Two Thoughts on the Sacrament

First. It occurred to me during church at some point during the last couple of weeks. In the wording of both the sacrament prayers, we are reminded that the entirety of the covenant we make is possible only through Christ’s grace. It’s not just that the Father blesses and sanctifies the bread or water and then it’s up to us to do the rest; the whole prayer is actually a plea to Heavenly Father.

. . . we ask thee . . . to bless and sanctify this bread . . . that [we] may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son [we can’t officially, formally, eat in remembrance of Christ without the Father’s sanctifying power upon the bread], and [that we may] witness unto thee [only with the Father’s blessing and power] . . . that [we] are willing to take upon [us] the name of thy Son [a name that has to be given, bestowed—not something that can be bought or given without authority, as we learn in the New Testament], and always remember him, and [again, we’ve asked for His blessing and sanctification so that we can] keep his commandments which he hath given [us], that [we] may always have his Spirit to be with [us][—and on top of all those other things that we’re asking the Father to enable us to do, He grants us one huge blessing, which is the one we normally think of].

So, the moral of the story? I shouldn’t think of the sacrament, or the gospel generally for that matter, as one thing after another that we’re being asked to do, even though I clearly can’t do it all perfectly at this point. Instead, I should use the weekly ordinance as a time to remember all that the Atonement enables me to do. Because of what Christ did, the Father can command us to perform the sacrament in his Son’s name, to approach the King under the Prince’s authority, and receive the blessing worthy of Him whom we represent. Second. This was prompted by Daniel and Sara’s sealing (that’s Beth’s brother) last week. It started with something the sealer said but kind of blossomed in my mind. He quoted Doctrine and Covenants 109—the unique revelation of the Kirtland Temple’s dedicatory prayer, which has served as a model for all the subsequent temple dedications. Verse 22:

And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power [I’d remembered noticing that part before, but not what comes next:], and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;

In taking the sacrament, one of our covenants (made possible by the Atonement) is that we will take upon us the name of Christ. That means many things, and I think it can mean different things to different people, as the Spirit dictates. But what it meant to me when I heard it in the temple is that one way that we take Christ’s name upon us is through temple worship. In turn, that brought to mind the oft-repeated phrase from Isaiah? Joseph Smith? Obadiah, it turns out, and it’s not even the whole phrase, “Saviors on Mount Zion”:

And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s. (Obadiah 1:21)

The composite phrase, it would seem, indeed comes from Joseph Smith:

All those who die in the faith go to the prison of spirits to preach to the dead in body, but they are alive in the spirit; and those spirits preach to the spirits [who are in prison] that they may live according to God in the spirit, and men do minister for them in the flesh; . . . and they are made happy by these means [see 1 Peter 4:6]. Therefore, those who are baptized for their dead are the saviors on Mount Zion, and they must receive their washings and their anointings for their dead the same as for themselves. (Quoted by George Laub, in compilation of excerpts from Joseph Smith’s discourses, ca. 1845; George Laub, Reminiscences and Journal Jan. 1845–Apr. 1857, p. 21, Church Archives.)

But to get to the point, we take Christ’s name and power upon us a little bit more each time we’re engaged in His work—and especially when that work directly leads to others’ salvation, as does our work in the temple. So now I need not puzzle over what I can do to take Christ’s name upon me this week; I can make the two-minute drive to the Logan Temple and get to work.