April 18, 2012
Call to Worship
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Thanks be to God in providing us with all the seasons of life. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
On behalf of Lois Chiang, I welcome you here today to remember and celebrate the productive and good life of Willis Kuo Hung Chiang who was born on November 19, 1941 and returned to the Lord on April 12, 2012. Just as God has an important purpose for Willis Chiang’s life on earth, God has a clear purpose for your life as well. We come to hear about why God created each one of us in his own image and how we have a role in becoming co-creators with God as Willis Chiang did in his life. We pray that as you have come this afternoon that you would be blessed by your love and support for Lois and her family. Your act of kindness and caring may be returned to you with abundance just as the abundant harvests that came from Willis’ garden.
Let us pray.
Creator God, we trust you to guide us through every season of life. You carry us from death to life, from weeping to laughing, from mourning to dancing, and from silence to speaking. Inspire us to experience every season in its fullness, and to trust that nothing lasts forever—except for your eternal love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
God Provides
For the most part, we live in a world that provides for every need for our survival. We turn on the faucet and we drink clean water. We flip on the switch and lights turn on for us to see. We turn the burners on our stoves to stir-fry vegetables that we were able to buy at the farmers’ market. Hidden from our sights and our consciousness are all the systems that are in place for us to enjoy these many everyday amenities. There’s a water system that brings clean water down from the high Sierras and water treatment plants to filtrate and recycle water. There’s PG&E that harnesses electricity from solar panels and hydroelectric plants and the energy grid to distribute the electricity into our homes. There are the farmers who plant crops and harvest them with backbreaking work by farm workers and transport the vegetables to the supermarkets and roadside stands.
Willis Chiang was a systems analyst—he knew what was behind all these nice things that provide us enjoyment in life. In his work, he helped bring fresh, juicy pineapples to our dinner tables and important information onto our computers.
God our Creator is a systems analyst. In Genesis, God created the world, the heavens and the earth, day and night, the sky and the waters, and vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God created the seasons, the birds in the sky, the sea monsters in the seas, all the living animals on the earth. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the air, and over the cattle, and over the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” God put all these systems in place and Willis like his Creator understood these systems and became a co-creator with God.
One of Willis’ hobbies was his vegetable garden. Unlike most of us who would go to Home Depot and buy a seedling, Willis started his plants from seeds. He never used chemical fertilizers and said chickens were his best friends. He would have bumper crops and share them with everyone. One year, I received a few of Willis’ green bean seeds and to this day, they have been the best crop I have harvested on my little patio plant boxes. It was like Jack and the Beanstalk!
You see, it takes real patience to tend a garden through all the growing seasons, the bugs and weeds, wind and sun, frost and rain. The ground has to be prepared and the plants pruned. We read that Willis was a patient man, taking him over some 7 years to complete a project or waiting hours to feel a nibble from a fish or carefully lining up his shot to putt the golf ball in the cup or patiently waiting and trusting in God that the seed will sprout and a seedling will push above the rich soil and bear good fruit.
There’s a poem by Myrtle Simmons Phar called, “Gardening.”
The sowing of the seed,
The prayers for rain,
The spading, straining, weeding,
Aching pain.
The joy of seeing bloom,
On tender plant.
The thankfulness, for bounty
God would grant.
Not just the fruit, in jars
Upon the shelf.
Half the reward is in the
Work itself!
Willis was not afraid of work. Lois never had to ask him to do something. He was always ready to do all the chores around the house and yard. In fact, in Willis’ life, he never had a “honey-do” list! He had his own list and checked off the work he had to do. For all the men here today, we can learn something from Willis. I just saw a bumper sticker that read: “I’m not spoiled. My husband loves me.” I believe Lois can have this bumper sticker on her car. In his own way, Willis was acting on behalf of how God provides for the world. He took good care of all of Lois’ needs. He was generous with his resources and welcomed friends and strangers alike into his home and operated almost a “bed and breakfast” to all. Hospitality is providing for all the needs of visitors and we know that when we do this, there may be times when we would have entertained angels.
When Jesus was teaching, he told the people to not worry because God provides. In Matthew 6:25-33, Jesus said,
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap not gather in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Jesus tells us that God has created a beautiful system of life, abundance and love. We don’t need to worry because God provides. God loves us so much that he provides us with fresh water to drink, home grown tomatoes and green beans to eat and the clothes on our backs to keep us warm and nurtured.
Someone described Willis and Lois like “two peas in a pod.” They did everything together. While Lois actually worked for United Airlines, she enjoyed working on the ground helping travelers to find their way to visit San Francisco. But it was Willis who actually taught Lois how to fly when he wanted to see all of the exotic places on every single continent. Willis was intrigue by new things and new places that he hasn’t seen before. He would say, “Let’s go!” It may very be that as one who loves to analyze systems that he wanted to see how biodiversity works and how the continents of the world fit together and how “two peas in the pod” can experience God’s wonderful world.
I know that it’s been difficult for Lois to still be a pea in the pod. But being together across these many years, both Willis and God have shown you that God continues to provide for all of your needs—you don’t have to worry. God will provide you with the strength and confidence to face every new day with hope and purpose. The systems that Willis has created for you and that God created in the beginning of all time will remain in place for you that you can trust and rely upon.
From knowing Willis Chiang, we can see the beauty of God’s creation from the cycles of birth, growth, decay, death and new life. The conservationist John Muir put it this way, “Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communion of death and life, their joyous, inseparable unity, as taught in the woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”
We often say that when we grow older, we put away childish things. For Willis, he may have stopped breaking neighbors’ windows by his wayward balls, but he remained as playful and fun loving until the very end. Even with his own sense of humor that only he could understand, he provided us with laughter and entertainment to enjoy. We give thanks to God for creating and making Willis Chiang the beautiful person he was and for God to continue enjoying his humor and fun in heaven.
Let us pray.
Creator and Provider God, at this time of all times, we thank you for the precious gift of life.
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 the 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.
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 Willis Chiang.
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.
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, Willis Kuo Hung Chiang, 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. Amen.
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, Willis Kuo Hung Chiang; 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, Willis Chiang, 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 Willis Chiang 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.