“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” This is from Psalm 8 verses 1 and 9. David said, “God, you did all of this.” He recognized how our soul longs for God. Our soul has found the living water. When we look into the vast expanse of the night sky, it is natural to feel entirely insignificant. We feel like a tiny grain of sand when looking at the planets and solar systems. However, the Creator of the stars chooses to intimately know, care for, and love us individually. We are small, but we are deeply minded and cared for.
Pastor Jason brought up an interesting question in the sermon – “Will AI replace us?” When I asked Gemini AI about this, it replied that AI does not have a soul. The computer can process data, mimic language, and calculate probabilities, but it lacks soul. It cannot possess an “openness to God”. The ultimate proof of our worth is found in the lengths to which God went to rescue us. Jesus willingly humbled Himself, being made lower for a time like us humans. We are explicitly saved, chosen, and valued, because we are meant for a relationship with God.
I asked Gemini about having a robot pastor. There was an experiment in a Lutheran Church in Germany where the service was generated almost entirely by an AI Chatbot. It was delivered on a large screen above the altar to a church of over 300 people. Yes, the Chatbot could deliver scripture and the message, but the people said the service “had no heart and no soul”. People struggled to connect with the sermon. A robot pastor cannot read the room and notice if people are confused, tearing up, or connecting. A human pastor connects with people after the service. God intimately knows and cares for us individually. We appreciate having a human pastor who can deliver a message to us from God to lift us up, connect with us, and learn how to continue to live our life with God.
Reflections from Deborah Kelly. Share your reflections with deborah@rbcommunity.org and let me know your thoughts.