This is my Easter post. Anybody else wanna make an Easter comment? Go fo’ broke! Anyway, this is when Alma is baptizing people at the waters of Mormon and he is about to baptize the first convert, Helam. Verse 9 is where the old YW theme came from, the whole thing about standing as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places.
I love how Alma tells them the sacrament prayer without saying the sacrament prayer. In the sacrament prayer we partake of the bread as a witness to God that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. What religion are we? We are Christians. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are NOT Mormons, nor are we members of the Mormon church. Alma asks the people in verse 8, “…and now as ye are desirous to come unto the fold of God and to be called his people…”. President Nelson has asked us to call ourselves what we truly are and he reminded us in this past conference that when we take Christ’s name out of His church we take Him out of the picture, as well.
The second reason why we take the sacrament is to witness to God that we always remember Him. Does this mean we merely remember Him without being inspired to do anything about what we remember? After we take upon ourselves the name of Christ I think the next big question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘do I think, speak, and act according to what I remember of Christ’s teachings?’ The primary song, “If The Savior Stood Beside Me”, asks all of these questions. In verse 9 Alma continues, “Yea and are willing to mourn with those that mourn: yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death…”. Always remembering Him means we think, speak, and act according to Christ’s teachings so that when we declare that we are members of His church people will say, “That makes sense.”
The third reason why we take the sacrament is to witness to God that we will keep His commandments. In verse 10 Alma continues, “…if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?” And this is exactly how the sacrament prayer ends with the promise to always have his Spirits with us. In this day and age how can anyone survive without the guidance of the Holy Ghost?
I don’t know why I think these verses are really cool, but I do. Verse 11, for me, was the real kicker. It says the people clapped their hands and joyfully declared, “This is the desire of our hearts.” And then Alma began to baptize everybody. This got me thinking about my attitude when I take the sacrament. I’ve been doing it all wrong. Getting baptized is exciting. Getting baptized was my first meaningful spiritual experience that I can remember. Taking the sacrament is the time for us to renew and remember our covenants we made with Lord at baptism and in the temple. But how many times have I taken the sacrament and remembered the joy I felt when I first made these covenants with the Lord, and how many times have I taken the sacrament and remembered the desire I had to serve the Lord and keep the commandments? How many times do I take the sacrament with joy in my heart because of my desire to keep these covenants? Seriously, zero, I’m always grouchy and stressed, not to mention tired and hungry. Today, these verses taught me that sacrament should not only be a reverent time for us to reflect on our spiritual progress and remember the atonement but it should also be a time of joy. I’ve got my work cut out for me.