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This is my fourth and final talk in my first year as a high councilor. The calling itself has been fascinating. I've appreciated being asked to serve in places other than where I live with people other than those I’ve spent the last two decades with. It’s a responsibility without clear guidance, which is exactly what’s made it so compelling and valuable.
Anyway, writing lil talks to give to one congregation or another is a nice bonus. I love writing talks. Each one’s its own set of spiritual and aesthetic challenges. This time I’m speaking to Chinese-speaking members so I’ve broken it up by where I’ll pause for translation. That demands a different grammar and rhythm than I’d usually rely on. But nothing like a limiting form to liberate.
I sent them the draft for translation a couple months ago and now I need to restudy my own words so I’m prepared! When this talk appears in your inboxes (if you’re subscribed to Thubstack), I'll be just about starting. Follow along ex situ!
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When I was on my mission, I received a book from a missionary of another Christian faith.
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The book began by telling the story of creation.
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Just as in the Bible, God created the heavens and the earth, separated the lands from the waters, and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So far, just the same.
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But then the story took a twist I did not expect.
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In their telling, God was completely surprised when our first parents ate the forbidden fruit.
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In their version, God did not see this coming. The very idea that they would eat the fruit had never crossed his mind.
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In a panic, God had to come up with an emergency backup plan.
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And that emergency backup plan is Jesus Christ.
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I have to admit, I did not find this theology persuasive.
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First, I do not believe it’s that easy to surprise God.
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Second, Jesus Christ was, is, and always will be the core element of God’s plan.
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And third, if you believe that this world we live in only exists because Adam and Eve committed sin, that makes sin the creator of our world. And sin did not create our world!
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In Latter-day Saint belief, Jesus, under the direction of his parents, created our world.
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Jesus is our creator.
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But perhaps, sometimes, do we act as if we believe sin is the creator—or controller—of our world?
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The creation of the world was the first great gift, Jesus’s first great act of grace.
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Jesus’s grace is what gave Adam and Eve the freedom to make the brave choice they made.
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Jesus’s atonement is what allows us to recreate ourselves every day in His image.
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Sin is none of these things and I pray we do not give it more power than it deserves.
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But what is sin?
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I recently read the words of a Latter-day Saint that made me think of sin in a new way.
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Sometimes we think of God’s justice as God giving every person what he deserves.
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According to this way of thinking, when we are good, God gives us what is good. When we are bad, God gives us what is bad.
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This means that God deals with us differently because of sin. Sin then controls our relationship with God.
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But this is wrong. God loves us always. As it says in the Bible, no matter how badly things are going for us, God still reaches out his hand. We may grab his hand at any time.
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So if justice is not about giving us what we deserve, what is it?
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According to this man I was reading, God’s law of justice is to give us what we need.
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This world is filled with pain and heartache. We all need something.
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And so, if justice is to give everyone what they need, God’s call to justice can be fulfilled in two ways.
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First, we can accept grace from our Savior, our Healer, our Christ.
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Second, we can provide grace ourselves to our fellow children of God.
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What then is sin?
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Sin would be rejecting the grace God offers us.
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And sin would be refusing to give grace to our brothers and sisters.
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The [Chinese-speaking congregation] is a wonderful place. You are an example to [our ecclesiastical region] because you welcome so many new Saints through the waters of baptism.
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I know many of you here today have been baptized in the last year or so. Congratulations!
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When you were baptized, your sins were washed away as you accepted Jesus’s name and you accepted Jesus’s grace.
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Alma was their teacher. He told them:
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“As ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; …
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“And are willing to mourn with those that mourn; …
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“And comfort those that stand in need of comfort …
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“Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, … [be] baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him … that ye will serve him …”
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And when Alma’s people heard this invitation, “they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed”:
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“This is the desire of our hearts.”
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Brothers and sisters.
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We too have clapped our hands with joy and we have been baptized.
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We too have promised to serve God.
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And how do we serve God?
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We bear one another’s burdens.
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We mourn with those who mourn.
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We comfort those that stand in need of comfort.
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We fulfill God’s law of justice by giving others what they need.
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And they need what I need. And I need what you need.
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We all need the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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Brothers and sisters, I testify that we all need Jesus.
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And I testify that all sin is based in our failure to accept him with our whole hearts.
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When we let Jesus into our heart, he will make us whole.
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I’m reminded of the blind man Jesus met.
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His disciples asked whether the man had been born blind because he had sinned or because his parents had sinned.
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The disciples misunderstood. They thought, perhaps, that sin was a creator.
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But sin is not a creator.
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The man was blind, Jesus explained, not because of sin. He was blind only because it gave him an opportunity to accept grace. And Jesus made the man to see.
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Or consider the ten lepers Jesus met.
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The lepers did nothing wrong. And yet they had gotten leprosy anyway. Is that justice?
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When the lepers saw Jesus, they cried out to him: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
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And Jesus told them to go to the priests and show they were clean.
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Now, only one of the lepers returned to thank Jesus. But Jesus healed them all.
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What is justice?
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It is treating our brothers and sisters as Jesus would treat them.
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Justice is loving everyone.
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Justice is loving everyone fully and equally.
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Justice is giving people what they need.
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This is a hard commandment.
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Sometimes it is hard to love others. Sometimes it is hard to give them what they need.
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This is when we need to accept God’s grace for ourself.
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Only when we are accepting of God’s grace can we deliver his grace unto others.
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This is the great challenge for Christians.
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I remember a conversation I had with Brother [member of the congregation] the first time I met him.
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He had been called as your Sunday School President and my responsibility was to teach him his responsibilities.
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Brother *****, like all of us, knows very little compared to our Heavenly Parents or our Savior Jesus Christ. We are all beginners in the gospel.
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Although I was able to teach him a little about the responsibilities of a Sunday School President, the real value of our conversation was this: We two, brothers in Christ, sat together and offered each other grace.
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****** was very wise at the end of our conversation. He observed that the Spirit of God had been with us.
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He was absolutely right. I had offered ***** grace. He had offered me grace. And the Spirit of God was in the room with us, delivering grace from Jesus Christ.
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This is what we can do for each other.
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When you leave today, remember these things.
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First, God loves you. He loves you.
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Second, God has given us two commandments. He wants us to love him and he wants us to love our neighbor.
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God’s work and glory is to bring about our eternal life.
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We help him in that work by accepting his grace and by granting grace to others.
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This is God’s law of justice: to give us what we need.
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In God’s eyes, we all deserve grace.
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We are all his beloved children.
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We all deserve his love.
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We all deserve to live with him again after this life ends.
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When we took the sacrament today, we remembered that Christ will heal us. And we promised to help us heal each other.
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I love Jesus Christ.
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I love you.
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I hope, every day, I get better and better at loving you and at loving Jesus Christ.
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I am grateful for the grace he gives me.
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And I am grateful for the grace you have given me today through your kind listening.
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In the name of our Healer, the King of Grace, Jesus Christ, amen.
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previous svithe on thutopia and on thubstack
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