NOM

I like my pastor. He gives some good sermons, and then he gives some great ones. Today Matthew 13 and the parable of the wheat and tares was the topic. My pastor pointed out several good thoughts. 1. In our "Us and Them" world view (thanks also to Pink Floyd) he pointed of how easy it is to see ourselves and our tribe as the wheat, and the "others" as the tares. He also pointed out how dangerous this is, using Uganda, South Africa, and Nazi Germany, and LGBT issues as examples. He also pointed out that in Jesus's explanation God is going to let the angels/harvesters not his servants/Us (supposedly and/or hopefully) do the separating, and that it is not our job to judge. 2. He pointed out how the middle-eastern weed, darnel. was probably what Jesus meant by the word "tares. The darnel closely resembles wheat until it matures. Hence we make mistake wheat for tares if we judge too soon. 3. He pointed out that each of us might be the field, and that we each have wheat and tares in our personalities. Drawing from, and comparing the Native-American story of the two wolves, he pointed out that we try feed the good wolf, and starve the bad wolf. I thought it was a great sermon. You'all should have been there.

Nice lesson.

The other aspect that seems to escape Mormons is that in this scenario there is no attempt to "restore" the Gospel once it has been admixtured. The angels are actually forbidden to do so.

Instead it is left to the individual to seek out and pursue righteousness out of the desires of their own heart rather than through the enforced "programs" of an institution. We individually determine whether we will be a wheat or tare.

The end result is a true plant that produces good fruit of it's own accord, not because the institution requires it.

Thus the Kingdom of God survives here on earth as Christ said, but in a more amorphous construct than most would imagine.

This reminds me of Meilingkie's story of his relatives Nazi belt buckle that said something like "God is with us". Speaking of, I wish he would pop in and say Hi. I miss the Dutch perspective.

That sounds like great inspiration for a talk if any of us ever have to give one.

The wheat and tares is a parable about the Church. And we used to sing about it!
https://www.hymnwiki.org/Though_in_the_ ... urch_Below

Bad wolf? Seems like everyone is into Dr. Who nowadays.



"Now you've done it, Beaver. You're in for a good threshing when dad gets home."
-- Wally Cleaver