Coming to Partake of the Sacrament

Elder Douglas Higham, the Area Seventy for our region, was our visiting General Authority during stake conference this weekend.  He said something in the priesthood session and carried it over to the Saturday evening session that has been on my mind ever since.  He said that we should change our focus when inviting people to church.  Instead of committing them to “come to church,” we should be asking them to come and partake of the sacrament.

Elder Higham told us of an experience he had while serving as a mission president.  A then Elder Henry B. Eyring came on a mission tour.  During a meeting with the missionaries, Elder Eyring was told of an investigator whose work schedule made it difficult for him to come to sacrament meeting.  The missionaries wanted to know if it would be okay for them to baptize this man, who had made all the commitments and was ready, even though he had not yet attended sacrament meeting.  Elder Higham said he watched as Elder Eyring had an out loud debate with himself as he weighed the possibilities, but when the answer came, it came with conviction.  Elder Eyring’s answer was that the man (and, in effect, all of us) could not receive the full blessings of the Atonement without partaking of the sacrament.

As I’ve thought about these statements, I’ve been struck by their power.  In terms of asking people to come and partake of the sacrament, I see how it shifts the focus.  It is one thing to ask a person to “come to Church,” but it is quite another to ask a person to come to the meeting in order to partake of the emblems of Christ—His body and blood—in remembrance of Him and His sacrifice for us.  For those persons who have been baptized, partaking of the sacrament is also a renewal of covenants made at baptism; a reminder of the ordinance that brought them in harmony with Father in Heaven and washed them clean.  Partaking of the sacrament is an opportunity to wash away sins committed throughout the previous week and a way to prepare for the week to come.

As Cheryl A. Esplin testified, “As we partake of the sacrament, we witness to God that we will remember His Son always, not just during the brief sacrament ordinance. This means that we will constantly look to the Savior’s example and teachings to guide our thoughts, our choices, and our acts” (Ensign, Nov. 2014, 12).  That is a very powerful way to help keep us focused on our covenants throughout the week and assist us in striving to make correct choices.  Sister Esplin also stated that partaking the sacrament also helps us to not neglect “a big part of the Atonement—Christ’s enabling power” and to remember “times the Savior helped [us] be who [we] needed to be and serve beyond [our] own capacity” (ibid, 13).  I think these are definite ways that receiving the sacrament on a weekly basis helps us to obtain the full blessings of the Atonement.

As for those people who are investigating the Church, the sacrament is not a renewal of baptismal covenant, but it can help them to focus on the Savior and what He has done for them.  Partaking of the emblems and participating in the ordinance can also support the truths they are being taught by the Spirit through the missionaries and ward members.  In both cases, this reminds me of something Elder Kevin W. Pearson taught to our stake when he came as the visiting general authority back in March of 2009 and reiterated in his conference talk several weeks later: “We get what we focus on consistently” (Ensign, May 2009, 40).

If our reason—our focus—for coming to church is to partake of the sacrament, we are looking to the Savior and it may be easier to hold onto that focus during the week if we think about the renewal of covenants and the remembrance of what our Elder Brother did for us in terms of the Atonement.  If our focus is just coming to church, then it might be easier to be distracted by the things of the world that may appear more pressing, but are truly not.  Based on President Skinner’s admonishment to focus on the Savior and the Atonement for the next 6 months until our next Stake conference, I think this change in focus is a good one to contemplate.