by admin | Oct 16, 2018 | Message from Kahu
Gratitude and Politics
On Sunday, I told the congregation about the final section of Diana Butler Bass’ book, Gratitude: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks. It focused on gratitude, community and politics. I get the connection between gratitude and community; that totally makes sense to me; but gratitude and politics? Those aren’t two themes that often go together in my mind. Diana’s book was helpful in understanding the importance of bringing those two things together. However, it was Jon Meacham’s book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, that really helped me to see the significant role that gratitude can have in the midst of politics—even if those politics seem far from what we want or imagine the world to be.
Meacham points to many dark times in our nation’s history and refers to certain Presidents, Governors, Senators, members of Congress, and others who said and wrote some of the most surprisingly hateful and intolerant things about African-Americans, Asians, Jews, Eastern & Southern Europeans. He names those elected leaders who owned slaves, those who ordered the massacre of Native Americans by the thousands, those who imprisoned innocent people, including over a hundred thousand Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII. He also writes about those who would build great walls to keep immigrants out of our country, such as Georgia Governor Clifford Walker who said these words to the KKK in 1924:
I would build a wall of steel, a wall as high as heaven, against the admission of a single one of those Southern Europeans who never thought the thoughts or spoke the language of a democracy in their lives.
Meacham never gives thanks for the intolerance and hateful acts, but points out that there are always people who condemn them, that such times have always been survivable and they actually make us stronger and more accepting in the end. In other words, after the times of darkness, there is more light than there was before; and this leads us to gratitude.
Our Gospel reading on Sunday was from John, chapter 10, where Jesus came to offer lives of abundance. I pointed out that people can be grateful for both the abundance and Jesus’ vision of sharing the abundance with everyone. May we all be grateful that there is more than enough on the Earth for everyone and that a vision for sharing it with others is possible and actually happening throughout the world.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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.
by admin | Oct 4, 2018 | Message from Kahu
Gratitude and Abundance
Sunday was such a special day at Koloa Union Church! We celebrated with gratitude our many blessings and imagined ways to share them with others in the coming months. Our children presented a fun and meaningful skit on the importance of gratitude. Rose danced two beautiful hula on the theme of “gratitude and rainbows.” Most people offered a blessing that we might share with others in the coming year. I talked in my message about the meaning of the rainbow—traditionally a sign of hope and diversity. It is also a symbol of blessing, gratitude and abundance for me, for a rainbow requires both sunlight and rain in order to exist—the two necessary ingredients for life on earth. Just like the rainbow, every other blessing is dependent upon them. I am so grateful for life in all its fascinating diversity, and all of the blessings that come to us in our lives! The next time you see a rainbow, I invite you to give thanks for your many blessings and for God’s abundance on this amazing planet on which we live.
In our Gospel lesson on Sunday, Jesus said that he came that people would have life and have it abundantly. When we gather together as followers of Jesus, we celebrate the abundance in our lives and also share that abundance with others, for our blessings are meant to be shared, especially with people who have the greatest need of the basic blessings in life. As I consider our theme for the coming year, “With Gratitude, Welcoming All and Sharing Our Blessings in 2019,” I am especially grateful to everyone who made financial commitments to our 2019 general fund on Sunday. I am grateful for each and every one of our church members and friends who offer blessings to others on a regular basis!
In closing, I want to give a very grateful “shout out” to our Stewardship Co-chairs, Rosemary Smythe and Virginia Dunas, who do a wonderful job reminding us throughout the year of the importance of gratitude and generosity, as well as the possibilities of what we can do together when we give generously to the church with our time, talents and treasures. I must say that the cakes on Sunday, brought to you by the Stewardship Committee (including the one in the photo above), were some of the nicest cakes I have seen in a long time—and so appropriate to our theme!
