My New Calling: Sunday School Lesson Recaps

[Anonymous]

I just spent over 30 minutes typing the lesson summary for today, and I forgot to copy it before I hit Preview. I lost it. 😥

I will try to get it done later tonight, but right now I need to walk away for a little while. :thumbdown:

[Anonymous]

Due to losing my full summary and the need to get this posted tonight, I am writing an outline form summary this time. We talked about each component of the outline below, to various degrees.

The Meaning and Purpose of Modern Commandments, including Things We Often Don’t Call Commandments

– Started by repeating that there are things I see as commandments and things that I see as rules built on commandments – and that the key is determining if there is a way to follow a commandment or a rule and be in compliance with the two great commandments to love God, self and others. Used the earring example from Pres. Hinckley’s talk (where he said explicitly that he was expressing his own opinion) to show how non-commands can morph into being seen as commands by overzealous members.

– Asked students to help me list commandments we hadn’t discussed yet. Final list was: Tithing; Word of Wisdom; Church Involvement (combined phrase by me from “Attend Church” and “Callings in Church”); Share the Gospel; Prayer.

1) Tithing

Meaning = “a tenth” (Stressed that there is no official calculation method – that different members pay on gross, net, “increase”, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, annually, whenever they get money, etc.)

Purpose = from a student: Detachment and humility

Purpose = I added “Fund the Church” (Discussed Old Testament model and modern similarities and differences; discussed exactly what tithing funds and what it doesn’t.)

2) Word of Wisdom

Meaning = Read verse 2; discussed “temporal salvation” (related to time; worldly; temporary)

Purpose = From verses 3-4, protecting the weakest saints from evil and designs of conspiring men (Described scene with men conspiring to market products to increase and spread addiction, to make more money, even while knowing the terrible effects on the consumers who buy the addictive products – planning early death, in many cases, specifically to make money. Used example of people who handed out chewing tobacco to elementary students at the county fair in Alabama when we lived there. Those are evil designs, created through real conspiracy.)

3) Church Involvement

Meaning = participating in the Church organization (Stressed that participation to whatever degree is possible is the standard, and that this standard is not definable to anyone except the individual participants. Thus, “properly involved” might be participation in every scheduled meeting or it might be someone who can’t leave their house but calls or writes letters or knits presents or smiles at everyone they meet. Also discussed, again, my situation in Missouri when we couldn’t attend anything but Sunday meetings and Wednesday activities – and my High Council assignments, due to our financial situation.)

Purpose = Broadening circle of friends to love and accept beyond what is natural (Establishing Zion in a real way, like the orchestra described in Elder Wirthlin’s “Concern for the One” – valuing all instruments instead of just the piccolos.)

Purpose = Running the Church organization and not making 20% of the membership do 80% of the work.

4) Share the Gospel

Meaning = Teaching faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. (Discussed the practical and conceptual difference between “sharing the Gospel” and “doing missionary work”.)

Purpose = Help people return to God and be like Him.

Purpose = Share what is valuable with others. (Discussed young man in class who will be baptized soon and other young man in class who invited him to come to church and learn about the Gospel and the Church. It was a very touching discussion to have a young man say, sincerely, “I asked him because I care about him,” and to have the other young man say, “I am here because I want to be closer to God than I’ve been in the past.“)

Talked about why we don’t have more people in our church meetings who are different than we are in obvious ways – about why we tend to share the Gospel with people who are like us and with whom we are comfortable. Asked them to look outside their normal circle of friends when sharing the Gospel.

5) Pray

Meaning = “talking to God” and/or “communicating with God” (Discussed difference and stressed that everyone prays in whatever way they feel they can communicate with God. Shared that I have no problem having a prayer in my heart always – that I try to have and open heart and mind, to send thoughts and feelings heavenward whenever I have them – but that I struggle with formal, kneeling, spoken prayer. I understand the value of both, but the fact that I am praying continually makes it hard for me to break from that to verbalize formal prayers individually.)

[Anonymous]

The lesson yesterday focused on the meaning and purpose of the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel when viewed as commandments: faith (in the Lord, Jesus Christ); repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

As we have done each week this month, we defined each commandment, talked more in-depth about what each commandment means beyond just a simple definition, and ended with a discussion of the purpose of each one – the “why” of each commandment.

1) Faith

Definition: From Hebrews 11:1 – “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

Meaning: “Substance” means “the actual matter of a thing, as opposed to the appearance or shadow; reality” – or, in the footnote to Hebrews 11:1 from the Greek, “assurance, basis, foundation“. “Evidence” means “indication; manifestation; proof“. Thus, “faith” means the details of that for which someone hopes but can’t see and the indications or proof they see that supports those hopes.

