Thanksgiving is Eucharist
2025 Thanksgiving Sermon
Thanksgiving is already upon us. I am looking forward to it all. I can almost taste it now, the bread, stuffing, turkey, vegetables, mashed potatoes, and gravy mixing it all. The rest of being with family and not having any activities to do except pull off Thanksgiving. It is a built-in sabbath in our culture. Sabbath rest is essential and something that God has designed for us.
John 6:25-35 explains why we can take a day of rest. For some reason, in our human condition, we feel like we can’t take a day of rest. We never rest from our work or try to accomplish something productive on days we know we need to rest. We gorge ourselves on our own activity and production. That always leaves us wanting more; our own control never satisfies. We never truly reach the goals we set out to reach because our own control is like eating junk food all the time, it never fully satifies and always leaves us wanting more.
The Gospel of John tells us that we can rest because Jesus is the provider. Jesus is the bread of life. This is a call back to Exodus, where God provides bread daily through manna from heaven. John is declaring that Jesus is that provision. Taking a sabbath rest is an act of worship in which we declare that Jesus is the bread of life, our provision, and that we trust him. Jesus is the one who satisfies. In him we find our satisfaction. The bread of Jesus is so good that I don’t have to look elsewhere for satisfaction.
Participating in the sabbath rest of Thanksgiving is an act of worship. Setting aside our goals, plans, and workaholism shows we are seeking Jesus. Don’t stop with Thanksgiving; make entering into Jesus’ presence a daily habit. Make sabbath rest a part of your weekly routine. We need Christ every day.
Jesus is the bread of life and calls us to partake of him as the bread of life at the Eucharist table. We have 3 different traditions on what is happening at the Eucharistic table. Still, we can agree that it is the table of Thanksgiving where Christ is present to us, whether metaphorically or in his real presence. Thanksgiving is not just a day to be thankful for our family, friends, and external successes, but its foundation should be a Thanksgiving for Christ, who offered himself for us.
Eucharist means Thanksgiving. We could consider Thanksgiving Day as Eucharist Day. In a real sense, we are celebrating the Eucharist as we gather around our tables. The early church primarily shared its Eucharist around a table. The first Eucharist with Christ was around a table. The early church began calling these Thanksgiving gatherings the agape feast or the love feast.
These love feasts, they broke the bread of Christ and shared in his cup of suffering. Many of Paul’s letters to the church addressed the gatherings at these agape feasts. He was clear that all were welcome at Christ’s table, and they truly were love feasts. They were a weekly opportunity to rest in Christ’s presence and in their church family.
At Christ’s table, we are thankful for his sacrifice for us, that he entered into death to defeat it, and his forgiveness of us falling short. We thank Christ that while we were sinning and running far from Jesus, like the prodigal, he called us home and called us his beloved.
When I first left home as a young adult, I can remember coming home over Thanksgiving break. I remember the smells from the comfort of home, the ability to put my feet up and relax. When I arrived home, I could just breathe and leave behind the stresses of life. This is what it’s like in the presence of Christ: we can rest and go behind the stresses of life. This is the type of table Jesus wants us to set this Thanksgiving. To do so, we start by entering into Christ’s presence and receiving his grace, forgiveness, and peace, so that we can give them to others. May all of our thanksgiving tables be restful, filled with the love of Christ, and open to welcoming all home.