by admin | Mar 1, 2016 | Message from Kahu
NEW KOA PULPIT AT KOLOA UNION CHURCH
GROUNDED IN OUR ROOTS
On Sunday, we read from the Gospel of John, chapter 8, where Jesus addressed some of the Jewish leaders who claimed their exclusive hold on the truth and their right to hurt and kill others based upon their ancestry and position as children of Abraham and of God. Jesus told them: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.” Jesus also told them: “If God were your Father, you would love me.” His point: You cannot use your relationship with God or your ancestral heritage to hurt others or claim to have an exclusive hold on the truth. Instead, we will love others—even those with whom we disagree. We will treat everyone with compassionate openness. Just knowing who our ancestors are is not enough: we must learn from them!
I shared with the congregation a bit about my maternal grandmother, Alice M. Gagner, and what I learned from her. She grew up in a small log cabin with 5 siblings on a farm in rural Montana. Ever since she was a young girl, she wanted to attend college and study agriculture. Since there was no high school for miles around, she moved in with a family in another town and worked for her board and room in order to graduate from high school. When she applied for college, people told her that she was not likely to get admitted because agriculture was “a man’s job.” Four years later, she was the first woman to receive a degree in agriculture from Montana State College (now University) in Bozeman. She also received a degree in home economics and, because of her two degrees, doors opened up for her all over the world, including the 10 years she lived on Kauai. She was the University of Hawaii home extension agent and coordinator of girl’s 4H for Kauai from 1949-1959.
My grandmother taught me to follow my dreams, to not allow others to determine their outcome because they doubted their possibilities, and to persevere at whatever I set out to do. She did so with grace and kindness to others.
On Sunday, I announced to the congregation that I decided to pay for our new koa pulpit, custom-designed for our sanctuary by Frank Pullano of Kalaheo, and have it named in memory of my grandmother. There will be a plaque installed on the inside which will have the following words:
In Loving Memory of Alice M. Gagner (1900-1992)
Resident of Kauai (1949-1959)
Grandmother of the Rev. Dr. Alan Akana
I invited those in attendance on Sunday to consider someone who was influential in their lives and consider ways that they might honor them. It might be a gift to the church or a meaningful not-for-profit organization; perhaps planting a tree or a garden; maybe just deciding to live with compassionate openness. I invite you to do the same.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Feb 22, 2016 | Message from Kahu
GROUNDED IN THE SKY
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about some of my experiences when I looked to the sky and said, “Wow!” One of those moments was with my son Palani on a very cold summer night at the top of Mauna Kea (at nearly 14,000 feet) on Hawai’i Island. After the sun set below us, we huddled under a heavy quilt and stared at the sky. There were so many stars that I didn’t even recognize that they were stars. I said to Palani, “It’s too bad there are those clouds (to which I pointed directly above us); otherwise we could see even more.” He responded, “Dad, that’s the Milky Way!” Imagine: seeing so many stars I actually thought it was a large cloud that covered a good portion of the sky! I didn’t know the Milky Way could actually look that “thick.”
As I stared at the sky, I felt a sense of awe and wonder. Just thinking about how many stars there must be up there and how far apart they are also made me feel very small. I thought of God creating it all and knowing every detail of every star and planet; and yet, I was reminded that God cares for me.
When we read our Gospel lesson from John, chapter 3, we heard these words: “For God so loved the cosmos….” The Greek word “cosmos” is directly translated into English as “cosmos” as well as “world”; but I chose to have it read with the former word because I wanted to remind us that God loves the entire universe—not just our planet, not just people, not just Christians. John tells us that Jesus said, “For God so loved the cosmos!”
I invite you to consider God’s love for the cosmos and how we might take much better care of it. I also invite you to consider God’s love for you and how you might share that love with others this week.
I invite you to join us for our Lenten Soup Supper on Wednesday evening for a time of reflection and discussion on this week’s theme of “Grounded in the Sky.” By the way, if you would like to see the video of the Stations of the Cosmos, which I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday, click HERE.
Aloha nui!
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!
by admin | Feb 16, 2016 | Message from Kahu
“GET GROUNDED” DURING LENT
Our theme for Lent is “Getting Grounded,” and I intend to help us all become more open to God’s presence by considering the many ways we might ground ourselves in our lives. We are using Diana Butler Bass’ Book “Grounded: Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution.” Since God is everywhere, you’ll be encouraged to recognize God’s presence wherever you are…wherever you look…wherever you happen to journey: on the earth, in the water, in the sky, in community…. I’ll be preaching on a new theme each Sunday morning at our 10:30 worship service and then giving people the opportunity to discuss that theme a little deeper at our Wednesday evening Lenten Soup Suppers, which begin at 6:00 p.m.
We actually began with “Earth” (“Dirt, Dust & Ashes”) on Ash Wednesday and then talked about “Water” on Sunday; so this week on Wednesday we will discuss how Earth and water help us ground ourselves in God’s loving presence.
I invite you to join us on Wednesdays and Sundays during Lent: Come and GET GROUNDED!
