Have you ever played those computer games where you have to assemble odd-shaped blocks in squares and lines to make them disappear? It’s kind of like Tetris, but nothing’s falling; you just get maybe three blocks at a time and have to find a place to fit them in, like a jigsaw puzzle, hoping to clear part of the board for the next three to also be able to fit.
Like many computer games, it’s a little fun, a little frustrating, and a little addictive, so, I’ve played it a little too much; but I’ve also learned from it. I’ve learned that in order to succeed, you can’t just think about the block you are trying to fit into place at the time. You have to think of what’s already on the screen as well; and you have to consider the other blocks waiting to be put in there; and you also have to imagine what the next set of blocks might be, even though you can’t know. That is, you have to act in the present, with concern for yourself and the many, while considering both the known past and the possible future.
There you go: Life lessons learned from computer games.
Of course, computer games are not the only sources of philosophical, social, or ethical insight; and, frankly, they are probably not the best ones. But the truth is, that truth can be learned from many different sources. Of course, there is revelation, but truth can also be learned through human endeavours, such as science, study, and experience. This is true of simple truths as well as some complex, deep, and meaningful ones. Those truths are available to all people.
I was thinking of one of those truths this past week, that kind of relates to the lessons learned from that computer game.
Ubuntu is defined as the idea of “being human through other people.” It means that we only fully realize our humanity when we care for others. One African scholar wrote that ubuntu contains all the ideas of “sympathy, compassion, benevolence, solidarity, hospitality, generosity, sharing, openness, affirm[ation], availab[ility], kindness, caring, harmony, interdependence, obedience, collectivity, and consensus.” It’s the source of the saying that “it takes a village to raise a child,” and it can be used to express our concern for people of the past and future as well as our need to care for the whole world around us. Hence, it is like that computer game.
But the idea is not only found in Africa and online games. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.” He called this “the interrelated structure of reality.”
It’s like the Hawaiian author, Serge Kahili King (no relation to Martin Luther King, Jr.), wrote, “We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe.”
This truth is recognized in some way by every culture in the world.
A Confucian philosopher, Tu Wei-Ming, wrote, “Learning to be human… is to learn to be sensitive to an ever-expanding network of relationships,” which he illustrated by drawing a series of concentric circles, with the smallest in the middle representing our sympathy or sensitivity for ourselves, our own feelings, desires, wants, and needs; then, the next wider circle is our family; surrounding that circle is the circle of our community; then, the circle of our country; then, the whole world; and finally, the “beyond”, i.e., everything. He suggested that being fully human means ultimately embracing compassion and love for everything.
“Love for All, Hatred for None,” is the slogan of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community; and even the atheist philosopher, Richard Rorty, wrote that “what matters [most] is our loyalty to other human beings clinging together in the dark.”
Again, this particular set of truths is simply everywhere. But it is not always fully understood. It is not always fully integrated in the ways we live. It is not always consistent with other things and ways we believe and think. But the gospel, and particularly, the temple, help to fix that.
You see, while not all truth needs to come to us by revelation, it is through revelation that each truth, even found through science, study, and experience, or computer games, is given its proper place in the pattern and order of our eternal lives and divine destinies. In relation to the truth of our individual and eternal connection to one another and all things, this is the additional perspective the temple seeks to give us.
For those of you who have attended the temple often, you might have noticed that many, if not all, of the things we are shown and taught there are represented or repeated in the scriptures, and particularly in The Pearl of Great Price.
Likewise, the temple offers each of us the opportunity to obtain a vision of eternity, and an understanding of our place in it.
But – I don’t know if you’ve noticed – the gospel and Church of Jesus Christ are not solely concerned with knowing and understanding; their main focus is on doing and becoming. This is true of the temple too. Its focus is not just on what we are to learn, but what we are to do and to become. Temple ordinances are, in fact, an essential part of that becoming.
One of my favourite stories from The Pearl of Great Price, is one that is not literally represented in the temple but exemplifies what the temple is ultimately all about. It is in the seventh chapter of The Book of Moses, where we read about one of the patriarch Enoch’s visions. Enoch had already had visions from God and was a righteous man. He led his people into extraordinary righteousness, creating the glorious city of Zion, the ideal community that prophets and church leaders have ever since been seeking to recreate without success. So, Enoch was exceptional. We haven’t seen a prophet like him since him.
“And it came to pass,” the book says, “that Enoch talked with the Lord; and he said unto the Lord: Surely Zion shall dwell in safety forever. But the Lord said unto Enoch: Zion have I blessed, but the residue of the people have I cursed.” Then the Lord unfolded to Enoch a more complete vision of the whole world than he had previously seen.
He was taken up into heaven to view all peoples, “generation upon generation”. He saw that “the power of Satan was upon all the face of the earth… [and that Satan] had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness, and [Satan] looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced.”
