Approaching Zion: Childlike Consecration

Zion on a Budget

"I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?"

   ― Vincent Van Gough

Financial chastity means we are faithful to the Lord's law of equality (D&C 78:6).  We call this the "law of consecration."

They never taught us in Seminary that the scripture-mastery-verse D&C 82:10 was specifically given in the context of consecration:

   I, the Lord, am bound
   when ye do what I say;
   but when ye do not
   what I say, ye have
   no promise.

(D&C 82:10)

I love Hugh Nibley's simple synopsis of the spirit of the Law:

"In passing through anyone’s vineyard, you may help yourself to whatever you can eat, but you may not carry off any in a container.  If the owner denies you what you need, he is greedy; if you take more than you need, then you are greedy (Deuteronomy 23:24)."

Elsewhere Nibley explained consecration this way: "Everyone gets what he needs and nobody keeps more than he needs."

If you haven't read his book, Approaching Zion, you are in for a treat.

The Top Ten Principles of the Law of Consecration

   1.  Let every man esteem his brother (and sister) as himself (D&C 38:24).

   2.  Be one, or equal, in temporal blessings; and if we aren't one, we're not God's (D&C 38:27).

   3.  Remember the poor and provide financial support to them (D&C 42:30; D&C 44:6).

   4.  We are stewards over our temporal property, not owners (D&C 42:32; D&C 104:55-56, 70).

   5.  Everyone's needs should be met (D&C 42:31-33; D&C 82:17).

   6.  We should give away our surplus to the poor and needy freely and generously (D&C 42:34, 55; D&C 70:7).

   7.  From the Lord's perspective, the great reason the "world lieth in sin" is because of temporal inequality (D&C 49:20).

   8.  The Lord holds us all accountable for how we use our temporal blessings (D&C 72:3; D&C 104:12-13).

   9.  If we are not equal in earthly things, we cannot be equal in heavenly things (D&C 78:5-6).

   10.  Zion cannot be built except upon the celestial law of consecration (D&C 105:4-5).

The verses I quoted are from the Doctrine and Covenants; I respect the principles contained in the D&C regarding consecration, but I hold no regard for the manner in which the early Church practiced the United Order.

It was an abject failure, and I see no reason to administer finances through the Bishop's Storehouse any more than to deny Blacks the priesthood or to practice polygamy.

What the Church needs is a twenty-first century vision of consecration that is grounded in love ― and not in ecclesiastical authority (which was so often abused).​

"I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream."

   ― Vincent Van Gough

Question:  How much money would it take to build Zion?

Sewers aren't cheap; real estate isn't given away for nothing; temples require cash (the going price for an average temple in 2023 was $70 million).  If we add it all up, how much money would we need to get Zion going?
​
Answer:  Zero dollars.

Surprise!  (What?  Were you expecting $265 billion?)

"Wait, Tim!" someone objects. "The annual cost to run the church's global operations is around $4-6 billion.  So Zion DOES require money.  Lots and lots of it." 

Okay, but I would like to offer an alternative perspective.  Of course we can buy anything in this world with money.  No one is arguing with the fact that you can accomplish a lot of good with money.

And if our goal is to build a first-rate corporate faith-empire, then yes, that's got a hefty price tag attached to it.  Golden calves need to be bankrolled somehow.

But back up.  Are you telling me we need money to build the kingdom of God?  Because if money is what it took to convert the world to Christ, and to live in holiness, wouldn't we have Zion by now?  With a quarter of a trillion dollars, I'd think we would be drinking piña coladas under the shade of the Tree of Life.

But what if, instead, our riches served as a detriment, and in fact kept us from doing God's work because we were so busy managing Mammon's work?

Guess who has ZERO MONEY.

   Little children.

Let that sink it: a little child has Zero Net Worth.  No one mentions this aspect of little children ― their total financial insolvency ― when we quote the Savior's words:

   Except ye . . . become
   as little children,
   ye shall not enter
   into the kingdom of heaven.

(Matt. 18:3)

See the irony?  No one wants to become like little children financially.  Are we crazy?  That's why we lug around wallets in our diapers and suck on silver spoons and platinum pacifiers.  "This baby ain't broke, no sir."

