Moroni 7-10

MORONI 7—MORMON’S SERMON

It may be that Moroni’s offering of Mormon’s address on faith, hope, and charity—what we now call chapter 7— constitutes Moroni’s finest gift to his readers. In his characteristically modest willingness to cede space to Mormon, Moroni brings forth one of the records most important moments of theological reflection.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg. 60

SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The nature of the source defines the essence of the output regardless of appearances. This is a challenging notion, but Mormon’s language seems unrelenting on the matter.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg . 63

If a bitter fountain can never bring forth good water, how can that fountain ever change its ways? If an act by a corrupt heart counts for nothing—including even the act of prayer—what can that heart ever do to alter its own character? If an entity cannot produce anything other than what it already is, it is eternally stuck. What, then, can a sinner do to pursue salvation?

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg.64

THE GIFT

If we do not fully confront the necessarily unbreakable bars of the prison cell that is our own character, we cannot fully recognize the abundant gift of the Brother whose blood has set us free. Mormon wants us to understand that gift and the freedom it facilitates.

To put this another way, Jesus gives us both the power to choose and the ability to choose well, the capacity to see at all and the light by which to see it all.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg. 67

MIRACLES

Why would a sermon that begins with the immovable problem of impure hearts and ends with the irresistible promise of pure love be preoccupied in the middle with miracles?

The divine act that has enabled us to choose and change is actually a more inexplicable wonder than the moving of the mountains or the parting of seas. When we appreciate the existential miracle involved in the former we will see both the necessity and the possibility of believing in miracles like the latter. When we understand that we carry within us a witness of Christ’s power to overcome the fetters of logical constraint, we may come to understand more thoroughly that God is ready and willing to work any other necessary marvel in our lives. And to lose faith in one is to undermine the other.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg. 70

AGENCY

In seeing agency as a gift, I can better recognize its divine diversity of forms; I will be both more appreciative of what other human beings can do and more patient with what they cannot do. (Maybe that is why Mormon said that the telltale characteristic of those who understand the doctrine of Christ is their peaceable walk with the rest of humanity.) Through this theological lens, each soul’s endowment of agency—its lengths and its limits—begins to look very personalized, just as one would expect from gifts of a thoughtful giver.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg.72

FAITH

I sometimes regret the fact that we use the word "faith" in religious discussions.

Why? Because I think it's become a technical term that obscures for many what should be and is a very simple concept. This has created serious controversies and unnecessary misunderstandings. The Greek word "pistis," which English Bibles typically render as "faith," also means "confidence" or "trust," and these ordinary, everyday terms convey very neatly what scriptural faith entails.

The first readers of the New Testament didn't have to ask what "pistis" meant. Paul hadn't invented the word. They knew it already; it had been common in Greek for centuries. And in the standard English lexicon of classical Greek, the first definition of "pistis" is "trust in others."

While theological factions might argue-and, in fact, have argued-for decades over the definition of "faith," we all have a reasonably clear idea of what it means to have "trust" in someone.

When the Greek New Testament was translated into Latin, "pistis" was rendered as "fides," which again meant "trust" or "confidence." Our English word "faith" comes from the Latin "fides," but today we tend to think of "faith" as "belief in something without proof," and, often, more as agreement with a set of propositions than as trust in a person.

But God is a person, and saving faith - although it surely entails agreeing with certain propositions - is trust in him, as a person, to love us and to keep his promises to us.

Daniel Peterson

HEALERS

We can be of little use to those who have been dragged into the darkness until we have resolutely faced the actual evil of which our species is capable.

We cannot be healers if we shield our eyes from the wounds.

David F. Holland, Moroni, a Brief Theological Introduction, pg. 93

MORONI EXHORTS READERS...

1. remember God’s mercies (vs. 3)

2. ask God for a witness (vs. 4)

3. not deny God’s power (vs. 7)

4. not deny God’s gifts (vs. 8)

5. remember the source of every good gift (vs. 18)

6. remember that God is unchanging (vs. 19)

7. remember his words (vs. 27)

8. come unto Christ [and lay hold of every good gift] (vs. 30)

Grant Hardy, Annotated Book of Mormon

  

Moroni 1 - 6

 . . . . the process of creating order and meaning out of a text--especially when we recognize that we are doing it, and doing it thoughtfully--is one of the ways that the Spirit can teach us as we meet together in the words of scripture. Engaging with scripture is an active, creative process, and collaborative thinking with a text is itself a sacred work. 

