{"id":35246,"date":"2016-05-10T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=35246"},"modified":"2016-05-15T07:40:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T12:40:57","slug":"reading-nephi-1124-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2016\/05\/reading-nephi-1124-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Nephi – 11:24-25"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"068-068-the-liahona-full\"<\/a>Christ goes forth among the people, some of whom worship him. I wonder about this, because I wonder about worship. We tend to assume a monotheistic notion of worship\u2014that there is only one Being that is Almighty, and that Being is the only thing that could justify worship. We tend to get dogmatic about who worships whom and what\u2019s appropriate. I remember it being a real issue of confusion for me when I went on my mission\u2014both at the MTC and again in the Bible Belt where I served\u2014is Jesus was a being we worship<\/em>, or do we only worship Heavenly Father as Jesus did, and instead hold Jesus in some other attitude of reverence?<\/p>\n

While I can remember the ways in which I settled the question in my mind then, my mind is far from settled now. The charitable side of me suspects that there is perhaps a good, a kind of attitude and its attendant grace that arises out of what I\u2019m calling monotheistic worship. But since I don\u2019t believe in that kind of God, and don\u2019t hold to that sort of worship, it seems exotic to me. My less charitable side thinks it\u2019s merely a fabrication of hyperbole\u2014heap all hyperbole upon God and upon the appropriate attitude one might take toward God, until there is no hyperbole left, and then call that thing God and that attitude worship. It holds no grip on me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m genuinely open to learning more about worship, to being led in my worship. Presently, I feel it to be an attitude of reverence (literally revering) and devotion; a grateful acknowledgment of an individual and the gifts they\u2019ve given that pertain to salvation and exaltation; a love and adoration; an intense desire toward expressing these things; and ultimately, an intense desire toward emulation. This understanding makes worship necessarily rare (one cannot be profligate in one\u2019s worshipping), but also quite poly-valent. I\u2019ve no more problem worshipping Joseph Smith (which the anti-Mormons are wont to ridicule), than I do Mary (which the Protestants ridicule), than I do Jesus (which my younger self felt quite ambivalent about), than I do my Heavenly Parents\u2014who nonetheless do hold a unique place in my heart and devotion, though on account of our relationship<\/em> rather than their metaphysically sui generis<\/em> status.<\/p>\n

The rod of iron is the word of God. And it leads to the two symbols in the vision that represent the love of God. A rod is concrete, and parallels a strait path that I assume is also straight (I haven\u2019t checked the wording this time round\u2014does it say both?). There is one specific trajectory\u2014toward the tree. And yet the field itself represents the world, and there are regions hither and thither, some seen, some alluded to and acknowledged as unseen. It all seems quite clear that this is one<\/em> narrative, one<\/em> historical trajectory. That is, for certain of our family in the world, there will be a rod, a set down, canonized, conspicuous word<\/em>. I acknowledged earlier, however, that this singular rod is not necessary\u2014Lehi needed no rod. I have to believe that others too, perhaps coming from other regions, were able to be guided by non-rods to the tree and fountain. That said, I am tremendously grateful for the words that have been given to me in my tradition\u2014I have a reinforced rod via Restoration scripture.<\/p>\n

The most powerful connection for me in all of this, however, is the striking fact that the point of the word of God is to lead to the love of God. This is surely the chief constraint on any scriptural hermeneutics.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most powerful connection for me in all of this . . . is the striking fact that the point of the word of God is to lead to the love of God. This is surely the chief constraint on any scriptural hermeneutics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":34019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/068-068-the-liahona-full1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35247,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246\/revisions\/35247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}