FILIPINO AMERICAN
EXCEPTIONALISM: FEAR NOT, GET READY AND TAKE RISKS
(The Rev. Canon Dr.
Winfred Vergara, Holy Trinity & St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church,412
Garfield Avenue, Alhambra, California. August 7, 2016 )
INTRODUCTION
A Pentecostal preacher was invited to the Episcopal Church. He asked, “Brother, how long do I preach?” The Episcopal priest replied, “You can preach as long as you like but at 12noon, we’re out of the church.”
The acolyte
asked the Vicar, “Father, do you make holy water?” The priest replied, “I boil
the hell out of it.”
The rector
made an announcement: ”Brothers and sisters, I have good news and bad news. The
good news is we now have money to fix our leaking roof; the bad news is the
money is still in your pocket.”
Joking aside
now, let me thank you for inviting me to be your preacher today. We just
concluded the EAM Filipino Convocation and without appearing bias, I would like
to say that this convocation was the happiest, the funniest, the craziest and
the largest of all the convocations I have attended!
I also would
like to congratulate your vicar, the Rev. Brent Quines, Jr. for being elected,
along with the Rev. Gerry Engnan, as the co-conveners of this Convocation.
Thank you Holy Trinity & St. Benedict’s for sharing his gifts to us, in the
Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry.
A.BE NOT AFRAID: Jesus
said: “Be not afraid, little flock, for
your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell
your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will
not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes
near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.”
Story is told of a selfish billionaire
who died and the embalmers could not find his heart. They searched in every
place and they finally found his heart on top of his treasure chest. The
question oft-repeated: “Where is your heart?” “What motivates you to do what
you do?” “Why are you hoarding stuff?” “Are you afraid of the future?”
“Be not afraid,” was the hallmark of
God’s message to His people that has rung though the ages. In the Old
Testament, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 43): “Fear not for I
have redeemed you, I have called you by name. When you walk through the rivers I
will be with you and the waters will not overflow you; when you walk through
the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not consume you.”
“Be not afraid” because “I love you”
and “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” In the New Testament, “Be not afraid” was the hallmark of the Christian message of salvation. The angels said to the shepherds watching their flocks by night, “Be not afraid for I bring you Good News: A Child was born today on the manger.”
Jesus to his disciples, “Be not afraid;
come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus to the faithful “Be
not afraid; my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come follow me and I will
give you rest.”
Be not afraid was the word that has
given God’s people with tremendous inspiration, courage and strength in times
of need and in times of persecution. Many have given their lives and their
treasures in exchange of riches that cannot be counted or measured by time and
space.
When I was a child, poor and needy, I
knew that the little beautiful island in the Philippines where I was born was
not enough to contain my dreams. When I looked at the horizon of the sea, I
wondered, “What is beyond that shining sea?” When I looked up the mountain, I
wondered, “What’s on the other side of the mountain?” I wanted to travel, I
wanted to discover the unknown, I wanted to have higher education, which my
family could not afford.
So at age 13, I run away from home,
stowed away on a ship to Manila, to risk an adventure of my life. Since then,
this priest who ran away from home has never looked back. My adventure has
enabled me to travel the distance in life, in ministry, and in outlook in life.
I obtained higher education, my wife and I have practically traveled the world,
and my ministry in the church had been a tremendous blessing.
And the word that has sustained me all
these chapters of my life is “Be not afraid.” “Where God guides, God provides.
God’s work, done in God’s way, in God’s time, will never lack provision.”Where
God calls, he enables; where he enables, he equips; where he equips, he
empowers; and where he empowers, he sustains. If today, you worry about the
present and the future, listen to his voice, “Be not afraid.”
B. GET READY
The second word of God today is “Get
Ready.” Get ready because God has something for you to do. In the context of
this gospel, Christ is coming soon so get dressed and get ready.
Sometime ago, I did a Bible Study to a
group of Filipino immigrants and I asked the question, “If you know Christ is
coming soon, what are you going to do today?” I received so many noble and
spiritual answers but one that surprised me was from a mother who said,
“Father, I will max out my credit cards and give my children all they want.
Then I will eat, drink and be merry for I would be ready to die---and I don’t
need to worry about paying the bills.”
The other side of that answer of
course, when thinking about the end of the world and death, is to say “I pass
through this world only once and so whatever good I can do or give to my fellow
human beings, I will do it now for I will not pass through this world again.”
