AI and the Sermon Revisited

About two years ago I wrote a piece on the use of Artificial Intelligence in sermons by preachers.  It was published in the Huron Church News, our diocesan publication, under the title, AI and the Preacher: A stranger in the strange land.  It can be found at https://diohuron.org/news/ai-and-the-preacher-a-stranger-in-the-strange-land.

A few days ago, I was contacted by Matthew Puddister, the editor of the Anglican Journal, the national publication of the Anglican Church of Canada.  He is researching an article on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to write sermons and wanted to interview me for the article.  As a result, I reread the piece that I wrote and reflected on my thoughts and feelings about this issue. 

Two years is a long time in the world of the internet and particularly the world of AI.  At the time of writing the article, I had just started to experiment with AI, using ChatGPT, so it was a brave new world which I was just beginning to explore.  The bottom line for me in my piece was that AI was opening many possibilities for preachers which had great potential to be used and misused.  It provides a too easy way for a busy or even a lazy preacher to turn to for a sermon.  As I noted in the article, “Perhaps if Jesus was to be tempted by Satan today, this would be one of the temptations.” 

Well, what is the situation now two years later – an eternity in AI terms?  It is worming its way into many if not most aspects of our lives.  It is beginning to be used for many occupations and used for many of the tasks which It can do much more efficiently and effectively than humans.  The impact on education is far reaching and an immense challenge to educators.  It is leading to a new industrial revolution at speeds even the most imaginative science fiction writer would have had difficulty imagining. 

With all that, what is happening in the area of preaching and sermon preparation?  Well, I have no doubt it has taken up the place as an integral part of the toolbox of many preachers.  It is something which is too good to be ignored by many preachers.  With that said, how and to what extent should it be used in this sacred endeavor?  Reflecting on this after the incentive of the interview with Matthew Puddister, I am confirmed in my belief that it needs to be used in an ethical manner as would any resource which a preacher might use.  Resources such as biblical commentaries, concordances, dictionaries of biblical terms, which are now available on-line have been and are common resources in sermon preparation.  Publications of sermons by famous or infamous theologians have been available before the development of the printing press.  AI is just another tool which can be used.  However, it needs to be used with caution as AI is apparently known for creating facts and sources.  When such source material is used, it needs to be cited as the source as part of the sermon material. 

Are there any circumstances in which a preacher should use AI to write a sermon?  I won’t say never – rather perhaps hardly ever in my opinion.  There may be circumstances where a preacher has been overwhelmed by other duties – of which a parish priest or minister has many – and there has been literally no time to prepare a sermon.  If AI is used to write the sermon, this should be acknowledged by the preacher.  One downside to this is if this happens too frequently, the preacher runs the risk  of the congregation preferring the AI sermon to the sermons of the preacher (only partially joking). 

The temptation is that AI is so easy to use that it can become the fall-back position and an easy out if the preacher is not feeling particularly creative or inspired and thinks, well, what is the harm as I need to have something inspiring to say to the people in the pews (if the church still uses pews).  However, the sermon needs to be considered a sacred privilege and opportunity to proclaim the word.  The preacher has the responsibility to share his or her understanding of what the scripture is saying with those who hear it.  Using AI may short circuit this and not allow the Word of Holy Scripture to inspire the preacher and to be proclaimed.  The sermon is a sacred opportunity to do just that.  It is too easy for it to be something which is assembled and manufactured. 

In effect, as with many things, we have a spectrum of possibilities.  At one end of that spectrum, we have the, no AI ever position.  Matthew Puddister, in our conversation, mentioned the pledge that is being offered to preachers, The Saint Dunstan Pledge, in which the signatory pledges not to use AI in any way in sermon prep.  I had not heard of this and was able to find the details of it very easily with an AI Google search (score one for AI).  Here is the St. Dunstan Pledge according to AI:

"At no point in the brainstorming, planning, drafting, or writing of my sermons will I use ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, or any other generative AI of any type available to me. I will use my own words. I will quote words written or spoken by other people, not produced by generative AI.”

