About once a month, as part of my responsibilities of being on the Union Church Committee Of Management, I say an Offertory Prayer at either the 9:30 AM or 11:00 AM service at Union Church. The Offertory Prayer is said in appreciation for the many blessings bestowed upon the congregation (like, uh, your triplets surviving being born 14 weeks premature, or having a decent job and income while only paying 15% taxes) and also to ask the Lord to bless and accept the offering. I always try to bring something new and different to this time of prayer. This is what I said today:

Good morning. As I was preparing for today’s Offertory Prayer I stumbled upon the words to a hymn. Don’t worry, I am not going to sing the hymn, but the words caught my attention. They were written by Thomas Troeger (born 1945), a pastor, and professor of preaching and communications at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Troeger paralleled the Lord’s love for us with that of a spendthrift lover. I will read the first verse and end with the offertory prayer.

"A spendthrift lover is the Lord
who never counts the cost
or asks if heaven can afford to woo a world that’s lost.

Our lover tosses coins of gold across the midnight skies
and stokes the sun against the cold
to warm us when we rise."

My prayer today, Lord, as we ask You to bless these offerings, is that we never count the costs of our blessings as if we can’t let go, but instead are generous with service and purse strings, with hearts like Christ, forever bold. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

By the way, the above image was taken from the t-shirt I wore all day (I wore a casual blazer overtop for the Offertory Prayer)… the white specs are from when Carys stirred the melting butter (for the Kraft Dinner) a little too vigilantly. But we had a great time together and she did almost all the work! We’ve all had a great weekend – taxing and tiring – but still great.