“BE KIND TO UNDOCUMENTED FOR YOU YOURSELVES WERE ONCE UNDOCUMENTED”

“BE KIND TO UNDOCUMENTED FOR YOU YOURSELVES WERE ONCE UNDOCUMENTED”

(Sermon by Fred Vergara at St. James Episcopal Church, 84-07 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373 on May 19, 2013)

Number 3 (three) is my favorite number. It reminds me of one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It reminds me of the three-fold ministry of Christ: king, priest and prophet. It reminds me of the three levels of my Christian duty: worship to God, fellowship with the Church, and service to the world. It reminds me to look at the three areas of a parish: we are a church, we are a campus, and we are a community center. It reminds me of myself: a spirit, mind and body.

Number 3 also reminds me that it is the strongest number. Why? When we lift a heavy load, we count “1-2-3” and it is on this number that we are able to do it.

So this morning, we shall hold three events:  a celebration of Pentecost Sunday; a commemoration of Asian American Heritage Month; and a Forum on the proposed Immigration Bill. It is an observance of three areas of time: yesterday, today and tomorrow. In all these three occasions, we shall remember that “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

PENTECOST?

What is Pentecost? The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word “Pentekoste,” which literally means fifty (50). To the Jewish people, Pentecost is a celebration of the giving of the Torah (Law) or the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, 50 days after their Exodus from Egypt. To the Christians, it is the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

It was on the Day of Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples. Shaped like tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit rested upon the disciples of Jesus and they began to speak in various languages. They were ordinary fishermen from Galilee but the words they spoke that day were understood by people in Jerusalem, people from various nations and cultures. 

It was a miracle that the disciples of Jesus were given by the Holy Spirit the gift of languages; and it was a double miracle that the people from many nations heard the word of God and understood them. On that Day of Pentecost, 3,000 people received the Lord Jesus Christ and were baptized. They began to gather in homes and synagogues. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship and the breaking of the bread and prayers. God worked wonders in their midst and the Church was born.

So today, Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the birthday of the Church. Will you turn to the person next to you and say, “Happy birthday, Church!”

ASIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

You and I today are fortunate that we are in the borough of Queens, the most diverse borough in the United States. State Senator Jose Peralta, in his recent visit to Elmhurst, said that Queens is the “united nations of the world.” Here you will find people from various nationalities, ethnicities, races and cultures. When you stand by and listen just outside this church for one day, you will hear a hundreds languages spoken in our streets. 

So I have a story of an extra terrestrial bird, which came down to Queens. The first ones who caught it were the Native Americans, and they worshiped the bird. It flew and went to the Anglo/Europeans and they studied the bird; then it went to the Black or African Americans and they sang songs about the bird; then it went to the Latino/Hispanic, and they had a Fiesta around the bird. Finally, it went to the Asians, and the Asians cooked the bird!

I suspect that many of you today are not familiar with the history of Asians in America. Most of our history books were written from the perspective of Anglo-Europeans, and seldom, if ever are you able to find churches where they teach you about immigration. 

The first Asians who set foot in America were said to be the Filipinos in the year 1573. They were a group of Manila men or “Luzon Indios” who served as crewmen or “slaves” in the Galleon (ships) of the Spaniards who sailed from Manila to Acapulco. While they were in the sea in Louisiana, they jumped ship because of the maltreatment from their Spanish masters. They settled in what was known as “Malong village” in New Orleans and intermarried with the natives. Little was known about them, except they figured as pioneers in the “shrimp drying” industry. Some oral history claim that their descendants participated in the American War of Independence in 1776.

So it was really in 1849 when the first Asian immigration happened among the Chinese. Recruited by American contractors, they came to California to help mine the mountains for gold and to build the transcontinental railroad. It is a sad part of American history that after the mining industry succeeded and after the railroads were completed, hospitality to Chinese turned to hostility. It culminated into the Anti-Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In 1886 while the Statue of Liberty is being unveiled in Ellis Island to welcome the immigrants from Europe, the Chinese in San Francisco and Seattle, were being driven out of the United States. 

After the Chinese came the Japanese (1885-1924) who took to the fields in Hawaii and the West Coast and became great farmers. Many of them became American citizens but when the Second World War broke out in the Pacific, many of them were incarcerated in the Internment camps in remote areas of the country. One of our Japanese Episcopal clergy, the Rev. Hiram Hisanori Kano, a farmer-priest from Nebraska is being proposed in the book of “Holy Women, Holy Men” for serving as spiritual leader during the Internment era.

After the Japanese, followed the first Korean Immigration in 1902, the time when Korea was under the Japanese Empire. For Koreans, it was an escape from their homeland which was under Japanese control. 

Then came the Filipino immigrants, which began in 1906 when the Philippines became a neo-colony of the United States. They were composed of both students who were to be trained American democracy and the bulk of immigrants being farm workers for Hawaii and California and fish cannery workers for  Alaska. 

Like the Chinese and the Japanese before them, Filipino farm workers suffered from racism and discrimination. Restaurants in such places as Watsonville in California had signs “No dogs, No Chinese and No Filipinos Allowed.” Most of them who came as young men, were not allowed to marry because of the “anti-miscegenation law” that prohibit intermarriage between white and colored people, thus ended up being bachelors until  they died. Despite their suffering, however, the Filipinos became the pioneers in community organizing. Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz were the first ones who organized the farm workers in California, an organization which was later consolidated by Mexican American Cesar Chavez as the “United Farm Workers Union.”

Today, in history things are changing for the better. Gone are the blatant discrimination and the unjust laws, thanks to the work of the Civil Rights Movement, championed by Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, San Francisco is led by a Chinese mayor; Milpitas is led by Filipino mayor; and Hawaii had once a Japanese senator and a Filipino governor. Asian Americans (coming from over 20 countries), are starting to excel in politics, business and arts.

IMMIGRATION FORUM

This leads me to comment on the Forum on Immigration which will be held following this Church service.  I would like to ask you to remain and listen to our three invited immigration attorneys: John Whitfield, representing a Black perspective; Ramon Guerra, representing a Latino perspective; and Felix Vinluan, representing a Filipino/Asian perspective. Elmhurst Community leader, Jean Lu, will translate in Chinese.

As you listen to their presentations, I would like you to remember what the Bible says about immigrants. First, Abraham who is the father Jews, Christians and Muslims was an immigrant. Second, the Church was born on the Day of Pentecost among the many immigrants that gathered in Jerusalem; third the Scriptures remind us to be kind to immigrants ---because we are all immigrants. Exodus 22:21 and Exodus 23:9 both say, “Do not oppress or mistreat strangers for you were strangers once, in the land of Egypt.” I would like to adapt it to say, “Be kind to undocumented immigrants, for you are all undocumented once.” In America, as a culture or ethnicity, only the indigenous, the Native Americans are not immigrants.

In a manner of speaking, we are all strangers in this world. There is no permanent resident on earth. We are all passing through this world, which is not ours, but God’s.  Let me read from the Book of Hebrews, something about our father Abraham and it says:

“By faith, Abraham when called to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking to the city with foundations whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:8-10)

My friends, you may live in a mansion, in an apartment or a condo but mark this. At best you are only living in a borrowed tent. I visited a park one day and saw a sign, “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.” Yes, we are all visitors in a park, strangers and sojourners, travelers and pilgrims in this world. Our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, where there is no more pain or sorrow but life everlasting. So while we are on earth, let us make it a better place than when we found it not only in the physical and the material world, but in the lives of “the least of God’s people.” We pass through this park only once, and so whatever service we can give to our fellow visitors, let us do it. For we can take nothing and leave nothing from this park, but photographs and footprints. Amen.

Guest Blog: LETTER EXCHANGE BETWEEN WARDEN & PRIEST

GUEST BLOG: A LETTER FROM MY SENIOR WARDEN

(This letter is a written version of what Ms. Christine Corrigan, Sr. Warden of St. Michael & All Angels in Seaford, New York said extemporaneously during the Farewell Service last March 31, 2013. Chris at extreme left in this 2011 photo was Sr. Warden when I first became a Supply Clergy in 2009 at SMAA until 2013. The church has grown since then.)

Dear Fr. Fred,

When you first informed me of your leaving St. Michael and All Angels Church for another parish in Elmhurst, as you know, my eyes filled with tears, my heart with sorrow and I was speechless. I understood your reassignment, but none the less, the thought of you leaving us pained me.

When Fr. Dallas left, I had the task of finding supply priests.  Although our parish is small, we are a very vocal group.  Each Sunday I would hear some complaint regarding that Sunday’s supply, and at times was even told not to ever call this one or that one back.  We virtually chewed up and spit out one supply after another.  While speaking with Fr. Dallas regarding how things were going, he suggested that I contact you and that I would be pleasantly pleased, so I called.

Fr. Dallas was wrong, I wasn’t pleasantly surprised, I was absolutely thrilled!  The first Sunday you were with us was the first Sunday I did not hear a complaint; you agreed to return the following Sunday.  That Sunday, after listening to the parishioners and without discussing it with the Vestry, I asked if you would consider being our permanent supply priest.  You advised me that you already work full time with the National Church, but you will think about it. The following Sunday, you advised me that you had prayed about returning to the roots of a parish.  That working in the church wide office sometimes become like an  “Ivory Tower” and you felt you were losing touch with the people you serve. You felt you would be more effective in giving counsel to the clergy working in parishes and missions, if you yourself is one, even if only as a Supply priest. You felt this was an answer to your prayers, you had consulted your supervisors,  and you agreed to be our priest, in addition to your current full time employment.

Little did you know what a mess you agreed to take under your wing.  We had many personalities, demands and differences. Instead of throwing up your hands and running away, you embraced us.  You were always the constant mediator and peacemaker, to the point that at times I wanted to strangle you. You showed us it was hard to be arguing with a person that you are hugging. You took us on a journey of learning and many times by not saying a word, but by your example.  For me personally, you included me even in your visits to the sick and dying, to help develop and expand my own ministry of service to others.  I know that you have done this on a personal level with many parishioners, helping them to explore and develop their own personal talents and spiritual gifts, giving them “on-service training.”

At some point of our history, our parish stayed away for diocesan involvement because of what we perceived as lack of care for our plight. Our parish was listed as among the “delinquents” in submitting parochial and financial reports. When you came, you convinced us to revive our involvement and pleaded with us to  be diligent in parish requirements. So we obeyed and we were taken off the list of delinquent parishes. In one diocesan convention, Bishop Walker was giving his keynote speech and made reference, with high praise, to a book that you had written “Mainstreaming Asians Americans in the Episcopal Church” quoting some portions on your writing.  I believe it was Canon Diane Porter who whispered to the Bishop’s ear that author was in the room and introduced you.

When Bishop Provenzano took office, he took stock in all who were in his domain and took the time to know everyone and their qualities and knew what a gem he had in you being in his diocese.  Quickly and without hesitation, he granted our desire for you to be our official Priest in Charge, even on a part-time basis and only on Sundays when you are not on official business with the national church. What a happy, joyous day that was for us.  For so many years we as a parish tried to keep low key.  We did not want to be noticed by the diocese for fear of being told what to do or had to do and more so, being afraid of being closed as many struggling parishes had been in recent past.  Now we held our heads up high and no longer feared any possible threat. We have a loving priest who has united us, taught us, expanded us and empowered us. 

Well, maybe we should have kept our light under a bushel a bit longer, for now you have been requested to relocate to “save” another congregation.  I am aware that a few years ago there was a schism in the Episcopal Church.  Unfortunately, the parish in Elmhurst was one of those affected by this division.  The Diocese has regained the property and is now trying to rebuild the congregation before their doors are permanently closed.  Bishop Provenzano knows the importance of choosing the right priest for the job and knows that you, Fr. Fred, are the right one.  You work hard and smart. Just as what your "part time presence" has done for us, he knows your shining star will attract the people to come, and learn, and share, and stay.

In Girl Scouts we have a rule that you leave a place better than you found it.  You came into our divided, disorganized but loving parish family.  You became one with us and us with you. You are now leaving, but now we are a stronger, wiser, skill-filled and a united loving parish family.  You are leaving us much better than you found us.  You would have made a great Girl Scout!

You will always be a part of us.  We love you and your wife, our beloved “Sister Angie” and thank God for bring you to us. We will try to shine the light you have shared with us as you leave now to share this light with others.  But don’t forget, we have your phone number and we know where you live, so you will never truly be without us pestering you.

Lovingly, your Sr. Warden for many years,

Chris

March 31, 2013 (Easter Sunday)

Dear Chris and Family at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church:

Words cannot describe how deeply grateful we are for your friendship and love. When we first came to this church some four years ago, we hardly know anyone of you. But now, we feel that we know all of you. We are intimately connected as family. God's love transcends boundaries of culture and race.

Throughout these past years, we worshipped together, prayed together, struggled together, laughed together. We had many special moments, whether they be the auctions and “Night of the Races” in the Resurrection Hall or the Barbecue picnics in the park. Although I was away many Sundays due to my travel in connection with my full-time job in the Episcopal Church, the spiritual bond that ties us as clergy and lay was strong and steady. Agape love transcends time and space. Your prayers for "traveling mercies" kept me safe and secure. You were my illustrations whenever I speak about spiritual renewal.  