The other extreme would be to use AI without limitation and without citation.  I believe that in the good Anglican tradition most of us will come down somewhere along that spectrum probably tending to be somewhere in the less  well defined middle.  We can always meet to discuss it as Anglicans are well known for doing.    

It is my hope and prayer that preachers and all Anglicans can seek to be open to the Holy Spirit and be inspired when attempting to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading us today and in the challenging days ahead.  The article is planned to be available in the November edition of the Anglican Journal.  I look forward with anticipation to reading it. 

Bearing One Another’s Burdens

 Recently, I was reading the current copy of our Diocesan Newspaper, The Huron Church News.  I did a double take when I saw what I thought was a picture of me with other clergy in a situation that I didn’t recall.  Then I realized it couldn’t be me as, the person I thought was me, was dressed in bishop’s vestments in a gathering of bishops.  No, it certainly was not me as I don’t have a secret life as a bishop (and don’t have any aspirations to be one).  However, I have one from an occasion in which I played one in a dramatic presentation – my double is on the top left and that's me in the picture on the bottom. 

There is the belief that everyone has a double or a doppelganger somewhere in the world and I guess in my case that is true.  There is also the legend or myth that meeting your doppelganger can bring your bad luck and even death.  I hope that this doesn’t apply to just seeing your doppelganger in a picture.  It hasn’t been a problem so far – knock wood.

This experience brought to mind one of the novels of Charles Williams, Descent into Hell.  In this story, one of the characters, Pauline, was deathly afraid of meeting her doppelganger which she had encountered at various times but had always managed to avoid a direct engagement with.  As these sightings became more frequent, her life become more controlled by the fear of the encounter.  In the story, Peter Stanhope, offers to carry her fear.  Pauline is doubtful of this working; however, she agrees and Stanhope takes and carries this fear on behalf of Pauline in a very concrete, envisioned way.  As a result, Pauline is able to meet her double without the fear which had become so much a part of her life.

In this story, Williams is illustrating his Doctrine of Substituted Love.  The exchange between Stanhope and Pauline is described by Helen Luke:

Peter Stanhope, the poet, offers to carry for Pauline the fear that has tormented her ever since childhood.  He explains to her wondering mind that it is like carrying a bag, a parcel, for someone, for a brief time – but not like carrying the actual person… The essential in such an exchange is that there must be enough real love in both people, so that and exchange is the one helped is willing to let go of his ‘parcel’ as the other is willing to bear it…Carrying someone’s parcel you do not relieve him of responsibility for that parcel and its content; you merely bear the weight of it for a while.  When you carry the burden of someone’s excessive fear or anxiety you do not take away his necessity to suffer, but you give him a chance to face the fact of which he is so desperately afraid…It was precisely because Pauline had been humble enough to accept Stanhope’s offer that, when her moment came, she was willing in her turn to carry, through her imagination, the torment of her ancestor’ fear of the fire.

 To be real love for Williams, “every expression of love is a ‘sacrifice’ of the ego through a simple acceptance of the facts.  A repression of resistance or of hatred is never love.  To speak of partial aspects is always too much or too little, for only the whole is meaningful. “

May you be blessed to carry one another’s burdens on your journey. 

Talk of Love Not Hate

 

I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary
"Do you hate mankind for what they done to you?"
He said, "Talk of love not hate, things to do - it's getting late.
I've so little time and I'm only passing through."
Passing through, passing through.
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue,
glad that I ran into you.
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

These lyrics by Leonard Cohen came to mind as I was reading an article in our Diocesan newspaper, The Huron Church News.  The article, A brighter Spiritual awareness, by Rev. Jim Innis, noted a signboard he had seen in London which read, “May Love Always Be Stronger Than Hate.”   This is a value and understanding that is deeply needed in these times, and possibly every time since people began to walk on this earth.

