“A delicate thing…to act in an organized capacity”

I was reading one of the neat talks in the new book At the Pulpit which is a compilation of different talks Latter-day Saint women have given in meetings throughout history. I ran across something that Eliza R. Snow said back in 1869. She said:

It is a delicate thing for us sisters to act in an organized capacity. Our brethren are accustomed to move in organized bodies—we are not, and we need a great deal of the Spirit and wisdom of God to direct us. Although we should meet with difficulties, let us never be discouraged, but move forward in the path of duty, and through the blessing of God and the encouragement of our brethren, we shall surmount every obstacle. (“Let Us Cultivate Ourselves”)

It is hard to imagine a day in the church when the brothers were more accustomed to act in an organized capacity than the sisters. But over time, with practice, through a variety of projects, that ability has come to the sisters as well, and each successive generation has learned from those that came before how to organize and work together in unity.

Why would Eliza R. Snow have called it “a delicate thing” to act in an organized capacity? Perhaps she saw so many ways that things could go wrong. People might step on each others’ toes, people might drop the ball, or try to take over, or criticize the one in charge or cause any number of problems.  She saw delicacy was needed to avoid those errors, errors which could turn potentially turn people off from continuing to organize.

I’m thankful to be part of the Relief Society and for the way it organizes to serve others.

Big problems among the Scribes, as Jesus points out

After Jesus answers some questions meant to entrap him, we get this bit:

45 ¶ Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples,

46 Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;

47 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. (Luke 20:45-47)

What exactly is Jesus saying here?

He’s warning the disciples to beware of the scribes who do certain things. It seems to me He’s not telling the disciples to shun them necessarily, but to beware of becoming like them.

So what exactly is wrong with this behavior, and are there modern equivalents that must be avoided?

They desire to walk in long robes – Long robes are not easy to move in, and they get dirty easy. I get the impression that long robes were a sign of status, and hard work was not done in them. People in long robes don’t gird up their loins to serve others; they are usually the ones being served. The modern equivalent might be people who desire to wear suits all day.

They love greetings in the markets – This seems pretty benign at first. Who doesn’t love to run into friends at the market? The problem, I think, is when it becomes a point of pride, when one preens over one’s connectedness and how all those greetings by all one’s acquaintances lead one to say, “Look how important I am! Everyone knows me and loves me! Even people who don’t know me can see I must be special because of all the people who greet me!” It is hard to focus on others, when others are so focused on you.

They love the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts – High seats in the synagogue are probably leadership seats. They love the best places and aspire to importance and status. They love the visibility more than the opportunity to serve.

They devour widows’ houses – Here’s a sad thing. These scribes will visit widows (thinking they are charitably bestowing their attention and encouraging presence) and then the widows are obligated by the rules of hospitality to feed them a big fancy dinner, so the widows have to spend beyond their means to do it, and of course, those scribes have to do justice to the spread, so they eat it all, and thus the widow is far worse off financially after the scribe’s visit than she was before. The scribe is devouring her house. And she lives at poverty level, anyway, so it is all very bad for her finances. At bottom, this is a lack of awareness of how hospitality is going to affect one’s host. It is inconsiderate, and a lack of charity. If these scribes had any real charity, they would host the widow and not obligate the widow to host them. Or they’d bring a nice big present of grain or something to make up for the burden of their visit.

For a show, they make long prayers – Their prayers aren’t doing them any good if it just a show to impress other people. If there is no real desire or repentance or gratitude behind the words, the prayers mean nothing.

The thing that is the greatest warning is that Jesus says, “the same shall receive the greater damnation.” To me, this is saying these characteristics get disciples more spiritually stuck and stop progression more than some others.

To summarize:

Long robes >> status clothing that precludes service and work

Loving greetings >> status and such connectedness that prevents one from forgetting oneself and focusing on others

Loving high seats and the best rooms at feasts >> obsessed with public shows of status at religious events and gatherings. Preoccupation with position and visibility more than opportunities for service and ministering.

Devouring widow’s houses >> Lack of consideration and charity for those who really need it. Making a show of attention that doesn’t really help and leaves the widow worse off afterward.

Making long prayers for show >> Desire to look holy has overcome any desire to actually be holy.

So, the pattern I see here is that status and show for these scribes has become the most important thing, such that they completely miss the increased opportunities for service and charity and ministering that come with a leadership position. They are stopped in their spiritual progress from becoming more like Christ.

Can we draw any conclusions from what one should do instead?

1)    Wear clothes you can help people in

2)    Focus on others and appreciate the humility of anonymity

3)    Care more for the opportunities to serve than position, status, or visibility

4)    Find ways to give notice and charity without taxing others’ resources to give hospitality

5)    Pray with sincerity

These things tell us that Jesus was strongly aware that if leaders weren’t careful, some of the earthly advantages of status created awful spiritual disadvantages with eternal negative consequences. He wanted His disciples to be aware of those problems and do all they could to avoid those behaviors and attitudes so that their position could be a real blessing to them and to all those around them.

Never could be a people more blessed than they

Here's some verses that caught my attention recently in the Book of Ether:

22 And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain.

23 And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work.

24 And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness.

25 And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash.

26 And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts.

27 And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship.

28 And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it. (Ether 10:22-28)

In these verses is a catalog of the material advantages of the Jaredites at this time under the reign of Lib. I notice that it focuses the attention on the blessings they enjoyed in their industry—metal ore found in mining efforts, and then the different kinds of clothing they could make to clothe themselves, and then on all the types of tools they had. They had tools for agriculture, tools for working their animals, weapons for defending themselves, and they must have had tools for their mining and weaving too.

