Welcome to the first day of 2025. On the way into the church office this morning to get ready for today’s New Year’s Day worship, I listened to a podcast interview with an executive from an artificial intelligence (AI) company. He said more than once he believes the new year holds much potential. My first thought was, “The potential for what?”
Of course, as someone betting on AI’s success, he noted only positives. He talked about its monumental efficiency relative to almost anything it does. He spoke about how it can reduce human error and increase safety. He mentioned its already incredible strides in the fields of medicine and education.
Frankly, he lost me at education. Actually, he’d already lost me with “much potential.”
It seems to me that the more AI does for us, the lazier we’re likely to become. As this meets with education, why bother learning the essential mechanics of a crucial calculation or digging deep within oneself for the best words in the best order when, in the end, AI can do the mathematics without your understanding or write one’s final paper without your grammatical skill? I know I’ve written in the past that Turnitin, a plagiarism and AI detecting tool, reported that of the two hundred million papers submitted in 2024, twenty-two million were at least 20% AI-created. Six million were over 80% AI-generated. That’s not good. Are we getting dumber and lazier? Maybe. Concerning “much potential,” we could be putting ourselves out of work. With AI’s increased capabilities, human potential may even become irrelevant entirely.
In a more profound sense, everything has potential. But is it good or bad? It was Winston Churchill who said, “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.” Churchill said things like that to inspire and unite his nation for what would be a long and dreadful war against the Nazis. Interestingly, Adolph Hitler said parallel things about potential, ultimately rallying the German people with fiery speeches geared toward similar resilience.
But these were two very different forms of potential being provoked.
I’m sure everyone has an opinion about this kind of stuff. However, it seems Churchill labored to preserve liberty as a universal principle. It may sound somewhat nerdy, but I’ve memorized several of Churchill’s speeches. From what I can tell, he wanted to awaken the nation’s potential for positive moral courage leading to action. He desired to enlist and then prove that potential’s limits during a time when he believed it was needed most. Hitler’s efforts were far different. He tapped into sinister potentials born from entirely different principles, ones that bolstered tyranny’s capacity and fostered unity around a national entitlement fixed on an assumed inherent racial superiority. Overall, his goal wasn’t to defend individual freedoms or lift Germany’s citizens to something better. His goal was to unite in the persecution of others while subjugating everyone and everything else.
I can already tell I’m about to wander into a much longer conversation. I don’t want to do that. And so, to get back on track, I guess what I’m pondering out loud is that 2025, like every year before it, has potential. But as Christians, there’s something fundamental that we already know about potential.
Christians know the world’s potential cannot be separated from human sinfulness. Saint Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Aware of this, as long as we remain in this fallen world, every pursuit—technological, social, political, or even moral—will carry the burden of imperfection. This means that human achievements, no matter how grand or well-intentioned, always bear the possibility of ruin. Human or AI, it doesn’t matter. Humans are sinful. AI was created and is being developed by humans. It may streamline processes and expand our reach, but as a tool held by sin-stained fingers, like everything else, it is forever susceptible to misuse.
In short, Christians know that human potential untethered from godliness goes nowhere. They also know something else Saint Paul said about humans who’ve been grafted to Jesus. By divine inspiration, he assured us that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Unlike the fleeting ambitions of this world, Christian potential is anchored in something other than the human will. It’s not fixed to our abilities, efficiency, or productivity. It’s fixed to something—to someone—eternal.
Christians step into every new year, knowing their greatest potential is found in Christ. They know that to be shaped by His Word and aimed toward all circumstances sustained by His ceaseless love is to rest in His powerful potential. His potential offers a very different answer to the somewhat cynical question, “The potential for what?” The Lord’s potential is strength in the face of adversity, hope when hope appears nowhere to be found, joy amid sadness, and light in a darkened world in need of rescue.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer to start 2025 fixed on Christ’s potential, not my own. Doing so, I expect 2025 will be an outstanding year. Now, as I already mentioned, there’s a New Year’s Day Divine Service this morning at 10:00 AM here at Our Savior. What better way to begin a new year than by receiving from Christ through His Word and Sacrament everything I just described? I hope to see you here. You certainly have the potential.