However, as St, Leonard (the saint of song as I fondly think of him) states in his song Passing Through, it seems to be getting late and the need to speak of love seems all the more urgent that we not only speak of love but live out love as we pass though this time we have on earth. 

When I think about loving versus hating it can seem that hating seems to be easier to do than loving.  Can it be that it is more natural to hate others than to love them?  It is natural to find scapegoats for the things that are wrong in this world.  Rene Girard developed a scapegoat theory of how this mechanism has been at work in the world for time immemorial.  We unconsciously can collectively find an innocent victim or victims to carry the guilt for the sins of the world.  Individually, we can find ourselves consumer with hatred for someone who’s only crime is to be different than us – different in behaviour or appearance or even their attitudes and beliefs.  We can think of the strong negative emotions - okay let’s just call it hate – for people who may refuse to be vaccinated against COVID or against officials who are setting rules that appear to force people to be vaccinated against their will. 

 

It seems much easier to hate these people than love them, but is that actually the case?  Theologians and philosophers have proclaimed that love is the foundation on which the universe rests and is bound together.  Jesus Christ based his understanding of the Kingdom of God on love being the ruling principle.  He proclaimed that the commandment could be summed up in love, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

You might suppose that this was a commandment because it was not something which came naturally to people.  Therefore, we had to be commanded to do and be loving despite ourselves.  However, that is not the case.  When we consider all that love has inspired in the world – great art and poetry, love sonnets and romantic novels, and the accounts of the love between people, we know that love is a great force in this world.  IS love stronger than hate as the hope expressed in the billboard?  I have to believe it is despite some of the signs to the contrary.  Love can choose us and we can be swept off our feet and lose ourselves in the depths of love but we can also choose love.  This choice was addressed by -Br. David Vryhof of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, “Why would we choose to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us? Because that is the way of God. God never stops loving, never stops blessing. Only God’s love abiding in us can love in this way, only God’s strength at work in our weakness can make us God-like in our words and actions.”

So, let’s talk of love not hate as the song proposes and let us all choose love and not hate.  After all there are things to do and it is getting late on our journey. 

Blessings. 

Breakfast with the Bikers

Something a bit different this week.  Below is my article published by our Diocesan Newspaper, The Huron Church News.  The article can be found on-line at https://diohuron.org/breakfast-with-the-bikers/

Bikers’ Breakfast – what in heaven’s name is a Bikers’ Breakfast?  Well, I found out a few weeks ago at St. John the Evangelist Church in Strathroy.  Let me assure you it is not a case of a bike gang such as the Hell’s Angels arriving in town raising hell in the local hang out during the breakfast hour.  It is not even the modern Christian version of Daniel in the Lions’ Den with the bikers on the menu.  This Bikers’ Breakfast was a most civilized and enjoyable experience that the most sedate Anglican would approve of (and that is saying a lot).  No bikers or even non-bikers were harmed during the event.

I found my introduction to the monthly Bikers’ Breakfast at St. John’s to be a most entertaining and educational event.  Actually, the Bikers’ Breakfast, which began in September 2018, is the brain child of Greg McNair, one of the Lay Readers at St. John’s, and was enthusiastically embraced by St. John’s as a form of outreach to the community.  As Greg noted “There are no other breakfasts quite like this with guest speakers and with a religious flavour that I know of.”  The bikers come from the Strathroy area but I wouldn’t be surprised if this expands geographically-wise as the word spreads.  You wouldn’t know it by looking at Greg but he is a biker, or perhaps I should say, a rider of motorcycles.  Greg’s current ride is a 2003 Honda GoldWing.  However, the breakfast is open to all and you don’t have to be a biker to partake of the food and activities. 

