April 25, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Parking Lights
Some of you know that I am a NPR addict. That’s National Public Radio. And one of the benefits of coming to San Francisco is that there are two NPR stations: KQED and KALW on your radio dial. One of my favorite shows comes from my hometown, Boston. It’s “Car Talk” with the Tappan brothers, Tom and Ray.
They received this letter.
Dear Tom and Ray…Is there a part in a car that has not evolved over time
but continues to exist even though we don’t need it anymore?—Signed, Linda.
Tom: Great question, Linda! The “part” that comes to mind is the parking lights.
Ray: Right. In the old, old days, when my brother still had a few brain cells left, cars were not that common. So when you parked yours at the side of the road, you left your “parking lights” on. That way, when Ichabod Crane came whizzing by in his buggy he wouldn’t smash into you.
Tom: But now that we all expect cars to be parked on every street, and we have reflectors to make them more visible, parking lights are hardly necessary.
Tom and Ray, the wisecracking “Car Talk” mechanics, make a good point about the lack of evolution in cars—all vehicles still have parking lights, although the lights are practically useless.
In fact, when Joy and I were studying for our California Driver’s Licenses, we discovered that driving only with your parking lights is illegal. See pages 40 and 41, “It is always illegal to drive with only your parking lights on.”
Parking lights are a “remnant trait,” a leftover of an earlier model that still exists, although it no longer performs a necessary function. Our human body contains these traits as well. Think of the appendix-—an organ that once had a job, but is now unemployed. The only time we become aware of the appendix is when it gets infected, and needs to be cut out. Otherwise, it just rides along in the abdomen, doing nothing, and we happily ignore it.
Parking Lights Christians
Could the same be true for Christians? Do we have parking lights and appendixes in the members of the body of Christ? Is there some part of us that should have evolved from our old, sinful natures, but has not done so?
The answer is “Yes.” We have retained our violent tendencies, although Christ calls us to be redesigned into peacemakers. Violence is a remnant trait that we are challenged to eliminate.
What happened this past Tuesday in Littleton, Colorado was insidious, shocking, and violent. For days now, it is the “Talk of the Nation” and we are drawn to watch the television and relive the horror of young people running away from their high school with their hands on their heads so not to be mistaken for the killers. We stare at the crying youth as they saw their friends gunned down mercilessly. And you and I would have done the same—rushing anyway we can to the scene of the crime hoping that your son or daughter was safe. Now we are left with what we were left before, when other school shootings happened. We ask ourselves, “What happened at Columbine High School? How can we prevent such violence from occurring again? Can something so horrendous happen here?”
The disciple Peter wrote, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten.” The message here is not that we should invite abuse upon ourselves, but rather that we should never return abuse for abuse, evil for evil. Our call is to follow in Christ’s steps, and change into Christians who avoid violence at all costs.
The problem, however, is that we have inherited from the world, a parking light that flashes messages of violence. Since we are in the world, we still have this remnant trait of violence that we help to perpetuate. And when we see the senseless dying of our own children, we ask ourselves, “What went so terribly wrong here? What is wrong with us in allowing such mean-spirited violence to shatter innocent lives?”
The message of the world is that revenge is sweet. If a friend cheats you, you cheat back. If someone hits you with a stick, you hit back with a bigger stick. If a person does you harm, you sue him. If a criminal breaks a law, the court system locks her up and throws away the key. If some kids taunt and ridicule other kids, then the Black Trench Coat Mafia kills 15 people including themselves, injuring dozens, and forever wounding the hearts of a whole city, if not the country.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, abuse for abuse, suffering for suffering. This is the way of the world, and while it sometimes has the positive effect of keeping hard-core criminals off the streets, it doesn’t do much to make us better people.
Nonviolent Ways
Our God has another way: one that may seem odd, but is ultimately more satisfying. The Lord calls us to let go of the violent ways of the world and grab hold of the nonviolent ways of the kingdom of God; to remove our parking lights and appendixes, and replace them with characteristics that won’t flash cruel messages or cause us internal pain.
