{"id":8152,"date":"2015-09-26T16:37:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T22:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/affirmation.org\/?p=8152"},"modified":"2021-10-03T09:41:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T15:41:18","slug":"suffering-discipleship-and-the-irresistible-power-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affirmation.org\/pt\/sofrimento-discipulado-e-o-poder-irresistivel-do-amor\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofrimento, Discipulado e o Poder Irresist\u00edvel do Amor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"terryl2\"<\/a>

Photo courtesty of Emric Delton, 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

The following talk was delivered by Terryl L. Givens at the devotional of the 2015 Affirmation Annual Conference in Provo, Utah, on Sunday, September 20, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Suffering<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Frost wrote a magnificent poem about human preexistence. It is seldom heard, because everyone resonates to poems about woods and two paths and the end of the world. But most folks don\u2019t know what to do with a poem that takes seriously the proposition that we lived with God before our birth into this vail of tears. The poem describes how \u201cthe angel hosts with freshness go, \/ And seek with laughter what to brave,\u201d soon finding that \u201cfrom a cliff top is proclaimed \/ The gathering of the souls for birth, \/ The trial by existence named, \/ The obscuration upon earth.\u201d Two aspects of the scene dominate Frost\u2019s narration: the exemplary courage of the souls\u00a0 <\/span>who undertake earth life and the freely made choice to leave heaven behind:<\/span><\/p>\n

The slant spirits trooping by
\nIn streams and cross- and counter-streams
\nCan but give ear to that sweet cry
\nFor its suggestion of what dreams!
\nAnd the more loitering are turned
\nTo view once more the sacrifice
\nOf those who for some good discerned<\/b>
\nWill gladly give up paradise.<\/b>
\nAnd none are taken but who will,
\nHaving first heard the life read out
\nThat opens earthward, good and ill,
\nBeyond the shadow of a doubt;
\nAnd very beautifully God limns,
\nAnd tenderly, life\u2019s little dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love this poem, and the hard truth and wisdom that inspired it. Everyone of us gave up paradise, for a good we discerned. From across the veil of birth, the picture may have been blurry. But it makes sense to me that God fully informed us of the suffering in store. That is why he \u201cgently limned\u201d the life that awaited us. With what degree of specificity, I have no knowledge. But it has always seemed highly reasonable to me that the pain and anguish he advised us to anticipate was sufficiently terrifying to dissuade a third of our heavenly siblings to recoil in horror and choose another path. As one of history\u2019s greatest clergymen suggested, in offering his explanation of the War in Heaven, \u201cFrom pleasure, of course, there was no temptation to revolt, but from a discipline of suffering, such as they needed to fit them to be the founders of the universe with God, they could be tempted to revolt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t fully understand the cosmic law according to which only pain can launch us on the path of growth. I think Darwin came as close as any to explaining the eternal principle that governs the inescapable process by which the universe and everything in it churns and writhes its stormy way to higher and better forms. It was an insight that first seems to have emerged in the decades before Joseph Smith, almost as if in preparation for a totally new cosmic narrative that made Eden\u2019s loss and exile from heaven the essence, rather than the failure, of God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 <\/span>I think the prophet William Blake may have been the first to capture it with sublime economy: \u201cWithout contraries,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is no progression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If I have learned anything as a father, as a bishop, as a friend and as someone who has broken bread and shared testimony and stories with fellow Saints in twenty countries, it is that we all carry crosses, which are almost always invisible to those around us. More than anything, we want others to see, to acknowledge, and to understand the crosses we bear. That, I believe, is the promise held forth in Yahweh\u2019s words to Moses: \u201cI know thee. [I know thee] by name.\u201d Fiona has spoken beautifully on the baptismal covenant in Mosiah as a manual of discipleship that trains us to observe, touch, and share the cross that weighs down our neighbor. That is what discipleship calls us to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Loneliness of Discipleship<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

MATTHEW proclaims Jesus as the Messiah. It is written primarily to convince the Jews that Jesus is the anointed one, the Son of God, a being of majesty and power. The setting is always among multitudes and open places. Magis attend his birth and earthquakes signal his death.<\/span><\/p>\n

LUKE is the poet. He proclaims the beautiful Christ. He gives us the nativity story, Mary\u2019s Magnificat, the parable of the Prodigal Son, and the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus.<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHN is the insider. He gives us an intimate Christ, and tells us in poignant detail what it was like to minister by Christ\u2019s side, to see him in private dialogue with the woman at the well in Samaria, with Nicodemus in the dead of night; He spends five entire chapters chronicling the last hours of Jesus on the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

