Sarah’s talk on Service and Hope

 When I first received the topic ‘how does following Jesus Christ’s example of selfless service empower us with hope,’ my first thought was, ‘I really have no idea.’ 

Hope, in a gospel context, is an abiding confidence, grounded in your faith in Jesus, that God will fulfill his promises. Does serving others help us feel confidence in God’s fulfillment of promises? How do we feel when we don’t have hope opposed to how we do, and how is that connected to service? What does Christ’s example of selfless service look and feel like exactly? 

I asked these and more questions to Heavenly Father and I saw an image in my mind’s eye of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, with an angel strengthening him. What a powerful image! 

When Jesus knelt in the Garden, he performed his atonement–the incomprehensible and infinite experience of all of the pains and suffering of all humankind, as well as the punishment and consequence of all sin committed by everyone–both the repentant and the evil. This was the greatest act of selfless service ever committed. In fact, it is the only way that any of us can have hope. The atonement of Jesus Christ IS the fulfillment of God’s promises. Without Christ’s atonement, God fulfilling any other promises to us would not matter because we would never be able to experience lasting joy, never be able to have real peace, and never have real meaning. We would never be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father. 

The scriptures say that Jesus asked the Father if he would ‘remove this cup’ from him, meaning, if Jesus didn’t have to actually go through with this. We can imagine that he knew it would be hard and painful, and even though he wanted to because he loves us, a part of him actually didn’t want to go through with it. He prayed more earnestly and there appeared an angel strengthening him. 

Now, we do not know who this angel is by name. We do not know his or her story. 

But the Doctrine and Covenants explains that all angels who minister to this earth are people who either have already lived on earth, or who will live here. So we know that this person had been or will have been a mortal being. This person needs Jesus to be saved. This person had committed or will have committed sin, and they had died or will have died. They need Jesus to become an angel. 

Imagine for a second–just for a thought experiment, that this person had already had lived, died, and become an angel before appearing to Jesus. What message does this send? The principle is the same regardless of whether the angel had already experienced mortality or will have done so in the future, but I find it easier to understand my point if we imagine that he or she had already been a mortal being. We know of other people who had lived and come back as angels before this time already. 

King Benjamin taught his people about Jesus before Jesus came to earth. He said ‘whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.’

King Benjamin is saying that the effects of Jesus Christ’s atonement are efficacious retroactively. That if someone has faith in Jesus and repents, that they can be forgiven and saved even before Jesus Christ came. Think about that kind of faith and hope–talk about a belief that God would keep his promises. 

And here, an angel–someone who believed in Jesus, was able to receive this remission of sins and rejoice, and become an angel! They believed that Jesus could and would perform his atonement. 

How powerful might that have been for Jesus to see in that moment? How strengthening might that have been? We don’t know what the angel said, but just his or her presence there alone sends the message “I know that you can do this. I have this faith, and I know this because I have already experienced the power that comes from what you are about to do. I need you to do it and I know you can.’ 

Jesus’ service to this person helped him become an angel, and that angelic presence stood as a beacon of hope, giving him strength to drink the bitter cup and perform this service. 

This, in my view, is what President Nelson means when he says ‘think Celestial.’ It’s an understanding that even though we are not yet living in the Celestial kingdom, we can act and believe and hope that we can experience that deep love and power while here on earth. We can receive the miracles of living a Zion-like life even when it’s difficult. We can do the small and large acts every day of living the commandments and serving others. We, like those in the city of Enoch, can create our lives like heaven. We can become angels here on earth–saints through the atonement of Christ–even while living a messy life in mortality. This is ultimately what hope is–it’s a trust in God so powerful that it fills us with joy, courage, excitement and strength and heaven right now! We do not need to live a life of drudgery and fear while we’re anxiously waiting to get to heaven–we know heaven is so real that we start feeling like heaven down here. Perhaps Jesus felt more hope and looked past the threat of impending pain because he remembered God’s promises–that he would get to live with this person, this angel, his personal friend, and all of us forever through performing his atonement. 

I think that is what following Christ’s example of selfless service is all about. It’s not just about deciding which things to do for money and which things to do for free. It’s not just about waking up on a Saturday morning to go help somebody move. It’s not just about making cookies or paying tithing or cleaning up a flood zone, though those are certainly all demonstrative of selfless service. It’s an overarching vision and attitude of who Christ is. It’s about living in a Celestial way, a consecrated way. It’s about doing everything that we do in the name of, and because of Jesus. It’s about understanding that all our time, all of our talents, and everything that we have comes from God and for this reason, we can share and we can serve. 

Jesus’ atonement which resolves all the bad things that have ever happened to us–provides us with abundance. 

This idea–that we can count on Jesus to fulfill his promises as he fulfilled the atonement–takes away the ‘survival of the fittest,’ scarcity mindset and ‘dog-eat-dog’ attitude of earthly living. It takes away the fear that there isn’t enough time, or that we can’t accomplish all the things that God is asking us to do. It takes away the feelings of anger that you are doing more and others are not, or the feeling of entitlement that you should do less and others do more. It helps us know that through personal, familial, and communal counseling with God, God will provide a way for us to accomplish his commandments. We shift our focus from feeling all the negative, selfish, and begrudging things about service, to feeling the uplifting, loving, hopeful things about service. We begin to make service about everything in all our interactions–including our employment and businesses. We don’t look at others merely as transactional relationships, but one where, yes, necessary exchange is involved (that can be such a great thing) but also where you partner with God to treat others with love and help them in every single one of your relationships. 

This doesn’t mean we won’t ever be frustrated or feel upset or unvalued for what we do. This certainly doesn’t mean that we no longer have physical needs and can’t participate in the market economy. This doesn’t mean we won’t ever have an attitude when it’s Friday night or Saturday morning and we’re asked to help move someone or clean something instead of doing the fun or relaxing activity that we had planned. This doesn’t mean that we won’t ever feel overwhelmed or that we don’t know how to balance our family, work, and church life. Don’t beat yourself up over these feelings–they are normal. But they are an opportunity and indicator that there is another lesson to be learned–another layer in our development to understand that God gives us everything and through God we find our true hope and happiness. We can know that we can humbly ask God for help and discernment about what he is asking us to do, and watch the miracles unfold as we submit to his will. 

Following the example of Jesus Christ in giving selfless service comes when we pray more earnestly to see the whole perspective–when we understand that we are both the fallen human and the strengthening angel, and that Jesus Christ fills the gap. It comes from seeing that God wants us to have a Celestial, Zion-like community now, and that, though we will still have mortal trials, the telestial and terrestrial mindsets can go away. 

As I choose to serve God selflessly–as I choose to submit myself to him like Jesus submitted himself to the Father when he performed his atonement, I receive the blessings of that atonement. I receive forgiveness. I receive strength. I receive a growing relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. I receive, line upon line, the ability to discern when and how to use my talents to follow God–I see the miracles that my time is expanded beyond my capacity, and also the warnings when I am taking on too much. I see my talent, my loaf and fish, my oil and flour increased and magnified. And through God and mortals, I am paid and my cup overflows, multiplied more than I ever gave, in return. 

I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can build Zion by lovingly giving selfless service. And that will bring us hope. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.