Friday, August 26, 2011

An Unprofitable Servant

Paul begins the letter to the Romans with an interesting introduction. There is more going on here in Romans 1:1 than we might think. By knowing a bit about what went on in that time in that part of the world, we find some interesting things about Paul's view of his role as a servant in the work of the Lord and about our own relationship to Deity. By understanding better where we stand in relation to God, we are better able to understand what God wants of us and what he expects us to be.

Paul announces himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. The word he uses for servant is the Greek doulus. I am told that if you or I were Greek scholars and were translating this, we would be tempted to translate it as “slave” instead of servant. Certainly the servants in the Roman world were very close to what we would call slaves.

Paul was a Roman citizen and as such a high ranking member of society. He voluntarily identifies himself as a servant – one of the lowest classes in society. He wants to make a strong point about the gospel and our relationship to God. By submitting ourselves to Him we become his servants. We must do His will. Masters in the Roman world had life and death power over servants.

We Are His Servants Because:

  1. We voluntarily submit to His will. This is a renewal of our pre-mortal covenant to come into this world and to do the “will of the Father.” He sent us to “Prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God will command them.” [Abraham 3:25] So obedience is the ultimate test. We renewed our commitment to obey when we were baptized. I see a similitude of this as missionaries are called on their missions. They ask for and receive a call to go to a certain mission. They return a letter to the the Prophet accepting the mission call on the terms offered – laying aside “every other concern.” They send back a letter which answers affirmatively the questions, “Will you always obey all mission rules?”

    Then the Prophet, through their priesthood leaders, approves entering the temple, where they, like us, make additional covenants -- including, among other things, obedience. Here we have three witnesses to our willingness to obey; pre-mortally, at baptism and in the temple. Some of the most treasured of scripture affirms the Savior's understanding of the importance of obedience.


And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. [Mark 26:39]

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; [Hebrews 5:8-9]

Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning. [3 Nephi 11:10-11]

The Savior accomplished all He did through obedience to the Father and became the author of salvation. Similarly, we are saved by faithful obedience.

  1. We are His servants because we are bought with a price. We are owned by him.

Servants or slaves are not owed anything by their masters. They are owned and kept and they owe their masters their works. So we work for God without any expectation of earning a nything. We cannot earn our way to heaven. We have nothing to bargain with because we are already owned. And we already owe all we have. We can never repay [Mosiah 2:24] and we are always unprofitable servants.

Any gift from the master is by grace, not works. Hence we are saved by grace, not by works. Work we must, because it is our duty as bondsmen. Paul understood this and so did his readers In Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, etc. they knew as servants of Christ they were obligated to serve Him with all their hearts. Paul's point is that this is not enough to save us. Mercy and grace come to us through faith – after all we can do.

  1. We are his servants because He created us. Our physical creation is more than a single event. We owe our physical lives to the Savior not for just the creation of our bodies some time in the past. We owe him our ongoing existence. “In Him we live and move and have our being,” says Paul. [Acts 17:28] King Benjamin says that God “has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another . . .” [Mosiah 2:21].


So the upshot is we are threefold his. By creation, by redemption and by our voluntarily accepting him as our master. Jus as in Paul's day, the servant is sustained in life by the master and therefore owes all. We can earn nothing. We cannot be exalted by our works, because we can never overcome the debt which grows each day. King Benjamin explains it this way [Mosiah 2:20-25 paraphrased.]

If we serve with our whole souls we are still unprofitable, because it is only through Him that we have the power to do anything. But yet, if we do “any good thing,” He immediately blesses us and we remain yet in His debt. All he requires of us is that we keep His commandments – but yet we have not earned but are blessed by grace, because He is gracious.

So then, what do we have to offer? We offer ourselves, but we have done that already and we execute that promise so imperfectly that he gave His life for us so our shortcomings in keeping that promise could be expiated. He has given us something which He does not claim and will not take back from us, and that is our agency. We can offer that back to Him in all humility. Which then brings us back to obedience.

There is one other thing we can offer Him. We can offer Him others. We can bring others to Him, by thrusting in our sickles with our might. In doing so, we “Lay up in store that we perish not, but bring salvation to our souls.” [D&C 4:4]

Behold, I say unto you that it is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might— Lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, proclaiming the truth according to the revelations and commandments which I have given you. And thus, if ye are faithful ye shall be laden with many sheaves, and crowned with honor, and glory, and immortality, and eternal life. [D&C 75:3-5].

