A Thank You That Might Be Too Late

A few weeks ago, I was in the Raleigh Durham area.   Though I only travel there now from time to time,  40 years ago I lived there.    I was in seminary at the time at Duke and served part time as pastor of two United Methodist Churches in the Raleigh Durham area.   While I was there,  I took a pilgrimmage to some of the places that were a big part of my life then.   As the sun set, I rode  by the church parsonage that I called home for 4 years.   While  fields and woods used to surround the house,  it is now surrounded by a housing development that has been built by Del Webb in recent years.   I rode up the road from the house where I used to live and turned into the parking lot of Andrews Chapel United Methodist Church where I served as pastor.  As I stood there taking a picture of the church,  I remembered events that happened while I was pastor there:  the day the dog came in the open front door and watched me as I preached after he had sniffed the money in the offering plates… the church dinners and auctions we had in the fellowship house next door… the day that a crane put a steeple on  the “steeple-less” church roof… the Sunday when my oldest daughter, Heather, was baptized.  

As I stood that Friday evening in the church parking lot, I looked at the house across the street where the O’Neal family used to live.    There was Rufus, Lora, Dora, Vera, Margaret, and Lester.   None of them had ever married.   Vera was one of my favorites of the family largely because she and I shared the same birthday.   She was also one of my favorites because she was a servant.   Every week, she would see that the church was cleaned for church activities and that the heat or air conditioning was turned on as needed.   Vera never got any pay for what she did for the church and I suspect that this pastor probably only showed her his appreciation only now and then. 

I shared the story of Vera because it is a story that can be repeated over and over again in churches large and small across this land and across our world.    The work of Christ and His Church goes on not so much because of the skills of its pastors, but  because of a core of volunteers and servants like Vera.   They do what they do on Sunday and every day of the week in Sunday School classes, church dinners, and behind the scenes because of their love for the Lord and their love for His Church.    

 

Vera died many years ago.   She has gone on to her just reward.   I can’t thank her anymore for what she did for Andrews Chapel Church and for the Lord, but I can say thank you to you and people like you who serve the Lord behind the scenes and without pay every day.   Thanks be to God for you.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   O God,  we give thanks that you are working still in our world today as you use people  like us as instruments  to do your work and will.   Thanks be to God for those who serve in ways known and unknown simply because they love you and love their church;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.