A Lion Lamb Thank you

 

I'll take a moment to offer thanks to readers through the past couple of weeks (and always!) We were away on Change Islands, Newfoundland, as you might have seen in yesterday's blog. This is a marvellous and remote place of raw beauty at the edge of Canada. 

 When I go away I blog in advance for the days I'll be absent, a challenge when I'm gone for a while. It is work to do so but this is also an opportunity to catch up on subjects that have piqued my interest and I just haven't got around to. 

My Lion Lamb blog will be 20 years old in a couple of weeks and while social media has largely moved on from blogging I continue. I'm fascinated that in a world which has become desacralized in many respects, to our peril I feel, the sacred and holy continue to push up in discourse in nearly every sphere of life, like wildflowers through cracks in pavement. 

I will also offer an apology for not responding to every comment while away because it's frustrating to do so on my phone. In fact, I managed to inadvertently delete one of Roger's observations about Star Trek during this absence and I've done so to others in the past. It wasn't intentional even though Roger is a Habs fan. 

Again, thank you for reading and I'll keep at it for a while, God willing. 

Refuge in the Silence on Change Islands

 

                                  Our refuge is the house  to the upper right of the photo

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to mount Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up."

When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."

Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground

     Exodus 3:1-5 NRSVue 

A week ago today I was sitting on the deck of the 100+ year old house we stay in just about annually on Change Islands, Newfoundland. These islands have a little over a hundred year-round inhabitants and while they are busier in the summer they aren't a tourist destination like the nearby Fogo Island. 

Last Sunday I went outside to sit and ponder in the relatively windless calm, a rarity in Newfoundland. I was almost overwhelmed by the absence of human-made noise which is omnipresent in our world. We are inclined to be up early at home and go out to our deck before the often-time strident hum begins. We hear the dawn chorus and the breeze in surrounding trees. Even still, we may also hear trains being shunted on tracks a kilometre away, or a siren, or air-conditioning units. None of these sounds were evident last week. No one was heading out fishing or cutting grass. 

                                                        A sunset from the deck on Parson's Lane 

                                                     My re-read while on Change Islands this year

Ruth joined me outside last week as I was reading resources for the Feast of Creation in Christ which will be celebrated ecumenically on Tuesday, September 1 or next Sunday. As we looked out on the sea we agreed that the silence, other than the cries of gulls and terns and crows. was an almost palpable presence. There was the profound sense that we were on the "holy ground" of Creation and Creator we hear about in one of this week's lectionary passages. 

There were once four churches on Change Islands but the United Church is now closed as is the Pentecostal building. The tiny "Hanglican" and "Harmy" congregations gather intermittently as their priest and officer is able to include them in the schedule. Last week there was no service on the islands at all so we were a congregation of two, giving thanks for the solitude and beauty. 

We did visit the beautiful old St. Margaret's Anglican while we were there and I opened the 175-year-old King James Version bible to the theme "Living Water" verses for the Feast of Creation from Ezekiel. It seemed appropriate to do so for this "out to pasture pastor".

Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 

 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

Ezekiel 47 9,10,12 NRSVue 

Congratulations to Amy-Jill Levine!

 Dr. Amy-Jill Levine has been elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America. This is an honour and one that took her off guard when she was nominated. Levine is a Jew and the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, in Hartford, Connecticut. She is also professor emerita at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. 

In an article in the National Catholic Register she offers:

"I have been carrying on a love affair with the Catholic Church since I was 7 years old, and that hasn't stopped," Levine said. "It's chaste, and it continues."

Levine said she values the association because its members connect rigorous historical research with theology and pastoral life. Rather than asking only what a biblical passage meant in the world in which it was written, she said, the association's scholars also consider how it has been interpreted through history and how it functions today in churches, classrooms, Bible studies and catechetical programs.

I've led several study groups at Trenton UC based on Levine's books including: Entering the Passion of Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, and Short Stories by Jesus. All of them are remarkable and provided insights from a Jew who has a deep respect for Jesus who was, of course, a Jew.

Kudos to the Association for taking this appropriate ecumenical step 

I hope a hearty "mavel tov" to Amy-Jill Levine is in order! 

The Sox, the Pope, & the Mitre Head

 Pope Leo resides at the Vatican and he is claimed as a beloved Peruvian where he served as bishop. Sometimes I forget that he was raised in the United States although he had taken a quiet but firm "you're not the boss of me" stance with the American president who thinks he's a supreme ruler.

