The Aaronic Priesthood and What it Means to Become an Elder

Twenty six years ago, as a young boy of eleven, my good friend Mark Jesperson, almost a year older than I, turned 12 and was conferred with the Arronic Priesthood and ordained to the office of Deacon. I recall the first Sunday that I watched Mark Jesperson pass the sacrament and it seemed like it would be a very long year before I would be able to join his rank and enjoy that privilege. As one by one my friends turned 16 and were ordained to the office of priest I watched anxiously and with envy as they blessed the sacrament and there was nothing I wanted more than to be up on the altar to bless the sacrament with them. I had much to learn about the spirit of the Aaronic Priesthood beyond the apparent duties. Many of us have much to learn about the spirit of the Aaronic Priesthood and my shortsightedness might be one reason that it is not until now, twenty five years after my Aaronic priesthood confirmation that I have the joy of being conferred today with the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained to the office of Elder and will not make the same mistake I made twenty five years ago. What is the Aaronic Priesthood and what does it mean to become an Elder?

Doctrine and Covenants 20:38-67 contains a lengthy list of Aaronic and some Melchizedek Priesthood responsibilities that had I known the extent of I might not have been so eager when I was eleven and longing to be twelve to be conferred the Aaronic Priesthood. The responsibilities of the Aaronic priesthood can be found in verses 46-59. This is a profound task for easily distracted youth and any young man who is fully functional in these duties will be immeasurably blessed and receive tremendous happiness and will be well on his way to becoming a fully functioning Melchizedek Priesthood holder and will have untold reservoirs of strength as he is called to be a missionary.

Further, these duties, if performed by the Aaronic Priesthood holder in the proper spirit, prayerfully and reverently and taken in the spirit of service to his fellow man, his fellow quorum members and honoring the covenants he has made to the lord and not with vain repetition but with a full heart and a contrite spirit, will literally imbue a rare power in this individual, a sacred spiritual power that will enable him to be a more effective servant of the lord in all that he does and will achieve a unity in his temporal and spiritual life and be a missionary even before he is called to serve. This is the potential of living fully the Aaronic Priesthood. This is the great benefit of not merely performing the duties but also living the spirit of the Aaronic Priesthood. This young man will be immeasurably blessed and bless the lives of those around him and he will be well on his path to exaltation.

A wonderful and seminal General Conference address by Elder Bruce R. McConkie, October, 1974 entitled “Only an Elder” is a powerful treatise on the sacred and profound nature of the office of Elder, obtained by the conferring of the Melchizedek Priesthood with duties too vast to be listed in section 20 of the Doctrine and Covanents. Elder McConkie asks “Brethren, what think ye of the office of an elder? Someone else asks: “What office do you hold in the Church? What is your priesthood position?” An answer comes: “Oh, I’m only an elder.” Only an elder! Only the title by which a member of the Council of the Twelve is proud to be addressed; only the title which honors the President of the Church, who is designated by revelation as the first elder, only the office to which millions of persons are ordained in the vicarious ordinances of the holy temples.” D&C 20, 1-5 Each member of the Church who is called to the office of Elder holds the same priesthood power and responsibly as prophets, seers, and revelators! This is an awesome power, an awesome responsibility and for many of us this is humbling and baffling, but for those who fulfill the duties of an Elder with the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood there will be great joy in this life and the life to come.

Elder McConkie alludes to the profundity of the power as well as the spirit of the Melchizedek Priesthood in his address as he states: “Only an elder! Only a person ordained to preach the gospel, build up the kingdom, and perfect the Saints; only a minister whose every word is scripture; only the holder of that office which carries the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, of having the heavens opened, and of communing with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, and of enjoying the communion and presence of God the father and Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Further he says: What is an elder? An elder is a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. He holds the holy Melchizedek Priesthood. He is commissioned to stand in the place and stead of his Master—who is the Chief Elder—in ministering to his fellowmen. He is the Lord’s agent. His appointment is to preach the gospel and perfect the Saints.” What an awesome calling, what better way to serve in life?

