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Yet today, Grant himself does not believe in a literal city of Zion. Why does he try to make it seem as if he does here? Is this an example of a white man speaking with a forked tongue? The city must be built, and then Christ will come, along with the city of Enoch. Yes, we are supposed to build the city and then Zion will come.
>Perhaps you can help us with the physical symbols we
>so urgently need to give life and vibrancy to our
>words of meaning. If we have moved away from a
>literal city of Zion, recognizing that such a place on
>only one piece of ground becomes real to only a small
>number of our people, we still need the symbols that
>make the land holy and that make this time sacred
>time. The great Lakota leader who we have known as
>Sitting Bull spoke these words while walking barefoot,
>"Healthy feet can hear the heart of Holy Earth."
>
Here he admits to his present belief of no literal city, so he actually shows that he lies quite easily, in the span of two paragraphs.
>When I read those words I thought about how my feet on
>this ground in America can "hear" the feet of my
>brothers and sisters in Africa or India on the other
>side of the world. It is not a matter of them coming
>to this place which we consider sacred, but to
>recognize that this place is a symbol of God's sacred
>creation. If our feet can hear the heart of Holy
>Earth, our vision of Zion, which is a dream of
>brotherhood and sisterhood the world around, can take
>on a form that has power and meaning.
>
I guess he also does not believe that those saints in other lands will be brought here to inhabit Zion, even though the scriptures tell us that they will.
>Our people love to go to camps and reunions. It is a
>time, they say, to "get away from it all." It is a
>time to discover one's true self, apart from the
>strains and pressures of everyday life. People speak
>of our camps as "holy ground," usually meaning that
>important spiritual experiences have happened to them
>there, that they have met special friends there, or
>that it has been a good time with family. But can
>Native peoples help us discover new understandings of
>what it means to camp on holy ground? We have limited
>it to what we have experienced there, never thinking
>about its sacred center, it's ancestral character, its
>connection with our community in other places. Can
>you help us see?
>
Grant only needs to stop trying to see things through his limited intellectual visoin and start to see things as God would have him see. I am amazed that he does not understand something that even small children can grasp.
>We have embraced a church seal that depicts a lion and
>a lamb and a child. It is a powerful symbol for us,
>based on the scripture in Isaiah which depicts the
>peaceable kingdom as the place where "the wolf shall
>live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with
>the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling
>together, and a little child shall lead them. …They
>will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for
>the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as
>the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11: 6, 9 NRSV) But
>as meaningful as that symbol is for us, I do not
>believe that most of us in the church are close enough
>to the earth to understand its power.
>
He is not even close enough to the Lord to know that he should be using the Inspired Version insted of the NRSV (Is the the Nearly Really Swell Version?)
>I read the words of a Laguna Pueblo, Leslie Silko, who
>was seeking his homeland and said it thusly:
>
>
>I climb the black rock mountain
> Stepping from day to day
> Silently.
>I smell the wind for my ancestors
> pale blue leaves
> crushed wild mountain smell.
>Returning
> Up the grey stone cliff
> Where I descended
> a thousand years ago.
>Returning to faded black stone
> where mountainlion laid down with deer.
>
>It is, you see, precisely the same imagery as the one
>from Isaiah that has been etched into our church
>buildings and appliqued to our signage. But for all
>its power and meaning, it does not speak to most of us
>with the heartfelt witness of many generations. It is
>the symbol for our church and for our dream of Zion.
>Can you help us see?
>
I don;t know who he is tlaking of when he says it does not speak to most, including himself when he says most of us. It speaks to those that I worship with. They do understand what it means, why does Grant not understand?
>In the earliest writings of our church, we see the
>wrestling with concepts that cause us to be builders
>and creators of Zionic community. In the Doctrine and
>Covenants we read, "The elements are eternal, and
>spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a
>fullness of joy; and when separated, man cannot
>receive a fullness of joy. The elements are the
>tabernacle of God; yeah, man is the tabernacle of God,
>even temples.." Such a view moves us toward a vision
>of Zion that sees the things of this world as sacred
>things, that recognizes every moment as a divine
>moment, that discovers God in the midst of the
>ordinary and commonplace. But our culture denies such
>a view. It says that the elements are temporary, that
>they can be used up and tossed away, that many moments
>are without meaning, and that God appears now and then
>in a spectacle of glory but is more usually absent.
