Entitlement: covenant making and covenant Keeping.

This is a portion of an email exchange between my brother and I. We have discussed the topic of entitlement over several emails over the course of the last week or so. I have gone back and forth about to post my thoughts or not. I tend to see this stuff as personal and sacred. I am going out on a limb tonight and letting some of it out for public consumption and criticism. I hope it serves as not only interesting but enlightening. Maybe some day you will all be lucky enough to read my brother's words. As for now, without his permission I will keep them locked away in my inbox. Enjoy.

I often find myself somewhat frustrated (that may be a bit strong but it's the only word that comes to mind for now) while I sit through Priesthood and Sunday school lessons. I'm sure that there are plenty of reasons, some of which I am consciously unaware of and consequently unable to rationalize. However, at the ripe old age of 26 I am a stickler for doctrine and it makes my skin crawl to hear how frequently it is miscategorized, mistaught and handled lightly. To lend some sympathy to my peers I realize that I have a generally serious approach to life that most people my age probably don't. So, singles wards are generally filled with funny guys "peacocking" in front of the ladies. As guilty of said actions as I am, it's not why I am at church.

We covered Matthew 5 in Sunday School last week. I can't help but wonder how many people walked away really getting the things that the Lord had to say in the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount. I know I didn't get it all. Something that did stand out to me was verse 13. Having our conversation fresh in my mind I was looking for things pertaining to and stemming from entitlement. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." My inclination in response to the teachers question was to answer that "we" are the "salt of the earth" because of the priesthood, covenants and our belonging to Israel. Attempting to dilute his casual jokes about not knowing "much about salt" I ended up lost in thought a bit on my padded folding chair. Are we indeed the "salt of the earth" because we are covenant makers? Because we hold the priesthood? Does taking part in those things intrinsically grant us partnership into Israel, the Lord's covenant people? Will the Lord really keep us and preserve the earth because we have accomplished those things? "Here's the rub." (to quote Elder Holland)

What about all of those other great people who live great lives and never experience the true covenant making of baptism and of the temple? Would the Lord preserve the earth for people who haven't made covenants like that but live life arguably better than some covenant makers? That last one is a doozy. I don't know that it really could be answered. (I like to think "yes" but I don't want to stray from my thoughts here). Or would the Lord only keep and preserve Israel because Israel is comprised of covenant keepers? If the salt loses its "savour" then it is "thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out." If we as Israel, the covenant makers, cease to KEEP the covenants that they entered into do we simply wander adrift lost in our own deceit that the God of Israel would somehow rescue us from ourselves by his own doing? I think not. It is then that God would be "mocked" and allow Israel to continue to look "beyond the mark." (Jacob 4:14)

Keeping such covenants is a large topic that spreads across the Gospel as a whole. Keeping it under the context of Matthew 5 I simply look to the close of the chapter. These for me were a couple verses in scripture I really didn't understand until just this last year. Matthew 5: 46 - 48 reads:

"For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not the publicans do the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?" Do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Fo so long I understood this short but poignant part of scripture to mean that I was to be "perfect." It says it in simple English in verse 48! Oh how wrong I was. I cannot be perfect and it is vanity to try to do so now, on my own. I can, however, work to be perfect in love in this life. I can work to love my neighbors as Christ would love them and as my "...Father which is in heaven is perfect." I can rid myself of the paralyzing consequences of entitlement and love God, thereby loving his children; As such keeping my claim in Israel good.

I came away from Sunday School looking at covenant keeping in a much different perspective. It seems to change and shift relative to my circumstances in life. I can't just sit around and let faith lie dormant and expect God to rescue Israel. It is up to us to allow God to rescue Israel and up to me to secure my own salvation and exaltation. The opportunity is ours for the taking. "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he decieveth himself... Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

One last quotation and then I will let your eyes rest. This is JSH 1:59. Here the prophet recounts the receipt of the plates from Moroni. This passage was shown to me last fall on the drive to Idaho for a hunting trip. It has been with me since and when applied relative to our individual lives, will most likely be with anyone who is willing to do so. Verse 59 reads:

"...On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected."

Consider the dire consequences of neglecting "them" or more personally, our covenants. Then, consider the glorious blessings for preserving them. Entitlement (be it omission or commission) in all of its many forms serves as an agent of lethargy to the human soul.

My thoughts feel a bit scrambled. There is a lot going on in this rather hollow noggin' of mine. I hope that I have made at least some sense. In short, we choose partnership in Israel by avoiding entitlement. We can avoid entitlement by love. What kind of love? Christ-like love for all of God's children, in particular our enemies. May God find it in his infinite wisdom to bless the world with such love through willing hands. Surely we need it now more than we ever have.