It happens to all of us. When we are young, we view our elders as reallllllllyyyyy ancient. Out of touch. Close-minded. Judgmental. Cranky, even. The first broken window in our neighbors house from an errant baseball. The teacher who should have retired decades ago. Those elderly ones turning around during church service because you’re making too much noise. “You young whipper-snappers have no respect!” Now here I am, one of those. AARP-eligible. 55+-ers. I catch myself often commenting on younger generations, mostly not in a kind tone. All tethered to their wireless “computers” in the palms of their hands. (In that respect, I can sometimes become one of those!). Don’t we wish we could knock some sense into their heads?!??

I will stop myself short of trotting out a long list of things that make me sad about the world we’ve become. Too tolerant, perhaps? Not insisting on proper courtesy and manners? Not encouraging actual one-on-one human contact? Last evening on “60 Minutes” (CBS, the “old people” channel), there was a story on a subject so disturbing that I don’t know whether to sob or yell. That is: AI. Artificial intelligence. The journalist was interviewing the man credited with creating it. My friends in Christ, I am terrified by the implications. I can’t help but view it as playing God. At the least, we are playing with fire. Even the “inventor” doesn’t know how it will all play out. For all its potential benefits, for instance, in health care, it could portend untold consequences.

I have a gut feeling that if we get to a dystopian point where AI takes over more aspects of our humanity, that might be the straw that breaks God’s back. That may be the final death knell and mark the return of Jesus. I feel that way because I’m becoming one of those older and supposedly wiser ones I dreaded becoming when I was a young’un. I pray that God will check me when I get judgy and cantankerous. Of this we can be sure, my friends: what God ordains is always good. He will let things play out, perhaps even with the direst of consequences. At whatever time that is, He will bring about the end of what we know to be this worldly reality. If we are around, He will give us courage and patience to endure.

Pastor Art