“Offering of Our Gifts and Lives
Whether making a donation or not, EVERYONE
is invited to touch the offering plates, offering a prayer to give ourselves to
God in heart, soul, mind and strength.”
I was taken aback by all the
busyness just to take up an offering, but it made a little more sense when the
ushers took the plates forward and gave them to the minister. He turned toward
the altar and with upstretched arms raised the plates above his head toward the
tall illuminated cross and asked a blessing on the offering of gifts and lives.
I see the ritual as something of preference, but I’m hesitant when man’s
fingerprints appear on Scripture. Jesus was ask about the greatest commandment
and he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 NIV). I’m just
not sure that the greatest commandment belongs on the corporate offering plate.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Maybe the least communicated idea in and about church is the sizable amount of metaphor it is. I would not serve nor pay mind to a god so small as to need some dink holding a few tin plates in the air while mumbling something half-hearted at best over the minor pittances therein, those shaved off the fruitful labors of many. A god communing with his people over a quarter gram of cracker and a thimble of highly diluted grape-juice is puny and probably broke. And then there’s all the hollow little phrases and clichés floating about the air like canary dander. All of the rituals and clichés and religiosity around churches would really bother me if I didn’t know it all to be metaphorical for what is truly real in the hearts of most about the beyond-wonders our rich and powerful God of love desires to heap upon His critters, and then draw them entirely into at their “end”.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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