I want to express my appreciation to
these wonderful steak presidencies their wives who sit
before you as your servants and to the bishoprics
who serve you likewise. The president of this university, President Holland, whom i
love and admire so much. And likewise for those of you who are in
the newly formed technical college stake. You're well served by the marvelous men
and women who preside over you spiritually and ecclesiastically and
likewise professionally. And i appreciate the lovely music of the
choir, all that they have done to prepare for this evening. Perhaps it's merely the
ever more rapid passing of of time but i'm developing a much keener
interest in and a much deeper appreciation for those
crowning qualities which we have come to call enduring well.
Developing these qualities can be an exciting as well as sobering
challenge. In fact enduring well can be exciting. When we think that it
really means brothers and sisters not only enduring well to the end
but also to the very beginning besides this is the life that long long
ago when in our first estate its prospects
were presented to us and over which we shouted for joy. I
grant you there may be days here when we might wonder what all the shouting was
about. But we're here and we're in the midst of
all of these things which life circumstances thrust upon us
but also those circumstances which are the result of a tutoring father in
heaven who see a fit to inflict certain things
upon us because he loves us. Can you and i therefore be like a group
of ancient American saints who experienced some special stress and
strain? They carried some unusual burdens but
the scriptures say they submitted cheerfully and with patience
to all the will of the Lord. In any event we cannot tell the Lord anything about
waiting. "How oft would i have gathered you
together as a hen gathereth her chickens but ye would not." The Savior's capacity
about whom we have sung tonight to endure well
was in many ways his crowning quality and his most remarkable capacity
especially considering that through which he passed.
One of the things he endured that we think little upon
is human abuse and human unresponsiveness. The way
in which he endured that makes him utterly unique in terms of those who
resided on this planet. It was foreseen and "the world because of
their iniquity shall judge him to be a thing of not wherefore they scourge him
and he suffereth it and they smite him and he suffereth it yea they spit upon
him." And he suffereth it why brothers and
sisters? Because of his loving kindness and his
long suffering towards the children of men.
It was his loving kindness which underwrote his long suffering
and it may well be no different for you and for me.
In fact our capacity to love and our capacity to endure well
are inextricably bound together. Real faith in God therefore includes
not only faith in him but in his timing. One of the things that often is most
difficult for us to have faith in for instance God could not
rush the restoration which required among other things
adequate political and religious freedom. To have rushed
would have been to have crushed human agency
or to have risked failure because of prematurity.
Instead god's plan of mercy provided as we know for those of the dark ages
and then the restoration was accomplished on schedule. God's waiting for our readiness continues even now
as history's final events are subject to his redemptiveness.
The lord is not slack concerning his promise
as some men count slackness but is long suffering toward us not willing that any
should perish but that all should come to repentance.
But back to the development of tonight's theme:
enduring well. You may think it's simply something for old people.
It is for all of us. Granted we think of enduring well as belonging to the
years of aging and we have another remarkable lesson being given to us by
President Kimball who among all the other lessons he has
taught to us now shows us how to endure well to the end as does his beloved
camilla as does President Romney. But even so this is a
capacity for all seasons and for all ages of life.
We shouldn't be surprised that as with all christian virtues
endurance has been spoken about both transiently and humorously.
Shakespeare wrote "for there never was yet a philosopher that could endure a
toothache patiently." The frenchman Laroche Foucault
said "we all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others."
And William Waltz Desert said "I can endure
my own despair but not another's hope." And Emerson asserted "some of your hurts
you have cured and the sharpest you still have survived but what torments of
grief you endured from evils which never arrived."
Yates spoke of enduring that toil of growing up that ignominy
"that time of distress of boyhood the unfinished man with all of his pain."
Much more to the point than these observations about endurance are the key
scriptures which i shall try to share with you tonight
especially these two. "And now my beloved brethren i know by this that unless a
man shall endure to the end in following
the example of the son of the living god he cannot be saved wherefore ye must
press forward with a steadfastness in christ
having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of god and of all men
wherefore if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of christ
and endure to the end behold thus saith the father
ye shall have eternal life." Hence brothers and sisters we are not simply to
exist to the end. Rather we are to persist in following the
example of the Son of the Living God quite a different emphasis than we
sometimes think of in connection with enduring.
No wonder then a wise man wrote "there is no disappointment we endure one
half so great as that we are to ourselves."
