Luke 20: 27-38                                                                                                         Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

2 Thess. 2: 1-5, 13-17                                                                                                                November 9, 2025

“So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.”

Prayer: Holy God, please grant us courage in the struggle for justice and peace, and your presence in trial and rejoicing. In Christ we pray, Amen.

I was talking with some folks about AI recently. Of course, you knew that as AI becomes more and more a part of our lives, I would say something about it. One person said quite frankly, “AI is going to make us stupid.” And I get what he means. Because AI can keep us from using our brains. One person said that he heard a person read a beautifully crafted poem that fit an occasion perfectly. But then, he found out that ChatGPT wrote the poem. And all of a sudden, the poem felt hollow. No brain power used.

The third person asked me if I ever used AI to help write my sermons. I shot back faster than a millisecond, “No! Never!” And he said, “Why not?” I said that it felt a little like cheating. And he said, “Cheating? Naaaahhh. It’s just another tool.” He said, “You know, like in your workshop. There’s a time and a place for hand tools, and then there’s a time a place for power tools. AI is a power tool. Just tell Gemini you want an example of this idea, or that situation, and under a second, you have thousands of what you’re looking for.” Hmm… maybe I’ll use AI.

      Perhaps though a bigger concern with AI is that sometimes you don’t know what is real and what isn’t. What is fake and what’s not. I mean I watched a woman news reporter telling us all about AI and how its shaping the way of the future. What’s good and bad about it. And it turns out, she was AI generated! Couldn’t tell. Barb looked at me and said, “That is scary.”

Back in Paul’s day, they didn’t have AI, but they did have false teachers. Some people misunderstood Paul’s words and were sure that Jesus was coming back very soon. Some even stopped working and were just waiting for Christ’s return!

In fact, both 1 and 2 Thessalonians deal extensively with these false teachings about Christ’s return. It was all fake news, said Paul. Don’t buy into the scams. Don’t freak out. Don’t get deceived as if those words came from us. They did not. Besides, Paul believed a bunch of things will happen before Christ’s return.

      But when Christ comes again is not the most important thing. What is most important and what Paul does want them to hang on to is this: That, by listening to and believing the truth of the good news that God chose to give people the gift of saving  grace, everyone can know new life in Christ.

And, that by believing that God wills for people to know that they are made holy (sanctified) by the Spirit, everyone could obtain the glory of Christ, which is the new life that Christ obtained. Paul says, that’s what we’ve taught you in words and in letters. Stand firm in that tradition. Hold fast to that. No matter what.

This is what I’ve been thinking about this past week. These two truths I believe are vital for us to stand firm and hold fast to as well. Because if God intends for everyone to know new life, and to be made holy, then everyone can share in the qualities of this holy, new life. Qualities like welcome, acceptance, justice, fairness, kindness, tolerance, patience, love! You know… all the fruits of the spirit.

I communicated with both of our church members who were candidates in this year’s local elections. While both were defeated, I think during their campaigns, each stood firm and held fast to the values and qualities that our faith calls us to hold on to. Both were a voice for the well-being of our children and our community. And in the final results, I think both, along with their running mates, made a difference in increasing awareness, planting the seeds of God-qualities, and being an instrument that God could use. I commend them. And, there’s still more work to be done.

 I guess I want all of us to feel and understand this—that our faith journeys are not just a matter of saying yes to living in God’s grace, of letting God make us holy, of sharing the fruits of the spirit. Our journeys are also a matter of us saying no, too. Putting up some resistance to what I think our faith calls us to understand are false and/or misleading teachings or messages offered by the loudest voices in our world. It’s a matter of standing firm and holding fast to what Jesus teaches, what God advocates, and what God loves.

So, I’ve been thinking about some of the world’s loudest messages and about our faith messages. Let me throw some out here, and some faith counterpoints to hang on to, and you can think and pray about these.

      ¨ Easy one first. November is here. There’s a chill in the air. The leaves are falling one by one. Trees and shrubs are going into barebones existence. The wind is howling bringing on the onset of winter’s dormancy with longer and darker nights. Feels like death, right?

Stand firm and hold fast to our faith. Just remember that where we see death, God sees life. God says death no longer has a hold on us. That death has no victory here. Our faith says dry bones can live. Death loses its sting when we know death is a part of life. It’s actually a birth. This is across the board.

      ¨ Which leads me to the point of the gospel reading today. Like the Sadducees in Jesus’ day, there are some in our day who say that there is no resurrection. That once our bodies die, it’s like unplugging the lamp. It just goes out. There is no more. Full stop. Total blackness. The end.

But be resilient against that idea. Stand firm. Hold fast to your faith. Just remember what Jesus taught—this is the counterpoint—that God is a God of the living, not of the dead. Which means that God remains in relationship with the living, even though our bodies die. Our identity as people of God stems from God’s divine kinship with us and not on our kinship with others or what we’ve done in this life. It’s all about God’s grace and the living power of God.

     ¨ And speaking of God’s divine kinship with us, there are those who say that you and I are just human beings. Flesh and blood. Water and cells. Nothing more. There is no trace of the Divine spark in any of us.

OK, let’s knock that false narrative off right now. Stand firm. Hold fast. Just remember that Christ became a human being so that we could have his Divinity. That when you look into the face of another person, you are really seeing the Divine spark in that person. And that person can see the Divine spark in you. It’s called being made in the image of God. It’s also called Namaste. The Holy Spirit of God in me, sees the Holy Spirit of God in you. And we are always learning and needing to learn more of what this means in our lives. Learning how to see and treat others. Remember the movie Avatar. One of the best lines in that movie is, “I see you.” Not physically looking at you, but I see who you are, I see you, your inner spirit, I see you and understand where you are.

      ¨  Last one… Of course, we hear the false and misleading messages that empathy is a made-up word. That treating others with empathy and compassion are signs of weakness.

 Refuse to go along with these false messages. Stand firm, hold fast to your faith which says that having empathy and compassion is a way of emulating God having empathy and compassion for us.  Just remember having empathy and compassion are actually modeling resurrection power—bringing possible new life, as best as we can, by acting to alleviate the suffering of the poor, marginalized, and the exploited. It’s expressing divine holy love which can start something new in someone’s heart and life.

      And there are many other messages we hear which we need to defy because we are people of faith. Do not be deceived by these messages people of the world speak. The gospel can put them to shame and to death. So stand firm in the faith of our ancestors. Hold fast to the teachings of Jesus. In death. In life. Because God is our God. And God is the God of the living.

So let us be valiant in following our God. Let us live as people of faith, standing firm. Holding fast in our journeys, as pilgrims. Let us stand and sing. Amen.