Message preached at Pastors Events in Fall 2014 as ABC President, 2014-15.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s, I remember watching Dobie Gillis. Dobie might have gotten all of the girls but it was Maynard played by Bob Denver whom I remembered most. Every time someone suggested to Maynard that he should get a job and work, he goes stirred-crazy because just the word, “work” caused him to go bonkers.
I am coming close to serving full-time in ministry for 40 years—a typical tenure-ship of many Americans who started working right after college or seminary and working until the age 66. I am the grandson of a Chinese sojourner who first arrived in San Francisco in 1910 and labored as a shopkeeper on Grant Avenue and then in the canning industry on the rich farms of the Sacramento valley. I am the son of an US Army GI who served as a infantryman in Germany during WWII and after the war, worked as a laundry man washing and ironing shirts and as a Chinese restaurant waiter waiting on customers ordering spring rolls and chow mein. By the time I was ready to work, my father built me a shoeshine box and filled it with black and brown polish and brushes to go out and work. Unlike Maynard, the word, “work” did not cause me to go bonkers.
When I was about to finish at Gordon College majoring in psychology and minoring in philosophy, my mother had no idea how I was going to monetize the tuition in a job she paid for my BA. To make matters worst, I then told her that I was going to become a minister. Now, she had an idea of what ministers do by attending First Baptist in Boston as an Easter/Christmas Christian. But beyond that, my mother’s image of a minister is a Buddhist monk. In China, she knew that monks live in poverty, had no fancy clothes, wore sandals and went to each house in her village with a bowl in his hands begging for only enough food for that day’s meals.
In retrospect, that simple image of ministry looks pretty attractive after serving the Lord for almost 40 years. The American Baptist form of ministry that we are a part of is not simple but complicated, not getting away with wearing just a simple saffron robe but a closet-full of suits and dresses for all seasons, not swearing to a life of poverty and possession-less but making sure we have a fully-vested MMBB retirement account, not a vegetarian bowl of rice but huge and varied spreads of tuna casseroles and mac cheeses pot-luck church dinners.
And if you are like me, we wonder mightily especially as we come increasingly closer to that 40-years in the ministry milestone, what has this all means? Has all the boasting for the Lord worth all of the suffering that we have endured?
Apostle Paul
This Romans 5 passage is one that all of us have used before. If you are like me; perhaps, we have preached this passage countless times. The chapter begins with what has come before. We are justified by faith, not works. Justification results in our being at peace with God. Being at peace with God means that God is engaged in our life, not only watching us but also working with us. God loves us to care for us and in God’s custody; we have hope. This hope that we know so well, we boast about not just for ourselves, but we boast about God’s love and hope for the world to know.
If there were any group in America who believes and acts out Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, it would be Chinese-Americans. I am the grandson of a Chinese sojourner and the son of a Chinese laundryman and waiter. If there were a person who believed earning a reward in life from hard and industrious work, it would be me. I even ran my own company in Junior Achievement! We printed stationaries off a foot pumped printing press!
Paul tells us that no matter how sincerely we try; we always fall short of fulfilling the requirements of the law. There are always things we have done we should not have done and things we have not done we should have done. In truth, the very effort to seek perfection leaves us isolated, focused on self, and often torn with feelings of guilt. Therefore, we need another way, a way that does not depend on our efforts. Through Christ, God reveals the nature of the divine love—a self-giving love that suffered death on the cross for us, even though we do not deserve this love.
Through faith we understand perfection is not necessary for God to love us. We do not need to justify ourselves. We are loved, and that is all the justification we need. We are in relationship with God, not because of our efforts, but because of God’s loving action. Through faith we enter into that relationship and discover peace, hope, and perseverance, even in suffering.
Didn’t I say that this familiar passage is one that we all have preached and taught more times than we can count with our church members? But have we ever considered that God is also including us in God’s love?
