Like a father of many children, I don’t think a pastor is supposed to have favorites. I’ve gotten flack about saying that I may or may not have a favorite Gospel, but that it certainly isn’t John. And I’m not sure that I’m allowed to have a favorite part of the worship service or liturgy, but I will at least say that I enjoy the part that is called “the great thanksgiving”. 
We’re doing this series on worshiping like a Lutheran, and although this part of the liturgy is stuck to the middle-end of the service, it is going to be Thanksgiving Day soon and so I’m writing about this part of the service. The Great Thanksgiving is the part of the communion liturgy that encompasses: the preface, the proper preface, and the Sanctus (pronounced “SAHNK-toos”, means “Holy” for the first lines “Holy, holy, hoooooly,” ). The preface is the part where I say “The Lord be with you!” and you say “and also with you!” and then I say, emphatically, “liiiift up your hearts!” and you say, hopefully also emphatically, “we liiift them to the Lord!” and then I say, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” and you say, “it is right to give Him thanks and praise”, and then I turn to face the altar and say, “It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should…..”
And the next part is something that I remember being drawn into even before I was a pastor myself – the proper preface. The rhythm and the cadence of the words of the proper preface are pure poetry. They also change according to the Church Year. I have actually been cheating a little bit recently and have been using the proper preface for All Saints throughout our “Communion of Saints” series – it’s awesome enough that I think God is ok if we use it for more than one Sunday. It goes like this: “It is indeed good right and salutary that we should at all times and in all places offer thanks and praise to You, O Lord, Holy Father, through Christ our Lord. In the blessedness of Your saints You have given us a glorious pledge of the hope of our calling; that, moved by their witness and supported by their fellowship, we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us, and with them receive the unfading crown of glory. And so, with all the saints on earth and in heaven, and all Your glorious host, we praise Your name and join their unending hymn….[and then we sing the Sanctus]”. This will be the last week that we use that proper preface and then we’ll go to the proper preface for Advent which talks about God promising a redeemer to Israel which came true with Jesus’ Christmas arrival, and then God promising that Jesus will come back in His Resurrection arrival – which are the twin poles of Advent expectation.
The last part of the Great Thanksgiving that we participate in during our Sunday service is that we sing the “Sanctus,” a song that is supposed to bring us back to Isaiah, and then slingshot us up to Jesus’ triumphant entry in Matthew 21. So it starts off “holy, holy, holy” which is what the angels are singing in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah is freaking out at seeing God in the temple. This is apt because we are about to see God in the temple of His Sacrament of the Altar. And then, just as you start getting comfortable about being in Isaiah, the liturgy rockets you forward centuries to when Jesus is being welcomed into Jerusalem’s gates by throngs of people with palm branches shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” And sure enough, that is what is happening as well, we as a congregation are shouting “Hosanna!” which literally means “save us!” and then proclaiming “blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Now the Name of the Lord stuff is a little confusing theologically for some people – what it means is “blessed is the Person who is coming with the authority of God, God’s anointed one, the Messiah.” To further update it, it means, “blessed is He who comes with God’s credit card!” That any purchase made by Jesus is automatically a purchase made by God – hence our salvation being wrapped up in Him.
And then, after all of this thanksgiving, what do we do? We have a meal together. It’s not unlike the meal that we share with our families in some ways. We stop, consider our blessings, give thanks, and then fill ourselves to overflowing, belt unbuckling, holy stuffedness with the Lord’s Supper. And after the Lord’s Supper, we essentially ask for permission to go take a nap – to be let out in peace. But that will be the subject of another one of these articles.
So do me a favor this Thanksgiving. Just before you’re about to plow into your turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and mac n’ cheese, and collards and pies and whatever else you have — run this part of the liturgy through in your head. Lift up your hearts to God, consider how it is “truly good, right, and salutary” to do so, consider what His Word tells you about His salvation, and then dig in, knowing that you’ve got a meal that is an even bigger deal waiting for you here on Sunday.