August 18, 2014, 10:00 AM, Lakeside Presbyterian Church, SF
Call to Worship & Opening Words
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Psalm 90:1; Romans 14:7-9)
We gathered today for a special reason—to celebrate the life of Fredric Hee who was born on May 17, 1937 and returned to the Lord on July 13, 2014 having lived for 77 years. We have interrupted our week to be here just as when Fred Hee passed from his earthly life to the heavenly one, it interrupted the lives and routines of his loving family. But out of such interruptions in life, we are shaken to reflect for ourselves the true meaning of life and how when we live, we live to the Lord and when we die, we also die to the Lord. And as we all have come together today even in the midst of Fred Hee’s passing, we are here in the Lord to which we are most blessed.
On behalf of Carolyn Hee and her family, we welcome you to this memorial service. They thank you for your presence for surely your prayers and kind thoughts have enabled them to persevere during this time and to prepare for this day. We have a wonderful service planned that will capture as much of the gifts and experiences that Fred Hee shared with you and the world knowing that only God, our Creator knows Fred and all of us from the very beginning of our lives and to the very end.
Let us pray.
We thank you, God, that nothing in all creation—nothing in life and nothing in death—can separate us from your love. Fill us with your Spirit in this time of suffering and loss, and remind us that Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living. May we trust him to rescue us from all destructive powers and show us the way to a new and everlasting life. In Christ, we pray. Amen.
God’s Design
Some people go through life with no plans. They are tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind. They are like a boat on a vast sea with no steering wheel or anchor to drop. And whatever harbor they might reach, they do the best they can. Some people actually like such a life because they are free and not tied down to any one plan.
When we believe in God and his majestic creation, there is a grand design not only for the world and everything in it but also for each one of us. While the wind might blow in every each way, the jet stream blows west to east. While the sun appears overhead especially when we are doing our daily work, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. While the mighty oceans surround all of the dry land, there is still the rhythm of the ebb and flow of the tides. After God created the world with a grand plan so that everything would be working creatively together, God stepped back and declared, “It is all very good.” When we think about Fred Hee, we remember that it seems like Fred always had a plan in mind.
In Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, he writes,
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (4:4-6)
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (4:11-16)
God equipped Fred Hee to be an auditor who investigated people and wore a badge to keep the peace. He was not tossed to and fro and blown by every wind because Fred Hee knew he was Fred Hee. For that, people young and old looked up to him as a teacher, mentor and friend.
For those of us who are old enough to remember the A-Team when the leader, Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith beaming after another successful mission would say, “I love it when a plan comes together,” Fred Hee likes to have a plan. When he worked as an auditor, he followed the plan of financial accounting practices. He was able to account for every penny.
One of the last ministries that Fred did was to serve on the Lanna Coffee Project Team when FCBC would import fair trade coffee from Northern Thailand to invest in village economies and to support mission projects that stop human trafficking. While the rest of the team saw this project as totally a ministry, Fred augmented our work by accounting for every bag of coffee we imported and sold. We can say that we practiced state of the art bookkeeping and when Fred audited his own books, there were no notes recorded on our books!
According to Ephesians, God has a plan for the world and everyone in the world has a part to play. In the fullness of God’s time, we are to accomplish all things according to God’s counsel and will. Fred took his gift of planning and applied it throughout his life. He enjoyed organizing and planning CONFAB trips by managing the funds and getting the best bargains he can find. When he went to the casinos, he was not a friend to the casino management because in his uncanny planning mind, he figured out how to beat the system by winning at the roulette table. As a good winner, I’m sure he passed out his winners to all the little children he knew.
One of the favorite places that Fred liked to visit is Disneyland because it’s the happiest place on earth. But I suspect that the reason Fred liked Disneyland is because it is the best well-managed theme park known in the world. Fred liked the way Walt Disney planned and designated an entire room for Mickey Mouse. I heard that Fred could figure out Rubik’s cube and enjoyed doing sudokus—only a well-organized mind in planning can solve such problems.
Many of you were in the youth group when Fred served as a youth adviser. During those years, there was a popular song called, “No Man is an Island” composed by Joan Baez. The words are:
No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man’s joy is joy to me,
Each man’s grief is my own.
We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.
I saw the people gather,
I heard the music start,
The song that they were singing,
Is ringing in my heart.
No man is an island,
Way out in the blue,
We all look to the One above,
For our strength to renew.
These words describe Fred because he believed that in God’s grand design of the world, we are all connected. He loved and cared for his family to the point that he moved to Sacramento in order to make a living to support his family. He was very generous and gave things away to others because no man is an island. He welcomed church meetings to his and Carolyn’s home because he saw each person as his sister and brother. Fred understood that God’s plan for his life was to organize and plan conferences and travel trips so that every person is never alone and has a place to belong.
