Keawala'i Congregational Church, Kahu's Mana'o

Kahu's Manao

Keawala‘i Congregational Church
United Church of Christ (USA)

Third Sunday After Pentecost
Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Rev. Kealahou C. Alika

I drove out to Hanalei under overcast skies last Wednesday morning to visit a friend at Waioli Hui‘ia Church. I saw her husband the day before at Ko‘olau Hui‘ia Church in Anahola. Alpha, Pam and I met while we were all seminary students at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California over thirty years ago.

After we graduated from seminary Alpha and Pam married and lived and worked in Santa Cruz. I continued to live and work in Berkeley until I was called to serve the church here in Mākena. Several years ago Alpha was called to serve as the pastor of the church in Hanalei. We had kept in touch over the years. But as I drove out to Hanalei a few days ago I realized that I had not seen Pam for several years.

I spent the last week on Kauai attending the ‘Aha Pae‘āina or annual meeting of the Hawai‘i Conference – United Church of Christ. Meetings were held in Anahola and Lïhu‘e with pastors and members of over 65 of our local churches located throughout Hawai‘i.

I stopped by Alpha and Pam’s home unannounced only a few moments before she was off to see her dentist. We had a chance to say hello and to talk a bit.

After she left for her appointment Alpha and I do what nā kahu do best. We started talking about our ministry as pastors.

It was during our conversation that Alpha made a remark that helped give direction to what I want to share with you today. “We make choices all the time!” he said.

He made that remark after I asked him about the resources he relies upon as he prepares his sermon each week. He explained that he had found a resource that included an outline with various Bible verses along with stories and anecdotes to illustrate the lesson for a particular Sunday.

“There was one example of a person going to the supermarket,” he said, “to buy some orange juice and quickly discovering that there were lots and lots of different kinds of orange juice one could choose from. I went to the supermarket,” he continued, “but discovered that here in Hawai‘i, not a lot of different kinds of orange juice are available. So I went to the shoyu and ling hing mui sections of the store.”

“There were over two dozen choices for shoyu and over forty varieties of ling hing mui candy. They came in different containers, different sizes, and different flavors. But whether it was orange juice or shoyu or ling hing mui, the point of the story was that we make choices all the time.”

Our reading from the First Book of Kings this morning is about choices. King Ahab, ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel approaches Naboth and offers him a better vineyard in exchange for his vineyard or to offer him its value in money. Ahab wants to plant a vegetable garden and he looks upon the location of Naboth’s vineyard beside his palace as a great convenience to himself.

One would suppose Naboth would feel compelled to make the exchange or to sell his vineyard to the king. After all Naboth knew well enough that Ahab was the king. But Naboth chooses not to accept either offer telling Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.” (1 Kings 21:3)

Naboth’s decision stuns the king. It is said Ahab went home resentful and sullen. He grew so despondent he refused to eat.

It is then that Jezebel questions Ahab. “What’s up with you? Why have you chosen to be so depressed that you will not eat?

“Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful,” she tells him. (1 Kings 21:7) “You have choices. You can choose to be resentful and sullen, you can get nuha and habut all you want, or you can choose to be cheerful and eat.”

And then she adds, “I will give you the vineyard of Naboth.” (1 Kings 21:7) It is not only Ahab and Naboth who make choices. Jezebel makes her choices as well. She writes letters in Ahab’s name and seals them with his seal calling on two men to fabricate a charge against Naboth that will lead to his death by stoning.

Following Naboth’s death Jezebel tells Ahab to go and take possession of Naboth’s vineyard and Ahab does. Soon after that Elijah, the prophet, confronts Ahab and questions him about the choices he has made.

Elijah to says to Ahab, “Have you killed, and also taken possession of Naboth’s vineyard?” fully aware that it was Jezebel who orchestrated the demise and death Naboth. But by addressing Ahab directly, Elijah makes clear that as king Ahab was complicit with Jezebel in Naboth’s murder.

It has been said that the threads of the legal rights of Naboth, the royal authority of Ahab and God’s command to enact justice form a tangled web in the story. (Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life/Pentecost 1, Woodlake Books, 2010, page 32) Yet as complicated as it may be to unravel how and why Ahab, Jezebel and Naboth made the choices that they did, we know that an injustice was committed.

Ahab’s offer for the land may seem reasonable and even laudable, but the vineyard is Naboth’s ancestral land. It belonged to his küpuna, his ancestors, and the legal tradition of ancient Israel restricted its sale. (Leviticus 25:23-24) It was not Naboth’s to trade or sell.