But how does this happen? How do we eliminate the lingering and growing violence, and replace it with something new and nonviolent? First, we pray, then we practice, and finally we put our faith in action in our community.
1. We pray.
After the Columbine High School tragedy, the Littleton community gathered in churches, parishes, and synagogues. Even for those whose religious life is minimal, turn to religion to pray for comfort and answers. We must pray as well—in order to look deeply into our souls and reflect on why this remnant trait of violence continues to remain in our lives. Why do we continue to believe the parking light that flashes the message on a bumper sticker that says, “Don’t get mad, get even?” Why do we have Yosemite Sam with his pistols drawn and pointing at motorists hanging from our trucks?
How do we break the cycle of violence? There’s a Jewish fable about an otter.
The Otter rushed before the king crying, “My lord, you are a man who loves justice and rules fairly. You have established peace among all your creatures, and yet there is no peace.”
“Who has broken the peace?” asked the king.
“The weasel!” cried the Otter. “I dove into the water to hunt food for my children, leaving them in the care of the Weasel. While I was gone my children were killed. “An eye for an eye,” the Good Book says, “I demand vengeance!”
The king sent for the Weasel who soon appeared before him. “You have been charged with the death of the Otter’s children. How do you plead?” demanded the king.
“Alas, my lord,” wept the Weasel, “I am responsible for the death of the Otter’s children, though it was clearly an accident. As I heard the Woodpecker sound the danger alarm, I rushed to defend our land. In doing so I trampled the Otter’s children by accident.”
The king summoned the Woodpecker. “Is it true that you sounded the alarm with your mighty beak?” inquired the king.
“It is true, my lord,” replied the Woodpecker. “I began the alarm when I spied the Scorpion sharpening his dagger.”
When the Scorpion appeared before the king, he was asked if he indeed had sharpened his dagger. “You understand that sharpening your dagger is an act of war?” declared the king.
“I understand,” said the Scorpion, “but I prepared only because I observed the Turtle polishing its armor.”
In his defense the Turtle said, “I would not have polished my armor had I not seen the Crab preparing his sword.”
The Crab declared, “I saw the Lobster swinging his javelin.”
When the Lobster appeared before the king, he explained, “I began swinging my javelin when I saw the Otter swimming toward my children, ready to devour them.”
Turning to the Otter, the king announced, “You, not the Weasel, are the guilty party. The blood of your children is upon your head. Whoever sows death shall reap it.”
The point of this fable is that if we are pointing any finger at anyone, there are always three fingers pointing back on ourselves. We blame others for the wrong doings that we help created ourselves. What happened in Littleton, Colorado was not caused by two boys. The idea of senseless and random killings originated from the community itself.
We need to pray as it is in the Lord’s Prayer—that God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. While violence is a part of the world’s agenda, nonviolence is at the heart of God’s heavenly kingdom order. While the world continues to get even with each other, we who are Christ’s disciples are called to live in peace as the basis of our earthly lives.
We pray that in our discipleship, we may let go of the ways of the world, and rely on God’s definition of peace in the world. “God, forgive us for the violence that we have done toward your creation: the children, the animals, and the natural world.”
2. We practice.
We must begin practicing nonviolence wherever we are: at home, at work, in our communities, even at church. We practice it with whomever we can: with children, spouses, coworkers, neighbors, as well as the person sitting next to you right now.
The haunting question that has been asked over and over again this past week is: “Where were the parents of these two boys?” “Didn’t they have any clues that this kind of atrocity might happen?” This haunting question can be asked of all of us here. When we see signs of trouble taking place in children, do we speak out? Somehow we have given up on our youth and we don’t know how to get them back. Somehow we have become scared of them. Somehow we want to believe the symptoms that point to antisocial behavior are simply a phase or a fad and that they are harmless. Until it is too late. We need to practice parenting and caring for our children so that they become once again vital parts of our lives. We must never forget that they are here in our communities, in our church, and even in our homes. Our priority is to the children and youth. Let us not act like they don’t exist.
