REFLECTION 27TH OCTOBER 2024  

What is our goal and purpose in life? 

By Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai 

I know that many of you are not into boxing, many of you might see it as a very violent form of sport.  Well it is very violent, but it is also a very popular sport, very popular amongst Samoans especially.  My first cousin who came over from Samoa to live with us when I was a primary school pupil was an amateur boxer.  He used to train me to become a boxer back in the day.   I remember being told that when the referee refused to stop the fight in which my cousin was getting badly beaten up my mum jumped onto the ring herself and stopped the fight.  Yep, that’s my mum for you.  He did become a professional boxer eventually but never went to great heights as did David Tua.   

Do you remember NZ and Samoan boxing great David Tua?  David Tua was inducted into the Auckland Boxing Hall of Fame last night before he and his wife Helen return back to Samoa to retire.  Last year he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of fame.  I remember in his younger days how he used to prance around the ring like he was the “Greatest” just like Muhammad Ali who was the greatest boxer of all time.  Today, David is a changed man, he has married for a second time to a very humble woman Helen, he is no more mouth.  There was a time when he was so great that he had accountants and managers to look after all his millions of dollars. When you arrived in Samoa and drove past the village of Fusi there was a sign that read “the village of David Tua.”  He was so important that he didn’t have to worry about the millions of dollars he had earned sitting in the bank so much so, that his manager and accountant helped themselves to most of it and left him in debt and a broken man.  He had to return to boxing to pay off his debts and earn a living for his family. He was made vulnerable and was forced to humble himself and eventually he became a humble man.  From greatness to humility, from being served to becoming a servant.  

The outgoing secretary General Patricia Scotland of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting CHOGM referred to this Samoan proverb in her retiring speech on Friday in Samoa.  The proverb O le ala i le Pule, o le tautua, “the road to power/leadership and authority is through service”  is a famous Samoan saying: The philosophy behind it is that one cannot be a good leader if he or she has not first felt the pain and sacrifice which good stewardship and service requires. 

For Samoan’s, the primary task of the individual tautua, or servant, is to serve the needs of his or her chief.  A wise servant will use this opportunity to learn all there is to know about protocol, genealogy, language and culture with all its rituals and traditions.  Many of them would have earned their title from serving kava (see order) the picture of the kava represents serving and the other two symbols the fue and the to’oto’o represent leadership.  Leadership comes after service, but leadership represents serving and meeting the needs of the family, the village and the people.   Fulfilling the role of tautua or service to the best of one’s ability ensures that when time comes for naming an heir to the suafa matai (family title), the candidate who has performed best is usually deemed the appropriate heir.  In other words, one reaps what one sows. 

There have been cases where sons and daughters automatically assumed that the family titles were theirs through inheritance, only to discover that because they had not fulfilled their duties as tautua lelei ie (good servants), the title was passed on to another member of the extended family.  There is another Samoan saying which supports this: e le taua le suli moni, ae taua le maosiosi.  Translated literally, this means, “it is not the biological tie that is important; what is important are the scars that prove your hard work.”  The evidence of hard work is the road to good fair leadership, not necessarily hereditary inheritance.  Of course, this does not mean that only good people get through; the warring siblings and cousins continue even today to challenge ownership to titles and land deeds that were rightfully earned through service.  These proverbs exist in order that families may live in harmony.  Unfortunately, when titles are put in the hands of the wrong recipients, the result is often abuse or corruption of power through unfair and unequal distribution of power and resources. 

This philosophy of leadership and worth has existed well before the Christianization of Samoa.  Jesus’ teaching on greatness seems to affirm Samoans’ attitude to power and leadership: 

The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one at table?  But I am among you as one who serves (Matthew 10:46-52). 

Did James and John have an inflated view of themselves and thought that they were “the greatest.”  Perhaps James and John, who had been with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and had seen the splendor of Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the mountain, that spiritual experience “went to their heads” and they thought that they were the “greatest of the disciples.”  James and John had become puffed up with religious superiority after the Mount of Transfiguration.  

And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Here the truth comes out. James and John wanted glory. They wanted power, status, and authority. These two disciples, who were to become the leaders of the church, still didn’t “get it” about what Jesus was teaching that the Son of man would suffer, be killed and on the third day rise from the dead. James and John had visions of themselves in the future: one at the right hand of Jesus in glory; one at the left hand of Jesus in glory.  

That is often true of us as well. That is, we can be baptized, grow up in the church, be religious and mouth all the right “Jesus words” and still not “get it” that we, too, are called to follow the path of Jesus and his humiliation and suffering.  

Obviously, James and John still didn’t “get it.” James and John, after being commissioned as two of the twelve disciples, after spending time with Jesus, after following Jesus and after seeing the 5,000 fed, Jesus walking on/by the water, the Transfiguration, and several healings, they still didn’t “get it.”  

Even after arguing and discussing with the other disciples about who was the greatest and even after hearing Jesus’ lessons about humility, becoming like children, “being the least of these is the greatest,” and “being a servant,” they STILL didn’t “get it.” Jesus had told them all these important teachings before, in Chapter 9, right after the Transfiguration, but they STILL didn’t “get it.”  

We are the same many centuries later.  

-But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. James and John thought they were simply asking for power, glory and authority, but they did not realize that the way to glory in the Christian faith is by the way of the cross, suffering and death. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and the cross and had taught them three times about the cross and suffering, but they still didn’t “get it.”   

Do we get it yet?  At the end of the day what is this all about?   

The word for minister in the Samoan language is “faifeau” the one who does all the work.  Ministers are referred to as “auauna a le Atua” servants of God.  The plastic collar around our necks are a symbol that we are no longer slaves in chains but a symbol of ministry being one of “slave” or service to God. I was told that the clerical collar represents the abolition of slavery and it’s transfer to the office of clergy as no longer slaves but servants of God.   

I often go to Samoan funerals and the grandchildren and children often get up to do a eulogy and they begin by saying, I’m the favorite and the next would say no I’m really the favorite etc.  My parents never had any favorites as far as they were concerned but I know my siblings used to think I was the favorite because of my chosen vocation, whatever!  No one likes to think that others are being treated as favorites in families, workplaces and even in churches God forbid.   

Talking about funerals, Samoan’s don’t really have a thing known as “inheritance” as you do in the Western world.  When someone dies, or gets married or has a special occasion, like in the story of Job, everyone brings some money and for us fine mats ie toga to help towards expenses.  The ministers are the recipients of all this gift giving and receiving but the grieving family/spouse often have enough money left over to pay off all debts and pay for headstone etc. and help restore them back into society afterwards.  That is of course when it is done respectfully and with grace.  All cultures have their ideal way, and all cultures also have people who corrupt within these cultures.  But done ‘ideally’ the suffering family or the celebrating family are lifted up by their communities to support and give them fullness of life.   

Samoa’s Prime minister the Honourable Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa said in her welcome speech at Chogm on Friday.  The  FaaSamoa or Samoan way of life exemplifies collective responsibility encapsulating values such as respect, dignity, love, protection and service.  This aligns with the principals of the Commonwealth charter.   

We are on this earth not to achieve greatness but to be an example of humility, to stand up for justice to model love and peace in an ideal world.   

We all have the opportunity for greatness every day, for those who humble themselves are indeed great, but those who think they are great need to become humble.  Perhaps like David Tua we need to be made vulnerable before we can find our humility, when we are vulnerable then we are open to spirit of God to change our hearts and our lives towards that of humility and service.  The pathway to leadership is through service.  Amen.  

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service