Especially i think for latter-day saints where we have great expectations
and then must endure the difference between what we could be and what we are.
And to try to make of that some useful divine discontent
rather than corrosive affliction of the self. This quality about which we're speaking
therefore is graceful endurance and it includes becoming
and growing. It includes but is not limited to
hanging on for one moment more. It has been observed
a circumstance in which all virtues at the testing point take the form of
courage and then after you and i pass breaking
points without breaking our virtues take the form of endurance.
Besides this life is not lineal it is experiential.
It is not really chronological though we use clocks and calendars and wrist
watches. It is essentially experiential. Someone
said it well "we live in deeds not years
in thoughts not breaths in feelings not figures on a dial and we really
should count time by heartthrobs." There are therefore some
salient scriptures i would share with you tonight each to be savored in its
own evocativeness each giving us some sense of the many
dimensions of this great quality of enduring. "Well blessed is the man who
endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life
which the lord hath promised to them that love him."
Paul promised us either a way to escape or to help us bear temptation meaning
affliction as well as temptation. "There hath no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man but god is faithful who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that which ye are able to bear
but will also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear."
Can you and I therefore endure hatred misrepresentation and misunderstanding?
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake
but he that endureth to the end shall be saved."
In this world brothers and sisters try as we may
the record is never set fully straight anyway.
Misunderstanding and misrepresentation go with this terrestrial territory and
we as a people are just beginning to learn that
all over again. Moreover enduring well involves all of
life seasons not just one. "And they have no root in themselves and
so endure but for a time afterwards
when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake
immediately they are offended and now my son i trust that i shall have
great joy in you because of your steadiness and your
faithfulness unto god for as you have commenced in your youth
to look to the lord your god even so i hope that you will continue in
keeping his commandments for blessed is he that endureth to the
end." That's your situation. Thus the
requirements to endure well isn't optional moreover it is more than
finishing life with a flourish for aesthetic effect. "And again i would
that ye should learn that only he is saved who endureth unto the
end." Our bearing capacity is thus to be
generalized in our lives not specialized and
certainly not seasonalized. The quality we're focusing on tonight
therefore includes intellectual as well as
behavioral endurance. For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine can you and i
endure the hard doctrines and the truths as these are applied to our lives
or will we become like those who could not handle Jesus's teachings
when he began to preach the hard sayings. From that time many of his disciples
walked no more with him. The superb sermon on the mount inspired but
apparently did not offend anyone yet the sermon at capernaum did offend.
In the latter Jesus spoke of his divinity and his lordship.
This staying power about which we're speaking requires strength
and that strength is to be achieved by feasting upon the gospel of jesus christ
regularly deeply and perceptively. If you and I go undernourished by the
gospel feast which god has generously spread before us
we're vulnerable instead of durable. As Paul intriguingly warned we then
become "weary and faint in our minds."
Think upon that brothers and sisters.
There are some among us who have become intellectually weary and
faint in their minds because they are malnourished they are not partaking
regularly of the fullness of the gospel feast.
Instead you and i brothers and sisters should partake
from that feast in the spiritual rhythm which Alma described as
"thanksgiving daily." And when we do that we can do what Jesus said. Take up the
cross daily and then endure in faith on his
name to the end. We can scarcely hold fast
except we hold fast to the word of God. "And i said unto them that whoso would
hearken unto the word of god and would hold fast unto it they would
never perish neither could the temptation and the
fiery darts of the adversary overpower them."
The promises are magnificent for those who endure well.
"Look unto me and endure to the end and ye shall live
for unto him that endure to the end will I give
eternal life and blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my
zion at that day for they shall have the gift and the power of the holy ghost
and if they endure to the end they shall be lifted up at the last day
and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the lamb
and if you keep my commandments and endure to the end ye shall have eternal
life which gift is the greatest of all the
gifts of god nevertheless he that endureth in faith
and doeth my will the same shall overcome and shall
receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall
come." But the sequence is clear isn't it?
Promises are to be realized after performance is actualized.
And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise. "Dispute not
because you see not for you receive no witness until after
the trial of your faith." Nor are we to misread God's tutoring love
for he would not be a loving Father if He ignored our imperfections. And we must
not forget that he would not be a true Father if He
were content with you and me as we now are.
And the implications of that are profound.
