From our Table to Yours: Thanksgiving 2025

Nov 20

As you gather to feast, know that all of us at Theological Horizons give thanks for YOU. We are blessed to count you among our family in faith!

SCRIPTURE

“When you have eaten your fill… you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.” Deuteronomy 8:10

“How precious, O God, is your constant love!
We find protection
under the shadow of your wings.
We feast on the abundant food you provide;
You let us drink from the river of your goodness.
You are the source of all life,
and because of your light
we see the light.” Psalm 36:7-9

“Blessed be God— he heard me praying.
God proved he’s on my side;
I’ve thrown my lot in with him.
Now I’m jumping for joy, and shouting and singing my thanks to God!” Psalm 28:6-9

“The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145:15–16

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 7:12

PRAYERS

Moravian Table Grace (18th c.)

“Come, Lord Jesus, our Guest to be,
and bless these gifts bestowed by Thee.”

Thanksgiving by Ralph Waldo Emerson (19th c)

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything thy goodness sends.

“Prayer After Eating” by Wendell Berry

I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

Table Grace by John Wesley (18th c)

“Be present at our table, Lord.
Be here and everywhere adored.
Your mercies bless, and grant that we
may feast in paradise with thee.”

POEMS & HYMNS

Hymn by Henry Alford (19th c)

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;

God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God's own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home!

from “That Passeth All Understanding” by Denise Levertov (20th c)

An awe so quiet
I don't know when it began.

A gratitude
had begun
to sing in me.

from “Gratefulnesse” by George Herbert (16th c)

Thou that hast giv’n so much to me,
give one thing more, a grateful heart.
Not thankful, when it pleaseth me—
as if Thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart whose pulse may be
Thy praise.”

"Thanksgiving" by Malcolm Guite (21ST c)

Thanksgiving starts with thanks for mere survival,
Just to have made it through another year
With everyone still breathing. But we share
So much beyond the outer roads we travel;
Our interweavings on a deeper level,
The modes of life embodied souls can share,
The unguessed blessings of our being here,
The warp and weft that no one can unravel.
So I give thanks for our deep coinherence
Inwoven in the web of God’s own grace,
Pulling us through the grave and gate of death.
I thank him for the truth behind appearance,
I thank him for his light in every face,
I thank him for you all, with every breath.

“Give Thanks” by Henry Smith (20th c)

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
give thanks to the Holy One;
give thanks, because he’s given Jesus Christ, his Son.
And now let the weak say ‘I am strong’,
let the poor say ‘I am rich’,
because of what the Lord has done for us.

Litany of Thanksgiving by Howard Thurman (20th c)

Today, I make my Sacrament of Thanksgiving.
I begin with the simple things of my days:
Fresh air to breathe,
Cool water to drink,
The taste of food,
The protection of houses and clothes,
The comforts of home.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day!....
I linger over the meaning of my own life
and the commitment to which I give the loyalty
of my heart and mind:
The little purposes in which I have shared my loves,
My desires, my gifts;…
The big hope that never quite deserts me,
that I and my kind Will study war no more,
that love and tenderness and all the
inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the children of God as the waters cover the sea.
All these and more than mind can think
and heart can feel,
I make as my sacrament of Thanksgiving to Thee,
Our Father, in humbleness of mind
and simplicity of heart. Amen

Hymn by Katherine Davis (20th c)

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise,
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who guideth us on to the end of our days.
His banners are o’er us,
His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night,
‘Til shadows have vanished and darkness is banished,
as forward we travel from light into light.