Purpose: We talked about scientific experiments and how they are built on the pattern recorded in Alma 32 and described in Hebrews 11 – how faith is hoping something enough to conduct some kind of experiment in order to gain evidence of some kind that supports the hope. We talked about how diverse such hopes can be, as well as how diverse such evidence can be, but I emphasized that faith disappears when knowledge is found – and how that is much easier in the realm of scientific experiment than spiritual experiment, since spiritual “evidence” can be so subjective and non-reliable in terms of replicability. That’s why spiritual faith must be gained individually – and why individual faith differences need to be accepted, respected and honored.

We talked about Alma 32 and the statement that there are two groups of blessed people: those who are compelled to be humble and those who humble themselves without being compelled. We talked about how that applies to faith, as well. I used Mother Teresa as an example, especially since she said shortly before her death that she had prayed fervently for a special witness from God that he existed and approved of her life and never received it. She said she saw God’s love all around her (seeing evidence for her hope) had not seen the actual object of her hope. I told the students that I don’t know of a better example of faith than Mother Teresa, including those within our own Mormon heritage who I see as equal to her in that regard.

We then discussed how lack of faith (in any area, scientific, spiritual, emotional, inter-personal, etc.) closes minds and stops progress – because such lack stops us from seeking understanding we don’t possess currently or naturally. We talked about faith in the context of statements like, “Study it out in your mind and in your heart,” and, “Seek ye out of the best books . . .” and Joseph Smith’s statement that Mormonism embraces all truth, no matter the source. The purpose of faith isn’t to believe any particular thing; it is to keep our minds and hearts open to learn every true thing. We need to be open to changing understanding / further light and knowledge by always hoping to continue to see evidence for things we can’t see currently.

2) Repentance

Definition: “change”

Meaning: openness to change, in any way that leads us closer to being more Christ-like / godly – We talked about (my own terms) “reactive repentance” – making mistakes and trying to stop doing them – and “proactive repentance” – seeking to develop godly characteristics to become more Christ-like / godly. We talked about the difference between extremely serious and/or habitual sins that require a “steps of repentance” process and, in some cases (“thorns of the flesh”), suppression and regular, run-of-the-mill sins that can be eliminated best by becoming someone who simply doesn’t commit them anymore. I told them that God isn’t God because of His ability to suppress bad or inappropriate “natural” inclinations; he is God because he is someone who doesn’t have those inclinations. We talked about the danger of attempts to suppress and equating Godhood with nothing more than extreme self-control – that becoming like God is less of a “battle” or “victory” and more of a process of change – a “repenting“, in the purest sense of the word.

Purpose: to move from an animalistic nature to a divine nature – One of the students said something that I thought was profound. She said that repentance is an attempt to “find and become my best self“. (It’s moments like that when I have faith that what I’m teaching is making a difference.)

I asked the students why faith is a pre-condition to repentance, and they got it – that we won’t try to change unless we have hope that our efforts will allow us to change. We can’t see future changes in ourselves for which we hope, but we can see others who have changed – or feel assurance that we can change.

3) Baptism

Definition: originally, “immersion“.

Meaning: symbolic cleansing – a statement of intent to be purified

Purpose: I asked why we teach the need for baptism in this life when people can be exalted without having been baptized in this life. In other words, if it’s not necessary for anyone who has died without it, what is its purpose? We talked about that for a while, and we settled eventually on the need to have a communal expression of our commitment to repent – to change. In other words, baptism is our way of testifying openly to each other and to God that we have faith and are willing to repent. I told them that I believe in the power of such expressions when they involved the whole soul in some real, tangible way.

4) The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Definition: a bestowal or present of the Holy Ghost

Meaning: ideally, being in tune with God in such a way that communication is possible, in whatever form that takes

Purpose: We talked extensively about this, and the conclusion was that completely open communication channels with God are intended to allow us to get to know God well enough to be helped in our efforts to become like God. In the context of faith, repentance and baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost is what allows us to see the evidence we desire to validate our hope, make the changes necessary to become whom we hope to become and make our baptismal covenant active and powerful in a real way. It’s God’s part of the contract, if you will – God’s baptismal gift to us to help us succeed and become whom we want to become.

5) Enduring to the End

Definition: never stopping until the end; finishing

Meaning: Becoming perfect (“complete, whole, fully developed“) – We talked about “the end” not being death, given the nature of our belief in eternal progression, but rather the point at which we are complete, whole and fully developed – whenever that occurs. It means becoming gods – the ultimate goal of faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I told them about the temple wording of “one eternal round” – and I told them that I personally see enduring to the end as the eternal round that happens when faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost work together as one process – when something previously unseen finally is seen and moved from faith to knowledge only to be replaced by new faith in something yet unseen – repeated ad infinitum until, throughout all eternity, everything is seen.

I ended by telling them about my father’s death the previous day and how grateful I am that I was raised to be able to say:

Quote:

“Forever’s in my heart and in my blood.“

[Anonymous]

It’s obvious, but I want to make sure I explain, regardless:

I have been in Okalahoma with family attending to my dad’s funeral and just hanging out with everyone, so I didn’t teach Sunday School today and have a lesson summary to post.

Since next week is General Conference, I won’t have a lesson summary then, either.

