Pastor’s Corner: Still In for the Long Haul

May 16, 2018

We’re still in for the long haul.

I claim no prescience in my last column. The floods on Kaua’i did not lead me to wonder about a volcanic eruption in Puna. As I flew off to Florida and an educational program for mid-career clergy two weeks ago, I was more concerned that the weather which had beset Kaua’i and O’ahu would recur, washing out more roads, homes, and hillsides, perhaps on our own island.

Incidentally, if I’m at the mid-point of my career, I’ll be pastoring in 2048. Talk about being in for the long haul!

I’m sure you’re not unfamiliar with this. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we’re always in for the long haul. We gather in communities, and we live, work, and worship together. Yesterday’s infants are today’s parents. The one who got his first job “yesterday” is retiring tomorrow. The vibrant young woman who set our world on fire now answers to “grandmother.”

And we’ve been right there with them all that time.

We’ve been there for the births and the baptisms. We’ve been there through the struggles of school and adolescence. We’ve been there when the career took off, and when the next steps faltered. We’ve been there through the joys of parenthood, and the griefs of family life. We’ve mourned the deaths, comforted those separated, sat with the sick, and lent a hand in misfortune.

We’ve been there through the long haul.

It’s no different this time. Pele, we know, cannot be readily predicted, and certainly not controlled. Lava flows, and lava stops.

Our love, our care, our compassion – our aloha and our kuleana – these abide when the lava flows and when it stops. They abide long before, and they abide long after.

We are here, in good times and bad, to embody the love of Christ.

With aloha,

Pastor Eric

The photo is Halema’uma’u Crater at sunset, taken in January 2018.

United Church News has coverage of the Puna eruption this week.