Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 5:
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment . . . 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."
When Cain came to bring his offering before the LORD the LORD rejected the gift because Cain was boiling with anger toward his brother Abel. The LORD would not accept Cain's outward gift of sacrifice, while inwardly Cain seethed with hatred and bitterness.
Our worship cannot be separated from our ethics. We think of worship as what we do in a sanctuary on Sunday. But Cain's story and today's lesson from Jesus reframe things for us. They remind us that what we do in our church's sanctuary is inherently bound up with what is going on in the sanctuary of our own heart. We cannot come to give praise, worship, tithes and offerings in one, while the other is defiled by anger and resentment. The inward heart needs to be purified before the outward gifts will be accepted.
So how about the sanctuary of your heart? Is it cleansed and ready to offer its gift before the LORD or has hatred and bitterness found a home there? If so, Jesus tells us what to do. "Go," he says. Go, get straight with your brother, and then come back to church with your praise, worship, tithes, and offerings.
In the Old Testament days, people would come to the Temple to give various sacrifices of birds, and bulls, and cattle to the LORD. In one of the psalms (Psalm 50), the LORD speaks and says every beast of the field and bird of the air and cow in the hills is already His; but what He wants is what isn't already His - the human heart.
That's still the same in New Testament days also.
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