"If you endure chastening god dealeth with you
as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not
for all those who will not endure chastening
but deny me cannot be sanctified." Why is non-endurance a denial of the
Lord? Because giving up is a denial of the
Lord's loving capacity to see us through all these things.
Giving up suggests that God is less than He really is.
It is a denial of His divine attributes and also a denial of our own
possibilities. We should therefore brothers and sisters
see life as being comprised of clusters of soul-stretching experiences
even when these are overlaid by seeming ordinariness
or are wrapped in routine. Some who are very young chronologically
can be methuselahs as to their maturity and spiritual things.
So much of life's curriculum therefore consists of efforts by the Lord to get
and to keep our attention. Ironically the stimuli He uses are often
that which is seen by us as something to
endure. Sometimes what we are being asked to
endure is His help help to draw us away from the cares of
the world help to draw us away from
self-centeredness attention getting help when the still
small voice has been ignored by us help in the shaping of our souls
and help to keep the promises we made so long ago
to him and to ourselves. Thus there is clearly no immunity from
these stimuli. There cannot be no immunity
from from afflictions. There cannot be whether the afflictions are self-induced
as most of them are or they are of the divine tutorial type.
It matters not either way. The Lord can help us in a
most interesting manner. Our affliction said
alma can be "swallowed up in the joy of
Christ." Thus afflictions are endured and
are overcome by being overwhelmed by joy. As the sour notes are lost amid a
symphony of salvational sounds our afflictions brothers and sisters
often will not be extinguished. They will be dwarfed and swallowed up
in the joy of Christ. That's how we overcome.
Most of the time is not their elimination
but the placing of them in that larger context.
Endurance is also a recognition of the very process
of being born again. It is not a one-time thing.
Hence paul said that he died daily. Such is the process of putting off the
old self as one becomes a woman or a man of god.
Quick change artists are rare. I have not seen many
put off the old and put on the new very rapidly.
Another thing we must make no mistake about is this
we constitute each other's clinical material.
We're in the same laboratory with each other.
Agency and all this means quite frankly that we endure each other's immaturities
which when compounded produces considerable perplexity and frustration
as to what is happening about us and to us.
Therefore there are times when we cannot be sure and we must give the response
Nephi gave when he was perplexed. "I know that god loveth his children
nevertheless i do not know the meaning of all things."
There will be times in each of your lives
when that must be the bottom line. You don't know what's happening to you or
around you but you know that god loves you. And
to know that for the moment is enough. Now we've got some marvelous models on
enduring uncertainty and trusting god. First there were the
three young men shadrach meshach and abednego
whose response to a persecuting king was as they were about to be thrown into a
fiery furnace heated seven times its usual capacity
"If it be so king our god whom we serve is
able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace
and then the three words but if not be it known unto the o king that we will
not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has
set up." I pause here to interpolate this thought
on the beaches of dunkirk when 350,000 british soldiers were threatened by
annihilation. There were critical hours and
the scriptural literacy of at least the educated class in england was such that
in that setting a signal was sent from the beaches of dunkirk to british
military headquarters a three-word signal but if not
quoting from daniel they didn't know if they'd be rescued
from the beaches of dunkirk but it didn't matter they would serve their
king. And there will be times in each of our
lives when our faith must not be conditional upon his rescuing us
because in fact he may not as we would choose to be rescued.
Matching those three young men our three young women whose names we do not have.
They appear in the book of abraham three remarkable young women about whom i am
anxious to know more who were sacrificed upon the altar
because they would not bow down and worship an idol of wood and stone.
Someday we'll get to meet them. A third example is that remarkable mary the
mother of jesus when she was confronted with perplexity.
This interesting set of words appears mary's response to the angel she was
perplexed about what lay ahead and the birth of the son of god through
her "and mary said behold the handmaid of the
lord be it unto me according to thy word and
the angel departed from her but if not be it unto me according to
thy word." The most compressed expressions of this
capacity to endure about which we're speaking
enduring therefore quite naturally is equated in some respects with holding on
or holding fast and it certainly includes that capacity
to endure for one moment more again. However
graceful endurance is not just surviving but surviving as Job did with his
integrity intact. This capacity to endure well permits us
when required. As the lord said "be still and know that
i am god." The lord god will watch over you.
There are moments in our lives when we must be still
and know that he is god. And in this silence there can be certitude.
There are other times when we may be much like the children of israel on the
edge of a perplexing and demanding experience.
In their case they stood at the edge of an intimidating
and probably tempestuous red sea and the lord said to them stand still
and the lord shall fight for you. Hold your peace. And in each of our lives
there will be moments when we must stand still
hold our peace and let the lord fight our battles for us.
As you no doubt have thought many times and certainly experience
all the christian virtues including the one we're talking about tonight
are wondrously interdependent and interactive.
Surely this is so with regard to endurance and patience.
Clearly it is patience which cradles us amidst the suffering.
Paul who had suffered much observed realistically in his epistle to the
hebrews the following. "Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it
yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby." Such a spiritual breakthrough as paul
had and being able to write that to conceptualize it and to express it
is impossible without endurance. And by the way it should be obvious to
us that the spiritual scenery that lies
over the next ridge in our lives will never be seen by those
who do not press forward on this great and narrow path.
They'll never see that green valley or the great range of peaks which lie ahead.
Peter who knew a bit about suffering was tough-minded intellectually
and marvelously sweet spiritually. He could empathize and he made the test
of our patience and on our endurance even more sharply defined
when he wrote "For what glory is it if when you are
buffeted for your fault she shall take it patiently
but if when ye do well and suffer for it you take it patiently this
is acceptable with god a precise and demanding delineation."
We must not forget now my brothers and sisters the lord has been so forthright
with us as to his intentions concerning us while
we're in this mortal second estate this schooling process that we're in. He
is the perfect leader. He has told us what is expected of us
what we may expect. And among those imperial scriptures
which spread themselves over all occasions
is this one "nevertheless the lord seeth fit to chasten his people yea
he trieth their patience and their faith." Interesting that those two virtues would
be cited among the many. Patience and faith. We soon discover in the quietude of our
ponderings and our thinkings upon the lord that he
is a tutorial activist god. He is not passive somewhere in space. He
is active in the tutoring of each of us. Peter saw that
and saw it in such a way that he had long since learned to trust god
more than he was able to do on that stormy sea of galilee
and more than he did on the night when jesus was arrested and peter drew his
sword and took off part of the year of the
high priest. Later in life he wrote
"wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of god
commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto
a faithful creature." I hope you've noticed the word
exercise several times. Life does in fact consider
and consist of spiritual calisthenics. We just as soon not go through but we are
exercised in them nevertheless so we have been counseled
by another imperial scripture and there
will be many times in your life if not all of the time when
this scripture is directly relevant and applicable to you and certainly to
me. "My people must be tried in all things
that they may be prepared to receive the glory
that i have for them even the glory of zion
and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy
of my kingdom." There's nothing passive about that
description of the schooling through which will pass.
Hence the importance of endurance. So we're talking about durable
discipleship not the kind that stays in place for a season and then
disappears. In fact it could be said of each one of
us here tonight how much we will have to give
later on will depend on how much we can take. Learning therefore to endure well
is among many other things being able to lose
face without losing heart and that happens to us we lose face but
must not lose heart. It's also being able to pass through
seeming or real injustice as did job without as the scripture
say "charging god foolishly." A friend of mine who passed through a
most severe trial when i discussed it with him he said
simply if it's fair it isn't a trial.
And he passed through it most gracefully. I know a widow of a general authority
who waited patiently for over 40 years to
rejoin her husband. I doubt she ever murmured. She meter kept
quietly going about heavenly father's business
doing as nephi urged following the example of the son of the living god.
Granted these are rigorous spiritual calisthenics. Notice this word again. "I have seen the
travail which god hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it
another scripture they were slothful and forgot to
exercise their faith." As you well know by now this is not a
religion of repose. There is an inherent activism in the
gospel of jesus christ in which god will not be content with us
as we now are because he knows what we have the possibilities to become. Cctually therefore if one were to press
me to say what does being about our father's
business consist of in summational terms
i would say being about our father's business
is to be about the business of becoming like his only begotten son jesus christ.
Noteworthy is the fact that jesus endured
well in fact perfectly. And so much music about him tonight that
we might remember him and what he has passed through for us.
His spiritual submissiveness was total for he was submissive
meek humble patient full of love and then ultimately
willing to submit to all things which the lord seeth fit to inflict upon him
even as a child to submit to his father. I pause again to interpolate think about
it. Brothers and sisters a short number of
days before the weight of the atonement fell on him
in gethsemane and calvary he was in the courtyard or the interior
of the temple and began to feel the weight and spoke
out almost as if in dialogue with himself.
