Kahu's Manao
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
I was reminded by an editor of an independent press about the place the writer J.R. Tolkien calls Middle-Earth. (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 2, Bartlett & Taylor, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2009, page 116) It is in Middle-Earth that short, hairy-footed people known as hobbits live.
Thanks in large part to the work of filmmaker Peter Jackson on the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, many of us were introduced to the world of the hobbits before ever reading any of Tolkien’s books. In Tolkien’s Middle-Earth the hobbits developed a custom that at first seems puzzling.
When a hobbit celebrates a birthday, he or she does not expect a party with gifts from family and friends. Instead, the hobbit celebrating his or her birthday is the one who presents gifts to his guests. The party is for family and friends.
We may question the wisdom of such a custom. If we were hobbits and it was my birthday or your birthday, why would we go through the trouble and expense of buying gifts for others and having a party for them?
But think about how many parties a hobbit would attend each year and how many gifts he or she would be likely to receive. It is not inconceivable that he or she would be going to a party every day and not just celebrating for only one day each year.
We celebrated our 20th annual lū‘au yesterday and in some ways we were like the hobbits of Middle-Earth celebrating a birthday. It is true that all who joined in yesterday’s activities had to purchase a ticket; after all it is a major fundraising activity of the church.
But it is also true that it was a “fun” raiser – as in “f-u-n - fun” and not just “f-u-n-d - fund.” I remarked to ‘Anakē Lei Reichel when I arrived at the office on Friday morning that I had to temper my enthusiasm a bit. I was very excited coming to work yesterday.
There was so much activity going on with members and friends setting up tents, tables and chairs while others were busy stringing tuberose and carnation lei. Some were putting up the decorations while others were preparing table decorations. The planning and preparation took the time and energy of many, many individuals. While it would seem that it was time and energy expended to welcome guests with Hawaiian food, music and dance, it was also about discovering that the work was about celebrating our life together as a community of faith.
The birthday custom of the hobbits and our annual lū‘au might help us appreciate the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son in a new way. Jesus tells the story about a prosperous land owner who had two sons.
The younger of the two insists of receiving his portion of his inheritance. Custom dictates that it is only with the death of his father that he will be able to claim his inheritance. Despite the insolence of his younger son the father relents and gives his son his share of the family property.
His son leaves and squanders all of his inheritance in a distant country. Now destitute and without family or friends, he makes the decision to return home to his father. Expecting the worst to occur he is overwhelmed when his father runs out to greet him.
Some of us think the story is about the younger son. Others think that the story is about the older son. He is the one who remained behind doing the work his father asked of him, never complaining, never disobeying.
It hardly seems fair to the older son and to us that his younger brother should be given the finest robe and a ring and that a fatted calf would be killed in celebration of his return. But the father does not question the anger of his older son nor does he defend the actions of his younger son.
Instead the attention is not on the brothers but on his own love and bounty. There is more than enough to go around.
The father seems to be saying that the party is not simply for his younger son. The party is for himself. The father turns the attention away from the two brothers to his own love and bounty. There is more than enough to go around.
Like the younger son, most if not all of us have wandered away from time to time and lost our way. It may be that in this moment some of us see ourselves like the younger son coming home to mend broken relationships; others of us may see ourselves full of joy like the father and still others may see ourselves angry and full of resentment like the older son.
However we may see ourselves, we know that God has reached out to us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to call us all home. (Op. cit., page 120) Behind the parable lies the truth about God and God’s kingdom.
The party is about God and God’s life-giving love. The party is in celebration of the ways in which God’s love calls us to return home time and time again; to come home to feasting, music and dance.
The lū‘au yesterday was as much a party for ourselves as it was for our guests. It was a party to celebrate not only what we value in Hawaiian nā mea ʻai, hula, oli, and mele – Hawaiian food, dance, chant, and song - but about what we value as the people of God here in Mākena – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is what we know.
To love our God is the reason we celebrate, it is the reason we live. It is our highest call. Wherever we may wander in our life’s journey, there really is nothing that satisfies our souls, gives our lives meaning, or makes us whole. The purpose for which we were made is to love our God – and to love one another.
Amen.
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