by admin | Mar 3, 2015 | Message from Kahu
OUR HAWAIIAN IDENTITY, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Each week during Lent, we are spending some time on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings taking a look at one part of our new Mission Statement:
Our Mission is to worship and serve God,
Whom we understand as Creator, Christ and Spirit;
Embrace our Hawaiian identity, language, and culture;
Invite and welcome others into our faith community;
Nurture all with God’s unconditional love;
And reach out into the broader community
By sharing aloha with everyone.
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation some of my thoughts about the 2nd part of the statement, which focuses on our Hawaiian identity, language and culture. I talked about the Hawaiian word for water, “wai”, and for wealth, “waiwai.” Wealth actually means “lots of water.” Hawaiian people have always measured wealth by the abundance of natural resources…and where there was plenty of fresh water, there was an abundance of kalo (taro), sweet potatoes, animals, and many other things to eat, not to mention an abundance of drinking water! In Hawaiian culture, it was important that there was lots of food and water for everyone. It was also important for people to work hard at whatever it was that they were good at. In fact, people from other places used to be so impressed by how industrious Hawaiians were…how hard they worked…even though they were surrounded by so much seafood and other things that grew on the land. They worked hard and long hours because they found their work extremely meaningful.
I also shared my observation that so much of the Old and New Testaments also speaks of wealth in the same way, including our reading from Isaiah 55:
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wind and milk without money or price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
This sounds like the same message to me! There is something deeply satisfying about working hard at something when you know your place and see the overall purpose of your work, especially when you know that you are making life better for others.
I invite you to come to the water and drink deeply! Enjoy the abundance all around us! And, if you haven’t already, find something that you are really good at, and figure out how to use that gift to make life better for others! Let’s commit to that as individuals…and as a church!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Feb 19, 2015 | Message from Kahu
JOIN US THIS EVENING FOR ASH WEDNESDAY
I returned this morning from Hawai’i Island where we buried my mother’s ashes next to the ashes of my father in Hilo. (So I’ve had a lot of time to think about ashes and the meaning of Ash Wednesday this past week!) I hope you will join us this evening at church as we begin the season of Lent by eating together, and then reading the Scriptures, singing hymns and marking our foreheads with ashes, as we remember that God’s love remains with us in life, in death, and throughout eternity!
6:00 Soup Supper in Moore Hall
7:00 Ash Wednesday Service in the Sanctuary
by admin | Feb 4, 2015 | Message from Kahu
LOVE BUILDS UP
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation some of the difficult passages written by the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells his readers these interesting things:
- For people who are unmarried, it is best for them to remain single (because married people are anxious about pleasing their spouses rather than pleasing God), unless someone doesn’t have self-control (because it is bad for people to “burn with passion”).
- Men should never wear anything on their heads when they pray, and women should always wear something on their heads when they pray…and possibly wear a veil over their faces (because this shows that men stand in absolute authority over women, and women are in absolute authority under men).
- Women should be silent in church and ask their husbands at home if they have any questions (because it is shameful for women to speak in church).
- If an unmarried Christian has sexual relations with anyone…or if someone is greedy…or has too much to drink…we should kick him out of the church!
- If someone is hungry and is about to eat something, and then finds out that what she is about to eat is offensive to someone in the room, she should go hungry.
Paul seemed to have a lot of rules for Christians in the 1st century. I grew up thinking of Paul as rather narrow-minded, conservative and judgmental. So I was surprised a few years ago to hear about a book called The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. In their book, they describe Paul as being very progressive for his day. He imagined a time and place where everyone was equal: male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor. In fact, Paul was so “out there” in promoting his vision of the way things would be if God were actually in charge (rather than the Roman Emperor), that he was executed in Rome for treason. Of course, Paul lived in a imperial culture where both women and slaves were legal property, where temple sacrifices to idols were common occurrences, and where sexual freedom was more acceptable than it was in his own Jewish tradition. So Paul addressed issues within the church from the cultural context in which he lived. He also addressed a very divided church where people were fighting over who was right and who was wrong.
I’ll never forget the day when my seminary professor pointed out that the key verse to understanding the entire book of First Corinthians was one we read on Sunday: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” He pointed out that Paul was making the point that all God really cares about in terms of our behavior is how much we love each other. Whether we believe we are right on an issue or know that we are on the wrong side all together, the important thing to God is that we love the other person. For it is love that builds up a church. I would add that it is love that builds up a person, a marriage, a relationship, a family, a community, and a nation. Perhaps Paul was being pretty radical after all.