"Father take this cup from me" and then to himself "but for this cause came i
into the world." And then the voice of god was heard
to reassure him and then likewise as the pressure of that enormous weight
the awful arithmetic of atonement fell upon him
beginning to intensify in gethsemane and in calvary
we find jesus groaning under the weight thereof
needing to be strengthened by an angel who appeared to strengthen him. That perfect soul untouched by sin then took upon him all our sins
even though he was intellectually brilliant uniquely so
even though he was the creator of other worlds and he knew what he had to do
when the moment came. Since he had never passed
personally through an atonement himself it was much
much worse than even he with his brilliant mind could possibly have
imagined. Hence the great soul cry and in one of the gospels only one
does he jesus in his pleading to the father
plead that the cup passed from him. But jesus also said
"Father all things are possible unto thee take this cup from me." I do not presume
to know what went through his mind whether there
might have been a moment in which he wondered if there could
be some other way he quoted back to the father that which he as jehovah had said
to abraham "is anything too hard for the lord?" He
quoted back that scriptural statement which he had
used a number of times in his ministry that "to him that believeth all things
are possible." So great was his agony as he felt the
weight of the atonement that he made that special
pleading. And then in spiritual submissiveness
"nevertheless not my will but thine be done." It is enormously important
that Jesus's grip on himself is seen as our grip on eternity. For
in fact it was on that occasion now significantly being spiritually
submissive as he was to perfection has been
something he has now laid upon us as his followers.
When he said "and what manner of men and women ought you to be? And i say
unto you even as I am," incorporated therefore in our developmental
objectives is the acquisition and the further refinement in each of us
of that spiritual submissiveness about which we're speaking
which requires that we endure to the end. In fact it shouldn't surprise us
that the christian virtues, one of which we're speaking about tonight,
spiritual submissiveness and enduring well to the end,
are those qualities which will rise with us in the resurrection,
and not much else. And to the degree that we have developed them in ourselves in
this life we will have so much the advantage in the world to come. We will be able to call upon a
porter endurance and it is he who will make
these qualities portable and we can carry them with his help beyond the veil.
And without endurance they would simply come apart.
It's the capacity to keep them intact that permits us to take them with us
into the next world. I grant you that our spiritual development
is to be achieved amid differentially dispensed measures of
time. Having been with President Romney today
Elder Oaks and I went to call on him that marvelous warrior of the lord to
waits upon the will of the lord. I'm sure he'd be glad to be with his beloved Ida
but he's willing to wait. So for some time is like getting caught up in sticky
taffy especially when they're very old and
they're unwell they'd like to be wrenched free of it.
But others of us are apt to know what i would call a sudden karate chop of
changed circumstances when much of what we have known is
rearranged suddenly. Whichever time is relative
and these things shall be but a small moment. Paul said it
"for our light affliction which is but for a moment
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
Meanwhile if we do is invited our load will be lightened
by doing what Peter said. "Cast all your care upon him
for he careth for you." We have cast our sins upon jesus
and he bore them. If we will cast our cares upon him
he will lighten our load. Meanwhile it's easier for you and for me
to endure without resentment if we remember how and why this life is so
structured. "For it must needs be that there is an
opposition in all things. If not righteousness could not be
brought to pass." Now the lord will measure our bearing
capacity. He says so. He knows we're children and what we
cannot handle but he will give us all that we can
at times and this opposition that's built right into the structure of life
includes what i call the stern and demanding
isometrics of being pitted against our old selves.
It is the sternest competition we shall ever know. And since the lord uses our old self as
his surrogate we must come off conqueror. And it is that stern competition of what
we're in the process of becoming which is assaulted and attacked by that
which we are that provides this tremendous isometrics
in which we're to pull free, cast off that which is not good which we
have been, hence paul's phrase "I die daily."
This enduring about what you're speaking also includes
the in-between periods of life. Winston Churchill for instance
endured a decade which was called his wilderness years. He was out of the
circles of power, his talents went largely unused,
furthermore his accurate and warning voice was raised but went unheeded.
He saw what was coming but his influence was waning.
