A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | Jun 21, 2016 | Message from Kahu

THE SOUND OF SHEER SILENCE

On Sunday, I talked about the importance of practicing silence. We heard the story of Elijah walking forty days to Mt. Horeb, waking from sleep in a cave on the mountain, and hearing a voice that told him that God was about to show up. So Elijah went outside his cave and waited for God to speak. As it turned out, God spoke in an unexpected way: from the sound of sheer silence.

Mother Teresa, who died 19 years ago, was known to the world for her selfless work among the poorest of the poor. She has also become known for her practices of silence that gave her the energy and vision to sustain a life of compassion.

Here are some of the things Mother Teresa wrote about silence:

• In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you.
• In silence we will find new energy and true unity. Silence gives us a new outlook on everything.
• The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us… there God will speak to our soul, and there we will hear God’s voice.
• Listen in silence because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God. But when you have listened to the voice of God in the stillness of your heart, then your heart is filled with God.
• In nature we find silence — the trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence.
• The contemplatives and ascetics of all ages and religions have sought God in the silence and solitude of the desert, forest, and mountains. Jesus himself spent forty days in the desert and the mountains, communing for long hours with God in the silence of the night.
• We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally; to be alone with God — not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything — to dwell lovingly in God’s presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless.
• Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere — in the closing of a door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, in the animals.

  —Excerpted from the book In the Heart of the World (1997, New World Library), edited for gender-inclusive language.

I invite you to ponder these words this week and allow for some time of silence so that you may more deeply encounter God wherever you are.

Aloha nui to all,

Kahu Alan Akana

“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.

Join us at 10:30 on Sunday mornings at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa to hear a full sermon by Kahu Akana.

A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | Jun 16, 2016 | Message from Kahu

THE ESSENCE OF ALL TRUE RELIGIONS

You have undoubtedly heard by now about the tragic mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando in the early morning hours of this past Sunday. A man by the name of Omar Mateen walked into the club and opened fire, killing 49 and injuring 53. While his victims lay on the floor of the nightclub, he dialed 911 and pledged his allegiance to ISIS. It is beyond my comprehension how a person would kill another human being simply for being different. It is mind-numbing to try to understand how a single individual can shoot over 100 people simply because they were gay. It is deeply disturbing that a person can carry out such a hateful act in the name of a religion or religious-based organization.

Throughout the ages, religions have played a vital role in many cultures in influencing how their followers should treat “the other.” It is unfortunate that religions, including my own, have often taught a spirit of intolerance and judgment towards those who are different. Such teachings promote acts of hatred and terror of various extremes. We have seen the worst of the extremes this week when Omar Mateen opened fire on the patrons of Pulse—the gay nightclub in Orlando.

I personally condemn all forms of intolerance and judgment against others who are different: the extreme form that we have witnessed this week and the subtler forms as well. Here are a few examples to which I refer:

• A close friend—when he was a teenager—was visited by his pastor in the hospital after a suicide attempt, caused by deep shame over his sexual orientation. The pastor told him it would be better if he had died than to engage in homosexual behavior and suffer eternity in hell for it.
• Another friend was subjected to “reparation therapy” so that he could understand that he “really never was gay,” because, according to his pastor and therapist, being gay is against God’s will and therefore unreal.
• I was told in the church of my youth that homosexuality is sinful, contrary to human nature, disgusting and evil, and punishable by God with a sentence of death and hell.

I condemn the words used by these religious professionals and the context they created within their churches and communities—a context where it is acceptable to dehumanize, devalue and demonize the people who, like me, are simply being honest about who they are and what they want in life.

In addressing the mass shooting in Orlando, the Rev. John Dorhauer, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ had these words to say about all forms of intolerance and judgment:

“Especially concerning to the United Church of Christ are those brands and expressions of Christianity that demonize the LGBTQ community. When religious leaders [say such things] they create a context in which such violence is cultivated.”

Rev. Dorhauer’s point is that all forms of intolerance and judgment add fuel to the fire of the extreme acts of hatred and terror, such as the one we witnessed this week. The beliefs we espouse and the words we choose indeed create a context in which we all act. I call upon the leaders and members of all of our faith communities to leave intolerance and judgment behind and to embrace tolerance, understanding, grace, and one another.

Regardless of the faith you choose, may you live by the words of Jesus, which I believe are the essence of all true religions:

“Love one another…just as I have loved you.”

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Love your enemy.”

Let us continue to pray for the victims and their families of the Orlando shooting, and let us take responsibility for our beliefs, our words, and the resulting consequences.

Aloha nui to all,

Kahu Alan Akana

“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.

Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!

A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | Jun 8, 2016 | Message from Kahu

Under Construction!

Dear Members and Friends:

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported our capital campaign “Maika`i Hana Hou” (Creating Goodness & Beauty Once Again)! We have done so much this past year, and we are working on our parking lot this week! Part of our new vision is to become more welcoming and inviting…and I can tell you that we will certainly be looking a lot more welcoming and inviting when our parking lot and landscaping project is completed!

