Sometimes I get super annoyed at the way people sustain someone when they are called to something in the church and then do nothing to help them, or even acknowledge them in their calling. If you sustain someone, you are committing to assist them if so required. I genuinely think some people need a reminder of that, so when I was asked recently to speak in Sacrament meeting, I decided to revisit some information from an old Relief Society lesson I gave years ago. Hopefully it has the desired effect!
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Good afternoon brothers and sisters. Today I’ve felt inspired to speak about sustaining our church leaders.
Pretty much every Sunday a member of the bishopric stands here and reads out callings and releasings at the beginning of our sacrament meeting. We raise our hands to sustain someone who has just received a new calling. Most of the time it’s an automatic reaction. Some Sundays we may not even really listen to the names of the people we are sustaining. It’s simply part of our Sacrament Meeting routine. Despite this failing on our part, it is actually a very sacred action and one we need to do with a thoughtful and prayerful heart. It is a critical motion with eternal consequences and it comes with responsibilities.
President Joseph F Smith said, “It is a serious wrong in the presence of the Almighty for one to vote to sustain the authorities of the Church and then to go away and oppose them and trample under foot the counsels that they give; and we will be judged of the Lord for it.
So when we raise our hand to sustain someone, whether it is the nursery leader or the prophet, what are we really doing? We are not voting. We don’t get to choose who will serve in the calling. That was already prayerfully taken to the Lord by the person who had the authority to do so. We are, instead, agreeing to accept callings or assignments from them if they are in a position to offer them and to help them in any way we can. Our sustaining is a vote of confidence in the person. We are promising to support them in their work and (something I think we should all remember) to speak well of them. We are committing ourselves to accepting that their call came from God.
Sister Terrie Bittner, a writer on the website Mormon Women Stand, said that this truth was brought home for her, one day when she called and asked someone to substitute for her in Primary. This sister admitted that teaching Primary was not her favourite thing (can’t imagine why) but that she had raised her hand to sustain her when she was called, and so, accepting my request for help was part of the promise she had made to God that day. She substituted and worked hard to give the class a wonderful experience. She then went on to say, “ I wondered then if I had ever worked so hard to carry out my covenant to sustain someone in a calling. I believe that is what sustaining someone is—a covenant with God.”
That is something we would all do well to remember when we are extended an assignment or asked to assist with a lesson, an activity or simply just to attend those lessons or activities that people have put so much effort into. Attending them is sustaining too! Please attend activities. SO much work goes into them.
In 1898 whilst serving as the second counsellor in the first presidency, Joseph F Smith said, “It is an important duty resting upon the Saints who … sustain the authorities of the Church, to do so not only by the lifting of the hand, the mere form, but in deed and in truth.”
In D&C 20:65 it says, “No person is to be ordained to any office in this church, where there is a regularly organized branch of the same, without the vote of that church."
We have an opportunity to sustain—support, help, pray for—each of these people in their callings. We indicate our willingness to do so by raising our right hands when their names are read to us in general conference, stake conference, ward or branch conference, or sacrament meeting. Raising our hands is a sign to us, to them, and to the Lord that we will sustain them.
In April 2015, during the sustaining of the church officers in the Saturday Afternoon Session of Conference, several members stood and loudly opposed our first presidency. I remember it well and I was absolutely raging. I remember saying angrily to Doug, how could someone do that? How dare they? Why bother going to conference if you don’t agree with them? That’s the whole POINT of going to conference, to listen to them! But as members of a congregation, we have the right to oppose a calling or a sustaining. I’m certainly not saying we should, but we have the right to! It should still be done by the raising of the hand, certainly not by yelling out- to allow our opinion to be heard by those who are in a position of authority to do so, after the meeting has concluded. We need also remember, that the sustaining vote will be carried by the majority.
Members of the church of Jesus christ of Latter-day Saints, like everyone else, and sometimes even more so, are opinionated people. We will often have more experience than the person called to lead us. We sometimes have personal beliefs that cause us to want things to be done differently than they are. However, once God has approved a calling, we are expected to become humble followers of this person. While this may seem hard or short-sighted, we will someday be the one who is sustained into a calling we are less qualified for. Then we will hope others will be patient and supportive during our time.
Jesus taught us to treat others the way we ourselves want to be treated. The Church is not like the world. We don’t always fill our positions with the most qualified person. (Although with modern politics you have to wonder!) Often the person in the calling is there because there is something he can learn from it. Other times he is there because there is a specific situation or person he can best help, even if he’s less qualified for other parts of the work.
God moves us around to various callings in order to help us grow. We are called to sustain them, whether or not we think they are qualified. Whom God calls; God qualifies. Sustaining people is a covenant we make at the local level. It is also a covenant when we sustain the prophet and the apostles. We covenanted in the waters of baptism and in the temple to follow Jesus Christ and God, and we covenanted to follow the prophet as the Lord’s mouthpiece in our time. To do anything less is to violate our sacred covenants. To do anything less is to decide God made a mistake—and God never makes mistakes.
In his talk Solemn Assemblies, David B Haight said, “When we sustain the President of the Church by our uplifted hand, it not only signifies that we acknowledge before God that he is the rightful possessor of all the priesthood keys; it means that we covenant with God that we will abide by the direction and the counsel that comes through His prophet. It is a solemn covenant.” To do otherwise is dangerous.
