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Sifting

5/19/2023

4 Comments

 
Picture
Looking for Faith in All the Wrong Places

After spending the past week pondering the doctrine of translation of Enoch and John (for the next entry in the Deeper Magic series), this morning I felt impressed to share a brief post on something completely unrelated.

To wit, to make the point that our faith is best reflected in the way we spend our money.

Last weekend I took my family to tour the Open House of the new Saratoga Springs Utah Temple.  I loved it; I ogled the stained glass windows and the stair steps made from three different kinds of marble inlaid with brass. 

In every room I entered I felt transported to another world.  Sitting in the Celestial Room with my family, I never wanted to leave. 

   It felt like heaven.

And that, my friends, is the snare.  What a great trap it is!  Satan knows if he can get us to feel comfortable and elevated emotion in luxurious surroundings ― and (here's the key) to equate the tranquility of opulence and wealth with the Spirit of God ― then our faith-impulses will begin to resonate with the Great and Spacious Building more than the humble stables in which straw mangers and our Savior are found.

If a grand display of wealth indicated "Holiness to the Lord," then the Catholic Church and its cathedrals beat us to the punch more than a thousand years ago. 

Yesterday I ​read an extremely interesting and perceptive commentary from a woman who shared her views on the Open House of the Saratoga Springs temple.  I encourage you to read it.  (Abby Hansen, "Why Bishop Waddell's 60 Minutes Response Felt So Wrong," Exponent II, May 17, 2023.)
Picture
[When your portrait is photo-bombed by a rowdy crowd]

Sanctuaries

​It's impossible not to see a fulfillment of Moroni's words as we read headline-after-headline in the news about the Church's finances.  Or do we turn a blind eye?  Worse, do we seek to justify the Church's actions?

   Why have ye built up churches
   unto yourselves to get gain?


(Mormon 8:33)

Here's the thing: the sleight-of-hand skills needed to convince a group of Christians that hoarding $179 billion is actually godly and a good thing requires Master-Mahan-level expertise.

How do we justify it?  A rainy day fund?  Joseph in Egypt's 7-year famine?  Standing independent of every other creature under heaven holding Apple Stock?

Nope.  The only way to pull off the greatest doctrinal heist of all time (making the switcheroo with God and Mammon) is to "trample" or "transfigure" the holy word of God, to the point we use scriptures to justify the very thing those scriptures forbid!

   Why have ye transfigured
   the holy word of God?


(Mormon 8:33)

Isn't it interesting how Latter-day Saints take great pride in our Temples and their stunning beauty?  We adorn them with the finest craftsmanship and materials as if they were Ritz Carlton luxury hotels, with gold leaf and crystal chandeliers and hand-cut carpets, and call it the House of the Lord (as if Jesus requires Five Star accommodations).

   Ye do love money,
 
 [there's the root of all evil]
   and your substance,
   and your fine apparel,
   and the adorning of your churches. . . 


(Mormon 8:37)

But the real question is why we consider these grand edifices to be a sign of our faith?  How is being rich a mark of our righteousness? 

Think about it: the hallmark of our religion is a gold-plated statue of an angel atop a luxurious building who I AM LITERALLY QUOTING telling us that is bad, bad, bad.  In a great irony, we have enrobed Moroni in gold as a symbol of our faith, which is not to care for the poor, but to lavishly dot the earth with fine sanctuaries.

   I know that ye do walk
   in the pride of your hearts. . . 
   and your churches,
   yea, even every one,
   [well, I guess that includes us]
   have become polluted.


(Mormon 8:36)

I never understood until now what "an embarrassment of riches" means.  I am embarrassed.
Picture
Real-World Financial Implications of the Way Tithing Impoverishes a People

Isn't the quality of our faith demonstrated in how we care for the widows, elderly, orphans and poor?

After all, James taught that "pure religion" is simply taking care of the needy:

   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.


(James 1:27)

Look at that last part, to keep ourselves "unspotted from the world."  Well, the SEC scandal involving the Church and Ensign Peak demonstrates that the Church has NOT prioritized keeping itself "unspotted from the world" ― I mean, it invited Mammon up to its penthouse suite to engage in heavy petting.

   Why do ye . . . get gain,
   and cause that widows
   should mourn before the Lord,
   and also orphans to mourn
   before the Lord?


(Mormon 8:40)
​
Forgive me for preaching to the choir, but why is it that Utah is dead-last in the nation in saving for retirement?  Why did our parents and grandparents sacrifice their golden years, worried about making ends meet as they lived from social-security-paycheck-to-paycheck, scrimping to serve missions in old age, and taking out reverse-mortgages to put food on the table in their 80s, after having spent a lifetime of paying tithing to enrich a Church who stores tithing in its digital silos?

   Look! The wages
   you failed to pay
   the workers who mowed
   your fields are crying out
   against you.
   The cries of the harvesters
   have reached the ears
   of the Lord Almighty.


(James 5:1, NIV)
Picture
The Sifting is Underway

I promised to keep it brief, and this is about as brief as I can be. 

I am going to conclude by sharing a poem I wrote this week in light of all these things, which captures my feelings and the strivings of the Spirit in me.

Sifting

​​​Growing tall
scattered among wolfsbane
betwixt nettle
    and loathsome vervain
 
the Wheat waited.
Feeling the early frost they knew
the Harvest followed morning
dew: soon the scouring of weeds
​and diseased grain
     ―everything wicked and profane 

would wither beneath a silvery sun
uprooting each and every one.

