Sunday, September 28, 2008

Today's lesson taught by yours truly, Potato Girl, on Elder Dennis Neuenschwander's April 2008 Conference address "One Among the Crowd."

This talk uses three scriptures stories to illustrate the idea of a righteous individual struggling against a wicked crowd. The first is the story of the woman with the 12 year issue of blood found in Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:24-34 and Luke 8:43-48.

The second story Elder Neuenschwander uses is that of Alma in the court of King Noah, found in Mosiah 17:1-4.

The third story is Lehi & Nephi's vision of the people partaking of the fruit of the tree of life and the mocking crowd in the great and spacious building (1 Nephi 8:10-12, 25-28, 33 and 1 Nephi 11:7-23,32-36).

In the first story, the woman with the issue of blood moves through the crowd that is thronging Jesus in order to touch him, having faith that she will be made whole if she can do this. Elder N. tells us that the main difference between this woman and the rest of the crowd is that they came to see Jesus, perhaps hoping to witness something out of the ordinary, a spectacle, while she came to be healed. We discussed the differences between approaching the Savior/ attending church/ watching General Conference with the goal of seeing or with the goal of being healed.

In the second story, Alma must leave the crowd of evil priests in order to follow the teachings of the prophet Abinadi. When he speaks out on Abinadi's behalf, he is thrust from the group and must flee from those who are seeking his life.

In the third story, the righteous people partaking of the fruit of the tree of life are already separate from the crowd in the great and spacious building. Their task is to ignore the mocks and scorns coming from the crowd. Some of those who have partaken of the fruit hear the crowd and feel ashamed, eventually wandering away from the tree and becoming lost. Others pay the crowd no heed, and are able to continue to feast on the fruit, which represents the love of god.

Elder N. says of the woman with the issue of blood that she "resolutely and quietly pressed forward with a single purpose in mind: to come to the Savior, having faith that He had the power to heal her, that He cared about her and would respond to her need." He reiterates this statement at the very end of his talk, saying: "In all of life’s circumstances let us quietly and resolutely press forward to the Savior, having faith that He cares about us and has the power to heal and save us."

We put the key elements of this statement up on the board like this:

-quietly and resolutely press forward to the Savior
-have faith that the Savior
---has the power to heal and save us
---cares about us
---will respond to our need

I asked everyone to think about what they could do to follow the example of the woman with the issue of blood as she sought healing from the Savior.