But MARK tells us how it is we come to know Christ. Where we find him, and the price we must pay.<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe Mark\u2019s entire gospel is written to highlight themes of seclusion, intimacy, loneliness, solitude, and the privacy of sacred encounter. He it is who teaches us the loneliness of discipleship. I can only touch upon a few examples. <\/span><\/p>\n

Two instances stand out: the paralytic lowered into the house; and the blind man healed in two stages.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. <\/span><\/p>\n

And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a magnificent story. It has two crucial points. First, the paralytic and his friends are resourceful, persistent, determined. They only find the Christ they seek when they are prepared to break down walls. Or in this case, ceilings. Traditional modes of address don\u2019t work. Clearly, genuine discipleship will weed out those content to rely upon the mere forms of worship and easy ways of seeking. It’s not enough to stand on the periphery and wait for God to come to you. Like Jared and the sacred stones, we have to show initiative, energy, and courage in fighting our way through the throngs to ensure our sacred encounter with God. We have to break down walls, some of which may be of our own creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, astonishingly, we arrive only to learn we have the wrong petition in our hands. The paralytic\u2019s friends risked everything to find the healing they thought the sufferer needed. They never questioned the rightness of their request. Was he not paralyzed? Was not Christ the Great Physician? But to their shock\u2014and the shock of the watching multitudes, Christ presented the petitioner with an entirely different prescription. Thy sins are forgiven thee, he said. \u201cBut that is not what we came for,\u201d they must have thought. \u201cThat was not in my prayer or petition.\u201d My point is not by any means that sin is generally the real source of our suffering. My point, and I think Mark\u2019s point, is that our healing seldom comes in the ways or modes that we envision. God\u2019s ways are not our ways. And God\u2019s way of healing, is not necessarily my idea of healing. That beautiful man of God George MacDonald put it this way: \u201cThat [person] is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without<\/i> a glow or an aspiration, and with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects and wandering forgetfulness, say to him, \u2018Thou art my refuge, because thou art my home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A second example from Mark, chapter 8.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.<\/span><\/p>\n

After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, a rather astonishing story. And again, two morals I think Mark wants us to derive. 1<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span>, notice the subtle detail: Where does the healing occur? \u201cHe led him out of the town.\u201d Spiritual healing, our most sacred encounters, communion with our God and immersion in the sanctifying balm of the atonement, do not occur in public places or commonly traversed spaces. Not among groups or multitudes, not with friends or in church. It happens where Mark has taken us so many times before. As he indicated in his opening chapter, John\u2014the true disciple\u2014was in the \u201cwilderness<\/i>\u201d and Jesus, our personal redeemer, was in \u201cthe desert places<\/i>.\u201d Remember, too, that just days\u00a0 <\/span>before healing the blind man, Jesus was presented with a deaf mute. In chapter 7 we read, \u201cAnd he took him aside from the multitude.\u201d It is only there, aside<\/i> from the multitude, in the wilderness<\/i>, that the sacred ministry could unfold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a second remarkable truth evident in the blind man\u2019s healing. It doesn\u2019t take<\/i> the first time. This is nothing short of shocking. Christ the son of God fails to get it right in his initial attempt. This is a failure, is it not? We would not likely return to an eye doctor if after our prescription, men looked to us \u201clike trees.\u201d \u00a0 <\/span>What can this mean?\u00a0 <\/span>I believe this episode holds the key to one of the most pervasive puzzles, and frequent misunderstandings, in the Mormon\u2014or even the Christian\u2014world.\u00a0 <\/span>How many times have your found yourself asking, \u201cwhy does God allow\u2026. X or Y?; Why doesn\u2019t God just answer my prayer? Why doesn\u2019t God just tell the prophet A or B?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>But Mark may be asking us to consider, what if the real question, which I believe is the point here, is \u201cwhy are we<\/i> so incapable<\/i> of receiving healing, revelation, enlightenment, wisdom?\u201d Why are we<\/i> so slow to get it right? Section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants reinforces this unexpected root of the problem: In the eternities, we will all receive that which we are \u201cwilling to receive.\u201d Or, \u201cable\u201d to receive, in Mark\u2019s story. As the poet recognized, sometimes, God\u2019s grace, like light, \u201cmust dazzle gradually, or every eye be blind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If we had more time, I would take you through the last three chapters of Mark, where we find Christ himself, the son of God, treading the path of unparalleled abandonment and loneliness. We would follow him as he is betrayed by Judas, left without the support of his three closest friends in the Garden, forsaken by them all moments later, denied by Peter, repudiated by his religion\u2019s chief priests, and finally, abandoned by his Father on the cross. We can barely begin to fathom the agony in his recollection of treading the winepress, alone<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

