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Monday, Sept 06
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve - Early
Craig Shirley
Iesous Ahatonnia (ee-sus a-ha-ton-nyah = Jesus, he is born)
We are surrounded tonight by many things that help us remember that it is Christmas Eve. There are the lit trees – a custom that comes to us from Germany. There are poinsettias, a custom that comes to us from Mexico. We sing Christmas carols that come from Norway and Sweden and Denmark. So many of the customs that we have come from other lands.
But there are few customs that are truly from our own heritage – that is our North American heritage. Since most of us live in North America because our great or great-great grandparents came here as immigrants, we still hold customs that they brought with them from their native lands.
But it is also true that before those people immigrated to North America, there were already native people living here. We call those people Indians, or more commonly now we call those people Native Americans – because this was there land to begin with.
But, just as the story of the birth of Jesus had to be told to our ancestors in Germany and Norway and Sweden and Denmark and Ireland and England and Scotland and Spain all the other countries far from the Mideast where it took place, so that same story had to be taught to the Native Americans that lived in this part of the world. And one of those stories involves the tribal people called the Huron Indians. The Hurons were made up of many tribes who lived from Lake Superior all the way to Lake Erie. And the first European people who came to that part of the world were the French explorers. And like our ancestors in Northern Europe, priests and missionaries came along with the explorers to tell people the story of Jesus.
One of those missionaries that came to the Huron nation was a Jesuit priest named Jean de Brebeuf. Father de Brebeuf was at first welcomed by the Huron people and they gladly listened as he told them the story of the birth of a savior. He had learned the Huron language and so he was able to speak in their language. Do any of you speak in more than one language? It’s wonderful when we can learn to speak to people in other languages and learn more about them.
Father de Brebeuf told the story to the Hurons using words and ideas that would make sense to them. This is how he told them about Jesus birth. He used the title “Iesus Ahatonnia (ee-sus a-ha-ton-nyah = Jesus, he is born)
Have courage, you who are humans, Jesus, he is born
Behold, the spirit who had us as prisoners has fled
Do not listen to it, as it corrupts our minds
Jesus, he is born
They are spirits, coming with a message for us, the sky people (who are the sky people?)
They are coming to say, Rejoice (be on top of life)
Mary, she has just given birth. Rejoice
Jesus, he is born
Three have left for such a place, those who elders (who are the three elders?)
A star that has just appeared over the horizon leads them there
He will seize the path, he who leads them there
Jesus, he is born
As they arrived there, where he was born, Jesus
The star was at the point of stopping, he was not far past it
Having found someone for them, he says, Come here
Jesus he is born
Behold, they have arrived there and have seen Jesus
They said his name many times (praised him) saying Hurray, he is good in nature
They greased his scalp many times (anointing – greeted him with reverence)
Jesus, he is born.
Now, that story of Jesus sounds a little different than the one we know – doesn’t it? But it has all the things we need to know about Jesus; his mother Mary, the angel song, the great star and the wise men, and most importantly that Jesus is the savior of the world, or as the words tell us “Behold, the spirit who had us as prisoners has fled. Do not listen to it, as it corrupts our minds”
It is exciting to think about people who have never heard the story of Jesus before having a chance to hear it and believe. The Huron people loved Father de Brebeuf and listened to his stories and his preaching and came to believe in Jesus as their savior. But others things happened because of the French people coming to the new world. They brought with them diseases – like the H1N1 flu that we are dealing with now. And since the Huron had no immunity to this disease, many of them got sick and died from the illness. Father de Brebeuf felt terrible about what had happened and ministered to the sick, but because so many of the Huron died, those that survived blamed him and the other French immigrants who came. Then, because so many of the Huron had died, their neighboring tribes, the Iroquois, saw an opportunity to go to war against the Huron and defeat them. When they did this, they captured Father de Brebeufand killed him in order to destroy the Huron civilization. It seemed as though all was lost for the work that Father de Brebeuf had done.
But just as God did not allow the story to end with Jesus dying on the cross, so God also did not let the work of this missionary die with him. Many Huron were not killed, but taken as Iroquois captives. And they shared the stories of Jesus that the Priest had told them. And many Iroquois heard those stories and came to be believers in Jesus because of their Huron captives and the work of Father de Brebeuf. And still today, the Christian religion is alive and active among those Huron and Iroquois people. It is reason to give thanks to God for Father Jeanne de Brebeuf, for those Huron and Iroquois people who heard and believed, and for Jesus, the son of God, who was born into this world to send the evil Spirits fleeing”. Amen.
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