Each year Americans of all faiths are encouraged, on a particular Thursday in November, to give thanks. Thanksgiving Day it is called.

          To whom do we give thanks? To God, all would respond. To God, the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jews and Christians would respond. To God, who is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Christians would respond. To be more particular, we give thanks to "God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth," as The Apostles’ Creed puts it.

           Certainly, it is important for us to give thanks to others. We thank parents, grandparents, family, friends, and others for many things. But on Thanksgiving Day, we thank God the Father, through the Son and in the power of the Spirit, for the many blessings He has bestowed upon His world.

           Every time Christians receive Holy Communion, we pray The Great Thanksgiving. Using The Great Thanksgiving, we thank God for creation, for sending Jesus Christ who was crucified and risen, for His gift of salvation from sin and death and the evil one, for Christ’s presence in the Bread and the Cup, for the Church, and for the present and coming Kingdom.

          Why, some might ask, do we have to give thanks so often? Why do we have to celebrate Thanksgiving Day every year? Why do we have to pray The Great Thanksgiving at every Service of Holy Communion?

          For two reasons.

          First, we give thanks so often because God has given so much. Out of His superabundant, infinite love, God has given us all we are and all we have. Life. Salvation. Church. Family. Home. Country. Schooling. Work. Recreation. Purpose. Challenge. Seas, plains, and mountains. Sunrise and sunset. All these gifts and much, much more are gifts from the most loving God. Therefore, we owe God our greatest thanks. Indeed, "[i]t is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth," our basic Communion Service leads us to pray.

          And second, we give thanks so often because we forget God. We are tempted to stop counting our blessings. We are inclined to get caught up in our problems and forget the thanks we owe God. And we are prone to get lost in the goodness of the moment and forget who created and gave the goodness and the moment. Therefore, we need to be reminded, through the civic and churchly rituals of thanksgiving, to give thanks to God.

           Being Christian today involves thanksgiving, constant thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day and The Great Thanksgiving help to train us to give thanks often throughout all our days. Again, such thanksgiving does not come naturally to us. What comes natural to us is forgetfulness, worry, and distraction. But training in thanksgiving helps to straighten us out and properly redirect us.

          Be sure to be a part of the Service of Worship on Thanksgiving Day at the Broad Creek United Methodist Church. Beginning at 10:00 a.m., let us give thanks, as never before, to the God to whom all thanks is due.