"Yet Ye Would Be Unprofitable Servants (Mosiah 2:21)

Few discourses are as timeless or doctrinally saturated as the final address of King Benjamin to his people. These chapters of the Book of Mormon constitute a lifetime of learning and spiritual preparation being shared by an aging leader. As part of this sermon King Benjamin declares "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another…I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

What a timely reminder as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week. You and I are the recipients of unfathomable blessings. Blessings, which we did not earn nor merit but were lovingly bestowed upon us by our Father in Heaven in order to accomplish his purposes. Every good thing we claim as ours is in reality only His to give and His to take away. We should rightly set this time aside to celebrate and prayerfully acknowledge not only the literal feast laid before us but the metaphorical feast of divinely bestowed blessings heaped on every side.

Yet, as King Benjamin taught, all the thanking, praising, and even praying we can summon will still leave us as "unprofitable servants" and unworthy of all which we call our own. Thus, we must do what Benjamin instructed us to do. We must "keep his commandments" in order to prosper, or, perhaps more accurately in our case, because we have already prospered in the land. In other words, we must turn our thanks, praise and gratitude into action. A disciple in word only is not a disciple at all.

In that spirit I would like to extend a special invitation to each of you to make this Thanksgiving more action-oriented than any previous celebration has been. As you list, literally or mentally, those blessings which you are grateful for, I invite you to also prayerfully form a plan to show through action your gratitude to the perfectly kind Father whose will it is to pour out blessings from heaven upon his children. If you are thankful for your family how will you make that love more apparent to each family member through word and deed? If you are thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ what will you do to become a better "example of the believers" than you currently are? If you are grateful for the Book of Mormon how are you going to elevate your study of this book and share it with all around you who "are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it?" As you express gratitude for our Savior Jesus Christ how will you proclaim "yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee" through deed and not only through word? My promise is that as you prayerfully seek for your own answers to these and similar questions you will feel a greater appreciation for and witness of our Savior come into your life.

In the spirit of this special season of the year, I wish to publicly express my gratitude for the innumerable blessings a loving Father has been good enough to bestow upon me. I am grateful that he saw fit in his mercy to give me the particular family which he did to be my anchor in storm and support in trial. Their presence fills me with a heavenly homesickness for the celestial, perfect and eternal unity which will one day be ours through our faithfulness.

I am thankful for the privilege which was mine to serve as a witness and representative of the Savior Jesus Christ and "confess his name before all people." This particular year, the first for some time when I am no longer literally bearing his name on my chest, I am grateful for the eternal opportunity to bear his name and profess his goodness in a much more lasting and literal way than any nametag could facilitate. This year I am grateful to have his name etched in the "fleshy tables of the heart" and to still "stand as a representative of Him" at all times and in all things and in all places.

I am grateful for a fourteen year old boy who's tenacious search for answers brought light to a world which had gone hopelessly dark. I am also grateful for the integrity this boy showed to the experiences he was privileged to have. In so doing he sealed his testimony with his blood and has taken his place among the martyrs for the cause of Christ. I am thankful for the sacred work of scripture this same young man brought to the world which has changed the lives of millions upon millions of readers throughout the world.

Most of all, I am thankful for a Savior who cared enough for me to offer his life on behalf of my transgressions and shortcomings. I am grateful that during the agony of such an ordeal he looked down through time, saw that you and I would follow him and in that knowledge found reason enough to be led like a lamb to the slaughter. I am thankful and humbled by his aiding hand which is always extended to me, even as it brings a tear to see the scar of the nail which was driven through that same hand on my behalf. There will come a day when I will see my Savior's face and be given the opportunity to thank him for being my "High Priest of Good Things to Come" in every moment of my life. My deepest desire is that in that moment he will be able to look back through my life upon a unbroken chain of obedience to his commandments, testimonies offered of him and sacrifices laid upon the altar then will say to me "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

That each of us will live our lives in an eternal spirit of Thanksgiving to the Giver of all good gifts is my prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.