Offering: Advent Day 14

²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus is THE offering.

He took on our flesh–our life and our death. He offered his body as a bridge between heaven and earth. He was, and is, God’s word of perfect love–speaking grace to the lost, the loveless, the wounded, the brokenhearted.

Jesus is THE offering.

We don’t have to figure out how to do enough to please God, to justify our existence, to make up for all that we’ve done wrong. The offering has already been made. All the love that’s needed has already come. We simply reflect–in our living and in our giving–the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The offerings we make, in whatever form they take, need not be motivated by fear or guilt, insecurity or an over-active ego. The energy that compels us, the fuel that powers us, is love.

The Son’s love transforms the offerings of all God’s children. With love compelling us, we build bridges of peace between warring nations and feuding neighbors. With love powering us, our words build up courage and kindness and give grace to those who hear. Forgiven and freed through the offering of Jesus, we offer forgiveness to others…and to ourselves.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let your offering of perfect love empower us to love freely and without fear. Amen.