Growing minds, Changing Hearts: A pilgrimage to Cambodia

Link to  Nicole's Blog: 'Iolani School, iBlog: STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES: A Blessing for Our Pilgrimage to Cambodia

My friend and colleague, the Rev. Nicole Simopoulos is a gifted priest (no she's not paying me to say that).  

Dust of death and glory

Every year this day and this season come around.  Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  This year is a little different, along with many other children, my daughter will come before me to receive ashes in chapel. On her forehead will be the sign of the cross and she will hear ancient words that have echoed the sacred rite, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." I am reminding her (and me) of the mortality we all possess.

I recall a time when she was an infant, and I was holding her in my arms. Pure innocence with nothing but the world and an entire lifetime before her, thinking to myself, "from the day we are born, we all have the same destiny."  There was no sadness,  this is not about willing anything into being, but rather the realization that in that moment I held life- fragile, flawed impermanent but beautiful life- in my arms.

This kind of thinking comes about perhaps because she was born on a Friday- a Good Friday to be exact; a day to think about death since Christians observe the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus.

But it is also a time to think about about life.  The story of Jesus doesn't end on Good Friday- it begins there.  Easter and resurrection have no meaning without the events of Good Friday.  That we say Christ defeated death means something when the first song of Easter says,

Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels, and let your trumpets shout salvation, For behold the victory of our mighty King!

This song is called the Exultet and is goes back nearly 1600 years. It is specifically sung at the Great Vigil of Easter- which is a deep and profound liturgy that moves from darkness to light- symbolically from death to life.  Personally, this song one of my favorite aspects of this ancient liturgy.

On Ash Wednesday, we are called to reflect on our mortality, of our need to say "I'm sorry" and to repent and be reconciled with God and with others.  Jesus invites us to "take up our cross" and follow him on a journey to Jerusalem and to Calvary itself.  In other words, we are called to die. It is not a literal death-though admittedly in parts of world where Christian persecution still exists- this metaphor is a reality. We are invited to die to old self, leaving behind the sin, the shame, and the emptiness in order that our hearts might be filled with the power of the grace, love, forgiveness and redemption so many of us desperately need to hear.  In doing so, we embrace Easter joy and resurrection.  The knowledge that not even death itself can separate us from the love of God.

So on Ash Wednesday, I put ashes on my daughter's head.  I remind her with ancient words that for a child of 7 have little meaning but for her grey haired old man means so much- that she will one day die.  "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" I tell her.  Her fate in this world is a certainly- the same as all of us.

But.

In the faith,  there is something unique.   In the service for funerals in the Book of Common Prayer there is a concluding prayer: "All of us go down to the dust, but even at the grave we make our song, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."  In the Christian faith, it is because of the work of Easter where resurrected life conquers death, that death does not have the final say.  Death itself is not the end.

There are times I catch myself holding her a hand a little tighter or hugging her and not wanting to let go in a desperate attempt to hold on to these moments of life.  Because I too have ashes on my forehead.  I am reminded of my mortality, my limits, my flawed self, and the forces that have shaped who I am and what I am called to be.

I have heard the words of the dust of death.  Still, my song is Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.  And I will teach my beloved daughter to sing it too.

Gifts of Light and Life

The Year is 243 BCE .. King Seleucus II Callinicus  has gathered with the high priest in the Temple of Apollo with him are offerings to the gods:  Gold, Frankencense, Myrrh.  The Book of Isaiah, when describing Jerusalem’s glorious restoration, tells of nations and kings who will come and “bring gold and frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6). Although Matthew’s gospel does not include the names or number of the Magi, many believe that the number of the gifts is what led to the tradition of the Three Wise Men.

January 6th, mark the feast of the Epiphany, a word that Webster defines as “to show forth, manifest” and “the revealing of Jesus as Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi”.  But when we more commonly hear that word, we hear "I just had an epiphany, or  “a moment of sudden intuitive understanding; flash of insight.”

Gaudete (Rejoice!)

The ancient word Gaudete means to "rejoice." and was written into a number of different Christian Hymns and polyphonic pieces in the Middle Ages.  One famous one: Gaudete Christus natus est  is likely a product of the 15th and 16th centuries, but its roots are certainly deeper.  I've loved this hymn and just thought I share a video post.

Latin	English
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!	Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born (Out) Of the Virgin Mary — rejoice!
Tempus adest gratiæ Hoc quod optabamus, Carmina lætitiæ Devote reddamus.	The time of grace has come— what we have wished for, songs of joy Let us give back faithfully.
Deus homo factus est Natura mirante, Mundus renovatus est A Christo regnante.	God has become man, To the wonderment of Nature, The world has been renewed By the reigning Christ.
Ezechielis porta Clausa pertransitur, Unde lux est orta Salus invenitur.	The closed gate of Eziekiel Is passed through, Whence the light is born, Salvation is found.
Ergo nostra contio Psallat iam in lustro; Benedicat Domino: Salus Regi nostro.	Therefore let our gathering Now sing in brightness Let it give praise to the Lord: Greeting to our King.

 

How much of an issue do you make an "issue"?

