A Sermon About a Book Called Life, Written by God

Alma 5-6

Alma 5:58 For the names of the righteous shall be written in the book of life, and unto them will I grant an inheritance at my right hand.

Do you remember how Alma lived a sad and hopeful and happy life? Well in the process he gained a lot of ideas about life. And they weren’t just his ideas. They were ideas he learned from his father. And they were ideas he learned from an angel. And they were ideas he learned from God. And God told Alma to teach some of his life lessons to the people.

And so this is the point in the story when Alma gives up the throne, puts on his best walking sandals, and takes off to teach people about life. He starts right in the middle of his own city, Zarahemla. He teaches the people that life is like a book. Like this book. And it is like a book because it has an author. And the author is God. And the story is an adventure story. It is a story about people who are tied up in prison, strung together with chains, burned with dragon flames, and feeling just generally miserable. But it’s going to be okay because this is one of those stories with a hero.

And the hero’s name is Jesus. And Jesus comes and rescues the prisoners. But that is not the end of the story. Because after Jesus has saved everyone, the people are so grateful they say, “Jesus, you have been so good to us. What can we do for you in return?” He only grins and says, “Just take care of each other.”

This was no simple request, as the people soon realized. It was hard enough to take care of themselves: to find their own food, clean their own rooms, earn their own money, and do their own laundry. There was hardly time to take care of someone else. They tried and tried and tried but could never take care of everyone. There were just too many people!

Some of the people become rich and others become poor. Some were more handsome, some were more clever, and some were more nice. There were some nice people who were lucky. And some lucky people who are not very nice. And there were both nice and not-so-nice people who had really really crummy luck. It was impossible to sort out who deserved what. There were always winners and always losers and no one could take care of everyone. Not even everyone could take care of everyone.

And so the people in the story become sad again because all Jesus wanted them to do was take care of each other. And they couldn’t even do that. Some of them thought they should all just go back to prison because Jesus was making them feel like criminals. And they were getting tired of trying and trying and failing and failing. It was miserable. They said, “We are criminals. We are the worst of criminals. We are murderers.” And that is a very bad feeling. No one wants to be a murderer.

And so some people began to complain and say that Jesus was wrong. They could not be responsible for everyone else because they were not capable of taking on that kind of responsibility. And so it could not be true. They said, “We are only responsible for ourselves. Everyone will do what they feel is right. And that is the only and best way to make the most people happy.”

But here’s the problem. They were not the author of the book. So they didn’t get to decide what was real and what was not. God was the author. And whatever God said was going to happen, was going to happen. And God agreed with Jesus. And so whether they liked it or not, they were actually and truly responsible for each other. But it was also true that they were not capable of fulfilling that responsibility. They were like children trying to cook a gourmet dinner. They needed help.

And that’s when they realized, they needed the hero again. And they needed him to come and live with them. There was too much to be done to have the hero come and go willy-nilly. They needed a full-time hero. So the people in the story invite him back. And they say, “We understand that we are supposed to take care of everyone. But we also know that we cannot. Please help us.” And Jesus smiles and lives with them.

But not everyone went back to church. Some stayed home. Others still didn’t believe in Jesus. But it didn’t matter so much anymore because the people still prayed for each other, no matter what. Because that is what they were supposed to do. And they worked together to build a place where everyone was taken care of. And they were going to call it Zion.

Zion, a definition:

Zion is like a zoo. Except there are no cages. Because even the animals get along. The lions are playing with the baby sheep. The children are holding snakes. And I don’t know if the roses will have thorns or not. If they do, and you get pricked, there will certainly be a bandaid for you. Because Zion is a place of joy where everyone has what they need. They have animals to play with, and they have band-aids when they get hurt. And they have mothers and fathers to hold you and your friends and put you to sleep. And when you wake up, you wake up to God.

Joshua is an award-winning writer and director. His recent book, Ali the Iraqi, was published by BCC press. Sarah is a literature and theology doctoral student studying the Book of Job in the twentieth century.

Artwork by Maddie Baker.