I have never in my life attended a Sunday morning worship service that did not have and offering in it. Somewhere along the way the plates always got passed. We never have a Sunday morning service at New Hope without an offering. Why is that?
Worship is about feeling awe and wonder. I love the hymn “How Great Thou Art” because it stirs up my awe and wonder. I love walking on the beach at night for the same reason. A famous Jewish mystical writer named Abraham Heschel said that a basic issue in religion is what to do with our feelings of awe and wonder. He wrote, “Endless wonder unlocks an innate sense of indebtedness. Within our awe we only know that all we own we owe.” When I see how great God is and how small I am, I know that I don’t have anything that was not given to me. That is why it is good and even necessary to have a time in every worship service to give money as a way of acknowledging that we owe God for everything we own.
A writer named Alan Storey reflects on Jesus’ words, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21) when he says we have an offering in worship in order to relocate our hearts. “Do you see why we have an offering in worship? We do not have an offering to keep the lights on. We do not have an offering to pay the pastor. We have an offering because God knows that it is the one thing that can relocate our hearts. When we have an offering we give people an opportunity to relocate their hearts. Where our treasure is, there is our heart!”
When the plate is passed to you and you pass it on to the person beside you, remember:
We have an offering to respond to our awe and wonder.
We have an offering to relocate our hearts.
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