What this teaches me is that in an industrious society, tools and mechanical ingenuity are great blessings. If we compare our technological society to the Jaredites, we see what additional tools we have--all manner of communication tools, transportation methods, robotic tools, construction tools, medical tools, calculating and problem-solving tools, tools for recreation, musical instruments, even molecular and genetic-manipulation tools.  Improve the tools and life improves for lots of people.

I suppose if we are spiritual, the gifts of the Spirit, revelations, and priesthood will be seen as great blessings as well—plus scriptures, prophets, temples, ordinances, callings, meetings, and all the helps and governments we have in the church.  The increase in blessings is absolutely staggering.

It can truly be said today that never could be a people more blessed than we. Of course, I suppose “never could be” is the rub.  I wonder if over the last 200 years people have thought they at the pinnacle of excellence.   Yet somehow the blessings keep coming. 

For the Jaredites, of course, things didn’t last. Their society fell apart from pride and wickedness and war and secret combinations.  It’s a warning that the same thing could happen today.  The onus is always on people (you and me and all of us) to not mess things up.

History of early Genesis priesthood ordinations

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D&C 107 is a great section about priesthood. I once tried to summarize it down, and it was virtually impossible. Recently I was reading v40-52 and noticed some interesting things I hadn’t seen before.

40 The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made.

41 This order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in the following manner:

42 From Adam to Seth, who was ordained by Adam at the age of sixty-nine years, and was blessed by him three years previous to his (Adam’s) death, and received the promise of God by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth;

43 Because he (Seth) was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age.

44 Enos was ordained at the age of one hundred and thirty-four years and four months, by the hand of Adam.

45 God called upon Cainan in the wilderness in the fortieth year of his age; and he met Adam in journeying to the place Shedolamak. He was eighty-seven years old when he received his ordination.

46 Mahalaleel was four hundred and ninety-six years and seven days old when he was ordained by the hand of Adam, who also blessed him.

47 Jared was two hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam, who also blessed him.

48 Enoch was twenty-five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam; and he was sixty-five and Adam blessed him.

49 And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated.

50 Methuselah was one hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam.

51 Lamech was thirty-two years old when he was ordained under the hand of Seth.

52 Noah was ten years old when he was ordained under the hand of Methuselah. (D&C 107:42-52)

These verses tell us how the priesthood was handed down from father to son, which tells us that ideally it is part of righteous families.

I noticed that the men were ordained at many different ages: 69, 134, 87, 496, 200, 25, 100, 32, 10…. It shows that ordination is not something that comes at a certain age, but with maturity and faithfulness. Today, our church seems to tie it to ages-- 12, 14, 16, 18, but ultimately faithfulness is the deciding factor, as judged by the bishop. (Ordination to elder probably requires an interview with the stake president, but I’m not sure about that. Someone correct me?)

Another thing I notice is that many of those who were ordained in these verses received it from Adam. Adam ordained Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah. It is possible Adam did it because he was the presiding authority at that time and the fathers deferred to him.  (Anyone with additional insight on this may chime in too.)

I also notice little stories about the spirituality of these men. For instance, Seth tried very hard to be just like his father Adam, and he succeeded such that people could only distinguish them by age. Think what that would be like to have a child so carefully copying you. Some things you might not recognize were wrong unless you saw him doing it too, so you’d have to repent pretty quick, lest you lead theme deeper into error.

There’s also a story in v45 about God calling Cainan in the wilderness when he was 40, and he met Adam while journeying to Shedolamak, then was ordained when 87. That story is interesting because it shows us Cainan felt spiritual impressions and obeyed them and evidently felt that meeting Adam was what the Lord wanted him to do. I suppose he progressed over 42 more years to the point that Adam felt he was ready for ordination.  Sometimes divinely orchestrated meetings with a priesthood holder can change the course of our lives, and perhaps this meeting with Adam was one of those.  It also shows it can take time for people to become worthy and ready for the priesthood. But once they are, surely their power is no less valid than any other priesthood holders.  Looked at it that way, Cainan’s story could be an inspiration to men in the church who might be ashamed of not progressing. 

The way these stories are so spare, it makes me wonder what formative spiritual experiences of ours could be distilled down into a verse.

Not up to it yet

And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours. (D&C 78:18)

This is a wonderful scripture to encounter when I am feeling discouraged with my efforts (which are too often pathetic and half-hearted) and how little I can accomplish compared to what I wish I could do.

I ran into it recently when I was much cast down over my own faults and foibles and how I seem to become so easily entangled in them.

“Ye cannot bear all things now”  -- Amen; preach it, Jesus.  I am not ready for the weight of worlds to be placed on my shoulders.

“nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along” – Thank heaven, God hasn’t forsaken me! Even after all the suffering my sins cause Christ, His mercy endures.  I can expect future personal revelation to guide me along the way I should go.  I can expect to grow into my potential by little steps as I exercise my faith.

“The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours” – Yayy! As a Latter-day Saint, I’m still part of the kingdom of God, and I have a share in all those blessings, helps, supports, gifts, ordinances, callings, etc.  All those things are the riches of eternity, intangible things that can’t be physically stolen from me.