Good Morning Brothers and Sisters

I appreciate the opportunity to speak in your ward and you are fortunate to have Bishop Glenn
and Sister Wolfgram… I bring greetings from the Stake Presidency and the assurance that they
love and care for the members of the stake. As was mentioned, the topic is Charity and Love
and I was intrigued by a comment maid by Sister Tia Merrill during the FB 1 st Ward’s Ward
Council. She mentioned that when we think of Charity, we often think of acting like Christ. This
can be deceptive; actions can often be reflex, an imitation of what the Savior did, without the
characteristics and intent of WHY he did what he did. How we should be looking at Charity is
more as an internal bearing, our very essence, as that of the Love OF Christ. Charity is the pure
love of Christ. By definition it is a derivative of the Latin word caritas “Christian love of
humankind”. It is often accompanied by the following synonyms:
goodwill
compassion
consideration
Kindness
Tenderness
Sympathy
Empathy
Tolerance

The Week, a periodical, ran a story on Valentine’s Day of 21 year old Trenton Lewis, a 21 year
UPS employee and father to 14 month old Karmen. Without any transportation, he walked 11
miles everyday to his 4am shift at UPS… Kept under wraps but some how Patricia “Mama Pat”
Bryant found out ....Gathered her co-workers together and they pooled enough money to buy
him a reliable used car. Mama Pat when asked why they would do this, answered “why
wouldn’t we?” No judgement to circumstance, just the desire in their hearts to help another in
need.

This goes to reaching outside ourselves. I realized a very long time ago that I serve absolutely
NO purpose I serve to help improve the lives of others. I exist only to be a steward either as a
husband, school leader, priesthood holder or in any calling, especially as a home teacher.
President Tom Checketts of the Layton Holmes Creek Stake once told our high priest group that
a family that doesn’t reach outside itself isn’t much of a family, a ward that doesn’t reach
outside itself…a stake…etc. When we reach we deepen the commitment to others in our heart
and further become as the Love Of Christ, helping this to become more of our essence. Do we
plan activities for our ward and call it good if the same families come over and over again. Or
do we look over the same old crowd and wonder who isn’t there, often families or individuals
who we see at a glance occasionally in church or the neighborhood, but don’t give a second
thought at any other time.
In one of our previous wards, two diligent sisters decided not to give up on one of those
overlooked members. They were assigned to visit teach a widowed sister who had scared away
a number of other VT companions. Due to certain events, she became bitter toward the church.
They tried to call, and no answers, but they kept trying. They would stop by but she would not
answer the door. Eventually due to their persistence, they were allowed in BUT not to bring
that magazine. With every rejection, call or visit, they proceeded it with prayer and what was
initially box checking became a mission of love. So they approached this as just being friends
and stopping by as they would any neighbor fully expecting nothing to happen other than
friendship. With years and each successive visit, the ice chipped away: finally asked to have the
lesson. chipping, chipping, chipping until eventually she started to come to church. She allowed
her sorrow and anger melted away and she was eventually able to go to the temple and be
sealed to her departed husband. This has become a loving, life-long friendship because two
sisters decided that their charity was more than checking a box of VT. There are people on the
margins in this ward and what they most want is for people to genuinely reach out and NEVER
give up on them. Do we look at them as the Pharisees and Sadducees did, with judgement and
criticism or as the Savior did, with the only qualifier being that they are our brothers and sisters
and that is enough to justify all the love we can offer them.

The words Minister and Give are action verbs. Minister, as a verb, means:
attend to the needs of (someone),
tend to
care for
take care of
look after
nurse
attend to ·
help and assist

Listen carefully to what Give, as a verb, means: freely devote, set aside, or sacrifice for a
purpose; to FREELY transfer the possession, bestow (love, affection, or other emotional
support), administer, communicate or impart; commit, consign, or entrust: concede or yield
(something) as valid or deserved in respect; CS Lewis once said that it is not a sacrifice if it
doesn’t hurt or inconvenience just a little.

Very often we look at charity as writing a check to an organization. Do we follow the money and
actually see what is does, maybe even serve those we send money to? Do we volunteer at our
children’s school; change sheets or bedpans or volunteer at a children’s hospital or home for the
elderly; when we give food to the food bank or the homeless shelter are we there to handout or
serve the food to those in need. Often even those acts aren’t deep enough; do we sit down as a
listening ear and heart. Are Very often, this help validate even the meager existence of those
the savior referred to in Matthew 25:40 “unto one of the least of these my brethren”, conceding and
yielding as valid or deserving in RESPECT, freely devoting, setting aside, or sacrificing our time,
caring and compassion for a purpose, just as the Savior did.
There is an adage about breakfast: The chicken participates but the pig is committed… Are we
the chicken or the pig in our understanding of charity and the pure love of Christ.
As we look at the scriptures, we see charity and the epitome of the love of Christ as action
nouns and verb. In Jacob 2: 18-19, we read: “But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the
kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek
them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the
hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted;”
In Mosiah 4:16-17, King Benjamin call us to action and WITHOUT judgement: “And also, ye
yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your
substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his
petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has
brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my
food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just
—But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and
except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in
the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same
Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold,
and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?”

D&C 42:30-31 “And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for
their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which
cannot be broken. And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it
unto me…”

D&C 44:6 “Behold, I say unto you, that ye must visit the poor and the needy and administer to
their relief, that they may be kept until all things may be done according to my law which ye
have received. Amen

D& 52:40 “And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he
that doeth NOT these things, the same is not my disciple.
Deut 15:11 11 ”For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee,
saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy
land.”

In closing, Isaiah exhorts us to action and to view those we serve as our reflection in the mirror:
He states in chapter 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break
every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast
out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not
thyself from thine own flesh?” Become not like Christ but AS Christ as we serve our brothers
and sisters. Don’t be a box checker; immerse yourself, as the pig does in breakfast, to the
essence of the Savior. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ.