Think: Covenant People

    For thousands of years, people of different identities and beliefs held that they were the Chosen folks, that they were God's elect. This may be true for each, or false for all. Jewish people, or the People of Judah, the ruling tribe of the 12 Tribes of Israel, maintained their particular favored status throughout the Old Testament which still marches on among the millions of Jewish that are on the earth in 2023. They have their own elect status as a people. We also know of the out-sized persecutions that they have suffered. More on that in a bit.

    Later Christianity arose among a huge and successful empire based in Rome, and all types of believers in Christ claimed their inheritance through Jesus the Anointed One. In the 21st century there are more believers in Jesus Christ than any single faith, while the biggest one happens to be headquartered in Rome, Italy. Times change, but some things continue in new iterations. I had graduate professors that had theories of central Europe being the locus of the world, which may have some bite in its truth.

    However, the same professors would admit to the Pax Americana, the current empire that has outdone the Pax Romana of centuries before. The United States holds the top face cards now. More on that in a bit. (Jewish uniqueness, U.S. greatness, now holding.) Life is not all poker and having the best cards, but often times the analogy fits. Which cards of the 52 do we hold? Does having the right cards matter? I would say at least having access to the right cards, the winning cards, matters.

    Islam came seven centuries after Jesus of Nazareth. A Prophet from the Saudi peninsula revolutionized the beliefs and practices of millions, which has its amazingly grand influence today, and it continues to grow as we live deep into 2023. Some would argue it is the nexus of political, military, and social strife in the Middle East and elsewhere. I will leave that up to other debates and times.

    Meanwhile major belief systems, some more ancient and solemn, like Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism, and others, still other worldviews more modern, like secularism, atheism, and newer age sciences and humanistic constructs pass through our minds and books and podcasts and social groups and academic streams... It goes on and proliferates anon, as Shakespeare might say. The Bard would have his observances nowadays, the great critic Harold Bloom would posit. Rest in Peace, thou reader and thinker of Yale.

    All these voices and beliefs and theories hold sway. But, my esteemed religious leaders console and uphold me: doctrine and eternal principles are not ephemeral. They last forever. If so, then covenants come to mind as a major point to made in the miasmas of the modern world and our individual and collective wisdoms. What promises and covenants last forever?

    I would say these: freedom and family, love and charity, benevolence and sacrifice. Can we all agree? Perhaps not the Buddhists, but yet they have so many higher virtues that they aspire to. Can we all agree to agree on the above? Family, freedom, giving, sharing, selflessness, a social compact of care?

    I had a Latter-day Saint Bishop as a young priest, me a second-generation believer of my faith, who would always say "Think covenants and ordinances." He was right. These promises that we make to God, who in return gives us everything as promised, are real and everlasting. If we have faith in His Son, as we Christian Latter-day Saints believe, then all will come to fruition and peace. Our biggest hopes and dreams, both individually and collectively. All realized. All accomplished in this life and the eternities to come.

    How do we know these things? God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ proclaimed them through His ancient and modern prophets. The list is ever growing. We have living ones now.

    Sacrament and temple blessings are real, the scriptures talk and expound on the promised blessing and rights and privileges and the unfolding of things in the last days.

    These are the last days. If you cannot sense it, then please see it from my or our point of view.

    There are Twelve Tribes that we have become, spiritual manifestations collective identities based on ancient and current promises that have been set up for millennia: we are they. If we do not realize or recognize it, please come talk to me or do some reading.

    I did my four years of seminary, I attended Sunday School and read some books and the Church of Jesus Christ magazines, but it was not until I read a great article in the Ensign (now Liahona) during my fulltime mission that I better understood the Tribes of Israel, and how they (we) play our parts in the human family.

    There has been and will always be Chosen, Elect, people of God. Who are they? Who are you? What part do you play? What covenants and ordinances and blessings do you have and enjoy, and attempt to share with others? What visions do you have for yourself and for others in this year and the years ahead?

    Do they involve Ephraim and Manasseh, or Judah or others? What are you missing? What am I missing? Are we missing anything?

    What do the Bible and the scriptures mean? Do we fully understand them?

    I say, we do not understand them. Yet. There are treasures and wisdom and knowledge to be procured, that our generation, our former generations of parents and grandparents, and our coming generations of armies of Helaman have yet to understand and incorporate into their self-awareness and identities, translating into behavior and actions.

    We have not really come to know who we truly are, and we must. We are all brothers and sisters, yes, but it is bigger and grander than that. We are organized into spiritual units and tribes that must be understood, that has to be contemplated and ingested, and lived, for the peace and prosperity of all.

Ignorance is at our own peril, and that of thousands and millions of others.

    What do we believe? What do I believe? What do you know? What do we know?

    We know a lot more than we act like it, most of the time.

    Live what you believe, do what you know, and share and give all you can.

    Be of the Twelve Tribes, and be select and choice in your thoughts and behavior, and words.

    That is what I got this beautiful Saturday morning.

    Oh, yes: The Israelis and Palestinians kill each other. As do the Russians and Ukrainians. They are not aware of their infinite blessings and true identities. Yet.

    We Americans with so much power and might?

    We have to do much better too. It starts with you, and you must feed your body and spirit.

    The truth is there for us to embrace and live.

    The Abrahamic promises are all there for all of us. Find them and live them.

    And live and die in peace and righteousness. Forever.