Here is a mystery, then: how do little children survive without money?  Is it even possible for the children of the Kingdom to bring about Zion if they're penniless?  What, God doesn't want Zion to resemble a tent city (Isa. 54:2) or a refugee camp (Psalm 146:9), does He?

Ask yourself: how do children afford bubble gum and baseball cards at the grocery store?  Who drives them to little league practice and buys them Cracker Jacks?  No four-year-old is given a Mastercard.

The only way little children are able to accomplish anything is through their Parents.

"Check, Please"

"Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it."

   ― Vincent Van Gough

As I've studied the history of the Restoration, I am struck, foremost, by its covetousness.  Our forbearers were filled with faith and with the desire for their faith to bring them prosperity.  We descend from a long line of wealth-seekers.

But there was an obstacle that stood in our way: Christ's gospel.  And so we were required to develop a sophisticated theology to justify our covetousness, and make it appear holy.

If ever there were a people who wished to prove the exception to the rule by officiating between God and Mammon, driving their camel pell-mell through the eye of the needle, it was the Latter-day Saints. 

Joseph Smith started out with Josiah Stowell in search of Spanish gold, and so it has gone ever since, with members carrying their scriptures alongside the spirit of speculation, buying up real estate in Commerce, Illinois (thanks, Mr. Hotchkiss) while singing Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise, hoping to have the Spirit of God guide us to Zion by way of financial success and security.  Which is why, of course, we have never arrived.
​
   Lay not up for yourselves
   treasures upon earth . . .
   for where your treasure is,
   there will your heart be also.

(Matt. 6:19, 21)

Have you read The Book of the Law of the Lord, 1841-1845?  "Received of Sally Ferrin 1 pairs of Socks.  $0.37 1/2" (page 71).

At first it seems noble, how the saints donated their possessions and surplus property.  A sign of sacrifice, right?  Surely they were living the Law of Consecration.  But their hearts fell short, for did you notice those socks were valued at 37-and-a-half cents?  How very American of them, and us, attaching a price to everything ― even our devotion, as if faith required recognition and receipts.

The great symbol of our faith, over time, became the idol of Tithing Settlement (now Tithing Declaration), which stands for the proposition that God is a transactional Being who counts the hairs on our head as would a bean counter, a divine keeper of debts rather than the Payer of them.

Thus we've witnessed the way the Restoration has, from the very start, danced to Mammon's Mariachi music, a gnarly tango between the Kirtland Safety Society and harvesting sugar beets in order to pay the Eastern banking syndicate.

Somehow we have not learned this one lesson, that the Church cannot serve God and Mammon.

(Well, to be fair, the Church did divest its stock holdings in the Philip and Morris tobacco company in 2010.)

Interlude: Shearing Sheep

​​"I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."

​   ― Vincent Van Gough

Growing up we raised sheep on a little farm.  In the springtime we hired a professional shearer to remove the wool from the flock, so they wouldn't overheat during the hot summer months in Northern California.

I've seen shearers use motorized blades, but for the most part I recall them using handheld shears (they look like big scissors).

Wool, when it comes off the back of a sheep, is not clean; it is full of dirt and poo and weeds.  If you've ever handled raw wool, you'll know how greasy it is.  The fat is called lanolin; it feels waxy.

So before you can spin the wool into yarn, you have to wash it.

Our hearts need to be washed in order to strip away the "jealousies and fears" (D&C 67:10) and "covetous desires" (D&C 101:6) that stand between us and Enoch's people.

In my poem Lanolin, I describe the washing of wool as a metaphor for the work that lies before us.  Christ was the Lamb of God; where is His wool?  We desperately need His healing lanolin.

Lanolin
a poem

   Who collects lanolin
from sheep sheared
   for market
 
   washing viscous wax
from fouled wool
   sitting on wooden stools
 
   and wondering why
water flows to positive
   and negative ends
 
   while oil balances
between cloven hooves?
   Wondering is an ache
 
   settled deep in their hips.
They search for the words
   in lathered soap―
 
   words to enchant
the wet wool lying limp
   against the side of the metal tub.
 
