The Plain and Precious Ordinance of the Sacrament

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Paul Smart

Source:  Humbly Seeking Wisdom

Routine

Every morning, I do the same exact thing. When I first wake up, I jump in the shower. Once I dry off, I put in my contacts, put on my deodorant, and brush my teeth, but I don’t shave. That’s because I need time for my face to dry completely before I shave. So I go plug in the iron but I don’t use it yet, because it needs time to warm up. So I go turn on my computer, but I don’t use it yet either, because it needs time to boot. So I pick out my clothes. By then, my computer is started so I check my email. By then, the iron is hot so I iron my clothes. By then my face is dry, so I shave. Then I put on the clothes I ironed, and I am ready for the day.

I follow this same routine every morning. The beautiful thing about routines is that you can do a bunch of tasks without even thinking about it, pretty much mindlessly.

The problem with routines comes when you are doing something that you WANT to be thoughtful about, that you want to be mindful of. Because the sacrament is such a simple ordinance, and because we do it the same exact way every week, I think it can be easy for the sacrament to start to feel routine. For much of my life, the sacrament has felt that way—very plain, and ordinary, and routine. I was just going through the motions without really thinking much about it.

But something has happened to me ever since I moved here to LA that has made the sacrament more meaningful to me than ever before. I don’t even know for sure what it is that has caused the change, but I can honestly say that the sacrament has become
something I look forward to through the week,
something I need,
something that changes me,
that heals me,
that brings me peace.
I think for the first time, the sacrament has become precious to me.

If there are any of you out there who feel like the sacrament can sometimes seem plain, I want to share some thoughts with you that might help you to look at it in a new light. I pray the Spirit will touch your hearts as I try to teach principles, that you may know what you can do to feel the power of the plain AND precious ordinance of the Sacrament.

Unite with God (Marriage)

When we hear the word Sacrament, we usually think of the administration of the bread and the water during Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. Elder Holland teaches us that the word actually has a broader meaning:

“…a sacrament could be any one of a number of gestures or acts or ordinances that unite us with God and his limitless powers. We are imperfect and mortal; he is perfect and immortal. But from time to time–indeed, as often as is possible and appropriate–we find ways and go to places and create circumstances where we can unite symbolically with him, and in so doing gain access to his power. Those special moments of union with God are sacramental moments–such as kneeling at a marriage altar, or blessing a newborn baby, or partaking of the emblems of the Lord’s supper. This latter ordinance is the one we in the Church have come to associate most traditionally with the word sacrament, though it is technically only one of many such moments when we formally take the hand of God and feel his divine power.
“These are moments when we quite literally unite our will with God’s will, our spirit with his spirit, where communion through the veil becomes very real. At such moments we not only acknowledge his divinity, but we quite literally take something of that divinity to ourselves. Such are the holy sacraments.”

Elder Holland describes the Lord’s Supper as one of many sacraments wherein we unite our will with God’s will.

My roommate from college got married last weekend, and I was privileged to attend the sealing. At Ben’s wedding (which is one type of sacrament), I thought of how he and Amanda were about to (1) embark on the rest of their lives together. From that moment on, they would (2) share everything–their hearts, their hopes, their lives, their love, their family, their future, their everything—even (3) their last names. They were (4) joined together as one in the union of marriage.

When we are baptized (which is another type of sacrament), we are born again, and we (1) embark on a new life devoted to Christ. We agree to (2) share His will—or as Elder Holland puts it, “to unite our will with God’s will.” We agree to (3) take His name upon us.

When we partake of the bread and the water, we are renewing that covenant to share our will with Him, to share our hopes, our hearts, our lives, our love, indeed, our everything, with Him.

Through the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper, we (4) join ourselves in a union with God. Even if it for just a few minutes on a Sunday morning, we become one with Him, like the Father and the Son are one.

The Sacrament can become precious to us when we use it to unite with God.

Remember Him

Gerald Lund had just finished giving a talk at the CES Symposium, when I man walked up to him and handed him a doctor’s magazine called “Private Practice” and said, “There’s an article in here that I think you’d like.”

It was about rock climbing. I don’t know a lot about this but I’ll try to explain it as best I can. Apparently, rock climbers climb together with a partner, in tandem and they’ll tie themselves to one another with ropes and harnesses, to protect each other. One guy will climb up to a certain altitude on the rock, and when he gets his footings together and his hand holds in place, then he’ll get some mechanical supports and insert them in the crevasses so that he can handle not only his own weight, but the weight of his partner as well. As soon as he feels secure, he’ll look down at his partner and say, “You’re on belay,” meaning basically, I’ll stop you if you fall. The other guy looks up and says, Okay, I’m climbing. And he starts to move. He climbs past his partner and gets up to a spot that he likes and gets his footings, his hand holds, and his mechanical supports and everything. Once he feels secure, he tells his partner, “You’re on belay.”  And that’s how they move up the wall, sort of leap-frogging over each other, as a protection to each other.

The author of the article wrote,

“Some of my greatest and worst experiences have been while I was on belay. One time I fell. I freaked out. I ripped three of the mechanical supports out of the mountain, and all my friend could do was grab the rock with his arms, press his face against the rock and wait for my full weight to catch up with him on the rope.”

