SCRIPTURE: 1 John 1:1—2:2
TEXT: 3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. THEME: Our joy is in fellowship with God. INTRODUCTION I believe in the Word of God, but its truth is not always found in a literal reading of its words. We have to take into consideration the language, the setting, the culture, the mental health, the needs and desires of the author as they embed some of these things into the text knowingly and unknowingly. For example, the author of 1 John loves the church so much and wants to help them to make it into the realm of God upon Christ’s return. But the return is taking longer than anyone anticipated and some have fallen back to old habits. The encouragement of this passage is to be sinless until Christ’s return, but we have to be careful because we don’t want to move away from the graciousness of Christ’s love and see this encouragement as work that we need to do to merit our place in Christ’s realm. It’s about our relationship with God and not how ‘good’ we are. SCRIPTURE God loves to dwell with us. From the time of creation God intimately get hands dirty in holy soil and breathes life from God’s lungs into ours. God dwells in the Garden with Adam and Eve. God journeys with Abraham and Sarah, God is with their family members in Egypt, and through the Exodus and into the Wilderness for 40 years. God is seen with them through the Davidic monarchy, and comes to dwell among us in the incarnation through Jesus. Now through the Spirit, God continues to dwell inside and among us, as we wait for Christ’s return. 1 John begins with what we know. “In the beginning,” just like the first book of the Bible and connects us through the beginning passage of Gospel of John to this writing. God has always been discoverable though what we hear, see, feel, experience and through what God reveals to us. We know God from our experience, from the experience of others and from the faith of those who are with us now as well as those who have come before us. It is all about Fellowship. Fellowship with God, Fellowship with Jesus, Fellowship with others and fellowship that brings completeness and joy. That is what the 7th day is for, a Sabbath rest to have time to fellowship together. To preserve this fellowship, the admonition is for us to stay away from sin. To understand sin in this context, is to see it as the things that we do that ‘wounds’ to our fellowship with God, wounds our fellowship with others and wounds our ourselves. APPLICATION We are human being, good and evil, but not sinless. For us to be sinless, is an impossible expectation. That puts so much pressure on our being good. The better questions is, “How can we live an authentic life as Christian (or in fellowship with God and others)? Relationships that bring joy are the measure of our lives as Christians as verse 4 suggests. Taking our cue from creation, relationships don’t have to be ‘perfect,’ but we have to work at them to make them ‘good.’ We don’t have to like everyone, we just need to have manners, be honest, don’t do anyone harm and desire the very best for them in Christ Jesus. We can pray for them and let God write parts of their story. When we run into conflict, we can take responsibility for how we contributed to that situation. When things go sideways, we can Admit our part that cause things to go that way and ask for forgiveness. Then we can change our behavior so we don’t end up in that situation again. Sometimes it is better to error on the side of generosity, to be gracious even if it is inconvenient, and to be willing to listen because we don’t know everything. When we understand why someone did what they did, we can be empathetic and maybe even part of the healing. Then we are more apt to be Forgiving, tolerate and patient. And clearly as authentic Christians in fellowship with Christ, Don’t hold grudges or plot revenge. Don’t talk stink behind someone’s back. And say what you mean instead of trying to be funny. These are sins that wound fellowship. We can stand up for those who are not able to advocate for themselves. We can stand in solidarity with those who are marginalized. We can speak up for what is right with our vote. We can forgive the hurt others have caused us trusting our future to God. On Five Dollar Friday, I was pushing a full cart of groceries headed for a short checkout line. My wife blazed a trail for me to follow and secured a spot in line just before a shopper with her cart. As I followed, even though we got our place in the cue, I let the other shopper go ahead of me. An act of grace on our part. Selflessness instead of selfishness. Avoiding the judging scowl. It may have taken us a little long to check out, but with no regrets, no guilt and with joy. CONCLUSION Do no harm, be mindful of others, sacrifice to be a blessing, practice gratitude, people are more important than things, relationships take a lot of work. Take responsibility for how we have contributed to a situation. Be honest, ask for forgiveness, be willing to forgive the hurt others have caused you, tell the truth. learn to communicate better with each other, learn better relationship skills. Use manners. See the humanity in each other. Respect with dignity, remembering we are made in the image of God. We need to take care our ourselves so we can bring our best selves to others. Be in fellowship with others and have joy. At Easter we had people show up that we haven’t seen in person for a while. Easter service is different from the bustle of Christmas. We stayed at the door and talked, chatted, caught up, shared about the kids. Fellowshipped. Joy. We did the same thing at the Easter Brunch in Dodge Hall. I got to speak with visitors who were touring the island as faith moved them to worship on Easter during their vacation. Joy. I sat with someone at Easter Fun day that I haven’t been able to sit a chat with, we talked about religious backgrounds, the church and theology (my favorite topic). Joy. Just having an interest in others who come to Church. Sibling in the family of God. We have Christ in common. Our love of God binds us together. We can have fellowship and joy.