   How does one emulsify
past and future?
   Grief exists only now

   as a fleece, a blindfold
for seeing what others cannot
   with their unsoiled truth.
 
   Questions remain enough:
answers are never whole.
   Knowing is a thimble
 
   to yearning faith
needling
   the soul.

Knights of the Kingdom

"I dream my painting and I paint my dream."

​ ― Vincent Van Gough

If we trusted the Shepherd, we wouldn't place faith in our storehouses.  The Savior said:
  
   Take heed, and beware
   of covetousness:
   for a man's life
   consisteth not 
   in the abundance of things
   he possesseth.

(Luke 12:15)

Covetousness is writ large across our faith, as seen in the height of our temple steeples and SEC filings; we see covetousness in the way tithing takes the widow's mite in order to build bigger barns (Luke 12:16-20).

Bigger and bigger, never sated, our faith consumes in a truly American fashion, the home of "Super Size Me."

As a student at BYU, I spent time in Special Collections with the Jesse Knight Papers (I was a history major). Jesse Knight was a successful businessman, the silver mining magnate of Tintic fame whose riches bailed the Church out of financial hardship in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I read Jesse Knight's three patriarchal blessings and his correspondence with President Heber J. Grant (another businessman), being extolled for his wealth and the good he did with it.

Jesse Knight claimed an angel appeared to him in a dream as he napped one day under the shade of a tree near Payson, Utah, searching for treasure in the Tintic hills.  He was shown in vision where to dig (wouldn't that be nice to have angels lead us to the motherlode ― or at least give us some good stock tips!).

Lo-and-behold, Brother Knight struck it rich.  In 1896 he staked a claim to the Humbug mine, which raked in $13 million worth of silver and lead (about $450 million in today's dollars).  He was the J. Willard Marriott of his day.

Thanks to his generous philanthropy, Brother Knight has a building named after him at BYU; he believed his millions were a gift from God, given to him "for the purpose of doing good and building up His church."

We see this same attitude today among those who dream of becoming successful in order to contribute to and serve the Church.

This is the spirit of covetousness the Church fosters; it is wrapped in holiness; for wasn't Abraham rich?  Can't we all do a lot more good if we were, too?

The Church's culture of success is reflected in the people it promotes to positions of leadership.  I was reading the Church News a while back and was struck by the number of Stake Presidents who were successful CEOs.  The following list is from a SINGLE Church News, dated 10 December 2023 of newly called leaders:

Capistrano Valley California Stake

   - Robert Austin, President and CEO of Advanced Civil Group
   - David Sedgwick, CEO of CareTrust REIT
   - Nathan Carlson, Executive Vice-President of The Wolff Co.

Chino California Stake

   - Bryan Tanner, Healthcare Executive
   - George Mautz, Managing Director of Alterdomus
   - Joshua Dalton, Director of PwC

Highland Utah Stake

   - Steven Norton, Chairman and founder of ASEA
   - Todd Gurney, President of Gurney & Assoc. Real Estate Appraisers
   - Bryan Durfey, Owner, Jostens

Kaysville Utah Deseret Mill Stake

   - Sean Morrison, Vice-President of Mountain America Credit Union
   - Tyler Christiansen, Assistant Secretary to the Twelve Apostles
   - Stephen Lindsey, Managing Partner, Mountain West Container Services

San Clemente California Stake

   - Robert Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hoag Memorial Hospital
   - Ronald Darby, CEO of MessagePay
   - Steven Davis, Radiation oncologist

Taylorsville Utah YSA Stake

   - John Huber, Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig LLP
   - Donald Williams, President of Unlimited Designs
   - John Hall, Vice-President of Fidelity Investments

This small sampling illustrates an important fact about what we value as a people; it shows that, in terms of building the kingdom, we honor those who can make money.

For money allows us the luxury of sailing the seas of mortality without God's spiritual gifts (which provide the divine wind in our sails).  Who needs sails, if we can run on internal combustion engines?

And isn't wind unpredictable?  Waiting around for a favorable wind is such a hassle (John 3:8).  Better to rely upon the dependable engines of our yacht.  Don't want to be late for our dinner reservations.