Volume 6, Issue 25
June 18, 2021
THIS SUNDAY: June 20, 2021
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost


1 Samuel 17:32-49 (shortened version)
Through some skill and a lot of faith, the boy David is able to defeat Goliath, the much tougher champion of the Philistines, the enemy army of the Israelites.

Psalm 9:9-20
God will fight our battles on our behalf.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Just as Paul and his companions have given their all on behalf of the members of the Corinthian church, so Paul asks them for a reciprocal level of devotion and commitment.

Mark 4:35-41
To the amazement of his disciples on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calms a sudden storm.
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICE
WITH COMMUNION

8:00AM
Muriel Jackson (EM)*
Judy Saronitman (U)
Marge Akana (AG)
Mark Cain (DM)

9:30AM
Mary Margaret Smith (EM)
Linda Crocker (U)
Terry Ann Moses (LR)
Faith Shiramizu (AG)
Vikki Secretario, Nelson Secretario (HP)
Curtis Shiramizu, Ron Morinishi (DM)

Live Stream
9:00AM on our home page, YouTube, or Facebook accounts
@allsaintskauai

* EM - Eucharistic Minister; U - Usher; LR - Lay Reader; AG - Altar Guild; HP - Healing Prayers; DM - Digital Ministry; SS - Sunday School
UPCOMING EVENTS

Guest Organist for June Services
Morris Wise
Sundays, 9:30AM service
Church

Camp Mokule`ia Day Camp
Monday - Friday
June 21st - June 25th
8:00AM - 4PM
Church Campus

Recurring Events
Aloha Hour
Every Sunday, 10:45AM - 12:00PM
Under lanai tent

Monday/Friday Crew
Every Monday/Friday, 8:00AM 
Church Office
Laundry Love
1st & 3rd Wednesday, 5:00PM
Kapa`a Laundromat

Daughters of the King
2nd & 4th Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00PM
Zoom
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Your Epistle will be taking a few weeks off while the staff is off island. In the mean time, we will be publishing a very abbreviated issue each week. These issues will detail the weekly scripture readings, service schedules, duty rosters, and upcoming and recurring events.

Mahalo for your support.
Those affected by the Pandemic,Those affected by racial violence, Those affected by the Pandemic,Those affected by racial violence, Nestor, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

For those saints who have gone before us in the Grander Life, especially those affected by the COVID-19 virus, and those we name silently or aloud, in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. Amen.
Reflections from Kahu Kawika
Believing Is Seeing

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Mark 4:26-34
Proper 6B
13 June 2021

When we think about the entertainment industry, we often find people who look gorgeous but who may not have the talent to match – one such dramatic example from the 1990’s was the pop duo Milli Vanilli, who it turned out were two good-looking men who were in fact lip-syncing the vocals of the real singers. This glaringly showed how often entertainment focuses on looks rather than on substance. A dramatic reversal of this happened over ten years ago in the UK in their counterpart of “America’s Got Talent,” appropriately called “Britain’s Got Talent.” A woman named Susan Boyle came forward to compete, and judging by her shy demeanor, non-glamorous appearance, slight displays of symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome, and the fact that she had never had singing lessons, the judges and audience had low expectations of her performance. However, when she started singing, everyone was taken aback at the high level of her operatic voice, even being compared to a female Pavarotti! Susan Boyle went on from that point to headline concerts and to perform before heads of state and huge audiences. When interviewed a few days later by The Washington Post, Boyle said, “Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances … there is not much you can do about it – it is the way people think, it is the way they are. But maybe this (i.e., her performance) could teach them a lesson, or set an example.” Boyle’s courage indeed to rise above the limitations imposed upon her set an example for many people who otherwise would tend to dismiss themselves and to undercut their own self-worth and value.

All of our bible readings this morning from 1 Samuel, 2 Corinthians, and Mark speak with one voice about looking past superficial appearances to perceive a deeper reality, that often what is best is not at first readily apparent. A common saying we have in our society is “Seeing is believing,” putting stock in what we can see readily before us as proof of what is important. However, I think our bible texts instead talk about “Believing is seeing,” that God invites us to step out in faith first in order to be able to see the deeper truth and thus to receive the greater blessing. Let’s examine three aspects that our readings indicate to help us how to live by “Believing Is Seeing”.

  • Depth over Superficiality: In our passage from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul is correcting the Corinthian church who had recently gotten fooled into following after false leaders who seem like godly pastors but are really self-serving, self-glorifying, and taking advantage of the Corinthian believers. Paul writes them, “We live by faith and not by sight … we aren’t trying to promote ourselves – instead, we are giving you the chance to be proud of us, so that you could answer those who take pride in superficial appearance, and not in what is in the heart.” (2 Cor. 5:7, 12). In other words, Paul wants the Corinthians to focus on what matters – the true gospel that Paul and his friends advocate – and not to be fooled with the superficial star-quality of false teachers. 