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SCRIPTURE: Mark 16:1-8
TEXT: 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. THEME: The story of Jesus’ resurrection is evidenced in the story of our lives. INTRODUCTION There have been times when I have been accused of ending a sermon abruptly. “I was just settling into the sermon when you ended it.” they say. While I was thinking, “I have said all that I need to say on the matter.” Mark would agree with me as he seems to have ended his account of the resurrection of Jesus abruptly without proof; without an eye witness seeing the resurrected Jesus, without doubt being satiated by touching the nail holes and without an Emmaus meal with disciples, where scales fall from our mind and all of the facts of Jesus’ traumatic death are ordered, giving sense of knowing. Emmaus is like Brigadon, everybody has heard of it but nobody knows where it is. A literary device to convey truth. The resurrection is bit like that. We don’t have empirical proof but we are certain about it. SCRIPTURE Why didn’t the women ignore for the Sabbath before they went to the tomb? Jesus didn’t wait for the Sabbath to be over to heal, Jesus didn’t resist tearing off the heads of grain to eat as a snack along the way on the Sabbath. Without Jesus, have they already snapped back to the way things were before him? If they had disobeyed the Sabbath rules (as we were not made so the Sabbath had observers but the Sabbath was made for our good - to give us time with God and foster relationships) they could have been at the tomb earlier, when the stone was rolled away and Jesus folded the cloths and walked out of the tomb. When the Spirit moves, we don’t always get all of the details, but we just know we need to move. The women go to the tomb and as they go, they are wondering about the obstacle to Jesus’ body, the stone rolled in front of the entrance. They don’t have a plan but when they get there they will figure it out. Come to find out, the Tomb was already opened. Was the young man in the tomb the stone roller? He is the only witness to the resurrection event. I wouldn’t have let him get away without spending more time with him. It puts all believers in the same predicament. We have to contend with what someone else has told us, without our seeing for ourselves that Jesus is not here, he is risen. But this is a pivotal event. For all the other spectacular events; the healing of Jairus’ daughter, the healing of the leper, the healing of the deaf mute and after the transfiguration event, we are mandated not to tell, until the Son of Man is risen from the grave. Sometimes I am silent because I don’ know if I understand exactly what I am supposed to share. I don’t want to say the wrong thing or misrepresent something. Sometimes I have to look over my notes again, play the video over again, check in with the other witnesses before I go and tell. Then lastly, when did Jesus say that he would meet them in Galilee. The other way to read this is to follow Jesus who is ahead of you. “Go” away from this place of death and of endings, and return to life and a new beginning.——-“Follow me” to Galilee where the new beginning was shown; of feeding the hungry, driving out the demons that torment people, preaching words of hope to the broken-hearted, healing those in distress, and breaking down the barrier walls that separate people takes place. Nobody produced the missing body of Jesus to counter the resurrection claim. APPLICATION Jesus’ resurrection is present in the way he is be present for all of us; shock and amazement and a paradigm shift with no physical evidence. I have to admit that I am afraid to share my faith. I want to think that just living my life as best as I understand who God and Jesus is should be enough, but I have come to realize that my life needs a narration. I do turn a conversation towards the theological when given the opportunity. I am not an arguer, I do like to share what I am thinking about to see how others receive this revelation. I am putting together my systematics. I have changed some of my presupposition for new ones. I am still discovering and allowing my theology to evolve. In reality, we don’t have to know everything to believe. All we need is a little bit and that will start us on a journey of faith. We don’t even need evidence. The unexplainable, a feeling, being surprised from the ordinary can launch us in God’s direction. We do have invisible stones in our way that block us. Why were they obeying the Sabbath rules. Following the sabbath rule, they missed seeing Jesus, the Sabbath was the other stone in their way for something else they could be doing for Jesus. CONCLUSION Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Now that is an epic bad ending. Mark’s “go and tell and they do not” is sort of a bad ending, but we couldn’t be having this discussion if that is exactly what they did. They did get to a time when they began to say, “Remember that day we went up to prepare Jesus body? This is what happened when we got there.” or “This is what we didn’t see. And This is what we saw and heard.” and “Remember that road trip we had planned to Galilee right after that but we didn’t go. Instead, we sat around the kitchen table and remembered things; like the guy who couldn’t walk and could, or the person who couldn’t see and did. Or the person corrupted by sin and wasn’t. The change in personality for the better, the hand made whole, the catch phrases of loving our neighbor, and surprise at who my neighbors is? And forgiveness. Being stewards of the things we have. We exchanged a few more stories across the table, baked a few loaves of bread and sang a few hymns with a few glasses of wine before we were done. Then we decided to live as if we were going to live and not die. Freed from laws that need to be fulfilled by us, but living in consideration of others. We do the work to reconcile relationship instead of hold grudges and we don’t know everything and are always willing to learn more things. Then, we go and tell people, by the way, this is what I think about Jesus, the church, and what it means to live my life with faith in Jesus, who is here, but not his body, he is risen. We all get to write our alternate ending to Christ’s epic story. SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 5
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION When I got my first computer. There was a setting on it that I was always afraid to press; default. Default was not part of my vocabulary at that time and I wondered what it would do. Now I know if I pressed it. It would erase all of whatever I have done. All of the rabbit holes I have gone through, the discoveries I have made and the system errors that I have caused, not to mention links to viruses. My progression, the evolution of my computer skills, the Simm City I have created on my desk top would be reset, to a sterile past as my default. Steadfast love of the Lord, Never ending mercies, And great faithfulness is our default with God, even predating a time before sin. SCRIPTURE Most of Lamentation 5 is a recap of what has happened to Judah. They want God to know what they have been through. It is a common feeling that we have of being on our own then feeling disconnected from God and yet, we want God to know our misery. This is exactly how Judah behaved with God. They were like children who rebelled against their parents and went their own way until it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Then we wonder where God is and we want God to know our woe. Maybe to have pity on us or do something and to rescue us. Babylon attacked Judah while they behaved independently from God and decimated them. The fame walled city Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was stripped and defiled, many people died; Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. Daughters have been violated; the death of each young person robbed Judah of a different future. Homes were turned to rubble, the orderly utopia in disarray. The ownership the Holy Land was awarded to foreigners. There are no protections from the violence around them. There is a rising criminal elements that makes it dangerous even outside of the city streets. There are no rulers to bring order to things or negotiate on their behalf. There are no prophets to petition God or to give any assurance of spiritual help. Their resources have been torched leaving famine and starvation to those who remain. Their natural resources have been tainted. They had to