Then Enoch saw, in contrast, “the God of heaven looked upon …the people, and he wept. And Enoch bore record of it saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as rain upon the mountains? …how is it thou canst weep?”
The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; …Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also. Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren. …behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?
That, to me, is the most beautiful expression in all our holy books: “his heart swelled wide as eternity.” Let those words sit with you for a moment. …Don’t all the truths discovered and defined by Confucius, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Albert Einstein kind of pale before this experience? Does the concept of ubuntu sufficiently cover it?
Enoch was a man, a human, like you and me. His heart swelled wide as eternity. His bowels yearned, and all eternity shook. Did you know we have that power or capacity, that potential, within us?
The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that the light of Jesus Christ is the spirit of truth and that it is,
in all and through all things… he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; As also the light of the stars …And the earth also, … even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.
When we choose to walk the covenant path with Jesus Christ, we choose to embrace our connection to all things. As we actually walk that path, performing the ordinances and doing the things that he asks and teaches us to do, we begin to progress toward that state of humanity that the prophet Enoch experienced. I’d like us to think again a little about what that experience was like.
His heart swelled. If you’ve ever been a parent, I am certain you know that experience; but if have ever loved at all – a person, a pet, or even a plant – you have some idea of what it means.
A book we were once given is called, “Whooosh! There Goes My Heart.” It was written by a Kitchener author about the experience of being a grandparent. “My heart took off like a rocket!” he writes, “It went missing the moment I became a grandfather.” As a grandfather of four outrageously beautiful girls, I can certainly relate to that feeling.
Bur I doubt the expansion of Enoch’s heart when it swelled wide as eternity could be summed up sufficiently by the word, “whoosh”. It probably doesn’t compare. It probably also wasn’t that nice. Instead, I imagine it felt more like a massive heartbreak.
I hope you never have, but I have been in that dark place where my heart was crushed, and I felt like it could never recover. It’s an experience I doubt I will ever be grateful for, although I am sure it has deepened my empathy for others. But I imagine that Enoch’s expanded heart at the time, moved as he was by the vision of the wickedness and suffering of people throughout human history, felt something like that, probably something worse. Not a ‘whoosh’ but maybe it was like what the poet T. S. Eliot imagined when he wrote, “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”
But Enoch’s swelled heart was not left in pain and sorrow. What happens next in his vision fills that void with the knowledge of redemption:
And behold, Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man… and his soul rejoiced, saying: The Righteous is lifted up, and the Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world; and through faith I am in the bosom of the Father, and behold, Zion is with me. …
And the Lord showed Enoch all things, even unto the end of the world; and he saw the day of the righteous, the hour of their redemption, and received a fulness of joy.
We sometimes treat the temple as a simple, material thing, as a job or duty to fulfill. We go to do – quote – “the work” for our ancestors. We go to obtain our own “essential ordinances,” but do we often think about what they really mean? Ecclesiastes, in the Old Testament, warns us not to take lightly the meaning of the covenants we make with God. When we attend the temple, we are blessed to become like Enoch was, and like Jesus is. We are called to the kingdom of God to be its leaders, teachers, and priests, and are given tools and teachings to help us accomplish it. We are blessed with healing, comfort, and relief from the sorrow and heartaches that hang over us in this world. Through faithful temple worship, we can be made better in every way.
Can you imagine Enoch, Jesus, Abraham, Sarah, Abish, Emma, or Mary, as they are today, glorified in the Kingdom of God, wallowing in self-pity over the hardships they experienced in life? Can you imagine them falling prey to the kinds of negativity that inflicts itself on us here? Would they be bickering, gossiping, and fault finding? Do you think it is a chore for them to perform their callings, to prepare a lesson or talk, or to minister? The gospel becomes easier, and the presence of the Spirit in our lives becomes more evident, when we seek to walk more fully the covenant path to which we are called, when we seek those gifts that help us to become who Jesus Christ calls us to be.
This is the purpose of the temple.
Moroni wrote, “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, …deny yourselves of all ungodliness; …and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then [when you do this] his grace [is] sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and … can in nowise deny the power of God.”
Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This is what the temples are for. This is what they invite and help us to do.
It is my testimony that as we prepare ourselves by seeking to fulfill the minimal standards to be met for temple attendance, seeking to live in accordance with the covenants we have already made and will affirm and make more deeply there, we will become as God, Jesus Christ, and even we, in our heart of hearts, desire us to be. We will find our hearts healed, our vision enhanced, and our compassion and other capacities increased.
So, I encourage us, to go to the temple and go often. Go in an attitude of worship and thankfulness. Go to embrace and to begin now to fulfill your eternal destiny. And if you cannot currently attend, there is nothing that stops you from beginning now to prepare. The Lord will bless you. Trust in the grace that comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ. He will help you to do everything you need to do. I express this testimony and this promise, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.