Kahu's Manao
Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)
Trinity Sunday
The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika
“In God’s Image”
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
I know you cannot see this too clearly from where you are sitting so I want to describe this piece of memorabilia to you. There are two coconut trees with the sun hovering behind one of the trees. To my right is a man who is seated under one tree and to my left is a woman reclining under the other.
The sign between them reads, “Hawai‘i.” They appear to be naked. They have big eyes and mouths that seem to be painted with some “white face.”
Some will say it is a caricature meant to amuse and humor, not offend and hurt. I started collecting Hawaiian memorabilia over thirty years ago and was especially interested in the caricatures or images others seem to have about Hawaiians.
At the time I was living in Berkeley, California near Live Oak Park, a public park with a tennis court and a community center. During the spring and summer arts and crafts faires were held in the park. From time to time art workshops and special exhibits were held at the community center.
It was one of the special exhibits that caught my attention one day. A haole woman had spent several years of collecting what she identified as folk art or memorabilia of African Americans. At one point she realized that what she had collected were visible and tangible images of what others perceived African Americans to be.
Aunt Jemima was included in the collection. Someone created the image of a heavy Black woman with a bandana wrapped around her head and called her Aunt Jemima. It was an image that I remember seeing when I was growing up.
The image reminded me of other images I had seen not only of African Americans but of Hawaiians and it made me wonder how it was that others thought nothing of creating such images. A few days ago a bar owner in Marietta, Georgia began selling Obama 08 tee shirts that featured the image of Curious George – a monkey with a banana.
When questioned by an interviewer the owner of the bar, Mike Norman, said he was trying to liken Obama not to a monkey but to a cartoon character. He saw no harm in that and said: “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, the looks . . . ” According to Norman, Obama looked like Curious George.
The images we create of one another are our own images and when it comes to matters of race in the United States there is no shortage of images that make it difficult for us to engage in serious conversations about race. Today many pastors across the United Church of Christ are preaching on race in hopes of beginning what is being called a “sacred conversation.”
Keawala‘i Congregational Church is a member of the United Church of Christ. Such a conversation, such a dialogue is needed not only in our pews and in our homes, but in our schools and in places of work and government.
It has been said such a conservation or dialogue is never easy especially when we may find ourselves having to confront our nations painful past and its impact on our lives today. Yet it has also been said that sacred conversations can, and often do, honor the value of our life experiences, requiring of us an openness to hear each other’s points of view.
Growth often happens when honest conversations are communicated in a respectful environment. But creating the opportunities for such conversations is difficult.
If we were to seek some common ground amid our diverse experiences it may well be that our reading from The Book of Genesis provides with such an opportunity. The story of creation is a solemn and measured one.
Before creation there were the primeval waters. God established the world within these waters. Out of chaos God created order and thus we understand God both as the one who creates and sustains the world.
It is God who acts and speaks. It is by God’s words or actions that all things come into being. In the account of Adam and Eve, we are told that human beings are created last of all and given responsibility for the care and stewardship of creation.
If there is a major point to be made in the story it is this: Time and time again a divine pronouncement is made: “And God saw that it was good.”
Creation is seen as good not only because God created it, but because God determined it was so. We were all created in the image of God, whatever our race may be, “and God saw that it was good.”
God saw that it was good!
But we have managed to create our own images of one another through caricatures and cartoon characters and in the process we have denied the image of God in each human face. Some may argue that we make too much of caricatures and cartoon characters. Where is the harm if someone is able to laugh or smile.
Yet we know that such images can cause us to fear one another, when we begin to imagine the worst of one another. When we begin to create laws out of our fear of one another we deny what we know to be true – that each human person is created in the image of God – and that each person has a right to sit at the soda fountain or ride in the front of the bus; that each person has the right to buy a home in a neighborhood without fear that they have the wrong surname; that each person is free to love and to marry and to have children with someone of a different race; that each child has a right to an education and that each person has access to health care.
A television documentary aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002, humankind is said to share a common genetic link that can be traced to one woman who live in Africa more than 150,000 years ago. DNA analysis traced human ancestry back to an African “Eve” and you can imagine the debate that ensued over how modern humans evolved.
The woman became known as Mitochondrial Eve. Unlike the DNA that dictates height or eye color, mitochondrial DNA provides the chemical energy in nearly all human cells; we cannot survive without it.
Mitochondrial Eve has passed on her mitochondrial DNA to every person living on the earth today. She may have lived in what is now Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania.
Biblical archaeologists, anthropologists, theologians and many others will argue that the story of Adam and Eve does not take place in Africa but in Mesopotamia. That may well be but if the scientific research on mitochondrial DNA has value for us today it may be for us to recognize that amid our diversity we share a common ground not only because we were created in the image of God but because we share a common ancestor in an African woman.
It may be true that Mike Norman did not intend to offend or hurt others with the sale of the Curious George tee shirt. It may be true that he wanted to amuse and humor others. We can only hope that he is now amused and humored and filled with curiosity in knowing that despite our physical, psychological, and cultural differences, we all share one thing in common: we are all related to a woman who lived in eastern African more than 150,000 years ago and that in one sense, all of us are holding a banana.
We have come a long way over the years but there is still much more for us to overcome.