Sacredness of the Temple            (5^th Ward,  9:00 am)

July 31, 2016

Just before I stood up to speak, the congregation sang: “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.”  I decided to say something about that before starting my talk.

I love that hymn.  It has special significance for my family.  My grandfather was the 14^th child in his family, so his father was quite old.  Grandpa’s father walked across the plains from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City in 1851 when he was only 7 years old.  They were among the last of the Nauvoo refugees to make the trip.

The journey was rough on the animals as well as on the people.  Along the way, one of the oxen died during the night.  To keep the wagon going, my ancestors put their milk cow under the yoke with the other ox.  That worked where the going was easy, but a cow is no match for an ox and when they came to difficult parts, the men had to help by pushing the wagon, just as it says in the song.  They definitely had need of willing men!

On December 9^th, 1970, Liz and I got in a car with her parents and my grandfather.  We drove for  80 miles to Manti, where Liz and I both received our endowments in preparation for our temple marriage the next day.  Liz’s family were converts to the church while I have pioneer ancestors, but in many ways she was more prepared than I, because her parents were both dedicated to the church and endowed, while my father never became LDS and my mother was not permitted to go to the temple because her husband couldn’t go.  We never talked about the temple experience in my home because none of us had any experience with it. 

As we drove to the temple that day, my grandfather was with me, as my closest endowed family member, to escort me through the temple, knowing that the endowment can be a bit overwhelming.  But I don’t think he appreciated how painfully ignorant I really was on that day.

As the endowment began, the man officiating said something to the effect that we would be taking on ourselves sacred covenants.  He emphasized that they were extremely sacred covenants, and that anyone who was not willing to accept those covenants should stand up and leave.  I was surprised at that.  How did I know whether I was willing to accept them when I had no idea what they were?!?

In a moment of near-panic I looked around to see how many other people were going to stand up. 

At that moment, my grandfather put his hand on my knee and leaned over to say, “It’ll be OK.”   With the reassurance of that kind old man, who I loved dearly, I calmed down and indeed, everything was OK.    As I learned about the covenants, I realized they were the same things I had learned about in my church classes all my life.  I was happy to accept and commit to each one of them.   The next day was the highlight of my life as my wife and I were married in that same temple.

My assignment today is to speak about the Sacredness of the Temple.  How is it sacred?  What makes the temple so sacred?  Why is it so sacred that we don’t talk about details of the things we do there?

The sacredness of the temple begins with its physical structure. 

Just as today, when Solomon the Wise built the Old Testament temple he brought in the finest of materials.  He took pains to build the temple in ways that were not the usual way, but that emphasized the coming sacred things to be done there.  For example, he built the doors to the temple with olive wood, which is an exceedingly beautiful wood with magnificent grain, and also of great symbolic significance to the people.  Olive trees grow slowly and they twist and bend as they grow.  The grain of the wood is also twisted and bent, which gives it its magnificent grain in vivid colors of all shades of brown and red and yellow.  It smooths out nicely and is amazingly beautiful.  Olive trees are productive for hundreds , or even thousands of years, so there is not a lot of olive wood available, and when some is available it is expensive.

  Solomon built the doors of olive wood, and he carved sacred figures into them.  And then he covered it over with gold leave.   WHAT!?   Why use a precious wood and then cover it up?

Elder Scott D. Whiting Of the Seventy told of a similar thing in his talk in the October conference in 2012, when he described temple officials walking through the Hawaiian temple with the builder after its remodeling, and asking for corrections of things like grit on the walls and a minute imperfection in a stained glass window.  He was surprised that the builder was required to replace the stained glass window and re-finish the walls, especially when he realized that both would be covered over and were unlikely to be seen by temple patrons.

As he left the temple he looked back and saw the inscription that is on all our temples,  “Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord”.

He then said,

“These sacred buildings are built for our use, and within their walls sacred and saving ordinances are performed. But there should be no doubt as to whose house it really is. By requiring exacting standards of construction down to the smallest of details, we not only show our love and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, but we also hold out to all observers that we honor and worship Him whose house it is.”

He then quoted D&C 97: 15-17

 15 And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it;

 16 Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God.

 17 But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples.

You see, the pains we take in building the temple reflect the pains we take to make ourselves physically and spiritually clean as we enter the temple.  It is all preparation for the things we do there. 

When I got out of the Marine Corps in 1972 and returned to BYU to complete my education, the Provo temple was brand, shining new.  I had contributed directly to its construction, Because in those days member contributions for temple construction was encouraged. 

