Tag: service

The Church’s Greatest Appeal

There are many disagreements among Latter-day Saints. Sitting in on a Sunday lesson in my High Priest’s Group will show just how many topics divide us. We understand a great deal differently from our history, our doctrine, and our priorities. This is normal among any group of people, even when they join together as fellow believers.

The most unifying thing about the church, however, is the service we render to others. Unlike many other denominations, our church is filled with opportunities to serve. It is expected. And it is rendered. Everywhere you turn the members are giving service.

I am not particularly political. The differences between political parties is so little as to not justify enthusiasm for either. However, I watched the evening of Mitt Romney’s acceptance last week. A number of speakers extolled his past service to others. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as parents spoke about the support they received from Bishop Romney for their troubles.

As I listened, it seemed to me this was a description of a typical Mormon Bishop. It can be found in thousands of wards throughout the church. It is an expected part of the calling. And that service and support is rendered willingly, week after week, throughout the church.

From Home Teachers to Visiting Teachers, Relief Society Presidents and Bishops, Elder’s Quorums and Young Women Leaders, there are continual acts of service and support expected and delivered.

It is my view this is the church’s greatest strength and its greatest appeal. We take it for granted. But when behavior which is “normal” for a Mormon Bishop was put on public display, it touched people to the point of tears. We get used to it. We shouldn’t. It is, after all, the pure religion of Christ. (James 1: 22-27.) It is what we do, more than what we say, that matters in practicing our faith.

This should unify us no matter what may divide us.

3 Nephi 13: 1-4

 
“Verily, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.  Therefore, when ye shall do your alms do not sound a trumpet before you, as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.  But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth;  That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.”
 
Giving should be done for it’s own sake, and not for a reward. Recognition for what a person has done is it’s own reward.
 
If this is a larger principle, and the reasoning underlying this applies throughout your service or good acts, then any recognition is your payment. In fact, the only way to reserve for yourself a blessing is to be either anonymous when you do it, or to be reviled, hated or persecuted for it.  Otherwise you have your reward.
 
Applying this to like things it might be said:
 
-When men name buildings after you for your achievements, you have your reward.
 
-When institutions heap awards upon you for your philanthropic acts, you have your reward.
-When they fill an auditorium up with people singing praises and paying tribute to you on your birthday, you have your reward. 
 
-When honorary doctorate degrees are awarded to you for your life’s work, you have your reward.
 
-When the Boy Scouts of America gives you a plaque, a title, and a commendation for your long support of their cause, you have your reward.
 
-When you sit at the head of a congregation, exciting envy from others wishing to hold your position, and are honored with praise, acknowledged as presiding and accepting deference for your status as local, area or regional leader, you may very well have your reward.
 
-If you minister to the downtrodden, the ill and infirm, then recount endlessly to others these acts, do you not “sound a trumpet before you” to be seen of men, and thereby collect your reward? When Christ was called “good,” He rebuked the one rendering praise with the retort: “Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.” (See Luke 18: 18-19.) He would accept their persecution, derision and shame, but discouraged any praise. He accepted Peter’s confession of His status as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” but followed up that confession of faith with the admonition to not speak of it: “Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.” (Matt. 16: 20.)
 
How can His servants exalt themselves to be more than He? How can the Servant’s own servants make themselves greater than He? When the Master came and lived the most common of lives, how can His disciples build monuments named for themselves, tolerate no criticism, accept honor, praise and adulation and expect to be counted as His?
 
How can any man redeem or rescue another? Are not all in need of rescuing by Him who alone can provide deliverance? Acclaim and praise in this life preclude recognition from the Lord in the afterlife. Therefore, only a fool would welcome praise, adulation and recognition for good things done in mortality. Indeed, such recognized deeds are often a veneer covering a malignant character. As a result, the Lord offers a test to prove sincerity: Do it in secret. Do it without notice or praise. Do it not to be seen of men. Do it as an act in private between you and the Lord alone, without any earthly party becoming aware of the deed. Then the beneficiary will indeed give glory to your Father which is in heaven, and not to another man. (See 3 Nephi 12: 16.)
 
This new standard challenges not merely the acts of a person, but also the underlying reasons and intent for any acts that are done. Your conduct is not the measure. It is your heart. For that, it is best if men do not understand you. It is best if they misjudge you, attribute foul motive when motive is pure, ascribe evil to you when you are on the Lord’s errand, and reject you though you are His. Only then can your heart remain true to Him and uncompromised by the praise of your fellow-man.
 
It is this teaching, if followed, that will result in the anonymous acts and unrecognized deeds that exalt a person. It will make you private in your devotions and obscure to your fellow man.

Mosiah 18: 8-10

I was asked why the language of Mosiah 18: 8-10 related to membership in the church, and not to others outside the church.  Here’s my response.
 
These verses are talking about entering into a covenant and becoming “the fold of God.”  (Verse 8.)  This fold will be “called his people.”  (Id.)  The fold, who have this covenant, and who are called His people, are to be “willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.”  (Id.)  The whole passage is relating to the interrelationship between those who are of the covenant, the fold, and who are God’s people as a result of this covenant.  These are the duties owed internally to the fold.
 
It continues to explain that these people should be “willing to mourn with those that mourn.”  (Verse 9.)  The word “those” should be read in the context of the covenant, the fold, the people and the obligation arising from within the group.
 
These verses are church/fold/covenant people related, and govern the obligations which those who come into that fold owe to each other.  It arises out of the covenant of baptism.  (Verse 10.)
 
The obligation owed within the church membership to one another on the one hand does not eliminate other obligations owed to your fellow man.  Indeed, it is one of the chief obligations owed to all humanity to cry repentance and bring others into the fold.  Christ also extended the obligation to care for others without regard to their status, including in His parable of the good Samaritan.  So to say there is one duty owed within the church is not to say there are not other obligations owed to others outside the church.