[Anonymous]

This weekend will be three weeks in a row that I will not be teaching Sunday School. I miss it, frankly.

I am in Oklahoma right now, spending the weekend with family and then interviewing for a job in Kansas on Monday. Depending on the result of that interview, I might or might not be continuing to teach Sunday School and post summaries. If I didn’t need a paying job, I would stay where I live now just to teach that class.

[Anonymous]

The lessons this month are about “Becoming Like Christ“.

We started our class by talking about effective ways to teach. They listed parables, example, object lessons, speaking at the level of the students and discussion. (Last week while I was gone, they talked about parables – using specific examples from the Gospels to show how Jesus taught.) I then told them those were important things and that learning how to teach more effectively using Jesus as an example is important, but I explained that we were going to focus on Jesus himself and becoming like him in a more literal sense.

I asked them how we can learn about someone. After some discussion, we narrowed it down to three things: what is written or said about the person (a description of some sort by others), characteristics or attributes they model and/or teach, and what they do (their actions). I told them we would focus on learning how to become like Jesus by focusing on each of those “study methods”, in that order.

I asked them what we know about Jesus, in broad terms – like a timeline:

He was born in Bethlehem. Probably around the age of 12-24 months, his family fled Bethlehem and moved to Egypt as a result of the visit from the wise men. A few years later, after Herod’s death, they moved to Nazareth. At the age of 12, his family traveled to Jerusalem, where he surprised educated people at the temple. (Note: There is no indication that Jesus was “teaching” anyone, as is commonly believed. The verses say he was “hearing them and asking them questions” and that they were “astonished at his understanding and answers”.) The next 18 years are summed up in Luke 2:51, which says:

Quote:

Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

We broke that verse down word-by-word, since I believe it is one of the least understood Biblical verses in all of Christianity.

“Increased” means he “gained or acquired more“, and what he gained or acquired was “wisdom” (learning, understanding, ability to apply) and “stature” (size). Thus, Jesus learned things (just like we all learn things) and grew up. He also increased in “favor” (standing, rank, acceptance – especially compared to others) – and that increase was with both God and other people. We talked about what it means to be a “favorite” and how “favor” in this usage implies comparison to others. We then talked about how Jesus could increase in favor with God, especially if he was God’s only begotten son AND if he was the God of the Old Testament before he was born.

We talked about the common misunderstanding of what it means to be “sinless” – and I mentioned again my dislike of the following song lines:

Quote:

“The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes, but little Lord, Jesus, no crying he makes.”

Quote:

“He never got vexed when the game went wrong, and he always told the truth.”

In the Primary Sacrament Meeting program, one of the children gave a short talk in which he said that Jesus never made any mistakes. I told the students that I understand the need to teach very young children in simplistic terms, but that being sinless does NOT mean never making mistakes. We talked about transgressions being mistakes made in ignorance – things we do that are wrong but not against our understanding or conscience, then we talked about sins being things we do in opposition to our own consciences. Thus, a sin for one person isn’t necessarily a sin for someone else. One person’s sin often is another person’s transgression. If, therefore, Jesus increased in wisdom AND in favor with God and man, he could have made mistakes and “transgressed” some element of eternal law (like lying as a young child) without “sinning” (violating his conscience and understanding).

With this as the baseline, becoming like Jesus does NOT mean never making mistakes (even transgressions) but rather trying not to act in opposition to one’s conscience – which, instructively, we call “the light of Christ”.

We then moved to what he is said to have taught – focusing on the Gospels (since they are all we have of his purported words during mortality) and, particularly, the Sermon on the Mount – in order to see what he identified as the characteristics and attributes of godliness (or “blessedness”, to use the exact word). I told them again about my three-year focus on understanding and living better the characteristics and attributes listed in the Sermon on the Mount and how badly I wished I had started that focus when I was their age rather than when I was in my 40’s.

We talked about being “poor in spirit” – and we focused on the need to “value” each person as an equal spirit child of God. Being “rich in spirit” is a negative in that context, so it can’t mean “spiritual” in the sense we normally apply. Being poor in spirit has to mean not valuing one’s self above others, at the most fundamental spiritual level. I pointed out that one of the students is more valuable as a singer and actor than many others at their school, while another student is more valuable as a mathematician, and another one is more valuable as an athlete. There is something about each of the students that makes them more valuable than others in some “natural” way. However, there also are others who are more valuable in those ways than each of them. The tendency is to see differing value in objective ways and miss the equal value of each spirit child in God’s eyes.

We talked about being able to mourn – and I asked them how mourning could be a condition of blessedness. That stumped them at first, but we had a good conversation about how we mourn only for the loss of that which we value highly and those we truly love. People who mourn are blessed for two reasons: they have something / someone in their lives of great value, and they have hearts that can feel deep love. Conversely, the inability to mourn is a sign of lack of value in one’s life and an inability to love. We also talked about how much we can gain and give in the process of mourning with those who mourn and comforting those who stand in need of comfort.

