The Collect for Thanksgiving Day: Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Greetings people of Resurrection,

One church year has come to an end, and we begin a new one with Advent on Sunday. In the middle of this transition, we have one of the largest holidays of our culture, Thanksgiving. What should we make of this time?

A detail that is easy to miss in our church service is that the other name for the eucharist is “The Great Thanksgiving.” Eucharist means thanksgiving, and at the heart of what we do each week is meant to be an outpouring of our thanksgiving for what God has done for us. That is what it means to celebrate the eucharist. We celebrate with thanksgiving to God.

One of the great treasures of our liturgy is known as “The Prayer of Humble Access.” It is a beautiful reminder of what God does for us. We still find it in our Rite I liturgy, but it was removed from Rite II with the 1979 update of the prayerbook. Let me share it here.

“We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.”

We worship a God that invites us to his table and forgives us with boundless mercy. Through no righteousness of our own we are invited to eat the flesh of God’s only Son Jesus Christ, and in so doing, gain eternal life. Truly this week and every week we have much to be thankful for.

This week, go have fun. Visit your family is you can. Or, give thanks with your church family. Overeat within reason. Watch the game and take a nap. Be thankful, but don’t let it simply stay here. Use this time to remember all the things we have to be thankful for, things that all have their origin in God. Being mindful of that, bring your thankfulness into the rest of your life. We have so much to be thankful for. I for one, am so deeply thankful for each and every one of you. This is a very special community and it is so because we come to God together.

Happy Thanksgiving.