Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say for me this year!
Hawaiian Christmas celebrations are familiar and filled with memories from my childhood, and this year, after 30 years working as a pastor on the continent, I’m finally home for my first Christmas as a pastor in Hawaii. I’ve been looking forward to celebrating the season this year aided by that special island gift that undergirds the message of Christmas: the aloha spirit.
But here we are, at Christmas, and our news stations have been filled lately with stories of hatred instead of love, exclusion instead of radical welcome. Hate messages spray painted on walls, swastikas carved into sidewalks, verbal threats of violence to our neighbors?
In Hawaii? At Christmas?
In Hawaii … anytime?
We live together in this island paradise, aware both of the diversity that surrounds and enriches our lives and of the interdependence that lies at the core of island living. Here in our island home we can never forget that we belong to each other, and that the core message of care for our neighbors — a foundational message of Christmas — has already been planted deep in our hearts. We know that it rides the very tradewinds of these islands, constantly reminding us who we can be when we care for one another.
During a season where many of us are distracted by grief and loss, navigating jingle bells and high expectations and too much sugar, finding meaning in much of anything is a special challenge. But I can’t help but wonder: As we approached Christmas, how could we ever cede the gift of the aloha spirit to a world intent on dividing us?
The answer to that question is, of course: we must not. Instead, our work is to cling even more tightly to what we know about how we care for each other.
So this year, in between my pastoral work of preparing services, digging through church closets to unearth enough candles for the candlelight service, and going to great lengths to keep the sanctuary poinsettias alive just until the season finishes, I’m also searching to convey the resonance of an ancient story in ways that help our people soften their hearts and change their lives.
The tie between ancient and modern seems obvious to me: a baby born to teach us goodness and peace is still trying to remind us how to love each other. And even after three decades away, it seems to me the call to action in this moment can best be summed up, especially in Hawaii, through a shared expression of the aloha spirit we seek to live every day.
In the face of hatred then, we hear familiar ancient stories this Christmas and must determine to take up again the challenge of sharing aloha with our neighbors. We share it even and most especially with those who do not share our faith or even our worldviews. And we do that because the baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas calls upon us to raise our voices to oppose any expression of hatred, exclusion, or violence here in our islands and anywhere around the world.
As we celebrate the season this year, may we raise our voices together to insist that aloha — for everyone — is nonnegotiable here in our island home. And may the power of the aloha spirit extend far beyond our islands to a whole world longing for peace.