We talked about meekness as a blessing. I asked them what they envision when they think of someone who is meek. It was interesting that their immediate pictures were of someone cowering in timidity and fear – or someone who was extremely submissive and weak. I asked them if that picture fit their understanding of Jesus, and they immediately realized it didn’t. I said something like, “Dude was a carpenter, and he chased people out of the temple grounds with a whip!” We then talked about meek meaning “gentle, forgiving, benevolent” – which are VERY different attributes than weakness, timidity and fearfulness. We finished by talking about what that means in practical terms in their lives – how they can be more meek in the reality of their own situations without being weak, timid or fearful.

[Anonymous]

Old Timer wrote:

In the Primary Sacrament Meeting program, one of the children gave a short talk in which he said that Jesus never made any mistakes. I told the students that I understand the need to teach very young children in simplistic terms, but that being sinless does NOT mean never making mistakes. We talked about transgressions being mistakes made in ignorance – things we do that are wrong but not against our understanding or conscience, then we talked about sins being things we do in opposition to our own consciences. Thus, a sin for one person isn’t necessarily a sin for someone else. One person’s sin often is another person’s transgression. If, therefore, Jesus increased in wisdom AND in favor with God and man, he could have made mistakes and “transgressed” some element of eternal law (like lying as a young child) without “sinning” (violating his conscience and understanding).

With this as the baseline, becoming like Jesus does NOT mean never making mistakes (even transgressions) but rather trying not to act in opposition to one’s conscience – which, instructively, we call “the light of Christ”.

Could it be that many people have lived a “sinless” life? But that Christ’s sinlessness is in a category all its own?

[Anonymous]

On one level, Ann, I do believe strongly that there are plenty of people who don’t act in opposition to their consciences in significant ways – that never commit what we might call egregious sins. However, I really like the idea that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” – if for no other reason than the necessity for humility it teaches.

From another perspective, I think it’s fair to say that most people are normal, regular, occasional sinners – and that not making any kind of distinction between that sort of normal sinner and a more egregious and/or habitual sinner can screw with our understanding of repentance for the majority of us. I think repentance means something very different, at the most practical level, for Terrestrial level sinners and for Telestial level sinners – and I classify the difference as the need for reactive vs. proactive repentance.

If you are interested in more about that, take a look at this post from almost six years ago on my blog:

A “Fresh View” of Repentance – (http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/01/rethinking-repentance.html)

[Anonymous]

Old Timer wrote:

However, I really like the idea that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” – if for no other reason than the necessity for humility it teaches.

For sure. I had just never thought of sinlessness in the terms of your lesson. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We continued our examination of the Beatitudes today, and it helped that the Sacrament Meetings talks were about becoming like Christ – and that my Bishop referenced reading my blog (the summary of last week’s lesson) when he talked about being poor in spirit. That was a bit of a surprise.

Quote:

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

We talked about what “after” means in this context – that it is used most often in cases where someone “seeks after” something. This means “pursue” or “search for”, which means the verse is talking about pursuing righteousness in a hungry and thirsty manner.

I asked the students how many of them have ever experienced potential starvation – or even missed enough meals that they literally thought they were going to die if they missed another one. None of them had. I asked them how long they had gone without water – or liquid generally. Again, none of them had gone more than about a day-and-a-half, and each time was part of an official fast. I told them that I also have not experienced extreme hunger or thirst in my life, which means I don’t understand this verse in quite the same literal way as many people do or would who might read it. For us, it is more of an intellectual understanding – and we might translate it as:

Quote:

“Blessed are they who want righteousness so badly that they seek for it as passionately as people who are starving to death seek food and water.”

We then talked about what “righteousness” means. After some discussion of various aspects, we settled on “being right with God” – and we talked about the two great commandments and how everything else hangs on love. Our Bishop had read from I Corinthians 13 where it says we are nothing without charity, no matter how great we are at other things – even extremely important things, so we talked about how we seek to become like Christ in order to be right with God – to be what he wants us to be.

Quote:

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

I asked the students what mercy means. After a brief discussion, we looked up “mercy” on dictionary.com. (I love having students who have smart phones in class.) It said that mercy is forbearance to inflict harm or take action that is in our power to inflict. That means having the right and power to do something (generally something bad or punishing) but choosing not to do it.

We talked about situations in their own lived when people do something to them and they have the right or power to respond in a way that would cause harm of some kind. We talked about how mercy is important especially in situations where the other person is weaker or subordinate or unable to defend themselves but how there really aren’t simple limits to mercy. I mentioned my favorite humorous statement about the lack of mercy:

Quote:

I asked God to give me what I deserve, so he slapped me and sent me to Hell.

We talked about how we are told that we will be judged with the same judgment we judge others, which the second half of this verse says.

Quote:

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

We talked about what it means to be pure. I asked them how many of them had taken a chemistry class and could tell me what pure means in chemistry. One of them said, “Not having any unnecessary elements“, so we used that to talk about the concept of being stainless, spotless, free from corruption, etc. I also mentioned how much we miss when we talk of purity only in terms of chastity – that we need to understand it as perfectly (completely) as possible.

