The Great Thanksgiving with commentary
The Great Thanksgiving with Commentary Notes
Prepared by Lester Ruth
|The Great Thanksgiving, UMH pp. 9-10 |Commentaries |
| The Lord be with you. |Historical: This dialog between the presider and |
|And also with you. |congregation is found in Communion prayers from |
|Lift up your hearts. |the earliest centuries. |
|We lift them up to the Lord. | |
|Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. |Theological: The dialog accents one of the |
|It is right to give our thanks and praise. |recurring motifs of the prayer (our participation |
| |in heavenly worship; cf. Col. 3:1) while also |
|It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to|affirming the truest truth there is: that God |
|you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image |rightly is to be worshiped. |
|and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love | |
|failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made | |
|covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us from your prophets. | |
| |Structural: Both the Trinitarian structure and |
| |content of the prayer is on quick display. For |
| |one thing, the prayer is addressed to the 1st |
| |Person through Jesus Christ. For another, the |
| |prayer assumes, as the New Testament often |
| |portrays, that the 1st Person has acted through |
| |Jesus Christ. |
| | |
| |Historical: The prayer likewise follows ancient |
| |patterns of prayer—both Jewish and Christian, in |
| |both within and beyond the Lord’s Supper—by |
| |filling the prayer with commemoration of God’s |
| |activity. Compare I Kings 8:15-21, Acts 4:24-30, |
| |or Ephesians 1:3-18, among many possible examples.|
| |In special feasts and seasons, variations of the |
| |prayer will pick up the appropriate tone and |
| |themes of the church calendar. The part of the |
| |prayer is called the preface, not because it is an|
| |“introduction” but because the Latin root of |
| |preface means “proclamation,” i.e., the prayer is |
| |prayed proclamation because it recites the |
| |activity of God. |
| | |
| |Theological: Notice the dynamic, playful sense of|
| |time: God did those mighty acts in the Bible with|
| |us. The prayer thus highlights our participation |
| |in the biblical story of God’s activity. |
| | |
| | |
| And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we |Structural: Caught up in the ecstasy of reciting |
|praise your name and join their unending hymn: |God’s mighty acts, the prayer slips into a cosmic |
|Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your |song of praise. |
|glory. | |
|Hosanna in the highest. |Historical: This “unending hymn” is perhaps one |
|Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. |of the most enduring, ancient “praise choruses.” |
|Hosanna in the highest. |It is a synthesis of materials echoing a breadth |
| |of Scripture. (See Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8, |
| |Matthew 21:9, Psalm 118:26.) Called the “Sanctus”|
| |(Sanctus=Holy in Latin), it was a standard feature|
|Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Your Spirit anointed him to |of Communion prayers from the ancient church. |
|preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captive and recovering | |
|of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and announce |Theological: The Sanctus highlights the prayer’s |
|that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed |participation-in-heaven motif again. The message |
|the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and |is that worshiping God is not only right (and |
|resurrection you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and |“good and joyful”) but it also is the main |
|death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. When the Lord |occupation of heaven and the true destiny of |
|Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and |redeemed humanity. |
|Holy Spirit. | |
| |Structural: The prayer goes back to the practice |
| |of honoring God by reciting “God’s greatest hits.”|
| |Using the triggers of the 1st Person’s holiness |
|On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to |and the 2nd’s blessedness (see the Sanctus), the |
|you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Take, eat; this is my|prayer proceeds to sharpen the commemorative focus|
|body which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me.” When the supper was |by highlighting God’s work in and through Jesus |
|over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: |Christ. This prayer also notes the Holy Spirit’s |
|“Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out |role in the joint enterprise of the 1st Person’s |
|for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink|and Christ’s for our salvation. The particular |
|it, in remembrance of me.” |emphases in this section of the prayer will adjust|
| |as the church calendar progresses through the |
| |year. |
| | |
| |Theological: Note how scriptural the language is.|
| |The assumption seems to be that the Bible itself |
| |is a primary source for finding the language to |
| |worship God. Indeed, among the various United |
| |Methodist versions of the Great Thanksgiving, this|
|And so, in remembrance of this your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer |section tends to be the Gospel in condensed form. |
|ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union | |
|with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith: | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |Structural: This part of the prayer is known as |
|Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. |the Words of Institution. It culminates the |
| |recitation of salvation history. |
| | |
| |Historical: Churches derived from western Europe |
| |have often emphasized this part of the prayer as |
|Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and |the most critical. Some of these churches—all |
|wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the |Protestant—have even divorced the Words of |
|world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit make us one with|Institution from their prayer setting and turn |
|Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ |them into an exhortation aimed at the people. In |
|comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet. |contrast, this prayer includes the institution |
| |narrative as part of the prayer (thus addressed to|
| |God) and assumes that it is the entirety of the |
| |prayer that is crucial in Communion |
| | |
| |Theological: The institution of the Lord’s Supper|
| |is not a distinct activity, separate from all of |
| |God’s other activity just commemorated, but a |
| |climatic one: Jesus Christ as God Incarnate takes|
| |food and offers it as a gracious gift of himself |
| |to his disciples. As seen elsewhere in the |
| |prayer, what is being remembered is not simply the|
| |Last Supper or even Christ’s passion and death but|
| |the whole of the scriptural story, which is |
| |embodied in Jesus, the Savior that God has sent. |
| | |
| | |
| |Structural: The prayer makes a shift from |
| |thanking God for mighty acts to a statement by |
| |which we offer ourselves to God in praise and |
|Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all |thanksgiving. |
|honor and glory is yours, almighty Father now and forever. | |
| |Theological: Communion is not simply something we|
| |receive but something we offer, namely, ourselves |
| |in union with Jesus Christ. This act showcases |
| |the priestly nature of the whole church in lifting|
| |up a sacrifice of praise and ties Communion into |
| |the language of worship as offering found in the |
| |New Testament. The sense of union with Christ |
| |could not be more profound as John Wesley once |
| |noted: “Christ never designed to make a |
| |self-offering for the people, without the people.”|
|Amen. |By this act, we state our desire to share in |
| |Christ’s worship of the 1st Person of the Trinity.|
| | |
| |Theological: The breadth of this remembrance of |
| |Jesus is summarized by this congregational |
| |acclamation. The three aspects, Christ’s death, |
| |resurrection, and return, are the foundations upon|
| |which all other aspects of the Gospel are built. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |Structural: The Great Thanksgiving continues with|
| |another line of praying which, like the previous |
| |gesture of offering, builds upon the earlier |
| |commemorative heart of the prayer. This time it |
| |is in a petition for the Holy Spirit to be poured |
| |out. This section ends by noting what the purpose|
| |of Communion is, both now and in the future. |
| | |
| |Historical: Unlike most Western churches, Eastern|
| |churches have often placed the emphasis on this |
| |part of the Communion prayer. The emphasis is not|
| |foreign to our Wesleyan tradition, however, as |
| |This Holy Mystery makes clear in citing a Wesley |
| |hymn to the same effect. |
| | |
| |Theological: Simply put, this petitioning for the|
| |Holy Spirit is critical in that there is no body |
| |of Christ without the coming of the Holy Spirit. |
| |Christ’s conception, his being resurrected, the |
| |church’s assembling as the body of Christ, and our|
| |enjoyment of Communion as his body are all |
| |dependent upon the Spirit’s activity. This |
| |section also rounds out the Trinitarian character |
| |of the prayer. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |Structural: The Great Thanksgiving ends in a |
| |burst of praise with a Trinitarian doxology. |
| | |
| |Historical: The general influence of prayers from|
| |the early church upon the United Methodist Great |
| |Thanksgivings can be seen in some of the wording |
| |here: “…with the Holy Spirit in your holy |
| |church…” which in this case is language drawn from|
| |the 3rd century. |
| | |
| |Theological: This doxology underscores the |
| |Trinitarian “grammar” built into the whole prayer:|
| |worship is offered to the 1st Person through the |
| |2nd Person with (or in) the empowerment of the |
| |3rd. Similarly, salvation is thought of as being |
| |a cooperative effort of the whole Trinity. |
| | |
| | |
| |Structural: The prayer is not over when the |
| |presider says her or his last word. This |
| |concluding word from the congregation is crucial. |
| | |
| |Theological: The prayer is not simply the |
| |presider’s prayer although he or she may have said|
| |most of the words. As The Holy Mystery puts it, |
| |“the whole assembly actively celebrates Holy |
| |Communion.” Why is the congregation’s “amen” so |
| |important? Because the prayer is a condensed form|
| |of the church’s faith. Just as we hope that |
| |congregations say “amen” to a faithful preaching |
| |of the Gospel, we hope that congregations affirm a|
| |faithful praying of the Gospel. Indeed, the |
| |prayer is a “Reader’s Digest version” of what it |
| |means for people to share in the dynamics of |
| |salvation achieved by a Triune God. The prayer |
| |succinctly speaks the church’s faith as an act of |
| |worship. |
| | |
| |Historical: Because of this nature of the prayer,|
| |it has normally been seen as the pinnacle of the |
| |church’s prayer life. United Methodist versions |
| |of the Great Thanksgiving have sought to draw upon|
| |ancient models of the prayer to give the church |
| |today a way to pray the scriptural story of |
| |salvation. |
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related searches
- keep up the great work
- the great lakes student loans
- summary of the great philosophers
- significance of the great awakening
- who built the great zimbabwe
- the great lakes student loan
- the great american life insurance company
- what was the great awakening date
- the great awakening q
- the great zimbabwe trade
- the great lakes loans
- the great state of ohio