Leo grew up a Chicago White Sox fan and I find it delightful that the baseball team recently honoured his allegiance not with a bobblehead but with what I suppose is a mitre head. After planning to give away 2,500 pope's hats management  distributed 40.000 to the sold-out crowd. Apparently the original plan was to do a papal bobble head (say that three times fast) but the Vatican wasn't thrilled.

The Sox are surprising leaders in what is admittedly a weak division. Divine intervention? 

I think this is fun, but does Leo share that sentiment? My sense is that he enjoyed this and I look forward to hearing about his reaction. 

Anticipating the Feast of Creation in Christ

Creator, you have wonderfully fashioned the heavens and the earth and us in your own image. 

Teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your breath in all creatures that we may be of service in the healing of the earth, 

through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, through whom you breathe all creation into being. Amen.

 In a few days many Christian denominations around the world will enter into the Season of Creation/ Creation Time/ Creationtide. The different terms for this liturgical period from September 1 to October 4 reflect the different approaches to this period, even as the commitment to observing a time of reflection and celebration has grown. 

This year the first day of September or the first Sunday of the month will be observed as the Feast of Creation in Christ as an even broader ecumenical celebration and the United Church of Canada will join in: 

At the 2026 annual meeting of the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), held April 20–21 at the headquarters of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Decatur, Georgia, an ecumenical working group’s vision came to fruition of a new festival celebrating God’s role in Creation in the church calendar. The feast, which would be added to the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), is the fruit of an ecumenical process convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and various Christian world communions in recent years. 

I really like the scripture passages chosen for the three years of the lectionary cycle and the titles given for each of those years. I have included many of these readings in blog entries over the past 20 years:

Year A Holy Trinity, Creator’s many faces 

Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 33:1-9 Colossians 1:15-20 John 1:1-5 

Year B Creator and Creation, Genesis to Revelation 

Genesis 1:1-5 or up to full chapter or Genesis 2:4b-14 Psalm 148 Rev 22:1-5 Mark 1:9-13 

Year C Creator’s economy of abundance and web of relationships 

Job 38:4-11, 39-41 or Isaiah 40:12-17, 21-26 Psalm 104: 1-4, (10-13), 14-24 Romans 8:18-27 Luke 12.22-34

Since the 7th century, September 1 has symbolized the day of God’s creation of the world in the Byzantine tradition and has been the opening feast and "the beginning" of their liturgical year (in a parallel with the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year). 

A series of ecumenical conferences, known as ‘The Assisi Process,’ has explored that rich theological symbolism and the potential of the ‘Feast of Creation in Christ’ to enrich the Christological nature of non-Byzantine liturgical calendars. In short, the feast contains four interrelated themes: (1) Creation as God’s creative act, (2) Creation as Christological mystery, (3) Creation as Trinitarian mystery, and (4) Creation as sacramental and covenantal. 

A Forgiveness Funeral?

 

It was perhaps 30 years ago that evangelical pastor Max Lucado was everywhere. He was and I think still is the pastor of a large congregation but he had a wide influence through his books and speaking engagements, I never read one of those books but through quotes and perhaps an interview I ended up with the sense that he was a person of deep Christian faith who wanted others to share that faith. Today there is so much loony evangelicalism, a lot of it wolfish Christian Nationalism in sheep's clothing that his approach is missed.

I came upon an article from Relevant magazine in which Lucado reflects on forgiveness, strangely a profound Christian tenet rooted in the cross and resurrection that doesn't seem to get much air time these days. We hear more about smacking both cheeks than turning one of them, as Jesus taught. 

Yet through the years I offered study sessions on Forgiveness in a number of congregations and they were generally the best attended groups I led. I often discovered after the formal session was over how deeply participants were struggling with forgiveness, for themselves or in extending it to others. Some were really angry and others were alienated from loved ones. Often individuals felt defeated by the unforgiveness they were experiencing, unable or unwilling to move forward. I have a shelf of really good books on the subject as well as an excellent video series that folks found meaningful. 

Here are a few paragraphs from Lucado's piece. He includes six steps to forgiveness and I've included the last one Mull over what he says and consider whether it rings true for you. I like the notion of a forgiveness funeral. 

he question is not, Did you get hurt? The question is, Are you going to let the hurt harden you? Numb you? Suck up all your joy?

