Sacrament- August 16, 2015

(Get two sacrament trays)

Hi! My name is Cambrie Martinez. I moved here to Greeley at the end of June with my husband, Jason, and our three daughters. Lenna is nine, Cora is six, and Vada is one. We have been living in Denver for the past seven years. We loved it there and were sad to leave, but we enjoy having our own home with plenty of room for us, and we enjoy living so close to my husband’s family.

Bishop Butler has asked me to share my thoughts about the Sacrament with you today.

Sunday is the most stressful day of my week. With my three independent, active, and stubborn little girls, it is a struggle to get to church on time. It doesn’t matter if it starts at nine in the morning or one in the afternoon. If all three of my children have brushed their teeth and found both of their church shoes, then we are having a really good day. And once we get to church, it is a struggle to be here. The coloring books are boring, the colored pencils spill noisily, children forget to use their whisper voices, and then the baby runs up to the front of the chapel and starts shouting at the congregation. A lot of things go wrong for me on Sundays. But, I come to church anyway and I drag my noisy brood along with me because none of these other things disappoint me as much as missing the Sacrament.

I love getting to church on time and partaking of the Sacrament. I am eager to take the Sacrament and show the Lord, in the way he has appointed, my commitment to the covenants I made when I was baptized. I love giving my nine-year-old daughter the opportunity to renew her baptismal covenants and showing my other two children how important baptismal covenants are. I often whisper to my children right before the sacramental prayers are said that these are the most important prayers we will say all week.

In our mortal state we are subject to both physical and spiritual death. Though our mortal body will eventually die, we are taught in the scriptures and by the prophets that we will be resurrected and receive a perfect body that we can keep forever. The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians:

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Spiritual death means being cut off from the presence of God. Those who sin are unclean and can never return to Heavenly Father’s presence. But, we all sin. The scriptures and prophets teach that it is possible for us to repent of our sins and be washed clean so we can return to our Heavenly Father. The same apostle Paul said to the Ephesians:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:1,4-6

Shortly after His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Christ sat with His apostles to partake of the Passover. The Passover was an incredibly significant event for the Jewish people. More than a thousand years before, the Angel of Death had visited Egypt as the last plague. The Lord of the Israelites had commanded each household to slaughter a perfect white lamb, and to mark their doors with its blood. While they partook of the lamb inside their homes that night, the Angel of Death saw their marked doors and passed over them. The lamb represented the promised Messiah, and His blood marked the doors of those who chose to let him rescue them from death.

We know now that the Lord of the Israelites was Christ himself, and it was no coincidence that Christ instituted the sacrament during Passover. When we renew our baptismal covenants by partaking of the sacrament, we mark ourselves as belonging to Christ, and the Angel of Death must pass us by.

In Matthew Chapter 26 we read:

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and brake it, and blessed it, and gave to his disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is in remembrance of my body which I give a ransom for you.

Matthew 26:26

Christ’s body was broken on the cross where He died, but three days later He was resurrected. This is how He saved us from the first death, the death of the body. Our bodies are sacred gifts from God enabling us to do His will and be like Him.

My Grandpa Taylor was a good man. He worked hard his whole life, and the wear and tear showed on his body. At his funeral, I saw him laid out in his casket. It was a beautiful casket; the wood was stained a golden brown, and a mountain scene was etched above him on the inside of the lid, complete with aspen, elk, and mountain streams. He had spent most of his life in the mountains of Wyoming and he loved it there. I saw the juxtaposition of the strong, new wood of his casket and his tired and well-used body. It crossed my mind how sad it was that the lovely casket and the beloved man would be buried in the ground where they would be subject to the corrosion and deterioration that is a part of our mortal world. Then, in my mind’s eye, as a gift from the Holy Ghost, the juxtaposition switched. I imagined my grandfather’s body, strong and whole, bursting forth from the decomposing wood of the casket he would no longer need.

After our deaths, we will be reunited with our bodies, and they will be free from harm, illness, or defect.

(Hold up bread tray)

The sacrament bread is broken, like Christ’s body was, and when we partake of it we show our faith and gratitude for the resurrection of our bodies. This is how he saved us from physical death.

After partaking of the bread, Christ continued:

And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, All of you, drink from it.

