These are talks we wrote in an effort to improve our understanding of the Sabbath, and have not actually been given in Sacrament meeting.
I’ve learned a lot from my father, and these lessons have occurred in a variety of circumstances. One of the most memorable lessons came when he was my freshman seminary teacher and he brought gallons of ice cream and all sorts of toppings to class the Friday before the Superbowl. As the class began he asked “who want’s an ice cream sundae?” Even at 6:00 AM, everyone in the room perked up. So he began to make the first one. As he scooped out the ice cream, sliced in the banana, layered on the whipped cream and drizzled the fudge, you could hear the hungry stomachs churning and the saliva glands getting revved up. But just when the first student thought he was going to get his treat, my dad pulled a surprise topping out of his bag: yellow mustard. He smothered the sundae and handed it to the student, who’s face quickly turned from eager anticipation to surprised disgust.
“Ew, no thank you,” he said.
“Why not?” my dad replied.
“Because you put mustard on it!”
“But isn’t mustard good? Don’t you like it?
“Yes, but not on a sundae!”
“Exactly,” my dad said. The student had unwittingly played his part perfectly.
My dad’s point was about Sundays (d-a-y-s), not sundaes (d-a-e-s). He was teaching us that there are many things in this life that are fun and good and worthwhile that are probably best left for other days of the week. If you’re a member of this church or even just talked to the missionaries a few times, you’ve probably heard a list of some of those things we shouldn’t do. Such a list, however, will not be provided by me. Providing an extensive list is neither practical nor is it always helpful. And there are often exceptions. For example, I remember when, as a teacher, the Bishop sent me running to the grocery store next to the chapel in order to buy bread for the Sacrament.
There is one point about inappropriate Sabbath day activities that I do wish to make, however. For me, and I think for many others, it is easy to judge others who keep the Sabbath differently than you. But spending the Sabbath feeling self righteous because you're not studying like your classmates or watching the big game with your friends is probably not honoring the Sabbath either. Our attitude matters. In fact, I would argue that it is with our attitude, that is to say with our thoughts and feelings, our minds and our hearts, that we truly honor or dishonor the Sabbath day.
Here’s another example of how attitude matters, this time from my personal life. I love the weekend. The busier I get in work or school, the more precious my weekend time becomes. It’s my only opportunity to sleep in, to spend more than a few minutes with my family, or to get caught up on a good book. I usually think of the weekend as “my time.” While I don’t think this is necessarily abnormal or inappropriate, I’ve noticed that when I include Sundays in “my time,” I have a very different attitude towards the Sabbath. Going to church and worshipping on Sunday can easily become an inconvenience or annoyance when we view Sundays as our time.
It is true that the Sabbath was made for man. It is a gift from God, a day of rest and refreshment. However, to get the true blessings of the Lord’s day, we need to do things in the Lord’s way.
Isaiah expressed this idea much better than I can: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isaiah 58: 13-14).
There are a lot of paradoxes in the gospel of Jesus Christ. To find our lives, we have to lose them (Matthew 16:25). The Prince of Peace came to bring the sword (Matthew 10:34). The first shall be last (Matthew 20:16). Here we find another: If we avoid doing our pleasure on the Lord’s day, we will find delight.
I believe that by studying the doctrine of the Sabbath, and what the Lord intended, we will have more motivation to put aside our pleasure and do the Lord’s will, and by so doing be better able to find the promised delight. In the remainder of my time today, I will discuss four principles about the Sabbath with this goal in mind.
I The Sabbath is a Day of rest.
God Himself set the first example of observing the Sabbath. In Genesis, we read that after the six-day work of creation, "on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day … And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 2:2-3).
The Lord taught Joseph Smith that the Sabbath is “a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay your devotions unto the most high.” (D&C 59:10) What does that mean? At least in part, I believe it does literally mean rest. Taking a Sunday afternoon nap can be refreshing and invogorating. Similarly, Elder Nelson has described how during his career, he "needed a breather from the burden of a demanding profession [and] Sunday provided much-needed relief” (Ensign May 2015). While some work is necessary and good on the Sabbath day, one way in which we rest is by taking a break from our daily toils.
