I was on Staten Island with a group of pastors. Our mission was to get cross cultural experiences within the body of Christ. We had met, via telephone, an African missionary who is working in Syracuse. Now we were to worship at a church of African immigrants observing and experience their particular response to the Good News of Jesus death and resurrection.
The church used to be a bagel bakery. Unfortunately the owner had a run in with the Mafia, and had disappeared. But that left an empty building right next to a large apartment complex where many immigrants from Africa lived. They didn’t have heat in most of the building, so people came wrapped in heavy drab coats. They smiled warmly and greeted us as honored guests.
When we entered the sanctuary we found it heated, and the outer layers began to be shed revealing people dressed in beautiful clothes and bright colors. Many of the ladies wore dress as if they were going to a wedding or to homecoming. A good number of men and women had bright suits of kente cloth. The contrast of bright and dark around the room was beautiful.
The service began fairly normally. Announcements, including a portion where we introduced ourselves and were expected to tell of our families as if they knew our wives and children as if we were old friends; invocation, scripture readings, and hymns were all part of what we did that morning. However, when we got to the offering . . . that was different.
At the offering the music started soft and slow and people filed forward to drop an offering in one of the baskets on the altar. The music quickened and people began to sway and some of the older ladies danced forward with their offerings. Eventually the music had a real strong tempo and people all over the church were dancing and coming forward, some of them multiple times, to bring their offering to the Lord.
Most of these people were not rich, but when it came time to give to the Lord they considered it time for celebration.
The grace of giving is also an expression of our love for God and for His service. When we put our offering in we are expressing our faith and confidence in the Father as our creator, in Jesus as our savior, and the Holy Spirit as our comforter. We rejoice that God has blessed us in such a way as to bless others – in proportion to how God has blessed us.
Paul encouraged us in this chapter to grow in the grace of giving. I don’t know that we often think of giving as a grace – an expression of God’s love for us. Too often we seem to see it as paying our dues, or helping pay the mortgage, or something like that. While it is true that the in this world the church cannot operate without cash, the reason for giving is not really to pay the bills. Giving is an expression of worship – receiving all that we have from God’s hand and then responding to Him in joy and thanksgiving. Then maybe we’ll dance and celebrate as we return to the Lord and offer him sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
The church used to be a bagel bakery. Unfortunately the owner had a run in with the Mafia, and had disappeared. But that left an empty building right next to a large apartment complex where many immigrants from Africa lived. They didn’t have heat in most of the building, so people came wrapped in heavy drab coats. They smiled warmly and greeted us as honored guests.
When we entered the sanctuary we found it heated, and the outer layers began to be shed revealing people dressed in beautiful clothes and bright colors. Many of the ladies wore dress as if they were going to a wedding or to homecoming. A good number of men and women had bright suits of kente cloth. The contrast of bright and dark around the room was beautiful.
The service began fairly normally. Announcements, including a portion where we introduced ourselves and were expected to tell of our families as if they knew our wives and children as if we were old friends; invocation, scripture readings, and hymns were all part of what we did that morning. However, when we got to the offering . . . that was different.
At the offering the music started soft and slow and people filed forward to drop an offering in one of the baskets on the altar. The music quickened and people began to sway and some of the older ladies danced forward with their offerings. Eventually the music had a real strong tempo and people all over the church were dancing and coming forward, some of them multiple times, to bring their offering to the Lord.
Most of these people were not rich, but when it came time to give to the Lord they considered it time for celebration.
The grace of giving is also an expression of our love for God and for His service. When we put our offering in we are expressing our faith and confidence in the Father as our creator, in Jesus as our savior, and the Holy Spirit as our comforter. We rejoice that God has blessed us in such a way as to bless others – in proportion to how God has blessed us.
Paul encouraged us in this chapter to grow in the grace of giving. I don’t know that we often think of giving as a grace – an expression of God’s love for us. Too often we seem to see it as paying our dues, or helping pay the mortgage, or something like that. While it is true that the in this world the church cannot operate without cash, the reason for giving is not really to pay the bills. Giving is an expression of worship – receiving all that we have from God’s hand and then responding to Him in joy and thanksgiving. Then maybe we’ll dance and celebrate as we return to the Lord and offer him sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
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