Aloha nui!
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!
by admin | Feb 3, 2016 | Message from Kahu
From the Cathedral of St. Stephen, Metz, France
THROUGH A GLASS, DIMLY
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about my favorite exhibit at the Parliament of World Religions in Salt Lake City in October. It was called “Remembered Light: Glass Fragments from World War II.” I walked through and learned all about Rev. Fred McDonald, who served as an army Chaplain during WWII and collected glass fragments during and after the war. Rev. McDonald made a point of visiting churches throughout Europe while he was there. Many of those churches had sustained significant damage from Nazi air raids. Whenever he visited these churches, he picked up some shards of glass from the broken stained glass windows, put them in an envelope, and labeled the envelope with the location and date. He didn’t really have a plan to do anything with them, but they were too important to him to throw away, so they sat in a cardboard box for 55 years!
Then one evening in 1999—just 3 years before he died—he was sitting around a dinner table with friends and he told them about the glass. And they were amazed! One of those friends contacted Armelle LeRoux, a renowned stained glass artist in the San Francisco Bay Area, and brought Rev. McDonald to meet with her. As it turned out, Rev. McDonald had a story for each of the locations where he collected the shards of glass.
Soon an idea was born! Armelle would work with some of the best glass artists in the country and create works of art using the glass shards. Each work of art would tell the story of a unique location in Europe where Rev. McDonald visited nearly 6 decades earlier. Each window would use new glass as well as some of the shards from Rev. McDonald. Some of the windows were created with just a few shards; and some had dozens.
One of my favorite examples was the crown of thorns (above) created with glass from the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Metz, France. The artist later recalled that when she first touched them, “They felt to me like thorns.” And so, she used them to create a crown of thorns—33 broken shards of glass from St. Stephen’s, symbolizing the 33 years of Jesus’ life. She placed them in such a way so that the light would shine through the crown of thorns, stating: “We can destroy the glass, but not the light.”
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, “For now, we see through a glass dimly.” I suggested to the congregation that in two important ways, we ARE the glass. First of all, God’s light shines through us; how well we allow the light to shine through is up to us…and it might require some “window cleaning.” Secondly, we all experience brokenness in our lives in one way or another; and yet, there is always hope that God can partner with us to gather together the broken pieces, clean them off, perhaps rearrange them, and allow the light of God’s love to shine through with clarity and exquisite beauty.
May you feel the light of God’s love today!
Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jan 26, 2016 | Message from Kahu
WE ARE ALL CONNECTED!
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about the traditional Hawaiian sense of connection that the people of these islands have felt for nearly 2,000 years:
- Connection to the land
- Connection to all that is on the land: trees, plants and rocks
- Connection to others: ‘ohana (family) and everyone else
Our connection to one another is strong, in part, because Hawaiians traditionally believed that we are all descendants of the kalo (taro) plant. We take great care of the kalo because it is our cousin; it also reminds us that we are connected to one another: when one finds joy, we all share in that joy; when one hurts, we all feel that pain together.
It is this strong connection that has motivated the people to take great care of their land and to treat others with hospitality and respect. When we look around us and allow ourselves to see all of the connections that we have, we treat land, water, all creatures and every human being with dignity and respect. And so, I encourage us all to look for those connections and pay attention to them so that every part of our world will enjoy compassion and peace.
Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jan 23, 2016 | Message from Kahu
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM DR. KING
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation some words from an essay published shortly after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in which he wrote:
We have inherited a large house, a great “world house” in which we have to live together—black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu—a family unduly separated in ideas, culture an interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.
In 1967, MLK wrote that we now live in a “worldwide neighborhood.” He claimed that this phenomenon was the result of technology: radio, television, space travel had remade the world and demanded a new and better future of equality, freedom and justice for all.
Think back and consider all that has changed with technology since 1967. The Internet, cell phones, social media… Think about how much more we are connected today and how technology has “remade the world and demanded a new and better future.”
We have a choice as human beings:
- We can choose that “new and better future,” and live together with respect and compassion for each other, including those who are very different from us.
OR
- We can choose to live apart from each other in what Dr. King called “closed tribes,” where we build walls around ourselves and create distance between “us” vs. “them” because we see differences as “evil.” By the way, Dr. King wrote of the dangers of closed tribes as the “great new problem of mankind.”
I am convinced that we must choose the former if we want to survive as human beings, because we now have the ability to destroy each other a thousand times over. We must make sure we never do that…and the only way I know of doing that is to live together with respect and compassion for each other, including those who seem to be very different from us. May God give us the grace and wisdom to do so.
It was wonderful to hear this message affirmed on Monday by the Right Rev. William E. Swing, the founder and President of the United Religions Initiative. A dozen of us from Koloa Union Church attended a gathering in honor of Dr. King, hosted by the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai, where Rev. Swing spoke about the need to be with people of other faiths and not be afraid of those with differing beliefs. It has been a great week of celebrating similarities and differences among fellow human beings!
Aloha nui loa!
Kahu Alan Akana
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