At last year’s Senior Retreat, each person was invited to bring an object to describe a quality of himself or herself. The task was for the rest of the group to guess whose object it was. For Fred, it was easy and obvious. He brought one of Joni James’ CDs. When Fred started to describe his favorite female vocalist, I realized that I grew up in Boston listening to Joni James too. My father after coming home from World War II had one of her LPs. He would play this record and Joni James’ clear voice has rung in my ears ever since. But I didn’t remember which album my father had except that I remembered the cover had Joni James wearing a long red gown. Fred made a copy of that album for me and the song that I remembered most was “Too Young.”
We wish that life can continue to go on and that we are still too young to die. But we also believe that in God’s grand plan, there is a time and place for everything under heaven. 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. Fred Hee knew this because he was created in God’s own image to be a planner and organizer like how God created the whole universe. Fred knew that he was a part of God’s grand design.
We all know that Fred liked good food and lots of it. While I eat to live, Fred lives to eat. Good food was important to Fred so it was not a big surprise that Fred and his whole family was on a cruise coming home from Alaska before he passed. Fred was on a big boat not being blown to and fro but had a clear direction in life based on God’s design. He had a steering wheel in Jesus Christ and dropped his anchor to perform the work of the Lord. And today, Fred Hee has arrived at a safe harbor with God in heaven.
In the Bible, there are three accounts of Jesus giving a toast. At the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), where he changed water into wine, he drank from the festive cup as the guest of honor to celebrate the joy of life. At Jacob’s well, he asked a bewildered Samaritan woman for a drink. When she gave him a cup of water, he drank a toast to the oneness of human kind. And in the Upper Room, while sharing the Passover feast with his disciples, he turned the consecration of the cup of thanksgiving into a toast to death and life. “I tell you,” Jesus said, “that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Jesus knew that he was about to suffer and die. He did not look forward to suffering. A man of no more than 33, he loved life. But his complete trust in God enabled him to drink a toast to death as well as to life. And he would find out that, because of his faithfulness, God would give him power even over death.
Because Jesus lives, Fred Hee lives too. Let us toast to Fred Hee, a child of God created in God’s own designer’s image, blessed with the gifts of planning and organizing like how God himself is the grand designer and planner of the universe.
Let us pray.
Faithful God, we thank you for the faith and witness of Christians through the centuries. We thank you for the prophets, apostles and other great leaders. But on this day of remembrance, we praise you above all for ordinary disciples who never made a headline in the world or even in the church, but who, by their faithfulness, their quiet example, helped us to find our anchor in the church, and our Lord and Savior in Jesus, the Christ.
Dear God, we remember Fred Hee with love, and we pray for the comfort of his loved ones. Separated for a time, they are even now members of your communion of saints that transcends time and space. And because of our Lord, they may look forward to a joyful reunion in your presence. So we exclaim with your servant, Paul: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). Amen.
Acknowledgements and Closing Words
The Hee Family has requested that if you would like to make a contribution in memory of Fred Hee, gifts can be made out to and sent to the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco to either go to the “Fred Hee Memorial Fund” or to the “Lanna Coffee Project.”
After you have come forward to pay your last respects (Not necessary to climb the steps) and to greet the family, when exiting, you will be given two small envelopes: the white one with a piece of candy symbolizes that you have come to a bittersweet occasion and the family blesses you with a sweet and happy departure. The red envelope containing a coin symbolizes happiness and prosperity which the family wishes to bless you in your lives hereafter.
You are invited to a Memorial Luncheon at one of Fred’s favorite restaurants, Moonstar in Daly City. This Asian buffet is the kind of place that Fred in his love for food enjoyed the most. The family looks forward to greeting you there and to continue to share rich memories of our friend, Fred Hee. Directions are listed in the back of your bulletin.
Benediction
Beloved, in the midst of sadness, I charge you to rejoice.
Rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God!
Rejoice even in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope!
Rejoice above all that this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit! (Romans 5:2-5)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen (Romans 15:13)
Committal Service
Jesus said:
I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. (John 11:25-26)
Do not be afraid: I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead and see, I am alive forever and ever. (Rev. 1:17-18)
And from John, “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, Frederic Hee; and we commit his body to this resting place: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
“Blessed are the dead who…die in the Lord…They will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.” (Revelations 14:13)
Let us pray.
God our Maker, you made our brother, Fred Hee, in your own image; you set his feet on a sojourner adventure; you watched over him along the way. 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 Fred Hee in the communion of saints—forgiven, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Benediction
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. Go in peace.