>
Grant has been very instrumental of using up and throwing away much of the elements used to build Zion. He has ordered that many properties and churches be sold to others that do not believe in Zion just to fatten the coffers and ensure that his salary is kept to the level that he finds necessary.
>But listen to Black Elk, who speaks thusly:
>
>We should understand well that all things are the
>works of the Great Spirit. We should know that the
>Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the
>grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the
>four-legged animals, and the winged peoples; and even
>more important, we should understand that the Great
>Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
>When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts;
>then we will fear, and love, and know the Great
>Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the
>Great Spirit intends.
>
>There could be no clearer statement of the Restoration
>principle that the elements are eternal. Black Elk
>speaks in words that not only embrace the principle
>but recognize the response in how we live once we
>understand its meaning. It is, in our terms, the call
>to discipleship. Can you help us to see?
>
We have been told to be wise stewards over our properties, yet the church fails greatly in this command. Buildings are left empty, to deteriorate from lack of maintenance, rather than allow a restoration branch purchase them and maintain them. Most RLDS owned churches that were closed were sold to other organizations, even when an offer was made by restoration rbanches to purchase them. They refused to sell them to us, as we were seen as the enemy, rather than the brothers and sisters that he tries to call us in his reconciliation speeches.
>This evening we invite you into a journey of
>brotherhood and sisterhood. It is one that
>acknowledges the past, its pain and its suffering and
>its betrayals, and discovers in its ashes the
>redemptive love of faith in Jesus Christ. He was one
>who carried within him the sure knowledge of the Great
>Spirit, seeing that spirit in the despised, the
>rejected, the marginalized, the poor, the lost. It is
>a journey that acknowledges that we have things to
>learn from one another, and that sometimes our
>differences are but another side of the same mountain,
>our experiences only the shadings of a new day. It is
>a journey that embraces the dreams of all our
>ancestors to live in a world which is sacred, which
>honors the wisdom of age and celebrates the vibrancy
>of youth, which nurtures the land, lives in harmony
>with the animals, and redeems the past through the
>hopes of the future. It is a sacramental journey to
>which we are summoned.
>
How dare he say that the wisdom of age is honored while he entirely dismisses anything that is of the original doctrines of the church? He has no honor for the wisdom of age, as he has shown repeatedly.
>We are a people of covenant. We are called, together,
>as brothers and sisters, into a journey of trust with
>one another. Perhaps these prophetic words from the
>Restoration tradition speak to us here in this place
>this evening: "Know, O my people, the time for
>hesitation is past. The earth, my creation, groans
>for the liberating truths of my gospel which have been
>given for the salvation of the world." (Doctrine and
>Covenants 155:7)
>
Why does he not also quote the rest of the verse, which shows that they do not have to follow previous revelation? This part of that verse in particular:
Be not overly concerned with method as you go forth to witness in my name. There are many techniques for proclaiming my word which may be used as needs and circumstances dictate.
What happened to there being only one path to salvation? That has been placed into the vaults to never see the light of day again.
>And may these words from the Yaqui tradition,
>expressed as a morning prayer, send us into engagement
>with that challenge by recognizing that each of us
>must find our path if any of us are to arrive at our
>destination:
>
>
> to the east:
> where grandfather lives
> to the north:
> where cold comes from
> to the south:
> where warm winds blow
> to the west:
> where grandmother earth has her place
> i offer my song.
>
> ask clarity for my confusion
> ask purity for my heart
> that i may know my purpose
> my harmonious place in the order of things.
>
>May we journey together as a covenant people,
>discovering the joy that comes from knowing each
>other's hearts, that all of us may truly "blossom as
>the rose," permitting our shared dreams to "flourish
>upon the hills, and rejoice upon the mountains."
Grant does not even understand what it means to be a covenant people, as he does not understand what a covenant actually requires. I wish he would stop using terms that he has no knowledge of in order to try and impress others.
Kathy
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