And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen. [D&C 16:6]

So, in the continuing saga of learning while serving, we look at serving as the key to drawing closer to the throne of grace. Finally, Paul tells Timothy that by teaching in the kingdom he will both save himself, and them that hear him. [1 Timothy 4:16]

Magnifying the High Priests Group

A talk to be given in the Annual Stake High Priest Quorum Meeting, 8/27/2011

The calling of the High Priest Group Leader and his assistants is a great calling! There is much opportunity to do good in this calling, but . . . .

Let’s step back just a minute and comment on callings in general. There are two kinds of callings in the church [my thoughts, not doctrine of any kind]. There are those which have a lot of work “wired” to them. In other words, the work comes to you. A good example is a counselor in the Bishopric. They have constant duties, callings to issue, meetings to attend, requests for temple interviews, youth interviews, etc etc. You stay busy or buried in that calling – sometimes both!

The second type of calling is where you have a lot of latitude to define the work and the workload. The High Councilor has much discretion in what he does and can make his calling larger or smaller based on how proactive he wants to be in his assignments. The high priest group leadership is much the same way. There is little which marches in the door, but much possibility for good in these callings.

This is reminiscent of the parable of the talents. It is very clear to me that I was not called just to maintain the status quo. How will I invest the talent which is the HP Group so I can return it with interest when called upon to report my stewardship?

This is not an easy question to answer – and I sruggle with it all the time. No question about it: knowing what to do takes energy and investment. How you answer this question in your own life and in your HP Group is up to you. I can give some examples perhaps, but there is NO PROGRAMMATIC ANSWER to this question.

So how do we go about answering this question, i.e., how do we go about magnifying our stewardship? Let’s take a brief and broad look at our stewardship:

  1. People and Families assigned to us
  2. Family History
  3. Temple Preparation and Activity
  4. Membership in the Ward Council, which is the major council for planning and implementing ward initiatives and activities [Not the Bishopric]. {We need to be better aware of the role of the Ward Council as the Brethren are defining it and instructing us. See the Red GHI}

In response, our group has had a lot of fun and we have worked on the sociality in our grup and ward. A few of our initiatives have included the following:

  1. Under the auspices of the Ward Council, we have instituted a monthly Gospel Study evening and date night. This has resulted in some excellent and stimulating presentations on gospel topics and some time for social interaction as well.
  2. Held two workshops on Family Search Indexing, teaching in a hands-on way how to participate in this wonderful initiative. We set and easily met a goal of 10,000 names for the ward.
  3. Again, under the direction of the Ward Council, we have organized and taught several Temple Preparation Seminars.
  4. Last week we spearheaded a social where ward members brought foods from various countries throughout the world – including lands of their ancestry or lands of their ancestry. In addition, display tables of items from these countries were set up by members, and many delightful conversations were held between members who have not had many opportunities to interact. We also covered a map of the world with different colored pins, denoting temples we have visited, countries where family members have served missions and places of ancestral origin. We also had a table where people could learn Indexing or sit with a family history consultant and see how New Family Search works. One youth found 23 names which he was able to make temple-ready! We emphasized the world-wide nature of the church and the many cultures represented in our own ward – and got a better sense of others and the wonderful things they bring to the enterprise we call the restored church!
  5. We assist the Family History folks with a monthly “come-as-you-are” genealogy help session, where members get one-on-one help with their research or whatever they need.

You will not find all these things in your handbooks. You and I are agents unto ourselves and can, through our efforts, bring to pass much righteousness. But these are not things you should go do in your ward. Each of us needs to discover what our people need and be responsive to it. What does the Lord have in store for our people?

The Boy Prophet Joseph came out the grove and went to his home. There he spoke to his mother, saying, “Mother, I have learned for myself . . . “ [Joseph Smith 1:20]

Having a stewardship does not mean we have a to-do list which we can check off and then be done. Having a stewardship means constant attention to our area of responsibility and finding out for ourselves what is need to magnify our stewardship and the talent we have been given.