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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.
by admin | Sep 26, 2018 | Message from Kahu
Love and Gratitude
On Sunday, I talked about how expressions of gratitude impact people around us. In her book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, Diana Butler Bass writes about the impact that gratitude has on the people who observe it in others. She refers to work done by social psychologists who monitor the affects on the brain and bodily functions when someone observes another person expressing gratitude. One such psychologist is Jonathan Haidt, who observed a calming response, as well as related impulses, such as awe or self-transcendence. Amazing! Our bodily functions, our emotional states, and our spiritual wellbeing actually change when we observe another person expressing gratitude!
Our Scripture readings on Sunday point us toward love and gratitude when it comes to bringing our offerings to God. According to Psalm 50, it is gratitude that makes our offerings acceptable to God. Mark 12 reinforces this and also adds that love for God and others is the most important thing we can offer to God. In the story of the poor widow who places two half-pennies in the temple offering, Jesus makes it really clear that her offering is valuable and worthy because she gave from love and gratitude.
There is an important lesson here for us: our offerings to God are also valuable and of great worth to God when we give with love and gratitude. God is not concerned so much with the size of the gift; God is concerned with the love and gratitude that are offered in our giving. Another lesson from the story is that we can actually give everything to God. Just like the poor widow gave everything she owned to God, we can too. Think about what you place in the offering plate at church, what you give to your favorite non-profit organization, what is in your bank account, your home, your possessions, the time you have left here on Earth. What if you truly believed that it all belongs to God and you are a steward to make it all work and make a difference in the world by participating with God in sharing, loving, and being grateful?
For many of us, this is a big shift in how we are being in the world, in how we see ourselves and “our” possessions, in how we fundamentally relate to God, other people and the entire universe. It is a completely different paradigm in our living. Yet, it is the only way I know to live with the greatest joy, the deepest peace, and the most love. Besides, just think of all the people who will be impacted by watching you live with such gratitude! I invite you, if you have not done so already, to make that shift.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
__________________________________________
Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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.
by admin | Sep 19, 2018 | Message from Kahu
Gratitude: More Than a Feeling
On Sunday, I shared a story from Diana Butler Bass’ most recent book, Grateful: The Transforming Power of Giving Thanks. Diana was working as a professor of religious studies and history at the college where we both attended as undergraduates. She enjoyed her job and did good work. However, she wasn’t treated very kindly by some of the other faculty at the college. She also felt that some of the expectations of the college administration in regards to theology and personal piety were rather stifling. One day the President of the college called her into his office and told her that she was simply not a good fit for the school. He told her that she was being “let go,” even though he admitted that she did wonderful work and was an excellent teacher. Before she walked out of the room, he said to her probably the last thing she wanted to hear. He said: “One day you will thank me for this.” Let me just say that she was not having any feelings of gratitude towards him at the moment!
About a week later, Diana told a friend about it. She said, “Can you imagine the nerve of him? That one day I’ll thank him?” After her friend listened to her, he gently said to her, “You know, he’s right.” He went on to tell Diana about a similar situation when he was fired, and how he eventually thanked his boss who fired him after he learned gratitude. Diana was surprised to hear that gratitude was something that could be learned. She asked her friend how. He invited her to thank God for one thing every day and write it down in a journal. Diana kept that journal for 3 years! At first she wrote down one blessing each day, no matter what—something for which she was grateful. Soon, she was writing two or three things. Then more. And then, here is what eventually happened (in her words):
A larger narrative emerged; what had begun as a period of difficult personal crisis wound up being a time of profound happiness, deepened courage, and new self-awareness.
Diana reminds her readers that gratitude is not just a feeling; it is also a way of life; it is how we live our lives; it is what we do; and it is developing practices that invite gratitude to enter us and change us.
