Offering(10)

They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."(12:44)

It is the meditation as an offering. I think I have discussed it only in an ideal way. A more pragmatic approach may be needed. Mostly people offer habitually. Even I also used to set some amount of money for Sunday offering and some for monthly offering. I normally offer in this manner. Whenever we offer, we do not realize the fact that everything is given by God out of his grace or my life depends on God. May be our spirituality is blunt. In my opinion, there should be some different and higher level of spirituality which is different from the level of spirituality followed by most people.

To be more practical, the value of individual’s offering will be different according to the requirement of finance of a church. If we attend and offer in an affluent church the value of our offering is ostensibly lesser than the same amount made in a poor church. This human calculation implies that one offers not on the basis of one’s sound relationship with God but according to the status of a community.

I do not want to blindly denounce these things as nonessential or not-religious thing. Sometimes good habit is necessary and also sometimes we may think of a community’s situation. This can also be the relationship with God in broad point of view.

In whatsoever motivation an individual offers, it is important to offer through worship service. It is because all our offering can be sublimed into a pure level of belief. It is the same case with the sacrificial activity found in the Old Testament that a butcher killed a cow habitually the cow was given to God as a burnt offering through worship, which became a fixed formality. In the same way bread and wine are accepted as the Lord’s holy body and blood through worship service.

A deacon (4)

“…and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”(Mark 10:44)

Verse 43 and 44 are of the same content. The only difference between verse 43 and 44 is that the word “Diakonos(διάκονος)” in verse 43 is replaced by the word “Doulos(δοῦλος)” in verse 44. In Greek, the word “Doulos” means a slave and its nuance itself gives stronger meaning of serving than Diakonos. It means a deacon as a worker of a church should work like a slave.

Apostle Paul used to call himself as “a servant of Christ Jesus”. (Rom 1:1) It means he is completely subjected to Jesus Christ. The character of a slave is to completely give up his own will. Instead he should follow his master and the custom of the master’s household. The more a salve yields himself to the will of the master, the greater will be his value as a faithful slave. On the contrary, when he tries to reveal his will, then his existing value disappears.

On the other hand, it is not everything for us to live as a slave in church community. It can even escalate an insistence to keep silence even in the face of church’s fault. If a church goes in this way, all renovation movement will lose its reasonability. A slave in today’s content doesn’t mean that. It raises an objection to the way of approaching to a duty in a church not as a service level but a religious power.

It is important for us to take a position as a slave in church community. On one hand, we obey to the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we obey to the bodies of church. A true service cannot easily be evaluated outwardly. Though people act and speak as a slave his heart can be filled with wielding power. The Holy Spirit who knows better than us may take the right judgment. And a person self too knows it to a certain extent. Bounding soul might be the evidence of it.