create a Humanitarian Trade Agreements with Neighbors so that they could pay for food, water, wood, and other supplies. Judah is living the consequences of their ancestors’ folly. The new normal is a harder Life with less to show for it. Survival does not afford time to waste on pleasure, poets, creativity, or Joy. Music is gone, dance is gone, artisans are gone. But… verses 19-22, God’s reigns forever and to all generations. It may feel like God has forgotten Judah in all that they have gone through. And here in the last two verse of the book of Lamentations is a plea to be restored. Hit the default button. Erase the recent disaster and set us up back in the good old days. Unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry beyond measure. Relationship has always been God’s goal for us. Rejection and anger are all part of relationships, but so is Love, mercy and faithfulness, going back to that default. APPLICATION There actually is no going back to past things, no glory days to recreate. It’s gone. How is God setting us up for the future? How do we begin to heal our relationship with God? I got two mantras to take with me into tomorrow: one with steadfast love, unending mercy and great faithfulness, the other is to have Koa (courage), imua (move one foot in front of the other) and Pono (do the right thing). This is not about nationalism but about people becoming the People of God based on relationships of love, mercy and faithfulness. Citizenship beyond boundaries, race, gender and even religions styles. The future is not in the past but in what we can create, consolidate, fuse, invent, hybrid and imagine. Whatever we build we will bring our values, tradition, culture, style, beliefs, and collaborate, discerning the truth, listening, giving space for evolving and creativity form. Lamentation leaves the people of God with the chance to build something new relying on the steadfast love of the Lord, Unending mercies, and Great faithfulness. They are later released from their captivity and are able to return home. What they build with their freedom is seen in the setup of the temple worship when Jesus begins his ministry. A people of God based on righteousness through the adherence to the build with Law of Moses. Relationship with God through ancestry. And a religion based on the payment of sacrifices to make atonements for sins. Last week I spoke with a fellow from Florida who was doing a survey of our buildings for our insurance claim. He made some comment about how we are all immigrants even in Florida, then I said isn’t it interesting how the immigrants took over the host’s land and now they are afraid of new immigrants who might do the same thing to them. The irony was palpable. CONCLUSION Supremacy wants to default and go back to slavery. Putin wants to default and go back to an Old Russia, Big business wants to default and go back to a time when they don’t have to pay workers a fare wage so they can gain more profits at their expense. We see this with coal companies, Briggs and Stratton who moved their lawn mower plant out of the US for cheaper labor and Kaiser who refuses to pay workers here the same cost of living as workers in California. There is no default to go back to, God is always building on the foundations of the past toward something better. Imua I’m wondering if the models of the church need to change to be less about righteousness and more about love, mercy and faithfulness. I wondering if our United States needs to take a different look about what freedom means for all, and how our America can be different in accommodating new immigrants instead of trying to preserve an out-dated demographic. I’m wondering about which political model we want to support, one that advocates for business thinking that profits will flow down to the worker, or one that advocates for checks and balances because businesses are not good at morally doing the right thing. Pono In Lamentations 2, when it talked about prophets who did not talk speak out against Israel’s iniquities. I thought about churches that don’t speak God’s truth about what society is doing. What are we doing if we don’t have the courage to speak God’s truth and keep silent? Koa SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 4
TEXT: THEME: Our lives are a representation of our relationship with God. INTRODUCTION The Bible is a collection of humans stories about their experiences with God. The story of the Nation of Israel included times when they grew independent from God in their; government, foreign policies, worship and lives. They became no better than anyone else, so when their King Zedekiah foolishly rebelled against the king of Babylon, it set them up for attack and God treated them like everybody else. Letting this tiny nation duke it out with the Babylonian superpower on their own. They were surprised, they arrogantly thought that all of the success they had in the past against greater powers would be repeated, but they were decimated without God having their back. The city was lost, everything was destroyed, now in its wake is famine and starvation. Today’s chapter of Lamentations picks up after the 1st chapter of devastation, the 2nd chapter of grief and the 3rd one of turning to God and finding love, mercy and faithfulness, but turning to God does not magically erase the devastation of destruction. Shifting gears a bit, Lamentations 4 gives us insight as to what lead up to this fiasco. SCRIPTURE Instead of reading the entire chapter, I chose a few representative passages as our reading today. The People of God have become no better than any other people as they have turned away from their tradition, their heritage, their religion, their belief in God for; other idols, greed, fame, popularity, power, pleasure and vanity. They have become useless as a people representing what life in relationship with God looks like. God loves them even though they were not witnessing a belief in God. As a result of the Babylonian attack, fields were burned and the city is now facing a severe famine and starvation. No one is escaping because there isn’t anything anywhere. Money is useless as rich and poor are faced with the grim reality of starvation. We are ash. The King put on a false morality and was fed the rhetoric by false prophets to speak religiously. He was more concern about his tan and the color of his hair than ruling, foreign relations, the economy, or justice for his people. When Babylon attacked, he escaped into the wilderness. He was hunted down and taken to Babylon where he watched his family being slain before he met the same fate, killing any hope of the messiah coming from his lineage. The famine was so severe, being killed by fighting for the country was preferable to starvation. Compassionate mothers took the lives of their suffering children to end their misery. The prophets filled the King with thoughts of a Spiritual Warfare against the Babylonian pagans and demonized their opponents. Boosting a false confidence against the Babylonians, the arrogant king egged Babylon to attack, assuming God would come to their aid as God had done in the past. God would have, if they were Israel in spirit, but they were Israel only in name. No one came to Israel’s aide against Babylon, rather the than fight Babylon, Edom, their neighboring country, became Babylon’s friend and plundered Jerusalem after the Babylonians. The Daughters of Edom are warned in this chapter. This is not a story about nationalism, but of a nation that had turned away from God and lost their distinctiveness. Now that everything has been taken away, they have a story of what life without God is like and reminded of the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases, of Mercies that never come to an end. And about the great faithfulness of God. Once again, these people, as wayward as they have been, can include this chapter in their continued story of their experiences with God. APPLICATION The story of Israel is our story too. We know what it means to live with God and be a witness, an example of living with an awareness of God, but then to lose our distinctiveness living only according to our greed, and come to our senses finding our way back to God. How does our lives give witness to a living God? At the installation service of the new Pastor Gordon Marchant, at Makawao Union, I met a lady who told stories about growing up as a youth during the second world war in Makawao. She said her father told her 3 things; have courage, put one foot in front of the other and