Lent 13

That's right...I skipped Day 12. Yesterday was a whirlwind day. And I was up late chatting with Owen Pye (and his wife), the out-of-town musical guest for the MSUMC Coffeehouse...okay, okay, okay...excuses. Lent has turned out to be a bit harder than I thought it would be.

Today, I sat in a little gathering of worship minds as we discussed worship plans for "Consecration Sunday" that is coming up next week. On this particular Sunday, the congregation will be given the opportunity to understand their gifts as being consecrated unto God.

consecrate (ˈkɒnsɪˌkreɪt)
— verb
1. to make or declare sacred or holy; sanctify
2. to dedicate (one's life, time, etc) to a specific purpose
3. to ordain (a bishop)
4. Christianity to sanctify (bread and wine) for the Eucharist to be received as the body and blood of Christ
5. to cause to be respected or revered; venerate: time has consecrated this custom

There are a couple of contexts in which we most readily encounter the word "consecration," primarily in definitions 3 and 4. I hope to, at some point not too far in the future, be consecrated into service with and for God. And I am quite familiar with the consecration of the elements in celebration of communion. In this context, we ask the Holy Spirit to come to us and make those elements into something more than they are, more than they can be on their own.

In a lot of ways, we are asking for all these things when we ask that our gifts be consecrated unto God. Each week, we take up offering and pray to God that the gifts received will be used for God's glory. How, then, can we allow our whole lives to be offerings unto God? How can we order our lives so that we are set apart, holy, and sanctified for God? What do we need to do in order to be living sermons, to further the Gospel, to transform the world? First, I think, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to come to us and make us into something more than we can be on our own.