When we practice violence, anger, revenge, hatred, and killing, unfortunately, our lives will be a reflection of this type of practice. But when we choose to bring forth in ourselves qualities of compassion, patience, kindness, humility, and peace, we become those qualities. By practicing nonviolence, we begin to eliminate these violent remnant traits that have no place in our lives and in the world.
3. We put our faith into action.
What happened in Colorado this past week can happen here. In fact, it happened in Stockton ten years ago. In 1977, it happened down the other end of Waverly Place in the Golden Dragon Restaurant when our own church member, Calvin Fong was killed. And it happened again last August just on the other side of this wall when Chinese youth shot at each other.
Our church, along with all other churches, parishes, and synagogues, are on the front line in a battle against violence. The reality is that every day, every congregation in this country and around the world is on the front line in the battle against deep-seated human hatred and violence. As we worship, meet, share meals, teach children, and perform all the other activities that create congregations, we encounter the deep resentments, angers, fears, and hostilities that can cumulatively lead to the kinds of eruptions that leave our schools, highways, governmental buildings, and homes bloodstained and grief-filled. We will never know how much difference our congregation has made for good or ill in this awful contest. But we must know that we are on the front line, that we are not and cannot be bystanders in the battle against violence. We must constantly ask how we can deal more faithfully and effectively to end the violence.
We Are Good People
Some of us may be saying to ourselves, that we are not Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold or Timothy McVeigh or Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Ng. Rather we say, we are “good people.” Kathleen Norris in her book, Amazing Grace, writes “that if enough people begin to define themselves as “good” in contrast to others who are “bad,” those others will come to be seen as less than human. Genocide is justified in the eyes of those who perpetuate it on the grounds that it is not real people who are being killed; rather, something evil is being eliminated from the world by those who are good. Is this what Milosevic is doing to the Albanians? Is this what the NATO bombings is doing to the Serbs? Is this the reason why we are so careless about protecting and saving the earth?
I wonder.
Kathleen Norris wrote about an incident with a little boy. At the time, she was reading about Jeffrey Dahmer who cannibalized men he murdered.
“I recalled a small boy that I had known briefly years before. His mother had abandoned him and his father when he was still an infant; the grandmother who had taken him in and raised him for several years had died. The boy’s father was doing the best he could to be a father, but he had his own problems. He was trying hard not to drink too much. He was nice looking, but had problems relating to women; his girlfriends seemed to come and go.
One day the father brought his son into the library where I was working. I let the boy climb onto my lap—he was four or five years old—and he looked up into my face and said, “I’m going to kill you. I’ll shoot you and cut you up in little pieces and keep you in my refrigerator.” Little children commonly express themselves in bizarre ways, as they make their way into language, and I decided to play along. I squeezed him and said, “Oh, don’t put me there! I’ll be too cold!” He thought a moment, and said, “I’ll keep you in my closet, then.” My heart broke for him. He so longed to have a woman in his life, someone who could mother him. I replied, “Closets are too dark,” but he had tired of the game, and giggling, he slid off my lap and went away with his father, out the door. The two of them drifted out of town long ago, but I think of them often. Unless that child got some real help, adult women he could count on, we may read about him in the newspapers one day.”
This little boy is a good person. His father and mother are probably good people too. We are trying to be good people too. We can rid ourselves of those parking lights and appendixes and replace these remnant traits of violence because Jesus himself has bored our sins in his body on the cross. Free from sins, we might live for righteousness. By what Jesus did for us on the cross, we have been healed from continuing doing violence to begin practicing nonviolence.
