Thanks Be To God! Series

LAYERS OF THANKSGIVING 2024: THANKS BE TO GOD!

ROMANS 6:15-19

#layersofthanksgiving

INTRODUCTION / ILLUSTRATION PART 1… food52.com/blog/14637-the-brief-history-of-the-turducken-and-stuffing-food-in-food [adapted]

This sermon is going to be a weird sermon just like a turducken is a weird dish. It is a weird dish because it has many layers. A “turducken” may seem like it is part of a recent trend in creating super over-the-top food creations, but this creation dates back centuries. A turducken is the ultimate Thanksgiving dinner combining turkey, duck, and chicken! As you slice deeper and deeper into the story of this dish (and the meat itself), it only gets more delicious and odder.

Some say the turducken was invented in 1984 by the owners of Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana, after a customer requested it. The late Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme (1940-2015) claimed to have invented the turducken (a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken) in the 1970s. He became synonymous with the dish and even trademarked the name in 1986. There are others who also claim to have invented the dish. While the origin of turducken might forever be shrouded in mystery, it is indeed part of a long history of “engastration,” the practice of stuffing and cooking one animal inside another.

Reports of engastration go all the way back to the Middle Ages, if not earlier. It may have started with the Roman Empire which saw a thousand-pound hog stuffed with birds. The heyday wasn’t until the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, where stuffing meat inside of other meats was a way to show off one’s wealth and impress guests in Europe. Oooh lah lah.

If you thought the urge to stuff was solely limited to carnivores, you were wrong. Sweets have found their way into the historical lineage of engastration as well. In 2009, home baker Charles Phoenix created the “cherpumple,” a three-layer cake with pies baked into each layer. Dubbed the “turducken” of cakes, the cherpumple is composed of a cherry pie baked into a white cake, a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake and an apple pie baked inside a spice cake, and then the whole thing is coated with cream cheese frosting. It takes three days to make because each layer must cool before being baked into another.

For the modern tummy, the turducken has emerged as the ultimate in holiday culinary projects probably because John Madden ate a turducken on live TV in 1996 and he’s famous. With all of the deboning and stuffing required—not to mention eight hours or more of cooking, basting, and worrying, it is the closest thing to a culinary marathon that exists in the kitchen.

TRANSITION

This morning we are not going to just talk about the succulent layers of the turducken, but we will focus on giving thanks and offering thanks. It is the first Sunday in November and so for the next couple of weeks, we will focus on giving thanks. A bit like a turducken, there may be layers that are built up and cooked in around us that prevent us from being thankful. We will strip away and cut down to the thankful heart of the matter. Why? Why focus on thanks? Why focus on being thankful? Why cut through and get down to thankfulness?

CONTENT… Giving Thanks Statistics [google search]

* A single act of gratitude can increase happiness by 10% and reduce depressive symptoms by 35%. Gratitude interventions can also lead to better mental health, fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and greater life satisfaction.

* The phrase “give thanks” is mentioned 73x in the Old Testament and New Testament.

* Regular gratitude journaling can improve sleep quality by 25%.

* In the workplace, 88% of people say that expressing gratitude to colleagues makes them feel happier and more fulfilled. 81% of people would work harder for a grateful boss.

* Jesus often prayed and gave thanks (Matthew 11:25, 15:36, 26:27; Luke 10:21, 22:17; John 11:41). If Jesus did it, we should as well.

* A neuroimaging study found that when someone intentionally helps you, there is increased activity in the VMPFC, a brain area associated with reward. This increased activity correlates with increased gratitude.

* The Apostle Paul was constantly giving thanks in the various letters he wrote to the churches (Romans 1; 1 Corinthians 1, 11; 2 Corinthians 1; Ephesians 1; Philippians 1; Colossians 1; 1 Thessalonians 1, 2; Thessalonians 1, 2; 2 Timothy 1; Philemon).

Having a heart of thankfulness allows us to abide well in Christ and follow after the pattern of proven believers in Jesus. Our world beats up our hearts and is unfair. A heart cutting through the junk and focusing on being thankful honors God, Christ, and His Spirit inside us. Christians ought to be thankful. If any group of people on the planet have a reason to be thankful, it is a believer in Jesus!