Justice from the ground of Thanksgiving

The book of Genesis begins with a beautiful telling of the creation of the universe. It is a good creation and after humanity is on the scene it is a very good creation. The human story is a beautiful one with communion with the Creator, a beautiful garden, relationship with animals, the beginning of family life, and all of this takes place in a time of harmony.

This beautiful harmony is expressed in the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. It was such an important thing to express gratitude that the translation of the Haudenosaunee words is “words before all other words.” Before you say anything else, before you do anything else, this thanksgiving is what you say.

We greet and thank everything and everyone in creation. When I greet another human being on the street I am not worshiping them. When I thank them for anything they do for me I am not praying to them. So when we Haudenosaunee people greet and thank creation we are not worshiping or praying to creation. When prayer was banned from public schools by the US Supreme Court in 1962 the Mohawks from the Akwesasne Reservation in New York argued and won the right to continue to do the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address because it was a greeting and thanks giving, not a prayer.

Sometimes the opening Thanksgiving Address, in the Cayuga language, would be an hour and fifteen minutes long.

We also use metaphors when we name certain elements of creation, like Mother Earth. My uncle Arnold Jacobs is a well known Haudenosaunee artist who depicts our worldview and stories in his art. He told a group of Mennonite visitors to his gallery that “Mother Earth” is a metaphor. We are born from our “mother” the earth, feed and drink from her all of our lives and when we die “she” takes us back into her loving arms.

We greet and thank our community, Mother Earth, the waters, the plants and medicines, the first fruit strawberries, our Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash, the animals, the birds, the fish, our Grandfathers the Thunders, the four winds, our Elder Brother the Sun, our Grandmother the Moon, the stars, all the messengers that have come to our people to show us how to live well in the earth, and finally our Creator. There is so much to be thankful for! I love the taste of strawberries, barbequed meat, a cool summer breeze, a warm sun on a chilly morning, my family and friends, my colleagues, and a million other things. How can I not be thankful?

When I was a child I attended the traditional ceremonies of our people at the Lower Cayuga Longhouse in my home community of Six Nations Reserve in Southern Ontario. Sometimes the opening Thanksgiving Address, in the Cayuga language, would be an hour and fifteen minutes long. I have said when speaking at churches that if I closed my eyes and said a full version of the thanksgiving address that by the time I opened my eyes everyone in the church would be already gone home!

We should bask in this beautiful beginning with thanksgiving for a very long time to understand even a glimpse of the beauty the Creator had in mind for humanity in the beginning. The Navajo people have a traditional prayer that is called “the beauty way.” Being a beautiful creation in a beautiful world made by a beautiful Creator means you just can’t help but be thankful.

Being a beautiful creation in a beautiful world made by a beautiful Creator means you just can’t help but be thankful.

This is the atmosphere that has inspired the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. This is how we begin our day. This is how we begin every ceremony. This is also how we end the day and end the ceremonies, with thanksgiving. Violations of this initial beauty are well known and understood as well.

There was a time that our Haudenosaunee people did not live in this beauty. We fought among ourselves and fell out of balance from the way the Creator wanted us to live. The Creator then sent us a Peacemaker, a civil Peacemaker. Together with Jigonsahseh, the First Clan Mother, our Haudenosaunee Peacemaker restored us to the Creator’s original intentions for us as human beings. He brought to us a just and civil peace.

Jesus brought to the whole of humanity an eternal spiritual peace. Theology that arises from the Bible begins with the beauty of creation and a thankful heart. The original harmony that gets broken by selfish human decisions is justly dealt with by the Creator's Son, who restores the original beauty and harmony of the original creation. The Christian ceremonies memorialize the sacrificial work of Christ in his death on the cross and resurrection - baptism and communion. The Christian story begins with thanksgiving and ends with thanksgiving. As a Haudenosaunee person I will continue to be very thankful and as a follower of Christ I will do that same!!!