On a similar note, 1 Samuel 16 describes the prophet Samuel’s search for the next king of Israel among Jesse’s sons, and God repeatedly has Samuel overlook in turn each brother who look the part but is not God’s choice – that is, until Samuel finally gets to the eighth brother down the line, a young shepherd boy named David. Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, David’s acumen and shepherding skills would serve him mightily in becoming a true shepherd to the Israelites. The key verse here in 16:7, when God tells the prophet, “People look at the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 

And in Mark 4, Jesus describes the Realm of God as that which is often hidden from us like seed in the ground but is nevertheless growing and exerting positive influence on our world – thus the message is not to give up on our faith that God is doing things around us.
All three of these passages describe a faith that looks past the surface by believing that God is alive and active in our lives. This reminds me of the original Star Wars movie, “A New Hope,” where toward the end of the show Luke Skywalker is flying one of the TIE fighters to find a way to destroy the Death Star of the Empire. While he has some skills as both a pilot and a sharpshooter, he has to rely on the Force to guide him to the right spot on the Death Star to aim his laser shot – which turns out to be an obscure thermal exhaust port that is so small only a one-in-a-million shot would make it – and of course it does, thanks to Luke’s faith on the power of the Force. In a similar way, the life of faith God invites to live often calls us to look beyond what we see on the surface in order to align with God’s will for our lives.

  • Heaven over Earth: More explicitly in our reading from 2 Corinthians 5, Paul declares that God’s Spirit engages us in a growing preoccupation with heaven than with earth, with our ultimate home more than the land through which we travel daily: “(Christ) died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the One who died for them and was raised. So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards” (2 Cor. 5:15-16a). This echoes another place Paul writes in Philippians, contrasting those who focus on the here-and-now with those who look to heaven as their country of citizenship: “Their (people limited in vision) thoughts focus on earthly things. Our citizenship is in heaven. We look forward to a savior that comes from there – the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our humble bodies so that they are like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:19b-21a). This reminds me of a quote from a professor who was a faculty sponsor of our young adult group when I was a curate, who stated rather bluntly, “We live 99% of our lives dead!”, meaning let’s live our lives now on earth to get ready for our eternal lives in heaven. We live by God’s priorities in our lives when we remind ourselves that we belong to our ultimate home, heaven. This in turns help to inform us on how we should conduct our daily lives on earth – that we don’t major on the minors, but live into the grander vision that God has for us.

  • Growth over Stagnation: Whenever I get to travel to the Holy Land, I love to see both the Sea of Galilee in the north where Jesus came from as well as the Dead Sea in the southern Negev desert. Water enters the Sea of Galilee with its vibrant freshwater fish from the northern slopes of the Golan Heights, and leaves it from the southern shore to become the Jordan River. In turn, the Jordan flows southward until its waters deposit into the Dead Sea. Now that body of water is aptly called the Dead Sea because nothing can live within it – it is too salty and the water stagnates because, unlike the Sea of Galilee, it has no outlet. This contrast of the living Sea of Galilee and the stagnate Dead Sea is an appropriate image of the two contrasting ways we can live our lives. 

Again back to 2 Corinthians 5, Paul encourages his readers to hunger for growth in their lives, which will come to fruition in the future: “So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” (2 Cor. 5:17). Jesus reflects this in our Gospel reading from Mark 4 in which Jesus compares the Realm of God with seeds that later produce a bumper crop as well as a small seed producing a big tree later on. All this seems to suggest that the business of heaven is growth – both in numbers and in depth. This is also a clarion call warning against stagnation in our lives, of coasting by without a concern to grow more into the likeness of Jesus’ character in our lives and thus constantly to equip ourselves to live into the reality of our heavenly citizenship. And even as a church as a whole, we should continue to explore new ways of serving our community, of welcoming all people, and of sensing new directions in which God wants to take us as an ‘ohana.

In a society that promotes mere surface reality, God instead calls us to “believing is seeing.” Let’s welcome God’s spirit and the worthy examples of noble people around us to help us to go for depth over superficiality, heaven over earth, and growth over stagnation. And let us help each other be fellow travelers on a long journey toward our ultimate home. Amen.

