Good
afternoon, Brothers and Sisters. Our
topic today is the Sabbath. When I was
assigned this topic, I thought, “Oh, this should be a tightly-focused, narrow
topic.” My record is still perfect;
ain’t been right yet.
As always, as I prepared for this talk I have been
enlightened, and my mind opened to the truth vastly more than my poor words
might ever convey to you, my dear friends.
I have felt no small amount of shame and remorse as my backsliding and
foolishness has been made manifest to me.
In
addition to the Scriptures, the main sources for this talk are from the
January, 1978 edition of “The Ensign,” which was devoted to the Sabbath. The managing editor, Jay M. Todd, wrote a
short foreword to that issue:
“Early
in 1976 the subject of the Sabbath was discussed with our Brethren. They agreed
that a treatment of that topic could have a powerful impact on the lives of
members of the Church. Thus the articles in this issue were prepared; and they
are featured together here to provide a complementary unit of themes relating
to Sunday. We hope that readers will find helpful the ideas and experiences
voiced by members of the Church—not as official pronouncements concerning
Church Sabbath-day practices, but as good counsel to be considered by all who have
seen the need for renewed efforts in making Sunday the best day of the week.”
I
recommend this issue of the “Ensign” with all my heart. As Brother Todd said, it may not be official
doctrine, but it is filled with dynamic power and timeless relevance. It is available on the church web site,
lds.org.
From
the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 8 through 11, we know that to Moses was
given the commandment,
“Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all thy work:
But
the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord
thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates:
For
in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed
the sabbath day, and hallowed
it.
In
Doctrine &Covenants 59, we are told:
"But
remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt
offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy
brethren, and before the Lord.
And on
this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect,
or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
Verily,
this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.
And
inasmuch as ye do these things with thanksgiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is
sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance—
Verily I
say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is
yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that
which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;
Yea, and
the herb, and the good things which
come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses,
or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
Yea, all
things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye
and to gladden the heart;
Yea, for
food and for
raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.”
Surely,
then, the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Think of each of the promises made in this
passage as I read them again.
“The
fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and
walketh upon the earth;
Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for
raiment,
or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
Yea, all things which come of the
earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the
use
of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;
Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the
soul.”
We
are given all the animals to use as food when necessary, but also so that their
beauty, power, and majesty might please our eyes and gladden our hearts. We are given all good things which come from
the earth – that which grows in the soil, but also the minerals and elements
from the earth, itself – but it says, “…in the season thereof…” meaning as
appropriate to our stewardship, not as looters.
And all of these things do, indeed nourish us physically, aesthetically,
and spiritually. And all we have to do
is keep the Sabbath holy, in accordance to His commandments.
This
is not the first time I have read these scriptures. How is it, then, that I have been so easily
lured into so many foolish ideas about the Sabbath?
For
example, I have convinced myself that I can get as much by staying home and
reading the Scriptures and reflecting prayerfully on them as I can get from
going to church. My dad used to tell me
that when I was alone, I was in bad company.
The meaning of Matthew, 18:20 was
totally lost on me. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them.” Here, in
our midst, is He. But more than once I
have thought that I could get as much on my couch as here, with you wonderful
people whom I love, and Him.
Here’s
another good one. I actually convinced
myself many times that because of my family’s financial straits, the
opportunity to earn a premium wage by working on the Sabbath was a blessing,
and that by working, I was honoring the gifts of strength, a job, and
overtime. What makes this even more
stupid is that when I was a teacher for the priest’s quorum in the young men’s
organization, I delivered a talk on the Sabbath. In preparation for that talk, I took a
handful of quarters out to my drill press and punched a 3/8 hole through each
quarter. I gave each young man one of
those quarters, saying that it was to remind them that, no matter how much they
might make by working on the Sabbath, something would be missing from their
lives. Even after that, I let myself get
suckered by the Adversary.
President
Kimball, in the opening essay of that issue of the “Ensign,” said,
“When men and women are willing to work
on the Sabbath to increase their wealth, they are breaking the commandments;
for money taken in on the Sabbath, if the work is unnecessary, is unclean
money. Can you imagine a person laboring on the Sabbath in defiance of the
Lord’s command, and then bringing a tithe or other portion of the ill-gained
fruits of this labor to Him as an offering? Just as in Old Testament times, offerings
presented to the Lord must be “without blemish,” and unnecessary Sabbath-day
earnings can never be such.”
Do
you see my foolishness? Yes, we were in
trouble, and I never thought of myself as working to increase my wealth. I was working to keep food on the table and a
roof over our heads. It was a grim and
stressful time, which is precisely why I should have been even more attentive
to the commandments, particularly that of keeping the Sabbath. When we most needed the blessings that come
with keeping the Sabbath, I was at work, trying to do it the hard way.
One
of the most cleverly-disguised abuses of the Sabbath was when I decided that,
because my family and I were so busy during the week, that skipping church
occasionally for a day trip was a righteous activity. Oh, to be sure, I would occasionally make a
Scriptural point as we drove along, or would praise the beauty of creation. The kids would roll their eyes and go back to
reading Harry Potter or texting or whatever they were doing. As you can see, not only did I handicap
myself by shunning the blessings promised for keeping the commandments, but I
dragged my innocent little children along with me!
One
of the essays in “The Ensign” was written by President Eyring, when he was
deputy commissioner of Church Education.
It is in response to the question, “Should I do schoolwork on the
Sabbath?”
“Suppose
you were invited to the office of the president of a nation to meet him about
an important government appointment. Would you concentrate easily as you read
your algebra book in the minutes before you walked from your hotel to the
nation’s headquarters? How comfortably would you slip into writing an essay on
philosophy in the hours afterward? If you read before or after, it would almost
certainly be either the president’s prior statements or information on topics
relating to the office you were being considered for. If you wrote afterwards,
it would be about your impressions, your insights, your recollections of your
conversation.