Suffering, Endurance, Character, and Hope
When I completed my 20-year ministry with Educational Ministries and returned to the local church in 1998, I thought I would be lucky if I survived the local church for 5-6 years. I am utterly blessed to say that I am into my 17th year. But it has not always been sunny and blue skies in foggy San Francisco.
You might have heard that right out of seminary in 1974, my first call to ministry was at the same church that I am now in San Francisco. I was called to be the Assistant Pastor. My friends at seminary were a bit envious that I was leaving the polar vortex of Boston to work in sunny California with the Beach Boys. My very first mistake that I made after seminary and let me assure you that I have made many more since was my lack of patience. I had this big ego that came along with my big head that I needed to be recognized for my work. While I accepted the position of “Assistant Pastor,” I didn’t want to “assist” but wanted to lead. So when I asked the senior pastor when I could baptize the young people who have taken my baptism classes, he said as long as he is the senior pastor that he would do all the baptisms and that I can do my son’s. My son was only 2 years old! My big ego that came along my big head couldn’t take that anymore and so I left to go to Valley Forge.
At that moment, I didn’t see this as a mistake but only as my Declaration of Independence. But after the muskets and cannon fires quieted down, I realized that I abandoned people and their hopes in God that they saw in me. I created a fractured climate in the church that took time to heal. My own sense of self-importance got in the way of my commitment in obeying Christ and my dedication to servant leadership. I told God that I would never again leave a ministry in such a short three years for massaging my big ego that came along with my big head. I served EM for more than 20 years and with God’s grace, I have now been at First Chinese for over 16 years.
The African American mystic, theologian and pastor Howard Thurman in his book, Disciplines of the Spirit said, “To learn how to wait is to discover one of the precious ingredients in the spiritual unfolding of life, the foundation for the human attribute of patience.” Thurman says that patience is more than mere passive endurance but rather a form of self-mastery and social protest that leads to an “inward journey” toward freedom.
As a pastor to pastors, I would like to share with you some GPS directions for you to navigate the inward journey toward freedom.
- Stay Awhile
Unless for good reasons, stay awhile and not make the mistake that I made. When ministering to and with people, it takes time to see and enjoy the fruits of our work. As an urban gardener and I go out to Home Depot and buy a cherry tomato seedling, it still takes time for the plant to produce fruits after the sun works its miracles and the water to help it to grow. When I did return as the church’s senior pastor, one of the most emotional moments that I had was a man who is now married with 5 children said to me, “I was looking forward for you to be my youth pastor like you were for my older brother and sister. But you left us. You abandoned me.” I told this man that I would not leave this time, God willing. Did you know that according to studies on pastor tenures, the average number of years a pastor serves a local church is only 5 years now?
- Sidewalk Mission
As we know in recent years, we have coined a new word that still appears on our computers as an error—“missional.” There are too many churches that have forgotten their call in ministry is to do mission with the people and structures outside of their church front doors. Some churches see themselves as “country clubs” giving what their members want by the membership fees they put in the offering plates. Some churches have become primarily museums protecting their antique furniture and telling and retelling their faithful past. Too many churches have become afraid of their neighbors because over time, they don’t look like those who are inside the church. One of the blessings that First Chinese in San Francisco has is that literally outside on our sidewalk, we know our mission because people are in our faces. When my predecessor wanted to move the church out of Chinatown, we said, “Why would we want to leave Chinatown when the whole world wants to come to Chinatown?” We stayed. We continue to teach English and citizenship classes. We are constantly striving to reach the people who have not yet heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. What would be missional in your church?
- Both/And
Living in a world that is increasingly becoming diverse, with the exception of absolutely believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, everything else has some element of merit for us to become more complete persons. We often say that when we come to any particular situation, things are never just black or white, not either or, not right or wrong but ever more “both/and.” When we can see the whole picture, we are more able to see that it is indeed that God created the whole world. God created you just like God created the person on the other side of the table, the fence, the border, the partition, the wall. At First Chinese, we strive for consensus instead of winners and losers. When there is an obvious disagreement, we postpone “calling for the question” and gift each other more time for God to reveal God’s mind to us. “Losing face” in the Chinese community is to be avoided while waiting to see the face of God on any particular problem is divine. I think I have more friends than enemies today in my ministry.
