by admin | Dec 24, 2014 | Message from Kahu
Christmas week is finally here! The church is decorated, the Christmas tree is up, the Advent candle have all been lit, and we are ready to celebrate the birth of Christ! As I spend the last couple of days preparing for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning services, I am aware that many changes have taken place in our lives since last Christmas. Many good things happened in my life: I moved to Koloa to become the Kahu of Koloa Union Church; I began living in the beautifully refurbished parsonage; my book, The Volcano Is Our Home, was published; Art House has sold my watercolors nearly every month since last spring; I got to spend an entire month with my son Palani this summer. On a sad note, my mother and uncle (Mom’s younger brother) died. Although the changes in my life this past year have been quite dramatic, I know that we all face many changes every year: some dramatic and some a bit more subtle. And we all come to Christmas with a vast array of emotions, including joy and sadness, gratitude and hurt feelings, wonder and disappointment, trust and fear.
I invite you to come to Christmas at Koloa Union Church with all of your emotions and without any judgment upon yourself for any of them. I invite you to celebrate God’s love in Jesus as you are and as you feel. Come with laughter and with tears. Come with friends and family or come alone. Come with a spring in your step or with a limp. Most importantly, come with an open heart, whether it be broken or healed; for here you will find room for God’s love in all of your heart, regardless of the shape it is in. Here you will find room for God’s love in all of your life, regardless of the number of years you have lived. Here you will find room for God’s love to overflow onto others, regardless of the amount of love you feel. For here we will celebrate Christmas as the day in which God’s love breaks through every barrier and transcends every obstacle. Here we will celebrate love, grace and mercy! Here we will celebrate the miracle of being in God’s presence in the world!
Come and celebrate…and have a Merry Christmas!
by admin | Dec 16, 2014 | Message from Kahu
This is my favorite time of the year! I enjoy celebrating the birth of Christ, sharing the Christmas story, spreading Christmas cheer, and getting together together with friends and family, including my church family! I hope to see lots of you at our worship services and special events in the coming week. If you are in town, please come to whatever you are able to attend…and, as always, brings friends and family! Below is the info for the coming week; be sure to call or email if you have any questions!
SALVATION ARMY RED KETTLE AT SUEOKA STORE – Wednesday 12/17
Join us in front of Sueoka’s in Old Town Koloa from 5-8 p.m. as we sing carols and collect money for needy families, seniors and the homeless. Wear your Christmas colors or church t-shirt if you are able.
CHRISTMAS CAROLING AT HALE KUPUNA – Thurs. 12/18
Meet at the church parking lot at 6 p.m. and we will carpool to Hale Kupuna in Omao where we will sing Christmas carols to the residents. Wear your Christmas colors if you have them!
CHURCH CHRISTMAS PARTY – Friday 12/19
Our annual church Christmas Party will be a potluck at the parsonage at 6:00 p.m. Join us for holiday music, delicious food and great fun! Please bring a favorite holiday dish to share. The parsonage is located at 3281 Waikomo Road.
CHRISTMAS SUNDAY – 12/21*
Join us for church at 10:30 a.m. as we celebrate God’s love for everyone! And be sure to stay after for lunch if you can!
CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE – Wednesday 12/24*
Join us at 7:30 p.m. for a special Carol and Candle Service. We will sing many of the favorite Christmas carols in English and Hawaiian, read the Christmas story from the Gospels, and close the service with the lighting of the candles.
CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE – Thursday 12/25*
Join us at 10:30 a.m. on Christmas Day for more carols, a Christmas Day message by Kahu Akana, and Holy Communion.
*NOTE: The CHRISTMAS FUND Offering will be collected at all of the service in the coming week. We always appreciate your “over and above” gifts to this special fund, which the United Church of Christ administers to offer grants and emergency aid to retired and working clergy and lay leaders of the church who are having a hard time making ends meet in difficult financial situations.
Finally, if you live in the 96756 zip code or have a P.O. box here, you should receive an invitation this week in the mail to all of our special worship services in the coming week. We are trying the U.S. Postal Service’s “Every Door Direct Mail”, which will go to every P.O. box, residence and business in the 96756 zip code. We want to get the word out to every resident and visitor that we are here and have something to offer everyone! Please stop by the church and pick up extra copies for friends and family members who are visiting!
May the coming week and all through the holidays bring you great hope, peace and joy, and may you be filled with God’s unconditional and eternal love!
Kahu
by admin | Dec 4, 2014 | Message from Kahu
(It has been awhile since I last posted a “weekly” message, due to website issues. It looks like those issues are finally resolved and I’ll start posting more regularly again.)