And the Wheat waited.
Until Harvest day arrived at last
and they beheld the troublesome chaff
float away on a late summer's breeze
only to be plucked by birds
who lay concealed 
     among the orchard trees.

The field was theirs at last
(naught but Wheat remained)
and they rejoiced beneath
the rustling of wings
awaiting their reward
foreordained
     now the sifting had occurred.

Harvest time was come
and the Wheat danced
in the evening light
glad they had not succumbed like chaff
     when clouds gathered overhead.

Puzzlement filled their ranks
as fire filled the field with flame.
How could this be─
     the Tares had all fled!

The Lord to them explained:
Ye who knew the ease of wealth
amid your worldly cares;
     what reason had ye
     to believe
​     ye were not
     the Tares?
Picture
4 Comments
Clark Burt
5/21/2023 02:33:28 am

Tim, this post, ending with your insightful poem, needed to be written. It has been on my mind lately that our actions actually cause others to remain poor. Not so much because we don't contribute our gain to help them, but because Satan's economy is where we live and breath. It is His world afterall. Allowed by God to reign for a time. Repentance is to not only turn to Christ, but to turn away from the world. Hard to do when we are captured and enslaved by it. We must be delivered. But first we must be aware of where we are and desire to delivered. Pray to be delivered. Your poem captures this unawareness and our desire to remain.

I read the piece about why the church hoards its money and in our world it makes sense. But it is reliance on mammon to save the church, and as you said here and many times before, it is a lack of faith. Put businessmen in authority, who themseleves may be unaware, causes the church to be a business. And my people love to have it so.

Reply
Scott Robertson
5/21/2023 02:45:56 am

Rusty, For where you treasure is your heart is also. And more- Lord when saw thee in prison and visited thee not and naked and clothed the not and enhungered and feed thee not? For if ye have done it not into the least of these my brethren ye have done it not into me! Ye are found not on the right hand of God and are cast out! Uhmm! You could help a lot of the least with $150,000,000,000.00 USD. Just saying ...

Reply
Clark Burt
5/21/2023 12:48:46 pm

I wrote a comment earlier, but for some reason it did not post. I have been thinking a lot lately about what the Lord means by 'grinding upon the face of the poor.' I am reading a book entitled "Poverty, by America" and how the poor are needed to benefit those who have more. The US is 2nd to France in spending on social programs, but mostly to benefit those who need it the least. You have touched on how we, as part of the affluent, are totally unaware of how we contribute, usually just saying that the poor do nothing to help themselves. I cannot understand why the church hoards its money to make sure it can continue to fund it. I understand the history, but have now become, as you so creatively point out, dependant on mammon. Your poem captures our total lack of awareness of where we are, and how we are captured by Satan's economy. This is his world afterall, and we seem quite comfortable in it.

Reply
Sue Given
5/21/2023 04:42:42 pm

Perfectly articulated

Reply



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  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Fleeing Egypt >
      • Tower of Babel
      • The Orchard
      • Tithing Settlement
      • Chastity for Churches
      • Sign
      • Cleaning House
      • Elijah
      • Rulers of Sodom
      • Beware
      • Two Churches
      • Beginning At My Sanctuary
      • Toll Road
      • Get it Strait
      • Corporation Sole
      • The Religion of the Circle R
      • Fig Tree
      • Eve
      • New Jerusalem
      • Shemlon's Shore
    • Ascending Sinai >
      • Ark
      • Sin of the Calf
      • An Idol Observation
      • Dew from Heaven
      • I love you, Elder Holland
      • Easter
      • How Sweet
      • Haiku
      • The Barn
      • Patron Saint
      • A Conversation with Brigham Young
      • Mine Testimony
      • The Meadow
      • The Gardens
      • Ice Fishing
      • Without End
      • Forest
      • Continental Divide
      • A Great Sacrifice
    • Promised Land >
      • Lanolin
      • Zion
      • Wisdom
      • Take Up Your Cross
      • Was the Sun the Same
      • Plain and Precious
      • Bridegroom
      • Faith
      • Amos
      • But First
      • Wax
      • Parable of the Piano
      • Repentance
      • Wake Up, Child
      • Cold Storage
      • Covered Wagon
      • Multiply and Replenish
      • Rollercoaster
      • The Baptist
    • Seven Stations of the Cross >
      • Jesus Condemned to Die >
        • Life Signs
        • Fashionable Religion
        • Tithing Declaration
        • A Pretty Important Detail
        • Jesus is All
        • Salt Lake Temple
        • Zion in the Lion's Den
        • High Noon
        • Bookmark
      • Jesus Stumbles and Falls >
        • Unveil
        • But Faith
        • Sifting
        • The Ballerina
        • Credit Declined
        • Prayer Circles
        • Work Out Your Salvation
        • Lovebirds
        • Unrequited
      • Simon of Cyrene Bears the Cross >
        • Proxy
        • Chartres
        • Like the Nile
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Not Born
        • Parable of the Crossing
      • Women of Jerusalem Weep >
        • With A Price
        • Fields of Asphodel
        • Night
        • Desert Rose
        • Goodbye
        • Spring Snow
      • Jesus Stripped of His Garment >
        • Love Letter
        • I am disquieted
        • Dream
        • Noah's Wife
        • Parable of the Five Sons
        • Eggshell
      • Jesus Nailed to the Cross
      • Burial and Resurrection
  • Blog
    • Previous Posts >
      • 2025 Posts
      • 2024 Posts
      • 2023 Posts
      • 2022 Posts
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