October 10, 2010
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When the Giants won the National League Western Division’s Championship on the last game of the season last Sunday, one of you asked me, “Are you now going to root for the Giants?” When I grew up in my dear hometown of Boston, we were nurtured to endear our Boston sports teams whether they won or lost. They mostly lost in those days.
For the past 12 years, it’s been difficult for me to switch loyalties. While I know that I can hit a few homeruns with you by wearing a Giants cap, I can’t seem to bring myself to doing it. I feel exiled out here in the West Coast far away from my beloved Red Sox. Now that the Red Sox missed the playoffs but the Giants are still playing, I’ll try to root for them.
The book of Jeremiah covers the prophet’s career from the later decades of pre-exilic Judah into the early years of the Babylonian exile. The first deportation took place around 597 BC when King Jehoiachin, the royal household, and a portion of the population were sent to Babylon. Jeremiah counseled the people who remained in Judah and Zedekiah, the king installed by the Babylonian empire to submit to Babylon as God’s just punishment for their sins of idolatry and social injustice.
Today’s lesson, Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 dates from the period between the first deportation and the second in 586, and is a portion of a letter Jeremiah sent to the community of Judean exiles in Babylon.
Jeremiah placed his hope for the future not in the people who remained in Judah but in those who were sent into exile in the first deportation. His word to these people is to settle down in Babylon in the knowledge that the sojourn in the land of the conqueror must last seventy years but that God will eventually bring them home. He counseled them to plant gardens, take wives, promote marriages and multiply. The restoration will not come quickly, but it will come. But in the meantime, the community must grow strong.
But the most startling advice that Jeremiah spoke on behalf of the Lord to the exiled people was that they must “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile; for in its welfare you will find your own welfare.” I think Jeremiah has a word for me exiled in San Francisco.
Urban Ministry
I know that God has his way in my life but I am very thankful that God’s will for me has been compatible to my own wishes. When I used to travel extensively for work, I would visit very small towns around the country. I would fly in one of those small planes where you can literally sit right behind the pilot. We would land and I may be the only passenger getting off the plane while the propellers were still turning to take off again. I would go to a small ABC church to meet with the Sunday school teachers about curriculum and effective teaching. While I celebrate what God was doing in these small towns across America, I was sure glad to return to Philadelphia. I prayed every time I visited one of these small towns that God would only call me to ministries in big cities. I love San Francisco!
For the past 40 years, the general trend of mainline churches is to leave the inner city and to follow those who were better off by moving to the suburbs. Our own church some 14 years ago entertained such a possibility. The fact that we are here today is a witness that we did not follow what the trend was.
Some churches that left the inner city perceive the need to find their way back into the cities making the assumption that when they left, God left with them. They assumed that God moved to the suburbs with them.
God did not leave the city when churches fled to the suburbs. Those churches that did leave the city may need to return into the cities in order to find God at work there, and in order to understand the reality of God more fully. Furthermore, God is not just at work in inner city churches but God continues to be actively at work outside the churches and in the larger world.
In the Babylonian Exile, we have a theology that says, “God is greater than we think.” The people of Israel no longer can just envision a personal or tribal deity, but God is now seen as the creator of the whole world who is at work in the whole world.
For the past 130 years, you have been faithful to the ministry of Jesus Christ in San Francisco. You have not abandoned the city. You have sought the welfare of the city and in its welfare you have found your welfare as well.
Rooted in Chinatown
As people of faith, we believe that our eternal home is with God. But while we are in this life, exiled until we are home with God, we are to set down roots and become open to receive the goodness and blessings in the midst of exile.
After 8 years of renting space on Washington Street near Portsmouth Square, the American Baptist Home Missionary Society decided to set down roots in Chinatown in 1888 by purchasing this land on the corner of Waverly Place and Sacramento Street.
After 18 years when American Baptist missions to the Chinese originated and headquartered at this location directed by Dr. Jesse Hartwell, this relatively new building was completely destroyed and burned down by the 1906 earthquake and fire. But after 2 years, the Chinese Baptist Mission rose from the ashes once again. New roots were set down.
During the discrimination and racism of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, American Baptist missionaries and denominational leaders spoke out against such human injustices and defended the right for Chinese to remain in America. This helped the Chinese to feel more welcomed to set down roots.
After World War II when American GIs of Chinese ancestry fought for their new country returned home, they finally felt that this is their new country. They started to go to school, have children, buy houses, and begin new careers. We finally had an American-born youth group at our church. They set down more roots beyond Chinatown and all over San Francisco.
When Dr. James Chuck was pastor in the 1950s, our church received the deed to the property of this church from the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. We were finally no longer tenants or renters but owners of this church. We set down even more roots.
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, you had a difficult decision to make. You have seen the many inner-city churches leave the city following those who were better off by moving to the suburbs. But you didn’t. You decided to set down some very deep roots by ramming steel beams into the ground and retrofitting this church home to remain in Chinatown.
And finally earlier this year, while you know in faith that our final home is ultimately with God, our creator, you made a courageous decision to partner with our good neighbor, the Chinatown YMCA for 30 years so that both of our institutions may remain viable and faithful to serve our people and community for years to come. We now have set down some roots across Sacramento Street.
Just like the people of Israel made Babylon their home, we have done so faithfully as well. We have not kept to ourselves or made our church home the destination attraction. We are not stuck worrying about our own needs or our own welfare only. But year after year, decades after decades, we have been faithful to what God told Israel in exile, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
The welfare of the city is in our Friday Night School.
The welfare of the city is in our Day Camp.
The welfare of the city is every time we open up our doors for city college students to come to learn English.
The welfare of the city is when we feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless.
The welfare of the city is when we speak out against injustices and moral decay.
The welfare of the city is to find a path for citizenship for people who are illegally in this country but hard working and contributing people.
The welfare of the city is to read the daily paper in one hand and the Bible in the other hand and pray to God for what we can do to bring hope and joy to the world.
The welfare of the city is every time you walk across Sacramento Street over to the YMCA that you look both ways and see the world’s people and say a prayer to yourself that these are God’s children too.
Our 2011 canvass and annual church theme is “Who Is My Neighbor?” When we ask that question and strive to answer it both as individuals and as this church, we will be seeking the welfare of the city where God has sent us into exile, and we will pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in the city’s welfare we will find our welfare too.
Homecoming
Today marks our 130 years of ministry in San Francisco Chinatown. We see old friends and will meet new friends. At the reception across the street at the Y and then at the luncheon at the Empress of China, we’ll see former members of this historic church. It’s truly a time of homecoming. We are thankful to God to have a place such as this church building to call our church home.
When the group visited Israel in 2008, our tour guide and good friend, Jack pointed out a piece of land that he and his brother bought to develop and to finally build a house that he can call his own. With the peace talks halted in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, we acutely understand how important it is to have a place that we can call home—a place that we have set down roots. Jack told us that having the possession of a deed that says he owns a piece of this land gives him hope of peace in a Palestinian state that will come.
In Jeremiah 32, during the siege in 587 that ended with the destruction of the city and temple, God told Jeremiah to buy a field from his cousin. They signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Jeremiah took the deed of purchase and placed it in an earthenware jar in order that it may last a long time. When Jeremiah bought this field, it is a prophetic sign of hope that one day, houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.
In our 130 years of being rooted here, haven’t we planted gardens and eaten the produce? Haven’t we built houses and lived in them? Haven’t we gotten married and had children, married off our children and tended and still tending grandchildren? By setting down deep and firm roots, we have also sought the welfare of the city where God has sent us and we have prayed to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, we have found our welfare as well. Just as in Jeremiah’s time, we believe in this hope for us too.
By making our community a good place in which to live because in helping our community, we are helping our selves to not only survive but to thrive. We live in the hope that there is always a future.
During the Vietnam War, there is a story of a Vietnamese woman who had to move from village to village to stay ahead of the war. Asked how she raised her children in that environment, she said it was simple: “I took a tablecloth with me wherever I went. I spread a table, gathered whoever was around who was hungry, and we ate and took care of one another.” This is how we survived, she said.
When we spread out the table cloth for the Lord’s Supper whether it’s here in our sanctuary or at some retreat setting or anyplace God has led us to be, we would eat and drink and know that inasmuch as Jesus looked after the welfare of the people by challenging the oppressive laws that kept people from thriving, we are called to look after the welfare of the city of San Francisco and Chinatown too.
A Final Note
After being in the Bay Area for 12 years, I have a house in Sausalito and lived in it. I have planted a garden and have enjoyed strawberries, tomatoes, and even a few Japanese eggplants this year. I have married off a son and a daughter. And we have multiplied our grandchildren to 5 with one more coming.
Now it’s time for me to seek the welfare of the Giants where they play in the city that God has sent me in exile from Boston. I pray to the Lord on the Giants behalf that in its welfare, I will find welfare too.
Go Giants!
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord God, we thank you for abiding with us throughout these many years. You have guided us through many challenging days and we pray that we will continue to follow your steps of faithful discipleship and service in the years to come. Thank you for your trust in us to carry out your mission work in Chinatown and beyond. May we always love you by seeking the welfare of this city and in turn we will also find our own welfare. Bless us and keep us every day until we return to our eternal home. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.