I Am Bismark

i gave a talk in sacrament meeting a week ago. it’s been a long time since i’ve given one, and my presentation was rather shaky. i want to share some of my thoughts in hopefully a way that is more understandable than when i first stumbled over it. my topic was “preparing for an eternal home” and for some reason the first thing that came to my mind was president monson’s talk 1 during the sunday morning session of general conference. maybe because it was my favorite talk of the whole conference.. anyway, i decided to talk about how the principles taught in that talk related to an eternal home. and that led me to doctrine and covenants section 2:

BEHOLD, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming. (emphasis mine)

so what? big deal? i think so:

The beginning and the end of the gospel is written in section two of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is the keystone of the wonderful gospel arch; and if that center stone should weaken and fall out, the whole gospel structure would topple down in unorganized doctrinal blocks. -Elder John A. Widtsoe

[as an aside, a version of this scripture is in the book of mormon and is, i believe, a central theme of the book of mormon, making elder widtsoe’s statement in perfect alignment with “book of mormon = keystone of the gospel”.]

ok, so why is this whole elijah stuff so central to the gospel? first of all, without it, “the whole earth would be utterly wasted”. basically, without the keys that elijah holds, God’s reason for creating the earth is for naught. but what exactly are these things elijah will be doing? “the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.” or in other words, their hearts will become one. or in other words:

And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them. -Moses 7:18 (emphasis mine)

i believe the sealing power of elijah is the fundamental base for building zion. actually, i think all of the priesthood keys and ordinances exist for the creation of zion. take for example, the baptismal covenant as discussed in mosiah 18:8-10, 21:

And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— Now I say unto you, 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 he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. -Mosiah 18:8-10, 21 (emphasis mine)

a majority of the baptismal covenant is about us promising to build zion. it’s not just an individual covenant concerning our personal salvation. i feel like this is why we renew that covenant through the sacrement in a church setting. when we take renew that covenant, we should not just be thinking about ourselves, we should be thinking about how we can be better serving and loving brother jones to our left and sister smith to our right. the endowment covenant is the same: we covenant to give our time, talent, and even our lives to the building up of zion. what nobler cause could we dedicate our lives to than loving and serving our neighbors and our community to bring about zion? and finally the sealing covenant, i.e. eternal marriage, gives us the greatest responsibility for building zion out of anything is the gospel. we covenant to become one heart with our spouses and by extension, our children. creating zion in the fundamental unit of our community is an integral step in spreading the unity of heart throughout that community. so whats the point of all of this? we need to build zion through eternal marriages so that the purpose of this earth does not go to waste. here is the key to being a true disciple of Christ, to creating a successful marriage and a happy home, and to building zion:

I am confident it is the intention of each member of the Church to serve and to help those in need. At baptism we covenanted to “bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light.” How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that “oh, surely someone will take care of that need.” My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness—be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us… My brothers and sisters, may we ask ourselves the question… “What have I done for someone today?”

— President Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?"