do the right thing. Then she proceeded to tell me about all of these things her friends and she did while no one paid attention to teen aged girls during the war from; Apana’ junk yard, to camping along the water line, to cutting fences and learning how to mend them. Always about having courage(koa), putting one foot in front of the other (imua [moving forward]) and doing the right thing (pono). Hawaii is losing the Aloha Spirit because those who have come are bringing in what they were like from somewhere else, and many of those who have aloha are leaving to live their aloha elsewhere. We have to teach others how to live aloha and we have to be example of aloha. Some people mistake our aloha to think that we are here to serve them, until they realize that it is not that, rather that Aloha is the better way to live in being respectful of each other and doing what is loving towards each other. This is pono, doing the right things to build something that is caring and loving. There is no going back to the past, but imua, moving forward towards something fussed, combined, diverse and inclusive. We can take our value, our traditions, our love, our heritage, our DNA and our faith to flavor the future. If we don’t have koa, courage to live and encourage others to do the same, we could lose our aloha then we lose our distinctiveness and become like everyone else. CONCLUSION Don’t only listen to prophets who only tell us what we want to hear. We have to be willing to hear those who tell us the truth, the hard stuff of about our character, our behavior, our actions, our policies and what is right. If we silence opposing voices, we have nothing new to consider, no refinement to our thought, and we limit our thinking to only one voice and that is of our own foolishness. The author of Lamentations reminds us that we are dirt, reckoned as earthen pots. But what is steadfast is that God loves us and has never stopped. God’s mercies never come to an end and God’s faithfulness is great even when we have not been. When we turn to God, Things will still be difficult until they get better, and our waywardness becomes a couple of chapters of our story with God. SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 3:
TEXT: THEME: Taking hope with us through our lament. INTRODUCTION The first chapter of Lamentations gives us words to articulate the raw feelings we have at a loss. Yesterday I was outside in my yard and I could hear an argument that was taking place in our neighborhood. There was tremendous anger but I felt sorry for the guy because the only way he had to express his blame, anger and hurt was to shout an explicative. Lamentations expresses our loss, in words that plunges deep into our feelings, that help us get in touch with what is going on inside of us. There is something powerful that happens when the words of the Bible are saying what we are going through. It makes our faith in God real in knowing that God knows what we are feeling. Lamentations is a record of loss that echoes the grief the world is holding. In the second chapter we are encouraged not to move to quickly from our grief but to give it space and time to think, contemplate, meditate, consider others scenarios, gather up the facts, process, tell our stories to others, and listen to others. In this Time and Space we give ourselves time to think beyond our first reaction, our assumptions, our blame, our pity, and our shame. Then in chapter three, we are still in pain, and sorrowful but begin to lift our eyes and take on another view. There is Joy that we survived and at the same time guilt because we ask “why me?” We may begin to make peace with our loss but then begin to feel the gravity, of all that we have to do. It is not over yet. Although all of the stuff is gone, the one thing that still remains are relationships, good and bad. So now what? SCRIPTURE This is not the way you are supposed to study the Bible, but as I read the opening verses of Lamination 3 I couldn’t help but think of how God is shepherding Israel. I over laid a bit of the 23rd Psalm here: the rod, bringing us of darkness or shadows of death, dwelling with us all day long or forever in the house of the Lord, starvation satiated by green pastures. There is a story of how a shepherds would break the legs of a willful sheep, then carry it, feed it by hand, and build its relationship with it as it heals. The shepherd and the sheep bond with each other as they journey together. Then, from out of this contemplation of sorrow comes a revelation, verse 21” But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the only verses we are familiar with from Lamentations is 22“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Smack dab in the middle of the book of Lamentations. The meat in this sandwich is 2 verses around a lot of thick slices of lamenting bread. 2 1/2 chapters of sorrow to get to here and 2 1/2 more chapters of sorrow to get to the end. This should have been the end of the book but it is not because the sorrow continues and does not magically disappear. So with this promise of God’s daily mercy, love and faithfulness, we are not alone, as God continues to live with us. The rest of the 3rd chapter is about confessing our short comings, admitting our grief, seeking justice and wanting God’s wrath to repay vengeance upon their enemies. Maybe that is why Israel continues to have enemies even to this day? In their grief and sorrow they haven’t moved beyond justice and vengeance toward love, mercy and faithfulness. They are stuck in that cycle of violence. APPLICATION If we don’t take the time to work on our grief, we can get stuck in life, remain the victim feeling sorry for ourselves. Or always angrily blaming others for the situations we are in. What are we feeling in the space between disaster and hope? Lamentations 3:22-33 is part of a larger conversation about traumatized individuals and communities struggling through their own sorrow and grasping for any remnant of a relationship with God. It is a part of faith, but not the final word, and should be carefully used to open avenues of conversation, dialogue, and honest sharing rather than shut them down. Suffering is a part of living. How we deal with suffering enables us to have compassion for others. How we have been able to navigate through our suffering can be a help to others with their suffering. We can share how God has been a help for us through our grieving. If nothing else, it is with God’s promise of steadfast love, unending mercy and great faithfulness that moves us beyond despair and moves us on the path towards hope. The book of Lamentations is a literary marvel as in chapter 2 it adds space for us to have time to sit in our grief. Then it literally puts hope, mercy love and faith in its middle. As the place we reach out to from despair and the as what we take with us as we continue to journey through our sorrow. (Like a Hero/hope sandwich) Grief comes in waves. At first, the time between these waves of grief are short, but as time goes on, and we do our grief work, considering what we are feeling. The times between bouts of grief become greater. This is how we know we are getting better. Not that we are forgetting our loved one or the loss, but that we begin to take that part with us as we live the rest of our lives. CONCLUSION Relationships are important to God. It seems that God’s goals are all about relationship. We get this in Genesis and the family of God. Then it continues in Exodus and the nation who become the People of God. We see this more fully in the life of Jesus as we are called to be heirs of the Kingdom of God as its children. When we think about the peaceful neighborhood, we imagine it is about conversion and getting everyone to be a Christian. But maybe it is more about our living with love, respect, kindness, and acceptance. Being able to identify how we feel when this happens. Without blame, but being able to communicate our feeling with each other so understanding can take place and we can work on solutions together. Then as we live in this manner, relationships with God would be fostered. I don’t think that God is like the shepherd who breaks the sheep’s leg to create a bond with us. But I do believe that when our leg is broken it is God who carries us, provides for us and heals us. We get to see the mercies of God more clearly. Not everything has an instantaneous miraculous happy ending. When I was 8 years old I developed asthma. I had childlike faith and prayed for healing and waited. It took about 8 years before I finally out grew my asthma. God carried me though sorrow and poor health and I learned about prayer and faith. I might not have learned as much about God if my family stayed where they were and didn’t end up moving to the Waimea Larger Parish. So no matter where we are in the hero sandwich of mercy, love and faithfulness, God is discoverable in our sorrow and will journey with us into the remaining set of chapters of our lives. SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 2
