The Third Sunday Of Easter
The Third Sunday Of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Third Sunday Of Easter
A Sermon by
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Thanksgiving
I am a lifelong Episcopalian and a priest in the church. When I was told that my sermon was part of a series of sermons on prayer and that my particular topic was thanksgiving, the first thing that popped into my head was the Holy Eucharist (commonly called Holy Communion or the Mass).
The word Eucharist is originally a Greek word found in the New Testament which means “give thanks”. The Holy Eucharist is called the Great Thanksgiving because we are not only giving thanks for what God has done in history, but for the fact that God is and will always be with us in the body and blood of the risen Lord Jesus. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at what the Eucharist is, where the word comes from, why Christians have continued since the time of Jesus to offer thanks to God in the Holy Eucharist, and how the Holy Eucharist can inform and be the basis for every prayer of the thanksgiving that Christians pray.
In the New Testament the word Eucharist is usually associated with two events.
The first is when Jesus feeds the multitudes in the wilderness. Jesus took a handful of loaves and fishes, he gave thanks, he gave the bread to his disciples and thousands were fed, and in fact when they collected the leftovers they discovered that there were baskets of leftovers. (John 6; Feeding of the 4000: Matthew 15, Mark 8; Feeding of the 5000 in Matthew Mark and Luke use the alternate “he blessed” which also appears in Matthew and Mark at the Last Supper)
The second event is the Last Supper: “On the night when he was betrayed [the Lord Jesus] took a loaf of bread, when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” (1 Cor 11:23-25; Also Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22)
Jesus explained what he meant. He said that he himself was the true bread from heaven which was unlike any other bread because it would never perish but would endure to eternal life, and he said that “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
After his resurrection, Jesus’ words were shown to be true. On that first Easter Day Jesus rose from the dead and began to appear to his disciples. He encountered two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and it was when he took bread and gave it to them that he was revealed to them. Sometime later Jesus encountered more of his disciples while they were fishing, and again, it was when he took bread and gave it to them that he was revealed to them. Whenever we gather at the Lord’s Table and share in Jesus’ body and blood, he is present with us, he abides with us and we in him, just as he was present with his disciples after his resurrection.
The Eucharist is called the Great Thanksgiving. We follow the example set by Jesus himself: he gave thanks and so do we. What makes this Thanksgiving so Great is that Christians are able to offer thanks that God is not far off, not simply a presence that occasionally touches history, but that God is with us, and will always be with us and he will raise us up on the last day, just as Jesus himself rose from the dead.
The Eucharist is not the only prayer of thanksgiving. It is important to give thanks for God for every blessing that we have received. But the Great Thanksgiving informs every other prayer of thanks that we make because in it we share in the greatest blessing that God has ever given us: the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Every year on my birthday, my father tells me that he’s glad I exist, and then he tells me that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. He’s right in more ways than one.
I am able to give thanks for the gift of life, not simply because I exist, but because I know that in Christ life is changed, but never ended.
I am able to give thanks for my parents not just because they raised me but because they shared their knowledge and faith in Jesus with me and my sister.
I give thanks for the many gifts that God has given me, including the honor of preaching in this pulpit, not only because such gifts make me happy, but because I can use them to spread the Good News that Jesus died and rose from the dead and that means all of us have been given eternal life.
I believe that offering prayers of thanksgiving is something that every Christian can and should do often. But when we do offer them, start with the knowledge that God’s blessings are not behind us. They are present with us now and forever.
As Christians living today, we give thanks to God in Christ in the exact same way that those first Christians did. We offer thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead, and who continues to be present whenever we eat and drink his body and blood in the Eucharist. And we know with confidence that he will always be with us even when we follow him through death and see him face to face with the angels in paradise.