Have fun building up one another with love this week!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jan 30, 2015 | Message from Kahu
LETTING GO AND FOLLOWING JESUS
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about a time I was sitting in a coffee shop with a great cup of coffee and a good book. I watched a man exit the bicycle shop next door with his bike and receipt in one hand and his cellphone (held up to his ear) in his other hand. He was apparently engaged in a lively conversation. He walked to his car, leaned the bike against the back and opened the trunk. For the next 10-15 minutes he tried to get the bike into the trunk while holding onto his receipt and phone. For most of the time, he held the phone between his ear and shoulder, but he needed the full range of his arm to lift the bike high enough to get it into his trunk. He was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. Finally, the conversation ended, he put the phone in his pocket, and effortlessly placed the bike into his trunk.
As I watched, I wondered why he didn’t just put the phone down (for 3 seconds!) in the first place. That would have saved him a lot of time and frustration! I reflected upon how difficult it often is for people to let go of things and to put them down even for a short while. Then I wondered what things I might be holding onto in life that were keeping me from doing things with less effort and greater joy. Most of the things I came up with were not physical things (like bikes), but beliefs, daily patterns and routines, and ways of being in the world.
In our Scripture lesson (Mark 1), Jesus’ disciples became disciples when they dropped what they were holding onto and followed Jesus. They dropped their fishing nets and walked away from those nets (and their boat, their careers, their families, their sense of financial security….). Letting go of the things that keep us from fully following Jesus is the beginning of discipleship for us. I think if we are being honest, we would have to say that it’s also the middle and end of discipleship; for we all have the propensity to hold on tightly to whatever it is that happens to be in our hands at the moment (physically and metaphorically speaking)–and we tend to grab onto a lot of things along the way!
Consider this question: “What are you holding onto in your life that keeps you from wholeheartedly following Jesus?” Then try this question: “Why not let go…and experience more joy, peace and love?”
I hope to see you in church on Sunday as we celebrate Holy Communion!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jan 22, 2015 | Message from Kahu
God Thinks We Could Not Be One Bit Better!
On Sunday, I told the story of a young man named Willy who lived in Los Angeles. He was a gang member who liked to brag about his exploits. He was befriended by a priest named Father Gregory Boyle, who knew all about his life in the gangs. One day around 8 p.m., Willy paid Fr. Greg a visit and asked for $20 because he was hungry. Fr. Greg didn’t have $20 but told Willy he would drive him to a local grocery store where there was an ATM and get him some money. Fr. Greg didn’t want to take any chances that the 2 of them might run into any rival gang members in the parking lot or in the store, so he told Willy to wait in the car. About 10 yards away, Fr. Greg heard Willy call out to him. He wanted the keys to the car so he could listen to the radio. Fr. Greg said no way and invited Willy to pray instead. When he got back to the car, he found that something had changed. Willy was quiet, reflective, humble; and Fr. Greg couldn’t help but notice a sense of peace. He looked at Willy and said, “You prayed, didn’t you?” Willy responded without looking at Fr. Greg: “Yeah, I did.” Fr. Greg asked Willy a simple but very profound question: “How does God see you?” Willy replied: “God thinks I’m firme.” Fr. Greg translates that to mean: “[God thinks I] could not be one bit better.”
I read this story last week in Fr. Greg’s book, Tattoos on the Heart, in which he tells the story of his ministry to gang members in L.A. and people affected by the gangs. This theme that God thinks people could not be one bit better seems to be the heart of his message…and it changed the lives of people who heard it. I wondered (out loud) on Sunday if this might be the message we all need to let “marinate” in our hearts: that God thinks we could not be one bit better. Imagine how we might live differently if we truly believed that about ourselves and everyone else!
Have a great week, and I hope to see you on Sunday!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jan 14, 2015 | Message from Kahu
I got back to the office yesterday after being on vacation since Christmas. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect upon my blessings over the past year and thought I would share some of them with you:
- Spending time with family and friends in California in January and February, especially time with my mom after learning she had cancer.
- Moving to Kaua’i in February to be the kahu of Koloa Union Church.
- Moving into the beautifully-restored historic parsonage in March (and enjoying it every day since then!).
- Spending a week with my mom in March and talking nearly every day on the phone until 3 days before she died.
- Spending a week with my son Palani on Kaua’i in March…and a month over the summer…and a week and a half in December.
- The publication of my book, The Volcano Is Our Home: Nine Generations of a Hawaiian Family on Kilauea Volcano, several book events in the following months, and very good sales.
- A successful art show at Art House in Koloa, where many people bought my watercolors.
- New and renewed friendships in Hawaii.
- Spending time with the wonderful people of Koloa Union Church.
These are some of the highlights of the past year, and there are many more blessings for which I am truly grateful. I feel that I am starting the new year off well by entering it with a grateful heart. I hope you will do the same. I also hope you will come to church and share the blessings of your life with the rest of us as we look forward to many more blessings in the year ahead!
Happy New Year!!!
Kahu Alan Akana
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