March 25, 2012
Call to Worship
Welcome!
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 Wende Ang, Jennifer Ang, Ewan Stein and their daughters Maisie and Rosemary, I welcome you here today to remember the exciting and significant life of Melvin Thlick-Len Ang and to celebrate God’s mercies on him and God’s grace on all of us. You have come perhaps to seek comfort from your grief and to be reunited as family. 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 Wende Ang 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 involve many of the people who have been dear and close to Melvin Ang. Through their life experiences, they will undoubtedly present the wonderful life and faithful witness of Melvin Ang who was born on July 29, 1943 and returned to the Lord on March 6, 2012. He was 68.
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, Melvin Ang 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.
Traveled Home
While my cousin Melvin Ang traveled around the world, he probably wasn’t an elite frequent flyer who accumulated many airline miles. You can only do that with short 2-3 day trips. When he traveled he would stay for some time and settle in just long enough to carry out his mission. Melvin didn’t need to have lots of furniture to set up an office. He didn’t need to be heavily burdened with possessions to sit in faraway cafes to listen to locals’ conversations. His job was to gather information to understand how the United States would diplomatically relate with that country. One of his colleagues said that Melvin was the first one to break the news about China’s one-child policy. I wonder how many revolutions he might have been a part of!
Melvin’s life reminded me about the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Melvin was a highly intelligent and educated person who graduated from some of the best-known universities in the world. Paul was an educated Pharisee who knew all about the Torah. When Paul had his conversion experience on the road to Damascus, he was transformed from being a persecutor of the Christians to become the best-known theologian of the Christian faith. I suspect that Melvin has been in Damascus.
While Melvin wrote reports to update political leaders about the state of affairs, the Apostle Paul wrote his many letters to the early churches about the faith he has in Jesus Christ. Melvin’s reports kept our country and its citizens safe. Paul’s epistles encouraged those Christians to not be afraid of sharing Jesus Christ with others even when they were under persecution.
The work of a U.S. diplomat, a political adviser can be dangerous and risky. I believe Melvin and Wende were evacuated more than a couple of times to safety. When he was in Baghdad, a war was going on. He was in China during the Tianmen Square protest. If there’s a hot spot in the world, Melvin was first to sign up.
I think about the Apostle Paul who was blinded by Jesus Christ so that he would have a new vision to preach about Christ. Paul was sent to prison when he healed a young girl from spirits denying those who were profiting from this girl’s abilities so that she would have a better life. He caused a riot in Ephesus when he taught the people that silver trinkets were useless and they needed to worship God. He was arrested for his teachings and causing more disturbances and had to defend himself in court. And when Paul was sailing to Rome as a prisoner, a storm came up and he was in a shipwreck.
Melvin stood up for his convictions and faith in this country and suffered on behalf of his loyalty. One of the challenges that Melvin endured was when his entire skin was replaced with new skin as the result of a major reaction to an antibiotic. We all know that the line of work that Melvin did was dangerous and risky.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5 that against all odds, all danger, all risks that when we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have obtained access to this grace in our hope of sharing the glory of God, we can actually boast in “our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). The challenges that Melvin faced produced in him a character that we have been blessed to know.
I had the privilege of reading the collection of stories, congrats, pictures, and best wishes that Jennifer compiled and published for her Dad upon his retirement. The central theme that ran through all of the letters and testimonies was that Melvin was a person with great integrity. He didn’t speak out unnecessarily until he had something significant to say. While he would act like he was unaware with what was happening around him, he was forming his opinions on the state of affairs. People thought that he was very “cool,” a compliment that shows that he was a part of the 60s.
Having integrity means that someone knows oneself well in order to be able to know others. Melvin knew himself well enabling him to know others and countries in the world better. He has a center that gave him the bearing to tell what is true from what may be false. From such a confident vantage point, he was able to accomplish all of his missions to care for the welfare of America.
Christians and religious people center their lives on a Supreme Being that gives them bearing and an anchor from which to see the world and to distinguish between what may be good from what may be not as good. Melvin growing up in Boston and attending the First Baptist Church had his center, his bearings, and from his faith in Jesus Christ, his integrity permitted him to be a trustworthy colleague that others would never hesitate to place their lives in his hands.
Like many of you, I too had the privilege of visiting Melvin, Wende and Jennifer when they were overseas. We visited Guangzhou when Melvin and Wende were serving the U.S. Consulate there next to the White Swan Hotel. One of the highlights that we will never forget is the banquet that Melvin and Wende arranged for us. The food was delicious and the setting was like being welcomed as heads of state!
One of the many duties that Melvin was tasked to do was to welcome dignitaries to the U.S. consulate or embassy. There would be the need to select the right menu, the perfect setting, the proper seating of all the guests, even down to the way the table is set. I heard that providing proper hospitality is more important than what may be said in secret negotiations afterward. We know that table manners invite all people regardless of who they may be to become civil and the respectable human beings that we are created to be.
In the Book of Hebrews, the writer exhorted his readers to perform service that would be well-pleasing to God. He said, “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it (13:1-2). Melvin’s work must have welcomed countless strangers and there must have been some angels in that group.
One way that Melvin demonstrated his hospitality was in his cooking. He was the cook in the family and prepared Maryland soft-shell crab for his friends. When they tried to catch fish one time and came up with nothing, they went to the supermarket and bought a fish home to cook. When I was treated to dinner in their home recently, I had Melvin’s homemade vegetarian lasagna and walnut pie. I may not be an angel but I felt thoroughly welcomed and entertained by his quick mind and dry humor.
As it has been said, one of Melvin’s favorite poems was Robert Frost’s The Road not Taken. Melvin never took the easy road when he had the opportunity to take the more adventurous one. He could have remained a highly popular and successful professor of world civilization in the classroom but he would rather be out in the world and try to make it more civilized. He could have taken the easy street and lived a lifestyle of comfort and rest but God called Melvin like he called the Apostle Paul to take the harder and higher road to give his life to making a difference in the world. He might have been a famous chef preparing gourmet dinners for affluent and VIP people but Melvin chose the road less traveled and welcomed all people regardless of their stations in life to his table of grace. And that has made a difference in his life and in the world.
I miss my cousin Melvin because we were planning to spend the upcoming years getting old together and watching the Red Sox win another World Series. He was going to order the NESN (New England Sports Network) to watch every one of this season’s Red Sox games. I regret that I didn’t have more time with him but I am thankful as I know all of us here today are thankful that we have known Melvin Ang. One of his favorite songs was Dream a Little Dream of Me. As long as we have dreams and memories of Melvin, he continues to remain a part of our lives until that time when we are reunited with him in heaven. We have welcomed him into our homes and into our hearts and we are confident that we have met an angel.
We pray that inasmuch as Melvin traveled around the world many times, he has now traveled home to be with God, his creator and maker.
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 like, thanks to the love and willing sacrifice of your blessed Son.
Thank you, O God, for the life of your child, Melvin Ang, ended here, resumed with the Lord. Amen.
Benediction
If you wish to make a memorial gift, the family has requested that you make a donation to the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco in memory of Melvin Ang.
Immediately following this service, you are warmly invited to come to Wende’s home just down the street from this church for a catered luncheon. We have just begun to tell the many adventurous stories that we have about Melvin and we hope that you’ll continue to share these memories of him with each other as we fellowship and have lunch together.
I challenge you now, beloved in the Lord, to face bravely the journey that our friend, Melvin Ang, 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 sinner in need of God’s saving grace.
Journey on like how Melvin Ang lived out his life by taking the road less traveled.
Journey on, with tender mercies of loved ones 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 to 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.
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.