Some people abandon the path of forgiveness because they perceive it to be impossibly steep. And it can be. So, let’s be realistic.. Forgiveness does not pardon the offense, excuse the misdeed, or ignore it. Forgiveness is not necessarily reconciliation. A reestablished relationship with the transgressor is not essential or always even possible. Even more, the phrase “forgive and forget” sets an unreachable standard. Painful memories are not like old clothing. They defy easy shedding. 

Forgiveness is simply the act of changing your attitude toward the offender; it’s moving from a desire to harm toward an openness to be at peace. A step in the direction of forgiveness is a decisive step toward happiness. 

Here is one final idea: 

6. Conduct a funeral. Bury the offense. I don’t mean to bury it in the sense of suppressing it. Nothing is gained by shoving negative emotions into your spirit. But something wonderful is gained by taking the memory, placing it in a casket (a shoebox will suffice), and burying it in the cemetery known as “Moving On with Life.” Take off your hat, cover your heart, and shed one final tear. When the anger surfaces again, just tell yourself, “It’s time to walk boldly into a bright future.”

Forgiveness is the act of applying your undeserved mercy to your undeserved hurts. You didn’t deserve to be hurt, but neither did you deserve to be forgiven. Being the recipient that you are of God’s great grace, does it not make sense to give grace to others? 

Sugar and the Last Supper

 

We have watched two full seasons of the noir series called Sugar about a suave private detective played by Colin Farrell. John Sugar loves classic movies, he wears bespoke suits, and drives a 1966 Corvette Stingray. He's cool and he's an alien. You need to watch the series to find out more about that twist. 

In the second season a villain who should be a good guy sneaks into a hospital to eliminate a drug dealer who is comatose and on a ventilator. These things happen in detective shows. As he moves in for the kill he intones words which were immediately familiar to me because I've used them often in funeral and memorial services. They are from John's gospel: 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

This is not a series containing much or anything else in the way of religion. How many viewers would have a clue they were Jesus in his farewell address to the disciples during the Last Supper? So, why these phrases, here? Who was the writer who decided to throw them into the scene?  I imagine I'll never know. 

What I do know is that religious and spiritual stuff finds its way into a fair amount of popular culture even though we live in an increasingly secular age. Some of it mocks religion or paints it in a negative light. There are also positive uses and some such as this one that are just perplexing. Here for a moment and then gone. 

I recommend Sugar, as an entertaining watch, although I'll refrain from suggesting that it's out of this world. 

Spiritual Neutrality in the Canadian Military

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today offered an article with this headline not long ago: 

Canadian Military Chaplains Can’t Mention God in Public

Adam MacInnis

A new directive bans members of Canada’s military from using religious language at events.

While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks to make US military chaplains more explicitly religious, the Canadian government is heading in the opposite direction as new directives ban chaplains from using religious language at public events.

Released on July 29, the instructions noted that members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) making public remarks at any type of public or semi-public event “shall uphold the principle of state religious and spiritual neutrality by not using words, actions, or symbols that are specific to a particular SFT [Spiritual or Faith Tradition] on the part of the Government of Canada.”

It also instructs chaplains not to offer prayer at official events, including military ceremonies or commemorations. If chaplains are asked to pray at a public event while serving as a representative of the CAF, they are told to instead offer a spiritual reflection without religion-specific language.

This is correct, not something we can take for granted from American sources writing about Canada. This directive has been in the works for a while and met with resistance by lots of people in this country. There have been assurances that this doesn't mean that there won't be chaplains anymore. They will continue to provide worship opportunities and counsel related to faith, and this is important. They'll just be offering spiritually neutral uplift, I suppose. So why bother? And what chaplain of any faith wants to do this? Will respectful repatriation processions such as the one shown above now exclude chaplains?

                                     The first Buddhist chaplain in the Canadian Military

I've had mixed feelings about this change over the past couple of years. I have attended many Remembrance Day services over time where there were specifically Christian prayers and hymns and even homilies. In one community our congregation printed up copies of the hymn sung every year because the crowd tended to mumble through it without the lyrics. It seemed disrespectful not to sing with assurance. 

Still, we know that in our pluralistic society that members of the military and those who gather for events are of different faiths or none. Why should they be expected to endure Christian elements that are often represent theology from another era anyway? 

I would prefer this rather lame neutrality to the exclusive nonsense emanating from the Pentagon these days. Even Roman Catholics are being pushed aside by Hegseth's directives. 

We'll see what happens in the days ahead. 

