Thought for the week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

Sunday the 2nd of July is the UK’s third annual Thank You Day.  According to the Thank You Day website, over the past two years, 15 million people have taken part in this opportunity to say thank you for everyone and everything that make our communities great places to live in and to get connected with the people they live alongside all the year round. 

The idea is simply to remember and give thanks for people who have helped us, recognising that there are many people out there that we want to thank and that we don’t often take the time to do it.

Christians have always understood the importance of thanksgiving and the pages of the Bible are full of songs of thanksgiving.  However, we may also have grown up with the verses from Matthew 6 that begin: Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

The problem with this is that we can take it further as if it means “Don’t say thank you to me because then God won’t reward me.”  As a child, I knew certain adults who if you said, “Thank you” for something would say “Hush, you’re taking away my crowns in heaven.”   Purposefully or accidentally, this has come to mean that we don’t always remember to say thank you to people for things done in church.   The rationale is that they are done for God and therefore it is not for us to thank them, but we all benefit from the time and talent given in our worship and church life.  So I would like to say “Thank you”.  Thank you to the stewards and those who deal with the finance, property, safeguarding, GDPR and other administrative tasks.  Thank you to those who lead Junior Church, toddlers, ShoutAloud!, Geese and all those groups that work with children.  Thank you to those who organise coffee mornings, Thursday Circle.  Thank you to those who pray, formally or informally, to the musicians and Bible Study leaders, to the AV teams and those who take part in acts of worship, pastoral work, outreach online and in person and things that I may have forgotten, but without which nothing that we do would be as good as it currently is.  Thank you to those of you who offer lifts, pick up shopping and drop newsletters into letter boxes.  You will undoubtedly have your reward in heaven, but in the meantime, on behalf of all of us, thank you! 

God bless,

Vicci.