June 13, 2008 Offering to God

Dear E-pistle subscriber,

There’s a story told about someone new to church, who asked a question about the worship service. He said, “at what point do they take a collection from the audience?”

That’s wrong on at least two counts.

First, when we receive money, it’s called an “offering,” not a collection. What’s going on at that point in the liturgy is that you and I offer to God a portion, or percentage, of what God has given us, in thanksgiving for ALL that God has given us.

Part of what it means to be a Christian is that we – on a regular basis – offer back to God a portion of our treasure. We do that each Sunday, in the offering. We put a portion of our money in the offertory plate, and that money is offered, along with the bread and wine, to God, in thanksgiving.

And – just like with the bread – God takes and blesses the money and gives it right back to us (in the form of the worship, outreach, education, and pastoral care ministries of St. James’ church).

The second way that person’s comment is wrong is that worshippers sitting in pews on Sunday morning are not an “audience” watching a “performance.” Far from it! – you and I are participants in a liturgy.

As you may know, the word “liturgy” means “work of the people” (from the Greek leit = “people” and urgia = “work”).

Our Sunday morning liturgy, or worship service, is not a spectator sport. Each and every worshipper has an active, crucial role.

(That, by the way, is part of the reason that we occasionally try to mix a little something new or different alongside the familiar liturgy: we don’t ever want our words and actions to become “rote” in the negative sense of the word -- mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition.)

This point – that liturgy is the work of the people – will be especially reinforced this Sunday at the 9:00 service. It’s our annual “Youth Sunday,” and the teenagers, working with Pastor Mary, have re-written much of the liturgy in youth-friendly language. And – quite intentionally – they didn’t change other parts of the service, having realized the beauty and force of the language we’ve inherited.

Ashley Cameron, a graduating Loudoun County High School senior, will be the youth preacher at all three services.

But wait: there’s more! After the 9:00 service, in the Parish Hall, we’ll be having a Youth Mission Time and Talent Auction.

This is a live Time and Talent Auction, in which our Middle and High School youth are offering a service—such as babysitting, swimming lessons, a day-with-a-horse (!) or cooking — and all of the money raised goes to fund the youth’s outreach mission trips. Click here to preview a list of talents. What a wonderful combination of time, talent, and treasure – all to be good news to the poor.

Finally, at the 11:15 service, the Rt. Rev. Jonathan Hart, Bishop of Liberia, will be our guest celebrant. St. James’ has a connection to the diocese of Liberia, as we are one of several churches in the area sending a team of outreach missioners to Monrovia, Liberia this summer to install solar light panels in the Bromley School for Girls.

Having Bishop Hart with us is also a good reminder that we, as Episcopalians, belong to a wider church – the Anglican Communion, a global community of 77 million Anglicans.

What a powerful reminder that each and every Sunday, we join our voices with the Anglicans in Liberia, and Anglicans and other Christians all over the world – as well as angels and archangels and “all the company of heaven” – when we glorify God in our liturgy, offering our time, talent, and treasure to the Glory of God.

See you Sunday,

Fr. John