Temple
Sometimes things work out perfectly. That’s what happened in the Gospel Doctrine lesson I taught yesterday. Oddly enough, it was due to an amazingly charged football game from the day before.
From the Salt Lake Tribune: “To complete a pass that will become as legendary in BYU lore as ‘The Catch’ is for the San Francisco 49ers, BYU quarterback John Beck relied on the instincts honed in games played so long ago it didn’t matter who won.
“…
“That someone else was Jonny Harline, whom the Utes lost in the traffic of the end zone after the final seconds ticked away. Harline started out on the right side, cut across the middle to the left corner and turned around, and from his knees, hauled in the game-winning pass.”
With less than seconds to spare. Living in Utah, we found this to be quite the story.
The next day in Sunday School, I stood up to teach and asked the class how they felt about “that game last night.” Wow. You could feel the energy in the room increase. BYU fans and Ute fans alike began all talking at once, people were moving in their seats, telling about their views on the game.
So I asked how many of them cheered and shouted for joy at any point during the game. They all answered at once. Regardless of who won, the BYU fans and the Ute fans were each remembering important parts of the game where they cheered and shouted.
Then I asked if there were any part of the gospel where we cheer and shout. They realized I was not asking about the game just to be sociable … quieted considerably, many still with smiles, some nodding at my question. We recounted stories of joy with reverence, experiences of times when we were full of joy. Then someone mentioned, as I had hoped, the dedications of temples. Here we shout for joy.
“The Hosanna Shout is whole-souled, given to the full limit of one’s strength. The congregation stands and in unison shouts the words ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to God and the Lamb. Amen, Amen, and Amen,’ repeating them three times. This is usually accompanied by the rhythmic waving of white handkerchiefs with uplifted hands. The epithet ‘Lamb’ relates to the condescension and atonement of Jesus Christ” (in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [1992], 2:659).
The energy in the room remained, but it was more reverent as everyone turned their thoughts toward the temple. I had two people share experiences of taking their sons to the temple recently, preparing to enter the mission field. It was wonderful.
Then I stood again and pointed out that no matter how exciting yesterday’s game was, if I asked the same questions next week or in a month, the energy in the room would not quite be as high as it was today. But if I ask about the temple next week or in a month, the joy will be the same, that energy will remain high. The temple is a wonderful source of joy, a wonderful source of healing, a wonderful source of purity. The eternal truth and the lasting nature of this joy did not escape any of us.
Sometimes things work out perfectly.
- Kim
