Ben Franklin Was Right
Dr. Jim Denison
You and your fellow Americans consumed 45 million turkeys over Thanksgiving, eating 525 million pounds of turkey meat. I thought you should know something about the meal you just consumed, so I looked up turkey facts in preparation for today’s message. Here is what I learned:
Turkeys spend the night in trees. They fly to the ground at first light and feed until mid-morning.
They start gobbling before sunrise and continue through most of the morning. Males make a gobbling noise to attract females; females make a clicking sound.
Their field of vision is 270 degrees. The wild turkey has excellent hearing. A turkey can run up to 25 miles per hour and fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour. However, domesticated or farm-raised turkeys cannot fly.
A mature turkey has around 3,500 feathers. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid, and wouldn’t eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.
The male is called a “tom,” the female a “hen,” and the baby a “poult.” Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United Stated, but Thomas Jefferson opposed this idea. It is believed that Franklin then named the male turkey the “tom” to spite Jefferson.
Turkeys contain L-tryptophan, an amino acid which produces sleepiness. The sleep-inducing effect explains the Cowboys’ first quarter of the game last Thursday.
What is your favorite holiday? According to all the surveys, Christmas is America’s first choice. Yet it may surprise you to learn that it was not celebrated until 336 A.D., and did not become popular in America until the 1860s. And no one is sure when Jesus’ birth actually occurred. It is observed on December 25 because early Christian leaders wanted to replace Saturnalia, a popular pagan holiday observed on that day.
In fact, most of our holidays are not found in Scripture.
Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Fourth of July, Presidents’ Day, Groundhog Day—none are in God’s word. Even Easter, the most significant day in human history, is not treated in the Bible as a specific holiday but a daily celebration.
The holiday which comes in last in popularity for Americans is Thanksgiving. Only two percent rank it their favorite. Would you? God does.
It is a glorious and wonderful thing to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We should do so every day. But Thanksgiving is the one observance which is commanded by our Lord, absolutely mandated by the Scriptures: “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5.18). Thanksgiving is the will of God.
Why is thanksgiving so important to God? How can it be more important to us? Today’s message teaches this simple fact: thanksgiving is the key to the presence and power of God. The power you need for your life and problems today. Our story will show us how to use that key this morning.
Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem and his death and resurrection when they encounter “ten men who had leprosy.”
Leprosy in the Bible could be Hansen’s disease, a bacterial disease which affects the nerves and upper respiratory tract, producing skin lesions and damaging skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. But the word also applied to a large variety of skin ailments such as psoriasis.
Fearing contagion, people isolated lepers from society (Leviticus 13:45-46; Numbers 5:2-4), so they lived together for protection and provision of needs.
They had apparently heard of Jesus’ healing ministry, including his compassion for lepers (Luke 5:12-15), so they stood at a distance and called to him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (v. 13).
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” This was the action required of a leper who had been healed of his leprosy, so the priest could certify him to be clean and allow him to rejoin society. In other words, he asked them to believe that they were healed and act accordingly. When they received his healing power through such faith, “they were cleansed.” Faith does not earn the blessing of God, but it is needed to receive such grace and mercy.
Then “one of them,” the Samaritan, did three things:
He praised God with a loud voice.
He threw himself at Jesus’ feet. This was an admission that he was now his Lord.
He thanked him. By crediting him with his miraculous healing, he was acknowledging him as God.
Jesus responded: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (v. 19). It has “restored” him or “made him whole.” The nine were healed physically; the thankful Samaritan was healed spiritually and completely.
Thanksgiving makes us whole.
Why I join the nine
Self-sufficiency is the enemy of Thanksgiving.
In our story, the nine took the actions which led to their healing. Jesus did not touch them—this was their work. It’s easy to think that I have earned what I have, that my prosperity is the result of my hard work. But it’s not so.
If we were to shrink the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, that village would contain the following: 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western hemisphere, and 8 Africans. 52 would be female, 48 male. 6 would possess 59% of the world’s wealth. 80 would live in substandard housing; 70 would be unable to read; 50 would suffer from malnutrition. Do you know how many would have a college education? One. How many would own a computer? One.
Did you deserve to have physical abilities and not challenges? To be born in America and not North Korea? To have parents who would love you and not abuse you? To have the privileges and opportunities you enjoy today? When was the last time you thanked God for the circumstances and provisions you enjoy each day?
Busyness is the enemy of thanksgiving.
The lepers had much to do. They needed to be examined by the priests and readmitted to society. Then they had to find their families, begin life with them again, find and begin jobs—in short, do all the things which would reinitiate life. They were too busy to return and give thanks to Jesus.