When I introduced Creation Time in September, I shared how the crest of the United Church of Canada was updated in 2012 to include the colours of the Indigenous medicine wheel and the Mohawk phrase AkweNia’Tetewá:neren, (aw gway – nyah day day wah- nay renh) translated into English as “all my relations.” This is an acknowledgement that Indigenous peoples were a part of the founding of the United Church, and it is also a statement of our connectedness to each other and to the whole created order.
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Rev. Elaine Julian revelainejulian@gmail.com
OCT. 11, 2020: CREATION TIME IN THE SEASON OF PENTECOST
THANKSGIVING SUNDAY
Welcome Everyone
Please take note of the special COVID-19 protocols as we help each other stay safe and healthy.
Please follow along in this outline, noting that Bold Print is an invitation to participate
Acknowledgement of Traditional Territory and Ancestors
As we gather for worship, we acknowledge with respect the history, spirituality, and culture of the K’omoks First Nation and the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional and unceded territory we meet. We also honour the heritage of all indigenous peoples, as we recognize the need to seek healing and reconciliation between the descendants of the settlers and those who were here before colonization.
GATHERING AND CENTERING: INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME
Today on Thanksgiving Sunday we also mark the last Sunday in Creation Time.
When I introduced Creation Time in September, I shared how the crest of the United Church of Canada was updated in 2012 to include the colours of the Indigenous medicine wheel and the Mohawk phrase AkweNia’Tetewá:neren, (aw gway – nyah day day wah- nay renh) translated into English as “all my relations.” This is an acknowledgement that Indigenous peoples were a part of the founding of the United Church, and it is also a statement of our connectedness to each other and to the whole created order.
As we light this candle, we think of the interconnectedness of all creation, and our interconnectedness with the Creator, and we remember “All Our Relations”.
Akwenia’tetewa:neren(aw gway – nyah day day wah- nay renh)
Akwenia’tetewa:neren
Silence
Bell is rung
OPENING PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING: Thanksgiving Address of the Haudenosaunee People:“Words Before All Else…
This resource was prepared for a Day of Prayer for Indigenous Justice, Jan. 11, 2013, when Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders gathered in Ottawa to discuss important legislation affecting Indigenous Peoples.
These words of thanksgiving come to us from the Native people known as the Haudenosaunee (also “Iroquois” or Six Nations – Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora) of upstate New York and Canada. This version of the Thanksgiving Address has been modified for a young, general audience. It has been shortened and many specific references to the culture of the Six Nations have been generalized. Special thanks to: Native Self Sufficiency Center, Six Nations Indian Museum, Tracking Project, and Tree of Peace Society.
The People
Reader: Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things.
Response: We bring our minds together as one to give greetings and thank each other as People. Now our minds are one.
The Earth Mother
Reader: We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginnings of time.
Response: To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.
The Waters
Reader: We give thanks to all the Waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms – waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans.
Response: With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of Water. Now our minds are one.
The Fish
Reader: We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are grateful that we can still find pure water.
Response: We turn now to the Fish and send our greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.
The Plants
Reader: Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms.
Response: With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come. Now our minds are one.
The Food Plants
Reader: With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans and berries have helped people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them too.
Response: We gather all the Plant Foods together as one and send them a greeting and thanks. Now our minds are one.
The Medicine Herbs
Reader: Now we turn to all the Medicine Herbs of the world. From the beginning, they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are happy there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing.
Response: With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to the Medicines and to the keepers of the Medicines. Now our minds are one.
The Animals
Reader: We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We see them near our homes and in the deep forests.
Response: We are glad they are still here and we hope that it will always be so. Now our minds are one.
The Trees
Reader: We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and shade, others with fruit, beauty and other useful things. Many peoples of the world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength.
Response: With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life. Now our minds are one.
The Birds
Reader: We put our minds together as one and thank all the Birds who move and fly about over out heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader.
Response: To all the Birds – from the smallest to the largest – we send our joyful greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.
The Four Winds
Reader: We are thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help us bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength.
Response: With one mind, we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds. Now our minds are one.
The Thunderers
Reader: Now we turn to the west where our Grandfathers, the Thunder Beings, live. With lightning and thundering voices, they bring with them the water that renews life.
Response: We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our Grandfathers, the Thunders. Now our minds are one.
The Sun
Reader: We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest Brother, the Sun. Each day without fail he travels from the sky from east to west, bringing the light of the new day. He is the source of all the fires of life.
Response: With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun. Now our minds are one.
Grandmother Moon
Reader: We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest Grandmother, the Moon, who lights the nighttime sky. She is the leader of women all over the world, and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time, and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children here on Earth.
Response: With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon. Now our minds are one.
