December 17, 2006, 1:00 PM
Evergreen Mortuary
Call to Worship
For everything there is a season,
a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Thanks be to God for giving us a time for everything in life.
On this day of our Lord, I welcome you on behalf of the family of Edward M. Leong, to remember and celebrate his life of 88 years on this earth. I am Don Ng, Senior Pastor of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. Edward M. Leong was born in 1918 and returned to God on December 8th, 2006. Mr. Leong is survived by his three sons, Bill, Don, and Jeff, two daughters Eva and Sarah and blessed with six grandchildren. In this busy holiday time, they are very grateful and appreciative of your presence here this afternoon. Your prayers, words of comfort, and support have encouraged them at this time of loss. It’s their hope that your participation will return a greater portion of blessings in your own life because you have shown your love for them.
Let us pray. Creator God, we trust you to guide us through every season of life. You carry us from death to life, from weeping to laughing, from mourning to dancing, and from silence to speaking. Inspire us to experience every season in its fullness, and to trust that nothing lasts forever—except for your eternal love. Help us to commend Edward M. Leong to your everlasting care, confident that he rests peacefully in your loving arms. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Song The Lord’s Prayer Bill Leong
Scripture Readings Isaiah 40:27-31
Biography Bill
Words of Remembrance Don Leong
Eva Leong
Sarah Leong
Jeff Leong
Open Sharing
Message—None of Us Live to Ourselves
In the early 1900s, there must have been thousands of Chinese with the sight that over the vast Pacific Ocean, one would discover gold on Gold Mountain California. In the villages, they must have heard stories from earlier sojourners who bravely made their first treks and survived to come back to stir the imagination of many more to make this journey for themselves to come to America. As a young teenager at the age of 16 when most 16 year olds today would be playing video games, Edward Leong left China to make a life for himself and his family. He traveled and worked in different parts of the U.S., served in the U.S. Army during World War II and operated a dry cleaning business. Mr. Leong’s life was much like the thousands of Chinese men who sojourned to America in the early 1900s.
After serving honorably in World War II, Edward Leong returned home as a U.S. citizen. Mr. Leong brought his wife from China to his new country that he fought to defend. He and his wife raised a family and were blessed with a third generation of Asian Americans who are thankful for the sacrifices that their grandparents made so that they can live freely today. Like many of Mr. Leong’s contemporaries, this World War II generation of Americans did not live for themselves but lived for the sake of others.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 14 found in the New Testament, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Mr. Leong probably set aside his own interests so that he can provide for his family. Instead of being a poet, he labored over long hours; dry cleaning clothes so that others may look nice. That’s what Chinese American men of Mr. Leong’s generation did. That’s what good fathers did.
I have always quipped to myself on why so many laundry men from China came to America? Did all the artists decided to stay to paint the sand stone mountains of Guilin? Why did so many Chinese cooks and waiters come to open Chinese restaurants? Did all of the historians and philosophers in China have teaching positions already? Or why are there so many Asian engineers in America? Aren’t there engineering projects in China or in other Asian countries? As we all know, Chinese men and women who immigrate to America did not live for themselves, they lived for the sake of their children and families. They set aside their own interests to work in the only jobs available to them.
If Edward Chan had his fair share of equal opportunities, he might have become a poet and perhaps a very famous one! Writing poetry was his passion and in every chance that he had, he discussed Chinese phrases and thoughts with his friends. He was proud when he received first place in a poetry competition. Although he may have earned a living running a dry cleaning business, Mr. Leong found his bliss writing poetry.
I would like to read one of my favorite Chinese Proverbs in honor of Mr. Leong. It goes like this:
If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
We can learn from Mr. Leong about the value of living up to our potentials or in other words, discovering our true calling. Moses was only a shepherd, but God called him to not worry about whether he can speak clearly or not to lead God’s people out of slavery to the Promised Land. David was first a shepherd boy who eventually became a king. He wrote so many beautiful poetic songs that we call the Psalms found in the Old Testament. And when Jesus was calling together his disciples to teach them about the Kingdom of God, they were fishermen, tax collectors, ordinary workers to perform an extraordinary mission. We might say that Mr. Leong went about his life working in the ordinary dry cleaning business to support his family but we are happy today that he was also able to live up to his fullest potential as a child of God with his extraordinary gift of poetry!
In the passage that we read from Romans 14, the next verse is: “For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” All of us are God’s children. We try and successfully live our lives as faithfully and honestly as we know how. We work a life time to not live as much for ourselves as to live for the sake of our loved ones and friends. And when we have the chance as Mr. Leong apparently did, we can also discover our true passion that which God gifted us with because we are all created in the image of God. The purpose of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is for us, you and me.
In confidence of God’s mercy and grace, Mr. Leong is with the Lord for Jesus Christ is Lord of all creation.
Let us pray.
Eternal and loving God, Giver of life, we thank you for all the stages of our lives, from birth to death and beyond death.
We praise you for the freshness, the innocence, the wide-eyed curiosity of childhood. We thank you for the wildly exciting trials of adolescence: for youthful dreams and trying days. We praise you for all the right choices we made in our early maturity and beg your forgiveness for making so many wrong ones. We thank you for the satisfaction of our later maturity: for teaching us, sometimes painfully, how to give more and to expect less in return.
And we praise you for as many sunset years as you may have in store for us: for fragments of wisdom, for bright-eyed grandchildren, and for the courage to face our mortality strengthened by the promise of a more perfect life, thanks to the love and willing sacrifice of your blessed Son.
Thank you, Father God, for the life of your child, Edward M. Leong, ended here but resumed with the Lord. Amen.
Announcements
In loving memory of Mr. Leong, his family has requested that donations may be made to the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco, 1 Waverly Place, San Francisco where son Bill Leong is an active member and sings in the church choir.
After you have expressed your last respects and greeted the family, we will proceed to the Woodlawn Cemetery for our Committal Service. Following that, you are invited to a Memorial Dinner at the
Benediction
I challenge you now, beloved in the Lord, to face bravely the journey which our friend, Edward Leong has completed, having arrived safely in God’s kingdom.
Journey on, without the fear of falling, without any pretense about your true state as a child of God in need of God’s saving grace.
Journey on, with tender memories of Edward Leong and so many others who have gone before you, secure in the hope that, when your time comes, the love of God will be sufficient for you, thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Committal Service
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25-26)
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, we commend to God’s merciful care our brother, Edward M. Leong; and we commit his body to this final resting place, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Let us pray.
God, our Maker, you made our brother, Edward M. Leong, in your own image; you set his feet on our sojourner trek; you watched over him along the way. You led him to discover his true passion as a poet. As you lovingly received and welcomed him to the ranks of the redeemed, we pray that you would continue to guide our sojourner steps so that, at the appointed time, we might join Edward M. Leong in the communion of saints—forgive, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.