TO SERVE GOD

 

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Croatia. I spent every school holiday with my relatives in the village from which we came. Because of it I am very familiar with the agrarian way of life. I know what shepherds are. I have witnessed harvests, attended yearly village festivals, journeyed in open wagons. It makes the New and Old Testament very relatable. My patriarchal blessing says I have a rich heritage. Indeed.

When I read the Saviour saying to his disciples, “…..look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest”, I recall running my hand through the heavy ripe heads of wheat shining like gold in the sun (John 4:35). I love that the Saviour compared those who are ready to receive the truth to ripe wheat. And I love the imagery of the harvest.  It appeals to my understanding.

The harvest began well and truly in our dispensation with Joseph and the restoration of the Church. The results of the missionary labours in 1800s were astounding. People truly were like ripe golden wheat:

“In the early days of the Restoration, thousands were prepared to receive the gospel. So many came into the Church that the enemies of the work were frightened. It was not one of a city or two of a family who joined; whole congregations united themselves with the work. Wilford Woodruff alone baptized over two thousand converts in less than a year’s ministry in Great Britain.” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for D&C 4:4, p 12)

In Section 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Saviour used the imagery of the sickle for harvesting. This too evokes memories. I remember my grandfather cutting down the wheat with a sickle. Sometimes he would use a small sickle with a short handle and a curved blade. He would cut with one hand and hold the stalks with the other.

At other times he would use a large sickle with a long handle and cut through the field while my grandmother would walk behind him and gather the stalks that fell. It was arduous work. The trick in how fast this could be done lay in the sharpness of the sickle. If the blade was sharp it would cut through the wheat like butter and the work was quicker.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy spoke of the importance of a sharp sickle and how it relates to our preparedness to be profitable servants of God. He pointed out that our spiritual sickles need to be kept sharpened in order to produce a worthy harvest. The qualities needed to qualify for the work are in D&C 4:5,6  (Abandoned Seeds in Rocky Places, New Era, July 2014, 18).

Regarding chapter 4 of Doctrine and Covenants, President Joseph Fielding Smith remarked:  “Perhaps there is no other revelation in all our scriptures that embodies greater instruction pertaining to the manner of qualification of members of the Church for the service of God, and in such condensed form than this revelation. It is as broad, as high and as deep as eternity” (Church History and Modern Revelation [1953], 1:35)

I consider Joseph’s take on service superior to all the rest. While a prisoner in Liberty jail, he wrote to the Church members. Despite the iron yoke of hell, he told the saints that they still owed ‘an imperative duty to all the rising generation and to all the pure in heart….for there are many yet on the earth who are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it….’  Joseph admonished that ‘we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness’ and give the world the truth.

This is being like Christ. This is following in the footsteps of Him who indeed wore himself out in bringing truth to the world, forgiveness to the sinful, love for the righteous and joy un-surpassing for those who endure to the end. Didn’t He descend to the bottomless pit of human suffering for me and you, for the ungrateful, for the unaccepting and indeed for all creation???

He will come and He will make up His jewels from among the righteous and spare them, ‘as a man spareth his own son that serveth him’  (Malachi 3:17)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Reaping the Harvest by Nathan Greene)

A PRIVILEGED PEOPLE

 

 

I noticed this year as I have begun to study the Book of Mormon, how important it was to Nephi to teach his people that they are still a part of the House of Israel, even though they had been removed geographically from the main body of it at Jerusalem. He points out how his father compared the House of Israel to an olive tree, ‘whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth’ (1 Nephi 10:12). And so Nephi referred often to his group of people as a ‘broken branch’ in an effort that they would never forget who they are (1 Nephi 15:12; 19:24).

This reminds me of a similar instance that goes way back to the children of Israel who arrived from Egypt to inhabit the land of Canaan. Because the inhabitants of Canaan were ripe in iniquity and idol worship (1 Nephi 17:32-35) they presented a very real threat to the covenant people. As the Israelites conquered cities before them, lands were appropriated to them for their settlement. Among the first to receive land were the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Mannesah. They settled in the land of Gilead which divided them from the rest of Israel by the river Jordan (Numbers 34:14,15; Deuteronomy 3:12,13; Joshua 22:9). After they had assisted in further conquest of the land, Joshua sent them back to Gilead to live peacefully in their newly appointed inheritance. Upon their return home, these tribes built an altar by river Jordan. When the rest of Israel heard of it they were outraged presuming the altar was built for idol worship. They sent Phineas, the son of Eleazor the priest, with the heads of the remaining tribes, to call these two and a half tribes to repentance. In their defense, these tribes explained that the altar was not made for any worship but was meant to stand as a witness to the rest of Israel, for generations to come, that the tribe of Reuben, Gad and Mannesah were united with the rest of Israel in the worship of one true and living God. These three tribes recognised that even though they were geographically divided from the rest, they were still and always will be of the House of Israel.

Why was it important for the people of Nephi to remember that they were ‘the broken off branch’? The answer lies in Lehi’s explanation that the branches ‘should’ be broken off, rather than ‘would’ be. It was imperative for Lehi’s family to know and pass onto their children that they were led away from the iniquity of Jerusalem, to the promised land, to become a ‘righteous branch’ upon whose shoulders rested the latter-day destiny of the House of Israel (2 Nephi 3:5).

Another reason for the branches to be broken off and the House of Israel to be scattered is to bring the truth to the nations of the earth and to spread righteousness among the unbelieving. Today the Church of Jesus Christ spreads across the globe adopting the Gentiles into the fold. We are God’s covenant people called the House of Israel. We are not only privileged but also important. The Plan of Salvation does not rest on one set of shoulders only. The Saviour has begun His work. He has atoned and established His Church. Until He returns to govern through the Millenium, we, as the House of Israel, have the responsibility of bringing the truth to the world to prepare for such a time. Ephraim in particular has been assigned this work. We are not just member of His Church, we are the House of Israel, God’s chosen people. Let’s never forget who we are…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: All The World Is Mine by Greg Collins)