The breakfast itself is the work of a team of enthusiastic volunteers comprised of six or seven parishioners headed by Lyn Charlton.  The menu this month was a wonderfully tasty version of French Toast which was enthusiastically and summarily devoured by all present.   The cost of the food is covered by a $7.00 donation from those in attendance and the honorarium for the speaker is covered by a Jubilee Grant.

In addition to the great breakfast, the event was, as I noted, also educational.  Each month there is a guest speaker who usually speaks on a motor cycle theme.  The breakfast I attended had speaker Cal Zavitz, the senior road captain for the Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers, Strathroy chapter 021, covering the safety protocols for riding in groups.  Now, this is something that motor cycle gangs (e.g. Hell’s Angels) probably don’t worry about – but that may be prejudice on my part.  However, group riding, when done properly and safely, is much more involved than the non-biker realizes.  There are rules and lots of do’s and don’ts, and even a whole series of hand signals that are a match for a high Anglican worship service.  There are designated positions (perhaps the equivalent to the presider and sub-deacon) including Road Captains who are in charge of the route and leading the way and tail-gunners who bring up the rear to ensure that no lamb goes astray.

In all there are 12 general rules which you could say are the group bikers’ version of the Ten Commandments.  The procession of bikers in the group is every bit as formal as any Anglican procession (and we Anglicans are known for our processions).  For example, the organized groups must be 100% alcohol free (rule #3 – unlike Anglicans who believe that Jesus was using actual wine at the Last Supper.)  There are also some very sensible rules for comfort as well as safety such as #12; Please ensure you have a full tank (of gas) and an empty bladder when you show up for group rides. 

Finally, there are a series of hand signals which are used to communicate to all the bikers on the group ride.  You have the usual ones that you might remember from riding the other kind of bikes (those with peddles) such as left turn i.e. the left arm extended out to the left.  But there are also ones I have never encountered before such as Emergency Stop which involves tapping the top of the helmet with a closed fist.  

All in all, I was very impressed with the planning and organization that goes into a group ride when done properly to ensure the safety of those involved and the motoring public in general.  The Bikers’ Breakfast is a great way to engage the church with the broader community and Greg and the other parishioners of St. John’s are to be commended on a great idea well executed.

An All-Embracing Perfection

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in (Leonard Cohen)

In his most recent column in the January edition of Huron Church News, the Rev. Jim Innes closes his column, Goof Bravely: the joy of making mistakes, with the above quote from Leonard Cohen.  I was most please to see this reference by a fellow priest who happens to be the Rector of the congregation I attend.

This quote is my favourite lyric from my favourite song writer (I have been and remain an unapologetic Leonard Cohen fan most of my life—which is a long time indeed).  It is from his song Anthem which was in his album The Future released in 1992.  These few lines reveal a depth of wisdom that has resonated with me ever since I heard it.  It also cracks open a challenge I have had (and still do); that is the desire for perfection. That is also a challenge which plagues many people.  It may surprise those of you who know me that I have what might be described as a perfection complex. 

I had not consciously thought of myself as a perfectionist as I did not strive to do many things in my life perfectly, as I believed that perfectionists engaged the world.  They, I believed, would spend endless time and countless energy to ensure that whatever they did was perfect.  I did not attempt to engage in things that I believed would require me to be a perfectionist.  This is true for instance in things that required me to do work with my hands such as woodwork.  I knew it was not possible and I therefore did not undertake them. There are many other aspects of life that I probably avoided in part because I knew I could not do them perfectly.    

In his column, Rev. Jim addresses this problem very well.  He notes that, “The fear of making mistakes will lead us to some terrible consequences, or that making mistakes is a sign of weakness or incompetence.”  This approach to perfection is enabled and even made worse by Christianity.  As Jim notes, “This guilt driven life sentence can unfortunately find validation in our Christian churches”. 

