What is the Sacrament to you?
(For me lately it has been a time when I am more wrestling kids and trying to keep them quiet than a spiritual experience. - So this is my chance to refocus... Sadly I can't blame it all on my kids. . . as I sat on the stand (KidLESS), doing my best to focus the entire 10 min or so I found my mind wondering - just moments before giving this talk. OBVIOUSLY I needed this!)
In my studies I found: (emphasis added below)
1. Sacrament meeting is the most sacred and important meeting in the Church. It is the only Sabbath meeting the entire family can attend together. (Elder Oaks - talk Sacrament meeting and the Sacrament.)
2. It is very personal, as we bring a broken heart and contrite spirit there. (Elder Nelson Ens. 8/04) If we think of the words of the Sacrament - All we are asked to do is to turn our hearts and thoughts to our Savior who gave us so much. We are covenanting to "always remember Him." Sadly, as I am making the covenant I am often "Violating" it as I make it, as my mind wanders. . .
3. For the Young Women and women who may not know the significance of the white shirts being worn to pass the sacrament; "a white shirt could be seen as a gentle reminder of the white clothing you wore in the baptismal font and an anticipation of the white shirts (dress) you will wear into the temple" (or on your missions for the YM.) (Ensign 11/95 p. 68) I appreciated the gentle reminder of my baptism as I observed the white shirts today.
4. It is a chance to "Pause from the hectic pace of our lives and to reflect upon things sacred and divine." (Pres Hinkley, talk Reverence and Morality)
4. We are on Holy Ground. Have you ever thought of that? President Hinkley reflected on a time that he brought some investigators to a sacrament meeting while on his mission. "There was the usual convivial spirit in the hall, with the members talking noisily one with another. When this family came into the room, they quietly moved toward some chairs, knelt for a moment, and closed their eyes in a word of prayer. They then sat in an attitude of reverence amidst all the commotion.
Frankly, I [Pres. Hinkley] was embarrassed. They had come to what they regarded as a worship service, and they behaved themselves accordingly."
He went on to explain that socializing is an important aspect of our program as a church. But that all of these things should take place in the foyer, and "when we enter the chapel we should understand that we are in sacred precincts." He then recounted the story of Moses and the burning bush. "And the Lord said, "draw not nigh hither: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Ex. 3:5) He continued that although we are not asked to remove our shoes, the same reverence for the chapel and should abound when we walk through those chapel doors.
I though of the song "the chapel doors" and how I need to teach my children better of the sacredness of the sacrament meeting. Perhaps I should pause before we walk in, make sure all their wiggles are out and they remember to be reverent in that room. (I feel a FHE coming on! :)) I remember as a small child learning of the linens representation as they covered the sacrament. I remember often picturing our Savior being covered by those clothes in the tomb; and of course His Triumphant Rise. Do my children know of the symbolism? How long has it been since I have really pondered those same thoughts?
7. We are renewing covenants. One would reason that if we are "renewing" our covenant of baptism by taking of the sacrament worthily, then certainly the effects of baptism would also be renewed. THAT IS A POWERFUL THOUGHT (by my dad). I never felt so clean as after I was baptized. I never wanted to tarnish that clean feeling. (of course I did) But I was excited to feel just as clean and that same desire the first time I went through the temple. If I make the effort, that same clean feeling can be renewed each week as i partake of the emblems of His Atonement. There is Power in the Sacrament that I believe even I don't fathom.
But the GREATEST Power is in His LOVE. Born of both miraculous and humble circumstances, He lived a life of service. . . always thinking of others. He HEALED both body and SOUL.
Before he gave the ultimate sacrifice, He taught his apostles of a comforter he would send. Because he would "not leave them comfortless." He gave them a new commandment to "love one another, as I have loved you."
When I read this I thought, wait, this isn't a NEW commandment he asked them to do this before. . . I then studied to find that before he had asked them to "love your neighbor as yourself". Oh how much more beautiful the commandment to "love your neighbor as" HE loved you. For no one would have a more perfect love.
[ There is an AMAZING talk by Jeffery R Holland entiled "I Stand All Amazed" I so suggest you read it I didn't use it all in my talk, but below are bits and pieces from it.]
In the Sermon on the Mount he reminds us "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Matt. 5:44)
His words mean even more considering what happened shortly after this sermon.
"And when [Pilate] had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of throrns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him."(Matt. 27:26-31)
And after all of this, He did as he asked us to do, as He proclaimed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." He took no thought of his own suffering, in the hour when surely he could be "selfish" he was not.
My favorite hymn is such because of the lines "the very foes who slay thee, have access to they grace." For even those who most evil in this world, will have the chance to repent. Even those who crucified Him, would be forgiven BY Him, if they would repent.
Elder Holland recalls seeing a group waiting for their missionary to return off the plane - after being gone for two years. As he watched, he was able to point out the girlfriend who was an obvious reck. :) A Father, with shoes well worn, obviously put off getting new clothes for himself because he made sure that his son had the best on his mission. The mother who held in her hand a tissue of sorts that had been held so tightly and nervously crumpled. A rowdy brother who jumped around nervously. Who would it be to run up to the newly returned elder first? he thought as he watched.
"Somebody couldn't take it any longer. It wasn't the mother, and it wasn't the girlfriend, and it wasn't the rowdy little brother. That big slightly awkward, quiet and bronzed giant of a man. . . just simply ran out . . . and swept his son into his arms. . . . He just held him and said nothing. "
"And then I thought of God the Eternal Father watching his boy go out to serve, to sacrifice when he didn't have to, paying his own way, so to speak, costing everything he had saved, all his life to give. At that precious moment, it was not too difficult to imagine that fater speaking with some emotion to those who could hear, "this is my Beloved Son, in whom i am well pleased." . . . Even in my limited imagination I can see that reunion in the heavens. And I pray for one like it for you and for me.
My prayer is that I can remember each Sabbath day, to Remember Him, as He asks, and as i covenant so that I can have HIS SPIRIT to guide me (and all of us) back to our real home.
3.
1 comment:
made me tear up! Thank you Kristina!!!!
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