I thought I would talk this week about a very special evening we had on Sunday. We had a worship service in which we reflected on the message of the season: God’s unconditional love that comes to us over and over again. Judyth Foley and I both read excerpts from her book, “Nikos Brown: A Christmas Miracle.” In the book Nikos and his gang of friends decide to steal the statue of baby Jesus from a large Nativity scene outside a Catholic Church in L.A., even as the old priest is still setting out and arranging the scene! Nikos’ friends distract the priest while Nikos grabs the baby, shoves it into a burlap bag, and runs toward a large fountain where he plans to throw the baby. Everything goes according to plans until the burlap bag begins to feel funny. When Nikos peaks into the bag, he doesn’t see the statue of the baby Jesus. Instead, he sees the real, live, baby Jesus, who looks into his eyes with pure love. From that moment on, Nikos’ life is changed, as are the lives of the people around him. In fact, the entire neighborhood begins to transform, simply because a young “troublemaker” looked into the eyes of Jesus and felt unconditional love for the first time. We closed the worship service with a time of meditation, as we considered how our own lives might be changed if we felt pure love by looking into the eyes of Jesus. I hope your life is changed during this special season of the year as you contemplate God’s pure love for you!
After the service, Judyth signed books for those who purchased them, and decided to give the entire profit of book sales to Koloa Union Church! Additional books are available on Sundays or at the church office during the week for $20. Judyth is happy to sign unsigned copies when she returns from California in January!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jul 15, 2014 | Message from Kahu
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about a workshop I helped with in Honolulu back in May with Rev. Caroline Miura. It was called “Contemplative Listening” and the point was to teach the participants how to carefully listen–without judgment, attachment, giving advice or suggestions. In each session of the workshop a volunteer shared something that was important to him or her, typically something that was weighing heavy on the heart. The rest of the participants were asked to listen and then, when the volunteer speaker was done, to ask questions or make comments in order to make sure that the speaker’s message was heard correctly.
In every session, several timeouts were called because participants kept making judgments, giving advice and suggestions, etc. They found it hard to just listen and make sure they heard correctly. However, by the end of each session, something transformational happened. Listeners said things like: “I never realized how difficult it was to just sit and listen.” Speakers said: “I had no idea how good it felt just to be heard.”
In Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, I counted 19 times in 23 verses the words “listen,” “hear,” and “understand.” It became very clear to me as I was preparing for Sunday’s message that listening was a very important thing to Jesus. Although we can never make others become better listeners, we can do that for ourselves. I encourage you to take some time this week to slow down and listen to God…to others…and to yourself. Just pay attention without judgment, attachment, giving advice or suggestions. Just listen carefully…and see what happens!
Have a great week! I hope to see you on Sunday!
Kahu Alan Akana
by admin | Jul 7, 2014 | Message from Kahu
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about the huge differences in spirituality between two prominent figures in the Gospels: John the Baptist and Jesus. On the one hand, John was a hermit who seemed to thrive spiritually by spending most of his life alone in the dessert, eating locusts and wild honey. His enemies claimed he had a demon that kept him alive because he ate so little and gave almost no concern to his physical needs. On the other hand, Jesus’ enemies called him a glutton and a drunkard because he greatly enjoyed eating and drinking with all kinds of people–even those who lived on the margins of society.
John found God in the solitude of the dessert; Jesus found God in the midst of huge crowds and the many people considered “lost” by the establishment. Of course, the Gospels tell us that John spent some time with people and Jesus spent some time alone; but it is clear that they had very different styles in how they experienced God and nurtured their spirits.
I am impressed with not only their different styles of spirituality, but also their focused commitment to a common vision: to love God, others and themselves, to show kindness, compassion and fairness…and to do so without judging others who do it differently, even those who have completely different styles of encountering God, hearing God’s voice, and serving God.
I think the world can learn a lot from John the Baptist and Jesus. I think we all can!
I hope you have a great week encountering God however God shows up and speaks to you…and I hope to see you on Sunday!
–Kahu Akana
by admin | Jun 18, 2014 | Message from Kahu
On Sunday I presented a new cross to Koloa Union Church from my son Palani and me in memory of my mother and father. The cross is made from curly koa and specifically designed for the space above our communion table. My hope is that everyone who enters our sanctuary will be inspired by the beauty of the cross; after all, it is the symbol of our Christian faith! I also felt that it was important to have a cross that represents our Hawaiian identity; so I asked the artist Frank Pullano of Kalaheo to make the most beautiful cross he could imagine for our particular space out of koa. I am convinced that he rose to the challenge! It was especially meaningful to present the cross on Father’s Day and so soon after my mother’s death just a few weeks ago.
A NEW CROSS FOR KOLOA UNION CHURCH
After presenting the cross, I shared with the congregation about the importance of hope. After listening to the South African theologian Allan Boesak twice last week, I decided to talk about some of his thoughts. He spoke of Hope as a woman with children: “a mother with two daughters, and their names are Anger and Courage.” As he gave names to Hope and her children, I could see how he was able to embrace her during the dark days of his imprisonment in a South African prison, where he served time for taking a stand against apartheid. For him, Hope was more than just wishful thinking. She was personalized in a way that helped him to fight against injustice even when he could not see how he could win that fight. Because of Hope, he kept fighting until the battle was won and the regime of apartheid ended. My prayer is that the symbol of our faith will give us the inspiration to embrace Hope in that same way, even when we cannot see or know how things will turn out…even when we doubt…even when all we can do is know that the love represented in that cross might be all we have left.
Kahu Alan Akana
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