For this is in remembrance of my blood of the new testament, which is shed for as many as shall believe on my name, for the remission of their sins.

Matthew 26:27-28

Immediately following the Passover dinner with his apostles, Christ walked with them to the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew Chapter 26 continues:

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

[He] began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Matthew 26:36-39

In Gethsemane, while He prayed alone, the Savior was visited by the Spirit of God and made to suffer for the sins of the world. Christ said of his suffering, in a revelation to Joseph Smith:

For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19

The emotional and mental stress of this sacrifice was so great that the Savior bled from His pores. This is how He saved us from the second death, the death of the spirit. Spiritual death means to be cut off from the presence of God, as anyone who has ever sinned must be. But, when Christ lived a perfect life, then took upon Himself the punishment for our sins, He earned the right to allow those who have truly repented back into the presence of God.

(Check time, 7 minutes)

Isaiah said:

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-11

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught, quote:

His great suffering occurred before He ever went to the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, so the scriptures tell us, that blood oozed from every pore of His body; and in the extreme agony of His soul, He cried to His Father. Now do not ask me how this was done because I do not know. Nobody knows. All we know is that in some way He took upon Himself that extreme penalty. He took upon Him our transgressions, and paid a price, a price of torment. Think of the Savior carrying the united burden of every individual—torment which caused him to suffer an agony of pain. He cried in His anguish, to His Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass!” and it could not pass. Close quote.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Joseph Fielding Smith, Lesson 3, Page 63

(Hold up water tray)

The sacrament water represents the blood that Christ shed in Gethsemane, and when we partake of it we show our faith and gratitude that we can repent of our sins and again enter the presence of God. This is how He saved us from spiritual death.

In the Book of Mormon we can read about the resurrected Christ teaching the Nephites on the American continent about the Sacrament. In 3 Nephi Chapter 11 it says:

And when the disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them: Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you.

And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; … that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.

And I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock.

3 Nephi 11:10-12

Christ blessed us with the commandment to partake of the sacrament each Sabbath so we could receive the blessings that come with renewing our covenants with Him.

(Check Time, 9 minutes)

In the New Testament, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son. A man’s son takes all his inheritance and squanders it on foolish things. The son finds himself in a sty, hungering for the food meant for pigs. He remembers the comfort and warmth of his father’s house and “comes to himself.” He returns to his father in humility. His father rejoices and celebrates, because he loves his son. In the parable this is a one-time event, but in our real lives, how often do we find ourselves squandering our inheritance? We have been given so many opportunities, but because of our errors we can find ourselves feeling lost and alone, longing to feel the presence of our Heavenly Father. We sin daily. We sin hourly. But, we partake of the sacrament weekly. When we truly repent and renew our covenants with pure intent during the sacrament, we are turning our hearts back to our Heavenly Father, and He rejoices.

Robert D Hales said in his April 2012 conference talk, quote:

I testify that the sacrament gives us an opportunity to come to ourselves and experience “a mighty change” of heart⁵—to remember who we are and what we most desire. As we renew the covenant to keep the commandments, we obtain the companionship of the Holy Ghost to lead us back into our Heavenly Father’s presence. Close quote.

I have always found is baffling that most human beings have the audacity to believe that they deserve second chances. We live in a world where time only moves forward and we clearly cannot undo what has been done. Nothing about our universe suggests that second chances are even possible. Yet, in almost every culture of the world, human beings seek redemption. I seems to me that we must have been taught that redemption was possible before we were born into this world, probably at the feet of our loving Heavenly Father, and that this concept was so important that it was ingrained in us to the point that it became human instinct even after being born to our fallible and mortal state.

We were slaves on the auction block; more powerless than the Africans in the South; more powerless than the conquered peoples in Rome; more powerless than the Israelites in Egypt; because human masters will take away your freedom, your family, and your dignity, but the Law of Natural Consequence would take away your ability to choose good after you have chosen evil. We were purchased in our slavery by our Savior, who paid not what we were worth as slaves, but the highest price that He could pay as a Free Man. He was the only one of Heavenly Father’s children to earn the right to return to His presence, and what did He do then? He freed us, He adopted us, and He asked us to follow him. Then He showed us the path that would lead us to salvation.

