Making Partaking of the Sacrament More Meaningful

 Today for the first time in 6 months, we had a YW lesson.  It was over Zoom so not quite normal, but I'm so grateful to be able to gather and worship and learn together.

The lesson was how we can make partaking of the sacrament more meaningful to each of us personally.

I began by painting a scene for the YW.  Imagine that you have just experienced earthquakes and terrible storms.  Buildings collapsed.  There's terrible destruction.  Many people die.  Cities are destroyed.  Maybe someone you love has been killed.  And then there are three days of absolute darkness...so dark that not even a candle can be lit.  So dark that there is NOTHING that can dispel the darkness.  Can you imagine how you might be feeling?   Can you imagine how the Nephites must have felt at that time?  Their fear, sadness, grief, confusion?  Maybe you can imagine that a little better now than you could have 6 months ago!  Now imagine you are gathered with others in front of the temple, talking about all that has happened.  Then suddenly there is a light and a voice.  You look around to figure out where the voice came from.  It comes again but you can't understand what it's saying or where it is coming from. And then finally you look up and hear a voice say, "Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am wel pleased, in whom I have glorified my name-hear ye Him."  And then Christ comes down.  Can you imagine the joy that they must have felt?  

I think it is instructive to look at what Christ did after He came to the Nephites.  To these people who had experienced some heartrending things.  First, he ministered to each of them individually, letting them come and touch the nail prints in His hands and feet. I imagine He probably spoke words of love and comfort to them.  And then in the following chapters, He begins to teach them.  And if these are the things that He taught them--the things He felt were of worth for them to learn--then maybe they should be of worth and great importance to us!  He teaches them about baptism, about the need to get rid of contention, He teaches them to love one another--even their enemies.  He heals the sick and blesses the children--and I like to believe that the youth, the teenagers were among those He blessed and prayed unto the Father for.  And then He gathers them and prepares and passes the sacrament.  If the sacrament was that important to Him, then I think it should be pretty important to us.  But why?   And how?  That's what I hope to answer today.

For the why...I'd like to start with a video about Christ. I'd like you to watch and then after it ends, I'll give a couple of minutes of silence for you to think about how you feel about Christ or even to write a few thoughts down in your journal.  (We watched the video Reflections of Christ which is paired with Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.)

I love that video and how it portrays Christ...and I love that song.  I especially love these lines:

"Jesus sought me when a stranger

Wandering from the fold of God

He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."

I love this song because we all are prone to wander.  We all have moments when we leave the God we love.   And so we are debtors to Him...but because of His love and mercy and grace, He really will rescue us from danger.  He will bind us to Him if we ask Him to.

After video... I let YW share a favorite scripture or experience that helps them know Christ's character and that He is there for them.

In conference Steven Lund told a beautiful story of his son getting sick.  One Sunday, Tanner was struggling to button his shirt.  He was in constant pain.  His mom came in and said that maybe he should go back to bed.  Tanner said he had a responsibility to pass the sacrament.  His mom said that they would understand and could find someone to take his place.  Then Tanner said that he saw how people looked at him as he passed the sacrament and that he thinks it helps them to see him there.  President Lund said that really impacted the way they viewed the sacrament and its importance.  

Steven Lund said, "Every time a deacon holds a sacrament tray, we are reminded of the sacred story of the Last Supper, of Gethsemane, of Calvary, and of the garden tomb. When the Savior said to His Apostles, “This do in remembrance of me,”¹ He was also speaking through the ages to each of us. He was speaking of the unending miracle that He would provide as future deacons, teachers, and priests would present His emblems and invite His children to accept His atoning gift.

All of the sacramental symbols point us to that gift. We contemplate the bread that He once broke—and the bread the priests before us are, in turn, now breaking. We think of the meaning of the liquid consecrated, then and now, as sacrament prayers solemnly pass from the mouths of young priests into our hearts and into the heavens, renewing covenants that connect us to the very powers of Christ’s salvation. We may think about what it means when a deacon carries the sacred emblems to us, standing as he does where Jesus would stand if He were there, offering to lift our burdens and our pain."

I think the most important thing we can do to make the sacrament meaningful is to come to know Christ's character.  We can do that as we learn of Him and strive to live as He did.

Broken:  

I was touched today as we sang the song How Great the Wisdom and the Love before partaking of the sacrament.  Listen to these words:

How great the wisdom and the love

That filled the courts on high

And sent the Savior from above

To suffer, bleed, and die!

We didn't sing the last two verses, but listen to their words:

1. 5. In mem’ry of the broken flesh

   We eat the broken bread

   And witness with the cup, afresh,

   Our faith in Christ, our Head.

2. 6. How great, how glorious, how complete

   Redemption’s grand design,

   Where justice, love, and mercy meet

   In harmony divine!

The Lord loves and helps us when we feel broken.  I love this quote:

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”

― Vance Havner

And more than the things listed above, through the breaking of Christ's flesh, through His suffering and death and resurrection, all that is broken in US can be healed.

So when you feel broken or sad or lonely, turn to Him.  

I read today that in some Christian churches, rather than passing the bread around, they have each person come to the front to receive it.  Each person is handed the piece of bread and told, "This is Jesus' body, broken for you."   While that is not how we administer the sacrament, I think this holds a beautiful truth/reminder...that Christ suffered these things FOR YOU!

When we partake of the sacrament, we renew our baptismal covenants.  What did we covenant to do at baptism?

We promised to take Christ's name upon us, to keep the commandments, to always remember Him and we promised to love others...to mourn with those who mourn, comfort those in need of comfort.  So the second way to make the sacrament more meaningful is to then seek those in need of help and give aid to them.  Not right during the sacrament usually but every day of our lives.

Elder Holland said, "When the sacred hour comes to present our sacrificial gift to the Lord, we do have our own sins and shortcomings to resolve; that’s why we’re there. But we might be more successful in such contrition if we are mindful of the other broken hearts and sorrowing spirits that surround us. Seated not far away are some who may have wept—outwardly or inwardly—through the entire sacramental hymn and the prayers of those priests. Might we silently take note of that and offer our little crust of comfort and our tiny cup of compassion—might we dedicate it to them? or to the weeping, struggling member who is not in the service and, except for some redemptive ministering on our part, won’t be there next week either? or to our brothers and sisters who are not members of the Church at all but are our brothers and sisters? There is no shortage of suffering in this world, inside the Church and out, so look in any direction and you will find someone whose pain seems too heavy to bear and whose heartache seems never to end. One way to “always remember him”¹⁰ would be to join the Great Physician in His never-ending task of lifting the load from those who are burdened and relieving the pain of those who are distraught."

I promise that as we come to know and love Christ better and as we notice others around us and try to help and lift and encourage them, the sacrament WILL be more meaningful for us.  We will feel greater peace and joy.  We will grow closer to Christ, He who was bruised, broken and torn for us so that we can be whole.