On the Offertory

"Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD.” Psalm 119:108

In the Divine Service the Offertory was anciently a chant of a psalm sung by all. So together each week we pray the prayer of David from Psalm 51. We sing at the time of Offertory, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me! He does and he will through faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ!

It all begins this way. Following the sermon the pastor sets for communion. In this way, as Luther directed, bread and wine are made ready for blessing. The pastor then returns briefly to the Sacristy to vest in the Chasuble indicating that the second portion of the service is now beginning. The Service of the Sacrament then begins with the time of the Offertory. As the psalm is sung there, per ancient custom the congregation stands in praise and prayer.

Bread and wine are brought forth as are our monetary gifts to our Lord. This is an offering in faith. For there at the time of the Offertory we offer not only bread and wine, not only our financial gifts, but even our very hearts and lives. We are one people in Christ after all. There is one bread and one body and so we share together. The reason the pastor holds one larger portion of the bread in the blessing is because it symbolizes the one loaf we are to share in by repentance and faith. Then we share in that one cup together. The chalice is an image of our oneness in the only Savior, Jesus Christ.

As people of God, we know that to have a share in his love means to share it with our Lord and others in life. As children of God, we have been given much. We have much to be grateful for in life and as a result so much to share! Freely we have received and so freely we give back to God. For at the Offertory, we lift our lives to our Lord in our worship of him together, trusting him to accept our freewill offerings given in faith. We are all called to be good stewards of the gifts God has given to us. Let us then offer our very selves in all we do for the glory of his holy name!

Pastor