November 14, 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 Betty, May, Tommy, and Jimmy and their families, I welcome you here today to remember the long life of Mrs. Jean H. Lim. We celebrate her productive life and God’s mercies on her 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 Mrs. Lim’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 family members. Through their life experiences, they will undoubtedly present the wonderful life and faithful witness of Jean L. Lim who was born on September 3, 1911 and returned to the Lord on November 3, 2012 having lived for 101 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, Jean Lim 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.
Assertive Faith
Many of us here today think that women’s liberation started when we came of age in the 1970s. But hearing the stories about Mrs. Jean Lim, strong and assertive women have been around since the beginning of creation.
One has to be strong to live a long time. Mrs. Jean Lim lived 101 years that allowed her to live and enjoy a multitude of time periods. From the 19th century to the 21st century, from rural and ancient China to urban and modern San Francisco, from raising a family in a Chinese village to raising a family in Napa and San Francisco, Mrs. Lim was the constant bridge that made the Lim family connected and united up to today.
When Mrs. Lim was on the Matterhorn in Disneyland and the ride was fast and furious, she was bravely bridging the different generations of her family together.
In 1964 when Mrs. Lim’s husband, David Moon Lim passed, she was left with the challenge of raising 4 children. This turn of events may have convinced Mrs. Lim that in order for her and her children to survive, she would need to be assertive and strong minded. She would need to take initiatives and actions to engender hope and a promising future.
There’s a story of a man with a chronic disease and had a dream of walking alone and coming upon a tree. The tree was big, deeply rooted, reaching high to the sky. It has many branches and one leaf. The leaf is green. When his pastor asked the man what he thought about the big tree with only one green leaf, the man said, “It’s beautiful.” But the pastor said, “It only has one leaf.” The man said, “It’s enough. It’s enough because it means that more leaves are possible.”
Against great odds, Mrs. Lim had faith that life will be possible, meaningful and a blessing. She saw such a green leaf 50 years ago and the Lim family tree is now full of deep roots, many branches and green leaves.
One can say that the Bible is our “binder of women.” There are women who are assertive and faithful to God’s plan. In Matthew 15, there was a Canaanite woman who came to Jesus, shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not answer her at all and the disciples urged Jesus to send the woman away. Jesus even said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But this Canaanite woman was persistent and assertive. She came up to Jesus, knelt before him and said, “Lord, help me.” Jesus answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But the woman would not be turned away. She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” Seeing how great this woman’s faith was, Jesus said, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And this woman’s daughter was healed instantly.
Mrs. Lim was like this Canaanite woman who knew what she wanted in life. She was determined to speak her mind and became known by her family and friends to be witty, tough and a real character. One time, when Mrs. Lim thought a stranger was about to pickpocket her she aggressively put out her arm to ward off any threat. She can be my bodyguard anytime!
Metaphorically, like the crumbs that fall from a master’s table, Mrs. Lim would shop groceries daily in Chinatown, buying char siu for dinner to feed her kids, frying up her famous “Po Po Steak” spraying grease all over the stove.
In the Gospels (Mark 5:24ff), there’s another account of a woman in the midst of a great crowd, barged in with the hope to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak. She heard about Jesus and said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” When she did, she was immediately made well.
There was a time when Mrs. Lim was trying to watch the annual Chinese New Year Parade but with the great crowds she couldn’t easily get to their reserved seats on the grandstand. She took the hands of her family and barged through the crowds. Just like this woman who touched Jesus’ cloak, Mrs. Lim was assertive, forceful and barges through the crowds because she was liberated, determined and fought for what was hers.
This story about the woman in the Bible didn’t just end with the fact that she was finally healed. Jesus noticed that someone touched him. Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” The disciples told Jesus that with the crowd, there was no way to find out who touched him. But the woman knowing what had happened to her, came forth out of the crowd fell down before him and told Jesus the whole truth. Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Like these two women in the Bible Mrs. Lim knelt down before Jesus and received Jesus’ blessings and healing. Mrs. Lim started to attend church and was baptized and received the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
It’s rare for people to live such a long life as Mrs. Lim lived—101 years. Jesus died at 33. He lived six years beyond the average life span in the Roman Empire of his day—27 years. Today, we live much longer but the principal question remains: What are we doing with the extra years that we are given?
With our extra years, we learn to give not only the lesser gifts of money and things, but the greater, more involving gifts of time, understanding, love, the agape kind, the self-giving kind of love, we should never withhold from others. In our later years, we may not be as productive as when we were in our younger years, but we can be equally productive in teaching our grandchildren, building up loving relationships, and demonstrating to others the real purpose of a well-lived life.
Mrs. Lim taught her grandchildren to speak Toisanese even when she knew that you didn’t understand. She said it was like “a chicken talking to a duck!” She showed you what good friends are like when she made friends at the sewing factory and friends who played mah jong. She modeled for you the fact that there’s a purpose in life when she persevered as a widow and a single parent to provide her children everything that they needed.
As Christians we are expected to give. But the other side of giving is receiving. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” but he did not mean that to receive is not also blessed. As we grow older, our physical dependence on others will be greater. Po Po Lim used to pick up Shelly from school, but in time Shelly would take her Po Po out for a walk. Po Po Lim would cook dinner for her family and in time, Aaron and Kelly would cook food for her and would even help feed Mrs. Lim when she was unable to do this for herself. Mrs. Lim gave to her family all her life and she taught you also that receiving is the other side of giving. Continue to give and to receive from each other’s love and kindness.
As I have gotten to know the Lim family, I now know where this assertiveness comes from. It came from Mrs. Lim. She was a strong and assertive and liberated woman teaching you to be the same in life. She held your family together through difficult times and happy times so that you can continue to be united as a family. Mrs. Jean Lim was a child of God who touched the fringe of Jesus’ clothes and received wholeness, salvation, and eternal life.
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, Jean Lim, ended here, resumed with the Lord. Amen.
Announcements
If you wish to make a gift in memory of Mrs. Jean H. Lim, the family has requested that you can make donations to the First Chinese Baptist Church that will be distributed to benefit the Lanna Coffee Project, St. Mary’s Chinese Schools, and the Chinatown Community Development Center. More detail information can be found in your program.
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.
After you have come forward to pay your last respects, we will have a Committal Service at Cemetery. There will be a Memorial Meal at the Cheung Hing Restaurant in South San Francisco where the family looks forward to fellowshipping with you. See the funeral program for detail information.
Benediction
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, Jean L. Lim, 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 sister, Jean L. Lim; and we commit her 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 sister, Jean L. Lim, in your own image; you set her feet on a sojourner adventure; you watched over her along the way. As you lovingly received and welcomed her 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 Jean Lim 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.