“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessing are predicated – And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”  Doctrine & Covenants 130:20-21.

If ever a person mistook God for a vending machine, I think she could be found looking through a lens made of this scripture.

It troubles me.

It makes our relationship to God sound like a transaction, like we can cash in our obedience for blessings.  And where is grace?  When we obtain any blessing from God it is because we were obedient???  I have too many blessings I don’t deserve for that to be true.

For example, I recently took a trip to visit family, alone.  As I was leaving our hotel I dropped my wallet, but didn’t notice until we got to my Grandma’s house, two hours away.  Amazingly, someone had taken my wallet to the lost and found, nothing missing.  He also thoughtfully called my office and left a message telling me it was safe.  Without my wallet I don’t know how I would have flown home the next day, and my family really needed me home because without me there the day would have been a scheduling disaster (Uh, hello dear daycare provider, can you keep my kids till 10:30 pm?  Yeah, I know the 2 year old has been there since 8:30 this morning…)

Getting my wallet back safe was a blessing, but I did nothing to deserve it.  I didn’t pray it safe (by the time I noticed it was missing it was already locked up in the hotel safe), and I felt the light touch of the spirit telling me this wasn’t a reward for any past honesty.  It was pure grace.  Undeserved and freely given, as so many blessings are.

I think other scripture, particularly King Benjamin’s address (Mosiah 2:18-24),  establishes that blessings are not necessarily the result of obedience.  So why is this scripture saying they’re connected?

I can accept that good things come from obedience.  I think the critical issue is causality.  If blessings as a result of obedience require divine thought and action, for example God choosing and bestowing particular blessings in response to particular acts of obedience by us, then that feels transactional, and potentially capricious.  But what if there is a law (existing from before the foundations of this world) which dictates that natural consequences will flow from obedience (or disobedience) to moral principles?

For example living honestly brings the reward of having people trust you and not needing to live with anxieties created by lying.  Being faithful to a spouse means getting to enjoy intimacy and trust.  Not coveting leaves mental space that can be filled by better thoughts.  Or for a Mormon-specific kind of obedience, keeping the Word of Wisdom might mean you don’t tempt fate with your predisposition to addiction.  All of these blessings are inherent to the behavior, not an external reward layered onto it.

This to me is consistent with the logic of natural laws.  When you multiply mass and acceleration you inherently get force.  The universe doesn’t wait for God to make the force when a mass is accelerated, it simply exists.  Maybe this odd scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants is explaining a natural law.  Maybe God’s goodness and wisdom is in giving us commandments or principles that when lived lead naturally to happiness.

I’ve never liked the word obedience.  To me it connotes manipulation and control — a person more powerful than me offering a carrot if I’ll comply with his wishes and a sick if I don’t.  I can be motivated by carrots and sticks, but I’d like to think I’m more motivated by love.  I’d rather use the word allegiance.  I’d like to give my allegiance to principles (or commandments, if we must) that are part of equations that naturally yield good things.

Allegiance also leaves room for agency.  To be sure some level of agency is exercised when we comply with commandments received from authority.  This may be what God has in mind for us, at least initially, as a way of getting us started on right paths.  But surely this kind of because-I-said-so obedience is not where we are meant to stay.  We are meant to have changed hearts (Alma 5:14), loving good for goodness’ sake.  Choosing good because we love God and our neighbors.  I think allegiance is obedience with agency fully engaged.

What’s your comfort level with the word obedience?  Are you bugged by it, or of all the things to be bugged by, maybe this really doesn’t rise above the noise?

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Throughout the month of June, young men and young women of the church will study the priesthood. The introduction to this section of the Young Women curriculum contains this note:

Be sensitive to young women who live without priesthood authority in the home or have negative examples in their lives.

By all means, do be sensitive to such situations, but I wonder why it did not occur to the authors to remind teachers to be sensitive to the fact that all of the students in the class are young women and therefore excluded from the priesthood?  Sensitivity to this issue is paramount as we prepare to discuss the priesthood in Young Women’s class every week for a whole month.  Some of the young women in your class may feel concerned, frustrated or hurt as they watch their male peers administer sacred ordinances of the priesthood every week and receive higher offices of the priesthood every other year.  Spending a month discussing ordinances they are not allowed to perform and offices they are not allowed to hold could exacerbate these feelings.

How can you be sensitive to young women who struggle with their exclusion from the priesthood?

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While my husband was off at Priesthood Session this evening, I attended the Ordain Women Launch Event, which another attendee charmingly dubbed “Priestesshood Session.”  The crowd was sparse when I arrived yet entering was difficult because of the large number of TV cameras to dodge.  I am excited to think that someday there will be archived footage of the back of my sweater blocking a camera or two as I zigzagged through the room to attend this historic event.  By the end of the speech, however, the room had filled up–with a surprisingly close ratio of male and female attendees.

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One of the things I like to do when I read scriptures is to add Heavenly Mother in. Where it says “God” I add “and Goddess,” where it says “Father” I read it as “Parents,” and where it says “Lord” I add “and Lady.”

Because we are studying Doctrine and Covenants in Sunday School this year, I thought it would be interesting to re-imagine the First Vision with God the Mother introducing Christ. So I opened up my scriptures and read,

When the light rested upon me Isaw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

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by Liz Johnson

(Liz Johnson is the mother of four and resides in Northern Indiana.  She has a BA in International Development and is two postage stamps away from being a certified doula. This post is adapted from an Easter talk she gave in Sacrament meeting.)

