Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 2, 2008
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
“Out of the Depths”
John
11:1-6, 17-37
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 in 1866 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 Sïlö´am, a reservoir that was located within the city walls of ancient Jerusalem. It was there at the pool of Sïlö´am that Jesus sent a blind man with the command, “Go, wash.” (John 9:7) The blind man obeyed and he came back seeing. Sïlö´am means “sent.”
But for the men and women who were sent to Kalawao in 1865 it is evident from the stories we have heard over the years that they were all aware they were being 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.
If all of what I’ve said to you so far sounds familiar you would right in your recollection. Everything I’ve said so far is what I shared with you last Sunday.
I told you about my memory of walking onto the grounds of Siloama for the first time and of how the floor creaked under the weight of each step that I took. I told you about the pump organ I noticed in one corner of the sanctuary and the communion table in its 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.
What I did not tell you was I sat down that day and wrote down each of the thirty five names that were listed. I kept the list but given my filing system at home it is not a list that I can easily retrieve. Coincidentally, I received an email from a colleague doing some research on Siloama Church last Monday and in that email was the roster of members that were engraved on the plaque that remains on the wall of the church to this very day.
Four days later it happened again. On Friday Taka Harada, one of our lay pastors, brought by the church office a copy of the booklet celebrating the “One Hundredth Anniversary Service of Siloama Church” that was held at Siloama in 1966. I read through the list of names for the second time in less than a week and wondered once more about each person.
We know that life was harsh in the first days of the settlement. Food was scarce. Shelter was inadequate. There was lawlessness and every hardship. Exiled to the peninsula there was a sense of complete isolation and utter loneliness.
Yet sick or well, Ethel M. Damon recalls in her book, Siloama – The Church of the Healing Spring, “these exiles brought with them, not only Bibles and hymnbooks, but memories storied in scripture. They remembered how Jesus, by anointing a blind man’s eyes with clay and bidding him wash in the pool of Sïlö´am had cured a grievous affliction. So, longing for spiritual if not bodily healing, they named their church Siloama.” (Siloama – The Church of the Healing Spring, Ethel M. Damon, Women’s Board of Mission for the Pacific Islands, Published by The Hawaiian Board of Missions, Honolulu, 1948)
Our reading from The Gospel According to John contains the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But the story is about much more than his miraculous healing. It is about Martha’s response to Jesus’ proclamation, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11:27) Martha’s confession of faith is what makes the story significant.
While Martha and later Mary both are visibly disturbed by Jesus’ apparent indifference to the news of Lazarus’ serious illness, they are also aware of his love for them. When Jesus finally arrives at their home they inform him that Lazarus is dead. After much weeping and consternation, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
In one sense raising Lazarus from the dead is almost incidental to the story. At the heart of the story again is Martha’s confession of faith and in that confession we come to realize that Jesus is preparing not only Martha but all of the disciples for what is to come – his death and resurrection – and what we recall during this season of Lent and Easter.
Perhaps the thirty five women and men who built Siloama Church saw more clearly than any of us could imagine that whatever pain or anguish they may felt; whatever despair or doubt they may have experienced, the promise of the resurrection was hope enough for them as they faced their death. I believe for the many thousands who died at Kalawao and later at Kalaupapa that that promise was also hope enough.
When I arrived at the airport at Kalaupapa many years ago I was struck by how quiet it felt – not how it sounded – but how it felt. On the way in from the airport to Kanaana Hou we passed a cemetery along the oceanside.
Later on the drive out to Kalawao we passed by another cemetery that lay in the shadow of what seemed like a forest of trees. And again I was struck by how quiet if felt – not how it sounded – but how it felt.
I did not feel maka‘u or afraid. I did not feel grief-stricken.
In that very quiet place I did not hear any voices but I did feel their presence. It felt as though they were saying, “Everything will be maika‘i. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Ke Akua is always present. God is present from now on and forever.”
The heading on the plaque reads: “Siloama Church (Healing Spring) Membership Roster December 23, 1866, Kalawao, Moloka‘i.” These are their names:
Nahuina, Lono, Kahuhu, Kaho‘ohanohano, Ka‘aua, Noa, Auhea, Puha, Kahauliko, Maui, Pa‘ahao, Rahaba Kuapu‘u, Kahinu, Kauhiahiwa, Ilae, Mulehu, Kikilehua, Kaho‘ohanohano, Palapala, Kekolohe, Kanakaloa, Mulaka, Kapa‘a, J.H. Hao, Kealohi, Kahanaipu, Kahulanui, Kane, Koalakai, Nui, Kaluahine, Kaiki, Mo‘opuna, Naehu, Kapuhaula.
There is an inscription on the plaque which reads: “Thrust out by mankind (sic) these 12 women and 23 men crying aloud to God, their only refuge, formed a church, the first in the desolation that was Kalawao in the year 1866 and named her Siloama – Church of the Healing Spring.”
The men and women of Siloama cried out to God in their pain and anguish, in their despair and doubt in the same way the psalmist cried out to God (Psalm 130). May we find in all of their cries, hope and faith for ourselves.
Amen.