Gary N. McCluskey, Pastor
Better hurry up and get any Thanksgiving decorations now! Need a new table cloth for the festive family occasion? Well, if it is to have cornucopias, turkeys or something announcing the day, you had better hurry. Have those old pilgrim salt and pepper shakers seen their last days? Again, head to the store now as they won’t stock many and they will soon be shoved aside for the rest of the Christmas decorations not yet on display in the store.
Yes, Thanksgiving does not receive its proper attention. I have heard many students and parishioners over the years say it was actually their favorite holiday of the year. Yet overall consumer behavior would betray such claims by our culture as a whole.
Yet fear not, followers of Jesus. Here we have Thanksgiving twice weekly for most weeks. We name it communion, Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord’s Supper, or Eucharist. It is, each time we gather, come, receive, and go forth a meal of thanksgiving. I recall as a child reading at the beginning of our communion worship in the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal The Great Thanksgiving. I wondered if it was for Thanksgiving, why were we doing it in, say, July? Only when I went to seminary did I discover the word Eucharist was Greek for “thanksgiving”. Only then did I begin to develop an understanding of this meal as gift, us as needy recipients, and the “menu” as nourishment for faith and life. Truly something over which to be thankful.
Growing up my home congregation only “did” communion twice monthly. After all, one would not want to wear it out, would one? When I returned on break I began to miss this meal those other Sundays. It was then I began to develop an appreciation of thanksgiving toward what I had previously experienced as a simple ritual. Regular reception of Holy Communion did not wear it out. After all, isn’t constant use one of the reasons the Lord’s Prayer remains so meaningful to us?
Enjoy your Thanksgiving gathering and meal. Continue to gather here around this family table with this family of God in Thanksgiving for this meal and for all of God’s gifts to us. When traveling share in gratitude with others from the family of God wherever they may be. And when you may find yourself in worship that does not celebrate communion every week, give thanks for the longing inside that wishes it was not so. Even longing and absence can stir up a bit of gratitude in us.
Happy Thanksgiving…..this November 28 & each time we gather around the table of Jesus. Each time!