As we end the church liturgical calendar year we focus different sort of kingdom God calls us to. While our culture compels us to spend and accumulate more for ourselves, Jesus reminds us to care for the marginalized. Our call as Christians is to the poor, to the weak, to the broken places because that […]
Jesus is clear, the Kingdom of God is not for the rich, the well-to-do or the accomplished, His Kingdom is for the weak, the vulnerable and the poor in spirit. When we think about the lasting impact of our ‘ohana, our family, it has to be directed towards those who will inherit the Kingdom of God. As […]
As much as we hear about Christian family values throughout our culture, Jesus, throughout his ministry, challenges the ‘focus on the family’ mindset. Jesus urges us to see our family as more than our nuclear family. In the Gospel of Matthew 12:46-50 Jesus says his mother and brothers are those who do God’s will. In Hawaii […]
Palm Sunday is a significant Sunday in the Christian liturgical calendar year. We follow the Christian year to re-live the story of God’s passionate love. As we end the sermon series on Liturgy, we look to Holy Week to walk in the footsteps of Jesus during his last days as he pours himself out for […]
In Jesus and his temptations in the wilderness, in the Gospel of Matthew, we see the balance between relationship and responsibility challenged. Jesus is tempted with appetite, affirmation and ambition and we are tempted in similar ways each day.
The only constant in life is that we ought to expect the unexpected. Our hope should not be different. The beauty of an unexpected hope is that unconditional grace is the outcome. This is certainly the case for Jesus’ birth. The savior of the world was born in an unexpected way and in an unexpected place […]
Questions and doubts are often frowned upon by Christians; they are perceived as reflecting a lack of faith. Questions and doubts, however, provide the opportunity for us to find the answer. During Advent many people as the same question as John the Baptist, “Is this the one?” How do we answer that question for ourselves? […]
John the Baptist urges us to consider that hoping for the coming of Christ requires something of us. “Bear fruit,” he says. Hope is expecting, but hope is not merely waiting for what we expect. Hope is changing our habits and living differently. As we prepare for the Christ child, perhaps we need to listen […]
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells us to be ready and the prophet Isaiah speaks of the glory of what we are told to anticipate. Our challenge is that many of us do not expect Jesus to return anytime soon. The first step of hope, is managing our un-expectations. How would we change our […]