April 28, 2012
Call to Worship & Opening Prayer
God is gracious. He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Psalm 147: 1c, 3, 5: Matthew 11:28, 29; 5:4)
On behalf of Helen Poon and her family, I welcome you here today to remember Chung Yau Poon who is known as Danny to many of us. We celebrate his long and productive life and God’s mercies on him and God’s grace on all of us. You have come perhaps to seek comfort from your grief. You have come to give honor and respect to a good life praying that you too may receive such good things that come from God. You have come to offer sympathy and compassion to Danny Poon’s family to which this family is most thankful for your thoughts and presence. We hope that you will receive as much as you have given your time and presence to be here.
We have a wonderful service planned for today that involves a number of the Poon family members. Through their life experiences, they will undoubtedly present the wonderful life and faithful witness of Chung Yau “Danny” Poon who was born on February 22, 1929 and returned to the Lord on April 20, 2012 having lived for 83 years.
Let us pray.
O God, your care is like that of a father who has compassion for his children and a mother who comforts her child. We cast our heavy burdens of grief on you. Be gracious with us in our anguish. Grant us the comfort of your rest. Assure us with the confidence that your faithful servant, Danny Poon has been received into the arms of your mercy, in the blessed rest of your eternal care. May our lives hereafter bear witness to the hope that is ours in the crucified and risen Christ, who defeated death for our sake and now reigns victorious in your glory. Through his name we pray, Amen.
Jack of All Trades
Today we live in a world that values and recognizes specialization. By the time we’re in our second year of college, we are expected to declare a major. And upon graduation, we start to seek for jobs that are in the field that we have studied, interned, apprenticed, licensed and certified in so that we can start paying back all that college debt that we accrued. When we are at a social gathering, we introduce ourselves by the trade that we are specialists in—lawyer, teacher, software engineer, graphic designer, a pastor. We don’t usually say, “I’m a ‘Jack of all trades.’”
As Jimmy Poon pointed out, the full phrase is “Jack of all trades, master of none” which suggests that as the Chinese would say, “There’s a thousand knives but not one is sharp.” The point is that we want to be a master in a trade and at least having one knife that is sharp. In today’s world of specialization, knowing how to do many things or having a drawer of many knives is not as valued as perhaps in the past.
Danny Poon was a “jack of all trades.” He did a variety of work in his lifetime because he provided for his family and loved ones. From disassembling ships to repairing cars, from driving trucks to operating a streetcar, from cooking Chinese food to owning a pizza parlor, from dry-cleaning people’s clothes to fixing a plumbing problem in a tenant’s apartment, Danny Poon did it all. A man like Danny Poon could survive in all kinds of challenging situations because he knew enough of almost everything to do something about it. He converted a regular Kenmore stove into an industrial Viking, probably illegally. I wonder about some of us who are so specialized in our vocations that we would be unable to care and provide for our family when the going gets tough.
Danny Poon was a typical “Everyday Chinese American Father” who was short in words but his actions spoke louder than any words that may have come out of his mouth. He probably didn’t know how to say to his children, “I love you,” but he demonstrated that love to you by the work that he did. He cooked your favorite dishes once he knew you liked them. He took time to teach you how to drive his way and you learned not to drive like him but to drive more safely. He made hundreds and perhaps thousands of won tons even when he didn’t have 1000 sharp knives. In his own unique way, Danny Poon showed his love for his wife and children by the work he did.
The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians shared about the true meaning of love. In chapter 13, Paul said, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
Danny Poon may have been short in words but he showed great love for his family by the work that he did. He may not have had a college education to specialize in a profession but he was never boastful or arrogant or rude. In fact, he was often self-defacing and urged everyone to go on with life because he was just fine. Danny never gave a show of himself. He quietly and faithfully went about the business of caring and loving his family and loved ones. Danny Poon went on to advocate for low-income housing in Chinatown and participated in family associations that serve as stations of hope and hospitality for newcomers to America. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
For a person like Danny Poon who was a life-long “jack of all trades,” the words from Jesus would be comforting and encouraging. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and I will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Willing to do any kind of work to support his family, Danny Poon worked his whole life and Jesus knew how hard it is to be a human being. When Jesus invited us, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest,” he is making us an offer. We are invited to swap our burdens for us. Our burdens create fatigue and threaten our hope. Jesus’ burden, a yoke he calls it, brings rest.
Our modern world does not make much use of yokes anymore. Basically a yoke was a long piece of curved wood used to harness two farm animals together. The two animals—we used to call them beasts of burden—would pull together to plow a field. The yoke allowed the farmer to harness the strength of both animals at the same time and would keep them from pulling against each other.
Jesus used the image of the yoke to refer to his own life purpose and vision. The suggestion seems to be that by yoking up with Jesus—accepting for ourselves his burden, that is, his life’s work, in spite of our own burdens—we would find rest.
The word, “rest” does not really convey what Jesus was trying to say. A word more in tune with our way of thinking might be “fulfilled,” or “satisfied.” “Take my purpose as your own,” Jesus might say, “and the weight of your own life will give way to a sense of fulfillment that your life really counts for something. The things you do and face will not tire you out, but energize you.”
On March 13th, Pastor Lee on behalf of our church baptized Danny Poon because he decided to be yoked with Jesus. When he shared the truth that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior and even knowing that he only had a few weeks to live, Danny Poon found true rest and fulfillment in life because he knew that his life really counted for something both in the eyes of his family and loved ones but also in the eye of God.
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.
We praise you for all the right choices we made in 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 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, O God, for the life of your child, Danny Poon, ended here, resumed with the Lord. Amen.
Benediction
If you wish to make a memorial gift, the family has requested that you can make donations to the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco and to the Chinese Hospital of San Francisco in memory of Danny Poon.
When you exit, you will be given two small envelopes. The white envelope contains a piece of candy to symbolize sweetness in a bittersweet situation. The red envelope contains a coin for you to buy something on your way home to suggest that you will continue to prosper and to have a healthy life.
Following this service, there’ll be a Committal Service at the Hoy-Sun Cemetery in Colma to which you are invited. However, since there won’t be a motorcade, directions to the cemetery are available when you depart. We’ll meet you there. At approximately 3:00 PM, there will be a Memorial Meal at the Peninsula Seafood Restaurant on Jackson Street in Chinatown where the family looks forward to fellowshipping with you. See the funeral program for detail information.
Remember, beloved brothers and sisters, God has promised to bless us and keep us in this life and in our new life with the Lord.
The same God whose face now shines on our friend, Chung Yau “Danny” Poon, has promised, through the Lord, to forgive us and to shelter us throughout eternity.
I charge you to find your comfort and peace in these gracious promises of a loving God.
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.
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, Chung Yau “Danny” Poon; 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, Danny Poon, 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 Danny Poon in the communion of saints—forgiven, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.
At this time, the family members will place a flower, a token of their love, on the casket and will witness the lowering of the casket into the vault. This concludes the service here and we invite you to the Memorial Meal at Peninsula Seafood Restaurant. The family will meet you there shortly.
Go with Godspeed.