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL. Stained Glass, Riga CATHEDRAL: Getty Images. Pete Hegseth: AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES.

Created in God's Image

I know next to nothing about Ariana Grande other than that she's famous. I suppose I am aware that she is a hugely popular singer and has been on a world tour. And that the Grammy winner was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the highly successful musical film Wicked. Olay, I'm aware of a bit about her.

I have also seen recent photos of Ariana and thought that she seemed to be shrinking, physically, and appeared almost translucent in her frailty. It turns out that a lot of people have been aware of this and the speculation about her physical and mental health has been huge and intrusive.. 

Now we've been told that Grande will halt her tour and take time away from the public eye, something she says has been in the works for a while. According to a statement: 

Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour. She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny. 

This is the curse that goes with the blessing of fame, isn't it, especially for women? Gain weight and the shamers are on it. Become waif-like and social media lights up. There are performers who decide that they will not be bullied by expectations and are applauded and even idolized. Then they go on the latest weight loss regime and are condemned as sell-outs. 

Mere mortals go through this as well in a culture that is obsessed by body image. We aren't allowed to be satisfied with who we are whether we're young or not so young. There was a piece in the Globe and Mail this past weekend featuring half a dozen women and men who spend thousands of dollars every year to look younger than they are. This, apparently, is newsworthy. 

During my ministry there were members who became physically and mentally unhealthy because of body dysmorphia. One lovely teen developed what was called sports anorexia at that time, running incessantly and losing an alarming amount of weight. There were others who became virtual recluses because of obesity. 

I figure that it's a good plan to be healthy, eating good food and and staying active.  I wonder if there is a greater role for the Christian community to address these issues, affirming that we are all made in the image of God and that we are loved and accepted in our differences? The Seventh Day Adventists are a conservative Christian group who strongly encourage vegetarianism and a healthy lifestyle. I'm not sure that the fare at most United Church meals would be regarded as heart-healthy, but maybe we could learn.

Meanwhile, we can wish Ariana Grande well.  

The Yacht & the Distress Call

He has shown strength with his arm;

    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly;
 he has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty...

   From the Magnifcat, Mary's Song -- Luke 1: 52-56 NRSVue

Did you hear about the small Alaska cruise ship that responded to a stranded vessel a couple of weeks ago? It went around a massive yacht that belongs to billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to effect the rescue. Zuckerberg's $300 million yacht failed to respond despite several calls to do so. 

After the fact a Zuckerberg spokesperson issued a release saying that the billionaire's family wasn't on the yacht at the time and the captain was using a different frequency so didn't receive the distress calls. 

Oh well, that's better.  While there was plenty of criticism about ignoring the law of the sea I didn't see any comments suggesting that a $300 million yacht shouldn't exist in the first place. Certainly this isn't the only one -- remember that the yachts of several Russian oligarchs were seized as the Ukraine was began -- and Amazon's Jeff Bezos has one worth $500 million. But the reality of these enormous fossil fuel guzzling pleasure craft tooling around the oceans is hideous, with or without their owners aboard. 

The disparity between rich and poor continues to grow on our planet, even as climate chaos is making the planet unlivable. No one seems willing to challenge this abomination.

Apparently Zuckerberg has a sprawling compound in Hawaii with multiple homes and a blast proof bunker. What sort of dystopian fantasy world do these people live in? Colonize Mars? Flee to the bunker or yacht? They are ignoring the distress call of this moment thinking they will be protected by their wealth and power. What will be left for them, however rich them may be? 

I like the vision of a peasant girl, Mary the expectant mother of Jesus. much better, although it is not Good News for some.  

Aspiring to Virtue

 

 Virtues are intrinsically practical. They can only exist by being lived out. You can have an internal value and hope it finds expression, but the exciting thing about virtues is the sense that they’re collective and passed down through communities through traditions.

Good Faith Partnership Co-Founder David Barclay

Would you consider yourself a virtuous person? That's a challenging question, perhaps an "aw shucks' question where you would be reluctant to describe yourself as such. 

You might be afraid of what it sometimes called "virtue-signalling" which is associated with hypocrisy: 

he public expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or social conscience or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue:"the act sounded more like virtue signaling than concrete action"

It would be tempting to simply shrug and say that aspiring to be virtuous is old-timey in an age of cynicism and moral ambiguity. But should that stop us from attempting to live by our moral and ethical lights?

