Our nation’s Thanksgiving Day is still more than a month away. But why should that stop us from giving thanks? Holy Communion is nothing but a family Thanksgiving meal …each and every week.

Think about your traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. You may or may not host it in your home. If you’re one of those who always hosts it, you may find it stressful, and you may wish the burden didn’t fall on you. Or you may actually believe it’s worth it. My family doesn’t have a large enough house to host Thanksgiving, so we inevitably go to the home of my in-laws or some other extended family group who are also wishing they didn’t always have to host. On Thanksgiving Day, some people eat at St. Thomas, and many people enjoy our hospitality and outreach.

You may wonder every year whether certain family members will show up … and you may even secretly wonder whether you want them to. You might fear that some loudmouth will try to talk about politics or religion and that such a conversation will inevitably strain family relations to the breaking point. Will there be a big blow-up this year, or will somebody just mutter under his breath? So why do you attend? Why go to all the trouble?

Every week at St. Thomas and in countless other churches, Jesus hosts a Thanksgiving meal for all of us. Maybe he wonders sometimes why he bothers. It’s not like we’re going to ever give up that old grudge or be truly thankful for what we have. We may even spend more energy trying to keep people away from the table than inviting people in.

But Jesus hosts the meal anyway. And yes, Jesus is the host – not St. Thomas or the Episcopal Church. Jesus invites us all to the table, from the youngest infant barely able to gum on bread to the most elderly; from the richest to the poorest; from those who feel right at home here to those who never quite feel welcome. The kids may sit at the kids’ table for most of the service, but everyone knows the kids’ table is more fun, and they inevitably share the same food and drink.