We then talked about what “heart” means in this context. We decided it could mean “spirit” or “core feelings” or “our desires and intent” or some other wording that focuses on our core identity. We talked again about the two great commandments and charity – how the reason we do things says as much about our “hearts” as anything else.

Quote:

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

We spent a lot of time talking about this verse. For purposes of this summary, I am going to link to a few posts I wrote years ago on my personal blog, which served as the foundation for the discussion in class. I think this concept (being peacemakers and why that qualifies us to be called the children of God) is one of the most important, least understood principles in all of Christianity. If you want to see the outline of the discussion, read the following posts:

“Blessed are the Peacemakers” (http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/07/blessed-are-peacemakers.html)

“They Shall Be Called the Children of God” (http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/07/for-they-shall-be-called-children-of.html)

“Peace, Be Still: And There Was a Great Calm” (http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/07/peace-be-still-and-there-was-great-calm.html)

[Anonymous]

Today was a “bridge” lesson – moving from last month’s topic of becoming like Jesus to this month’s focus on spiritual and financial self-reliance. We missed a week last month due to General Conference, so I chose to do a combo lesson on the two topics.

I started by asking the students what “self-reliance” means. They looked at me like I’d asked a stupid, obvious question, which was partially true, so I rephrased the question and asked them what “self-reliance” means within the context of the Gospel we teach in the LDS Church – and by telling them that I believe there are important positive and negative aspects of it and ways to define it in Gospel terms. One of the students said it is not having to rely on anyone else – to be able to take care of yourself. I then asked why that might be a problem in the context of the Gospel and the Church. That same student said that there are people who aren’t completely self-reliant at times, and there are some people who can’t be completely self-reliant – and that if we preach self-reliance as the only good situation, we can end up making them feel ashamed of themselves when they shouldn’t be ashamed. (I’ve driven that point home about a number of things over the last year as I’ve taught this class – how preaching only a theoretical ideal can be damaging to those not in that situation, especially through no fault of their own, and it’s exciting to see the students start to see it without explicit prompting.)

We talked about the extremes: the mentally or physically disabled as an example of someone who can’t be self-reliant and the intentional hermit who is completely self-reliant but living a life that is not of any service to others. We talked about how none of us in the room are completely self-reliant (that we all live in the middle somewhere) – from them still living at home and being supported by their parents to me being unemployed and needing fast offering assistance right now. When we finished that discussion, I was ecstatic to hear one of the students say, “So, the ideal really is community self-reliance.” I told them we would talk about that more next week.

We then talked about how we really can’t be spiritually self-reliant. I asked why that is, and one of them said, “Because we all need the Atonement. We can’t become like God without it. We can’t do it on our own.” I used that as the bridge point to explain that what we had studied last month was how to use the self-reliance we can exercise to access the elements of self-reliance we can’t access on our own – to create a condition of mutual-communal-reliance personally with God and then as a group with others.

With that foundation, we turned to 1 Corinthians 13, and I told them that we were going to do with that chapter (for as long as we had today) what we had done with the Beatitudes the previous two weeks (go through it word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase) – and that part of gaining spiritual self-reliance to the greatest extent possible is to study the scriptures carefully and deeply in order to build a personal understanding of them, even if that leads to different insights and perspectives than others – even each other. I told them that we too often read something shallowly and then, thinking we understand it already, never dig deeply and reach a profound understanding of it. Understanding something shallowly usually means understanding what others say about it, which is the exact opposite of spiritual self-reliance.

The following is a summary of what we covered in 1 Corinthians 13:

Verses 1-3: We talked about how the result of not having charity in each verse is the exact opposite of what we naturally assume should be the result of the actions described in each verse. Speaking with the tongues of men and angels ought to produce sounds that are pleasing and enlightening (that are melodious), but doing so without charity actually produces sounds that are distracting and jarring – like a brassy sound or the sound of cymbals clanging indiscriminately throughout a concert. Understanding prophecy and all mysteries and having all knowledge and faith ought to result in becoming someone important and powerful, but doing so without charity actually produces someone who has no lasting worth – who is nothing in the end. Giving everything to the poor and dying as a martyr ought to provide a great reward, but doing so without charity produces no eternal profit. (Think of the passage that says, “They have their reward” – just not God’s.)

Verse 4: I used this verse to show the students how commas and semi-colons are used in this chapter – commas linking multiple aspects of the same general characteristic of charity and semi-colons introducing a new characteristic. (This is important, especially, in verse 5.) We talked about what it means to suffer long AND be kind – and how being able to suffer long depends on kindness. We talked about various things that make us suffer, not just temporarily but also for an extended period of time – and how enduring things that others cause in a charitable manner requires not just patience but also kindness. We talked about how easy it is to lash out when someone causes suffering of any kind, but how charity allows us to react kindly. We talked about how charity allows us to avoid envy and, instead, be happy for others and their blessings. We talked about what “vaunting” and being “puffed up” mean: elevating one’s self above others and expanding one’s self with nothing but empty air. (A student mentioned a puffer fish, and I physically puffed myself up in an arrogant way to make the point visually.) We discussed how charity keeps us from elevating ourselves above others and not getting “full of ourselves”.

