This week we read part of Pastor Earl Feddersen's weekly devotion, "Edit-O-Earl." Pastor Feddersen suggests a new perspective on the Sunday morning offering. We give God much more than something we get from our purses or wallets. In fact, we may "Need a bigger altar!" You can find his devotions on the LCMS World Mission home page at: http://www.lcmsworldmission.org/lectionary/index.htm.
In Sunday's Epistle lesson, St. Paul suggests a different approach to self-denial. While Jesus says that self-denial and the losing of ourselves is the true way to finding ourselves, Paul sees it from the perspective of one who witnessed Jesus' self-sacrifice and knows that His suffering and death were for us.
From the perspective of one who had received that ultimate act of mercy, Paul urges us: "to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
Part of the Lutheran liturgy for Evening Prayer or Vespers is from Psalm 141. The pastor says, "Let my prayers rise before You as incense," and the people continue: "and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Paul is not suggesting some outward ritual to be representative of something else. He is following the lead of his Leader in urging us to turn our entire lives over to God in continuous "living," worship, praise and service.
The liturgy does not suggest an outward symbol either. The word "liturgy" comes from a Greek word that means service. In an issue of Pulpit Resource, Glendon Harris once described it as the service we render to God, both in church and out: "We serve God in our hymns and prayers in church on Sunday so that we might be better able to serve God in our deeds and words at the office on Monday.... Therefore, a climax of our Sunday worship is the offering. And most churches need a very large altar, for on that altar we lay not only our money, but also our lives."
Harris made a good point when he wrote that the offering ought to be a "highlight of Sunday worship," but it often is not. He continued: "Alas, too many of us see the offering as a needless intrusion into worship rather than the point of worship, a materialistic interruption in which people fumble for wallets and purses to put their money in the plate. Yet...in the offering, we lay ourselves and our gifts upon the altar, asking God to take what we have and to use it for His purposes."
Saint Augustine once said, "We imitate whom we adore." If we adore a star or stars from the professional ranks of sports, theater, television, movies or music, our words, deeds and lives will reflect those of the persons who have moved us to emulate them. Tragically, those figures set many trends and patterns in life--the clothes and shoes they wear, the foods they eat, cars they drive and the lifestyles they choose become, for many, the fashion and way that is most to be desired. With Paul, I urge you to look higher than the stars...much higher.