Rosalynde Welch - "Sharing the Sacrament with Moroni at the End of Time." Maxwell Institute Blog. https://mi.byu.edu/news-blog-section/moroni-1-6-sharing-the-sacrament-with-moroni-at-the-end-of-time

Despite its disparate elements, Moroni’s book has a unifying theme: how to find peace in the midst of social disintegration. This was a challenge Moroni himself had faced as he saw his civilization collapse, and he believes the lessons he learned from history, his father, and his own revelations will someday be useful to the descendants of the Lamanites. His first answer is to become part of a well-regulated religious community that conducts its affairs according to Christ’s teachings and the power of the Holy Ghost (chs. 2–6). Grant Hardy, The Annotated Book of Mormon. 

The first two theological declarations of the book of Moroni intertwine in its opening verses: Jesus is the Christ, and uncertainty is an unavoidable part of our existence in this mortal world. The uncertainty affects even the most devoted disciples at even their most urgent moments of need. The sustaining gifts of faith in Christ are the necessary complement to that uncertainty, and those gifts come not only despite our inadequacies but also sometimes through them. A prophet on the lam—troubled by the specter of his mistakes, inclined to worry and self-doubt in a world falling apart around him, and determined to hold on to his faith—shows these things to be true as he composes the final chapters of an epic book.

David F. Holland, Moroni.

. . . even as these opening passages on ordination and authorization point to the official structures of a Christian community, Moroni’s history of Christ’s visit simultaneously reminds us that the authority of office is not the same thing as divine power. Indeed, these chapters seem to insist on driving home a distinction between the two. The act of ordaining may convey a role of particular responsibility within the church, but the power of God is something other than that. It is bigger in its capacity and more universal in its distribution than a narrow fixation on ordination could possibly accommodate.

Note that, in chapter 2, even though Christ gave his twelve disciples the assignment and the authority to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost, the apostles would not have the “power” to accomplish this thing until “after” they had sought the Lord in “mighty prayer” (Moro. 2:2). In other words, the power came not through ordination but through prayer; it was then to be used in a specific way to meet the ordained responsibilities of a particular office.    

David F. Holland, Moroni.

To put this concept in the language of current Church usage, priesthood office carries the authority of specific community roles, but priesthood power is within the reach of every Saint.

David F. Holland, Moroni.

Moroni 3:4 I should not lose confidence in it because it was brought to me by a fellow fallen creature. In other words, when I am the giver, I should strive to meet the highest standards of spiritual power; when I am the receiver, I should not devalue the offering by the imperfect vehicle that bears it. 

David F. Holland, Moroni.

To go through the motions of the sacrament, without consciously tuning its repetitive actions toward the formation of a new self, is to miss its purpose. Put simply, sacramental habit can be powerfully transformative, but only if it does not descend into thoughtlessness. I have to be intentional about my quest for holiness when I place that bread on my tongue and bring the water to my lips over and over again. Otherwise, I squander the gift. I have “lost power.”

David F. Holland, Moroni.

The prayers are a reminder of the point made repeatedly in scripture—from the spit and dirt with which Jesus heals blindness in John 9, to the stones that become instruments of light in Ether 3, to the imperfect disciples who are made special witnesses throughout the standard works—that God can take the most mundane of materials and turn them into miraculous instruments of redemption. He is the Sanctifier of previously unhallowed elements. He changes things.

David F. Holland, Moroni.

Dr. Saba Mahmoud observing Muslim women in their devotion to the Islamic practice of daily prayer rituals:

Dr. Saba Mahmood notes that the rituals are usually seen by their practitioners as a substantive way to connect with the divine while they are usually seen by academic observers as symbolic expressions of identity and an affirmation of group cohesion. In close observation of her subjects, however, Mahmood noticed a third implication of their ritual lives. She recognized that the women approached their prayer rituals as repeatable acts of spiritual training, disciplines whose repetition over time would facilitate a gradual internal transformation. They did them less as professions of faith and more as avenues toward faith.

They did not observe their prayer practices because they self-identified as part of a righteous people; they observed them in the hope of developing into righteous people. Their rituals were about the diligent, repetitive work of forming a new self. They were not static symbols so much as active exercises. Mahmood’s women did these things in order to become.

The ordinances are therefore not the culmination of my righteousness; rather, they are a foundational exercise that allows me to develop righteousness.

David F. Holland, Moroni.

A moment of reverence can often open new doors, provide new pathways which might have otherwise been left unexplored. 

Alan Bradley, The Golden Tresses of the Dead.

. . . Moroni did have a choice. There were societies he could join—secret combinations and warring tribes—if he were willing to betray both his better nature and his testimony of the Christ. As agonizing as prolonged solitude is to souls wired for connection, Moroni concluded that there is in fact something worse: a community in which inclusion comes at the price of core convictions. And so he walks on, alone with his faith in Jesus, maintaining his mentally projected sense of place among a community of righteous writers and reflecting on what a well-ordered, Christ-centered people once looked like. For him, that reflection begins with the ordinances.

David F. Holland, Moroni.