The (IL)Logic of Christmas

Today’s message was written by my friend, Rev. Tasha Blackburn.

The other day I was talking with a class about, of all things, how Artificial Intelligence relates to our faith. As we shared together, we started considering what it is that is God’s image within us, the image we read in Genesis that God put in each of us so we could be like him in some way. For generations, one of the answers to that question was knowledge. That we could think and reason and that was what made us like God. But, the longer we talked, the more we agreed that this couldn’t be the answer, at least not entirely. If so, then AI is already far more like God than my “Swiss cheese” brain will ever be!

Then someone in the class came to it—this conclusion: maybe we get closer to who God is by realizing God is not about logic or data. In fact, if anything, God is the opposite of AI. Instead, God is completely illogical. Christmas itself tells us that deep truth. It is completely illogical that God, the creator of the universe—the all-powerful One, the Great I AM—would love this world so much that he would send his only Son, not to condemn the world but to save it. It makes no analytical sense. It will never add up right. It is illogical.

And maybe that is precisely what God placed in each of us—that we too are created to be illogical. Perhaps we are most like God when we love beyond reason, and when we forgive until it is embarrassing, and when we act in ways that will never add up right on a ledger. I don’t know if that is the image of divinity God placed in us, but I hope it is. This Christmas, I really hope it is. Because I know I rely on the mercy and grace and love of a God who, I pray, is completely illogical about me. My prayer this season is that God is completely illogical about all of us.

Let’s pray: Lord God, we thank you. We thank you that you crossed every boundary, reached farther than we can even imagine, and broke every rule to be with us. Thank you for being completely illogical in your love for us. Help us to be illogical in our love for your world. Amen.