I’m guessing you’ve heard the saying, “Things are not always as they seem.” Truer statements have been made throughout history. Still, this is one worth remembering, especially now that artificial intelligence (AI) has become so prominent.
Relative to images of people, to gauge their authenticity, I’ve learned to look at the hands. It seems AI has difficulty creating human hands. There was an image of Trump going around not that long ago that seemed quite real. He was on his knees in prayer in a dimly lit church. It was defended as authentic and promoted with the byline, “This is what we want in a president.” Agreed, a praying president would be nice. The only problem is that the man in the picture had twelve fingers. I’ve shaken hands with President Trump. If he had such alien-like hands, I’m sure I would’ve noticed. Although a twelve-fingered, non-woke, pro-life extraterrestrial that affirms two genders, believes in secure borders, promotes religious liberty, and understands Critical Race Theory and Socialism as the devilish ideas they are, well, I might actually vote for such a creature.
I read an article several months ago about how 20 million of the 200 million writing assignments submitted in schools last year were as much as 80% AI-generated. That’s not good, especially since many of the assignments were university and research-level work. With this as education’s trajectory, could it be that, as a society, we’re not progressing but regressing? I wonder how many of those assignments were submitted in Michigan. U.S. News & World Report shared that Michigan is currently number 41 in education in the United States. Florida is number 1. Go figure.
Within the last year, I’ve seen occasional Facebook advertisements for sermon-generating software from a company called SermonAI. I’ve started reporting it to the Facebook overlords as sexually offensive. Why? Because there isn’t a “perverse” option, and when it comes to perverted behavior, a pastor preaching a sermon written by a machine seems pretty weird. Even if the resulting sermon’s content is good, it certainly stirs concerns relative to a pastor’s call. I mean, Jesus didn’t call ChatGPT to stand in His stead and by His command. He called a human man. He called a pastor.
A few weeks back, Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video of Kamala Harris. I half-laughed and half-cried through the whole thing. With a near-perfectly generated voice, the machine said things most already knew to be true. It confessed to knowing about Biden’s cognitive decline for many years, admitting the debate in June as proof the charade was over. It admitted to being a woke DEI candidate, which, technically, Harris already admitted during a sit-down conference conversation in 2017, saying, “We have to stay woke. Like, everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke.”
For clarification, woke means things like accepting that men can get pregnant, that the only way to conquer racism is with more racism, and that it’s reasonable to put people in jail for thought crimes. If you don’t know what thought crimes are, you should look up the term, especially if you have plans to travel to England.
The AI software even mimicked Harris’ word salad tendencies, which are the rambling go-nowhere speech patterns she often falls into during unscripted Q and A sessions. I looked up “word salad” to see if it had any clinical references. It does. It’s sometimes referred to as jargon aphasia, and across multiple sources, it appears to happen for one of three reasons. First, it’s an actual disorder, and the person speaking cannot communicate sensibly. Second, it can result from anxiety medication usage. Third, it’s a narcissistic defense mechanism. People in positions of authority who don’t know what they’re talking about will do it to make their listeners think they do. There’s no question Harris is a top chef when it comes to word salads. I’ll leave it to you to decide which of the three reasons fits.
While you’re deciding, one of my favorite Harris word salads involved an attempt at off-script intellectualism during a speech at Howard University. After some toothy cackling, Harris turned solemn, attempting intellectual eloquence, “So, I think it’s very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders, for us at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future.”
What? That demonstrated genuine cognitive depth akin to a twelve-fingered Trump.
I could go on, showing how this message’s first premise haunts us. Indeed, things are not always as they seem. Knowing this, discernment is necessary. However, to get there, study is required. For example, did Trump really say that there’d be a bloodbath if he didn’t win the forthcoming election in November? Yes, he did. But what did he mean by it? Was he talking about a violent uprising, as the Democrats and media keep insisting, or was he referring specifically to the economy and the effects of certain trade agreements relative to American auto manufacturers? For the proper context, skip the baiting headlines and find the actual speech. You’ll have everything you need to decide.
