is
not his perspective that the only way to be happy is to strive after money and
power. We don’t use the old word for happiness very much in our everyday
speech, so let me translate what he says for you:
Happy are the poor in spirit,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are those who mourn,
because they will be comforted.
Happy are the gentle,
because they will inherit the earth.
Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
because they will be filled.
Happy are the merciful,
because they will receive mercy.
Happy are the pure in heart,
because they will see God.
Happy are the peacemakers,
because they will be called sons of God.
Happy
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are you when people insult
you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of
me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. In fact,
that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Happy are the poor in spirit, not the rich in spirit. Happy
are those who mourn. Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty. What is going
on here? With our hearts and minds that are so thoroughly trained in Mammon’s
dogma, it sounds like Jesus is talking nonsense. Who wants any of these things
that Jesus says are blessings? Since when did any of them do anything for
anybody? And that’s quite right according to the logic of that religion. But
Mammon is not the only god. I know of another one. It is according to the logic
of Jesus’s God that Jesus makes his claims for what happiness is in our Gospel
reading today.
So what is it about this logic of Jesus’s that makes it so
hard for us to compute? Why does it seem so nonsensical? It’s because the
things that Jesus speaks about are things that we are not in control of. Why do
we not want to be poor? Is it not because we are then no longer in control of
what we can have or do? Why do we not want to mourn? Isn’t it because we have
been confronted with something that we cannot change? If we could change it,
then we’d no longer be sad. Why are we afraid to be gentle or meek? Isn’t it
because if we don’t fight for ourselves, then who will? Nobody gives it to you.
You have to take it. Why don’t we want to be hungry and thirsty for
righteousness? Isn’t it because we want to believe that we are good people? Why
do we not want to be merciful? Isn’t it because if we don’t insist on our
rights we will become doormats and everybody will walk all over us? Why don’t
we want to be pure in heart? Isn’t it because lying is the way that we can
manipulate people for our own agenda? Why don’t we want to be peacemakers?
Isn’t it because if we can collect people for our side over and against their
side that we will be more powerful? Why don’t we want to be persecuted? Isn’t
it because we want to live for ourselves? Who wants to suffer for standing up
for anything besides one’s own interests?
In all of these scenarios you see that we are more or less
passive, inactive. We have to wait on someone else besides ourselves to bring
about goodness. That someone else is God. The Psalmist says, “But God is my
king of old. Whatever help that is done upon earth, he does it himself. … He
divides the sea through his power, and breaks the heads of the dragons in the
waters. … He brings fountains and waters out of hard rocks. He dies up mighty
rivers. The day is his and the night is his. He prepared the light and the
sun.”
This Lord God is the one who is believed in. Although you,
the blessed, are rather inactive, God, on the other hand, is active. Though the
relief might tarry through the night, help comes in the morning. God himself
will wipe away every tear from your eye. Therefore you may be content, even
though you are not yet in full possession of the kingdom of heaven that has
been promised to you.
The world’s prince scowls at this talk. He doesn’t like it
at all. He says that all this contentment is quietism. “We must not be content
with our circumstances. We must muster up our strength and burst through them
like a shining star.” He says “If the mighty men of old had been content with
their circumstances, then where would we be? Why, we wouldn’t even have
toilets! How terrible would that be?!”
But if you think about what is really going on here you see
something very strange: People who are content, strangely have to be convinced
that they are not content, so that they may experience the happiness that is being
promised to them. Let me say that again: People who are just fine with their
circumstances have to be convinced that their circumstances are actually
terrible, so that some new circumstances may be sold to them.
This technique is stock in trade for the massive advertising
industry. Content people have to be convinced that what they have is not good
enough so they go out and buy what is supposedly better. Then they’ll be happy.
More importantly, think about the first temptation in the
garden. In order for the devil to shoehorn Eve into his sales pitch he first
had to make her discontent, which she otherwise was. Before the devil started
lying to her, she was content to live according to God’s promises. She was
happy to wait upon his blessings, whatsoever those might be. But the devil
convinced her that God was holding out on her. She didn’t have to wait. If she
ate, then she would be like God. Then she could fix her own problems. It’s as
though he said, “Blessed are those who rely upon themselves, for they will be
like God.”
But we are not very good gods for ourselves. Relying upon
ourselves is like relying upon a broken reed. It harms us rather than helping
us. The Lord God, on the other hand, is good. His mercy endureth forever.
Therefore, we should not be concerned with what we will eat or what we will
drink. Consider the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Do not
become unhappy about tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself. Sufficient for
the day is its own trouble.
On this All Saints’ Day, when the Christians who have gone
before us naturally come to mind, we might consider what has always been the
first and foremost work of all the saints. What always comes first and has
precedence over everything else is faith. And that is what we have been talking
about today.
In what or in whom do you believe? Popular false gods are
all around us. They are all underlings of the devil, whom Paul calls the prince
of this world. Blessed are you who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God, and that there is life in his name. Flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but God himself has. With him as your Lord and your God
you can be sure that yours is the kingdom of heaven, you will be comforted, you
will inherit the earth, you will be filled, you will receive mercy, you will
see God, you will be called children of God. Even if people insult you and
persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for Jesus’s sake,
rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
[Finally, on this All Saints’ Day we remember those whom God
has called to himself this past year: Butch Schroeder, Ken Meyer, Shirley Burco,
Phyllis Hinkel. Blessed be their memory.]
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