I invite you to practice gratitude this week. As Diana’s story indicates, gratitude is something we can do even during the dark and difficult times in our lives. Simply saying “thank you” on a regular basis can change your life for the better. I was pleased to learn that World Gratitude Day is this Friday—a time when people all over the world pause to give thanks for their blessings and also consider the abundance of the universe and give thanks that there is more than enough for everyone.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
__________________________________________
Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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.
by admin | Sep 11, 2018 | Message from Kahu
A Time for Gratitude and Rainbows
I want to begin by thanking my church family for taking such wonderful care of me the past week and a half while I have been recovering from vascular surgery on my leg. I am deeply appreciative of the meals, fresh produce and groceries that people have dropped off, as well as the prayers on my behalf. The surgery was necessary because of poor circulation in my leg due to a major vein not working properly. The surgeon removed most of that vein, and other veins have now taken over to keep the blood properly flowing in my leg. My surgery was successful and I am healing well. However, my leg is still quite tender where the incisions are still healing, and so I will be working mainly from home while keeping my leg elevated as often as possible, and not driving much until my leg feels better. I am supposed to walk a little more each day, and hope to walk to the church by the end of the week. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to call if you would like to talk or make an appointment to see me in person.
After one very long day of heavy rain at the end of August, I was so grateful for sunshine! I walked outside into the yard and saw a double rainbow right on the parsonage! “A pot of gold,” I thought. “What a treasure: this place I call home, my church, my community, my art, this island, my family and friends, my life. I am truly blessed!” As I looked at the rainbow, I felt I could almost explode with gratitude!
On Sunday, we read the ancient Jewish story of the rainbow in Genesis, chapter 9. Afterthe entire earth was inundated with rain, God set a rainbow in the sky to remind human beings of the covenant between God and the entire Earth. There are a few very important points about the story worth mentioning:
- Noah and his family walked off the ark nearly exploding with gratitude. Imagine 40 days and nights of nonstop pouring rain. Imagine being on a boat with your family and thousands of animals for five months. Imagine wondering if you would live through the ordeal. I imagine that the family was feeling many emotions, but mostly gratitude.
- God told Noah and his family that every living thing should be fruitful and multiply. It was not up to human beings to decide which forms of life were worthy to exist. All of life is good and should thrive.
- God provides in abundance. The Earth is and will continue to provide all we need to survive and raise families. There will be more than enough animals and plants for people to eat—and they are to eat and enjoy and share.
- The rainbow is a sign of God’s faithfulness and of the covenant set forth by God. God promises to never destroy the Earth with a flood. In return people are expected to allow every living thing—including every human being—to thrive.
In the story, God gives gifts in abundance and people freely accept those gifts and share them with others. The gifts are are for many generations. They are for all creatures, not just the human ones. They are for the entire earth.
Good stewardship is when we live with gratitude and in right relationship with God, other people, every living thing and the entire Earth. May we remember this as we offer our gratitude and consider how we might live in the days ahead.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
__________________________________________
Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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.
by admin | Aug 23, 2018 | Message from Kahu
A Note from Kahu Alan Akana
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark,
Jesus got up, left the house and went off
to a solitary place, where he prayed.
(Mark 1:35)
On Sunday morning, I talked about the increasing noise in our society. I am astounded at how noisy our lives have become, especially compared to that of our grandparents’ generation. When my maternal grandmother was born on a farm in south-central Montana in 1900, there were no cars driving by, no airplanes flying over, and no electricity or running water in the home. My grandmother grew up with the sound of farm animals, the stream which ran through their property, birds, and chores. Today, there is the constant noise of cars, machines, appliances, as well as the noise of our cellphones which we often carry with us wherever we go. It seems that the amount of noise and the noise level just keeps increasing, and the trend seems to be continuing.
When the author Diana Butler Bass was asked by a student in January 2001 what she thought the 21st century would be like, her instantaneous reply was: “Noisy. It will be noisy.” And, so far, I think she has been right on target! Making time for peace and quiet seems to me to be more important than ever. Jesus certainly took time to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. In our reading on Sunday from Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus getting up early in the morning while it was still dark and spending quiet time alone in prayer. This is sometime hard for us to do in today’s noisy and fast-paced world. However, it is so important for us to carve out space in our daily and weekly routines for times of peace and quiet, prayer and reflection, and sometimes just listening to the sound of the ocean waves or our own breath.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
__________________________________________
Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of his message from this past Sunday. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“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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