“If
a visit with a president would blot out interest in unrelated studies, what
could be the effect of a visit with the Creator? The Sabbath is an invitation
from the Master to commune with him, and we are striving, not for an office,
but for eternal life. He arranges lessons to be taught from his own scriptural
texts; he instructs his priesthood to serve you the sacrament; and then he promises his presence:
“Where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
And
here we are, back to Him, as it has been and will be from everlasting unto
everlasting.
So
how can we establish the Sabbath in our own lives as the best day of the
week? One of the most interesting articles
I found is in “The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women.” Lesson 4 speaks of making the entire week a
period of preparation for the Sabbath, and making the Sabbath the focal point,
or climax of the week.
How
many times have we entered the Sabbath stressed to the limit with the
mundanities of life? Even though they be
very important and worthy things, such as keeping our homes clean, our children
dressed in clean clothes, schoolwork done, meals prepared, gas tanks filled,
and the million and ten details that seem to eat us alive? Am I the only one who has ever thought at
bedtime on Saturday, “Oh, my gosh!
Tomorrow is Sunday!” It comes
around just about every week, right after Saturday, and usually, right before
Monday. But so often it sneaks up on
me.
This
lesson offers several common-sense suggestions for planning ahead. Common sense means things I wouldn’t have thought
of on my own in a hundred years. The
week can be scheduled with Sunday specifically in mind if we but give that
commandment the priority it merits. I’m sure some of y’all have read Stephen
Covey’s masterpiece, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” One of those habits is that of putting first
things first. I had an opportunity to
see Covey speak on this topic in person.
He illustrated it by taking two large pickle jars and a selection of
rocks and objects of various sizes, including some sand. He explained that the biggest rocks were the
most important commitments in our schedule.
He
started by pouring the sand into one jar, then put in a few of the largest
rocks. The jar was full, but there were
still a lot of rocks left on the table. Then
he took the other jar and placed in it the largest of the rocks. The rocks came to the top of the jar, giving
the impression that it was full. Next,
he put in the next size smaller rocks, which filled the gaps between the big
rocks. Again the jar was full, but it
had lot more rocks in it. He repeated
the process, going smaller and smaller, and when he at last added the sand, the
jar was really full, but everything was in it.
Hence the importance of putting first things first.
Now
I am not about to stand up here and tell anyone what is most important. We each have our own jars and our own
rocks. But this much seems clear to me: remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy
is a commandment, and that makes is a pretty big rock. Speaking for myself, it is my intention to put
the Sabbath – the biggest of my rocks – in my weekly jar first, so that I will
never again be tempted to pass on it because there’s just too much sand.
How
many of the stressful circumstances that urge us to neglect the Sabbath might
be solved or even removed from our lives if we obey this commandment?
That
one issue of the “Ensign” has many articles on the Sabbath, and I have only
superficially touched on two of them.
It’s like a General Conference issue, but devoted solely to the Sabbath.
I
would like to close by reading part of an essay from the Nov., 1984 “Ensign,” by Elder John H. Groberg, then of the 70. He told of driving to a speaking assignment
on a Sunday. His drive took him through
the Cache Valley of Utah. He wrote at
length about the indescribable peace and serenity. No one worked in the fields, the stores were
closed, the usually busy roads were almost deserted. The beauty of the place was even greater than
usual, and it struck him that it was because so many of the people were
observing the Sabbath. They were in
church, gathering in the presence of the Lord.
His description of the valley is really beautiful. The article is worth reading, if only for
that.
Months
later, after an especially hectic period of immersion in the world out there,
he said,
“I thought about Sodom and Gomorrah.
Could they have been much more wicked than this? And yet the Lord promised to
spare them for fifty righteous souls—or even down to ten—but they were not
found.
“I
let my imagination go and seemed to see a band of destroying angels loosed from
heaven—thundering across the land. And even before I had time to think about
the situation, I seemed to see myself standing in front of these determined
destroyers, declaring, “Hold, hold, hold”; and they held. “Go back,” I said:
and their horses reared, their eyes flashing in impatience. The destroyers’
anxiousness showed, but they held.
“The
leader looked me squarely in the eye and challenged, “By what right do you ask
us to hold? Have you not seen the evil of the land?”
“I
replied, “Yes, I know of the sordidness of the world. I see the constant
mocking of God’s laws, the merchandising on his holy day, the constant breaking
of his commandments. I see the evil that exists almost universally. Yes, yes,
all these things are true, still …” Then I became concerned. What right had I
to ask them to hold?
“My
eyes began to fall from his penetrating gaze, but something inside kept
searching, searching, until finally a laserlike beam locked on to a misty
memory made many months ago and faithfully filed away for such a time as this.
A vista of a beautiful green valley passed before me and moved to the front of
my consciousness.
“I
raised my eyes and met his as he again said, “What right do you have to ask us
to hold?”
“Then
with the confidence of sure knowledge and spiritual direction, I replied, “You
must hold, for you see, I have been through the Cache Valley on a Sunday
afternoon.”
“There
was no hesitation, no anger, no look of surprise, no disappointment, only obedience;
and he turned and rejoined his group, and they left.”
Brothers
and Sisters, can we possibly leave to our children any worldly gift that could
be greater than to enable one of them – or even one of us, for that matter – to
stand before the destroyers and say, “You must hold, for I have been through
the Paradise Hills Ward on a Sunday afternoon?”
I
thank you for your kind tolerance. I am
most humbly indebted to the Bishopric for this assignment. I leave with you my testimony of the truth
of the Gospel, most humbly, in the name
of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