The chart of virtues shown above comes from the Virtues of Faith research project which explored virtues valued by six faith groups. Intriguingly honesty is the virtue which showed up in all six traditions. 

I suppose we all far short when it comes to living out our faith virtues b


 It turns out that all faith groups emphasized moral virtues in common. That's good news. My faith assures me that in Christ I am loved, forgiven, and accepted despite my shortcomings and sins. Why wouldn't I do my best to live these virtues as I'm able, by the grace of God. The key findings of the study were these:

• All religious groups had at least three virtues in common in their respective top six selected virtues

• All religious groups had at least three virtues in common in their respective top six selected virtues
• Honesty was the only virtue in the top six across all belief strands
• Members of faith groups placed more emphasis on moral virtues than Humanists/those of no faith

Jewish Mr. Spock?

The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Numbers 6: 24-26

 Were you aware that Mr. Spock, the Vulcan/human officer on the Starship Enterprise was Jewish? Well, Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock in the series and in films grew up Jewish. Nimoy was the child of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Boston where he went to synagogue and witnessed elders using what became his trademark Spock greeting as a symbol of blessing accompanying the verses from Numbers. 

In an interview Nimoy observed:  

'Spock is an alien, wherever he is. Because he's not human. He's not Vulcan. He's half and half — what we used to call a half-breed. ... He's not totally accepted in the Vulcan culture because he's not totally Vulcan. Certainly not totally accepted in the human culture because he's part Vulcan. And that alienation was something I learned in Boston. I knew what it meant to be a member of a minority — and in some cases, an outcast minority. So I understood that aspect of the character, and I think it was helpful in playing him.

In some respects Nimoy was Jew-ish, as one comedian described himself,. His son Adam, now 70, describes himself as a more observant Jew than his late father was. Still, Leonard was a benefactor of Jewish causes including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, a childhood center at Temple Israel of Hollywood and the Susan and Leonard Nimoy Career Center at Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish recovery house in Los Angeles.

It pleased Leonard that the gesture became so popular amongst Trekkies and non-Trekkies and was always willing to explain its origins. 

Live long and prosper!

Are Codfish Sacred?

 

Overlooking Massachusetts House members as they deliberate is the Sacred Cod, hung from the ceiling as a tribute to the state’s fishing industry. The solid-pine Cod has been in position for 232 years, first at the Old State House and then on Beacon Hill.

In years past I may have written about the Sacred Cod which hovers above Massachusetts legislators as they conduct their work. Describing a fish as sacred, and an ugly one at that may seem sacrilegious but it serves as a visual reminder of how important this species was to the regional economy. Iceland is a country that still harvests a lot of cod and while the industry doesn't rival tourism it is important to the economy.

Canada is notorious for allowing what seemed to be an infinite resource be depleted through the mismanagement of the vital cod fishery in Newfoundland. This led to a total closure of the commercial fishery for 30 years from 1992 onward putting tens of thousands out of work. Gradually a limited personal fishery was allowed.

We will return this summer to the outport area of Newfoundland where I served as I began my United Church ministry in 1980. A parishioner, a fisherman, told me then that the codfish collapse was imminent and he was correct. The factory trawler ships from Portugal and the large Canadian ships were scooping up the species in an unsustainable way. The days of a solitary fisher in a punt or dorry were long gone. 

                                                               David Blackwood Cod No.1 1995

Celebrated Newfoundland artist David Blackwood grew up in a fishing community and he appreciated the dark cloud that descended over the province.

I will be asking the fishers I know questions about the decision earlier this year to increase the cod catch quota substantially, opening it to larger vessels. Some scientists and those in the industry are sounding a note of caution given what happened in the past.

We will be able to purchase cod with the resultant chowder, fish cakes, burgers... my mouth is already watering. Hallelujah!

Of course, cod deserve to exist because they are the Creator's creatures and therefore sacred. I've never described them that way when I'm there, but surely it's true. In Cod we trust. 

The Gospel of Trees

 

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” 

Jeremiah 1: 11-12 NRSVue 

Overview of The Gospel of Trees

What is it about trees? These creatures, so vital to our survival, have followed human beings since we first sprung from this earth. The Gospel of Trees is an essay about a wooded landscape where all sorts of limbs move around, a landscape that is at once well-known and wondrous. Church historian Thomas Arentzen wanders through forests, reads poetry, climbs trees, explores leaves of scripture, and revisits the boughs of his own Norwegian childhood. In this learned but also personal journey through history, he meets beings drawn to trees and trees in prayer for other beings. The understory of the book asks, "What is the religion of the more-than-human?"

