Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Making Change at the Offering Table

From Paul:
Yesterday at Mass, while I was taking up the collection, I saw something I'd never seen in my more than two decades of ushering. A guy held up a $20 bill and asked me if I had a ten he could take back as change. I was so stunned I just answered his question with a "I don't know. I don't keep track of what people put in." He then reached into the basket and found two fives, dropped the twenty in and sent me on my way.
Yeah, that sort of thing happened to me over a year ago. It's something they don't prepare you for in usher school, thats for sure.

Unlike Paul's reaction though, I don't want to invent new commandments. I'm no Pharisee. Live and let live, thats me. That and the mortifying gaze of my pastor and the entire congregation is more than enough deterrent for most people. They don't need God coming down on them too. My senior pastor once rebuked a ringtone during the service just by saying "Hello?" Yea, Jesus calls all service cellphone sinners to repent.

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