If we see in him our great exemplar, we must anticipate that our road back to God will be a lonely path through wilderness, not a humming expressway. That he why he beckons, \u201cCome ye yourselves apart into a desert place\u201d (Mark 6:31). As Thomas a Kempis counseled centuries ago, all disciples will know loneliness. Because as Thomas a Kempis wrote, \u201cthe more spiritual progress a man makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u201cBe of good comfort. Rise, he calleth thee.\u201d (10:49)<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Love as Irresistible<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Three things are true about love\u2026The first is, that it always confers independence upon the object of its love. It gives, compelling no return; it goes on giving, though no love is given in answer. It is the one force in the world which does not bargain\u2026 Second, if love endows the recipient<\/i>\u00a0with formal freedom\u2014with the right to accept or reject at will\u2014it also, and it alone, confers upon the\u00a0giver<\/i>\u00a0actual freedom\u2026. In love and in love alone can [man] actualize the freedom \u2026 which God has given him\u2026.\u00a0Man\u00a0becomes free as he learns to love.\u00a0And finally, love is irresistible\u2026 And therefore whatever in the end opposes it\u00a0must in the end give way\u2026. The same power which confers freedom on its recipients also evokes from them\u2014not by contract, not by force, but by the invincible suasion of a moral appeal\u2014an answer of love freely given in return.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Augustine\u00a0may have expressed those sentiments but only Joseph Smith followed them to their astounding, ineluctable conclusion. The entire Christian framework of salvation, outside of Mormonism, is predicated on a contrary notion. In conventional soteriology, God\u2019s love waits upon our response. His disposition to bless or punish, love or condemn, waits upon us. But Christ taught a different God. \u201cHe loved us first,\u201d wrote John. <\/span><\/p>\n

And in the story of the rich\u00a0young\u00a0man, we see the point made more emphatically, in Mark 10. The\u00a0rich\u00a0young\u00a0ruler asks Jesus what he must do to be saved. He has, he boasts, observed all the commandments from his youth. With those in the crowd, we find ourselves waiting Jesus\u2019s response. We find ourselves here in the midst of a high stakes human drama, with eternal consequences, and caught in that fraught moment of decision, of self-definition, which occurs between the launch of the faith-seeking enterprise, and the final revelation of the disciple\u2019s true character. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is about to provide the final test. He will try the man\u2019s heart by requiring everything of him. But here is the astonishing part of the story. It is into this space, in the time between an expression of naive good will and the\u00a0man\u2019s sad and tragic failure, that Jesus commits himself. He does not wait upon the outcome. For a love in which both giver and object are free, such a love must declare itself independently of conditions. That is why Jesus\u2019s compassion manifests itself before<\/i> the young man makes his decision. Jesus\u2019s love erupts into the silence that precedes any possible condition of reciprocity or exchange. \u201cThen Jesus, beholding him, loved him.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Such a gesture, such an outward-facing love, assumes its striking power by what follows. Jesus lays down the challenge of full consecration, and the would-be disciple slinks away sad and defeated by his attachment to the world. Christ\u2019s gesture of love now seems premature, or one of prescient pity. I think it is neither. <\/span>What it tells us is that the love Christ has for us is individuated and situational. It is not a love in the abstract. In this story, one can see the gaze of our Lord meeting the earnestly entreating eyes of the seeker. Out of the thronging multitudes, this person has sought out Jesus, has approached him, and made his query. Jesus does not answer, without first looking upon the soul who has ventured to address him. His gaze apprehends him. He considers. He recognizes something familiar. And love takes hold. This is not a love in the abstract. This is not the love of which theologians pontificate and speculate, some passionless, eternally present condition of an impersonal, perfect being. It is a love that happens. Love happens, as an event, which Jesus feels and experiences. \u201cAnd Jesus, beholding him, loved him.\u201d Before he passes any test, before he proves his mettle, before he even knows what is in his own heart. \u201cJesus, beholding him, loved him.\u201d This is the language of human interaction, which we all have known. As when you return from a mission. Or a stint at college. There you are, coming down the escalator. At the bottom are your mother and father. And beholding you, they love you.\u00a0 <\/span>Or you step off the train station, for a visit to your best friend, or child or partner. And in that very moment, like a sun emerging suddenly from behind a cloud, beholding her, you love her. In reading these words, I am with the Savior in the moment of his beholding and in the instantaneous eruption of his love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What it tells us is that God does not love us in spite of our struggles or failings, he loves us in and through and because of our struggles and failings. The outcome of the rich man\u2019s story, his inability to sacrifice all, is no surprise to Jesus. He sees what is in the young man\u2019s heart, as he sees what is in yours. But tellingly, it is in the midst of this trial of the rich man\u2019s character and commitment, not at its conclusion, that the Lord \u201cbeholding him, loved him.\u201d I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence that the Lord\u2019s love comes without condition. It does not wait upon proof of the young man\u2019s own love. It is not reserved until he sees how the story ends. It is in this shadow ground of indecision, of heart-struggle and yearning, mixed with covetousness and pride, <\/span>hope and doubt, that <\/b><\/span>the Lord, \u201cbeholding him, loved him.\u201d And who of us is not in this same no-man\u2019s land, caught as we all are between our initial, probing, tentative steps toward Christ\u2014and a life of total commitment and selflessness and faith. In this our own wilderness sojourn, though the end is not yet determined or perhaps even known, Mark seems to suggest, we can be assured that Christ, beholding you, loves you.<\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n

