Pure Religion: This Is What It’s All About

[Anonymous]

We talk a lot about “intellectual” and “controversial” topics, but sometimes we forget about things that fall under the category of “pure religion”. I know we as a people aren’t as charitable and “Zion-ish” as we want to be, but, when it comes right down to it, we really do help “our own” regularly in remarkable ways.

The following posted on By Common Consent today – a report of a testimony shared in Sacrament Meeting. I am providing the link for anyone who wants to go over to BCC and comment (which I recommend), but I also am copying and pasting the post itself – since it is so short:

“They Lay Down Beside Her and Wept” (http://bycommonconsent.com/2012/07/01/they-lay-down-beside-her-and-wept/)

Quote:

A handful of years ago her 17 month old baby boy died. She had several other children, the oldest of whom was only nine. Her Relief Society sisters did not deliberate long. Three of them simply showed up with faces full of concern and began to clean. Sitting on the stairs, she watched them, not really comprehending why they were there. She hadn’t processed it yet, what she had just been through, what had just occurred. All of a sudden it hit her like a wave, all of it at once, and she fled upstairs to her room, collapsing on her bed in uncontrollable sobs of despair. It wasn’t long before all the cleaning tools were found abandoned. The women had made their way upstairs and all lay down on the bed beside her, silently weeping with her and holding her close.

A woman in my ward related this story today. Her story of personal salvation. The body of Christ, in all its beauty, majesty, and glory.

All else aside, those women in that situation is who I want to be on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

Yes. That is what it is all about. When we connect with each other in love and support, we are gods to each other.

Thanks for that great story.

[Anonymous]

James 1:27

Quote:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

[Anonymous]

During my “dark night of the soul,” one of the major themes was how much does God intervene. I would read stories of tragedy and how the ward came to the rescue and how now the individual knows that the help came from God. I would think, “That wasn’t God – that was a well organized group of worshippers in a community of service that care about you.”

Now I am able to recognize that even if God doesn’t physically step in – the act of us flawed humans serving each other can be divine.

I’ve also come to understand that not all people are able to be open enough or to let go of themselves enough to cry with you or hold you. I imagine one of the RS sisters staying downstairs running the vacuum because facing the rawness of this mother’s grief would be too uncomfortable… and so she helps in the only way that she knows how – and that’s ok too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that additional insight, Roy. It’s OK for Martha to be Martha; not everyone is Mary.

[Anonymous]

Yes, martha gets a bum rap. But how easily we forget this conversation:

John 11:20-29 wrote:

Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

Is there anything more powerful, more simple, and more divine than Martha’s simple testimony? A declaration of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ could not be better said. And then, to recognize that because he was the Son of God, there was nothing to worry about. And then, to discreetly say to Mary, “The Master is come”.

I find this story very, very moving. Mary liked to choose the better part in listening to Jesus’ every word, but Martha declared her faith and acted on it. Everyone is different before the Lord, yet all are needed.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Wayfarer! That insight and those scriptures about Martha have totally escaped my notice!

[Anonymous]

Thank you, wayfarer.

My wife identifies with Martha. I will share your comment with her.

[Anonymous]

I have very much appreciated the exchanges and insights on this thread. Thanks Guys! :clap:

[Anonymous]

Old-Timer wrote:

Thank you, wayfarer.

My wife identifies with Martha. I will share your comment with her.

I think how church members and christians react to the mary martha story is very telling. Scripture tells a story, one where martha is washing dishes and mary is sitting at the feet of the savior listening. Martha is justifiably frustrated — the dishes need to be done, but Jesus points out that Mary had chosen the better part.

From this, LDS and others summarily judge Mary as “more worthy” than Martha. This is wrong to do — it says that whenever we make a mistake, or pursue a lesser priority, then we are judged for that mistake. Notice that listening to jesus and washing dishes are “good things to do”. There is not a right and a wrong here, only good and better. There is nothing unworthy about martha. nothing at all. Moreover, it was just a moment of coaching, not a summary judgment on Jesus’ part.

Now, in the story of the raising of Lazarus, Martha comes out to talk to the savior, who had decided to let the family down and not come immediatly when Lazarus was still alive. Martha directly states the facts as she saw them: “If you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” It’s a fact to her, because she had unconditional faith that Jesus could fix any problem of health. She doesn’t appear angry, but simply trying to understand the situation based upon what she saw as facts.

Mary, on the other hand, the one who could not get enough of Jesus’ teachings, refuses to go out and meet Jesus. Given her previous proclivity to hang on every word and not leave the presence of jesus, this is really inconsistent behavior. Something is wrong here — her faith was based upon the ‘true believing’ position of jesus does everything right, and he let her down. Speculating (as if I haven’t already been doing that), Mary is feeling a bit disaffected right now from Jesus. He has fallen off his pedestal. Her ‘better part’ faith no longer is carrying the day.

I believe that Martha’s more pragmatic, fact-based belief allowed her to survive what appeared to be a disaffecting event — that the Lord wasn’t there for her. Isn’t there a lesson here? If we change our basis of belief from the ‘hang on every word’ blind faith into a more pragmatic, fact-based paradigm, struggles of faith can more easily be withstood.

just an opinion…

[Anonymous]

wayfarer wrote:

Everyone is different before the Lord, yet all are needed.

I believe this is true. In some situations, the better choice is one way or another way. There is no “one” way that is always best to please God, but we should develop wisdom trying to recognize the different qualities needed for different situations, and realize sometimes others have greater capacity in one are or another than we do, and vice versa. It is why we can be stronger as a group than individually.

[Anonymous]

Wayfarer – I have often used the same scriptures to expound the same story to others. We really do forget the entire tale and women who don’t need to feel guilty – feel guilty. Too Martha-ish. I love that the story has a fuller arch. Thank you for adding it to the thread. I was just about to when I read yours.

[Anonymous]

Ray, a great story. This perfectly illustrates to me the usefulness of the Church. Just as Christ said that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man, I don’t believe that man was made for the Church, but the Church for man. Sometimes I forget that (and I think others do, too). I wasn’t created to serve in the Church – the Church was created to allow me opportunities to serve God’s children, and to give them the opportunity to serve me.

[Author]

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