He said, “My friend saved my life. He stopped me upside down, 10 feet above the ground.”

And then this man asked a wonderful question—“How do you respond to somebody who just saved your life?”

Good question! What do you say? “Thanks!” “’Preciate cha.” “I owe you dinner.”  I mean, what do you say!

But then the author said this. Listen to this and think of the Sacrament. “How do you respond to someone who just saved your life? You just always remember him. You just never forget him.”

How do we respond to the Savior who, in a different way, stretched out his arms and saved us from the fall? You just never forget him. You just always remember him.

It has been said of President Wilford Woodruff that while the sacrament was being passed, his lips could be observed in silent motion as he repeated to himself over and over again, “I do remember thee, I do remember thee.”

The Sacrament can become precious to us when we always remember Him.

Symbolism

Let’s walk through the ordinance of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and see how we can be more thoughtful about it, and how it can help us to remember Him.

Cloth
Priesthood holders come early to set up the Sacrament so it is there when we walk in. They put a white cloth over bread and water trays. Have you ever wondered why we use a cloth? Don’t you think that when Christ was buried in the tomb, they put a cloth over his body? In fact, when you look at the sacrament table, doesn’t it almost resemble Christ’s body in the tomb?

Hymn
Then when the time comes, we sing a hymn—a different kind of hymn, a special hymn. We call it a “Sacrament Hymn.” What is the subject of the sacrament hymns in every case? The Savior and the Atonement

Bread
And as we are singing that special hymn, the priests stand up and begin breaking the bread. Have you ever wondered why they break the bread? If the church wanted to, they could have the teachers break the bread in the back room before the meeting started. They could find somebody to manufacture the bread already in bite-sized pieces. But that’s not the way it works. The priests, not in some back room, but right there, front and center where everyone can see them, break the bread, while we are singing about the Savior. Think of hymn 181, Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King. We sing, “bruised, broken, torn for us, on Calvary’s hill.”

Why bread? Did you know that Bethlehem, where the Savior was born, means “House of Bread.” What did Jesus say in John chapter 6? The people had been following because he fed them from the 5 loaves and 2 fishes and they were hungry again. He said to them, “You’re not following me because of what I say, you’re not following me because of the miracles. You’re following me because you think I’m going to feed you again. You’re looking for bread, but if you eat it, you will die.”

The people say, “Well, we had Moses and he gave us manna in the wilderness.” Christ answers, “Yes, your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they are all dead. I am the living bread. I am the bread of life.”

I love it that Jesus would choose something that we need everyday and say, “I am like that.” You need me. I am like bread. We sing, “I need thee”…how often? “Every hour.” Jesus says, “I am the bread of life, and if you eat this bread, you will never die.” And the people said to the Lord, “Evermore give us this bread.” That is the bread we eat.

Water
What about the water? To the woman at the well, Christ describes himself as the Living Water.

Sister Ardeth Kapp tells a great story that helps me appreciate the sacrament more. She was visiting somewhere when she was General Young Women’s President and a little boy named Brent came up to her and said, “Have you ever met the Prophet?”

She said, “Yes, I’ve met the Prophet.” And the little boy said, “Wow, I want to meet the prophet!”

Sister Kapp wanted to encourage the love that this boy had for the prophet, so she said, “Well, now you can say you’ve shaken hands with someone who has shaken hands with the prophet.”

The little boy looked at his hand and said, “I’ll never wash my hand!”

She smiled, but then she thought that could create some problems. “You know, maybe you should wash your hand. Maybe you can just remember in here” as she pointed to her heart.

“Well I’ll wash my hand…but I’m going to save the water.” So he went in the other room, and when he came back, he was carrying a little bag full of water.

She said it was hard not to laugh, but we kind of tried to encourage him and said, “Yeah, that’s kinda how you can remember the prophet. With your little bag of water there.”

And then finally, that got a little hard to handle and he left the room again. And this time when he came back, he didn’t have the bag of water, but he had a little bit of water on his shirt.

They asked what happened. He stood up and proudly announced, “I drank the water.”

At first, that sounds funny. But Sister Kapp made it so profound. She said, “I told him that he could just remember in here (his heart). But that wasn’t enough. He wanted so much to remember this experience, that he took the water, and he put it inside.”

Elder Hafen suggest that perhaps the reason we take the bread and water and put it inside is to symbolize the Atonement inside of us. If the Lord wanted to he could just have the priests read the prayer and we could all think about the Savior. But we actually perform this little action where we take the bread and water, and we put it inside–symbolically getting the Atonement, getting the Savior inside of us, to the place where He can change us and cleanse us and renew us. Such a beautiful thing that happens in the Sacrament!

Altar
We place the bread and the water on what then becomes an altar. What do we use altars for? To offer sacrifices. What sacrifice do we offer on the altar of the sacrament table? A broken heart, contrite spirit.

What are the emblems that symbolize that sacrifice? Christ’s body, and Christ’s blood. He is the one that paid the price for us to return to God. We offer Him our devotion.