That is why, as Joseph said, God \u201cwill ferret out every soul,\u201d and bring them home. He is not just a clever cosmic repairman. He is the master architect, and having set his heart upon us, he has devised from the beginning a way to draw us back to his presence, though tangled and tortuous the way always is. And in the end, none of us will be able to withstand the power of his irresistible love.<\/span> However rapturous or imperfect, fulsome or shattered, our knowledge of love has been, we sense it is the very basis and purpose of our existence. It is a belonging that we crave because it is one we have always known.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let conclude with a lesson taught me by my daughter Rachael, that comes from the parable of Matthew 13:<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field (Matthew 13:44).<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let me tell you what I think the treasure in the field is:<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Smith taught of a God who weeps over our pain and made it his work and glory to bring us to where he is, when the Christian world universally proclaimed a God without body, parts, or passions<\/i>. He defied every other tradition when he claimed we are eternally existing children of God, whose destiny is to become like our Father, co-participating in the ongoing work of creation and salvation. He alone among Christian thinkers proclaimed a Divine Mother as a counterpart to an Eternal Father. He alone declared Eve a noble heroine when she was universally contemned by the Christian world. Finally, Joseph repudiated a God who played favorites, for One who put salvation within the reach of the entire human family, living and dead. That is the multi-part treasure in the field. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the field is not sold by the square foot. That is the lesson of Matthew 13. It\u2019s a package deal. We buy the whole field, because the treasure makes it worth it. I will gladly buy the only field in this or any world, that yields such treasures. Where else would I go, I say with the apostles who found some of the doctrines hard. And I see the flaws of my co-religionists and those who have led us, as Brigham Young did. With him, I say, \u201cI never embrace any man in my faith. But the doctrine [Joseph] has produced will save you and me, and the whole world.\u201d<\/span> So I will seek to persevere with \u201call patience and faith,\u201d as admonished by a Father who fully understands the frustrations and hardships of belonging to an organization staffed by others as fallible and imperfect as we are. Patience because he knew we would need it. Faith, because the treasure is worth it. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\u00e3o \u00e9 suficiente ficar na periferia e esperar que Deus venha at\u00e9 voc\u00ea. Como Jarede e as pedras sagradas, temos que mostrar iniciativa, energia e coragem lutando para abrir caminho atrav\u00e9s das multid\u00f5es para garantir nosso encontro sagrado com Deus. Temos que derrubar paredes, algumas das quais podem ser de nossa pr\u00f3pria cria\u00e7\u00e3o.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":15451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_piecal_is_recurring":false,"_piecal_recurring_interval":1,"_piecal_recurring_frequency":"","_piecal_recurring_exact_position":false,"_piecal_recurring_end":"","_piecal_color":"","_piecal_text_color":"","_piecal_global_color_master":false,"_piecal_rsets":"[]","_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1849],"tags":[50,54,13],"newsletters":[],"class_list":["post-8152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-conference","tag-faith","tag-spirituality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSuffering, Discipleship and the Irresistible Power of Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/affirmation.org\/pt\/sufrimiento-discipulado-y-el-poder-irresistible-del-amor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pt_BR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suffering, Discipleship and the Irresistible Power of Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's not enough to stand on the periphery and wait for God to come to you. Like Jared and the sacred stones, we have to show initiative, energy, and courage in fighting our way through the throngs to ensure our sacred encounter with God. 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