TEXT: THEME: God expects us to take time and space to process trauma. INTRODUCTION The Bible is a collection of people’s stories with God. It records our human lives and our discoveries about God's character. One of the brilliant qualities of the Bible, is that it does not just record our successes and triumphs, but it also records our failures, sorrows, struggles, betrayals and pain. It is God’s dwelling with us through all the parts of our lives. In it, we can see God's healing, compassion, patience, forgiveness, love and life giving ways. Lamentation is such a book, where as the result of our failure, the Holy City of Jerusalem was invaded and destroyed, resulting in many of its residents being exiled to live in Babylon. 750 miles away as the crow flies, it is a 1,700 miles walk along the rivers. SCRIPTURE The second chapter in Lamentations is like the 1,700 mile walk. It is a space between the grieving in Jerusalem and finding ourselves displaced in Babylon. It is a space in sorrow before we begin crying out to God again. This is a space for us to wallow in self pity, to mourn our loss, to complain about what has happened to us, to get angry, to blame others and God, and to deny any responsibility so we don’t have to feel any worse than we already do and to be the victim of our own story. This is what it means to be human. The verses represented in the scripture reading illustrate very strong feelings. This is about what we feel. Its okay, we are human, we do this, sometimes when we are at our worst. But this is not all that we are. This is God letting us have our moment, until we decide God isn’t actually to blame and we shouldn’t have acted that way. This represents our knee jerk reactions to calamity, our monkey brain or amygdala fight or flight reaction. This is before our prefrontal cortex or Spock brain kicks in. Child psychiatrist John Rosemond talked about the “strong willed child.” He said that there is no such thing. I sort of suspect he actually meant that there are parents who are not very good at parenting. So when a child is angry and says that they hate us, then stomps away to their room locking the door…he says to take the vacation. Let them be, let them stew, be angry and after awhile, when they calm down and they need us again, they will come back. This is what is recorded in this passage. The people of God are angry at God and have stomped away to their room, blaming God for ruining their lives. 1God is angry at us and we are humiliated that all of these things have happened to us, with no thought our how we might have contributed to the situation. 4God has become like an enemy to us, by not preventing this attack, it is as if God was attacking us. If you are not for us, you must be against us. The tent of the daughter of Zion, is the temple of the children of God. 7There is no worship in the temple. It has been destroyed, What they do not see is that there was no worship of God happening there anyway because they had taken up to worshiping other gods. It wasn’t defiled by enemies, it was defiled by their betraying hearts. No worship of God, No leadership from God, No governance according to God’s ways, they turned away from God, but are not sorry about what they have done and blame God for the result of their folly. 11The grief and hunger they experience is emotional and physical but they are also spiritually starved. 14The counsel that they received was false. These prophets told them only what they wanted to hear, or what would continue to keep the prophets employed. They did not challenge their faith, or encourage them to grow. They were useless, misleading them in thinking that they were fine, when they were not. 16Their enemies have risen to make fun of them. Mock them and gloat over their demise. What was it in the way that Israel was living that made them to have so many enemies? Was it arrogance, greed, pride, selfishness, prejudice, self-righteousness? 20Then in the turning to God, it is almost as if saying: Look what you made me do. Don’t you know who you are doing this too? Not taking any responsibility for their actions or the consequence of their behavior. They have forgotten where their entitlement and privilege came from. 22They feel that God is to blame for not defeating their enemies. It is as if God had given their enemies an invitation to come and kill their children. APPLICATION God is big enough to be blamed by us for the bad stuff that happened in our lives. How do we move from blame to taking responsibility for our contribution to the situation we are in? What are we feelings in the space between disaster and hope? We need time and space to process events in our lives. After the fires in Lahaina and Kula, we spent time listening to the stories that people held. This gave them time and space to put their story together, to begin to articulate what happened to them and how they felt. This helped them get in touch with what they were feeling. Right or wrong, this is how they perceive what had happened and how it made them feel. The space after the disaster, to the time when we feel hope, is where our story get processed. As tell our story, we begin to know what we are feeling. This is where our listening can help identify the feelings being expressed. Sometime we don't know what we are feeling but others observe it. If we know how we are feeling, then we can decide if we want to continue to feel this way. Having time and space for sorrow, crying, blaming, knee jerk scenarios are our first response. Our presence, listening, moving towards normalcy, identifying feelings, are helpful for someone who is in the between space of disaster and hope. CONCLUSION In our story God is dwelling with us. There is a flip side to the story from Disaster to Babylon. The story that shows our actions that lead to the disaster. The story of how we felt one way because we didn’t have all of the facts correct. The story of how our feelings changed with a new perspective, a change in behavior or greater understanding. If anything, this says that we are people who are in process. Humans who we could get stuck in blame, anger, self-pity, grief, sadness, shame and helplessness. Keep processing, God has more for us beyond the space of lament. SCRIPTURE: Lamentations 1
TEXT: THEME: Giving ourselves grace to grieve our loss. INTRODUCTION Barbara Brown Taylor, a former pastor, educator at Piedmont College, and public theologian spoke about how our world is carrying a lot of unmourned grief. Our world has experienced so many kinds of losses. Just last week the shooting at the end of the Kansas City Chief’s parade triggered old sorrows brought about by gun violence. Our American culture doesn’t give us adequate opportunities to grieve. We don’t stop to reflect, to feel pain, placing an event like this into a larger context, we jump quickly towards revenge which is not mourning. Sometimes we need a retreat where we can scream with drums, or attend a really good funeral, or participate in a march advocating for the stop of losses due to abuse, but our culture does not offer a stylized way to deal with the corporate grief we feel as a community. She suggests that the church offer Ash Wednesday and the 40 days of Lent as a way for our community to deal with our unmourned grief with an opportunity to lament, confess sins, and sit in the sins of our community. This led me to the book of Lamentations. I have never preached from it before and I found a resource from Fuller Seminary called Lamentations in Lent. It seemed a bit much for the next 5 Sundays in Lent, so I thought maybe I’d join Iao UCC bible study in Mark. So I took Iao’s invitation to join them at 7pm. The Gospel of Mark will have us journey with Jesus up to the events of Easter but that wasn’t what I wanted to do so I went back to Lamentations. As I read the its passages I found that its poetry were touch points for the thoughts and emotions we are carrying about the Lahaina and Kula fires. I’ll be preaching from the first few verses of Lamentations 1 but have worked the other verses of the first chapter into the liturgy of our worship service. SCRIPTURE Lamentations speaks to our human condition. Our hearts are articulated in the words of this poem. From its verses I took the feelings that were communicated and attached some of our current feelings and events. As you listen to the retelling of this lament, do the same and attach your own feelings, thoughts, stories, to reflect, meditate and mourn. This is the beauty of poetry. 