"Thank You"

 Each Sunday in our worship services, we set aside some time for the communion.  Some may call it the eucharist or some other designation.  Many of us are familiar with this religious observance, even if we don’t attend regularly or our particular church does not regularly participate.

The mechanism of delivering a piece of unleavened bread and the wine, or the “fruit of the vine,” as many call it, differs from church to church.  Some pass trays with the elements on them down the rows of worshippers.  Others have participants come to the front of the auditorium to an altar.  Some have clergy hand out the emblems.  Some distribute one-time-use cups that are sealed with both the bread and the wine inside.

At RiverWalk, we have both the sealed one-use cups as well as ushers who will serve the elements to those who prefer that method.  Those ushers will go up and down the aisles, and generally know who would prefer to be served, because it usually the same worshippers from week to week.  They also look for raised hands signaling that the person would prefer to be served.

We sit across from an older lady in the assembly.  I believe she is the oldest member of our congregation.  She’s in her mid-90’s and still drives to services and lives on her own.  Doris prefers to be served by an usher as it is difficult for her to use the pre-filled, sealed cups.

Last Sunday, I happened to watch as she took the emblem from the tray that Keith was carrying.  When she had done so, she looked at him and mouthed, “Thank you,” to him.

I turned away and faced the front again.  But I couldn’t get out of my mind the simple act of kindness that I just saw.  For some reason, Doris mouthing a thank you to the usher was to me a profound example of how simple acts of kindness and gratitude can overflow even in the midst of the most routine and mundane events and circumstances.  Now, I’m not saying that the communion itself is mundane and routine.  Far from it.  But the idea that someone would thank someone else for doing a job that he was supposed to be doing in the first place…and during a time when our thoughts were on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross…came across to me as something special and in a real way very integral with the communion itself.

We say it often, many of us do, in many ways and many venues.  Kindness matters.  Civility matters.  Gratitude matters.  Thankfulness matters.  Kindness, civility, gratitude, and thanksgiving should be as routine and normal for us as breathing.  Those qualities should be embedded into our lives and routines to the point that doing anything to the contrary would create within us a sense of, “Why in heaven’s name did I do that?” and cause us to make it right if we could.  And if we couldn’t, to at least determine that we will do better.

“Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”  The Bible is filled with these kinds of statements.  We also find many examples of kindness, gratitude, thanksgiving and civility in that book.  That way of living promotes a kind of inner peace and joy that just can’t be matched by anything else.  The effect on society at large, even if we just commit the small kindnesses and acts of gratitude, is so much greater than just about anything else we could do to influence our corner of the world for the good.  And, it’s something we can all participate in…regardless of our race, creed, color, origin, orientation, wealth, age, or any other marker of who we are.

“Be kind to one-another.”  Good stuff.