The “rest" of the Sabbath day goes far beyond taking naps or taking the day off from work, however. Studying the way God and His prophets use the word “rest” in the scriptures can provide insight into the deeper purposes of the Sabbath day. For example, Doctrine and Covenants 84:24 defines his rest as “the fullness of His glory.” Alma 40:12 provides several synonyms for the rest we find in the Celestial Kingdom, including “peace” and “happiness.” And 3 Nephi 27:19 teaches that entering into the eternal rest of the Lord is only possible for those “who have washed their garments in [Jesus’] blood.” These descriptions of rest are much more profound than simply refreshing our energy. This higher level of “rest” occurs when we seek that Jesus who makes that rest possible. This type of rest involves meaningful meditation, passionate prayer, heartfelt hymns, and serious study.
This leads to my second point:
II The Sabbath is a day of worship
Church attendance is an important part of Sabbath day worship. I remember in high school, when I was laying the foundations of my own testimony and forming my opinions about the world, one of my friends asked me why I went to Church every week. “Can’t you be spiritual on your own?” he asked. “Isn’t being out in nature a great way to feel close to God?” While the answer to both these questions is a definite yes, I now understand that attending church is about much more than just seeking spiritual feelings.
The reasons that attending church is important can be summarized in two points: They are commemorating the Atonement of Jesus and emulating the love and sacrifice of Jesus. I will discuss the second point first.
Emulating the sacrifice of Jesus.
In their book, The Crucible of Doubt, Terryl and Fiona Givens share the following insight:
“The power to unite, to sanctify, and to perfect ... is rooted in Christ’s sacrifice and its emulation by His disciples. To put this more simply, the purposes for which we go to church should be to reenact, in microcosm, the motivations and objectives that Jesus had in laying down His life for us. By coming together in community, serving and ministering to each other, sacrificing selflessly and loving unfailingly, we grow united, sanctified, and perfected in the family of Christ. … What if we saw lessons and talks as connections to the sacrament rather than as unrelated secondary activities? What if we saw them as opportunities to bear with one another in all our infirmities and ineptitude? What if we saw the mediocre talk, the overbearing counselor, the lesson read straight from the manual, as a lay member’s equivalent of the widow’s mite?… wards and stakes thus function as laboratories and practicums where we discover that we love God by learning to love each other.”
What a powerful idea! The very reasons that it is sometimes hard to go to church—the members who we have a hard time getting a long with—are perhaps the most important reasons why we should go. We grow closer to God’s perfection as we learn to love and learn from imperfect humans.
This ties into another point that the Givens make in their book, that true worship is not about getting gifts from God, but offering them. After all, the first use of the term in the Old Testament referred with appalling import to Abraham’s sacrifice (Genesis 22:5), and the first usage in the New Testament refers to the gifts of the wise men (Matthew 2:2). So we worship at church as we sacrifice our pride, our desire to be right, our need to be entertained as we learn to not just tolerate or endure, but love those members of our ward family who, on our own, we may not have chosen to associate with.
A second important aspect of attending church is commemorating the sacrifice of Jesus. It is at Church on Sundays that we are able to partake of the Sacrament. The importance of the Sacrament is a topic that deserves a dedicated talk of its own, but no talk on Sabbath day worship would be complete without some discussion.
Sister Cheryl Esplin once answered the question of what she wish she would have known as a young woman by saying “I wish I had understood [that] the sacrament... [should be a] truly spiritual experience, a holy communion, a renewal for the soul” (Ensign Nov 2014). In the same General Conference, Elder James Hamula of the 70 stated, "The ordinance of the sacrament has been called “one of the most holy and sacred ordinances in the Church.” It needs to become more holy and sacred to each of us” (Ensign Nov 2014). I believe that one of the best ways to improve our Sabbath day experience is to improve our undersanding of and attitude towards the Sacrament.
Partaking of the Sacrament is fulfilling the commandment Jesus gave at the Last Supper to partake of bread and wine (or water) in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19). It is an opportunity to remember His body, broken for us and His blood, shed in the Garden and on the Cross. As one of my favorite hymns says, when we partake of the Sacrament,
"Our thoughts are turned to thee,
Thou Son of God, who lived for us,
Then died on Calvary.
We contemplate thy lasting grace,
Thy boundless charity;
To us the gift of life was giv'n
For all eternity.