Verse 5: All of these aspects of charity are linked with commas; there are no semi-colons in the verse. This means that the entire verse really is one combined characteristic – each aspect being built on the previous ones. Behaving “unseemly” means “inappropriately” – and we talked about different situations requiring difference behavior. I asked how they might act inappropriately at school, and one of the students mentioned not following the school’s dress code – and he compared how we would dress to go swimming and how we would dress to attend school. I added business meetings and church meetings, and I told them how much I dislike the idea that we need to dress in “Sunday best” for nearly all church-related meetings, no matter their purpose or location. In that light, “unseemly” is much more expansive than we often assume.

We then discussed Paul’s statement about not eating meat with those who abstain from meat as an example of not behaving in an unseemly manner – and how we need to be aware of the sensibilities of those with whom we interact and be willing to “suffer long”, be kind, not elevate ourselves or puff ourselves up by not following things that are important to others while in their presence – and I said that is why I usually wear a white shirt to church, even though I have no problem wearing different colors (as they have seen occasionally). I also told them that I have a bit of an addictive personality (combined with some extended family psychological issues), and I am grateful I was raised with the concept of the Word of Wisdom – and how others who could have handled a little alcohol in moderation chose to abstain and allowed me to be raised in an environment where I never had to find my own limit, since I can’t be sure if I personally could have walked that particular line properly. That also is an example of people not behaving unseemly solely for the benefit / protection of others, since they would not have behaved unseemly regardless due to their ability to handle alcohol in moderation.

We talked about how moderating our behavior in the company of others is part of not “seeking our own” – both in sacrificing “our own” for “others” and also in not limiting ourselves only to those who are most like us (with whom we can “be ourselves” more fully and not be concerned about acting inappropriately). Thus, charity actually allows us to step outside our comfort zones and be productive and loving in those more difficult circumstances. Charity expands our spheres of influence and exposes us to things and people who challenge our natural inclinations, prejudices and biases, then it allows us to grow as a result.

We talked about how easy it is to be provoked (and to provoke) when we are with people who are different than us and how critical it is for growth and expanded understanding to be “not easily provoked”. We talked about how easy it is to be provoked in every situation involving multiple people (even just people we love and who love us), much less with people who are different – and why being easily provoked naturally leads us toward “seeking our own” and “behaving unseemly”.

We talked about what it means to “think no evil” – and the difference between thinking evil and having a bad thought. We used the example of thinking, “I wish so-and-so was dead,” and thinking of ways to kill that person. I mentioned that the thought of wishing someone was dead is not a good thought, but it is different to have the thought and to dwell on it and end up actually thinking evil. We then put the entire verse together, and I showed them how each aspect builds onto the previous one(s) until we have the end results: thinking evil or not thinking evil. Charity is the foundation of avoiding becoming and evil person – and it comes from interacting with people who naturally challenge our charity and acting properly with them.

We ran out of time at that point, so I finished by sharing the following, to tie it all back to the principle of becoming like Jesus and being spiritually self-reliant:

Quote:

Jesus suffered long, and was kind; Jesus envied not; Jesus vaunted not himself, was not puffed up, did not behave himself unseemly, sought not his own, was not easily provoked, thought no evil.

Developing charity is the most fundamental way to become like Jesus, and it ought to be one of our primary goals in life. We can’t do that in a vacuum, and we can’t do it by interacting only with those who are most like us and with whom we are comfortable. It will manifest itself in different ways for each of us, and it will be challenging in different ways, but it can’t happen in a life of relative ease and comfort. We have to love those we are not inclined naturally to love, and that means interacting with them, being made to suffer but remaining kind, learning not to envy, not elevating ourselves (especially above those of whose choices we do not approve), acting appropriately and lovingly (and, in some cases, sacrificially), not seeking our own benefit or kind, risking provocation and not giving in to it and, ultimately, being able to do so without succumbing to the temptation to think evil (about or of others).

Charity, for the vast majority of us, is a learned, gained characteristic, not a natural gift. In the words of Paul, we need to seek after it – to make it a personal quest.

I told them that this quest has to be personal – and that the challenges will come from all kinds of sources. For some, it will include their own families and church congregations; for some, it might be in a future marriage; for some of them, it will happen on missions; for all of them, it will happen only as they expand their horizons and leave their comfort zones and begin to love as Jesus loved by living more like Jesus lived.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Curt – appreciate your mini-lessons. Like our own little Sunday School session.

I liked your approach. The idea of communal self-reliance is a good one. Covey’s concept of going from Dependent > Independent > Interdependent rings true for me.