Joseph F. Smith said: “Men may become dissatisfied one with another, they may become dissatisfied towards the Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, or others, and may say in their hearts, “I do not like such an one; I do not believe he is as good as he should be, he has too many faults and weaknesses and, therefore, I cannot and will not acknowledge his authority, as I have not faith in the man.” Doubtless there are those, too many perhaps, who feel that way, but the trouble is, just because they have become dissatisfied with the individual and harboured feelings of bitterness in their hearts against their brethren, they lose sight of the designs of the Almighty; they turn against the authority of the Holy Priesthood; and through their blindness allow themselves to be led astray, and at last turn away from the Church.”
One of the temple recommend questions is “Do you sustain the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator and as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys? Do you sustain the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators? Do you sustain the other General Authorities and local leaders of the Church?” Please note that it includes local authorities. So whether we agree with their decisions or not, we must accept them and remember these men (and women!) have been called of the Lord and are his mouthpiece. What it all comes down to for me, is “Is the church true?” Of course it is! Then we are safe in the care of our leaders, because the Lord picked them.
You might not like someone that is called to a position in the gospel, especially a position of authority, but you should sustain them anyway. How many times have we said we don’t like someone before getting to know them. I know I am terrible for that… We can do the same, get to know someone and close that gap.
D&C 1:38 warns: “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” There is so much safety in knowing God has provided us with a prophet to guide us through the last days of the world. It is one of His gifts of love to His children and our willingness to follow the prophet He has chosen is our message of how much we love and trust God. It is our testimony in action—and a testimony that is words without action does not have the power to bring us back home to God.
Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies. Those who he calls are blessed to have the right words, so long as they remain worthy to receive them. They are able to open their mouth and speak the words that the Lord wants them to speak. Joseph Smith said on more than one occasion that he was not mighty in words but the Lord promised him, as recorded in the doctrine and covenants: "It shall be given you in the very moment what you shall speak and what you shall write." There is no recorded evidence that he ever spoke from a prepared text!
I was called as the ward relief society president at 32 years old. I always assumed the RSP was someone in their 40s or 50s, or even older, not someone my age! Sorry Beth! In fact, at first I was absolutely convinced that my husband and bishop had set me up for a joke. When our stake RSP sat with me, I said. I can't do this. I'm so awkward. I always say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Her words were simple but perfect. “If you do the right thing and pray for the right words, you can open your mouth and they will come. And you can be assured that they will always be the right words.” I don’t think I’ve become any less awkward, but the words did come.
President
Henry B Eyring shared a beautiful story about one young man's example of
sustaining his Church leaders. “Years ago an 18-year-old student showed me what
it means to sustain the Lord’s servants. I am still blessed by his humble
example. He had just begun his first year in college. He was baptized less than
a year before he left home to begin his studies at a large university. There I
served as his bishop.
As the school year began, I had a brief interview with him in the bishop’s office. I remember little of that first conversation except that he spoke of his challenges in a new place, but I will never forget our second conversation. He asked to see me in my office. I was surprised when he said, “Could we pray together, and may I be voice?” I was about to say that I had already prayed and expected that he had as well. Instead I agreed. He began his prayer with a testimony that he knew the bishop was called of God. He asked God to tell me what he should do in a matter of great spiritual consequence. The young man told God he was sure the bishop already knew his needs and would be given the counsel he needed to hear. As he spoke, the specific dangers he would face came to my mind. The counsel was simple but given in great clarity: pray always, obey the commandments, and have no fear. That young man, one year in the Church, taught by example what God can do with a leader as he is sustained by the faith and prayers of those he is called to lead. I spoke recently with that young man who sustained his bishop years ago. I learned that the Lord and the people had sustained him in his call as a missionary, as a stake president, and as a father. He said as our conversation ended, “I still pray for you every day.”
We can support and help leaders of the Church both locally and on a larger scale by our faith and prayers on their behalf, by helping when they ask us, by accepting callings extended to us and most importantly, by following their counsel.
May I leave you with an encouragement to not only sustain your church leaders, but to take opportunities to tell them that you do! If you like a talk someone gives, tell them. If you like a lesson, take the time out to let them know. If a leader goes out of their way to help you or your family, show your gratitude by telling them, then helping someone else. Our words mean so much. I cannot tell you how much it means to me when people have sustained me in my calling. Sometimes people I would least expect!
I’d just like to leave this talk with a final poem by Charles Franklin Benvegar that my friend Alexandra gave me as a teenager, that explains the power of our words and deeds. She would often ask us, are you a Builder? Or a wrecker?
As
I watched them tear a building down
A
gang of men in a busy town
With
a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and the side wall fell
I
asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,
And
the men you’d hire if you wanted to build?”
He
gave a laugh and said, “No, indeed,
Just
common labor is all I need.”
“I
can easily wreck in a day or two,
What builders have taken years to do.”
And
I thought to myself, as I went my way
Which
of these roles have I tried to play
Am
I a builder who works with care,
Measuring
life by rule and square?
Am
I shaping my work to a well-made plan
Patiently doing the best I can
Or
am I a wrecker who walks to town
Content
with the labour of tearing down?
“O
Lord let my life and my labours be
That which will build for eternity!”
Brothers and sisters. Sustain your leaders. Be a builder, not a wrecker. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
