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Good morning. It is so good to see you today. It always feels like a family reunion, this first Sunday back after Labor Day, as school gets going, and we all settle back into regular routines; including church—where we see friendly faces and worship our God… and go to a picnic. Don’t miss the picnic!
I do hope you have had a better summer than the guy who wrote today’s Gospel. Sounds like he had some “complicated” family stuff going on; and his home renovation didn’t come together as planned. And we get dragged into it because it’s the Gospel for today.
Actually, that’s okay. At Epiphany we don’t shy away from difficult things. In fact, as a community we’ve learned that the very friction these kinds of texts create can lead us to a place of greater insight.
Here is why I like this text, because I believe in evolution and I believe in Jesus, and I see the two coming together in this passage.
In fact, I think these words of Jesus accelerate us toward an evolutionary upgrade, and were perfectly tuned 2,000 years ago to prepare us for the world we live in right now.
Let me explain. We’ll start with “hating families.” It is a misunderstanding that gets us off on the wrong foot. You see, it turns out the word “hate” is a Semitic idiom that means “to love less.” It is a statement of priority. It is not a statement of feeling. For example in Genesis chapter 29, when Jacob is said to “love Rachel and hate Leah,” it really means Rachel was loved first, and Leah second. This idiom shows up again in Malachi 1, when God is said to “love Jacob and hate Esau:” again, this is about priority not hostility.
What Jesus is saying is that our first priority must be to God. Everything else, family, possessions, even life itself, must fall in behind this priority.
Now why would he say this? Is God that needy and petulant? Not in the least! In fact, I believe Jesus is calling us in this passage to step up the evolutionary ladder.
There’s a guy named Giacomo Rizzolatti of Parma, Italy, who is helpful in explaining what Jesus is getting at here. In 1992 Rizzolatti published the first paper on mirror-neurons, which are neural networks that cause us to imitate those who we look upon.
It’s easy to understand how mirror-neurons gave humanity an evolutionary advantage by creating a tribal adherence that kept individuals safe. Well-honed mirror-neurons were a survival advantage for the child who could read the subtle expressions of adults and know how to act when a saber-tooth tiger wandered into camp.
If Jesus was the Son of God, then he understood mirror-neurons. But his purpose wasn’t to write papers or pass on information. Jesus came to teach us how to live. And more than that, he came to teach us how to live in the world as it is right now.
You see, today we don’t need to read facial nuances to keep us safe from saber-tooth tigers. And yet, those neural pathways remain.
What Jesus is teaching 21st century humanity in today’s Gospel is how our mirror-neurons can keep us safe in a world where chatbots are more a threat than saber-tooth tigers.
Which means we need to think anew about what people see when they look upon our faces.
I was reminded of this facial recognition power this summer as my wife and I were driving from the Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York to Cleveland to see our son. She said something, then I said something, then she said something back, and I nearly lost my mind.
Had one of you been sitting in the car and witnessed this encounter, you would have said: “What was that all about?” “Geez, dude, get a grip.”
But we’ve been together 39 years. There is not a tick, or a swish of the eyelash, or a tilt of the head, or an intonation of the voice that I cannot read. I am a genius savant at reading my dear wife’s face. And she can say the same thing about me.
We have well-grooved mirror-neurons for one another; which is why there are no isolated incidents or one-off comments. Everything has historical data-points. That’s the weight, if not the freight, of real, personal, incarnational relationship.
Jesus understood this, and the necessity of leveraging it to our evolutionary advantage in this era of chatbots. Which is why he said: you must love less your father and mother, your wife and children, your brothers and sisters, and even life itself if you want to be my follower. And again: none of you can be my follower if you do not love less all of your possessions.
What Jesus is saying here to us is: Look at me first. Look at me most. Let your mirror-neurons reflect my love for you, and to all who look upon you. Because that love, that God love is what will chase out the chatbots and keep the children safe.
