Philadelphia Baptist Association’s Mission’s Banquet on the topic of immigration at the Hilton Hotel on City Line Avenue on Oct. 18th, 2014
I am glad to be here in the City of Brotherly Love. The Philadelphia area was my home for over 20 years before any skyscrapers were allowed to be higher than Billy Penn’s hat. While San Francisco is my home now, I left my heart in Philadelphia! It’s the place where our daughter was born and lived in Center City. It’s the place where the Angel of Resurrection, the war memorial statue in 30th Street Station remembered the 1307 PA railroad workers who died fighting in World War II. It is this same war that ended over 50 years ago that gave me the chance to make America my home.
After my grandfather and father started a laundry business in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, the US Army drafted my father to serve in WWII. He carried a rifle, received a sharpshooter pin, became a corporal and came home with a copper penny stamped with a “V” for victory. In those days, serving militarily for the United States even though he was not yet a US citizen, gave him citizenship. He didn’t need to learn that there were 2 senators from each state or that George Washington was the first president. The only requirement was whether he was willing to spill his blood for America.
When the earliest Chinese laborers came to the US in the mid 1880s to work on the farms picking fruits and vegetables, stood on the assembly lines canning food in Sacramento or came as scabs to break up a shoe manufacturing factory strike in Boston, a phrase was coined, “It’s a Chinaman’s Chance.” This means that the probability of a Chinese to succeed or making it was impossible.
But these early Chinese male sojourners had no intentions of settling in this wild, wild west when they have come from a civilization over thousands of years old rich with culture, arts, and history. They came to seek out opportunities to do honest work and earn enough money to send home to their households of wives and children to live in comfort. They were strangers in a foreign land. From the point of view of the US government, these early Chinese were not a people who would have a legitimate place in the formation of a new nation.
As the result of world events like WWII and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, my father and many others had no home in Asia to return. Whether they liked it or not, America was now their home. When my father was a laundryman in the Roxbury section of Boston, my mother and older brother were living in the Toishan region of China. After returning from WWII in Germany, my father wanted to reunite with his family. It was at this point in our history that the First Baptist Church of Boston came into his life. Founded in 1665, the fourth oldest Baptist church in America, First Baptist was helping returning Chinese American GIs to learn English by reading the Bible and to process immigration documents to bring displaced families together. Once the arrangements were made, my father now a US citizen traveled back to China to accompany my mother and older brother to board the US Army Transport Benson to cross the Pacific that landed in San Francisco.
My mother and brother had troubles getting their final documents cleared to leave Angel Island Immigration Station, the Ellis Island of the west. Earlier my father was counseled to not identify the fact that he had a son. And now that he is claiming a son, the authorities thought that he was trying to smuggle in an illegal dependent. After being detained for 3 months giving testimonies to corroborate their stories and retaining a San Francisco lawyer, they were finally permitted to come onto shore.
My mother often told me that when they took the continental train ride on tracks built by Chinese laborers from the west and Irish laborers from the east years earlier that when she arrived in Chicago, she had her first taste of Maine lobsters. She never forgot that. She lived in Boston for the rest of her life and lobsters remained one of her favorite special dishes.
I was born in Boston in Kenmore Square not far from the CITGO neon sign across the street from Fenway Park. While the Red Sox did not do so well this year, they have made all Bostonians’ hopes come true by winning the World Series three times in my lifetime, more times than my father and all those in his generation lived to see. There’s no more curse of the Bambino! If it weren’t for First Baptist of Boston and American Baptists, I would literally not be here today!
As I look back at the life that I have received, I can confidently proclaim that the American Baptists inspired by God’s gracious love made evident in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross gave this Chinaman the chance to be a child of God. With God’s help, I beat the Chinaman’s Chance!
Today American Baptists
I’m delighted that you are here today because most of your friends and relatives are not here. Most people in America don’t attend church on Sundays anymore and even fewer would give up a weekend to come to a mission banquet.
Organized religions like American Baptists have had a serious image problem for quite some time. How often have you tried to explain to someone that American Baptists are not the Southern Baptist or that Westboro Baptist Church is not ABC? We have a branding challenge.
Can you claim to be an American Baptist Christian, but not one of those Christians? Can you claim to be a follower of Christ, without conjuring up the online jokes and stereotypes plaguing anyone remotely associated with organized religion?
The new film that Leo Thorne and the Office of the General Secretary just released have recognizable people like US Congressman John Lewis, Joan Campbell, formerly with the NCCC, President Jimmy Carter, sociologist Tony Campolo and BWA General Secretary Neville Gallam talking about who American Baptists are that we have been too shy or too humble to proclaim. In this short film, American Baptists led the way in civil rights, women in ministry and foreign missions that truthfully have changed the course of human history.
In these past few months, I have had the privilege of participating in international gatherings that confirmed my claim. Last December, I attended along with many American Baptists, the 200th anniversary of the Judsons arriving in Yangon and the beginning of the Myanmar Baptist work. There were 40,000 people at this convention! You can’t believe the impact that Judson and the countless other missionaries made in the shaping of the Burmese Baptists. Adoniram Judson and Anne Hasseltine are like their George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And if they had cars to sell, they probably would have car sales on the Judsons’ birthdays!
When I attended the BWA Annual Gathering in Izmir, Turkey followed by the World Mission Conference at Green Lake this past July, I was once again impressed by the fact that Baptist leaders from around the world are grateful for the American Baptists today because of the sacrifices that American Baptists of old made in their lives, the lives of their ancestors and the making of their culture, history and country today.
I did not know this story until I went and saw for myself. While we may be worried about our viability and future as healthy churches and regions, the gift of the Good News in Jesus Christ brought to foreign shores by you is changing the course of human history.
God’s People
The people to whom Peter was writing felt that they were abandoned. Chinese Americans identify with this passage because we often feel banished as aliens dispersed from our homelands. When American Baptists see ourselves as being resident aliens in a foreign land, we are more prone to develop our own stories of God’s saving grace. It’s only when you know that you were once not a people is when you realized that you are God’s people.
We are people who are accustomed to doing church in a building. But when we see that your membership is declining and getter smaller every year and wonder about how to maintain this building, Jesus is teaching us that he is the cornerstone, we are only living stones. Building a bigger sanctuary or maintaining a beautifully kept-up building is not a sign of success.
The church in the Western world has embraced a model of church growth that attracts people to attend congregational events by providing services to the individual. A local church will provide excellent child-care, professionally played music, state of the art facilities and ministries specifically tailored to individual desires. This is the “if we have this, they will come” philosophy.
This has resulted in a consumerist church where individual Christians choose their congregational affiliation based on personal preferences and choices. Increasingly, the choice of one’s church more than anything else is based on the attraction. The result is an endless task to have larger and more attractive “come-ons” to keep people’s desires satisfied while the mission of God suffers.
We are called to “Come to him, a living stone…and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” This is not of our own doing. Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house is something Jesus Christ is doing and is not dependent on what the church building looks like or how many attractive programs we feature.
When we let ourselves be built into a spiritual house by the presence of the living Christ, the results may not be very impressive. Some of these living stones are well educated; others have not finished high school. There could be a woman who sits in the balcony because she doesn’t think her clothes are good enough for the downstairs. There are people who may have recently completed their prison time and are seeking for a second chance. There are hard-working laborers who have no legal papers to remain in the US but they are the same people who picked the fruits and vegetables served in our church potluck dinners.
There are babies and children who are often overlooked but they are the people who will lead the church tomorrow. There are youth and young people who talk and dress so differently from us but they are already coming up with new ideas and apps that are changing the world that we know it.
We might like to think of ourselves as upright good citizens who have good reputations, good jobs, nice homes and all the rest but we are in the sight of God, people in need of a Savior who forgives and restores us to become living stones.
All these living stones are assured that they are now God’s people. They have become a holy priesthood. We now believe that they don’t have a Chinaman’s Chance of never feeling included. Rather, they feel welcomed and accepted as members of Christ’s church.
One of the most pressing issues facing our country today is the recent arrival of the unaccompanied minors from Central America fleeing from violence and abuse and the 11 million undocumented people, some who have lived in the US for decades. While I fully acknowledge the need to respect and follow our laws, our elected legislators have avoided passing immigration law reforms. Because this is an election year, our political leaders are afraid of losing their seats.
They are now the people with a “Chinaman’s Chance.” While my father and then my mother and brother had clear paths toward citizenship, this is all what these people are asking for. They too are living stones and should feel welcomed and accepted in Christ’s church. And prayerfully, they would have a place to call home too.
Now, there’s a fear of the sick stranger. We think that the only way to keep Ebola from spreading in the US is to keep all Africans out. A blanket prohibition on travel from West Africa is prejudice, plain and simple. It prejudges an entire group, based on sickness of a small handful. Of course we should screen visitors from those countries for the virus, as the CDC is already doing at five airports. We should work with African immigrant communities to help identify people who might have been infected.
But look at our history: The Irish was accused of spreading cholera in the early 1800s. The Chinese were charged with bringing small pox, leprosy, and the bubonic plague to California. The Italians with their “low foreheads” and “weak chins” were blamed for making others sick in 1914. The Jews were accused of spreading tuberculosis. More recently, the Haitians were deemed a risk for the Centers of Disease Control for who they are rather than what they did in 1983. Would people from West Africa become the next group of people with only a “Chinaman’s Chance” to succeed?
I have taken some of your time to tell you my story of how I wouldn’t exist if it were not for the American Baptists. And when I am aware of my story of once having a Chinaman’s Chance of success, I discovered that God has a purpose and plan for my life. In 1 Peter,
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (2:10).
What is your story of how God has led you from once not being a person to now being God’s person? How have you received God’s mercy in your life?
I sensed that there are times when we are embarrassed or ashamed to claim our identity as people who were once not a people and as the result of God’s mercy and love found in Jesus Christ, we are now God’s people. We rather not remember where we originally have come from when we were not a people and try to put that behind us. But it is only when we can claim that we were once sinners and as the result of God’s saving grace and mercy that we are God’s people today.
Do you know how to share your story of how God’s love and mercy have made you whole?
At FCBC, we expect every person joining our church to give a public testimony in front of the congregation. When was the last time you gave your testimony?
I don’t know many of your names but let me tell you that growing up with my last name, “Ng” in Boston was not a trip to the park. No one in my childhood years could pronounce it or even attempt to respect it. Remember in the old days when the desks were fastened to the floor and the teacher would pass out little white cards and ask you to print your last name first and then your first initial under it? When it came to reading out my name, the teacher said, “Does this mean a “No Good Desk?”
How embarrassing! I had a Chinaman’s Chance to be seen in the eyes of this teacher with respect. It broke my heart recently that our 6-year old granddaughter Story who was given my last name, “Ng” to be her middle name told us that kids were making fun of her middle name.
For me, the Baptist Youth Fellowship at First Baptist, Boston provided me that affirmation and confidence to believe in myself and to realize that I was once not a person but now in the eyes of our Lord, I am God’s person. During my high school years, I gave my life to Jesus at one of the BYF state conventions and was then baptized in my home church. I’ll be telling this truth to our granddaughter until she too believes that God loves her too.
Are we ready to be today’s Adoniram Judson and Ann Hasseltine that as the result of our faithful witness and testimonies that God will change the course of human history through us? This is the reason why we need to remain American Baptist today. Without Jesus, the living stone, we would only be like a rolling stone. Without Jesus, we would not be a people. Without Jesus, we would not receive mercy.
When we believe that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and we are living stones, we would build up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I truly believe that when we are willing to share our stories of God’s redemptive power in our lives, we would discover the passion of discipleship and God’s call for us to be God’s people.
We Are Here
I read a story of a worship service that was planned by a seminarian at Union Seminary in New York. She had worked with a group called Picture the Homeless as part of her senior thesis project. For months she met with people who were accustomed to living on the streets. The focus of the service was to remember the hundreds of people who had been buried on Hart Island, New York City’s potter’s field. Most of them have been buried without names, never honored with religious services. The goal of Picture the Homeless was to move city officials to allow religious observances on the island, even if names were never known. Some of those planning the service could not read, so they memorized their parts. Everyone worked very hard to get things right.
When the day came to lead worship, they led the service with power and grace. Dawn led the opening litany; Robert read the story of Lazarus and the rich man—then preached an impromptu sermon that was not part of the planning. Others told their own stories of living on the streets. At the close of the service, each person in the congregation was invited to write the name of a homeless person on a purple Post-It. A large sheet had been stretched between the two tall candle stands at the front of the chapel. Scattered at random all over were anonymous names: John Doe, Jane Doe, Baby Doe. People were encouraged to place their purple squares over those anonymous names. One by one people went forward. It was obvious that the leaders from Picture the Homeless knew far more names than the rest of us.
However, the names kept falling off the sheet. It is not easy to stick Post-It to a sheet suspended between candle stands! Dawn was undeterred. She went back again and again to pick up the fallen names. Finally, a student held his hands behind the sheet to give her something to push against. She did not sit down until every name was in place. It was then that the seminarians discovered that the anonymous names had not been printed at random. The purple Post-Its spelled out the words: WE ARE HERE. We are here, even though we were buried without names. We are here, even though you may not meet our eyes on the street.
Once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people. Once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. We are people with the name, “American Baptists.” We are here in Philadelphia!
I am very proud to be an American Baptist not because I’m the president but I know in the center of my heart that once I had a Chinaman’s Chance of making it but now I know that I am a child of God saved by the merciful love and grace of Jesus Christ who came and gave up his life so that I am now a person of worth and spirit.
Jesus Christ, the cornerstone is here for you too so that your life may be made straight to align with what God wants you to do in your life. Thanks be to God!
Let us pray.
Thank you, O God for giving us our true identity in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Show us that when we proclaim Christ as the living stone, we too can begin to build up our lives, our churches, our communities and the world to become living stones into a spiritual home. Remind us that we are not insignificant in the eyes of the world when you have empowered and justified us in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Grant us the power and faith to continue being your people in this world bearing loving witness and courageous word of Good News and hope. In Christ we pray. Amen.