4/18/2004

Sunday Sermon

“Prayer”

Here I am in beautiful Kaua'i, Poipu Bay, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The weather is beautiful. It is windy today and the ocean is crashing loudly against the shore.

A short walk around the ocean took us to Keoneloa Bay , where the historic marker told us this was a small fishing site where rituals were made in 200 AD to 600 AD. Sea turtles now come out into the small cove. We saw them often walking by this spot. Big and small sea turtles, seemingly after the large schools of small fish being thrust against the end of the cover by the rough waters. The young and old sea turtles popped up, swam around, not bothered by the currents, opening their mouth for food.

This is a religious place where the Hawaiian fisherman came to this specific spot from other islands to prayer for a better fishing season. It seems like an active location today, even though their are hotels, condominiums and a golf course,plus people walking and running along the pathway nearby.

It reminded me of Bronislaw Malinowski, who I wrote my college theses about. He is considered the father of social anthropologists, not as famous as perhaps Margaret Mead, but he wrote how functionalism and culture worked in primitive societies.. He studied the Trobiander Islanders.

One of the things he observe was that the Trobiander Islanders never prayed to catch fish when they went fishing inside the bay or before a point in the ocean. This was normal for them to just go out and catch fish. When they went further, beyond this “safe” area, they would pray to their gods. Depending on their “fears,” they would not only pray longer, but perform a more extensive ritual.They believed if they prayed, they would be protected and/or obtain the fish they sought to sustain their family, or if fishing in a group, their village.

Malinowski concluded, this is from memory, that prayer was very important to the Trobiander Islanders. They have a function in society. They served a very important aspect to the growth of the culture.

All religions, whether they are primitive, orthodox, liberal, from all over the world believe in prayer. Even scientists have concluded in hospital studies of people dying from cancer and other diseases that prayer is helpful to not only the patient but the person who does the praying.

In the Buddhists religion, they believe the more people who “chant” together, the more “powerful” is the desire and its benefits.

Bronislaw Malinowski found the Trobiander Islanders caught more fish, had little or no accidents, and were more successful, after their ritual of prayer.

I have personally experienced the work of prayer. I also have seen it not answered, but people live longer, more comfortably, and then when the end is near, the tremendous relief expressed because words and thoughts were said.

We all should not be ashamed of appealing to our god in time of need. Even if you do not go to church, where it is customary to read out loud the requests for prayers, you should take the time to think of someone in need, and ask that help or direction. I also think you should tell the person you are making a prayer for their benefit because it shows that you care about them, and that gesture along, may be answering their prayer that someone cares a lot for them.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Anthro/Anth206/malinowski.htm
http://www.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/malinowski.htm
http://www.change.freeuk.com/learning/socthink/malinowski.html
http://www.bestplaceshawaii.com/tips/10_best/beaches.html

An ancient Hawaiian fishing temple lies en route to the sixteenth green of the Poipu Golf Course
http://www.rtj2.com/poipu.shtml

Kit Menkin, April 18,004