Prayer
So the priests read what must be the most repeated scriptures in the church. Think about that–if you are Heavenly Father and there is something you really want your children to remember, wouldn’t you arrange it so that they hear it often?

“To the souls.” When we bless the food, what do we usually say, “to nourish and strengthen”…what?…”our bodies.” But this is different, this is the bread of life. It nourishes and strengthens our bodies and our spirits—or in other words, our souls.

“And witness unto thee.” What does a witness do…at a trial? He testifies. What are we doing? It’s like we are on sworn in on the witness stand testifying of Him.

“Willing to take upon them the name of thy son.” When you were born, they gave you a name. When you are born again, you take upon you the name of Christ.

“and always…” …what?…”always remember him.” President Kimball taught that the most important word in the dictionary could be the word “remember.” Go through the Book of Mormon and find the word remember. You’ll notice when the people are wicked it says they did not remember, they forgot. When they are righteous it says they remembered. (Remember Nephi telling his brothers, “how could you have forgotten?”.) How do you respond to someone who just saved your life? You always remember Him.

Worthiness

I want to close by sharing a story about someone who learned how precious the Sacrament can be. John Grohberg said,

“Some years ago, a young couple we will call the Joneses visited with their bishop about a problem the wife had. The details are not important, but through the direction of the Spirit, the bishop’s decision was that, among other things, Sister Jones would not partake of the sacrament for a period of time while she worked out some attitudes and problems.
“With lots of love and support, she continued to attend meetings with her family, and few but her husband and the bishop were aware of the situation or even noticed that week after week she did not partake of the sacrament. At first she didn’t feel much difference; but as time went on, she became more and more desirous to be worthy to partake of the sacrament. She thought she had repented before, but as the real soul-searching deepened and as her desire to worthily partake of the sacrament increased, true fundamental changes began to take place in her life and in her actions and in her thinking.
“More time passed. Finally, during one sacrament meeting, the Spirit bore witness to the bishop and to Brother and Sister Jones that the time had come for her to again partake of the sacrament. ‘Next Sunday,’ the bishop said.
“Next Sunday came, and Sister Jones sat again with her family, nervous, yet excited and full of anticipation. ‘Am I really worthy? How I want to be!’ she thought. The sacrament hymn was more meaningful than ever. She sang with such feeling that it was difficult to hold back the tears. And the sacrament prayers—how profound! She listened so intently that every word sank deep into her soul—to take his name, always remember him, keep his commandments, always have his Spirit. ‘Oh, how I desire this,’ she thought.
“The deacons began to move up and down the aisles, and the trays were passed from person to person across the rows. As one young deacon got closer and closer to her row, her heart began to pound harder and harder. Then the tray was coming down her very row. Now her husband was holding the tray in front of her! Tears streamed down her face. There was a barely audible sob of joy, as she reached for the emblem of the Lord’s love for her. The congregation did not hear the sob, but they did notice the tears in the bishop’s eyes.”

Elder Grohberg continues,

“I testify from the depths of my soul that …Jesus did suffer and die for us. Through him, and only through him, can we have life and the joy thereof, both in time and in eternity.
“I love the Savior. I feel that as he hung upon the cross and looked out over the dark scene, he saw more than mocking soldiers and cruel taunters. He saw more than crying women and fearful friends. He remembered and saw even more than women at wells or crowds on hills or throngs by seashores. He saw more, much more. He, who knows all and has all power, saw through the stream of time. His huge, magnanimous, loving soul encompassed all eternity and took in all people and all times and all sins and all forgiveness and all everything. Yes, he saw down to you and to me and provided us an all-encompassing opportunity to escape the terrible consequences of death and sin.
“And even as he suffered for all of us, he voiced that most beautiful of all requests, ‘Father, forgive them.’ (Luke 23:34.)
“We must do our part and cry with full fervor of soul, ‘Father, forgive me through the merits of thy Beloved Son as I partake of these emblems of his broken body and spilt blood for me. Please, Father, through him, forgive me! Help me to do better.'”

Conclusion

As Elder Holland has taught, the Sacrament portion of our meeting is “a powerful, reverent, reflective moment. It [encourages] spiritual feelings and impressions. As such it should not be rushed. It is not something to ‘get over’ so that the real purpose of a sacrament meeting can be pursued. This is the real purpose of the meeting. And everything that is said or sung or prayed in those services should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance.”

The Sacrament is a plain ordinance, but as we work to remember its meaning, its purpose, its symbolism, I know it can become precious to us. It can bring us healing. It can bring us peace. It can change us and purify us.

How “prone to wander” we can be! But God gives us this chance every week to “bind our wandering hearts” to Him! He reaches out to us and pulls us in. I know He lives. I believe the Sacrament is one of many ways that he tries to tell us in a very personal and individual way, “I love you.”

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sources:

Jeffrey R. Holland, Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments
John Bytheway, The Best Three Hours of the Week (Note: almost the entire second half of this talk is directly pulled from this great talk of Brother Bytheway’s.)
Marion G. Romney, Reverence
John H. Groberg, The Beauty and Importance of the Sacrament
Jeffrey R. Holland, This Do in Remembrance of Me
Traditional Christian hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing