Following the Hymn of the Day, we will share in saying the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World. We do so with permission with thanks to Lynn for inquiring on behalf of the congregation. From a blog on the website “Engage for Change” based in Kingston, Ontario, on the territory of the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Confederacy, the Thanksgiving Address, or by its literal title which translated is, “What we say before we do anything important” “…is spoken at the opening and closing of important cultural events, including traditional Haudenosaunee ceremonies, meetings and gatherings.
The Thanksgiving Address acts as a traditional thanksgiving by acknowledging the Haudenosaunee people, the earth, the animals, and the Creator. Through this process of thanksgiving, the Haudenosaunee worldview is expressed and defined, presenting interconnectedness and interdependence with nature, the earth and human beings.”
The Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World, “What we say before we do anything important,” is a different way of Thanksgiving on this Sunday, honouring everything - the people, the earth mother, waters, fish, plants, foods, medicine herbs, animals, trees, birds, the four winds, the thunderers, the sun, grandmother moon, the stars, enlightened teachers, and the Creator, all helping us to hear and see a different worldview of interconnectedness and interdependence with all that is and the Creator, that our minds may be one. It’s a different way of Thanksgiving.
The Gospel reading of Jesus’ encounter with ten people afflicted with leprosy may be a familiar Thanksgiving story. Much has been written and said about the devastation of leprosy in Jesus’ time, not only the physical wasting and pain from the disease, but also the terrible forced isolation from family and community. The bold cry of those with leprosy keeping their distance as Jesus passes by, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” breaks that barrier of isolation to ask Jesus for compassion.
It is a cry we repeat most every Sunday in our worship. In Latin, “Kyrie Eleison,” “Lord, have mercy.” Recognizing a universal cry that boldly asks for God’s compassion and care, for ourselves and others and this world, and in pandemic times and continuing still, relief from the isolation, physical and internal, that many experience and feel. In the story, Jesus hears their calling out, and sees them, and tells them to go and show themselves to the priests, the only way to be designated clean again and return to family and community. And we trust Jesus hears our calling out for mercy and offers healing and wholeness to us and this world, returning us from sickness and death itself to community with God and one another.
And so in worship the “Song of Praise” follows the Kyrie. Singing praise and glory and thanks to God for the victory of all God has done for humanity and all creation in Christ Jesus. And on any Sunday, including this Thanksgiving Sunday, we find ourselves and this world somewhere in between these cries for God’s mercy and singing God’s praise. It's a different way of Thanksgiving.
But we heard how the story goes, only one healed person, a Samaritan, an ethnic and religious outsider to Jesus and his followers, returns to praise God with a loud voice and falls face down at Jesus’ feet to thank him. Jesus asks where are the other nine? None of them returned to praise God except this outsider. The Samaritan person who Jesus heals, they knew not only the pain of leprosy and being isolated, but also the particular suffering of being the outsider, not welcomed, not only because of their disease, but simply for who they are. Like many in our time, Indigenous neighbours, newcomers to Canada, racial and religious, sexual and gender minorities, those differently able, mentally and physically challenged, elders isolated, excluded, unseen. They, some of you, know that pain, and the lifesaving gift of being seen and heard, welcomed and included, and the thanksgiving that rises up from this new life! Jesus honours you, honours them all, telling them to get up and go on their way, for their faith in God/Jesus that returned them in thanksgiving, has made them well. It is a different pain and suffering, and gratitude for healing and salvation. It is a different way of Thanksgiving.
And so also in the reading from second Timothy, recalling Paul’s pain and suffering, being in chains for the gospel, that others might receive salvation and eternal glory, trusting that if we have died with Christ we will also live with Christ; if we endure, we will also reign with Christ; if we deny Christ, Christ will deny us; but! if faithless, Christ remains faithful – for Christ cannot deny himself.” And so don’t “wrangle over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.” But present yourself to God as one pleasing to God, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, but rightly sharing the words of truth. To serve and even suffer pain for the gospel for the sake of others and their healing and saving, it is a different way of Thanksgiving.
On the program “the Current” on CBC Radio One this past week, host Matt Galloway interviewed the author of a new book titled, Holden, the name of a 21 year-old young man who died in 2015 on Vancouver’s East Side from a drug overdose. The author, Tara McGuire is Holden’s mother. The full title of the book is, “After and Before. Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose.” It is part memoir and part fiction imagining what Holden’s life could have been like if he had lived. The interview was moving and painful to hear, but like the book, the purpose seemed clear, to try and help those struggling with substance use disorder and their loved ones. Part of the interview was a sound clip of one of Holden’s friends, named Ariel. She said through tears, “About a year after he passed away. I got sober and I've been sober ever since. And being close to tears this way helps me stay close to him and helps me in my recovery. And to people who say that you should just stop doing drugs, it's just not that simple. You have to have people who are willing to be supportive and show you love when nobody else has. And there has to be this weird, magical timing where you actually listen to them. Because I know Tara showed Holden an incredible amount of love and support, and she tried to help him. But, for me, I couldn't listen to my parents. I think it just did not connect until somebody else who was in addiction said, ‘like, hey, you know, normal people don't use drugs. There is another way. You should try recovery.’ And for some strange reason, I listened.”
Matt Galloway asked Tara “And so what would you want? I mean, this is a deeply personal book, and it must be incredibly difficult not just to write, but to talk about over and over and over again. But people will take something from this, right?” And she replied, “Anybody who knows someone that is struggling with substance use disorder or other types of mental health difficulties, it's terrifying. And you feel very alone. It's too late for Holden, obviously, but maybe other people who are struggling will feel more capable of coming forward. So they're not alone in their struggle.” This is a different, painful, but gracious way of Thanksgiving, to help save the lives of others and inspire all of us to compassion and help support and do the same.
The amazing letter from the prophet Jeremiah to exiles taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, tells them to build lives and families in their place of exile, to increase and seek the welfare of the city and even pray for the wellbeing of their enemies, for their welfare is your welfare. To grow where they are planted as the expression goes, for now, trusting that their future is in God. It is a different way of Thanksgiving.
A gracious faith-full way of Thanksgiving, of life, from cries for mercy for ourselves and especially for others in their suffering, to songs of praise for healing and wholeness and restoration to community and reconciliation and justice and peace for humanity and all creation, interconnected and interdependent that we are with all things and the Creator, that we be of one mind, and heart and Spirit together, in Thanksgiving, in Thanksgiving, in a wholly, holy, different way of Thanksgiving for God’s healing and saving work that we share, for everyone and all creation, today, and forever, in all our Thanksgivings, in all our relations. Amen.