(Hymns #169, "As Now we Take the Sacrament")
The Sacrament provides an opportunity for us to spiritually and physically internalize Christ’s sacrifice (Brad Wilcox, The Continuous Conversion, Pg 173-175) . It is an opportunity for us to “watch with Him one hour,” even when we might feel like sleeping (Matthew 26:40, see also "An Hour to Watch with Him,” Ensign Jan 2015). It is an opportunity for self reflection, a time that the apostle Paul said was so that “a man [should] examine himself” (1 Cor 11:23-32), and a time where we, like the Lamanite king, recommit ourselves to giving away all our sins in order to know God and His salvation (Alma 22:18).
We often say that the Sacrament is an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenants. Elder Anderson recently taught us that, while this is not inappropriate to teach, it is not scriptural, and the Sacrament is really so much more (as seen in Leadership Training Video on the Sabbath from April 2015). It is a chance to reflect on all of our covenants, including those made in the temple. More than simply remembering a past, stagnant promise, it’s promises are all forward-looking.
Partaking of the sacrament is a chance for us to freshly offer our broken hearts and contrite spirits to God (3 Nephi 9:20). The sacrament is very personal. After all, it is the only ordinance that we repeat for ourselves (from Elder Holland inLeadership Training Video on the Sabbath from April 2015). I love that thought. We are not just remembering our baptism, but being rebaptized in the blood of the Lamb. The Sacrament is therefore an opportunity to reinvigorate our Spirits and renew our peace and optimism. As Elder Hales taught, "More than just thinking about the facts of the Savior’s suffering and death, [the Sacrament] helps us to recognize that through the Savior's sacrifice, we have the hope, opportunity, and strength to make real, heartfelt changes in our lives" (Hales, April 2012).
The third principle of the Sabbath day is The Sabbath is a day of Covenant
We have already discussed the covenants we make on the Sabbath day in the context of our discussion of church worship, so I will make just one additional point on this subject.
Observance of the Sabbath is itself the sign of a covenant. In the Old Testament, we read that God taught His people through the prophet Moses that "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you… Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:12-17) In other words, one of the purposes of the Sabbath is to remind us and our families that we can become sancitifed through the Lord!
IV The Sabbath is a day for doing good
Jesus taught that the Sabbath is a day for doing good. The Pharisees were upset when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and told him to carry the mat that had been his bed for 38 years (John 5:1-16). Healing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath led them to plot His assasination (Matthew 12:9-14). Through these actions, Jesus was teaching that “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day” (John 5:1), a concept that was new and even offensive to the Pharisees, but should not be to us. Surely what James calls “pure religion”— visting widows and orphans in their afflictions—is an appropriate Sabbath day activity (James 1:27). This includes things like attending the sick, visiting the lonely, and feeding the hungry and afflicted.
Serving in our church callings is also a good thing to do on the Sabbath day. Visiting families we are assigned to visit or home teach, preparing lessons, meeting with group leaders are all worthwhile activities. We should be sure that we don’t become so busy that we lose sight of the true purpose of the Sabbath, however. And we should remember an important principle taught by Elder Nelson, who said that "Too few [leaders in the church] remember their responsibilities at home. Yet priesthood offices, keys, callings, and quorums are meant to exalt families. Priesthood authority has been restored so that families can be sealed eternally. So brethren [and sisters], your foremost priesthood duty is to nurture your marriage… Be a blessing to [your spouse] and your children (Ensign May 2006).
That is a very important principle. Our families come first. The Sabbath day is a great day for family time. It is a time to focus on relationships. We can go for a family walk, do family history together, read journals of when mom and dad fell in love, or when the children were born, video chat with extended family, write to missionaries or far away relatives. It is a day to eat together, worship together, learn together, and simply enjoy being together.
Many of the resources I explored when researching for this talk suggested family councils, as well as budgeting and planning sessions as good activities for Sunday. Although this is something Robyn and I regularly do, it gave me pause. Why is something so mundane as planning and so temporal as budgeting not only acceptable on the Sabbath but even recommended by many church leaders and religious scholars? I think unity has a lot to do with it. When we meet as a family to discuss our goals, to complement each other and to give suggestions for improvement, we work on building Zion in our home. When we review the past week and prepare for the upcoming week, we make sure that we are on the same page. We pray and council together to seek God’s will for our family and our individual lives. I think these activities, like most, can be taken to an extreme where they become overextenstive and distracting from the purposes of the Sabbath, but used appropriately they can help our homes be places of peace, purpose, and unity. When Robyn and I were engaged, we decided that we wanted to apply the principles we learned from weekly planning as missionaries to our marriage, and we still do, every Sunday (see Preach my Gospel Chapter 8). There are few things that have contributed more to our unity as a couple than that.