1Lahaina: sits in ashes, Once filled with people, now uninhabitable and empty. She has become like a widower. Once a princess among resort towns, she is now dependent upon handouts, subsidies, FEMA, grants, agencies and others to support her. 2Sorrowful, her tourist friends are gone, their playground is gone. Some try to take advantage of her despair. 3Her Livelihood is gone. Those who could–have left, locals are sheltered without jobs, security is gone, some are surviving to stay close to home, to ward off opportunist. 4The first Missionary outposts mourn. The Kalawina ministers behind the scenes. Our hope in God lies within. 5She is subject to insurance companies, building permits, the core of engineers, EPA standards, infrastructure and utility concerns. It is easy to think God is the cause of all of this. That is not true, God has not caused this, Rather God is with us in all of this and even with our children. 6Ambivalence towards Lahaina’s children drives the forces of power, money and politics towards quick fixes. This will be a long journey. 7All we have left are the memories. Even our mementos are gone. The touchstones to the past, the reminders of our history, the ancestors are gone and the artifacts of our stories. Don’t listen to those who try to take our heritage from us. 8what has happen to her bring sadness. It is so embarrassing. 9We are Mortified. We have been so short sighted, only doing what was needed in the moment without thought to its long lasting effect. We have no pride to preserve. “Lord look upon our despair and our shame.” 10what has been most dear to us has been taken away. Our boundaries have been violated. 11The treasures we have escaped with, we use for sustenance. Lord look upon our desperation. 12Tourist come and gawk at our misfortune. How sad, how poor, how houseless. 13The fires were relentless and complete. Everyone was affected by its wrath. 14Sometimes when things are difficult, it is easy to blame God for what we have done, or for things that have happened to us. Forgive us. APPLICATION The lament gives us time to consider what has happened. Identify how we feel, and even consider how we might have contributed to part of what had happened. We can admit our part, make plans to change our behavior so we don’t find ourselves in this situation again and see what we can do to make things better. The feelings we have are important. We may not understand them right away and need to give them the attention they need so we can identify them, explore why we feel that way, discover their roots and decide if we want to continue to feel like that or not. Too often we move towards quick solutions that are rash and don’t deal with the feelings we have, just burry them. When we are able to name these feelings it helps us to know what we are dealing with. Prayer, silence, engaging in a lamenting prayer gives us space to consider these things. Sometime we may need the help of a therapist who can help us to identify what we are dealing with and give us tools we can use to deal with our feelings. Praise music, the Psalms, and coffee with a trusted friend are other tools at our disposal. CONCLUSION On Friday Eddie and I spoke with an insurance adjuster about the repairs to the sanctuary roof and water damage inside. They surveyed the outside of our building with a drone and the inside with a 360 degree camera. Their AI software will identify all of the places in need of repair. They said there is a good chance that we will be able to get the funds that we need to do all of the repairs that need to be done. We need to be in pray that the insurance company will partner with us to make these repairs and keep our building going for the next 150 years. The interior work may be extensive. We may have to invite ourselves to worship at Iao UCC while they set up scaffolding to work on the ceiling. I can feel my anxiousness building. Remember the 4-8-7 breathing? We need to feed oxygen to our brain to think clearly. (And breath in the Holy Spirit). Sitting uncrossed with our feet flat to the ground and hands in our lap, helps us to feel grounded and maybe even sense the presence of the Lord being our foundation. There is lots of work to do, besides everything else we are already doing. But God hears our cries and journeys with us through all of this. Then down the road, I anticipate, we will celebrate, as people being able to return home to Jerusalem. To Lament is natural. We all feel loss in our lives from time to time. God is not foreign to our sorrow and is a companion who will not abandon us even when the road is difficult. God is a good listener, is patient with us especially when it is taking a while for us to get our bearings and knows that our feelings are important and will always be there to help us. SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
TEXT: 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. THEME: Letting the light of the divine shine through us. INTRODUCTION Although it is Transfiguration Sunday I am not going to preach from the Gospel text. Theologian, Melinda Quivik gives an interesting perspective of the transfiguration. Jesus is on a hike up the mountain with James, Peter and John, when the veil of Jesus’ humanness is removed and Jesus’ divinity; wondrous, frightening, powerful, unexpected and rich is revealed. Dazzling white, the unnatural and incomprehensible draws us towards, the abnormal and apocalyptic sight (apocalyptic means: revealing; like the apocalypse of the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz). If that wasn’t enough, the companions that appear with Jesus are Moses and Elijah, showing us how Jesus it the fulfillment of the Law that Moses brings from God and the prophetic nature of Jesus, speaking God’s words to us. Then God speaks, don’t rest on these laurels but take these wonders in your heart and live it off of the mountain, among the people. The transfiguration is a change in Jesus’ outward appearance that does not change who Jesus is, but his transfiguration is a transformative moment for Peter, James and John. SCRIPTURE The gospel of Jesus Christ is carried by human vessels. Sometimes the glory of the Gospel is veiled by our humanness and sometimes, as the Apostle Paul recognizes, the Gospel is unable to be received through our veils of pride, selfishness, greed and lust. 6For it is God who said “Let light shine out of darkness” … Rachel Naomi Remen, story book writer, gives insight to this verse as she tells her grandfather’s story of the first day of the world. From out of the heart of the Holy darkness-the source of life, emerges a great ray of light, giving birth to the world of a thousand thousand things. And the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke and was shattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden. All people are created with the capability to discover these fragments of light in every person and event and as we do, acknowledging the light with awe or thanksgiving, it makes the world a little bit more whole, or as Paul might say, less veiled. APPLICATION Why talk about the transfiguration? Because it plants the brilliance of eternity in us as we are reminded on Ash Wednesday that we are dust. That as soil, we are dependent upon God breath in us for life. Our responsibility is to listen to Jesus and engage what we know about Jesus in our living. What is veiled in us that needs to be transfigured? As I was working on this passage, I realized I got my made up headings for the scripture reading wrong. The first part is a Lament: “the gospel is veiled, to those who are Pershing, the god of this world has blinded them, and keeps them from seeing the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” Then the second part is Transfiguration: “We do not proclaim ourselves but Jesus Christ in us; Let light shine out of darkness, to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God.” I realized this when I made a list of all the veils that blind us from seeing the divine; greed, power, prestige, money, possessions, materialism, fame, privilege, image, approval, popularity, ego, pain, prejudice, fear, selfishness, racism and self-preservation. The light of the divine that shines out of darkness are seen in acts of; compassion, stewardship, community life, a woman’s rights over their own body, seeing hurt, empathy, affordable drugs, healing, affordable health care, water rights, zero carbon foot print, justice, eliminating microplastics, generosity, financial planning, the family of God, equity, image of God, the body of Christ, the children of God and being the people of God. This is what transfigures through us when we drop our human veils and let Christ in us shine through. The USA is good, but not perfect and needs the church to help it move in betters ways away from the veils of self-centeredness and self interest. In today’s Mission Moment on the back of the bulletin, it talks about racism and earth justice. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and others are exposed to hazardous waste in their communities in the dumping of toxic material, testing of nuclear devices, medical experiments, diverting water, ignoring EPA standards and just pay the fines of their offensives. Racism is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others. This is another way to shine the light in darkness. CONCLUSION Transfiguration Sunday is also the last Sunday in Epiphany, this Wednesday we move into the season of Lent. As I worked in my yard, I listened to a pod cast interview with Barbara Brown Taylor. Episcopal priest, public theologian and former religion department professor at Piedmont College. In one of her side comments, she said that American Culture does not deal well with Lament. Other cultures have stylized ways of dealing with their loss. This is what the O Bon season is during the summer, the Lantern ceremony at Ala Moana beach park, the Mexican dia de muertes (the day of the dead), Ching ming. Besides funerals, our culture does not provide ways for us to deal with unmourned grief. Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, 40 days before Easter are one thing that the church can offer. So I am planning to preach from the book of Lamentations for the next 5 Sundays before Palm Passion Sunday and Easter. This will provide us time to meditate, reflect and listen to what God has to say, not only to our own sins, but to the sins of all, and our corporate sins. It will give us a safe space to mourn so there can be some healing from what we have lost. SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
TEXT: 23b so that I may share in its blessings. THEME: Faithfully living Christ’s Aloha can change lives. INTRODUCTION Every so often, while driving I will run across one of those “Live Aloha” bumper sticker. The one designed by Sig Zane with the resilient Ohia Lehua blossom in the corner. It started as a campaign, in 1993, to reform government when its organizers recognized that Hawaii was losing its Aloha Spirit. So, they decided to promote living according to the depth, beauty, and wisdom of the Hawaiian people. Live Aloha means to live with a caring spirit, respect for others, respect for land and the responsibility for all that surrounds us. When we couple this with the love of Christ, living aloha, is Christ’s Aloha, and should be characterize in our lives, in the church, permeate into our community, challenge our country and bring peace to the world. This is not domination but a grace filled craftsmanship of dominion or “skilled mastery.” SCRIPTURE Sometimes when we do a Bible study we get down to the minutia of a passage, with verb parsing and etymology, but at other times we need to pull back and view the passage from afar, to get a feeling of how this truth applies to us today. As we pull our view back from this passage, we can see how it is divided into two parts. The first being that of the Apostle Paul justifying to the church in Corinth his legitimacy as a teacher about Jesus and the second part, talking about how the Good News of Jesus Christ is for all people, backgrounds, races, culture and even religions. The Gospel of Jesus is primarily about our relationship with God. It’s free, easy, not lorded over, or complicated. Simple enough, but provocative. It raises our curiosity to learn more. It has us offering the best version of ourselves to others. We can journey in relationship with God through Jesus for the rest of our lives. Not only that but this is for everybody as we journey together. So, we don’t have to make living in relationship with God harder than it has to be. God does not regulate it, we don’t have to administrate it, all have must to do is share it, and dispense it by living it. Past lives do not disqualify us from relationship with God through Jesus. We all come from someplace before we have an experience of Jesus that moves us from; unbelief to faith, to the belief that Jesus is God in flesh and blood, to a new reality of resurrection, to relationships healed through forgiveness, and the dwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to make changes in our world for God. It is after all a new beginning. Paul is not a theological snake oil salesman, but has an experience with the risen Jesus that changed his perspective and discredited his previous presuppositions. He now believes what he thought was blasphemous and reset his course of faith. The motivation of love is not domination. It’s not a forcible take over of culture, but is; persuasive, compelling, convincing, crafting, stewardship, skilled mastery in its living and resonates through our experiences. APPLICATION We all have come to believe in Jesus as the Christ in some way. The next part is for us to live what we believe by faith. How do we live/share/dispense this Gospel knowing that it is not just for us but for everyone? In thinking about the application part of this sermon, I began to think about examples of faith I was able to copy from observing how others carried on and lived their faith. There was a couple who didn’t use their old car as a trade in but gave their old car away to someone who needed one. There was a couple, that even though well into their married years always spoke with respect, appreciation and polite manners with each other. There is a pastor who took complicated theological ideas and made them simple to understand and even explained them with humor. There are those who don’t live as if they are dying, but as those who are going to live forever, with courage, trying new things, wonder and zest. A classmate of mine and her husband chose to keep their baby even though they knew she would have birth defects. They did what they could to let their daughter have as full a life as she could and know that she was loved. Then there where those who care for love ones, that I see the example of Jesus in them. It is humbling to watch and inspires me to be a better care giver. It is through the example of these, ordinary faithful people that I have been won over to be better. Watching their examples I have been able to copy some of what they do. This is what Paul is talking about when he speaks about becoming all things to all people. It is more about a humble empathy that understand where people are coming from, so we can speak human being to human being, and see the image of God in each other. Heart to heart, fear to fear, hope to hope and love to love. I have changed my mind and behavior because of kindness I’ve witnessed by others. I have changed my mind and behavior because of the generous acts of help displayed by others. I have changed my mind and behavior because I saw those who chose to be loving instead of judgmental. I have changed my mind and my behavior because of Hospitality I have received when I was hungry, lonely, and stranger. The stories of the Bible inform me about how important good, compassionate, and just our immigration laws need to be, as the people of God continue to be aliens in a foreign land, relying on the resources of others to be generous and kind. CONCLUSION More times than not, those who have the “live Aloha” bumper stickers are the worst drivers on the road and want you to ‘aloha’ them because they are not ‘aloha-ing’ anybody. That is not how it works. Aloha is not a commodity, or a demand on anyone, it is an inspiring way that we choose to live. Love more important than power. Loving you in spite of you. At the beginning of my career, I spent most of my preaching explaining the text so we could have an insightful understanding, but what good is a minuscule insight that doesn’t