We leave today to venture to a new church and take on a new challenge but we hold you close to our hearts and lift you up for  God’s continued guidance and care.  You are a spiritual beckon in Seaford, shining your light to the community. Priests may come and go but you need to remain constant in the mission and vision God has given you.  

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” as Shakespeare wrote. But we leave also with joy, knowing that you have become a more mature, more united and more empowered people. As we leave you, we also pray that you will embrace whoever God places to be your next priest, the way you have learned to accept me.

We may still see each other whether it be in the Diocese of Long Island, at St. James Church in Elmhurst (which is our next parish) or here in Seaford for some special events. But we wish to let you know that you remain our BFF---best friends forever.

With love and prayers,

Fr. Fred & Sis. Angie

POWER BREAKFAST BY THE GALILEAN SHORE: Forgiveness, Love and Mission

 

POWER BREAKFAST BY THE GALILEAN SHORE: Forgiveness, Love and Mission

The Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara. St. James Episcopal Church, Elmhurst, New York. April 14, 2013. Easter III.Text: John 21: 1-19

What would you do and how would you feel if you get invited to have breakfast with Jesus?

In 2008, I was privileged to go to Israel to study a course called “Palestine of Jesus.”  For three weeks, we stayed at St. George’s Anglican College in Jerusalem and traveled to Bethlehem, to the river Jordan, to the Dead See and to the Sea of Galilee. I tell you, it was like a dream come true. It was so heartwarming to see where Jesus was born, to walk where Jesus walked and to preach where Jesus preached.  Early in the morning, my classmates and I would bathe in the cool, fresh waters of Galilee. We would sing hymns and spiritual songs and we would imagine Jesus walking on the water and the apostles fishing for what is now called “Peter’s fish” or tilapia.

In the place called Tabgha inTiberias, there are two churches named after two miracles. The first one is called the Church of Multiplication, for that is the site where Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people. The other one is called the Church of the Primacy of Peter, for that is the site where Peter was restored and forgiven by Jesus. I was chosen from among my classmates to preach and celebrate the mass in that church. 

As I was reading the Gospel of John 21, there was a moment that I could hardly speak. I felt that there was a lump in my throat, I was choking with emotion and that my heart was so filled with gratitude for the amazing, awesome and extraordinary grace of God.  For in that place in Tabgha, Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” As I was reading that Scripture text, I felt that I was there---and Jesus was addressing those words to me---right after that breakfast where Jesus invited us to be.

POWER BREAKFAST                                                                                                                                                                                     

 I call this "power breakfast" as a demonstration of God’s divine initiative in Christ: first point is forgiveness, second point is love and third point is mission. Jesus calls us to forgive, he commands us to love, and he gives us a mission. (Do you still remember  the reasons why I am a "three points preacher"?)

First, the power of forgiveness.   

The ability for forgive is not a sign of weakness but a sign of power. Jesus empowered Peter by giving him the gift of forgiveness. The apostles were fishing all night but they caught nothing. This is a message that “without God, we can do nothing.” Without God, in the words of the Ecclesiastes, all our works and our achievements are “vanity and a striving after the wind.”  We need God for because there is a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill.  Peter was empty that morning. His stomach was empty because he was hungry. His net was empty because there was no fish. His heart was empty because a week ago, he had denied Jesus. 

Out of his emptiness and depression, came an invitation from Jesus. “Come had breakfast with me. Oh by the way, cast your nets on the right side and you will find fish.” They cast their nets on the right side and there was a huge haul of fish---the nets were almost breaking. My friends, when you have breakfast with Jesus---your plate will be full!

Then Jesus asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?” And Peter was grieved for he was asked by the Lord three times. But it did not take long for him to realize that the reason why Jesus was asking him three times was because he had denied the Lord three times. In other words, just as he had sinned three times, he was being forgiven three times as well. That power of forgiveness has fully restored Peter to what was to be his destiny. Like the prodigal Son who returned to the Father, Jesus was giving him back the golden ring. He was a son again. Forgiveness washed away his guilt and shame. He was restored,  reconciled, healed. 