Practical Suggestions
While some elements of Sabbath day worship apply to everyone, we each have our own ways of making it holy. The following are a few practical suggestions. These are things that I have found helpful in my own life, but may not be for everyone.
1. Start the day before.
For Jews, both biblical and modern, the Sabbath started at sundown the day before. I have noticed in my own life that my Saturday night activities can make a big impact on my Sunday. Unfortunately, most of these experiences have been negative. It is hard to have a meaningful worship experience at church when I am tired and cranky because I stayed up too late the night before, for example. I believe we can improve our Sabbath experience if we start on Saturday by applying the Savior’s council to the Nephites when he appeared to them after His resurrection, advising them to “prepare [their] minds for the morrow” (3 Nephi 17:3)
2. Be judicious with technology.
I believe that technology has incredible potential to supplement our worship at Church. Phones, tablets, or other devices can help with singing the hymns, looking up scriptures, or providing audio/visual aid for lessons. There is also the potential for distraction, however. Referring to texting and gaming during Sacrament Meeting, Elder Oaks made the strong statement that “ When we partake of the sacrament, we make a sacred covenant that we will always remember the Savior. How sad to see persons obviously violating that covenant in the very meeting where they are making it” (Ensign Nov 2008). Personally, I have found it helpful to keep my phone on airplane mode during church. I don’t always do that, and I understand that some people need to be able to be contacted. We should be sure to refrain from judging those who use technology different than us. But in general, the fewer distractions we have, the easier it is to focus on our worship.
3. Make Sunday different.
The Sabbath day should be unique. Helping ourselves and our children remember that Sundays are different than the other days of the week encourages to remember why they are different. There are many ways to make Sundays different. One article on LDS.org suggested that Sunday should different in the way it looks (what we wear), feels (what we do), tastes (what we eat), and sounds (what we listen to). The specifics of how you can make Sunday feel different are up to you. For me, having hymns and other songs of praise as a soundtrack to my Sunday is helpful, which leads to my next suggestion:
4. Use music in your worship.
Music has great power. Many of my most spiritual experiences have been connected to music. Through hymns, we praise God, remember Jesus, seek guidance, and feel the comfort of the Spirit. Singing the hymns at church and thinking about the words is a great way to have more meaningful experiences. Arriving early and listening to the prelude, having family singing time at home, or just putting on a pandora station featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or other uplifting music have made big differences in my Sunday.
5. Learn from other faith traditions.
Occasionally visiting other churches has greatly added to my Sabbath day worship. I have gained insight into my own faith as I learn from the example of others, and hearing shared truths expressed slightly differently has helped me ponder and grow. Similarly, seeing how my Seventh-day Adventist friends growing up honored their Sabbath day (on Saturday) inspired me to take keeping the Sabbath more seriously.
6. Take responsibility
Elder Nelson taught, “Each member of the Church bears responsibility for the spiritual enrichment that can come from a sacrament meeting” (Ensign, Aug. 2004, 28). This applies to the entire day. Ultimately, it us up to us how meaningful our Sabbath day worship is. One of my friends once said to me that rather than being guilty of idol worship (i-d-o-l), he feels he is often guilty of idle worship (i-d-l-e). In other words, it is easy to go to church and expect to be uplifted without putting forth effort to sing or participate or fellowship or forgive.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to express my gratitude for the Sabbath. When I really try to make it a holy day, it makes a difference, not just for that day, but throughout the week.
I hope my talk today has helped you in pondering what you can do personally to make the Sabbath more meaningful in your life.
I bear my testimony that the blessings of keeping the Sabbath day are real. We find them as we make the Sabbath a day of rest and a day of worship, a day of covenant, and a day of doing good. There are so many promised blessings, ranging from being “unspotted from the world” and protected against materialism to delight, peace, and even a fullness of the earth (Leveticus 26:2-12, D&C 49:9-10, 13, 15-16, President Foust, Ensign Nov 1991).
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