How about the plot to kidnap Michigan’s Governor Whitmer? Was it really the brainchild of right-wing extremists? Look into it. Having graduated from the FBI Citizen’s Academy in June and experienced first-hand the Bureau’s prejudice against conservatives, I found it interesting that many in the extremist group were actually FBI informants or agents. The others were mostly exonerated. Those who weren’t—the handful who pled guilty—also pled entrapment, insisting they never would have come up with the idea, let alone acted on it, had it not been for the government’s influence. In other words, they were set up. Considering the timeline and its significance, the notably stalwart-against-right-wing extremism, Gretchen Whitmer, was handily re-elected, and both legislative chambers flipped from Republican to Democrat. A massive shift like that hasn’t happened in Michigan since 1983. It seems awfully Reichstag-like. What do I mean by that? Search “Reichstag Fire.” Even the first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article will tell you everything you need to know.
How about the inconceivable idea that Planned Parenthood, as a commercial gimmick, might provide free abortions during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week? “That’s blatantly untrue,” were one friend’s stern online words. “That’s spreading misinformation!” Except, it isn’t. A Planned Parenthood branch—Green Rivers in Saint Louis—announced they’re taking their mobile clinic to Chicago, where they’ll park during the convention. “Here we come, Chicago!” they tweeted joyfully. “Our mobile health clinic will be in the West Loop… Aug 19-20, providing FREE vasectomies & medication abortion. EC [emergency contraception] will also be available for free without an appointment.” The post included a link for online reservations.
How about an easier one—a question that requires no investigation but instead begins with mere sensibility?
Should I trust the science? Should I get this vaccine and take that pill and wear this mask and have that procedure performed simply because the doctors and scientists—the experts—said I should? I wouldn’t even buy shoes without doing some research. I certainly wouldn’t do it simply because the shoe salesman—the product expert—said so.
In all things, investigate, discern, and then act. For Christians, the ultimate motivation for this is faithfulness to and alignment with God’s will. That’s the Bible’s uncomplicated direction. And why? Well, for one, only God truly has our best interest at heart. Therefore, we ought not to prefer above God those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). We ought not to live in alignment with the world in ways that contradict His Word and trade away our eternal future (Mark 8:34-38). We must be “wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil” (Romans 16:19). Indeed, in all things, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Knowing this, we dig deeper. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, King Solomon urged, “The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly” (Proverbs 15:14). Fools post images of 12-fingered Trumps, vehemently arguing the image is real. Hosea insisted, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them” (Hosea 14:9). Saint John warned that Christians ought to test each spirit before believing it (1 John 4:1). Still, people blanketly believe that as an ELCA Lutheran, Tim Walz is a genuine Lutheran Christian. ELCA Lutheranism is more cult than Christian. It is in no way Lutheran. Genuine Lutheranism does not deny God’s Word is inspired, inerrant, and immutable. Genuine Lutheranism does not support nor promote abortion, transgenderism, social causes that fundamentally reject the Gospel while allowing cities to burn, and all the other leftist ideologies Walz and his beloved ELCA endorse.
The writer to the Hebrews described mature Christianity as the kind with “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). Saint Paul reminded the Church in Philippi to pursue the kind of love for God and one another that abounds in “knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:9-10). He said the same thing with fewer words in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, writing, “But test everything; hold fast what is good.”
I’ve already gone on long enough, and I think you get the point. So, how about I close with this?
Things are not always as they seem. Therefore, investigate. Become familiar with the characters’ names and the mechanisms’ histories. Read a transcript on occasion. Watch a congressional hearing. Read a little about the actual differences between LCMS and ELCA Lutheranism. Consider the various details you just can’t get in a two-paragraph article or a 30-second news clip. Finally, make sure you’ve answered your own nagging questions about whatever it is you’re investigating. Those questions may actually be unspoken warnings to keep digging.
When you’re finally ready, act. Put your knowledge to work. I’ve heard it said that knowledge must be put where people will trip over it. The Bible speaks similarly, noting that those who have the Word of God and the knowledge it gives will practice it. Those who do not ultimately deceive themselves in ways that could result in their unfortunate judgment (James 1:22, 2 Peter 2:21-22, Hebrews 10:26-30).
Investigate, discern, and then put your knowledge to work. Start tripping people with knowledge. And not only the identifiable (and beneficial) boundaries of right and wrong, truth and untruth, but also the better facts of sin and grace—namely, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for the world’s rescue. As a Christian who knows stuff, you may only be working part-time if that’s missing from your efforts.
Cruciform Stuff 