We’re sorry that we had to cancel the March 11, 2026, live performance of a Song from Church of the Holy Cross. Pastor Eric recently recorded “De Profundis” for another project, and we are sharing that in its stead. Thank you for your patience!
Lenten Study Series: Wisdom
The Biblical writers were very interested in the nature of wisdom and the ways in which people lived it. This study series for Lent will survey the different ways Biblical authors wrote about wisdom and the ways in which they expected it to influence daily life.
This series takes place on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Pastor’s Study.
It follows the regular weekly Bible study which considers the readings for the upcoming Sunday. Those sessions begin at 5:00 pm.
Both sessions may be attended in person or joined via Zoom. See the Weekly Chime for connection information.
What I’m Thinking: Expanding Grace
Who can receive grace? According to the Apostle Paul: anybody and everybody.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17).
Paul faced a real challenge. It was a challenge of theology. It was a challenge of thought. It was a challenge of relationship. He firmly believed that the salvation that God had offered through Jesus was urgent and important. He firmly believed that it needed to be extended to the entire population of the world.
The relationship with God, however, have been understood for centuries as mediated by a couple of limiting factors. They believed that the relationship with God was primarily for the descendants of Abraham. Other people could be added, but it took time and effort. Further, they believed — Paul believed —that through the gift of the Law offered through Moses, God had codified that relationship. Therefore people who followed the Law were those who could expect to receive any kind of grace from God.
The apostle Paul believed that that grace needed to be offered and expanded and extended as far and wide as possible.
So he went back the God’s relationship with Abraham. He went back and he found a critical aspect of that relationship. When God said to Abraham, “I will make you an ancestor,” even though that seems incredibly unlikely at Abraham’s advanced age, Abraham believed God. Abraham trusted God. There, said Paul, was the seed. There, said Paul, was the key to open the door.
Not the keeping of the Law, because as we know about law, law defines not “keeping” so much as it defines breaking. Not even kinship, ancestors sharing from Abraham, that was not where that original relationship had begun. It had begun in trust.
Trust in God, said the Apostle Paul, and that relationship is yours. That offer of salvation can be accepted. That place next to Jesus can be yours.
Not only for Abraham, not only for the countless others who had followed Abraham, not only for them, but also for you.
As we continue our Lenten journey, it is worth remembering that it was the Apostle Paul who, for the vast majority of us, made it not only for them but also for us.
May it also be a part of our Lenten journey to see that we understand and share God’s grace as not only for us, but for everyone.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
Lenten Study Series: Wisdom
The Biblical writers were very interested in the nature of wisdom and the ways in which people lived it. This study series for Lent will survey the different ways Biblical authors wrote about wisdom and the ways in which they expected it to influence daily life.
This series will be held on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Pastor’s Study beginning February 25.
It follows the regular weekly Bible study which considers the readings for the upcoming Sunday. Those sessions begin at 5:00 pm.
Both sessions may be attended in person or joined via Zoom. See the Weekly Chime for connection information.
What I’m Thinking: Temptation
Each Lent we tell the story of Jesus’ Temptation – because like Jesus, temptation is a part of our lives.
Here’s a transcript:
Lent begins this Wednesday, so I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 4:1-11). Each first Sunday in Lent, the Revised Common Lectionary tells the same gospel story (if from a different gospel each year). That story is the Temptation of Jesus.
As Matthew put it, after his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil.” There were three of them that Matthew named. First, that the devil advised Jesus to transform stones into bread because he was hungry. The devil then invited Jesus to leap from a high place to demonstrate the protection of the angels to everybody else. Finally, the devil took him to a mountain and showed him all the realms of the earth, and said that they could be his if Jesus would just worship him: him, the devil. Jesus refused them all, and the devil left, and the angels came and ministered to Jesus.
Why did the editors of the lectionary place this story in front of us at the beginning of each Lent? I think it’s because it is a characteristic that we share with Jesus — not necessarily a direct encounter with a personification of temptation or evil (I suspect that those experiences are rare).
We do, however share with Jesus the experience of temptation, now don’t we? We know that there are times when we are invited to do things, to say things, to act in ways that are contrary to what God expects of us, to what society expects of us, to what our faith community expects of us, to what we expect of ourselves. Temptation may be small or it may be great. It can range from certain kinds of hungers to the temptation to ultimate power.
We share the experience of temptation with our Messiah.
Hopefully we also experience the resistance of temptation. Jesus did not rely solely upon his own inner strength to do so. He went back to the Scriptures. He went back to the things that he had been taught as a youth and as a young man: things that would help him to decide between what was right and what was wrong, what was good and what was better, what was fit to the circumstance and what would not help in this moment.
Somebody who is hungry should eat. That’s simply true. But in that temptation, Jesus refused to use his power to make stones into bread. And I think it could only be because he was tempted by the one he was tempted by.