His political career was assumed to be over. Down underneath the streets of London
they have preserved the war cabinet rooms at which
Churchill presided a dingy underground tiny room, not well lit, has a very crude
square table set with the agenda placed at each place as it was in October
of 1940. The coalition cabinet met there. That's where the lamp of liberty burned
all down the hall. It's filled with pipes. There's a little bedroom that Churchill
slept in. On the wall is a little poster. I don't
know who put the quote up but wouldn't surprise me if it had been
Winston. The quote says "there is no depression in
this house. We do not speak of defeat here. It is not
a possibility." It is that kind of pluck and courage that must enable the
disciple in each of us to carry on. And in these
in between periods as well as the periods of great personal drama
Thackery wrote about these with a special
insight when he said "To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out
hostile fortunes; to be undaunted by difficulties;
to keep heart when all have lost theirs; to go through
intrigue spotless to forgo even ambition when the end is gained--
this is greatness." Though you and I can endure
direct assaults, can we endure being abused,
can we endure being underwhelmed? Can we endure being unused and unsung
unresponded to? The prophet Ether endured a period of time in which he preached
the gospel from the morning to the going down of the sun
but he went unheeded. As commanded, Mormon even endured the unusual circumstance of
being an idol witness in order that he might thereby manifest
certain things to the world. Whether therefore it is illness, pain,
deprivation, being passed over, being ignored, being misunderstood,
being underwhelmed, or working one's way through doubts, trust, and faith in our
heavenly father and in his son jesus christ and in his plan
are what it is all about and we must have faith in his
timing as well as in his existence. And it is the sustaining of those
qualities about which we're speaking. It means
likewise brothers and sisters that you and I are willing periodically
to get out the hoe and to chop back what I call the crab grass cares of the world
which just keep coming at us day after day. These cares along with
temptation, persecution, and tribulation are the four ways in
which if we're not careful we slacken and then give up. Thus again and again
we see that while enduring is more than simply waiting
it includes waiting but that waiting must be used to facilitate our becoming
more like jesus and therefore we should be anxiously
engaged even when it seems to us we are doing no more than waiting.
Thus we can be about our father's business even when it seems for the
moment that we're overcome by ordinariness and
routine. And so it is also that our enduring is
easier if we see it as a part of god's
unfolding. Besides we were never promised precision
in this life nor should the gospel be expected
to lend itself to glib explanations that cover all circumstances. We endure when we cannot explain. And it is a silence which bespeaks
certitude with the gift of agency that god gave to
mankind. Life cannot possibly present a perfectly tidy picture. The
ambiguities of circumstances are partly if not
largely the cumulative result of our varied use of our moral agency.
But also the structure of life itself. But some of you may say well what are
those circumstances? When individuals appear to be no more than a surviving
vegetable not able to express themselves not able
to serve? We're not equipped to answer fully such
a question. But we should never assume that because
something is unexplainable by us that it is unexplainable. Meanwhile we
should see such marvelous individuals rightfully
as opportunities for service even when the one being served
may not know. There are also the flat periods in life
which may be those periods when before new lessons come in upon us. The
past lessons of life are allowed to seep
quietly and deeply into the marrow of our souls. These outwardly flat periods of life when enduring well may not seem to be
purposeful are probably the period of time in which
quietly attitudinal realignments are occurring with
within our hearts and within our minds. And this means frankly that an
experience must not only be passed through but absorbed
into the marrow of the soul. Thus when we really look at it it is we
not god who need more time. Meanwhile the fact is
that as one might begin for instance to move away from self-centeredness
towards compassion and empathy. That slow shift may be hardly perceptible.
Trying to watch it would be like trying to watch the grass grow.
But the change occurs and the quiet periods of life often lend themselves to
this sort of alignment. And it can't be rushed any more than one
can rush through the period of one's youth
a time when maybe for some of us acne and low self-esteem ought to be gotten
rid of and we'd like to bend on to whatever comes next. Of a truth concerning this life
there is no way to go but through. There is no around.
Moreover its walk do not run. Hence the importance of the quality
being addressed tonight it is the love and mercy and justice of
god which caused him to wait for us. Remember
the search for a handful of righteous men and women in the societies of Sodom
and Gomorrah. If only 10 could have been found the
lord would have spared those societies. I've often wondered who were the 10 men
and women who would have been able with a little personal
reform to help make up that critical mass and
spare their societies. We don't know. God waited but they could
not be found. The critical mass was not there
yet you will live in a world in which you will see some men and women without
faith who will rail at god because they do not understand
that human misery (at least much of it) is caused by misused human agency. And if
god were to take away the agency those who rail would then
rail at him for taking away their agency. These individuals want a smooth flow of
blessings in life but no consequences for misused agency.
