Ether 12

during the reign of King Coriantumr.

Oddly, Ether was a bona fide prophet himself. He was obsessed, couldn’t stop talking about God, loudly, all day and night, a wild man who acted as if thunder beat in his chest. The message was mostly old hat. But the delivery stood out. It seemed God was taking one last swing at this dilapidated ball he’d pitched onto the continent.

What was new about his preaching? The positive tone. Hope, Ether told everyone. Believe in God and that faith will give you hope for the crumbling of all the curses the old prophets had thrown onto the people’s heads. And that hope itself would steady people’s dispositions and goad their conduct in the right course.

But people didn’t accept this approach either. Their vision had gotten so jaundiced they couldn’t see the bright color being shown them.

May I, Moroni, interject at this point? Because faith is a favorite topic of mine and the timing seemed right. Here, my long sidebar on the topic:

Faith = what you can’t see but hope is there. You’ll never see it, though, till after you hope for it.

When Jesus showed up here it was only to people who’d already expected he’d come. He’s now been seen by many around the world and speaks of more invisible things to be unveiled in due course.

If you believe, you’ll hope for more and get it.

Ancient holy men got that way by faith. Here are some specific examples of faith’s deeds:

The law of Moses. (Though remember, those stone tablets were only stepping stones to Jesus.)

Alma and Amulek’s prison collapse.

The Lamanites’ large-scale change of heart. (See especially the work of Ammon’s team.)

All the other miracles before and after Christ. (Sorry not to be more specific. I’m running out of space on this plate.)

The three friends of Jesus who got to skip tasting death.

Any wondrous event follows faith in Jesus.

There were many who actually ripped through the veil of invisibility, their faith was so huge.

In that context, remember Jared’s brother who stole a glimpse of Jesus’ finger, which Jesus found out about and proceeded to show him pretty much anything he wanted to see.

Faith led some to predict the Gentiles would get these things I’m writing down now, along with the other plates.

On that note, I said to God, “The Gentiles will laugh at this stuff, since we are just improvising. We have good oral skills, but poor writing skills. We get jazzed and can talk for hours. Scratching letters on metal we get sick of fast. Besides, we get cramps. (Jared’s brother was the exception that proves the rule: he so excelled in writing, he’d take your breath away.)

Add to the physical demands of engraving the fact that some things are better left unwritten. They can only be conveyed by speech, audible words, or in some cases, only something subtler.

Given these obstacles, the Gentiles would definitely mock me.

God told me, “Yes, they will, the fools. But I’m the king of taking care of people who’ve been abused or disabused.

“You’re weak, to be sure. But the charm is in inspecting your own weakness. You have no idea how that frees one to act true to the deepest sentiments you have. I will fill in the gaps, too (if you have faith!). If you concede you’re inadequate, I’ll rewrite your flaws into strengths.

“As for the Gentiles, I’ll show them the chinks in their armor and tell them how faith, hope, and love break any spiritual padlocks.”

Hearing that, I felt better and said to the Lord, “I get it. You can do anything but won’t without a faith purchase order.”

[I’m dropping the quotation marks for this next stretch. But it’s all me talking to God till I say otherwise:]

You reminded me, too, of Jared’s brother telling Mt. Zerin to move. And it did. Only a mountain of faith could have made that happen.

You appeared to your disciples and taught them and, frankly, blew their minds with some of your jarring feats, only because of their faith.

You also said you’ve renovated houses for us in God’s neighborhood. We have to hope for that, since it’s the greatest image of after-deathness I, at least, have seen.

You said you loved the world so much you’d surrender and die for it. Because that was, however oddly, the only way to get us into heaven.

That love is what we charitably call “charity.” I’ll use that word to separate it from the more mundane kinds of love we talk about.

Charity rules the universe. We know almost nothing about the universe, but this I believe. If we lack it, we lose all.

If the Gentiles lack it, you’ll strip away what seemed to be their skills. No more gifts for them. And the old gifts he re-gifts to the more deserving. Why he didn’t just give to the right people right off, I don’t know. But it’s his party.

I prayed he’d give to undeserving Gentiles. He said, “None of your business. Worry about yourself. You’ve done everything right. I’m doing your laundry now. Don’t ask me to do anyone else’s. I’ll make your weak parts strong. You’ll live with me and Dad forever.” I’m paraphrasing, of course. But this is pretty close to what I recall him saying. I did think he’d give me bonus points, though, for being what I felt was charitable to the Gentiles.

So, Gentiles, I wish you well. I tried. Someday we’ll all meet in Jesus’ courtroom for the final verdicts. But Jesus has already washed away my guilt for overreaching. Trust me, if you have any doubts about how close we are, he’ll tell you. We talk all the time. Face to face. It’s one of my favorite things.

And I could have written a lot more about what he said to me too. But it’s really not my place. He’s been insistent that I share, but demanding and to the letter about what.

Anyway, keep trying to know Jesus as well as I do. The old writings tell you how.

And when you do you’ll get the spirit of what I’m saying. Literally. Amen.