OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN?
On Sunday, we considered how the world around us has changed in the last century. Just think of the events that caused a major shift in the way we see: World War I and the major social changes that followed; World War II with the Holocaust and atom bomb; the Cold War, anti-war demonstrations, the pill, the Civil Rights movement, the LGBT Rights movement (just to name a small handful!).
With all these changes also came changes in how we see God and the universe all around us. Diana Butler Bass, in her book Grounded, Finding God in the World, writes: “During the last century, the three-tiered universe and its orderly certainty crumbled.” She is referring to the way people formerly saw the universe: God up in heaven, people on earth, and the underworld where no one wanted to go. In this universe, people needed the Church to help get them to heaven where God is and avoid going to hell where God is not.
People now tend to think of God as being omnipresent—filling all space everywhere at all times. So, if God is always everywhere at all times and forever, what is the point of the Church these days? I shared with the congregation that I need the Church (I need them!) to remind me that God is everywhere, because it’s easy for me to forget this when I listen to the news and hear about cruelty, hate crimes, religion-inspired killing, refugees who are turned away from safe places, and so much more. I do believe that God is always with me…always with each of us…but the Church helps remind me of this when it is hard to see God amid the experiences of our world.
I hope Koloa Union Church will always be a place that will help us see God! I invite you to come and see God for yourself!
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
To see a video of Kahu Akana’s sermon from past Sundays, scroll down to earlier entries of “A Message from Kahu Alan Akana.” There is no video this week due to the electricity not working at the church on Sunday morning.
You are invited to join us for worship at 10:30 on Sunday mornings at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
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