February 9th the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, the sermon title is You’re Not Going to Believe This! The scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.
There is recent concern about fake news. Recently, for just a few seconds, I saw something on the internet about the death of Steve Harvey, host of a popular game show on network television. It went away, and I could not make it return–until I left the internet and signed back on. It showed up again, for just a couple of seconds. When I checked, I found that Steve Harvey is still alive.
We have all been duped with “manufactured news,” false statistics, and the like, for many decades. Are you aware that there is a report that Elvis faked his death? Just last week, I read a very credible article, giving evidence to support the claim. Even older is the rumor that JFK survived the assassination attempt and was living in kind of a coma in the top floor of a Dallas hospital.
Such things are not new; but, they gain credibility with the advances of artificial intelligence and the ability to create or alter images with computer programs. And, who of us has not had a Facebook account hacked, followed by someone sending out false information supposedly from us?
Paul had similar problems, especially with the congregation in Corinth. I’ll take a brief look at those and then talk about how ironic it is that people will easily believe the fake news we read on the internet, regardless of the fantastic claims, but at the same time, disregard the stories of simple miracles worked by Jesus–or the wondrous works of God.
That is the essence of Sunday’s sermon.
Blessings your way.
Pastor Michael