Labor For Zion

As he spoke about the Gentiles in the last days, Nephi gave this simple exhortation: “But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish” (2 Nephi 26:31). One interpretation of this could be that those who serve in Zion and in the Church do not do so for money. We don’t get paid for our callings teaching the Primary or serving the young men or ministering in the Elders Quorum. We don’t get paid to set up chairs or to give talks in Sacrament Meeting or do a service project in the Relief Society. Everything we do in God’s kingdom should be for the goal of establishing Zion, and it has nothing to do with bettering our own financial situation. That said, most of those who do “labor in Zion” also labor separately for money to provide for themselves and their families. This is clearly expected as happened with the people of God under Alma. “And he also commanded them that the priests whom he had ordained should labor with their own hands for their support… And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support; but for their labor they were to receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God” (Mosiah 18:24, 26). Those who labor in Zion should expect to labor for their own needs as well and receive “the grace of God” instead of money from their work in God’s kingdom. What matters, though, is that our focus stays on building up Zion and accomplishing the work of the Lord. Recently in a gospel discussion in Church someone mentioned how you can tell what is truly most important to people based on what they focus on. He highlighted how a lot of evangelical TV shows display that clearly as they have preachers give their messages: what they focus on is money. Amidst their preaching they repeatedly and consistently ask viewers to donate money, showing perhaps where their true focus lies. Rather than criticize them, though, we should turn to ourselves and ask whether we are not similar: is our focus on money and the things of the world, or is our greatest desire to do God’s work?

               This reminds me of a story I heard recently on a podcast that was originally told by Sister Camille Olson about where our focus should be in the gospel itself. She related to a group of students at BYU-Hawaii as she spoke about how amazing the grace of Christ is, “I have not always recognized this profound truth in our scriptures or teachings of latter-day authorities. The catalyst for me occurred about 25 years ago, coming in the form of a student's observation about her former LDS ward. I had been teaching released-time seminary for about five years when a student I had taught when she was a sophomore came back to visit me when she was a senior in high school. After a few pleasantries, she informed me that she was no longer attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; she told me she now attended a Protestant church in the area. I felt as though she wanted me to react with alarm when she made this announcement, so I remained calm and simply said, Oh, that is interesting, what led you to that decision? Her answer shook me from my calm demeanor because it was not at all what I expected. She said, When I attended my LDS ward, we talked about being honest, the importance of reading scriptures and getting married in the Temple, and the importance of a living prophet, but I never heard much about Jesus Christ. In this new church I attend, Jesus is the heart and soul of all their sermons.” Sister Olson continued, “My first reaction was denial. In my thoughts I was arguing that she wasn't listening when she had attended the LDS Church because certainly the Savior is at the heart of all that we believe and understand. In an attempt to validate these assumptions, I asked all of the students in my five classes the next day what they thought of this girl's observations about her ward. To my amazement, the great majority in every class agreed with her, concluding that we didn't speak, teach, or mention much about the Savior other than in our hymns and at the end of prayers and talks. I made a silent vow that day that I would never teach a lesson or give a talk without making a connection between the topic or scripture block and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” In my experience I do feel there is a focus on Jesus Christ in our teachings and activities and discussions in the Church, and that has improved in recent years as we all seek to study the same passages of scriptures together each week. But this observation from the student is a warning for us all to stay focused on what matters most: Jesus Christ and His infinite atonement and the grace that He offers to all of us. As Nephi said of himself we should be able to say of ourselves: “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26). Our focus should certainly not be on money, and it should not even be the commandments or the laws that we need to follow; our focus should be centered always on Jesus Christ and His redeeming power to help, life, and ultimately save us.