D&C 121: 36, 40-46 This is truly the Spirit of the Priesthood that comes from fulfilling priesthood responsibilities sincerely, meaningfully, humbly and prayerfully through everyday service such as fulfilling stewardship and familial duties, making wise and difficult choices, fulfilling leadership obligations, magnifying your callings, missionary responsibilities in all aspects of life, being true in thought, word and deed, fellowshipping and lending time and energy and resources to those in need and strengthening your testimony everyday through prayer and study; this will directly benefit you and those you love.

Fulfilling one’s responsibility as an Elder and living the profound spirit of the Melchizedek Priesthood fundamentally means remaining true to the oath and covalent made willfully when conferred with the Melchizedek Priesthood, an oath and covalent that I make willfully and knowingly today. This is a covenant one makes with the lord that is the source of infinite joy yet for those who break this covenant, turn away and abuse their priesthood power there are consequences. The oath and covenant of the priesthood is clearly stated in Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-41.
If this might seem daunting, overwhelming or intimidating and at times you might feel inadequate, there is a standard which each of us might follow to clearly show us how to progress more fully and earnestly in the priesthood. This standard is the simple yet sublime example of our savior Jesus Christ who lived a life of purity and perfection as he exercised his Priesthood power through everyday acts of kindness and love. We might learn from the life of Christ who so perfectly exemplified the actions and profundity of the priesthood power by simply serving his fellow man with humility. Through Christ we can gain strength through his sublime example and also feel comfort and support.

Yet we, unlike Christ are not perfect. Doctrine and Covenants 84: 43-47. As imperfect beings we are simply incapable of living a live according to “every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God” without repentance made possible by the ultimate act of service rendered with divine priesthood authority from God and by Jesus Christ through the atonement, an act of service rendered to every man, woman and child who has lived or who will ever live. Without this sublime act I would not be making my covenant today, and many of us would be incapable of keeping it. Yet the atonement not only shows us the incredible power of the priesthood but it allows us the miracle of forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice that we might honor our oath and covenant. Once conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordained an Elder by my father today, I will earnestly and humbly perform my priesthood duties as an Elder with the prayerful spirit of service and honor my oath and covenant, this made possible by utilizing the very real power of the atonement in my life.

The Poetry of Art

What is a poem? The use of words to covey meaning through abstract composition that allows the arbitrariness of content to flow freeing the word from conventional context through creative construction to convey a language of thought transcending the confines of linguistics. What is visual poetry? It is art that uses the visual to convey meaning through abstract composition that allows the arbitrariness of content to flow freeing the image from conventional context through creative construction to convey an aesthetic of thought transcending the confines of logical aesthetics. Such is the visual poetry of artists Susan Beck, Bonnie Sucec and Ryan K. Peterson to be shown beginning March 11th at the Finch Lane Gallery.