At our “Capital Campaign One-Year Anniversary Celebration” on Sunday at the parsonage, I shared with everyone about my maternal grandmother. She was a significant role model in my life and was very influential in her example and support to help get me where I am today. She taught me that a person always has love to give, even during the most difficult and trying circumstances in life. She also taught me how I can overcome even the most difficult obstacles if I make a plan and am determined to fulfill it. Therefore, I wanted to honor her by doing something very special: I decided to pay for our new koa pulpit in full and name it in her memory.

I hope every person in our church will honor in one way or another the important people in his/her life. If it turns out that you want to honor someone through our capital campaign, please contact me or Dan Giovanni, our capital campaign chair, and we will help you discover how you might do that.

I hope to see you on Sunday as we use our new parking lot for the first time!

Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana

In Memory of Alice McClintock Gagner

“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.

Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!

A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | Jun 3, 2016 | Message from Kahu

Our Capital Campaign One-Year Anniversary

A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | May 26, 2016 | Message from Kahu

TRINITY SUNDAY

On Sunday, I shared part of the letter that Mark Zuckerberg wrote to his newborn daughter Max in December. I found it generous and inspiring. It is rather lengthy (click here to see the letter in its entirety), but here are a few of the words toward the end:

As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.

We will give 99% of our Facebook shares — currently about $45 billion — during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others….

Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you give us. We can’t wait to see what you bring to this world.

I was inspired by the openness and generosity of the letter. It called my attention to the nature of the Holy Trinity, which the theologian Miroslav Volf writes about in his book, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. In the book, he describes the Trinity as:

A community of mutual giving and receiving

Through his exploration of the Scriptures, Volf comes to the conclusion that the Holy Trinity is a community of 3 Entities, and the essence of their relationships is a complete openness in which they freely give and receive everything to each other.

Volf then goes onto say that this is the Church’s model for what we should strive for. Therefore, I invite you to consider how you might be more open today in order to more freely give and receive. And, when you do so, you are not only reflecting the nature of God but truly being who you are as a human being. After all, we are all created in God’s image!

Aloha nui loa!

Kahu Alan Akana

“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. Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!

A Message from Kahu Akana

by admin | May 16, 2016 | Message from Kahu

PENTECOST SUNDAY

And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. (Acts 2:6)

Sunday was Pentecost: the day the Christian Church celebrates the Holy Spirit in our midst. It is called Pentecost (the Greek word “fiftieth”) because it happens 50 days after Easter (as well as 50 days after the Jewish Passover).

I began my message on Sunday telling the story of an airplane that was circling above Melbourne, Australia, unable to land; and nobody knew what to do about it. The problem had never come up before. A large 14-year-old boy with Down Syndrome lay on the floor in the middle of the aisle next to his seat; and he refused to move. He was very scared…and physically ill from fear. He didn’t want to talk to anyone and he was too afraid to get up and sit in his seat. And because he was not in his seat, the pilot could not land the plane according to aviation regulations. The boy’s parents tried everything to get him back to his seat. The flight attendants tried everything. There was even a doctor on board; and he had no idea what to do. If the boy was small, they could have just picked him up; but he was a large teenager, and way to heavy to just pick up and set in his seat.

Eventually, the plane was going to run out of fuel and the crew had run out of options. Then one of the flight attendants came up with a rather novel idea: she asked if there was a teacher on board. Sophie Murphy answered the call and the flight attendant explained the situation. So Sophie went to the boy, assessed the situation…and then laid down in the aisle next to him—her head right next to his—and the conversation went something like this:

“Hi, I’m Sophie and I’m a teacher. What’s your name”

At first there was a pause, and then the boy told Sophie his name.

“It’s really nice to meet you. What’s your favorite book?”

Another pause. “Winnie the Pooh.”

“That’s MY favorite book too!”

She asked about his favorite characters in Winnie the Pooh, and they talked about their favorite characters for a minute…and the wonderful story of Winnie the Pooh.

“Well, I’m going to go back to my seat now. Would you like to come sit next to me.”

“Sure.”

So they went back to her seat and the one next to hers. (The person next to Sophie was asked to change seats and willingly agreed.) Sophie and the boy continued their conversation about Winnie the Pooh, and within minutes the plane began to descend and landed safely in Melbourne.

Sophie Murphy became a hero on that flight and her story was told all over Australia and now all over the world. When the plane landed and she was congratulated for saving the day, she said something like this: “Oh, I just did what any teacher would do. This is what we do every day in our jobs: we meet kids where they are at; we talk to them in their language; we connect with them as they are.”

When I heard this story, it occurred to me that it is what happened on the Day of Pentecost! The Apostles meet people where they were at; talked to them in their language; and connected with them as they were.” Upon this foundation the Christian Church was built, and at Koloa Union Church it is the foundation on which we thrive.

I hope you have a great week spreading the Spirit of Pentecost to everyone you encounter!

Aloha nui loa!

Kahu Alan Akana

“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. Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!