The Stars
Reader: We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them in the night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home.
Response: With our minds gathered together as one, we send greetings and thanks to all the Stars. Now our minds are one.
The Enlightened Teachers
Reader: We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people.
Response: With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring Teachers. Now our minds are one.
The Creator
Reader: Now we turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on this Mother Earth.
Response: For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator. Now our minds are one.
Closing Words
Elaine: We have now arrived at the place where we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it was not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way.
Silence, followed by the ringing of the bell.
And now our minds are one.
HYMN: VU#227, “For the Fruit of all Creation”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbBUFSOkbdM
As you listen to the hymn, you are invited to place your symbols of gratitude on the altar.
PSALM 65: (From “Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness” by Nan C. Merrill)
O Merciful One, our Comforter, you the hope of all the earth, and
of the farthest seas;
Who by your Light created the mountains, being guided by Love,
You still the roaring of the seas, the pounding of waves, the tumult of the peoples;
So that those who dwell even at the earth’s outer bounds recognize and reverence You;
At the rise of each morning, and as the sun sets at night, the people bow their heads in reverent gratitude.
You visited the earth and slaked our thirst, offering Living Streams of water;
You fed the hungry, and taught Love’s way.
You watered hardened souls, filled with stone and weeds, softening them with kindness, and blessing their growth.
You crowned your years with abandonment, inviting all to Eternal Life.
In the desert flowers come forth, the pastures flourish giving food to the poor,
the valleys rise up.
May all the peoples dance and sing together with joy.
GOSPEL READING: Luke 17:11-19 (NRSV)
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers[b] approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’[c] feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word. Thanks be to God.
SILENCE AS WE REFLECT ON THE WORD: How does this passage speak to you today?
Bell is rung.
REFLECTION: “From Lament to Gratitude”
There aren’t many diseases that strike terror into the heart in the same way as leprosy. Throughout human history, we have been horrified by the thought of the extreme disfiguration that leads to a slow, painful death. And that fear has led to even more suffering for those afflicted, as lepers have been isolated and abused because of our fear that they will spread the disease to others.
In the New Testament, the word “leprosy” covers many different skin diseases, all of which were considered “unclean” under Jewish purity laws. As long as their infection was visible, lepers were quarantined and shunned. They were declared “clean” again when a priest had performed the prescribed ritual and a sacrifice had been offered. Only then could they rejoin their community.
Today, the word “leprosy” refers to only one specific condition known as Hansen’s disease. It is now known to be much less contagious than we originally thought, and it is treatable with a multi-drug therapy. But the stigma and the fear linger, and even as recently as the mid 1900’s lepers were kept strictly separate from the general population.
BC has a particularly shameful history related to the mistreatment of lepers. In 1891, five Chinese immigrants with leprosy were discovered in Victoria and quarantined on D’Arcy Island east of the Saanich Peninsula. There were no other residents and no services on the island. A small barracks was built for the men, and every 3 months a boat visited them. It carried a municipal health officer, a sanitary inspector, an interpreter, and basic supplies including opium. The health officer seemed more interest in documenting the physical and mental deterioration of the patients than in helping them.
Over time, other Chinese lepers were added to the population. A reporter from the Colonist newspaper visited the island with the boat in l895 and noted that the men suffered almost as much from the isolation as they did from the disease. He wrote:
“Few indeed … in Victoria know or care where the plague-stricken ones have gone, or how they live, or how they die….Their world was the equivalent of a prison where there was no pardon … no rescue … no hope, no pity, no escape.”
The article helped to inform the general public about the plight of the lepers. Responsibility for the colony was transferred to the provincial government in 1906 and conditions improved. But before that, 18 men died and were buried on the island.
The lepers on D’Arcy Island were doubly marginalized, by their disease and by their ethnicity. As imported Chinese labourers, they were deemed expendable by the British colonists and treated as little better than animals when they fell ill.
The leper who returns to thank Jesus in the story we just heard is also doubly marginalized – as an unclean leper and as a Samaritan, a group thought of as heretics and enemies by the Jewish people at that time.
It’s hard to imagine the losses of these lepers in both ancient and recent history. They have lost their health, their homes and communities, their families and friends, their means of making a living. It’s hard to imagine the depths of their despair, their hopelessness and their anger. But it’s easy to imagine them crying out to God in heartfelt lament.
And yet, in spite of their despair and isolation, they recognize the possibility of salvation when they encounter Jesus. They respect the invisible physical barrier between them, but they somehow sense that through Jesus they can be restored and made whole again. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” they cry, reaching across the chasm between suffering and wholeness, the chasm between human and divine. They have moved from despair to hope, from lament to the possibility that things can change, from isolation to connection.
There are so many forms of isolation in today’s world, and many of them, like the isolation of the Chinese lepers on D’Arcy Island, are imposed by those with power on marginalized people: indigenous peoples on reservations, migrants in shanty camps and detention centres, the elderly in poorly-regulated care facilities.
But we are also experiencing isolation on an unprecedented worldwide level because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jobs disappeared, schools were closed, and families were thrown back on their own resources. No one has escaped. We have yet to know the full emotional and economic toll that has resulted, but we know the stories, and may indeed be living the stories: the stressed-out parents trying to work from home and home-school their children at the same time, the depression and anxiety of working in hazardous front-line occupations or of being unemployed, the overwhelming loneliness of those living alone, the destitution of those without shelter or food or clothing, and the daily death toll from bad drugs and overdoses that surpasses the death rate from COVID-19.
Like us, the lepers in Luke’s story don’t create their own isolation. But they also don’t respond to that isolation by completely withdrawing into despair and anger. They “keep their distance” but they are still looking beyond the barriers. They see Jesus, and Jesus sees them. Jesus and the lepers recognize each other’s humanity, and see the divine in each other. That is the beginning, the foundation, of healing – the connection between human and human, human and God.
But healing does not stop with an individual’s return to health. Full healing is possible only when two more things happen: when those who have been marginalized are welcomed back into their community and culture, and when those who are healed understand God’s saving role in their healing and give thanks.
Jesus tells the ten lepers asking for mercy to show themselves to the priests, who can perform the sacrificial rituals that restore them to their community. Ten lepers embark on that journey towards restoration, ten lepers are healed on the way, but only one leper, a despised Samaritan, returns to thank Jesus.
Perhaps this twice-marginalized Samaritan expects that because he is a Samaritan he will not be welcomed by the priests even though his illness has vanished,. But there is another, stronger motivation: for him. The need to express his gratitude to the author of his healing is more important than his desire to be reintegrated into society. And Jesus’ response makes it clear: the foreigner who gives thanks and praise to God is healed both by God’s action and by his own gratitude. “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
In a sense, healing is not complete for any of the 10 lepers. Nine of them have been restored to their community and religious traditions, but they are not fully restored to God in faith and gratitude. One of them, the Samaritan, is restored to God but not to his community. The story leaves us with that open ending, and in that open ending Jesus asks us to continue the ongoing hard work of re-connection and reconciliation.
We are called to resist the temptation to wall ourselves off from the violence and chaos around us, to continue to fully recognize the humanity in each other and to recognize our need for each other. We are called to remember that God sees us, as Jesus saw the lepers; that God desires our healing, and that God answers when we ask for help.
We are called to restore our fractured relationships with each other, with the marginalized in our society, and with the earth. Or, as my mother used to tell me, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and go do something for someone else.”
And above all, we are called to give thanks. We are called to the constant, joyful work of thanking our Creator for all the good gifts of creation. We are called to thank our Savior for healing us by becoming human like us. And we are called to thank the Holy Spirit that moves within and among us, encouraging and strengthening us to reach out, to connect and to work towards wholeness.
Hear again the words of Jesus, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
God is with us. We are not alone Thanks be to God! Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE:
(Adapted from “Celtic Prayers from Iona” by J. Philip Newell)
O Christ of the poor and the yearning,
Kindle in our hearts within a flame of love for our neighbours,
For our foes, for our friends, for our kindred all,
From the humblest thing that lives to the Name that is highest of all,
Kindle in our hearts within
A flame of love.
HYMN: “For the Beauty of the Earth”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFz3uQbImnw
As you listen to this hymn, you are invited to light a candle to represent your concerns for yourselves, for others, and for our world.
Introducing Martyn Joseph, a Welsh singer-songwriter, with “This Glass”, a wonderful song about gratitude:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-KMxU-YYk
And so, as children turn to a mother who watches over them, let us turn to God praying in the words Jesus taught us:
THE PRAYER OF JESUS (Paraphrase by Jim Cotter, VU p. 916)
Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be.
Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us,
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.
OFFERING: All that we have been given is only on loan from our Creator and we are invited to return what we can in gratitude and for the blessing of others. If you are worshipping from home and you are able to support us financially, your donations can 12 be mailed to: Denman Island United Church, 4575 Denman Road, Denman Island BC V0R 1T0
BLESSING EACH OTHER ON OUR WAY:
(Adapted from “Celtic Prayers from Iona” by J. Philip Newell)
This day and this night, may we know O God
The deep peace of the running wave
The deep peace of the flowing air
The deep peace of the shining stars
The deep peace of the Son of Peace.
Go in peace and go in love, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, to be Christ’s face and hands and feet in the world. Thanks be to God! Amen.