I wanted to go to the new Provo temple prepared in every way.

There was a store on Center Street in Provo at that time, that sold craft items, including jewelry findings.  I went down there and bought a silver tie clip and a synthetic white opal stone to go on it.  I still have that tie clip, and I have never worn it anywhere except in the temple.  This is an excess.  It is not required.  I haven’t even told many people about it because it is not a big thing, nor a thing that anybody else needed to know about.  It’s just something I wanted to do to symbolize to myself that the temple is sacred.  We don’t treat it the same way we do other things.

When I became a temple worker, I became concerned that even this little tie clip was a bit ostentatious, so I replaced it with a flat white tie clip that is nearly invisible, and now I keep the opal one in my temple bag for emergencies.  I have no intention of  EVER wearing it outside the temple.

Similarly, when I was still working, and became a temple worker, I used to leave work early so that I had time to shower if I felt the least need for it, before dressing in my temple clothes.  Now I’m retired, I always shower at home just before I leave for the temple.  As I dress in my white clothes, I put on temple garments that I wear only in the temple.

Again, this is not something that is expected.  I do not say that you should do the same.  It is something I do for myself to emphasize, and prepare myself for the sacredness of the temple.   In the temple, first we are symbolically washed.  Then, and only then, we are anointed.

You do not need to do these extra little things I do, but all of us who go to the temple should go there prepared to participate in ordinances that are most sacred.   For it is the ordinances we perform there that are important.

And what DO we do there?  We take earthly families and tie them together into Eternal families.     It is simply said, but the significance of that is Immense,  Huge,  Unbounded.   It is worth spending some time cogitating on the significance of taking earthly families and tying them together into eternal families.

Families are the center point of temple work.  All the building and attention to detail and physical preparation of every kind is only getting ready for the important stuff.  IF we prepare ourselves physically and spiritually, we can do eternal work.

Now,  Consider    I Corinthians 3: 16-17

 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

And verse 19 is also cogent:

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

The wisdom of the World says that there are no eternal things to be done.  We reject that Worldly wisdom, because we know that there is an eternity and that we have a special part in it, if we do the things God has told us.

Going back to Elder Whiting, he also said,

“We are each made of the finest materials, and we are the miraculous result of divine craftsmanship. However, as we move past the age of accountability and step onto the battlefield of sin and temptation, our own temple can become in need of renovation and repair work. Perhaps there are walls within us that are gritty and need buffing or windows of our souls that need replacement in order that we can stand in holy places. Gratefully, the temple standard that we are asked to meet is not that of perfection, although we are striving for it, but rather that we are keeping the commandments and doing our best to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.”

If we live as we should then it WILL be OK, as my Grandpa said.

Now, I want to take a moment to discuss another aspect of keeping the temple sacred.   I coordinate temple cleaning assignments for our stake.  The Plano Stake gets a couple of light cleaning assignments each month, and a couple of major cleaning assignments each year.  The Plano 5^th Ward receives several of these assignments each year.  The light cleaning assignments are almost always from 10:00 pm until midnight, or whenever the work is done, whichever comes first.  They often involve vacuuming or dusting.  The heavy cleaning assignment is more likely to be a longer, daylight assignment, and could be anything.

I often hear people complaining that the temple isn’t dirty when they go to vacuum, or dust, or whatever.  The charge is true.  The temple is rarely dirty.

Last year I went down for the heavy cleaning and we washed all the wallpaper walls.  We scrubbed and scrubbed and our white cleaning cloths were still white when we finished.  Now, I was looking closely and I noticed two small spots of soil in the 5 hours I worked on the walls.  Only two spots of soil.

Brothers and sisters, that is exactly how we want it to be.  We want the temple to be spotless at all times.  We don’t clean it when it’s dirty!  We clean it to make sure it is perfectly clean.  We want its physical cleanliness to reflect its spiritual perfection.  We also want to allow the members of the church to experience the physical preparation that reflects the spiritual significance of what is done there.

So don’t feel discouraged if you are asked to vacuum spotless floors.  By your effort in pulling out the occasional mote of dust, you are keeping the temple unspotted.  Spend the time thinking about the spiritual significance of  doing the washing before doing the anointing.  Or perhaps think about what you can do more to become as Elder Russell M. Nelson says, “A Woman of God”, or “A man of God.”

These are the things that make us OK.

And I say this . . . .