In our nation, this week is set apart as Thanksgiving week. We, of all people, should be prepared to overflow with gratitude to God as we gather together with family and friends to rejoice before Him. We do this, not because we have substituted a cultural holiday for what the Lord requires, but because for many years now we have been celebrating Thanksgiving on a weekly basis here, at this Table. This is the Eucharistic Table, or, directly rendered, this is the Table of Thanksgiving.
So this Table defines and directs what we do at every other table. If we have been coming to this Table as we ought, then when it comes to familial and national expressions of thanksgiving, which are certainly right and proper, we will really know how to get into it.
Here we thank God for our salvation, for the forgiveness of sin, for a complete cleansing, for our acceptance with Him, for our justification in the resurrection of Jesus. This puts everything in perspective—but perspective does not annihilate all the other things we have to be thankful for. This coming Thursday you will say a prayer thanking God for the turkey, and ham, and mashed potatoes, and gravy, and stuffing, and cranberry sauce, and green beans, and rolls, and honey butter, and more pies than you can take in. That prayer will represent, as a covenant representative, your gratitude for harvest, good weather, your jobs, your safety, peace in the land, your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, and far more than you can reckon.
Thanksgiving is a duty in which it is necessary to fail. Thanksgiving always staggers and falls under the weight of what God has actually given to us. There is no way to do it justice. So this is a glorious and honorable failure, but we do not settle for that. We want to fail better at this next year. And failing better means coming to the Table of the Lord to be strengthened in our gladness, joy, and thanksgiving — week after week. Come then.