Easter. It happen so long ago and I'm a bit foggy on the details. It seems like this happened:
We woke up and hunted for eggs.
I decided that we didn't need more candy in the house and Rebekah is way into Paw Patrol right now so we had a Paw Patrol Easter.
Rebekah also got a fabulous card from grammy.
After eggs and cards we went to church where I had to give a talk. Don being in the bishopric asked me to speak. I told him he couldn't ask his wife to speak and thought we were done with that. I was wrong. He came back a few days later saying he talked to the Bishop and he told Don to tell me that HE asked me to speak. SIGH.
I was asked to give an Easter message from the Book of Mormon. Below are my notes. I wrote it more like I would say it; I usually don't "write out" my talk but that's the way this one seemed to run.
Easter from the Book of Mormon
Not my desire to preach Hell,
Fire and Damnation from the pulpit, but as I start it’s going sound that way so
bear with me: I promise a happy ending.
Samuel the Lamanite preached
about the coming of Christ and the signs of His death. In 3 Nephi, it came to pass. If you want to
follow along with me, feel free.
3 Nephi 8: CH What happened – 3 days
5 Arose a storm – “such an
one as never had been known in all the land
6 Great and terrible tempest
/ terrible thunder – shake the whole earth
7 Sharp lightening
8-11 Fires, sink into the sea, arose
great mountains
12 “Whole face of the land was
changed”
13 Highways were broken
14 great and notable cities were
sunk – left desolate
17 Face of the earth became
deformed
19 Everything ceased and left in
darkness
20 Thick darkness you could feel
21-22 could be no light, nor any light
seen
23 Three days in this state
great
mournings
howling
weeping
continually
groanings
Alma the Younger
Mosiah 27:8 He became very wicked and an
idolatrous man / led many people
9 Caused much dissension
giving room for “the enemy of God”
10 Sought to destroy the church
11 Angel appeared
19 Could not open his mouth,
became weak, could not move, carried helplessly to his father
23 two days and two nights
(people fasting for him) he received strength
24 repented and redeemed
Alma 36 His account to his son
11 a glimpse of his
unrighteousness
12 racked with “eternal torment”
“harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins
13 “tormented with the pains of
hell; yea, I saw…”
14 “The thought of coming into
the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror”
15 desires to be banished –
become extinct both soul and body
16 “for three days and three
nights I was racked even with the pains of a damned soul.”
What
do these two accounts have in common? Glad you asked.
It is not my
wish to make light of Christ’s suffering, the Crucifixion, time in the tomb,
and eventual resurrection; but my explanation is rather my attempt to follow
Nephi’s advice in 1 Nephi 19:23 and liken the scriptures unto us.
It
sounds like it is possible for us to seal our spirits in a tomb: In Alma’s case
it was a tomb of sin; the Neiphites were wicked and had forgotten their God;
for us it could be it a tomb of sin, forgetfulness, but it also could be a tomb
of fear, inaction, pride…. It may be a dark, stormy place of possible “eternal
torment,” the thought of facing up to our sin, our fears, (or whatever our tomb
may be) may cause us “inexpressible horror” or a “desires to be banished”;
personally facing whatever it is may cause the “whole face of (our) world to
change, perhaps we will fear that our “great cities may be sunk into the sea”
if we face it, or it may cause “great mourning, howling, weeping continually
and groaning.”
I
believe this eternal torment is the first step to repentance and to a better
place. If we cannot recognize a problem within ourselves we may as well remain
in darkness and convince ourselves it is light.
Back to the scriptures –
3 Nephi 8:24 “Oh that we repented….” “then our
brethren / mothers / fair daughters” (No longer sought for only themselves)
3 Nephi 10:1-2 Silence for many hours
3 A voice
4 “How oft have I gathered
you and nourished you…”
5 “How oft would I have
gathered you…and ye would not.”
6 “How of will I… if you
will repent and return to me with full purpose of heart.”
8 People heard this and
began to weep – (showing remorse)
9 Morning came. Darkness
dispersed. Earth ceased to tremble, rocks ceased to rend dreadful groanings did
cease, tumultuous noises did pass away.
10 *Cleaved together and their
mourning did turn to joy, lamentations to praise and thanksgiving
*something about uniting
together that helps to overcome
We left Alma being racked with the pains of a
damned soul.
Alma 36:17 Remembers the words of his
father – concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God to atone for
the sins of the world
18 Cried upon Jesus “Have mercy
on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the
everlasting chains of death
19 “when I thought this I could
remember my pains no more…”
20 “and oh, what joy, and what marvelous
light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my
pain!”
21 “Nothing so exquisite and so
bitter as were my pains… nothing so exquisite and so sweet as was my joy.”
Once
we recognize our state, we don’t have to stay in the tomb of our making. Our
Savior, our Elder Brother has broken the bonds of His tomb, thus giving us the
ability to break through ours with His help. But we must first, as Alma and the
Nephites have shown, hear His words. Not just hear it but it must “pierce (us)
to the center.”
But
even this is not all: after Alma was “born again” he went about teaching the
gospel for the rest of his days. The Nephites?
The chapter after they heard His voice, the Nephites were gathered together at
the temple, “conversing about this Jesus Christ,” (1) We must fully come out of
the tomb of our creating through action. The Savior will always desire us to do
something with what we’ve learned and the growth we have made.
As
we move closer to Our Savior and what He desires us to be, He will move closer
too. As with the Nephites, it started with a small and simple thing, listening
and the action of looking. The account:
“nevertheless and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them
that did hear to the center.” (3) And after 3 times of hearing the voice they
looked up and beheld their Lord (8), and then they fell to the earth for the
remembered (12)
They
remembered who they were and they remembered who He was.
The
Savior visited the Nephites one by one. They did see with their eyes, and did
feel with their hands, and did know of a surety, and did bear record, that it
was He, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.
And
- to quote Alma’s words - oh, what joy,
and what marvelous light they did behold. Their joy was filled with joy as
exceeding as was their pain.
And
thus it can be with us.
