Amos 5: 23, 24; Ephesians 4: 11-16

We continue our series of reflections on Hawaiian concepts as they relate to our faith and the Biblical text.  Last week we looked at the idea of respecting the land and the environment known as “malama ka ‘aina.”  Today we consider the way the people treat each other and the concept is “pono.”  This word is part of the Hawaiian state motto Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono  which means “the life of the Land is perpetuated in righteousness.” So one meaning of pono is righteousness.  But while doing research on this idea I found a different definition of pono on the website of a traditional Hawaiian hula kumu or teacher named Pattye Kealohalani Wright.  This is what she writes: “In the Hawaiian thought, being pono means being in perfect alignment and balance with all things in life. It means one has the perfect relationship with the creative energy of the universe, ….. Your every thought word and deed are in complete harmony with that divine energy. Pono means you are in complete harmony and alignment with your custodial relationship with the earth. That you operate on the earthly plane as one who is the caretaker of the land during your lifetime. That your stewardship of the land leaves it as good or better than you found it so that succeeding generations can enjoy the resources that were gifted to you in your lifetime and during your stewardship.”  In between the idea of righteousness and the idea of harmony with the world around you likes the varied and wide meaning  of pono. Pono is what is right. It is what is correct, it is upright and righteous, respectable. It can refer to behavior but also to property.

Friends, let’s look at the Bible, how does it look at this question? What is pono in the Bible? First we read the words of the prophet Amos, the farmer from Tekoa, which sounds Polynesian. Amos speaks out against the injustice of the people.  He is an advocate for social justice.
He cries out:” let justice roll like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This is an image the Hawaiians with their lush countryside can relate to.  Earlier in chapter 5, in verse 15,  Amos calls on people to “establish justice in the gate.”  To Amos being good and acting justly are intimately connected. We cannot separate them.  This is in line with pono thinking.  Everything in you and in your relationship with others and the earth has to be in balance.  Then there is Ephesians where the wholeness of that faith experience is brought out.  Verse 16 talks about the Church as a body:” from Whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. “  From “Whom” refers to God in Christ.  Christ the energy by which the whole body can operate as in unity. This is very important.  All the parts work together. It isn’t that different from a vision of the Hawaiian community as a place where everybody lives and acts according to what is pono: good, harmonious, just, righteous.  Ephesians mentions love as a necessary ingredient.  Hawaiians have “aloha.” To us aloha may be a catchphrase, but it really is a concept many people in Hawaii are trying to live by.  Those who have been bearers of the tradition do not want a culture of anger.

Of course Hawaii may be stunning in beauty, but it is not a perfect place.  Even before Captain Cook there was oppression and there were wars.  Then the Europeans came and the whole thing went down from there.  At least fifty percent of the people died of diseases unknown to the islands in the next fifty years.  Missionary families wound up with much of the land. Then came the indentured laborers and the poor immigrants from Asia.  Brutal  plantations were developed.  Lepers were thrown in the wild waves of Molokai to be banished for ever. The American government pretty much stole the place.  All this was not pono.  Pono was almost lost.  Many of the indigenous men are in jail.  Thousands had to leave the islands to find work while wealthy outsiders moved in and bought up the land.  But Hawaiians have done something right. They have decided to be kind as long as visitors and newcomers honor pono.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t huge resentment.  There is, but the general spirit is in the direction of finding a way to live in harmony, to do what is right in a place where there is very little room left.

In a troubled man like Wade Page who murdered the members of Sikh community near Milwaukee last week, we see a very different spirit.  Even in a country this large there are many who resent the presence of those who are different from them.  In the act of Wade Page all that was pono, that was right with the world, is world, was forgotten.   May the spirit of pono which appears to be so in line with the Bible flourish. Thanks be to God.