NBC late, late night host Jimmy Fallon, has a Friday night segment called, Thank You Notes. In it, he gives thanks, tongue in cheek, for things he really is not too happy about.  For example, he once gave thanks for a family of five walking down the sidewalk in front of him, s-l-o-w-l-y and side by side so that he had to step off the curb to pass them.  They are usually pretty funny and it got me to thinking what would my pastor, tongue in cheek, Thank You Notes, list look like.

Here is my best attempt.

Thank you, 35 year old member for reminding me that I am no longer in their age range, when I off handedly say, “People our age…”

Thank you, Senior Lunch Bunch for helping keep me to my diet by putting onions or tomatoes in nearly every dish at the last potluck.

Thank you, hospital doctors for treating me like one of the family when I am visiting a female parishioner and examining her chest incision before I can have a chance to leave the room.

Thank you, male parishioner for both reminding me that I am turning 50 soon and describing in detail the prostrate exam that will greet me on this landmark birthday.

Thank you, my fifth grade son for not only repeating for your Sunday School class the off color joke that I told at dinner the night before, but telling the class where you had heard it, too.

Thank you, to my wife who after a day in worship where nothing seemed to go right at all was able to help me remember each and every mistake at the dinner you prepared for me that afternoon.

Thank you, young man in the third pew for taking the call you received in the middle of the sermon in the back narthex, thoughtfully speaking in a hushed tone until you walked past everyone to get to the narthex.

Thank you, seminary professor for visiting our church on a Sunday morning and sharing this encouraging word when you left, “Well, you were certainly loud enough.”

Thank you, to every child who has ever drawn me during worship service for so accurately leaving out any trace of hair on my head at all.

Finally, with no tongue anywhere near my cheek, Thank you, my Messiah family for allowing me to serve in the most joyful and fulfilling vocation I can imagine, parish pastor sharing the joy of God’s grace revealed in Jesus.  Pastor Karl