Now we are left on the auction block with a decision to make. We can choose to follow Jesus Christ and make him our master of our own free will, or we can stay and wait for another master to come along and purchase us; a master who may or may not treat us kindly, and will not have the power to free us; masters such as, but not limited to, addiction, wealth, reputation, depression, and pride. We as individuals know too well all the different masters that bid for our souls, but we cannot forget that we have already been freed, and no other master can enslave us again unless we choose to allow it.

I bear testimony that Christ has adopted us, and we have taken His name as our own and call ourselves “Christians”, the same way an adopted child shares the last name of his new parents. When we partake of the sacrament as He commanded, we mark our intention to follow Christ as our master, and He marks His intention to redeem us from death, both body and spirit. I encourage you to mark yourselves as often as possible, that the Angel of Death may pass you by, and you may have the Spirit of the Lord to be with you. Our covenants give us power to endure the pains and trials of this world, and I bear testimony that when we follow the commandment to partake of the sacrament we are able to use that power more fully.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Virtue- Jan 25, 2015

My name is Cambrie Martinez. I have lived here in Denver with my husband, Jason, since 2008 and we have three daughters, Lenna, Cora, and Vada. I am very grateful for the opportunity to say to my husband, “You have to take care of the kids right now, because I’ve got to write this talk.”

I am very grateful for my husband and my children. I am grateful to the Holy Ghost for any good ideas I may have had while writing this talk, and I really pray that the Spirit will be here, so if I make any mistakes, you will be able to understand what I was supposed to say, and if I say anything that is true, the Spirit will testify that it is true and help you remember it when you need to.

Virtue

I was asked to speak about virtue. 

In 2 Peter 1, the apostle Peter writes to his fellow Christians:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter tells us to add to our faith virtue. What exactly is virtue? In the Preach My Gospel manual we read:

“Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. Virtuous people are clean and pure spiritually. They focus on righteous, uplifting thoughts and put unworthy thoughts that lead to inappropriate actions out of their minds. They obey God’s commandments and follow the counsel of Church leaders. They pray for the strength to resist temptation and do what is right. They quickly repent of any sins or wrongdoings. They live worthy of a temple recommend.”

When we have faith in Jesus Christ, he asks us to change the way we live our lives. He asks us to change our thoughts and actions. That is how we add virtue to our faith.

As early as the Bronze Age, people going into battle would wear a sign, or standard, on their clothing, on their armor, and later on flags, in order to identify themselves. Likewise, our virtue can identify us as a follower of Christ. It is a mark that shows that we don’t just say we believe in Christ, we act like we believe in Christ.

Virtue is the accumulation of thousands of small decisions and actions. It can be difficult to measure. I know there are some artistic personalities that thrive on abstract concepts like this, but I am not one of them. I like a checklist with clearly outlined rules that I can mark off. 

During baptism and temple interviews the bishop will ask you questions about your conduct that clearly apply to virtue. During an interview, you are asked if you keep the law of chastity, which means sexual relations only take place within the bonds of marriage. You’re asked if you keep the law of tithing, which means you give ten percent of your earnings to the church. You’re asked if you keep the Word of Wisdom, which means you don’t drink tea or coffee, use tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, or illegal drugs and you don’t misuse any medications. You are asked if you keep the Sabbath Day holy and partake of the Sacrament weekly. You are asked if you live in harmony with the teachings of the Church.

Some of these standards have obvious benefits for anyone who would keep them, regardless of their membership in the church. Some of these standards entitle us to spiritual blessingss, and some of these standard are just symbolic demonstrations of our faith. From the world’s point of view, some of these standards might not make sense. But that is okay; they are not the world’s standards. You can’t get your standards from the world. The world’s standards are relative and constantly changing. At any given point, the world has a fifty-fifty chance of being right. That means you can’t even base your standards on the opposite of what the world would say. You need an independent source. The standards mentioned in the baptismal and temple interviews are the standards that the Lord has picked out. When we live by His standards we are adding virtue to our faith in Him

In Alma 31 the prophet Alma was concerned for the welfare of the Zoramites. It says:

5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

Alma knew that if the Zoramites would try living the virtue of the word of God, the Spirit would dwell with them and they would have no more desire to do evil.