Whenever I think of Christ being lifted off the cross, His mortal work on the Earth finished, and being prepared for burial and entombment, I can’t help but think of His loyal followers and how they may have felt at the crucifixion of their Lord.  This man – whose life had been prophesied for generations and whose birth was foretold by prophets of old was there – in flesh and blood! He had walked with them, healed the sick, made the blind to see, raised a man so dead that “he stinketh”[1] back to life.  He had performed miracles of all varieties, spent time with all classes of society, and bestowed forgiveness on even the most vile of sinners.  This mortal son of Deity, whose power seemed to defy all reason and all rank, had been brought before the civic justice of the day, wrongfully convicted, tortured, and then put to death right in front of his loyal followers.  How devastating must it have been to see a man so powerful in the ways of God be so defeated and victimized by mere mortals?

Was there even any hope to be had?  We know that his followers had been taught of the resurrection – Martha proclaimed her faith that her brother, Lazarus, would rise again in the resurrection not long before Christ’s crucifixion.  They had witnessed the miracles throughout His life and had expressed unwavering faith in His power and glory.  But who could save their Lord?  The man who had saved the beggar, the adulterer, the leper, and the friend – who would save Him now?  With His crucifixion, they had no Lord to call upon to come raise Him from the dead as Lazarus was raised.  Could their faith have endured on this, the blackest of all Fridays?

And then, seemingly to add insult to injury, when Mary Magdalene came upon His garden tomb early Sunday morning, she found His grave vacant, apparently vandalized and plundered by those who had despised her Lord.  I can only imagine the bitter feelings she might have felt – was it not enough that they had taken Him, pounded nails into His hands & feet, plunged a sword into His side, and crucified Him with common thieves?  They couldn’t let Him rest in peace, but had to desecrate not just His life, but His resting place as well?

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Today is Palm Sunday when we celebrate Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem – one week before Easter. On this day, Jesus rode through the city gates on a donkey and has hailed by the Jews as their King.  Only four days later, after the Last Super with his apostles, Jesus was betrayed and taken away from the Garden of Gethsemane by soldiers.  And five days after His triumphant entry, He was tried and crucified.

It didn’t take long for the Hailed King to move into a downwardly spiral of events – just a few days. While Christ anticipated these events and knew they were part of the plan, I’m sure they were not pleasant. We too know how fast things can fall apart in this earth life.

On the morning of Friday the 13^th of July 2012, I sat alone in my small Honda Civic slowly absorbing the words I had just heard from my doctor and trying not to cry. I had a 25 cm cyst in my abdomen that needed to be surgically removed immediately before damage was done to my internal organs. I had no health insurance, no job, and nowhere to live to recover from such a surgery. My heart was very heavy.

The phone rang.  It was the HR Department from my previous employer telling me that my Cobra Health Insurance had been reinstated. Then I did start to cry.  I wept tears of gratitude and knew that I had been a part of a miracle. It was the first of many miracles – and I had unknowingly taken just one step into a journey that would last many months.

That morning in the dark mood of that small car, my path was illuminated by that miracle and God would continue to guide me throughout this journey.  “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angles round about you, to bear you up.”  (D&C 84:88)

Four days later I was in Alexandria Hospital hooked to an IV and waiting for an ambulance that would take me to Fairfax where a surgeon was waiting to operate.  A friend waited with me, insisting that I have a blessing before I left for surgery.  After several calls – and to my surprise – Elder Wilson of the Seventy was on his way to anoint me. The moment he put his hands on my head, my whole body filled with power.  It was an overwhelming feeling.  I knew then that this man had lived a life dedicated to righteousness and that he had become a powerful tool in the hands of God – and I also knew that God wanted to show me, His daughter, how powerful He was – and assure me that He was in charge and would strengthen me.  Another miracle.  ”I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand. Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.” (How Firm a Foundation – #85)

And so it went, from the ambulance to the hospital, and into the hands of a very particular surgeon. One miracle after another.  I was guided and strengthened and kept safe down a narrow illumined path as my life exploded around me.  My friends worked in shifts to be with me until my family could arrive.  My sister, Heather, was with me one week later when bad combination of stress and pain killers caused my intestines constrict and cramp – leaving me with the worse abdominal pain of my life.  I was curled up in a ball on the Stinson’s couch – crying and desperate.  Heather called the doctor and listed the pros/cons of an emergency room visit.  She asked if I wanted her to call for a blessing – and that didn’t feel right, so I asked for a prayer of faith.  With me on the couch, my sister knelt and offered a prayer on my behalf.

It was then that I felt the great comfort of the Lord.  Like a warm blanket, I felt the arms of love encircle me and a soft voice in my mind telling me to relax.  I knew if I could just let my body relax that the pain would start to work itself out.  And it did.  I have felt this same comfort many times since in moments of distress.  “His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye. / To fertile vales, and dewy meads. My weary, wandering steps he leads. / My noon-day walks he shall attend, And all my midnight hours defend.”   (The Lord My Pasture will Prepare – #109)

And, through these experiences, I came again to know – even more deeply – what I’d know before: that the Risen Lord Lives!  He knows me!  He lives to guide me and strengthen me and comfort me.  I know more intensely now that He is my Savior.

On this Palm Sunday, we, with all Christendom, hail Him as our King and look with eager eyes to Easter Sunday when HOPE is made fresh again in the world.  ”He is Risen! Tell it out with joyful voice. / He has burst the three days’ prison; let the whole wide word rejoice. /Death is conquered.  We are free.  Christ has won – the victory.”  (He is Risen – #199)

I will spend my Palm Sunday worshiping at two different churches.  During this Holy Week, I will attend a session at the LDS Temple and a mass at the Basilica of Catholic University.   I hope to spend Easter Morning on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial with my scriptures, watching the sun come up above the Cherry Blossoms.

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