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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
April 2024
|