May Monthly Comments and Notes:

“Tax Day”; Commemoration of Damien (priest & leper, 1889) of Moloka'i, Hawaii.
 Dear Beloved of Christ at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (Warren),

Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Our mid-week Lent focus was seven “marks of discipleship,” seven “faith-practices” of Christians. Easter has come … and what happens to the marks of discipleship, what happens to the way we live our faith?

As I think of Easter this “Low” Sunday of Eastertide, I think of … Damien of Moloka'i.

In the 1800’s Hawaiian leprosy epidemic, their solution was to dump lepers near the shore of the Moloka'i Island and let them die. Yes, doctors came … near … sort of. From a distance they inspected sores, left medicines on a table, and fled. Moloka'i was the desperate waiting for death.

Damian, Belgian missionary priest of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart born Joseph Van Veuster in 1840, came to Hawaii in 1863. At his own request he was sent to Moloka'i in 1873 to work among the lepers, organizing burial details and funeral services, teaching the people to grow crops and feed themselves better, organizing a choir (getting people to sing who had not sung in years), and giving them medical attention – personally: Damien personally washed and anointed and bandaged their sores. The existing small chapel on the island quickly became TOO small, and with aided by patients he built a larger chapel … which, too, soon overflowed every Sunday

Damien contracted leprosy in 1885, continuing to
working there until his death 15 April 1889.

Easter flows into the life of the church. The Easter Christ overflowed into the life of Damian and through the life of Damian. The hope and the joy of our Christian faith in our Easter Lord overflowed in those seven “marks of discipleship” (worship, pray, study, invite, encourage, give, & serve) which are visible in Damian’s life. Yes, unlike Damian, our Easter lord came among us and heals us instead of getting sick of our diseases … after he became sick with death! Yet, the question is not if we, like our Lord, will die – and we will; the question is if we, like our Lord, live our faith in love for others as Damian did.

Our “God’s Global Barnyard” (praise God that we gave 2 barnyards!) and the “Invite A Neighbor” Sunday are two ways we trust God, follow our Lord Jesus, and love the neighbor. We are continuing with the “500 cans” emphasis through Eastertide (food cans to go to Fellowship Lutheran Church’s food pantry)

Like our Christ Jesus, who for the joy set before him suffered, died, & was raised, we & Damian give, NOT out of our surplus (of time, energy, talents, and money), but out of Easter joy and Easter faith and Easter hope in Christ, drawn closer into Christ’s life and showing the world the “face” of Christian life.

Our lives of Easter faith rejoice in the Easter Good News of Jesus our Christ, Good News in the midst of our brokenness, on our own Moloka'i Island … glad tidings of great joy of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection life for us and in us. We share the love of Christ as we live in that Easter lord and Easter joy, because our Lord Jesus is risen and OURS!

God bless your Easter faith and Easter witness.