WHOM DO YE WORSHIP

Although I am sure I have been guilty of the practice myself, I have always felt a bit of distain for statements which include words or phrases which are all inclusive, such as everyone, everywhere or their counterpoints no one or nowhere.

These statements were especially irritating when we had teenagers in the home and were constantly reminded that everyone but them got to go everywhere.

More recently I have become aware of the non-institutional religious movement, which pretty much contends that there is no religious organization which exists that doesn't have self-perpetuation as its sole purpose for existence. This new millennial philosophy goes on to contend that nowhere would we be able to find an organized church which did not have a hidden agenda of power or greed.

Even though they want this philosophy to be the latest and greatest of ideas, one of their tenets exposes it to be just an old tale revisited.
Everyone who attaches themselves to a religion is an emotional cripple who needs this crutch to lean on!!

I have likewise been fascinated by a definition of God which seems to have evolved. I have tried to pin down the origin of the millennial definition of God and as close as I can come it would have to be attributed to Books 1-9 of George Lucas.

I am very willing to be corrected, but as I understand this philosophical teaching of God goes something like this:

There exists some kind of universal force which keeps unity among the bodies of the universe.

The inhabitants of this earth will progress best when they allow that universal force to work upon them to bring them into unity with all others.

Any person or action or event which promotes disunity is from an alternate force.

Since multitudiness unity is but a dream, I must strive to bring myself into unity by practicing love and peace.

Since my purpose of this Thought is not to expose everyone to this new trend of thinking, I will get into the theme I desire to leave us thinking about today.

Since it is pretty obvious, regardless of one’s environmental upbringing and inherited characteristics, when we attempt to express or define the concept of God to one another, we seldom arrive at a commonality of belief and understanding. Even among those who share the same scriptural writings and attend the same congregations, we won't have to visit for very long before those unique understandings emerge. It is no wonder that the Savior Jesus the Christ declare that no one knew Him and that life eternal was dependent upon knowing both Him and His Father.

According to the Biblical account since the days of Cain and Abel we have been unable to come to a consensus of whom or how we should worship.

Even a brief perusal of the histories of the Zoroastrian, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Chinese, African, Abrahamic, Indian or Christian nations, along with all the divisions within these various entities, not to mention those whose worship has been called pagan or witchcraft, enlightens us to the challenge our ancestors have had in the struggle to define let alone come to know God.

Even those among us who have been blessed with the highest degrees of intelligence fail to define God in such a way which is universally acceptable. I offer the following quote from the book Einstein, His Life and Work (page 91) as an example. I suspect there will be those among us who not only do not have the same understanding of God, but there may also be those of us who do not entirely understand Einstein’s definition.

An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world; to him nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present in his eyes.

This leaves me with little wonder why Joseph Smith declared one of the basic beliefs of the church which he was called to establish was to claim the privilege of worshiping almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

I am not sure what path this Thought will lead you upon, but it leads me to remember the words of Joshua which I now take the license to paraphrase to make my point. We all, at one time or another will choose whom we will serve, whether it will be according to the beliefs of some ancient society, the greatest generation, the baby boomers, generation X or the millennials or whatever stimulus gives us a reason to get up in the morning and go to bed at peace at night, but as for me…

I will continue to believe that my understanding of Heavenly Father and His son Jesus the Christ is still on a basic and fundamental level.

I will continue to believe that no matter how many days I am privileged to dwell in mortality, I will pass on to the next stage of life having but a grain of understanding of the things of Godliness.

I will be grateful that the understanding which I have achieved brings me peace and a desire to be ever inclusive in my love of others.

I will be content that the Holy Spirit has blessed me with at least a partial assurance that those things as I currently understand them are true.

I am grateful that I rise each morning with purpose and meaning in my life, spend my day mostly with feelings of love for my fellow earthly travelers and lay my head peacefully upon my pillow at night.

I know that I am a child of God and that Jesus is the Christ.

THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY
EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY