Oct 24 2019 Matthew 12: 15-21 Commemoration of Fr. Hiram Hisanori Kani

Here is my servant, whom I have chosen

It’s amazing to me that our country interred approximately 120,000 people, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It’s more amazing that nearly 75,000 of those people were US citizens. What’s even more amazing, and disappointing is that I didn’t know anything about this, until I learned about it as an adult, living on the west coast. And by interred, it’s fair to say these children of God were put in concentration camps, on US soil, by US officials. Ordered by a president I’d like to like – FDR.

Fr. Kani was an Episcopal priest who served in western Nebraska in the 1930s. He ministered to US soldiers who were imprisoned for going AWOL, and the Japanese community in western Nebraska and eastern Colorado. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, after celebrating the Eucharist, Fr. Kani was detained. He was not allowed to tell his family where he was or even let them know he’d been detained. He was given a “Class A” rating, or someone who was the most ‘potentially’ dangerous Japanese American. He spent the next two years in concentration camps, for the sole reason of being of Japanese descent.

Forty years later, President Jimmy Carter ordered reparations be paid for this wrong-headed internments. Fr. Kani was offered reparations which he declined. He told his bishop, “I don’t want the money. God just used that as another opportunity for me to preach the gospel”.

When I was discerning a call to ordained ministry, I was posed with the question of what makes me angry. I didn’t have a good answer, because anger is not generally one of my go-to emotions. But this makes me angry. That the US would put citizens in concentration camps, for any reason. That we conveniently omit these bits of our history. That this was carried out by the US government with authority granted by the very citizens swept up. That FDR ordered it. That we keep repeating this horrid practice of demonizing ‘the other’, whether it’s through building a wall, separating children from their parents, or deporting people legitimately seeking refuge.

Having said all of that, Hiram Kani is an example of how to live through and thrive through this. He was forced in a concentration camp by the US government, and when offered reparation payment, refused. He saw his time as an opportunity to do God’s work. He must have fully believed that while God may not have put him in the camp, he was called to do God’s work while there.

This morning, I’m thinking about how I am called to be God’s servant; about how crappy situations aren’t the story, or bad choices, bad breaks, bad policies, bad politics. I am called to be God’s servant, to share God’s good news in whatever circumstance. Focusing on the circumstance unfortunately lets me stew, get worked up and angry about something over which I have little or no control. What I can control is my beliefs, understanding and actions. 

If Fr. Kino had focused on the wrongs that had been done to him, I can imagine he would have taken the money, and believed it still insufficient reparation. How could any amount of money repair that breach of trust and decency? But instead, he saw himself as God’s servant. Focusing on his call, he was able to use the crappy situation to God’s good.

Today, I want to remember that I’m called to be God’s servant. To talk about and show God’s love and grace, regardless of my situation. If I focus on what’s wrong, there is no amount of reparation that could repay me for what I feel I’m owed. Or my loved ones. But if I focus on God’s good news of love and grace, I can see that I am indeed called to be God’s servant. Here. Now.