It is very likely that Ahab knew this so when Naboth chooses to refuse his offer, Ahab’s resentment and despondency seem more than a bit disingenuous. The king basically chooses to pout, to namunamu, to monku.

When Elijah admonishes Ahab for his actions he could have well said to him, “You have chosen, not simply sold, yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.” (1 Kings 21:20)

Ahab’s actions require that justice be done and so Elijah makes a pronouncement that disaster will fall upon Ahab.

When Ahab hears Elijah’s words, he tears his clothes, fasts and goes about his life filled with misery and because Ahab humbled himself, the disaster meant to be brought upon Ahab is now to be brought upon the house of his son. We are called as Elijah was called to live lives that are loving and just. The choices we make each day have consequences. Whenever injustice abounds we are called to choose justice.

But what are we to do if the call for justice is ignored? Some say justice delayed is justice denied. Others contend in time justice will always prevail.

Over a century has gone by since Lili‘uokalani was forced to step down as the constitutional sovereign of Hawai‘i. She was a devout Christian and a member of Kawaiaha‘o Church. She taught Sunday School. She sang in the choir. She played the organ.

She was not a prophet but a queen yet in the choices she made in response to the overthrow of the Hawaiian nation in 1893 it is difficult not to hear the voice of a prophet. Concerned about the possibility of the loss of life, Lili‘uokalani appealed to the people to abstain from any violence and disturbance. Rather than resolving the conflict by force of arms she appealed to the President of the United States and the U.S. Senate to do what was just – to restore her sovereign power and authority.

A written account of her own reflections on the story of Naboth’s vineyard appears in “Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen.” (“Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen,” Lili‘uokalani, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan, 1964, page s 373-374)

Her thoughts come from the last two paragraphs of the book. As she reflects on the hopes and aspirations of the Hawaiian people she finds great resonance in the story of Naboth’s vineyard:

“Oh, honest Americans, as Christians hear me for my down-trodden people! Their form of government is as dear to them as yours is precious to you. Quite as warmly as you love your country, so they love theirs. With all your goodly possessions covering a territory so immense that there yet remain parts unexplored, possessing islands that, although near at hand, had to be neutral ground in time of war, do not covet the little vineyard of Naboth’s, so far from your shores, lest the punishment of Ahab fall upon you, if not in your day, in that of your children, for ‘be not deceived, God is not mocked.’”

“The people whom your fathers told of the living God, and taught to call ‘Father,’ and whom the sons now seek to despoil and destroy, are crying aloud to him in their time of trouble; and he will keep his promise, and will listen to the voices of his Hawaiian children lamenting for their homes.”

“It is for them that I would give the last drop of my blood; it is for them that I would spend, nay, am spending, everything belonging to me. Will it be in vain?”

“It is for the American people and their representatives in Congress to answer these questions. As they deal with me and my people, kindly, generously, and justly, so may the Great Ruler of all nations deal with the grand and glorious nation of the United States of America.”

The queen’s plea was ignored. In 1898 by a joint resolution of Congress, not a treaty,

Hawai‘i was annexed to the United States. The rest as others have said is now history.

Today many are quick to characterize any discussion about the queen and the current legislation before Congress known as the Akaka Bill as divisive. Others are quick to say any discussion about the queen’s reference to Naboth’s vineyard is questionable. After all Naboth was murdered and his land was stolen from him. Such folk insist that the queen’s life was spared even though we know that there were numerous threats against her life including that she should be tried and executed for treason. And as for the land, others insist that “it’s a done deal. Get over it!”

We can choose to be ignorant. We can choose to be afraid. We can choose to feel immobilized by the complexities of the world in which we live. But we all make choices every moment of every day whether it is as simple as deciding which shoyu or ling hing mui to buy at the supermarket or as complicated as the life decisions we make when it comes to family or work or school.

The story of Naboth and the story of Liliʻuokalani may be new to many of us. We can choose to say either story has no relevance to my life or we can choose to hear in the voice of the prophet Elijah and in the voice of Queen Lili‘uokalani what we know to be true. Ke Akua calls us, God calls us to always choose justice.

About Our Website
Any opinions expressed in this website are those of the writer or writers involved. Unless otherwise noted, such opinions are not to be construed as the position taken by any of the boards, committees, or council of the church.