Nonviolence Begins with Me
When we follow the steps of Christ, we pray for the elimination of aggressive and violent tendencies that we have in our hearts.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we practice nonviolence wherever we are, in whatever way we can, as often as we can, so that what we become is what we practice most.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we put our faith in action through this church. We are on the front line in a battle against deep-seated human hatred and violence. Pray that in what we do together as a congregation may make a difference in the lives of children and youth of our community.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we must see ourselves as creatures who are interdependent with all other creatures and natural surroundings. When we do violence to our earth and all the inhabitants on it, we also do violence against ourselves.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we may finally recognize that guns, rifles, and automatic weapons are like parking lights and appendixes. They too are remnant traits, a leftover of an earlier necessity that still exists, although they no longer perform a helpful function in our society today.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we need to replace as much of our violent vocabulary as possible with words of love, compassion, kindness, acceptance, and forgiveness.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we must see every boy, girl, and youth, and say that they are “good” too. They are our responsibilities and not only someone else’s. When we see something wrong is happening, we must speak out, intervene, get involved, and perhaps we can prevent another Columbine High School from happening again.
When we follow the steps of Christ, we must continue to be involved in the Joshua Fellowship on Friday nights, be tutors for youth on Saturdays, and reach out to the parents on Sundays who are bringing their little ones to Sunday school. Through these efforts, we say to everyone that God loves you.
The Life-Giving Community of FCBC
Since arriving at CBC, I continue to marvel at the assets that we have in nurturing and developing children and youth to become responsible and mature people. This church is a very special place. Let me share a bit more.
-I know of no other Baptist church that has Sunday school for children and youth for two hours. And then staffed and taught by some of the best teachers in the whole bay area.
-I know of no other church that has six weeks of day camp to reach neighborhood kids during the summer with a safe and stimulating program that helps them grow as whole persons. And an equally vital purpose of day camp is the 25-30 junior high, senior high, and college students who make commitments to be trained and given opportunities to serve and practice their skills as leaders.
-I know of no other church in San Francisco that has seven basketball teams this summer attracting over 75 youth and young adults to play hard as well as to model Christian friendliness.
-I know of no other American Baptist church that has been sponsoring a week-long youth camp for so many years that offers meaningful fellowship, mentoring, good fun, and the Word of God.
-And I know of very few churches that encourage their children and youth to relate with adults as “aunts and uncles.” This personalization of relationships is more than simply out of respect and protocol. By helping every new generation to see adults in their community as “aunts and uncles” means that children and youth are looking for models and mentors to emulate. It also means that we as adults who are perceived as “aunts and uncles,” have a responsibility to raise up yet another new generation. As it takes a village to raise a child, it takes all of FCBC to raise every boy and girl who comes through these doors!
At FCBC, we have a strong program to help children and youth to survive through these growing-up years. And with God’s forgiveness, we know that we can’t save all of them. And we know that we will make mistakes along the way. But whatever we can do, with the help of God on our side, we must do.
I want you to go from this morning’s worship with the faith that we can begin to make a difference in the lives of our children and youth. If you were like me this week, I wondered what could I have done to prevent this awful tragedy. And I began to realize that as a church, we have made and we will continue to make a positive difference in the lives of children and youth in our community. Perhaps this is somewhat corny and trite, but I want you to promise me that you will go from this place and
tell a youth that he is important
affirm a youth that she is gifted
give your child a hug and tell him how much you love him
get down to a child’s level and tell her how cute she is
e-mail your college child and share with him that you want him to know that you care and interested in what’s going on with him
let your child or grandchild climb up on your lap and pray that no harm will happen to this child as well as with all the children in the world.
Let us pray.
Dear God, we promise to accept our responsibilities in caring for the children and youth in our community. As you have taught us not to return violence with violence, help us to practice compassion, love, and forgiveness in the world. We pray for comfort from the suffering that has fallen on Littleton, Colorado. We pray for ourselves so that we may become instruments of your peace. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.