- Bible & the Newspaper
One of the things I learned in seminary is what Karl Barth said about doing theology. You have the Bible in one hand and the morning newspaper in the other. I would also add that you would still need to read them! As we often say, Christians are not of the world but we are in the world. We can’t lead our people to share their faith in the world unless we understand what the world is about. As our society becomes more secular and less familiar with the Judeo-Christian traditions, our churches need to become more out-spoken about who we are and with whom we call as our Lord and King. Across the street from our church in San Francisco Chinatown, we have Buddhist temples. On Sundays, their worshipers are chanting and beating on gongs. We open our doors and windows and sing loudly with all the organ stops pulled out to sing, God of Grace and God of Glory. We must not be afraid of offending when we believe that Christ is the truth.
- Be True
As one who grew up in the 60s, we always talked about integrity. Can you go to sleep that night knowing what you did during the day? Since I only have 5 fingers on one hand, my last point is that we need to be true.
A few years ago, we had an intergenerational conflict in our church. The older members of our church didn’t always like the reality that our younger adults were coming into leadership. The older members, perhaps unaware of their needs, assumed that they had a greater say over matters for the many years they have given and supported the life of the church. You know what I mean. It was over changing our Sunday morning schedule. In a discussion at a membership meeting when it was becoming more heated and I sensed that the next level of escalation would take us to an unfortunate level of comments, I stepped up to the microphone. I said, “If you force or expect me to choose between the views of our older members and younger members, I want to be clear that I would always choose the younger members.” As you can imagine, from that point on, I have had a problem with the older members in our church. They don’t believe I like them. But the other development is that the younger members in our church have re-committed themselves to the ministry of their church. I was true to my faith.
Paul sets before us this inspiring sequence: suffering produces endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. It can be a shock to us that our faith does not protect us. We have some unexamined assumption that if we do our best to be faithful to God, God will take care of us, meaning God will protect us. When it gets tough in ministry, there will be suffering. When we strive to live a faithful life in the struggle for peace and justice, there will be trouble.
I pray that when I used to boast about Don Ng, I am more and more sincerely and prayerfully boasting only the Lord. When we discover our identity is based on the loving God—that whatever happens, we are beloved by the Heart of the universe, that nothing can separate us from God, and that nothing is more valuable than being a child of God. Our personal worth is now not judged by comparison with others. Failure and shame become symptoms of miss-placed values—idols to be set aside. Our purpose in life is directed to the needs of others and society instead of our quest to establish personal worth.
Because my big ego along with my big head is less important, we become free to take risks, to be bold, to be true, to dream of God’s healed creation and pursue it. Recognizing that our fundamental identity rests in the value of our humanity also means recognizing the worth of every other human being as well. Openness to others becomes easier, empathy toward others is a natural response, and willingness to know and be known binds us together.
Thank you for this time to share with you. Let us not be afraid of faithful work and to take the risk of speaking the truth.
Let us, blessed with this incredibly diverse and rich ABC family, seek out what we have in common in the both/and in order to strengthen the Body of Christ.
Let us not be afraid of facing persecution and suffering when we take the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand to be in life-changing mission.
Let us set aside the idol of our big egos along with our big heads and stay awhile so that we may see what God’s harvest could be.
If there is one thing that we as American Baptists can boast about, let us boast in the Lord!
Let us pray.
Gracious God, lead us to have confidence to trust in the grace that you provided in Jesus Christ in whom we stand in ministry. Encourage us to not be weary and disillusioned when we suffer for the Lord, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and this hope in the Lord does not disappoint. Continue to watch over each person here who have heard your call for them to be your faithful disciple and that we have been justified with God because of the peace that have been received through Jesus Christ himself. Amen.