High moral standards can be inconvenient, and when we fall short they can seem judgmental, or discriminatory, or harsh. But they are none of these things. They are given to us with love. The difference between having virtue and having a holier-than-thou attitude is love. High moral standards are given to us by our Savior in order to make our lives as easy as possible. 

Recently, my little brother and his wife were expecting their first child, and I was full of advice. Tons of it. I was probably a little overwhelming. My brother and his wife are very smart and loving people. They are going to be just fine. But I know, from experience, that taking care of a baby is really hard, and the older the baby gets, the harder it gets. Taking care of a baby is going to be hard no matter what you do. I love my little brother, and I want his experience to be as easy as possible. I didn’t want to control him, or jump in and make his decisions for him. I know that he and his wife have the potential to be wonderful parents, and I want them to put themselves in a position where they can do their best.

I am sure the Savior feels the same way about us. Our Savior asks us to have virtue because having virtue will make our lives as easy as possible. From the moment our Father in Heaven presented the Plan of Salvation and told us we would be able to come to Earth, our Savior knew it was going to be a difficult and painful experience for all of us. When our Savior gives us advice, it’s not called advice. It’s called a commandment, because His advice is perfect and we worship Him. He is not trying to control us. He defiantly is not going to jump in and make our decisions for us. He is telling us how to put ourselves in a position to do our best.

Christ said:

Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

We are going to be yoked by something. In this universe, that is unavoidable. There are all kinds of things that we can be yoked to. The virtue of the word of God is the lightest possible yoke we can carry.  It is the only yoke light enough that we will be able to carry it all the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. The reason it is light is because our Sviour Jesus Christ helps us to carry it.

In Psalm 24:3-4 we read:

 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

In the footnotes to these verses, we learn that the hill of the Lord, the holy place, refers to the temple. Having a pure heart refers to having virtue. Virtue is a prerequisite to entering the Lord’s holy temple.

When I was 15, my family and I had the opportunity to help build the St Paul Minnesota Temple. Gordon B Hinckley had just announced the new plan of building “small, beautiful, serviceable temples” so that more members of the church would have a temple nearby.  The St Paul Minnesota Temple was one of the first ones. It’s not actually in St Paul; it’s in the city of Oakdale, in the former parking lot of the church building that I attended most of my childhood.

During the construction, I had the opportunity to witness the high standards with which temples are built. In addition to the building codes of the city and state, the church has a whole other set of building codes for temples. My father was hired as one of the carpenters who helped finish the inside, and during that time I spent several days a week at the temple site, doing odd jobs and running errands for my dad and the other workers.

The inner walls of the temple were framed with two-by-fours like in a regular building, but before the framework was covered with dry wall, all the little spaces between the two-by-fours were vacuumed out. I know, because I was tasked with vacuuming a lot of them. I don’t care how expensive or prestigious the building is, you would have a difficult time finding another place where the spaces between the walls were not filled with sawdust, dirt, broken nails, and other small pieces of trash.

I also got to see my father and others lay the white carpet, and after it was laid an artist came in with a pair of shears and carved patterns right into the carpet by hand. After the trim and walls had all been painted white, another artist came in. She was literally using 24-carat gold to paint a border around the walls of the celestial room.

A temple building is the accumulation of thousands of small details like these. But all of the attention to detail and the beautiful and expensive decorations are not what makes a temple sacred. They are just physical items, and they are going to wear out and get thrown away and be replaced. The temple isn’t sacred without people inside of it. The temple is sacred because of the people who work and serve in the temple: the priesthood holder who dedicated the land and the building to the service of the Lord; the temple president, matron, and their counselors; and every worthy member of the church who holds a recommend. Virtue is what entitles these people to blessings of the spirit, and that is the spirit that makes the temple holy.

In 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul teaches:

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

God did not create us for the temple. He created temples for us. He did not set high standards of virtue so that we could dwell in temples. He created high standards of virtue so the spirit could dwell in us. 

In October, 2008, Sister Dalton, the Young Women General President, gave a conference talk called "A Return To Virtue". She said:

I testify that a return to virtue is possible because of the Savior’s example and the “infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice.” I testify that we will be enabled and strengthened not only to do hard things but to do all things. Now is the time for each of us to arise and unfurl a banner to the world calling for a return to virtue.

