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My attendance has been sporadic as of late, but I’m really thankful to have attended today. The lesson was “Help from on High” from the HWH manual.
To start, the teacher, in an amazing expression of authenticity and courage, told the class that he thought about saying ‘no’ to teaching because he didn’t believe in the lesson. But that he decided to fulfill his calling, but hoped that we would help him by participating. This was huge for me – if you’ve seen any of my recent posts, this exact topic has been on my mind a lot.
Then, we had a long discussion about what it means to be “worthy” of help, and the teacher proposed that our church is too hung up on perfection, and that God’s help and spirit are more available to us than we think. Hands shot up, and several members shared quotes or experiences – one guy talked about how people in the scriptures had powerful manifestations in moments of terrible sin (alma the younger)
Teacher said that if we talked about a human the way we talk about the Spirit, it would sound really petty… “Oh, Bro. Jones is so helpful and wonderful – always willing to help, but if you say a swear word, he’ll just storm out of the room and won’t come back until you go beg him to”
Then he started in on the parable of the 10 virgins, and talked about a local LDS production that depicts the 10 virgins in dance, and how the 5 virgin come running to the door after finally filling their lamps only to have Jesus slam the door shut… and how terrible of an image that was. He proposed replacing that parable with the prodigal son, where the father ran out to greet the wayward son as he was returning. He shared that he was involved in an LDS production where he proposed that exact thing (replacing one parable with another), and one of the higher ups shot him down, saying that we shouldn’t put a ‘Protestant gloss’ over the gospel. Teacher said that’s exactly what we NEED is some protestant gloss.
:clap: :clap: Anyhow, the lesson got some tears to well up in me – probably because it’s the first time in forever where I didn’t feel like an alien at Church. Thought I’d share!
Quote:Teacher said that if we talked about a human the way we talk about the Spirit, it would sound really petty… “Oh, Bro. Jones is so helpful and wonderful – always willing to help, but if you say a swear word, he’ll just storm out of the room and won’t come back until you go beg him to”
I never thought about it that way. And it’s weird that we don’t because we always call “him” a personage of spirit.
Wow, wish I could have been there. The lesson in the ward I was in took a totally different direction. SS was quite similar, actually. I love the parable of the two sons (AKA prodigal sons). Was there any discussion of different points of view on the ten virgins? I’m a bit troubled by that one and haven’t studied it out yet. That does sound pretty cool. I love it when the discussion veers off the well worn path, where even the scriptures themselves are called into question. I feel it gets people thinking about how they really view their relationship with god. :thumbup: I suspect your GD teacher would enjoy this BCC post: https://bycommonconsent.com/2013/07/28/area-man-not-sure-he-wants-holy-ghost-coming-around-anymore/ What a wonderful lesson. I am happy you were there to hear it. It also shows there are more heterodox members than we tend to realize.
It would be better if we made the church more of a hospital for sinners, than a hotel for saints. Would not the sinner need Christ even more than the saint? Mormons preoccupation with their version of perfection works for a few, but they never seem to realize how damaging it is to others. Cadence wrote:It would be better if we made the church more of a hospital for sinners, than a hotel for saints. Would not the sinner need Christ even more than the saint? Mormons preoccupation with their version of perfection works for a few, but they never seem to realize how damaging it is to others.
Nice Cadence. A big “LIKE” on that thought.I never seem to be able to find the thread that I think should be titled, “Thought of the day”. I know there is a thread on here like that, but I can’t seem to find it.
It reminds me of hearing about one SP that kept saying, “we need to be more welcoming” and saying over the pulpit in stake conference, “Do I need to put ashtrays in the foyers to get the point home??” I think I might actually really like that SP. Someone saying, “uncircle the damn wagons and start hugging those outside your own group.”
Quote:It would be better if we made the church more of a hospital for sinners, than a hotel for saints.
Yep, if everyone would listen to and model their focus on Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Renlund, for example, this could occur.
This also illustrates the danger of over-simplifying something and categorizing everyone as teaching the same thing. The Church teaches of being a hotel for saints AND it teaches being a hospital for sinners. It all depends on which leader is speaking and what statements are highlighted. “They” generally isn’t as comprehensive as we tend to think or say.
Thanks for sharing, marty. I agree the church does too often become preoccupied with perfection.
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