Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 2, 2008
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
“Now I See”
John 9:1-26
A settlement was established in a place called Kalawao in 1865 on the remote northern peninsula of the island of Moloka‘i. In the years that followed over 8, 000 men, women, and children diagnosed with leprosy or Hansen’s disease were sent Kalawao.
In the beginning food and shelter were a constant source of controversy. Both were inadequate and no physician could be found to care for the patients until 1879. (Kalaupapa: A Portrait, Wayne Levin & Anwei Skinsnes Law, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1989) It is said that many patients saw no reason to abide by any rules and so for many years a state of lawlessness prevailed.
But there in Kalawao the beginnings of a church were underway during the first year of the settlement. Members of the congregation sought help to construct a proper church building and so they wrote: “You must not think that all of us are living in sin and degradation. That is not so. Our greatest longing is to make a memorial to God here.” (Siloama, the Church of the Healing Spring: The Story of Certain Almost Forgotten Protestant Churches, Hawaiian Board of Missions, Honolulu, 1948, page 12)
On October 28, 1871 Siloama Congregational Church, “The Church of the Healing Spring,” was consecrated. Siloama is the Hawaiian name for Sīlō´am, a reservoir that was located within the city walls of Jerusalem. It was there at the pool of Sīlō´am that Jesus sent a blind man with the command, “Go, wash.” (John 9:7) The blind man obeyed and he came back seeing.
Our reading from The Gospel According to John tells us that Sīlō´am means “sent.” It was to that place that the blind man was sent and healed.
It is very likely that the men and women who were sent to Kalawao in 1865 were aware that they were sent there to die. Any hope for a cure would elude an entire generation of patients. It would not be until the discovery of sulfone drugs in the early 1940s and their introduction to Hawai‘i in 1946 that healing would finally come to those who were now residing on the more temperate side of the peninsula in the new settlement at Kalaupapa.
I remember walking onto the grounds of Siloama and into the church itself many years ago, long before our choir made the journey to the peninsula.
I had gone to Kalaupapa for a pastors' retreat. It was my very first visit.
One day we took the two and a half mile drive from Kalaupapa to Kalawao. It was along an unpaved road. The pickup truck kicked up gravel and dust as we made our way from one end of the peninsula to the other.
No one lives in Kalawao anymore. All of the buildings are gone except for Siloama Church and St. Philomena Church which was established in 1872. It is now widely known as “Father Damien’s Church.”
If you have been to Kalawao you know there is the smell of the ocean. You know the smell of a wooden building aged by the salt air and the winds that blow across its plain.
When I entered the sanctuary for the first time I noticed how quiet it was. The floor creaked under the weight of each step that was taken. There was a pump organ in one corner and a communion table in the center. On the wall to the left of the altar was a plaque of the names of the men and women who built the church. I read through the list of names and wondered about each person.
At the end of the list of names was an inscription on the plaque which noted that in the desolation that is Kalawao, a group of men and women made a memorial to God. It was a remarkable act of faith.
How is it that those who built the church at Kalawao would have dared to even consider naming the church Siloama knowing full well that death and not healing was certain for them? What did they see in the story of the blind man that had meaning for them? Any effort or attempt we may make to answer that question may at best be futile. We can only speculate.
But a review of the story may provide us with some insight. What is remarkable about the story is the fact that the blind man was healed on the Sabbath.
In the story Jesus’ healing created a controversy. The issue became what can or cannot be done on the Sabbath. Those in religious authority were faced with the question: Did Jesus break or keep the law by healing the man on the Sabbath?
The issue created divisions within the community. Neighbors found themselves arguing about whether or not the blind man was someone they knew. The religious authorities were uncertain if Jesus was a prophet or a sinner; whether he was from God or not. The parents of the blind man distanced themselves from their own son out of fear.
While everyone was mired in arguments and debates over what Jesus had done, the blind man responded to those who question him by saying, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes. I went and washed and received my sight.” (John 9:11) “I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:25)
Our inclination may be to view the story simply as a physical healing. After all, the man was physically blind. Now he sees. But more importantly the story is about so much more.
The women and men who gathered to build the church at Kalawao wanted to "make a memorial to God." It is my conviction that they came to understand the significance of "ke kanawai nui" – the great commandment to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
There is no doubt that some may have felt in their hearts that they had been betrayed by their families and despised by their neighbors. Others may have wondered in their minds how it was that religious authorities in Honolulu were quick to assume that their sickness was a result of promiscuity and adultery. And except perhaps for the few women and men who were determined to "make a memorial God" most may have become convinced in their souls that they had been abandoned by God.
It may be this aspect of the story that the men and women at Kalawao understood when the decision was made to name the church Siloama. When all else seemed lost they held fast to their hope in God and so the healing they sought was not only of the body, but of the heart, mind, and soul. I am convinced they had come to experience the goodness of the Lord even in the midst of the desolation that was Kalawao.
As we gather around the table that has been set for us may we be mindful of every aspect of God’s healing presence in our lives and in our world. May we come to see and believe in the one who is the Light of the World.
Thanks be to God. Amen.