So one of the questions for us is always: where is the temptation coming from? Are we hungry simply because we’re hungry, or are we in being invited to satisfy our hungers in ways that transform us into something we should not be? We should not be someone who exercises our power erratically or selfishly. We should be people who exercise our power on behalf of others.
Jesus resisted his temptations because he had the support of the wisdom of the ages and, of course, because he was he was. May we resist our temptations with the support of the wisdom of the ages, and with the aid of Jesus, who was who he was and is who he is in our lives.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
Pastor’s Corner: Walking to Do
March 13, 2024
I’ve got some walking to do.
Interfaith Communities in Action launched its Virtual Pilgrimage for the Unhoused on February 28th. The goal is to walk 77.2 miles between then and the conclusion of the event on April 8. As you know from announcements in Sunday worship, it’s a fundraising effort for ICIA’s Hale Ka Po’e Keiki (Homes for Children) Fund. For some years, ICIA has worked toward the stated goal of ending family homelessness on Hawai’i Island.
We’ve got a ways to go with that. So I’ve got some walking to do.
I’m pleased to observe that others have picked up the information envelopes and signed up as participants in the Virtual Pilgrimage. I’m pleased that people here in this congregation and beyond have already pledged to support the cause through my efforts. I’m really pleased that my first foray into a longer walk after the Pilgrimage began didn’t hurt too much.
I haven’t been walking as much as I’d like. So I’ve got some walking to do.
The map of the Virtual Pilgrimage includes many of the historic sites along the Kona coast of the Big Island. I hope to do some walking there, but definitely not along the crowded highways.
What journey have you begun? What kind of travel do you need to do? What is the destination? What will motivate you to get there? What will you accomplish by reaching the goal? How will you celebrate it when you do?
We are, as they say, all on a journey. We move at different speeds, using different means, toward different journeys’ ends.
As for me, I’ve got some walking to do.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
Learn more about the Virtual Pilgrimage at interfaithhawaii.org.
Fill the Heart: Lenten Devotional 2024 Volumes 1, 2, & 3
The reflections, artwork, poems, and photographs in Fill the Heart have been created by members and friends of Church of the Holy Cross. There will be three volumes issued during the Lenten season.
They are provided below in PDF format with the pages laid out for printing.
Fill the Heart Volume Three
Fill the Heart Volume Two
Fill the Heart Volume One
Pastor’s Corner: Burdens
March 6, 2024
Three pairs of socks.
In high school, I took part in a church youth group hiking trip that spent six days in the woods of northern Maine. On most days we walked between six and eight miles, and the trip included an ascent of Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, which stands 5,270 feet above sea level.
Which is less than Kohala here on Hawai’i Island, but it seemed very impressive at the time.
I was accustomed to wearing a fresh pair of socks each day. Wearing the same socks two days in a row while hiking in them seemed like a guarantee of smelly feet (and it was). But there was something more important than the odors of hard-working human bodies on that trip.
Burdens.
Every ounce we didn’t pack was an ounce we didn’t carry. Every ounce we didn’t carry was an easier stride on the trail. Every easier stride on the trail was a shorter hike. Every shorter hike was a camp reached before dark and a hot meal for dinner.
Lent is also about shedding burdens. As we move through the season, we have opportunity after opportunity to set down the things that burden our spirits. Classically, that’s guilt, and for certain our sense of guilt weighs us down. God forgives. Let it go.
There are other burdens, too. There’s self-doubt. There’s anger. There’s regret. There’s the feelings we’ve refused to deal with. There’s the relationships we haven’t reconciled.
Let it go.
Setting them aside isn’t as easy as not packing three more pairs of socks, but you’ll be lighter on your journey, and oh, how you’ll be able to celebrate when Easter comes.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
Pastor’s Corner: Extra February
February 28, 2024
We’ve got a little extra February this year. In fact, we have a little extra year this year.
Leap Year doesn’t really give us any extra time. We use it to maintain a more-or-less consistent number of days in a year, since the duration of Earth’s rotation doesn’t divide evenly into the duration of Earth’s revolution around the Sun. Without a Leap Day, September would gradually (in a hundred years or so) slide back into August, changing the alignment of months and seasons.
We’re not really getting any extra time.
Still, perhaps this could encourage us to take some extra time.
In all the hustle and bustle of life, where is the time for prayer and meditation? Where is the time for Bible study and reflection? Where is the time to lay down the burdens of our spirit and receive the reassurance our God? I fear that those times, for most of us, are few and far between.
We won’t get any extra time for it, I’m afraid. Other things will have to get less time. What have you given more attention to in your life than it deserved? What can do with less of you, when your soul needs more?
No, we’re not getting any extra time this month or this year. We’ll have to reallocate our time.
Our souls will be grateful.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
Fill the Heart: Lenten Devotional 2024 Volumes 1 & 2
The reflections, artwork, poems, and photographs in Fill the Heart have been created by members and friends of Church of the Holy Cross. There will be three volumes issued during the Lenten season.
They are provided below in PDF format with the pages laid out for printing.