Svithe: The Parable of the Bay Bridge

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And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

Romans 11:5-6

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

James 2:17

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

2 Nephi 25:23

Today in sacrament meeting we had a trio of excellent talks based around that final scripture, and the reconciliation of grace and works. All three were excellent, but I have to say the description of grace as being omnipresent in Creation and the basic truth of our relationship with God is most likely to be most helpful to me.

To sum it up (since I have been told this will not appear online and thus I cannot link to it) is that God always offers grace and we either choose to accept it or reject Him. sorry I can't be more eloquent. I should have taken notes.

Anyway, today's svithe is also about grace and, I think, offers some help in reconciling what sometimes seem to be opposing viewpoints in scripture. I'm going back to the idea of grace being what saves us from our sins etc etc and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves etc etc.

Like most folk, upon first hearing of the Parable of the Bicycle I was quite taken with it. But over time I've grown dissatisfied. Given enough time, the little girl could indeed have bought the bike. A better one even.

So I've come up with this as a stopgap parable:

FOR BEHOLD, works is like unto three bucks. And when I man haveth it he can take his car across the Bay and into San Francisco. Not because the bucks can accomplish such a marvelous task, nor could it ever, nor could a man with three million times that amount drive his car across that great expanse.

For that can only be accomplished with the big Bay Bridge, which no man can build by himself.

Grace is like unto that bridge. It is great and it is mighty and it bringeth the man's car into the City, something no man can do by himself.

last week's svithe