From the Pastor:  The Best Word

 

            Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular English writers around the turn of the 20th century, the author of such best sellers as Captains Courageous and The Jungle Book. At one point it was said his work sold so well that he was earning ten shillings per word.

 

            A few college students, however, were cynical about Kipling’s success, based, in their view, on mediocre writing catering to an unliterary public. As an expression of their disdain, they sent Kipling a letter, enclosing ten shillings. Since he was getting ten shillings a word, they wrote, perhaps he would be so kind as to send them his very best word.  Kipling promptly replied with a one-word response: "Thanks."

 

            "Thanks" was Kipling’s best word, and it really is ours, as well. In this month of November, we often give more attention to "thanks" than usual—a fine thing to do, though we’d all be happier if we allowed that word into our vocabulary on a daily basis!

 

            The women of Peace will express their thanks November 13 with their annual Thankoffering. A venerable tradition among Lutheran women, this annual expression of gratitude to God for all the many blessings we have received is a wonderful and moving thing. That Sunday we will sing, "Lord of all, to Thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise."

 

            November 20 [note the change from what was printed in last month’s Tidings], all of us will bring our pledges for the coming year, expressing the "joy overflowing" that has been our stewardship theme this fall. There are so many ways that we say thanks to God for giving us "body and soul with all their powers, food and clothing, home and family, daily work and all we need from day to day." Our tithes and offerings are among the most important, for here "we offer with joy and thanksgiving what God has first given us."

 

            On Thanksgiving Day, we will gather at 10 a.m. to pray and praise God for the wonderful gifts he has given us. I always love that service, because it is an opportunity to focus entirely on thanksgiving. We can join our voices with the Psalmist: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever."

 

            So many opportunities this month to use our "best word"! We don’t need to be as verbose as Rudyard Kipling to use it, though. Just the word itself says it all. Or, if you prefer just a bit more, why not make this prayer of Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold your own:

 

For all that has been—thanks!

For all that will be—yes!

 

Peace to you,

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

 

Classic Prayers

 

Teach me, O God, not to torture myself, not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection, but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith. Amen.

           

            --Søren Kierkegaard, 19th century Danish philosopher/theologian

 

 

LITURGY NOTES:   The Offering

 

            Some years ago there was a church in another community that got a good bit of attention from the local press when word got out that this was a church whose services did not include an offering.  It wasn’t that the congregation didn’t need (and expect to receive) money from its members; the leadership of the congregation had simply decided that taking the time for an offering was not desirable, and that it placed too much emphasis on money.  So they resolved the problem by putting plates at the rear of the church so that worshipers could deposit their gifts at their own convenience.  The pastor was rather proud of the fact that their income actually increased when they began this procedure!

 

            An interesting idea, perhaps, but one that misunderstands the purpose and role of the offering in our worship!  The offering is not just a convenient way of collecting pledges; rather it is an integral part of the liturgy--as important, in its way, as the prayers, the Scripture readings, the hymns.  For Lutherans, the offering is a vital part of what it means to worship God.

 

            In the earliest days of the church, the offering was closely connected to the Eucharist.  In those days, “money” didn’t play the same kind of role it does in our society.  When people came to worship, they would bring with them their gifts--money, perhaps, but more likely food.  Bread, wine, honey, milk, fruit--these were the “gifts” that Christians would offer.  It was understood that these gifts were being provided for the poor of the congregation.  It was, in short, a way of sharing among Christian brothers and sisters.  But when the gifts were brought, the first thing that would happen would be that the pastor would select some of the bread and wine to be used for the Eucharist that morning.  In that way, the congregation’s sharing in Holy Communion was closely tied with the idea of sharing what they had with one another.

 

            At the time of the Reformation, Luther and the other Reformers had a good bit of suspicion about the offering.  During the medieval period the offering had become closely connected with the concept of the mass as sacrifice.  The Reformers reacted against this, and what had become a rather elaborate ritual was pruned back (or even eliminated).  The result of the reforms, however, was to shift the focus of the offering away from the Eucharistic elements themselves and toward the people’s gifts.  The offering was understood as the people’s response to God--their offering back “with joy and thanksgiving” what God had first given them.  There was a return, in other words, to the earlier concept of the offering as the people’s way of expressing their thanks to God through their sharing.

 

            So the most ancient view of the offering--and the view reaffirmed by Luther and the Reformers--is that it is part of our worship.  It is the way we respond to the gracious word of God we have heard.  But it must not be understood as “paying for church” or any such thing.  Augustine once put it in an interesting way.  He was writing in the days when what was offered was primarily bread, wine, and other foods.  These offerings, he said, are really you.  When you place your bread and wine on the altar, you are offering yourself.  What you offer is the fruit of your labor, and in that sense it is symbolic of you yourself.  You are there on the table, in the chalice.  You are giving yourself to God.

 

            And isn’t that how it is with us?  Our economic system is quite different, but for us, our money represents our lives.  It is the physical symbol of our labor, our time, ourselves.  But all that we have was really given to us by our loving Father.  When we offer our gifts, we are really giving what he has first given us, “signs of his gracious love.”  The offering is thus a symbolic way of acknowledging that all we have is God’s, and that we give it freely back to him--indeed, we give him ourselves “with joy and thanksgiving.”  What a wonderful privilege!

 

What shall I render to the Lord

for all his benefits to me?

I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving

and will call on the name of the Lord.

I will take the cup of salvation

and will call on the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord now

in the presence of all his people,

in the courts of the Lord’s house,

in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

                       

                                    Psalm 116