[Anonymous]

For the last three weeks, we have been looking really closely at passages that talk about becoming like Jesus: the Beatitudes and Paul’s treatise on charity in 1 Corinthians 13. Yesterday, we talked about another way to study the scriptures to become more self-reliant – stepping back and reading to understand the stories being told, rather than prooftexting verse-by-verse and word-by-word.

I started by telling the students that it’s important not just to understand doctrine deeply and consider new ways to gain meaning from verses and statements in the scriptures but also to be open to new lessons that can touch them as they keep an open mind and not assume they understand the stories in our scriptures, just because they have read them and been told what they mean. I also explained how important it is to understand the themes, settings, the people involved, their back stories and personalities, the interpersonal dynamics, etc. In other words, I told them that there is a lot that can be gained by reading scriptures the same way they would read an assigned book in an English Lit class.

To show them what I meant, we looked at four stories in the scriptures: one from the Book of Mormon and three from the New Testament:

1) 1 Nephi 15 tells about Nephi returning from the mountain where he received his own vision of his father’s vision. I asked everyone how Lehi and Nephi had received their understanding of the Tree of Life and people’s actions with regard to it, and one of the students said Lehi had a “dream-vision“. (I was happy to hear it worded that way, since that is a good description of how Lehi explained it.) Nephi reported having a “vision” – but everyone agreed that we don’t know exactly what that meant and that it might have been the same type of “dream-vision” Lehi described. We then read verses 1-10 and talked about what they appear to say about the family dynamics that can help us understand the story better.

Verses 1-3 say that Nephi saw his brothers arguing about what Lehi had told them and that Nephi’s immediate reaction was to mention that they were hard-hearted and wouldn’t ask God for themselves. I pointed out that we always zero in on Laman and Lemuel, but that Sam was a brother, too, and there is nothing that says he wasn’t arguing about it just like Laman and Lemuel. I also pointed out that Sam hadn’t immediately accepted Lehi’s first vision – that he only accepted it after Nephi did. It was only after Nephi’s immediate judgment of his brothers that he actually talked with them, which means his interaction was colored by how he already viewed them.

Verse 5 says, “I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all.” I raised my eyebrows a bit, grinned and said, “Really?! Great above all?! Daddy’s favorite son had it worse than anyone else – by implication in the history of the world?! Over-dramatic a bit?!” They got the point. I told them that I love Nephi, especially since we have 2 Nephi 4 (Nephi’s Psalm), but that he comes across as a spoiled youngest child in some places in the account.

In verse 7, they tell Nephi that they don’t understand what Lehi taught, and Nephi’s immediate reaction in verse 8 (“Have ye inquired of the Lord?“) shows that he was being influenced by his pre-existing view of them.

Verse 9 is their response: “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” I mentioned the reference in Sacrament Meeting by the returned missionary who spoke about the 9-year-old girl he taught who had an incredible vision before finding and approaching them [and it really was an amazing experience], and I told them that I was nearly 50 years old and had never had an experience like that – that I have never had that type of “dream-vision“. I told them that if someone asked me if I had prayed for a similar dream-vision, my response might be translated accurately as, “I have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto me.”

In verse 10, Nephi rips into his brothers, harshly, and tells them that they don’t get dream-visions because they are wicked.

I then recapped the inner-family dynamics of a younger, favored brother giving away all their possessions and then killing a community leader to get a history book, as well as preaching at them constantly. I asked one of the young men in the class how he would feel if his younger brother (who also is in the class) acted that way to him – and he smiled and nodded, showing he understood. I asked them how things might have been different if Nephi’s immediate response (then and in previous situations) would have been, “I understand. Let’s sit down and talk about it” – delivered with a loving smile. He explained it to them, but only after ripping into them first.

At that point, one of the students said, “You mean the Book of Mormon is a record of a dysfunctional family?” – and I grinned, nodded and told him I hadn’t ever phrased it exactly like that but that I would say that – and that I can’t see how anyone could read the record and not describe the family as highly-dysfunctional.

2) We then talked about Judas Iscariot. I told them that I was going to share an alternative reading of his story I heard in a Divinity School class years ago that stuck with me – not as something they have to believe as accurate, but simply as an example of how the same stories can be read and understood differently.

I asked them how we view Judas, and they all agreed that he is seen as the ultimate traitor – so much so that Christians have called traitors “Judases” ever since then. I asked them what Judas did in Jesus’ group – what his main responsibility was. Some of them knew he was the treasurer – that he managed the money. We talked about why Jesus would need a treasurer, and they hadn’t thought about that in-depth. I described what it takes for an itinerant preacher to travel with an entourage and explained that it could happen only if someone provided the money necessary for the their needs. James and John were successful fishermen, and there were other professionals who probably had available resources. Perhaps Lazarus, as a dear friend, helped. We don’t know, but they obviously needed someone to take care of the money and keep the books – or even solicit donations from followers, which was and still is common. (It’s the same reason we need financial clerks in the Church today.)

