violins, cd players, juice, and wafers

A minister friend shared a story with me about the importance of honoring members of his church tasked with leadership in ministry.

It seems a group had asked him to serve communion for participants of an activity of theirs.

My friend was checking off in his head all the things he needed to do: Get the wafers, set out the juice, find a cup...

And then he realized that the person on the committee responsible for setting up for Communion was the one who should set up for Communion.

And so instead of just doing it himself, he allowed the responsible person to do it.

It would have been easier for him to just do it. One less phone call, one less thing to worry about- whether the person would forget it or not do it properly.

Lot's of things are that way. It's easier for the minister or the staff member to just do something because it's more trouble to have the volunteer do it.

But we don't honor them when we just take care of the task.

And sometimes we realize that the volunteer takes the task more seriously than we do.

And performs it with more honor that we often do.

The author and theologian Marva Dawn compares it to the choice you face when you child says they want to learn how to make music.

You can give them a cd player and have perfect music every time. Or you can give them a violin and they'll spend the rest of their lives developing relationships.

And you can prepare the juice and the wafers yourself and have juice and wafers. Or you can make the call to the person who prepares the juice and the wafers and spend the rest of your life developing relationships.

Is one of them more holy?