Offering and the relationship to God

By John Eagles, June 26, 2012.

It through the bringing of offerings that we maintain and develop a good relationship with God. 'The bringing of offerings,' this sounds somewhat loaded, but actually here is meant something entirely normal.

How do we maintain a relationship with other people? It is by the continuous bringing of offerings. Parents build a house for their children. That's an offering. In a family, all members continually bring offerings to each other. We prepare and serve meals, someone does the dishes, someone makes the money for the household, etc. A life without offerings could not exist.

It is by bringing offerings to God that we can get and restore a good relationship to God. In the religious context we use the word 'offering,' probably to emphasize the need we have to give something to God. So easily we forget that God needs our love and the sharing of our lives.

What is the starting point of an offering?

It is the desire to give something to God. When a parent makes a meal for the child, it is done because the child has a need. Also God has needs. Our offerings address needs in God. The first thing that we therefore need to find out are what needs God has. Concern for God is the starting point of each religious offering.

What comes next? Let's think of the example of preparing a meal. First we must buy or collect or harvest the necessary ingredients. In terms of offering, this means that we need to have something to offer. It means that we must invest time and effort to bring together the offering to God.

When we prepare a meal, the first thing we do is washing the ingredients, peeling the potatoes, etc. This already begins when we collect the objects for the offering. When you buy the ingredients for the meal, you are going to pick the best quality items. You don't buy what is bad or rotten. When you harvest lettuce from your garden, you remove the snails if they were eating from it.

This, in official terms, is called the 'splitting of the offering.' The splitting of the offering means that you remove what's bad and keep what's good. In the relationship with God, whether the splitting of the offering was well done or not has everything to do with motivation. When you love someone, you make sure that there's nothing bad in the meal that you prepare. In love, you don't want to hurt the other, and you don't want to do something or give something that is bothersome or dangerous.

The splitting of the offering, the cleansing of the offering is essential for bringing an acceptable offering. If well done, it means that the offering can be good. If not performed correctly, the offering becomes unacceptable.

In the religious context, an offering that has not been split well, always means that there is a claim on the offering by evil spirits. For example, the offering of money. Suppose you offer money to God. What does it essentially mean? God already possesses the entire cosmos, because God created it. God is not interested in money itself. God is interested in the good use of money.