Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
"Life Abundant"
John 10:1-18
It was not the first time I had been to Micronesia. My three visits there began with a trip to Majuro in the Marshall Islands over twenty-five years ago. The year after that we traveled to Kosrae.
This time we found ourselves in Pohnpei. Each visit included a delegation of representatives from what was then known as the United Church Board for World Ministries. As a member of the board I was invited to be a member of the delegation.
For many years the board provided support in terms of personnel as well as material resources for our partner churches in Micronesia. Some went as pastors, others as teachers. In the latter part of the 19th century many of those who responded to the mission in Micronesia were Native Hawaiian men and women. It has been said that all found it difficult to serve the church here in Hawai‘i because of the reluctance and resistance of American missionaries to share the work among Native Hawaiian people.
Following an end to World War II, Micronesia became a trust territory of the United States under an agreement with the United Nations. That arrangement came to an end when the U.S. terminated its trusteeship and what was known as the Federated States of Micronesia became the Marshall Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Chuuk.
As the various states of Micronesia gained their political independence other aspects of leadership began to change – including leadership within the church. Our visits to Micronesia were intended to provide encouragement and support to the organization of what has now become known as the Micronesian Council of Churches.
On our visit to Pohnpei I was asked to lead a Bible study. I remember standing before forty pastors and laypeople wondering what I had gotten myself into. Some of those present spoke Marshallese; others spoke Pohnpeian, Kosraen and Chuukese. Because of the Japanese occupation during World War II some of the elders spoke Japanese.
There was even a hint of some who remembered the presence of Hawaiian missionaries. One of their favorite hymns was the Hawaiian-language hymn, "Nu Oli."
Although we shared English as a common language I also knew that there were numerous cultural bridges to cross – not only in terms of language – but in terms of cultural traditions and practices and the ways in which we see the world through our own cultural lenses.
That was never more apparent than when I noticed a painting on one of the walls of the church. The painting, now faded by the heat and humidity of the tropics, featured a portrait of Jesus as the Good Shepherd - standing with a shepherd's crook in his right hand and a sheep standing to his left.
It was a portrait that I had seen before in other churches here in Hawaiÿi and in other places. As a child I really did assume that Jesus had blond hair and blue eyes. It never occurred to me that Jesus would have actually looked more like those with whom I grew up here in Hawaiÿi.
As I sat in the afternoon heat and humidity that day years ago I realized each of us in that sanctuary were faced with the same challenge: How do we come to appreciate more fully the psalmist’s declaration, “The Lord is my shepherd,” in a place and among a people for whom a shepherd may mean nothing? How do we come to appreciate more fully Jesus’ declaration, “I am the good shepherd,” in a place and among a people for whom a shepherd may mean nothing at all?
The image of Jesus as a shepherd made sense in Palestine but not in Pohnpei or here in Hawai‘i. Whatever thoughts I may have had about being a teacher that day quickly dissipated in the tropical heat and humidity of Pohnpei. I suddenly became aware that I was the student and not the teacher.
If there was a lesson to be learned it would be in translating or interpreting the image of shepherds and sheep into a geographical, social, cultural, and religious setting where there were no shepherds or sheep. Our readings from The Gospel According to John and The Book of Psalms are about shepherds and sheep.
What I know about shepherds and sheep in Palestine comes from what I have read and what I have seen in film. I have never been to that part of the world but I do know the life of a Palestinian shepherd was and still is very, very difficult.
In ancient times flocks were always being moved to find what little grass there was in the plateau areas of the desert. Whatever grass appeared on the rough and rocky terrain came each year with the seasonal rains.
No flocks ever grazed without a shepherd present to stand watch. The work was dangerous and required constant vigilance – the sheep were prey to other animals, to thieves and robbers, and in the rainy season to flash floods and land slides.
The shepherds of the Bible had to be not only fearless and vigilant but patient and caring. In the end the shepherd lived for his flock, not for himself. (The Ten Freedoms, Paul T. Harrison, from Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life: Lent/Easter, April 13, 2008, page 114)
His equipment included a bag of animal skin in which food was carried. A sling was used as a weapon against wolves and other animals that would prey on the sheep.
A staff was made with a wooden club at one end and was also used as a weapon. A crook at the other end would allow the shepherd to hook a wandering sheep by its hind leg to draw the sheep back into the flock.
At the end of the day it would be used to help the shepherd examine any of the sheep for injuries. If there were any injured sheep, the shepherd would draw out oil from an animal horn that would be used for healing a wound.
But the shepherd’s care for his sheep went beyond his caring for those that were threatened or harmed. For the most part we know that the sheep were bred not for killing, whether it was for Temple sacrifices or food, but for shearing.
The shepherd and his sheep shared a life together for years. During that time the intimacy between them would grow. He named them all and developed a language with which he was able to communicate with them. The shepherd knew his sheep and was prepared to lay down his life for his sheep. This was not an exaggeration. (Op. cit.)
It was the care of the shepherd for the sheep that the writers of The Gospel According to John and The Book of Psalms sought to convey of a God who cares for all of our needs. It was the intimacy between the shepherd and the sheep that they sought to convey of a Jesus who would lay down his life for others.
Over the years I’ve thought about what the writers or Jesus may have said were he born and raised here in Hawai‘i. Would they have told us about the kia manu or bird catchers who would snare birds by applying a gummy substance to branches to collect the feathers that would be fashioned into capes for the ali‘i or chiefs? Of how it was necessary that they take great care in their work making certain that the birds were released and not harmed? Of how the birds would live to grow and provide more feathers?
Or would they have told us about the konohiki or person who was responsible for the care and stewardship of the land and fishing rights of an ahupua‘a or land division under a particular chief for the benefit of the people of that area? I imagine if Jesus were born and raised here in Hawai‘i he would have considered saying “I am the kia manu” or “I am the konohiki.”
I suppose in the end what matters most is not whether we know about sheep and shepherds or birds and bird catchers or about stewards of the land and land but about the ways in which God’s care and intimacy become signs of God’s mercy and steadfast love for us and for all of creation through the one we know as the risen Christ. In this season of Easter we give thanks again and again for the abundant life Christ gives – not of all that we may want but of all that we need. Amen.