make a difference in the way we live our lives. So in the latter half of my career I have spent more time trying to figure out how the truth of a passage, can change the way we live, approach life, reconcile relationships, reprioritized our lives and calm our fears about death. When we get down to it, my preaching has been about being loved by God, about relationships with God and others, about our doing our best to be loving of others, and for us to love ourselves so we can bring the best of us into any situation and to others. One last observation. We live in an anxious world. There is a tension between Paul and the Corinthians in this passage. I went to a resilience training this week that the Hawaii Conference resourced using the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team. They demonstrated different breathing techniques as way for us to feed our brains with oxygen so we can be calm and bring our best selves into a situation or relationship. When I attended the General Synod last June, they began a lot of their workshops and session with breathing. As natural as we think it is sometimes, we need to stop hyperventilating and take a few deep breaths (even before we get our blood pressure read). One tool the resilience training taught us to do was to breathe in for 4 counts, hold that breath for 8 counts and release it in 7 counts. 4-8-7 In the word Aloha, Ha means breath. This could be a way, we can allow God’s breath to help us to live ours. SCRIPTURE:1 Corinthians 7:29-31
TEXT: 29aI mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; 31bFor the present form of this world is passing away. THEME: Christ’s Aloha shifts us to live in God’s way. INTRODUCTION The culture in Hawaii is changing, its losing its local people and its Aloha Spirit. Its people are not able to afford to live in their home, so some have taken their families for opportunities on the Mainland. The writing of Paul, to the church in Corinth seem to be addressing a change to their culture with the concept of Christ’s love or aloha. Their lives are being changed by the concepts of grace, forgiveness, adoption, inclusion, and an acculturation with Christ’s love into their lives. Here in Hawaii, I like to call our version of acculturating the Love of Christ into our lives as ‘Christ’s Aloha.’ Taking the concept of Aloha and using Christ as its descriptor. The Corinthian lectionary themes can be seen as; Christ’s Aloha-Hanai, Christ’s Aloha-Church, Christ’s Aloha Body, Christ’s Aloha Change, Practice Christ’s Aloha, Live Christ’s Aloha, and Shine Christ's Aloha. We have Aloha as part of our culture, what we learn about Christ informs our Aloha and what we learn about Aloha informs our understanding of Christ. SCRIPTURE 1 Corinthians 7 identifies the age we are living in as the ‘last days’, because Christ has come into our world and now God rules. This ends the present age and begins something new, the reign of God. This theological perspective is called; ‘A Realized Eschatology’ (or last days) where the Kingdom of God is already (realized) present among us. This is why we say the eternal life God makes possible in Christ begins now, and not just after we die. This gets unfolded in the 5 focuses Paul highlights for change in this text; wives, mourning, rejoicing, buying and the world. Instead of our wife being the mission of a husband, we can have our spouse as a partner participating in the mission of God, as best we can discern, as God’s call of us. Instead of living until we die, we can begin to live our resurrected lives now. Living life without the fear of death and with courage instead of self-preservation. We can shift our focus from those things that make us happy towards those things that bring us joy. Eating bread with butter is a happy place for me, but it is short lived and filled with regret when I step on a scale, but the joy I have eating together with family/friend is long lasting and I will forgo dietary restrictions to spend time with them with no regrets. Instead of our self-worth coming from the things that we have or from the approval from the dominate culture we can have confidence in God’s acceptance of us and our belonging to the family of God. Christ’s Aloha forgives so nothing can separate us from God. One day Jann and I were walking through Target, we were holding hands as some married couples do, when a person saw us and had to give their approval of what we were doing adding that her husband wouldn’t do that and was someplace else in the store. (I was a little taken aback, thinking that she felt it was her place to give approval to our holding of hands). On another day, going through TSA precheck line, I went on ahead to blaze the trail for Jann and Samm to follow. In the gap between us, two people jumped in behind me. The Asian person stopped and bowed and readied herself to let my party catch up with me, while the other person intervened, gave permission to her to cut in front of me, as she also let herself go ahead. I told these two stories to illustrate how our actions and opinions can be condescending without knowing it when we are not considerate of other people’s stories. In the dealings of the world, we have a choice to pursue power to do what is good for us or love, to do what is good for others. The opposite of power is seen on the cross as Jesus give up all power, being able to call angels from heaven, to be all loving, by submitting to dying on the cross for love of us. Power gets people to do what we want, while love seeks to do what is best for someone else. Christ’s Aloha takes those things that are important to us and gives us a new perspective of their priorities, and what may be similar but of more importance and value to us and to others. APPLICATION How does Christ’s Aloha change things for us? One person can make a difference and change a church or community. I’ve been watching old episodes of Northern Exposure where young doctor Joel Fleischman finds himself paying off a scholarship obligation by being a doctor to a small town of Cicely Alaska. In a town made up of a host of characters he adds his own touches that enriches this community as well as being changed by these people. Two more stories. Last week as we made our way to Honolulu for a Dr’s Appointment, our flight was delayed. As we waited, we ate food we bought from 7/11, except I didn’t pack any napkins. When I volunteered to go get some, the local person sitting next to Jann said, “I have some in my package, I didn’t use them, here you can have them.” That is the Aloha Spirit that we have in Hawaii that we need to practice and teach other. She wasn’t ease dropping but she was observant and was willing to share what she had with us. Later when we boarded the plane, her seat was right behind Jann’s and said hello one more time. We live in a small world. The other story was in the Dr.’s office. As we entered was a sign that asked everyone to wear a mask while waiting. As we entered, everyone was complying with this except for an elderly couple who looked like Kamaaina’s but acted like Malihini’s and didn’t wear a mask. Although they obviously lived in Hawaii for a long time, they haven’t acculturated or exhibited the Aloha spirit towards the others in the room or towards the Dr’s staff. Our freedom gives us the power to consider Christ’s Aloha towards others over our own personal rights. CONCLUSION Pidgin English was needed for the cultural groups who lived in the Plantation Camps to communicate among each other. A little bit of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, broken English and of course all of the ethnic names of the foods they ate. But without the plantation that mashed our cultures together and kept us local, we now have to learn to speak to the guest in Hotels, our Pidgin English may fade in a few generations, because ‘no need ‘em for talk to each other anymore.’ Language picks up the values of a community in the words its speaks; Pake, Lolo, momonas, bombucha, Bagoon, Patelle, baboose, Ohana, and Aloha. The Aloha Spirit is about being observant and considerate of others. It changes the way we live. It changes the community we live it. It can change an awful situation to a bearable one with compassion. It is willing to be generous and help someone in a loving way. When this loving Spirit is coupled with the love of Christ it matures, evolves, and becomes even more provocative as Christ’s Aloha. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
April 2024
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