Sloggett Center Solar and Roofing Project
An Environmental Initiative
All Saints’ Church and Preschool is beginning an exciting new project that will improve our current physical plant and provide for All Saints’ future in an environmentally sustainable way. The Sloggett Center will be getting a long needed new roof and a solar panel system will be installed to meet a good deal of our church’s electrical needs. The entire solar panel system has been funded by a private donation from a church `Ohana family. The fundraising effort for the new roof is off to a great start. 

We have raised a whopping $67,500 since our last thermometer update!

Now is the time for everyone to step up and make a contribution toward completing the funding for the roofing project. There is a donation link on the All Saints’ website for the roofing project. Follow the funding goal thermometer to see how our fundraising efforts are going.
To date we have raised over $212,300!! Only $67,689 to go. Mahalo to all our donors.

Daughters of the King Welcome Four New Members
Sunday, June 13th
Daughters of the King Service of Admission
Top Row: Kathey Northcutt (new), Pammy Chock, Muriel Jackson (new), Linda Crocker
Bottom Row: Carolyn Morinishi, Jan Hashizume, Mabel Antonio, Faith Shiramizu (new), Cami Baldovino (new)
During the 9:30 service on June 13th, the Daughters of the King of the Kaua`i (Mana`olana) chapter, welcomed four new members with a Service of Admission. The Aloha Hour included celebratory cakes for the occasion.
IN BRIEF . . .

These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"
From The Epistle, June 4, 2021

From Listen to the Inaugural Concert
The Sloggett/Wilcox `Ohana Organ
If you missed the inaugural organ concert, here is your chance to listen to this marvelous performance with introductions by our Rector, Kahu Kawika; Kevin Cartwright, Rosales Organ Workshop President, co-owner and voicer; and Morris Wise, our project leader and in-house organ expert.

To enjoy the entire concert, please click on the video link below.
From The Epistle, June 4, 2021
Pentecost: The Gift of Haircuts, Hugs, and Helpers

After four months of scruffy over gelled styling, I went to get my haircut by my regular guy in February. As the cool steel of the clippers touched my scalp, and the buzz vibrated near my ear, I felt my body unclenching in ways I had not known it needed.

My haircut reminded me just how much I value someone coming alongside me. It was even more helpful that it was an old friend who knew all my stories, you know, the ones you share with the person who cuts your hair.

I was comforted.

In John 15 the word for Spirit is “Parakletos.” A literal translation is “the one who comes alongside.” That could be like a lawyer in court, or the person you call to comfort you when you are sad.

With the absence of closeness and comfort in this last year of COVID, I have realized that having friends and loved ones who hug you, comfort you and sit alongside you (closer than 6 feet) is a gift I have so often overlooked.

I have also seen so many creative ministries of “coming alongside” in the last year in church life. Phone-trees, Zoom coffee hours, online evening prayer, live- streamed Eucharists. They have all required un-budgeted investment from our churches. We may continue with some of these ministries, as fresh ways for us to “come alongside” others. I hope we will all integrate new technology, as well as good, old-fashioned hugs, into our spirit-filled ministries in the future.

I invite you to make a gift in gratitude for the ways your church has creatively come alongside you in the past year. It will be a sign of thanksgiving and an investment in hope for the future.

And thank you, David, for my haircut. It was great!

The Very Reverend Matthew T. Woodward is Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, and serves on the TENS Board of Directors
Who Do You Call?

Contact information for All Saints' Ministries and Outreach

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at news@allsaintskauai.org.
HALE HO`OMALU ACCEPTING DONATIONS
There is an on-going need for travel sized toiletries and canned goods so these items will be accepted every week. As always, monetary donations are gratefully accepted. Leave them in the red wagon outside the sanctuary

KUPUNA SHOPPING ASSISTANCE MINISTRY
Any of our All Saints' kupuna who need assistance with grocery shopping can contact Carolyn Morinishi at church@allsaintskauai.org to set up a delivery.

ALL SAINTS' VIRTUAL SWAP MEET
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it in the All Saints' Virtual Swap Meet and it will be published in the Epistle. Contact Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org.

PASTORAL CARE CONTACT INFORMATION
Whenever you have a need for support, please call (650) 691-8104 and leave a voice mail. The system will immediately forward the information to the Pastoral Care Committee who will respond to each request. If you prefer, you may send an electronic pastoral care request via email to pastoralcare@allsaintskauai.org.

PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
Individuals who want to participate in the Prayer Chain Ministry must re-enroll to continue receiving the email communications. To re-enroll, please visit the newly established Pastoral Care web page or contact the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
Prayer requests will now be submitted online or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Names can be added to the Prayers of the People petitions by using the Prayer Chain Request form or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267. Names will remain in the Prayers of the People for a maximum of four Sundays before a name must be resubmitted.