A few years ago I made the difficult decision to cease posting on my Groundling blog and to continue solely with Lion Lamb. I just couldn't keep up with writing two posts on a regular basis even though I have a passion, even an evangelical zeal, for Creation and Creator. Of course, if you are a longer term reader you'll know that many of my posts reflect who we are as "groundlings" the adamahs" formed of the soil, called to celebrate the goodness of Creation and the joy of following an earthy Jesus.

I am drawn to the book by church historian Thomas Arentzen, pictured above, but I have so many not yet explored already. I love the overview of its contents and perhaps I'll have to be content with the way it has stimulated my imagination once again. In this dystopian age when vast areas of forest are consumed by fire around the planet we may need this discussion more than ever. 

I was able to read a sample of the book online and I appreciate Arentzen's reminder that the word origin for the English words "tree" and "true" and "troth" are the same, meaning faithful. I had never noticed before  that the prophet Jeremiah's first vision is tree related, a pun because the word almond means vigilant. 

Once again I'll note that trees are mentioned more often than any other creature in the bible, other than humans. If scripture and the Creator have a heart for trees, surely we can as well. I'm taking that as gospel. Of course, the Tree of Life is a powerful symbol in different religions. 

I suppose I can be vigilant in reading the trees around me as best I can and treat them with faith-full respect. 

“Rejoice, tree of leafy branches,
under which believers are sheltered …
Rejoice, O wood most blessed!”

Akathist to the Cross, Oikos 7

 

An Artificial Intelligence Pastor?

 

                                        

                                            Justin Lester preaching at a Sunday service in June.

 He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

                                            Ephesians 4: 11-16 NRSVue 

During my very busy years of ministry serving a congregation in Sudbury, Ontario, the chairperson of our Ministry and Personnel Committee advised me, wisely, that I could clone myself and still have enough work for the second person, so I needed to pace myself.  This was true, although he didn't suggest how I was supposed to develop a work/personal life balance when the pastoral needs of a large congregations were often overwhelming. 

Enter Justin Lester, a 30-something pastor in California who has been instrumental in resurrecting am older, staid congregation using technology as his BFF. According to the New York Times: 

 Now the church was using artificial intelligence to answer emails and plan Bible studies. It had doors equipped with facial recognition, podcasts with A.I.-generated biblical figures, and a robot dog named Theo who talked to children and recited sermons.

The latest frontier for this Pastor Tech is the creation of an Artificial Intelligence twin who can "chat" with parishioners and anyone else at any time of the day or night, no appointment necessary:  

Lester cloned his voice and trained his digital twin using almost two million words of his sermons, podcasts, books, text messages and emails. For the last several months, it had been publicly available on his website and Facebook page for online chats or phone calls. It had learned to mimic his bent toward optimism, his obsession with the Green Bay Packers and his casual slang, but it did more than just regurgitate what he had already said. It mapped his thinking onto new conversations to provide advice around the clock for people he’d never met who had questions he’d never been asked.

At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, this creeps me out. What is this guy's trained and accredited skill set to be doing this? Where is the follow-up and the professional accountability? 

 I see the value of AI in many settings, including the church. Son Isaac uses it for practical applications including writing minutes for meetings in this day when no one wants to be a committee secretary. He just makes sure that the chairs agree on content. He employs it for images on Sundays as well.

 I imagine that there are unscrupulous clergy who are using Chat GPT to write sermons, since there is a sorry history of pastor plagarism. 

I have the feeling that Lester may be suffering from an advanced case of Messiah Syndrome, a condition that can be fatal to ministries. There are concerns that AI therapy can either lean toward the wishes of the client or, worse, go rogue and counsel them toward self-harm. Who's to say that this can't happen with priests and pastors? How do we "build up the body of Christ", develop the authentic connective tissue of a healthy congregation through A!? What about those shifting winds of trickery and craftiness and scheming? 

I listened to a CBC Radio The Current interview with deepfake expert Hany Farid who says that if you think you can still spot AI-generated images and video, you're kidding yourself. He went so far as to say that the negatives of social media now outweigh the positives. He's convinced that it's eroding our common bonds and democracy, although he believes we can still fight back. Shouldn't the Christian community be at the forefront of that resistance, or at least of sober second thought, rather that leaping in without serious and prayerful conversation?