Before we built our temple in Oakdale, our stake was in the Chicago Temple district, so we would make the eight-hour trip to Chicago to attend the temple a few time a year. The historic city of Nauvoo, Illinois, is about 280 miles from Chicago, but when you’re driving from eight hours away, a little side trip to this church historical site doesn’t seem like that big of a detour. During my early teens I had the opportunity to visit the city of Nauvoo often.

At the end of the 1830's, the early members of the church were driven out of Kirtland, Ohio, and set up a camp on the swampy banks of the Mississippi river in Illinois. They would build this site into the beautiful city of Nauvoo. The most important building they would build here was the Nauvoo temple. The saints were so poor and had lost so much, but they still gave their fine china and family heirlooms and other treasures that they held dear in order to have the means to build the temple. After all of their sacrifices, they completed the temple in 1846, and were driven out of Nauvoo a few months later. First, a mob broke in and vandalized the temple. Then, there was a fire that completely destroyed the interior of the temple. For a while the lot was used as pasture for sheep and cattle. Then, a tornado took down one of the outer walls and damaged the others. Finally, the city officials had to pull down the remaining walls, because it wasn’t safe to leave them crumbling there. In 1865 the Carthage Republican Newspaper reported, "The last remaining vestage [sic] of what the famous Mormon temple was in its former glory has disappeared, and nothing now remains to mark its site but heaps of broken stone and rubbish."

The story of the Nauvoo temple is not the most extreme example of bad things happening to good people, but because I had so many good memories of spending time with my family and friends while visiting Nauvoo, I always took the destruction of the Nauvoo temple a little personally. A lot of the homes and businesses of the early saints are still standing and it’s a lot of fun to go visit them, but for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on I missed the Nauvoo temple.

Then, in April 1999, at the conclusion of General Conference, Gordon B Hinckley announced that the church would be rebuilding the Nauvoo temple.  I was shocked. I had expected the barren field where the temple had stood to remain empty forever. We finished our Oakdale temple in 2000, and weren’t taking any more trips to Illinois. I didn’t get to travel back to Nauvoo until the summer of 2002, right after the new Nauvoo temple had been dedicated. The outer façade of the temple was a replica of the original, but it was so much bigger and more beautiful than I had pictured. I had spent years imagining what the Nauvoo temple looked like, but when I saw the real thing I was surprised by how grand and majestic it was compared to my own limited ideas.

In the past, I have heard analogies saying that your virtue is like a stick of gum, and once it’s been chewed it can never go back. Or that your virtue is like a glass of water, and when you lose your virtue it’s like someone has taken a drink, swished it around, and spit it back out. These analogies are meant to illustrate the serious consequences of our choices, but they completely miss the point of the atonement. You are not a stick of gum. You are not a glass of water, or a balloon, or an Oreo cookie, or any other analogy you’ve heard. You are nothing so trivial. You are a temple, and temples get restored. No matter what your position in life, your virtue can be restored. 

Sometime in your life you are going to feel like a pile of rubble in the middle of an empty field. If you haven’t experienced that yet in your life, you will, and probably several different times. The resources, time, and effort that the saints spent on the Nauvoo temple, old and new, are nothing compared to the effort God will spend on you. He waited 150 years for the Nauvoo temple to be restored; he will wait for you for as long as it takes. He will rebuild you into something greater than you ever thought you could be.

The Nauvoo temple is just as glorious and beautiful and virtuous as every other temple. The temple ordinances that take place in the Nauvoo temple are just as sacred and binding as the ordinances in other temples. The Nauvoo temple is not the only temple that has been rebuilt, or the only temple that will be rebuilt. In fact, every temple is constantly being restored. They are always being closed for cleaning and repairs and even a total remodel, like the Ogden temple was just this last summer. And then they open back up and get right back to doing the work of the Lord. This same principle applies to every one of us as God’s children and our virtue.

I bear testimony with Sister Dalton that a return to virtue is possible, and it is worth it. I bear testimony that the virtues taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will make our lives easier, and that the Spirit of the Lord will dwell with us giving us comfort and power. I challenge you to try the virtue of the word of God. I am grateful for the temporal and spiritual blessings that virtue brings.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.