“Our route thus compass’d we, a segment widely stretch’d
Between the dry embankment, and the core
Of the loath’d pool, turning meanwhile our eyes
Downward on those who gulp’d its muddy lees…” Canto VII, 129-133
Those “who gulp’d its muddy lees” is a hell divined by Dante in the “Divine Comedy” to which those who transgressed the sin of anger are condemned made lucid to the reader. Artist Susan Beck’s composition “Distance Looks Our Way” might be said to be painted as Dante wrote, with an air of gravity and sublimity that can be greater appreciated with a poetic sensitivity. In this expressive lyrical ambiance we feel the universal awe of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and simultaneously recognize the anxiety of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” These seemingly contradictory states of being find themselves well placed in this visual poem drawing the mind and the eye from one direction to the next grappling for reason. But there is none. The eye might think it “gets it” but the mind realizes that it doesn’t and gives in to the irrationality. Here is a subject sublimated to substance as the visual is appreciated poetically.
As the chorus of angels wrestle Mephistopheles to redeem Faust at last they beckon:
On to the light,
Loving flames, stream,
May truth redeem
Self-damned from blight,
That, gladly weaned
From evil and cleaned,
In the All-Unity
Blessed they be.” 11801-11808
The idea that the spirit can be rescued even from the most damning reality, even that of Faust in Goethe’s masterpiece, is a theme common to poetry and art and Beck reflects on such themes in her emotive visual poem “Let Go, Damn It.” Once more we find more substance than subject with a Goya-like darkness contrasted with the universal messages of salvation in many paintings of William Blake. The message is fundamentally optimistic, one of humanism and the capability of humankind. Here is adversity but ultimately one finds him or herself believing in the faceless but not helpless creature who clings to a thread of hope, her only salvation. Beck is consistent with imagery that cannot be read with logic but is allowed to manifest through sensory intuition: a poetic sensibility.
The visual poetry of Bonnie Sucec each, she said, “develops on its own- starting with a fragment- the painting unwinds with twists and turns and seldom a solution.” These visual poems are lush and alive and enrich the viewer who may explore the pastiche of style and motif with a “joie de vivre” temperament. Sucec’s “The Sun and the Moon” is itself a poem as lyrical as a sonnet.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath too short a date.” XVIII, 1-4
Sucec’s liberated aesthetic is delightful and compels sensations such as in this sonnet by William Shakespeare. This work can be interpreted visually with the sense of mystery of Marc Chagall with his same enjoyable color cacophonies which enhance the whimsical iconography. These prints have many tales to tell that can be enjoyed by releasing sensory perception and not penetrative scrutinizing.
In the capricious poem “A Tout Épreuve” by Surrealist poet Paul Elouard, translated loosely as “Through all of the Trials,” he writes “A la suite des images, Le masse de la lumiére roule vers d’autre rêves” or “After the visual experience, the body of light follows on to other dreams.” The Surrealists made ample use of the irrational and the sense of displacement found in Elouard’s poem to expound on greater depths of consciousness. In like manner Sucec’s “Venus in a Half Shell” incites the imagination to meander through the inviting imagery such as one would the oeuvre of Surrealist painter Max Ernst whose similar “narratives” lack a beginning, have no middle and will reach no end. Only the sensual experience of this visual poem can give it its raison de être. These visual poems encourage meaning by avoiding rational interpretation and submitting to depths of the conscious.
Ryan K. Peterson’s works might be described as “grotesque”… “I believe in a collective consciousness so I would like to think others might relate to seeing childhood monsters, stalking predators, metaphorical giants and the curious, not-so-subjective reality behind our eyes,” he said. His visual poetry invites thoughts of horror in the face of the uncanny as what we see might seem tied to somewhere in the psyche that we find uncomfortable. “It’s Looking for Me” is a visual poem that might resonate with the subject of memory and temporality, but nervously so. These memories may seem in retrospect not fond and the viewer must, as must all, reconcile their peace with their own as Peterson may be doing.
“So I loved a dream?
My doubt, a mass of ancient night, concludes
In many a subtle branch, which, since the real woods
Remain, proves, alas, what I offered to myself
As triumph was the ideal lack of roses.
Let’s think it over…” Stéphane Mallarmé
Ultimately we cannot escape our own reality.
Peterson’s most uncomfortable visual poems are his sculptures “Brother’s Bighead” which, he said, “are dreams, phobias and personal imagery manifested in sculpture.” “White Big Head” is sculpted poetry that is ironic and ugly and makes no sense outside of a poetic engagement with it.
“Stupidity, delusion, selfishness and lust
Torment our bodies and possess our minds,
And we sustain our affable remorse
The way a beggar nourishes his lice,”
Realist poet Charles Baudelaire here offers warning to the reader who begins to explore the daunting channels of thought to be found in his collection “Les Fleures du Mal.” Baudelaire was a poet of realism at odds with Parisian Modernity. His poems are not dark fantasies but truth of reality as he saw it. “White Big Head” is absurd like the work of sculptor Louise Bourgeois and in this absurdity can be found reality, traces of the real confronting us and our own reality with the crafty gaze of “White Big Head.” This is the same gaze that met the men of Paris who entered the Salon of 1865 to Eduard Manet’s painted courtesan, “Olympia,” making them embarrassingly self-conscious of their own debauchery.
Art considered historically has most frequently required a literal interpretation and has had specific aims and purposes. However there is a wealth of art, such as that of Beck, Sucec and Peterson, that will lose the recognition of its intrinsic value and the meaningful experience offered to the viewer when attempted to be understood with any degree of the absolute. Beck’s visual poems transcend being, Sucec’s explores consciousness while Peterson’s challenges reality in ways that transcend, explore, and challenge standardized notions of aesthetics.
“Another hardened expanse, once marked with occasional cairns
Spreads out ahead--mountainless.
The minutia of divots and pimples’
Of furrows and flakes, lead the way,” writes featured artist Susan Beck.