Leave us to our mud pies and sand castles they say.
Do not draw our attention to the distant shore.
Let us alone. In any event the justice and mercy of god will be
seen in their resplendent entirety one day
by each of us on the day of judgment when we shall see the first, second, and
third estates in perspective. And then as Alma wrote we will openly
and individually acknowledge that the love
and justice and mercy of god are perfect because he will have honored our moral
agency. And he will have been patient enough to
allow us to develop. This poses some real problems for us.
When we pray in the sense that there are times when each of us
here would hasten the dawn but even as we would hasten the dawn
there are others who need to have the lord hold back the dawn.
Out of that kind of complexity we will on that occasion acknowledge that god
was perfect in his love in his mercy and in his justice. So it is that enduring well to the end
or to the very beginning becomes a prime quality.
It calls for shoulder squaring not shoulder shrugging. It calls for realizing the wisdom of
that wise man who said to each of us the cross comes before the crown and
tomorrow is a monday morning and so it is. And that is the structure
of life. Meanwhile too it helps us
to remember that so much immortality of necessity involved teeth to be brushed,
beds to be made, cars to be fixed, diapers to be changed,
groceries to be bought, and on and on. Those endless chores go.
They are mundane matters but in the midst of these things
is the real business of living. A friendship to be formed,
a marriage to be mended, a truth to be driven home,
a child to be encouraged, a christian attribute to be further refined and
developed. Meanwhile too just as well
we should realize all of us do not die quietly in our sleep at age
85. We cannot expect to use our faith and
prayers all of the time to block all of the
exits for all of the people. There must be ways out of this
experience as well as a way in. And indeed
there must be endings even for graceful enduring when enough has been done and when enough has been born.
I love these ways in which the apostle John summed it up so well.
Here he said is the patience of the saints.
Here are they that keep the commandments of god
and the faith of jesus. So tonight as we sang that marvelous
hymn together "I know that my Redeemer lives," those
words every time we sing them brothers and sisters ought
to have special meaning. Reassuring words like grant me rich
supply, hear my souls complaint ,comfort me
when faint, silence all my fears, calm my troubled heart, and I
shall conquer death. Those lyrics embody a relationship
to our marvelous savior and to his father
in such a way that permit us to know even as our souls are being stretched
why they're being stretched and to know that god loves us.
But we must once again endure well. Not fitfully, not slothfully, not
resentfully, but in that serenity and spiritual submissiveness
which you and i have seen in people who pass through the most
difficult extremities. Who do so because they know that their redeemer lives
and that he will comfort them when faint. Now may god bless you as that generation
of destiny to whom so many challenges and
opportunities will be given to develop within you along with all the
other qualities that are at work in you already. For men and women
so young that added sense of reverence and
respect for that spiritual submissiveness which
permits us to endure well to the very beginning
to take one more step when we think we cannot
to make it to the next ridge when we're sure it's too far to go
to endure injustice misrepresentation and abuse because we
are the servants of him upon whom they spat,
and he suffered it whom they abused in every way they could
and he suffered it and we must do it for the
same reason because of our loving-kindness and long-suffering to
our brothers and sisters upon this planet
whom we have been sent here to serve. They are that selection of humanity that
is ours. We cannot help the 19th century now
but we can affect the 1980s and you can affect the 1990s
and endure to that point when your honorable release will come.
And may you then hear those marvelous words at some point
"well done thou good and faithful servant." And may we as we now hear the choir sing
"behold tis even tide" have that proper sense
that the cross comes before the crown. and tomorrow is a monday morning
and this is the even tide of contemplation of the week that lies
before us. But the life as well I certify to you my
brothers and sisters in apostolic authority
this is The Church of Jesus Christ. His work will triumph over
all of his enemies and we are to love his enemies
and our enemies because we're his. And he has shown us how. I certify to you
of that triumphal moment when all will be seen to fit together
in divine design the mosaic of the plan of god
which eons of times ago jesus stepped forward and said
"here am i send me." And with that modest response
there was inaugurated the greatest ministry we shall ever know.
He is our perfect and true shepherd and we are his under shepherds.
And we must be as he the perfect shepherd is
and endure well to the end for which i pray for each of us
and give my witness in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
