Sermon preached by two Cathedral Head Choristers at Choral Evensong on Sunday 14 June 2026

Alex:

May our words, and the thoughts of all our hearts

be acceptable to you, O Lord,

our strength and our redeemer Amen.

Sam:
Few commands in Scripture are simpler than the one St Paul gave in our first reading: “And be thankful.”
At first glance, it appears totally obvious. Of course we should be thankful! We teach young children to say thank you. We know gratitude is an important virtue. Yet Paul does not present thankfulness as merely a polite social habit. He presents it as a fundamental characteristic of the Christian life.
In fact, throughout this short passage from Colossians, gratitude appears again and again. “Be thankful.” “With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” “Giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
For Paul, gratitude is not a casual response when someone does something nice for you, rather, it is a way of seeing the world.
The reading from Deuteronomy helps us understand why.
Moses stands before the people of Israel and reminds them of what God has done. The Lord is the great and mighty God, yet he cares for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. He rescued Israel from slavery. He took a group of seventy people and made them “as numerous as the stars in heaven.”
Before Israel is asked to obey God, they are first reminded of what God has already done for them. This is the pattern of biblical gratitude. Thanksgiving begins with remembrance.

We are grateful when we remember that life itself is a gift. We are grateful when we remember those who have loved us, taught us, forgiven us, and supported us. Above all, we are grateful when we remember the faithfulness of God.

I believe one of the greatest spiritual dangers is forgetfulness.

When we forget God's blessings, we begin to think that everything we possess is entirely our own achievement and of our own merit. We take for granted the people around us and the gifts we have received. Gratitude fades, and entitlement and arrogance takes its place.
That is why Moses repeatedly tells Israel: remember where you came from, remember that you were strangers in Egypt, remember what God has done for you. Because a grateful heart can only come from a remembering heart.

Notice what follows in Paul's letter. He does not tell Christians merely to feel thankful. With gratitude, the way they live and interact with the rest of society is totally changed. Paul instructs them to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. They are to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven them.

There is a connection here. The truly grateful person finds it easier to be generous. The person who truly knows they have received God’s mercy will show mercy towards others. The person who recognises their dependence upon God is happy to be humble.

Gratitude betters the individual. By contrast, resentment, envy, and bitterness flourish where gratitude is absent. When we only focus on what we are missing, we become dissatisfied. When we endlessly compare ourselves to others, we become restless. But gratitude redirects our attention from what we do not have to the great gifts we have already received.

However, this doesn’t mean ignoring suffering or pretending life is always super easy. The Bible is honest about that, even the Psalms themselves contain cries of anguish and feelings of neglect from God.
Christian gratitude is not the denial of pain. It is the recognition that even amid pain, God's goodness remains and shall always remain.

A person can grieve the loss of a loved one and still be grateful for the opportunity to have known and loved that person. A person can struggle with a new task and still give thanks to be in a position to even attempt it. A person can face uncertainty and still trust that God is still with them.

More evidence of gratitude lying at the heart of Christian worship, is the weekly Eucharist service. The literal translation of the word “Eucharist” is derived from the Greek noun, Eucharistia which is translated as thanksgiving. The Eucharist is literally an act of gratitude commemorating and thanking God for the Last Supper…  for the way Jesus gave himself on the cross and gives himself to us in Communion. We come to the Eucharist each week – and each week it reminds us to remember and be grateful… 

Alex:

When Sam talks about biblical gratitude beginning with remembrance and St Paul tells us to sing with gratitude in our hearts, it makes me think about where the Choir was just last week. We went over to France to sing for the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.

Even though it wasn't a big landmark year, there were still large crowds and VIPs there. But as we stood in the heavy rain and dark clouds at the memorial overlooking Gold Beach, we knew that what mattered were the veterans. Only four of them were well enough to travel. They are all over 100 years old now.

I got to stand near one of them named Ken Hay. He was just 18 when he landed on those beaches. He watched his friends die around him, was captured, and was forced onto a death march through Poland. He said, “We veterans still feel it is our duty to come back and remember all our friends who never came home.” The many have become the few.

Standing near him in the rain, looking down at my choir robes, the danger of forgetfulness that Sam talked about hit me hard. I am nearly fifteen. The youngest soldier to die on those beaches was sixteen—just one year older than me.

Moses told the people of Israel to “remember that you were strangers in Egypt.” Those boys became strangers in a foreign land, stepping off landing craft straight into gunfire. They did it so we wouldn’t have to. And I felt this huge, heart-stopping wave of gratitude to God.

St Paul wrote to the Colossians: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” The peace I take for granted every single day—our safe streets, our schools, our quiet Sunday mornings—was paid for by teenagers who were basically just older versions of me.

I am incredibly grateful for their bravery. But if I am being honest this evening, I am also deeply, profoundly grateful that this is not my task. I am thankful that my hands hold music scores instead of weapons. I am thankful that the loudest sound I have to experience is our organ at full volume, not artillery fire.

The Kohima Epitaph says, “For your tomorrow, we gave our today.” Knowing that changes how I see everything, and it changes how I sing.

Our gratitude can’t just be a polite 'thank you' or a nice feeling we pull out once a year on Remembrance Sunday. It has to change how we live. St Paul tells us to “clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” If we are truly grateful for the peace these men won for us, we owe it to them to show that peace to each other. We need to live out our thanks every day, being fiercely grateful to God - and to those who went before us - for our freedom and hope as young people today.

Sam:

As I look back on my time as a chorister, I am filled with true thanksgiving for the incredible gifts of music and lifelong discipline I have gained here.

I am profoundly grateful to this choir – and to Dr Price – for providing me with a community and purpose that has deeply shaped who I am and the future that is now possible.

For all of this, as Alex and I conclude our time here, (in the words of this evening’s anthem) “we take occasion to bless almighty God.”

Amen.