We talked about how Jesus seems to have “forced the issue” the final week of his life: riding into Jerusalem on a donkey in that way that appeared to mock how the Roman leaders traveled, clearing the temple, etc. I then explained that some people believe Jesus wasn’t accusing anyone during the Last Supper of being a traitor, but rather was telling them that one of them would have to betray him to cause his arrest. That could have been because he knew he was innocent and the trial would be a chance to enlarge his exposure in Jerusalem, or it could have been because his death had been prophesied to occur during the Passover, so he had to make it happen more quickly than the Jewish and Roman leadership would have moved on their own. Thus, perhaps Judas wasn’t a traitor; perhaps, being known as the treasurer, he was the one to whom the Jewish leadership would be most inclined to listen – and to provide a payment that Judas thought would add to their cause once Jesus was released.

The detail that leads some people to believe this interpretation is Judas’ reaction when he realized that Jesus was going to be killed. He didn’t run off with the money, as a hard-hearted traitor generally would; rather, he killed himself. Some people see that as a guilty conscience, but others see it as a heart-broken realization that what he thought would happen (an arrest, trial and release) wasn’t going to happen – that his role had led to his leader (master, Lord, etc.) being killed.

3) The next situation we discussed was Peter denying Jesus on the night of his arrest. I mentioned Elder Holland’s discussion in General Conference a few years ago of this different view and then talked about it in detail. Like the story of Judas, we discussed how it would change the generally accepted interpretation if Jesus wasn’t accusing Peter of future denial but rather insisting that he exercise the self-control to stay alive and not get caught up in the arrest and subsequent crucifixion.

I “acted out” the anguish he might have felt as he progressively fought back his desire to defend Jesus each time he was asked (and had to curse the final time to get through it), and how that would have caused him to “weep bitterly” (with pain and relief) when the rooster crowed and he realized it was over – that he wouldn’t have to deny Jesus again.

If Jesus’ original statement wasn’t a sad, “You are going to be so weak that you deny me three times tonight,” but rather a pleading, “You have to fight your natural inclination to fight to protect me, since you can’t be taken, also,” it changes the situation dramatically – and is much more in line with Peter’s impetuous, brave, impulsive, passionate nature than the coward he usually is portrayed to be in this story.

4) We ended with Peter walking on the water, and I simply pointed out that it is illogical to criticize Peter for lacking faith in that situation. I said, “Dude jumped out of a boat and started walking on water!” That got some chuckles, but they got the point. I then used the story to illustrate that Peter was walking toward Jesus, but he kept reaching out even as he realized his situation and started to sink. I talked about how that story is one of the best summaries of the entire Plan of Salvation I have ever read – and I would rather read it that way than in order to criticize Peter.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and I finished the lesson by sharing the story of my parents’ mission and how, sometimes, God really can make it possible to do the impossible. [For a description of that mission, read the following post: “[i][b]Exercising Faith and Seeing the Hand of God[/b][/i]” (http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/10/exercising-faith-and-seeing-hand-of-god.html).]

[Anonymous]

I want to talk next week about self-reliance in the context of thanksgiving, so this lesson was more of a lecture format than I usually do. There was some participation, but I talked more than normal today. Therefore, this post is going to be more of a summary than a detailed description.

1) Scriptural Interpretation Methods

Parables are understood to be representative stories that didn’t actually happen but teach a moral or a lesson. We have been told Jesus taught parables (they are labeled as parables for us), so we read them as such. Many stories, however, aren’t labeled for us, so we often read them as being literal accounts of actual events.

There are multiple ways stories can be read, including as being: literal, allegorical, symbolic, mythological, etc.

We talked about what can be taken from the following scriptural stories using each method above: Noah’s flood, the Garden of Eden and Job. We then talked about various views of the Atonement: Penal Substitution, Representative Suffering, Symbolic Ordinance (the traditional scapegoat), etc.

2) Spiritual Languages

God speaks to us “in our own language, according to our own understanding”. Moroni’s promise says ONLY that God will make truth known to us, particularly about extending mercy to His children. Oliver Cowdery’s experience isn’t applicable universally. I am a good example of that, since most of my “answers” haven’t come in that way. So, missionaries should stop using Oliver Cowdery as the end-all-be-all, one-size-fits-all answer method.

We all need to discover our own native “spiritual language” and allow others to do the same.

3) Physical, Emotional, Financial and Educational Self-Reliance

We talked about each aspect and the need to do the best we can, specifically in order to be able to give the help others need – and to be able to accept that help from others – in an atmosphere that fosters Zion.

I ended the lesson with a direct, blunt discussion of making sure each spouse in a marriage has enough education to be able to support self and family, even if they want to have a traditional marriage where “one parent” works outside the home and “one parent” doesn’t have a paying job. I mentioned that over half of the married women in the Church work outside the home now, for many reasons. I told the boys not to insist that their wives leave school without adequate education, and I told the girls not to let their husbands insist that they leave school without adequate education. There simply are too many situations that happen to too many people now to assume they won’t need a personal, adequate education to support themselves and their families at some point.

[Author]

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