Blogger of Jared

While sitting in sacrament meeting today during which the sacrament was blessed and passed in its normally flawless fashion, I got to thinking about those times in my life when the sacrament portion of the meeting didn’t go as planned or was memorable for other reasons. From a cultural perspective, I thought it would be interesting to relate some of the unusual experiences I’ve had involving the sacrament.

I’ll preface my memorial stroll with the comment that these experiences, some of which were terribly embarrassing for me at the time, all remind me how much the Lord loves us and how that love is so often reflected by other members. I’m sure many of you have listened to a priest repeat a sacrament prayer to get it right and felt for him and even prayed for him. The Lord is that way. He doesn’t use commandments and the Church to play “gotcha.” Rather he gives us responsibilities to help us grow spiritually and become more like him. When mistakes are made, we learn and he forgives. Other members also step up to help. Sure, some people are judgmental and criticize, but true saints are quick to help and slow to judge.

Now on to some of the interesting experiences I’ve had with the sacrament….

1) The Spill. When I was young, just barely a deacon if I recall correctly, I was visiting another ward in the stake with my dad who was the stake president. The priests had blessed the bread, and a deacon had just passed his tray of bread to those on the stand. As he descended the steps to continue passing the bread to the rest of us, his tray caught the edge of the partition separating the priests’ bench from the stand. Right in front of the entire ward, his large round tray full of broken bread went flying. I felt so terrible watching as that young man had to stop and pick it all up. I thought it easily could have been me. Little did I know how I would have similar experiences in just a few short years.

2) The Miscount. One time while I was passing the sacrament, I thought I saw eight trays of bread but only seven trays of water on the sacrament table. That seemed odd, but I assumed there was a good reason for it. As a result, after the eight of us deacons and teachers approached the sacrament table and returned the trays of bread to the priests, I silently volunteered to be the one to sit out, so I sat down. One of the other deacons looked at me and urgently tried to wave me back into my position. I guess I figured that he hadn’t realized there were only seven trays. So the priests blessed the water and passed out the trays. I sat back wondering why only seven trays were prepared. As the deacons and teachers departed to pass out the water, I was horrified when I saw that one tray of water remained on the table. Doh!

3) The Misread. This one is probably the most typical of the sacrament memories but the reason for it may not be so common. As a young priest, my role one Sunday was to bless the water. After finishing the bread, I knelt to bless the water. For some reason, we couldn’t find the sacrament prayer card, so we decided to read the prayers from the Book of Mormon. The prayer on the bread went without a hitch. Now, it was my turn to read the prayer on the water. Amazingly, I still didn’t understand as a priest that the prayers on the bread and water were not the same. I must not have paid attention during all the Sunday School, FHE, seminary, and Aaronic Priesthood lessons I had ever listened to in my youth. I thought I could just substitute the word “water” for “bread” and “drink” for “eat” and I’d be good to go. Well, in addition to being wrong in believing the prayers were nearly identical except for those words, I couldn’t even make the substitutions cleanly. I kept messing up–perhaps it was the Spirit causing me to stumble. In any event, after several tries, the Bishop finally came over with his scriptures and pointed out the correct verse. I then read it, passed out the trays of water, and suffered great embarrassment for the rest of our meetings that day. The one takeaway from this experience is that I’ll make sure my boys know the difference between the two prayers.

4) Rain Drops on a Tin Roof. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with the sacrament. It refers to the funniest experience I ever had with the sacrament. One Sunday a couple of years ago, we started using a new type of sacrament cup. We had been using a clear plastic cup, but the new cups were slightly smaller and all white. Immediately after the Bishop took the water, we knew there was a problem. When he dropped the cup into the plastic tray, it went, “tink.” Then, as the deacons and teachers began passing the trays of water to others, we began to hear a crescendo of “tink…tink tink…tink tink tink.” It sounded like we were all sitting in a shack with a tin roof and the rain clouds had just begun to open up. When the water came to my wife and me, we realized what the problem was. These little cups were much thicker and heavier than the prior clear plastic cups. So when they were dropped in the plastic tray, they made a heavy “tink” sound. By the time the last ward members had finished taking the sacrament, everyone was smiling, giggling, and even laughing in as reverent manner as possible given the circumstances. Well, the following week, and until the cups were used up, the teachers placed a few layers of paper towels at the bottom of the trays to muffle the sound. While that was somewhat successful, the Bishopric later switched to the traditional folded paper cups which we’re still using today.

5) Loaves and Fishes. OK, the sacrament didn’t consist of loaves and fishes, but it seemed like we were feeding five thousand. The first Sunday after we moved into our new house in American Fork, Utah, we were astounded at the number of ward members in attendance. Not only were the chapel and overflow completely filled but so was two-thirds of the gym. It was like attending stake conference except that this was just a regular sacrament meeting in our ward. Because of new housing tracts in the ward boundaries, the ward had ballooned in a very short time. It would be split within a few short months, but until then, passing the sacrament was a logistical challenge. Every Sunday the priests prepared twenty trays of bread and another twenty of water. They had to set up a second table on the stand near the bishopric to hold all the trays. Passing the sacrament took nearly half of the meeting.

6) Crossing the Gap. Ok, this isn’t really an embarrassing moment or an unusual occurrence, but it’s an interesting LDS cultural observation. In some wards, the deacons leave a tray to be passed from one side of a pew to the other even if only a few people are populating the bench on either end. The result is that someone has to half stand up in a half crouch and carry the tray across the gap to the individuals on the other side. I remember as an Aaronic priesthood holder feeling bad if I forced someone to do that, so I always made an effort to stay there and take the tray back. A deacon on the other side would pass the bread and water to the few individuals on the other end. Some wards emphasize this practice while others don’t. I’ve lived in many wards in and out of Utah, and I’ve seen it both ways.

I’m sure I’ve experienced other unusual or embarrassing sacrament moments, but that’s enough for now. I’d love to hear about any others you may have had. My hope from this, aside from a little entertainment, is to remind folks that they’re not alone if they make a blunder and that those who see something embarrassing should show compassion and understanding. The Church is certainly full of imperfect people. Let’s be willing to laugh at our imperfections and support each other.