I read an OpEd in the New York Times recently that claimed 72% of teenagers use chatbots for emotional or mental health support. That’s about 5.2 million young people. Another article claimed that over a third of young people report their conversations with AI “companions” more satisfying than real life discussions. (Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com)
The only face our young people see when they look at a chatbot is their own. That is what it is—a reflection of the user. And that feels easier, if not safe… even safer than looking into the face of people who really love them, who really know them, who really care about them. Because there’s no twitch of the eye, no tilt of the head, no intonation of the voice, no history written on the face.
Chatbots have no mirror-neurons. It’s just our words reflected back to us. All we see in them is ourselves… with flattery.
Because the goal of the creators of the chatbots that roam the savannah of the virtual realm is to create a frictionless society. A world where everything is easy; where nothing stands in the way of a purchase; where relationships are curated; facts fudged; and history manipulated or simply erased.
And that world is anti-incarnational. Jesus saw it coming which is why, 2000 years ago, he gave us the tools to keep our children safe today.
We see how this works through the early adopters who modeled how to mold their mirror-neurons to the person of Jesus.
We call them saints, but really they are people just like you and me. There was Gregory of Nyssa in the 2nd century who wrote: “the heart is transformed by what it gazes upon.” Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century who wrote: “We become what we love.” Catherine of Siena in the 14th century who wrote of Christ as the mirror into which we look and are changed.
Folks called these people saints because when they met them what they read upon their faces was the love of Jesus: not the smirk of a brother, not the eyebrow raise of a father, or the tone of a mother, but first and foremost the love of Jesus, and when that love is the first love, all lesser relationships feel love more completely.
And that love moves us up the evolutionary ladder. That kind of love lightens the weight of historical data-points. That kind of love is sticky, and empowers those who gaze upon it. Even today we gaze back upon Gregory, Augustine, and Catherine to see the love of God.
I’m not saying we need to get rid of technology. I am not a Luddite. I think we should let the machines deal with information and algorithms, so we can focus more on the expression of our souls; so we can wear our souls upon our faces; so we can connect soul to soul with the people around us; so we can be more like Gregory and Augustine and Catherine, rather than Doyt driving to Cleveland.
How do we do that? Well, we spend time looking at Jesus. Here at Epiphany, we curate many different ways for us to do just that. That’s what Sunday worship is all about. We have five services each offering a slightly different way to look upon Jesus.
I lead Bible study every week. Kate is organizing small groups where you can study Jesus in community. We have an Inquirers class. We have a Catechumenate class. We have Sunday morning forums. We have a Theology 400 series. We have pilgrimages. We’re launching the Family Parenting Series that Kate is leading. And we have Service and Outreach, all oriented toward practicing the Jesus way of life.
We don’t do all of this around here because we need to stay busy. We don’t do it just to keep the church going. We do this work because we believe it is critical for fighting back against the anti-incarnational world represented in the chatbot.
I believe we are standing at the edge of an important evolutionary precipice—and in this moment the church, what the church does, what the church teaches, matters more than ever, because what the person of Jesus taught us 2000 years ago remains profoundly relevant today for the well-being of all children.
So, in this world that is complicated, this world that is changing fast, this world where tragedies sneak up on us even when we are doing our best, remember Jesus. Turn to Jesus. Prioritize Jesus. Love Jesus more.
Because to love Jesus more raises all boats. To love Jesus more ensures that there is more love for everything—your father and mother, your wife and children, your brothers and sisters, and maybe even your possessions… and most certainly life itself!
So, I encourage you in this coming year, to turn to Jesus more often than you might otherwise have. Here at church, through the programs we offer, or simply by opening your Bible and reading it, or taking time to pray.
This is where we are at the beginning of the 21st century. We are at an inflection point: a place where we can either own the power of our souls, or be overrun by the speed of information, driven by algorithms that push us into isolation and anxiety.
But God has greater things in mind. And Jesus, turning our faces to Jesus, knowing Jesus, is the way we live into God’s greatest hope for the world: the hope of love. And it all happens right here at your neighborhood church… that is what we are designed to do, to be love-spreading difference makers, which is why we say and you know: the neighborhood church is the hope of the world.