September 15. 2006
Call to Worship
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…So we are ambassadors for Christ… 2 Cor. 5:17-18, 20
On behalf of the family of Mrs. Wen Kweng Chow, I welcome you here today to celebrate Mrs. Chow’s life and faithfulness to her family and to her Lord. Wen Kweng Chow was born on March 16, 1915 in China and returned to the Lord on September 8, 2006 in California. She is survived by her five daughters, Kathleen Go and her husband Mizuaki Go, Lois Chiang and her husband Willis Chiang, Eileen Reinke, Maureen Wong and her husband Tom Wong, Judy Tom and 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.
We are deeply appreciative that you have taken the time to make your presence known to Mrs. Chow’s family at this time of grief. By your presence, we know that their burdens are made lighter and their sadness is shared by you. We pray that your coming will also become a blessing to you and your household.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray. Creator and Redeemer God, at a time of deeply felt loss, we turn to you for comfort. We glorify you for creating the universe out of nothing and each one of us in your image. We acknowledge your sovereign wisdom in setting limits to our life on earth and for setting before us, through Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior, a limitless life. Being reconciled to you through Jesus, we hail him as the divine leader in that ministry of reconciliation in which he expects us to serve as his ambassadors. May this time of remembrance serve to inspire us to become your servants just as Mrs Wen Kweng Chow served you in her life time. To Christ, with you, O God, and the Holy Spirit, be all glory and praise. Amen.
Opening Hymn (Please stand) Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Scripture Reading Psalm 23 Tom Wong
Biography Maureen Wong
Words of Remembrance Grandchildren Jennifer Wright
Open Sharing
From New Moon to New Moon
Unlike the scorching heat and damaging light of the daily sun, the glow and peacefulness of the moon, the only celestial body that swirls around our planet has been used to mark our days and celebrate our years. When we remember the moon festival as Chinese and Asian Americans, we enjoy eating moon cakes. When the Chinese in China harvested their rice and vegetables when the moon was full and large as it was this week, the Chinese Americans in California saw the same full and large harvest moon. When I think about Mrs. Wen Kweng Chow who lived over 91 years, she must have seen many new moons and many large harvest moons.
When the prophet Isaiah was foretelling the coming of God’s reign in the world, he said at the end, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord; so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.” (66:22-23) We give God our praise to have blessed Mrs. Chow with her five daughters and their families, numbering 7 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Surely, Mrs. Chow has descendants and her name remains.
Mrs. Chow was the youngest of nine siblings but married her husband who was the oldest of nine siblings. Before she began to have her own daughters, she was busy caring for her many younger nieces and nephews. We can only imagine the many long nights when she might have found comfort in seeing the moon that quieted her spirit and encouraged her to be energetic for a new day.
Typical for many educated Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, Mrs. Chow and her family in order to survive the torture and massacre, fled to safety. She and her family have lived in Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan. Eventually they settled in Japan where they established their home. Although safe from the Chinese Communists, Mrs. Chow and her family now faced discrimination and difficulties as aliens in Japan. It is the same moon that Mrs. Chow saw wherever her life led her and her family in search for freedom.
Lois, Mrs. Chow’s second daughter told me that her mother didn’t like to cook. But she knew how to make good pot-stickers—jin zhao. I heard that only Lois and Kathleen know how to do this. Perhaps as a long-lasting memory and legacy of Mrs. Chow, Eileen, Maureen, and Judy can also learn how to make pot-stickers. Buying them frozen from Costco is not the same! As you spread out the skin, they are like little moons to remind you that your mother’s life has been blessed with many new moons and through your own lives and particularly in the making of the pot-stickers, you will in a small way continue her spirit today and in the many years to come.
When the disciple Thomas asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:5-7) Mrs. Chow was a very actively religious person who knew the Lord. When she was in Japan, she devoted her life at church by participating in activities from morning to evening. As a devoted Christian, she modeled for her family how Christ is the only truth in life. Since she lived a life that generously sacrificed her own comforts and pleasures for the sake of her children’s education and needs, she imitated Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross for our forgiveness and new life. In both life and now in death, Mrs. Chow is seeing God because she knew Christ.
Mrs. Chow and her husband immigrated to the United States from Japan thirty years ago to once again escape from a possible threat to their safety. Great sacrifices are often made to gain life and to preserve the unity of the family. In the process, Mrs. Chow left behind her close friends and a way of life that she greatly missed in Japan. In hindsight, one can only fantasized what might have been a better situation.
But as we have read and learned from the prophet Isaiah, God is making the new heavens and the new earth and will ensure that our descendants and name will remain. In the end, Mrs. Chow and all of us try to make the best decision we know how to make always with the goal to live life fully and to see that our family is safe. Let me reassure you that whether we are in Japan or in California, we see the same moon that reminds us that in God, from new moon to new moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, we all come to worship the Lord. In so doing, we know the way to eternal life.
We thank God for the life of Mrs. Wen Kweng Chow who never worked a day outside of her home, but labored from new moon to new moon as a devoted and supportive wife, a loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and a dedicated Christian who knew Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life.
Let us pray.
Creator and Provider God, at this time of all times, we thank you for the life of Wen Kweng Chow whose faithfulness as a wife and mother anchored this loving family during times of trial and tribulations. Throughout the many years, we thank you for giving us Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd who is always watching over his sheep and restores our souls in times of trouble. Even from new moon to new moon when our lives are tested and challenged, we believe that in Jesus Christ, nothing can ever separate us from your love for us.
Today, we thank you for health—and for the skill and compassion of those who care for us when our health falters and fails.
We thank you for home—for the roof over our heads and the bed where we stretch out to renew our strength in sleep; and for loved ones who make that roof and that bed and all the rest into a true home.
And we thank you for hope—hope for the pursuit of the next goal when one goal has been reached; hope for recovery and a fresh start when a goal has eluded us; hope at the last, when all hope seems lost, except for the one shining hope set before us in your raising our Lord Jesus from death. Amen.
Announcements
Expression of Appreciation
Donations
Invitation
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, Wen Kweng Chow, has promised through our 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. Amen.
Committal Service
Jesus Christ 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)
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, Wen Kweng Chow; and we commit her body to this resting place: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
“Blessed are the dead who…died in the lord…they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them. (Rev. 14:13)
Let us pray.
God, our Maker: You made our sister Wen Kweng Chow, in your own image; you set her feet on a sojourner’s experience; 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 Wen Kweng Chow in the communion of saints—forgiven, transformed, and fit for our new life with the Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Benediction
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace given us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort our hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. Amen (2 Thess. 2:16-17)
Go in peace.