The power of forgiveness is the power of healing. There was a woman who had cervical cancer. The doctor gave her a grim prognosis: the cancer metastasized. It had spread to her intestines, liver and kidney. She might die in three months. After the initial shock, denial and anger that terminally-ill persons often go through, she decided to accept her fate and to prepare for her funeral. Then she remembered that throughout her life, she had made some friends but also some enemies. She had been hurt by other people and she had also hurt other people. So she decided that since she had but a short time to live, she would spend the rest of her life forgiving those who hurt her and seeking forgiveness to those she had hurt. She called, emailed and wrote to them one by one. And every time she had forgiven someone or had received forgiveness from someone, some cancer cells were being removed.  The process went on and on until she was completely healed. There is power in forgiveness!

The power of love                                                                                                                                                            "Do you love me?" Peter and the apostles of Jesus had learned love from the source and author of Love Himself. The bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosever would believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Por que de tal manera amo Dios al mundo, que ha dado a su Hijo unigenito, para que todo aquel que en el cree, no se pierda , mas tenga vida eterna.  Sapagkat minahal ng Diyos and mundo kaya niya ibinigay ang kanyang bugtong na anak, upang ang nanampalatay sa kanya ay hindi mamamatay bagkus magkaroon ng buhay na walang hanggan”  (John 3:16). I wish I could say it in many more  languages, but I tell you, LOVE is a universal language. Even in unspoken words, love is clear and understandable.

Someone once said that there are three things which husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers , must learn to say in order for their relationships to last for a lifetime. These three words are: “I love you; I am sorry; please forgive me.”  My wife and I have been married for 35 years now. We have no children. What keeps us together these many years? Maybe not so much in words, but in action, we might have spoken these three words to each other, for a thousand times. Because we are all human, we are imperfect. I like the prayer of Alexander Pope, “If I am right thy grace impart, still in the right to stay. If I am wrong, O teach my heart to find that better way.” And the more excellent way is love (1 Corinthians 13).

The power of mission

From the power of forgiveness and love, Jesus proceeded to tell  Peter of his mission. “If you really love me, then feed my sheep. “ I feel that that is my mission too in this church, St. James Episcopal Church in Elmhurst, New York.  I want to see this church experience a revival,  I want to see this church grow and re-establish its rightful mission in this community. We are a historic church finding our place in the 21^st century. 

The origin of St. James dates back from 1704 when America was still a colony of Great Britain. Our charter was signed by no less than King George III.  St. James Church saw the fight for American Independence both politically and ecclesiastically. The first bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury was one of our earliest rectors. Dr. Benjamin Moore, the first president of Columbia University was one of our earliest lay leaders. At some point, Elmhurst was called the “New Amsterdam”  because this was a Dutch neighborhood. 

But fast forward to the 21^st century.  Elmhurst  is no longer the New Amsterdam or even the Old Amsterdam.  It has become a global village in Queens, New York one of the most diverse communities in the world.  Here is a rapidly growing Chinatown and clusters of ethnic communities:  Latinos, Filipinos, Southeast Asians, South Asians, West Indians, Caribbean in addition to Black and white.  How do we position ourselves  as the new St. James in the context of our time? 

 “If you love me, feed my sheep.” I believe the Church grows when the people are fed but not when they are fed up.  Let us feed God’s people with the uniting Word of God and not by divisive politics of man. Let us be one in sharing the Body and Blood of Christ as well as one in sharing a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, or a bowl of soup. 

“And I have other sheep that are not yet of this fold”( John 10:16).  St. James Church is surrounded by people from other cultures and ethnicities who are hungry for the Word of God, hungry for the bread of life, hungry for community. They too are hungry for forgiveness, for love and for mission.  

Many years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, issued a dream. “I have a dream that one day, black boys and white boys will walk hand in hand.” As he dreamt the dream of integration and unity, Martin Luther King, Jr.  also prophesied against the American Church of segregation. He called the 11 o’clock on Sunday as the most “segregated time in America” because the Blacks and the Whites were holding purely Black and lilly White worship services. 

Today, here in Elmhurst, the dream of MLK will have a new significance: we dream not only that Black and White but Brown and Yellow and Red and Green, Mulato and mestizo----and  all colors of the rainbow will be welcomed in this Episcopal Church.  Let us heed MLK’s prophesy by radically welcoming ALL PEOPLE  to our Healing Service at 10:30 A.M. and removing every trace of segregation in our 11:00 A.M. Eucharist. “Though we are many, we are one Body because we all share in one Bread.” By his dying on the cross, Jesus Christ has broken down every wall of hostility and opened for us a new and living way. Let us open this Church to the whole community of Elmhurst and let St. James Church be a forgiving, loving and serving Church in the 21^st century. Amen!