Christian theology tells us to strive for perfection.  For example, the Gospel of Matthew 5: 48 is traditionally translated as ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’.  This seems to contradict much of Jesus’s teaching which, for example, is addressed to the crowd not to stone the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus said only the one without sin could cast the first stone knowing that they (and we) are all sinful and need repentance.  An alternative translation to the passage is proposed by Neil Douglas-Klotz in his book A Prayer for the Cosmos.  The author looks at the original Aramaic, Jesus native language, and translates the passage, “Be all-embracing, as you heavenly Father is all-embracing.” 

This passage and similar ones direct Christians to seek perfection and the understanding of God, as all good.  I could not reconcile them with my understanding of humanity as creatures of God, created in the image of God.  This new translation reconciled that dichotomy for me and brought my desire for perfection into a conscious awareness. 

This understanding enables me to reconcile these passages.  We are to seek wholeness not perfection.  We need the cracks in our lives.  That is how the light comes in; Hallelujah (but that is another Leonard Cohen song and another story). 

I will close with a quote from Richard Rohr:

One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. Our experiences of ordinary life will transform us if we are willing to experience them fully. This is quite different than much of religion’s emphasis on being pure, perfect, or correct to find God. Jesus stands religion on its head! In fact, some historians of religion claim that Jesus proclaimed the end of religion. (Of course, we quickly undid this mistake!)  Richard Rohr Daily Meditation January 13, 2017

A Time of Spiritual Renewal in Huron

As reported in the Huron Church News (June 2016), in her address to Synod Bishop Linda Nicholls declared that there are no “quick fixes” for our diocese or the church.  She declared that, “We do need spiritual wisdom and revelation.  My prayer is that God will provide that wisdom as we come to know him as we pay attention to our own spiritual lives”.

To put this in action Bishop Linda encouraged each person in the room and by implication every Anglican in Huron, “to commit to one new way of deepening your knowledge of Christ this year!”  Bishop Linda suggested ways of doing this such as joining a bible study, participating in an Education for Ministry group, and going on retreat.  Bishop Linda also suggested that people find a spiritual director.  It is my experience that many people in Huron are not familiar with spiritual directors and spiritual direction.  I thought it would be helpful to some readers to provide an introduction to the practice of spiritual direction which I hope will encourage people to explore this spiritual practice as a way of enhancing their experience of God.

First I will share with you a bit about my background which is relevant.  I am an Anglican priest in Huron who retired from full-time parish ministry a few years ago.  I am a graduate of the spiritual direction program offered by the Haden Institute through the Mount Carmel Spirituality Centre in Niagara Falls completing the program in 2013.  Through the auspices of the Rev. Canon Todd Townshend, Dean of Theology at Huron University College and working with Rev. Canon Greg Smith, Director of Field Education, Worship, Community & Formation I have been offering spiritual direction to students in the faculty of theology beginning first as part of training and continuing once I completed the program.  I also work with lay and ordained people outside the Huron College context.

With that let me give you some information about spiritual direction and spiritual directors. A spiritual director is somewhat misnamed as a spiritual director doesn’t actually direct. It is the Holy Spirit—the third person in the room who directs the session.  A spiritual director is a companion on your journey as you deepen your relationship with God.  Here are some of the things which a spiritual director/companion may help you with on you journey:

·         Identify and trust your own experiences of God recognizing God’s unending love for you

·                        Acting with continued integrity and participation in your religious tradition

·                         Integrate spirituality into your daily life

·                         Discern and then make difficult choices

·                         Share your hopes,  your struggles and your losses

·                         Develop a sensitivity for justice and the concerns for the poor and compassion for those you               meet in everyday life

Most important thing in your journey is LOVE.  The spiritual companion can help you to understand and appreciate how the love of God in Jesus Christ can be recognized mire fully and shared with others. 

As St. Paul tells us there are many members but one body.  Each of us will have different ways in which we are open to the Holy Spirit. A spiritual companion can help you to identify the ways in which God through the Holy Spirit is active in your life and how you can be open to deepening and expanding your experience of the divine.   Blessings of you journey.