We probably all know Bart Simpson’s famous thanksgiving prayer: “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.” Well, we know better. In fact, I got to thinking about that. If Bart could have a prayer like that, what kind of prayer should we have over our turkey’s, if we were really to acknowledge the great giver of all gifts. So for our message tonight, I offer up this prayer:
Dear God, thank you for this turkey. I thank you for the wings and the breast and the legs and the neck and the gizzards.
I Thank you for this congregation who called me to be it’s spiritual shepherd, who also understands that the “laborer is worthy of his hire,” therefore they have lovingly paid me a wage with which I was able to buy this turkey and use it as an illustration tonight.
Lord, I thank you for my wife, who has agreed to cook this turkey and who will surround it with many other good things to eat. Lord, you know she’s a great cook and a great person and you know I don’t deserve her, but in your grace you matched us up and I am so grateful.
Thank you for the great kids you gave to us who will help us eat this turkey. Thank you that they won’t quarrel or demand the biggest piece while they are eating it.
Thank you Lord for the oven that will cook this turkey. It was given to us by Bill and Kathy McCarty and we are very grateful for it and for them and for the natural gas that You have abundantly supplied all over this world that provides us with a clean and safe way to bake this bird until it is a beautiful golden brown and it’s juices are flowing.
Thank you O Lord, for my body which will digest this Turkey. Thank you for the 10,000 taste buds you have given me on my tongue, under my tongue, on the inside of my cheeks, on the roof of my mouth and even on my lips. They will make eating this turkey a sheer delight, and joy. Thank you for the tryptophan in this turkey that will help my body produce the B-vitamin niacin, which, in turn, will help my body produce serotonin, which will have a calming effect on my brain and help me endure watching the Lion’s play in tomorrow’s game.
Lord, thank you for one of the most amazing inventions in my lifetime, one that we use every day and take for granted, but that is so important in our busy lives, the microwave oven. The microwave oven will make it possible to reheat this turkey – many times and serve it in a great variety of ways until it is completely consumed – to Your glory.
Lord I thank you for the car that took us to the store to buy this turkey. I thank you for the workers who put it together piece by piece and the industry and technology that makes it possible. Oh Lord, that industry is suffering right now in Michigan, so we pray for the workers whose jobs and livelihood are threatened. Lord, help them to find their way when there seems to be no way. Lord I pray that the car that took us to buy this turkey will also take us safely to the other side of the state tonight as we go to celebrate Thanksgiving with Joni’s family. I do miss my parents at this time, but I am very grateful that I have loving inlaws and Grandparents for my children with whom we can celebrate and praise Your name. And we pray that you would keep all the weary travelers safe in dangerous weather as they go back and forth to celebrate with family and friends and as they go forth to worship You and give You thanks.
Lord, I thank you for Family Fare, where we bought this turkey. I thank you for the employer and for all of the employees, the person who unloaded the turkey, the person who stocked the turkey, the person who inventoried the turkey, the person who scanned the turkey, the person who bagged the turkey. I thank you that you placed them all in their worthy occupations to serve us and make our Thanksgiving brighter.
Lord, I thank you for the truck driver who drove this turkey to Family Fare. I thank you for his truck. I thank you for our nation’s system of roads and bridges. We like to complain about their condition at times, yet they are the envy of the world.
I thank you for the fuel that went into the truck to power it to the store and ultimately to bring this turkey here. Again, we complain about prices, but what a blessing to be able to travel in these vehicles with that fuel farther in mere hours than our forefathers could travel in months.
Lord I thank you for the Spartan company who packaged this turkey. I thank you for all of the workers who processed this turkey. I thank you for those who slaughtered this turkey, those who cleaned out the turkey, those who plucked the turkey. I thank you even for those who packaged up the gizzards and the neck and stuck them in a little bag inside this turkey. And I thank you for the incredible technology by which they even stuck a disposable meat thermometer into this turkey so that it will pop out when the meat reaches the proper internal temperature of 180° F, and we’ll know when it’s done properly.
Once again Lord, I thank you for the truck drivers and the trucks who drove the live turkeys to the processing plants and that you blessed them with safety on the roads. In fact Lord, I thank you for this whole free-market economy in this great land of ours. What a blessing to have a supply and demand and a delivery system that enables us to have turkeys all over this land in every state, to the extent that 46 million of these birds will be consumed this Thanksgiving and 95% of U.S. residents will eat them.
Lord, sometimes we complain about rules and regulations, but at the same time I also want to thank you for our government’s role in bringing this turkey here tonight. I thank you for the Food Safety and Inspection Service, who works with the Food and Drug Administration to follow this bird from the farm to the table and make sure that it does not have potentially harmful antibiotics or hormones in it’s system when I eat it, that it’s properly inspected and packaged so that I don’t have to worry about getting sick from eating it – unless of course I decide to eat it all at once… (And I do pray that You will keep me and others from gluttony, O Lord.) I pray that our government might not find these roles tedious, but recognize that it is serving You as your agent to provide safety to your people.
Lord, as we follow this turkey backward in time, I thank you for turkey farmer who raised this turkey. I thank you for the wisdom and experience you gave him to be able to handle large numbers of these birds and raise them from a chick to a big, big tasty bird. I thank you for every worker who fed this bird, gave him water, cleaned his cages, and kept him free of disease.
Lord I also thank you for the farmer who raised the grains that fed this turkey. I thank you for his skills and his dedication and for his love of the land. I thank you for all complicated machinery that it took to raise those grains and all the workers that manufactured it.
And I thank you for those rolling hills, that rich land upon which the grain was grown. We don’t own that land, O Lord, we just receive it as a trust from You and we pray that every farmer who works it would recognize that they are Your stewards and will use that land wisely.
Lord, I thank you for the fertilizer that helped make that grain grow tall and strong, some of it I’m sure produced by this very bird.
I thank you for the rain, Lord that came down from heaven and watered the good earth and made the grain grow.
“The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”
I acknowledge that You have provided me this turkey, O Lord. You gave me the skills and provided me the congregation to earn the money to buy this turkey and You have been with this turkey every step of the way, from the egg to my table. It is You O Lord, who give us our daily bread and we give You all the thanks and praise.
Finally, Lord we are so grateful that You have brought us to Your house tonight. We are so thankful that we don’t have grateful feelings that we don’t know what to do with. We know Who we have to thank for this turkey and for everything. We thank you most especially that you have taken turkeys like us, soiled as we are in sin and washed us and cleansed us by sending Your own Son, Jesus Christ to be slaughtered in our place. To be beaten and bruised and brutalized and killed so that the punishment for our sins would be satisfied in Him and that we might go free.
You are the God in Whom we trust O Lord, and you are the God from whom all good gifts come.
So thank you one final time for this turkey. Some of us hear tonight probably never really understood what a great blessing it is, so thank you for bringing us here to think about it, to understand and to acknowledge and give all thanks to You. Amen.