On December 2, 2013, the Hawaii  Marriage Equality Act went into effect. Licenses were issued, and same-sex couples lined up at the courthouse and in some houses of worship to become legally married.  On our school campus, this event came and went with little fanfare.  There are no couples (as of yet) lining up to be married in our school's chapel.  Still, there is a strong conservative evangelical current within our community whose fear is that students at school will be "exposed" to gay marriage.

To quote, M*A*S*H's Col. Sherman T. Potter, "Horse hockey!"

Mālama- living sustainably.

[caption id="attachment_99" align="alignright" width="300"] A wee little friend at San Damiano, Danville, CA[/caption]

Mālama is a word we hear often in our island culture: Mālama I ke Kai (Protect the Sea), Mālama ʻAina (Protect the Land), Mālamalama (light of knowledge lit. protected light). Mālama is often translated as "to protect or care for" ; it implies maintaining a sense of sustainability when it comes to this protection or care.

Sustainability has become a key word in our cultural vocabulary and certainly a commercial buzz word. Often linked to words such as "green" or "renewable", "sustainability" has long been associated with a kind of "granola" movement- associated with a variety of efforts such as recycling and composting. Once the niche market of a few home gardens and local farmers, organic farming is now big business. As individuals and families, more and more look for organically grown fruits and vegetables, drink milk from organically fed (and purportedly happier) cows, buy eggs from cage-free, free range chickens, bake with organic flour and whole grains, get fish from sustainable hatcheries or fisheries.

Sustainability in these product areas implies a connection between the farmer and the field, the rancher and the herd, the fisherman and the sea. We have done much in the history of the human race to subdue the earth- we carved out of the earth fields with irrigation; that makes the dessert produce richly; cast nets large and small to reap the harvest of the sea; tamed beasts of the field and used them to tow the plow, hunted others and later raised them for food.

The Book of Genesis says that in the beginning that after God created the heavens and the earth and populated it with the creatures of the land, the sky and the sea, God created humankind “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ “ (Gen 1:28) When it comes to the key words of “subdue” and “dominion” itʻs important to understand the context in which these two words exist. In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, “kevash” means to subdue as in to literally place the foot not neck of your conquered enemy signifying the submission of the conquered enemy. “Radah” the Hebrew verb to “have dominion” or “rule” is a little different than the common understanding of ruling over a people. “Radah” is related to other words which have meanings to descend or to wander. The implication of this verb is to literally rule by wandering among the subjects as an equal.

What God commends to us then in “kavash” and “radah” is to rule over the earth and its creation not as a dictator, but as a benevolent leader- a steward and a caretaker leader who is in relationship with all of creation. Mālama.

We need to return to the heart of Mālama-to protect and to care for the relationships that allow us live and grow. It is a grave sin to continue to consume and consume with abandon simply thinking there will always be. We need to reduce, reuse, and recycle not because its a trendy slogan, but because it is the right thing But itʻs more than simply buying organic, or belonging to co-op, or joining a CSA. Mālama pono means to take care or be right. Most important is to protect and care for spiritual and the human connections in our lives. These last relationships are the ones that enable us to be resilient in the wake of loss, rejection, or hardship.

We are called to be sustainable people, to live not only with aloha, but also pono (moral right-ness). With Godʻs help, we will live in right relationships with the ʻaina, the land, with moana, the ocean, and kekahi i kekahi, with one another. Mālama pono.

How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace… (Isaiah 52:7)

How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace… (Is 52:7)

Last week a reality hit me. For the majority of my students, they have lived nearly all of their lives thus far in a post 9/11 world. Since 2001 the United States and its allies have been engaged in the Global War on Terror. This means that in their living memory, they have never known a time during which our nation has not been a war. We’ve had parents, friends, aunites, and uncles deploy to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, once, twice, even more. We have seen the price veterans and their families have paid. Earlier this year, I met a group of wounded warrior athletes out on our track. Some had prosthetics and dealt with wounds of the body, others suffered wounds you cold not visibly see such as traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, including a former navy chaplain whom I met.

Psalm 98- Praise in Lent

Find Psalm 98 here

It’s not often that we read from and talk specifically about a psalm.  There are 150 psalms in the Bible and are ancient prayers and hymns so old that the original melodies have been lost to history.

The Psalms can be divided into different categories:  There are psalms of sorrow or lament, psalms of praise, royal psalms, and thanksgiving psalms to name a few.  Psalm 98 is in a category of both praise and enthronement.
There is a lot of interesting technical Biblical stuff regarding form and structure in this short psalm of 9 verses, but most importantly, is the question of what does it all mean?  That is to say,  what does it mean for us to offer praise?

God Likes Mountains

God, I am convinced likes mountains.  While there something amazing happens for Jesus is seen in blazing white and in the company of Moses and Elijah.  A moment so incredible and transformative for the disciples with him.  Perhaps this is where we get the phrase a “mountain top” experience. Referring to the feeling one has when one has experienced something wonderful and life changing.  Truth is, the mountain top experience does not last forever. There are other challenges to face, other things to do.  It’s not that such experiences don’t change us, indeed we are transformed by them.  But we cannot stay on top of the mountain forever.

Our lives are filled with both mountains and valleys. Highs and lows. There are good days and bad days.  Faith is no different.