Church newsletter pastoral column for St. Peter Lutheran Church, Greene, Iowa, for March, 2020. Third in a series on “Worship Whys” exploring why we do the things we do in worship. Read part 1 & part 2.
Worship Whys: Offering & Prayer
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.”
– Colossians 4:2
Continuing our exploration this month of “Why do we do that in worship?” I want to think about our response to God, the things we offer in worship.
First and foremost, worship is about what God has done for us. God the Father has created us, God the Son has redeemed us, and God the Holy Spirit sustains our lives. Everything we have, everything we are, and everything we will be all comes from God. Every worship service is an opportunity to hear yet again—hopefully in new and fresh ways—the old, old story of what God has and is doing for us.
Hear that message loud and clear: Worship is about what God does, not about what we do. At the same time, within our worship services we offer our response to God’s action. The very word “worship” refers to our response to God. When the Holy Spirit leads us to recognize God’s loving action, we respond with worship and praise, because God is worth it. God is worthy of our worship.
Our response to God includes giving tangible gifts in the offering. Offering is an act of worship, because it’s a response to the good news of God revealed in Jesus Christ. It’s not paying dues or admission; it’s a physical way of responding to God, a costly way to show our gratitude. I don’t always succeed, but I try to always say we “receive” the offering rather than “collect” it.
Putting something in the plate is a concrete act of faith. If you give online, take one of the “I give electronically” cards and put it in the plate as an act of worship. Offering belongs in the worship service to give us a channel to respond to God. It’s about our need to give out of gratitude, not about the needs of the church institution to receive. God’s work will be accomplished whether we give or not, but God graciously gives us the chance to get involved.
Of course, we offer much more than money—we also give our time, our most valuable resource. Simply showing up for worship and dedicating an hour or so of your week to praising God is a response to the Holy Spirit’s nudging. Hopefully you’re spending far more than 0.59% of your week in intentional time with God, but one hour out of 168 per week is a start! In addition, I hope everyone occasionally serves in worship, perhaps by ushering, reading, behind the scenes on the altar guild, or in a plethora of other ways.
Another offering we make in worship is our prayers. With our money and our time we give out of our abundance; with our prayers we give out of our need. Giving our needs to God is an act of worship, for in praying, we admit our need for God and declare our trust and hope that God will act. Sometimes our prayers are carefully crafted and written out ahead of time; other times they’re spontaneous as the Spirit moves. Each of our worship services includes a prayer of the day connected to the themes in the day’s Scripture readings. (Pay attention to the structure of that prayer – each prayer of the day includes praise for what God has done, and a request for God to help us in a related area of our lives.)
We pray to dedicate our monetary offerings. We pray for the world’s needs in the prayers of intercession, asking God to mercifully hear our prayer and step in (“intercede”) in various situations. Often those prayers include petitions for the church, for justice and peace in the world, for the natural world God has made, and for particular individuals in need in our community, as well as other specific needs that week. And of course, we always pray the Lord’s Prayer as well, using the words Jesus taught his disciples.
In Christ,
-Pastor Daniel Flucke