A Message From Our Kahu

“Welcoming Our Centennial Year!”

“Kia Ora!” is how people greet one another in New Zealand. It’s their way of saying “good morning,” “hello,” and “farewell.” It is also a phrase used to express appreciation or blessing.

After just returning from the land of the kiwi, I am filled with appreciation in countless ways:

• For over a week and a half hiking in some of the most beautiful places on earth, such as Tikitapu (Blue Lake) high in the mountains of the North Island (in the photo above)
• For the stunning and rugged coastline of NZ
• For the abundance of waterfalls
• For the beautiful and interesting birds everywhere I traveled
• For time spent with my colleague in ministry, John Carr, his wife Abigail, and their two sons Hosea and Moses
• For learning about Maori culture, language and art
• For the opportunity to visit two new botanical gardens
• For coming home to a loving and affirming church family

As the season of Lent approaches—beginning one week from today on Ash Wednesday—we typically spend time in the Christian Church in reflection. We usually reflect on God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice, on the important words of Jesus and especially on those during his final week of his life on earth, and on our mortality and hope in the afterlife.

I would also invite you this Lent to reflect on appreciation. Consider the following questions:

• What are some things in life you really appreciate?
• Who is someone to whom you might express appreciation?
• How might you live in such a way that your life is an expression of appreciation to God for your blessings?

As you reflect on appreciation during these days leading up to Easter Sunday, please know how much I appreciate each and every one of you!

Kia Ora!
Kahu Alan Akana

A Message From Our Kahu

“Welcoming Our Centennial Year!”

On Sunday, I challenged the congregation to consider Jesus’ call for his followers to change their hearts and minds. That is the true meaning of repentance. It might involve ending hurtful behavior (or even less helpful behavior), but repentance goes much deeper than that. At least, it did for Jesus. It’s really all about facing God and looking at God as God is; and whenever we are not doing that, it means turning in that direction. This call is not just for individuals but for communities of faith and even nations.

As Koloa Union Church begins its Centennial Year, I am imagining a time for us to celebrate all of those faithful members of the past who have faced God and continued to turn toward God whenever they were tempted to look away—however slightly the turning may have been. They are our examples and continue to be part of who we are today.

As we begin this year of celebrating our past, we also consider the present and know that who we are today will impact who the Church will be in the future. One major focus for the year will be the remodeling of our church kitchen. You will soon be hearing a lot more about this, see the renderings from our architect, and hear about how you can support this space that needs some serious updating for the 21st century.

I also encourage you to mark July 29 & 30 on your calendar right now. On the 29th Koloa Union Church will be the Grand Marshal of the Koloa Plantation Days Parade, and on the 30th we will have grand celebration during our morning worship service, followed by a delicious meal with live entertainment.

I would also invite you to consider doing three things this year for the health and vitality of our church:

1. Invite someone to church. It might be someone who has never been here before or perhaps a person who attended a long time ago. One of the top reasons someone attends church is because someone invited them.
2. Look around for new people who have been attending and invite them to something. It could be a church breakfast, another activity, or a meal at your home. People are more likely to continue attending if they feel connected to others.
3. Consider participating in one new spiritual practice this year so that you can see God more clearly as God really is. It might be attending Lectio Divina, which is held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month; maybe devoting 5 additional minutes of your day to pray; perhaps reading the Bible for 10 minutes a day or finding a daily devotional guide that suits you.

Thank you for all the ways you already take care of yourself and those around you. My prayer for each of you is that 2023 will be a year in which you see God more clearly, feel God’s love more deeply, and share God’s love more generously!

Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana

A Message From Our Kahu

“Are You Ready for Christmas?”

People often ask, “Are you ready for Christmas?” That’s kind of a tricky question to answer during this rather busy time of the year! We rarely feel ready when we measure “readiness” in terms of all of the extra tasks we take on during this time of the year—as fun as they may be.

For me, being ready for Christmas primarily means being able to see however God shows up in my life and all around me—even when God appears in disguise. When Jesus was born, most people would never have guessed that God would come to the world in the form of a poor, helpless baby to parents who didn’t have a bed for themselves or a crib for their newborn child.

Today, God continues to show up incognito—as a person who challenges our perceptions and tests our patience…as an opportunity to love someone in brand new way…as an invitation to try something new and life-giving…as a “disappointment” that helps us to focus on something we never even noticed before.

When “readiness” is defined in these terms, I think I am ready, yet I continue to learn to be more ready with each passing year. I pray that you too will be ready for Christmas…and continue to learn to be even more ready!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana

A Message From Our Kahu

“Just Enough Hope”

“Your prayer has been heard.” —Luke 1:13—

I am pretty sure there are times in all of our lives when we wish we had more hope. As I read the story of Zechariah in Luke’s Gospel to prepare for Sunday’s message, it occurred to me that we usually have enough hope—sometimes just enough.

I doubt if Zechariah had much hope at all in having children by the time the angel Gabriel came to him to let him know that his prayer had been heard by God. He was praying for a son, even though he was an old man and his wife Elizabeth was an old woman. They were much too old and way past the age to bear children. Nevertheless, he had enough hope to pray…and barely enough hope to trust in the words of Gabriel.

There is a lesson there, I believe, for all of us. We have enough hope to pray and to keep moving forward in the direction of our prayers. May the Season of Advent increase your hope. More important, may you have the faith and courage to act on your hope—regardless of how great or small it may be.

Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana

A Message From Our Kahu

“Dreaming of a Brand New World”

“The greatest among you must become like the youngest
and the leader like one who serves.”
—Luke 22:26—

Throughout the Bible, we find God’s people proclaiming God’s dreams for the world. Here is a part of the dream which we heard on Sunday find in Isaiah 65:

No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old person who does not live out a lifetime. Like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

As unrealistic and unattainable as this dream may be, Isaiah nevertheless invites people to commit to it. I believe he does so because he knows that deep down inside, this dream has to do with what we all want: less weeping, less infant mortality, more of our loved ones living to old age, more of us reaping the rich rewards of our labor, less of us being attacked by wild animals and bitten by snakes. Yet, Isaiah is inviting his hearers to think beyond their fences, walls and borders. He is inviting us all to want these things for everyone, rather than just ourselves and those we love. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus shares God’s dream of leaders to think of leadership as humble servanthood. Again, as unrealistic and unattainable as this might be in today’s world, Jesus invites his followers to become such leaders and to choose such leaders. I invite you to commit yourselves to these dreams of God. After all, some dreams really do come true—even the unrealistic and unattainable ones!

Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana

A Message From Our Kahu

“Blessings For All”

 “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them,
for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” —Luke 18:16—

Throughout the Gospel of Luke, it is clear that God blessed all kinds of people: rich and poor, men and women, young and old, those who looked blessed and those who didn’t seem very blessed at all.

In Sunday’s reading, Luke tells us that “people were bringing even infants to Jesus”—in order that Jesus might bless them. This really bothered the disciples and didn’t make sense to the people standing around. After all, in their minds at least, people get blessed when they did something in order to deserve a blessing. However, throughout his entire ministry, Jesus taught that God blesses all of us—whether we think we do anything to deserve those blessings or not!

Our jobs is to gratefully receive those blessings and let them flow through us to others. Spiritual growth is stunted when those blessings get jammed up—in our thinking, our politics, our assumptions regarding economics, even our religious interpretations and understandings. Let us examine ourselves to see where blessings might get jammed up, remove whatever it is that keeps us from receiving or from sharing…and let the blessings flow!

Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana