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!
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