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This morning we gather for prayer on the third day of the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature.

We come together to celebrate the gifts of the written word, and to reflect on the ways in which our faith is intertwined with the stories that we tell.

And how, at the heart of all these stories, we find a single, unifying thread:

the great narrative of God’s love for creation,

and the ways in which he continues to write that story in our lives.

In the first lesson we heard of God described as a potter, shaping and moulding the clay of his creation into vessels of his own design.

It is a powerful image of the creative force that lies at the heart of God’s character.

God is not a distant and passive observer of the world;

he is an active participant in its ongoing story.

And just as a potter puts his own skill and creativity

into each vessel that he makes, to create, to craft, the chastise and to caress

so too does God invest himself in the shaping of each and every one of us.

This same theme of God’s creative power is one that runs through much of the literature that we hold dear. Take, for instance, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, who saw in the same act of creation a reflection of God’s creative nature.

In “The Silmarillion”, Tolkien depicts the creation of the world

as a grand symphony, with God as the composer

and all of creation as the instruments through which his music is played.

It is another beautiful image of the way in which God’s creativity infuses every aspect of the world around us.

One of my favourite writers, Flannery O’Connor, saw in the stories that we tell

a way of revealing this divine creativity at work in the world around us.

In her short story “Revelation”, she depicts a woman who,

through a sudden and unexpected moment of grace,

is able to see the beauty and goodness in the people around her,

even those whom she had previously judged and condemned.

An insight that reflects that made by the Gospeller in the second lesson

that God’s Word may be made manifest even in the most unlikely of places.

And a reflection that not   all of the stories that we tell are full of grace and beauty.  In that second lesson, we also heard of God’s willingness to accept even our smallest and meanest words if they are sincerely offered.

Our lives are not always full of grand moments of heroism or great acts of love and often it is in the small and ordinary moments that we are called to live out our faith.

In those moments, it can be easy to feel as though our words and actions are insignificant or unworthy of notice. But God is always at work in the little sentences and paragraphs of our lives.

The great Anglican divine Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Winchester,  once wrote that “God is the great librarian of the world, writing down all that we do, and all that we say, and all that we think.”

And it is true: our lives- in every aspect- are part of a grand narrative that stretches back to the very beginning of time, and that will continue on long after we are gone.

One in which we are not just passive characters;

But in which we are active participants, co-creators with God

in the ongoing work of redemption and renewal.

So, friends as we celebrate great works in this festival of faith and literature,

let us also remember that all our stories are part of God’s story.

And every jot and tittle of our worship

is valued by God, moulded and made by Him,

and will be woven into the great final Chapter of His New Creation.

Amen

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Now let me tell you something that may surprise you!

That brief homily, which I’ve just read word for word was written by robot.

Not by me but by an artificial intelligence engine called ChatGPT.

You might have heard about it on the news.

Perhaps it was a little cliched and a trifle generic but it normally takes me several hours producing such cliché-

the AI took 26 seconds!

I wonder what your reaction to that is?

Do you feel duped, or cheated?  Or short changed?

Or- like my colleagues are you revealed that the Precentor has finally found a way of making himself intelligible!    Or Can God speak anywhere

In truth, I presented my homily in this way this morning

because the ability of AI to substitute for some human activities

and to do so so rapidly

raises so many fascinating questions about literature and faith

and about communication more generally…

Already several major international newspapers have had chat GPT write their leader columns.  I used it this week to write several emails and to compose my anthem notes.  And my intercessions!….

Fine, you might think, but when we’re doing an activity which involves communicating about God ?

or for many people communicating God himself,

what are the implications then? Is this still literature?         Is it still a sermon?

Can the Holy Spirit really communicate the word of God through AI?

What would it say about God

if our own computed creations had been thus animated

As the good Bishop said- “God tells his Story to us in many ways- 

    through prayer, through the counsel of others, through the beauty of creation.

He speaks through Scriptures & even in the prayers of tax collectors.

 However and wherever he speaks- we must cultivate a spirit of discernment-

Learn to recognise God’s voice amidst the many others that clamour for our attention

      committing to listen to his Word and joining our Story with His”.  AMEN