HOSEA 5:15-6:6; PSALM 51; LUKE 18:9-14
Through the mouth of Prophet Hosea God says “What I want is love, not sacrifice and holocausts.” Beloved, God wants true love not emotions and religiosity. Oftentimes, in the presence of God we easily express emotions and assume holy and spiritual moods but deep within us there is no love. Similarly, today’s psalm reechoes saying; “What I want is love, not sacrifice.” Therefore, we must abhor all forms of shallow or false worship. The gospel demonstrated two prevailing forms of worship: a man who declared himself righteous before God and the one who accept his unrighteousness and asked for God’s mercy. In true worship we accept our faults and ask for God’s mercy and then we are sanctified. But false worship is all about us, like the Pharisee false worship is all about what God can do for us and a warm feeling of self-satisfaction.
LET US PRAY
Lord, our God, we have not come together here to justify ourselves before you or to boast of our merits. We simply ask of you, Lord, to accept us as we are with our goodwill, our lame efforts
and our half-hearted conversions. Accept us with the sacrifice of your Son, who stays with us and lives with you forever. Amen.