In June 2010, billionaire
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced a new charity initiative for
billionaires: the Giving Pledge. So far, Gates and Buffett have received
pledges from 137 billionaires from around the world who have pledged to donate
at least half of their fortunes to charity. Five years in, a total of 365
billion dollars has been pledged.
These are
tremendous and noble achievement which can be measured by facts and figures but
they cannot erase the gross inequality in the world. Dom Helder Camara once
said, “When I give money to the poor, they call me a saint; but when I ask why
there are so many poor and few who are filthy rich, they call me a communist.”
The fact of the
matter is that the best system we can think of, the capitalist system, has
always benefited the 10% percent who are rich and leaving the rest 90% poor.
The capitalist system and free enterprise seems beneficial as a form of
superior wealth to the fittest and bare survival to the rest.
The Kingdom of God
that Jesus has inaugurated is world where no one is wallowing in poverty, where
no one is sweltering in the heat of injustice, and where everyone enjoys shalom
or peace. This is the world that God is asking us to get ready for---and we are
called upon to get ready.
C. TAKE RISKS: Take risks for the kingdom of God; take risks for the gospel of
peace; take risks for the ministry of love and reconciliation.
The Kingdom
of God is not a pie in the sky that we get by and by. The Kingdom is right here
and right now. The Kingdom of God is in our midst. People who take the Kingdom
as only realized in heaven will not take care of the environment, will not take
care of the planet earth, will not struggle to improve the quality of life,
will not fight for equality and justice for all.
But we learned
from the Lord’s Prayer what Jesus want us to pray “Thy Kingdom come, thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.” While we are on earth, we must pray and
work that this Kingdom be on earth, as it is in heaven, where peace and justice
and love are realized, not only in the eschaton,
on the last day, but now, right now.
At this
point, let me address myself to Filipino-Americans, the immigrant Filipinos in
America and especially those who, like me, have chosen to become citizens of
the United States of America. I would like to point to the special calling and
destiny which God has prepared for Filipinos in America. To borrow an oft-repeated word in American
politics, I would like to call this the Filipino
American Exceptionalism. This
Filipino American Exceptionalism” is founded on three things:
First, among
Asians, the Filipinos share the birthright of being the first to set foot on
American soil. It was way back in 1587 when the first Filipinos jumped ship
from the Spanish Galleon Trade and settled in New Orleans in Louisiana. They
were called the “shrimp people” because they swam the sea and crawled on the
mud and as they built the “Malong Village” and intermarried with the Mexicans
and Native Americans, they became pioneers of the shrimp drying industry in
Louisiana.
Second, the
Philippines is the first nation in Asia to have a special relationship with the
United States. Shortly after Philippine Independence from Spain in 1898, we
fell under the tutelage of American democracy and were at some point called
“the brown Americans.” It was of course an unflattering comment at that time,
referring to our “colonial mentality” and “internalized oppression.”
But in
reality, so much of what Filipinos know about politics, about higher education,
about social affairs, about entertainment, the owe to America. The famous playwright Nick Joaquin says,
“Filipinos were under the Spanish convent for 300 years and under Hollywood for
50 years.” I say, even more years than that.
Philippines was, in fact, as author Stanley Karnow called, “created in
the American image.”
Third, in
the greater Asia-Pacific basin, the
Philippines is the first and only predominantly Christian country. Of course,
there is South Korea which has now around 33% of its population being Christians;
there is East Timor, which is predominantly Roman Catholic. But when it comes
to the size of population and length of its Christian history, Philippines ranks
as “the first and only Christian nation in Asia.”
Filipinos are also the most traveled people in
the world, with many of its people traveling overseas as migrant workers, as
crewmen in the ships, as nannies and care givers in urban centers. Go to
Europe, go to the Middle East, go to other parts of Asia and Africa and you
will find Filipinos in the factories, in construction industry, in hotel
industry. One captain of a European liner was once quoted as saying, “If all
the Filipinos in my ship refuse to work or jump ship, we cannot move.” That is
why Filipino chaplains to seafarers are needed because there so many Filipino
men in the maritime industry.
These
Filipino diaspora have innate and imbedded Christian values. When a Filipino
nanny in Singapore or Saudi Arabia or Amsterdam hears her baby cry, (i.e., the
baby of her employer) she pacifies him with a Christian song she learns from
childhood. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I
once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” These nannies are
what I call the cryptic missionaries. They can penetrate a Muslim home, a
Buddhist temple, an atheist enclave. I have seen Filipino nannies in Hong Kong
and Singapore introducing their employers to the Anglican Church.
So we,
Filipinos in America have also the innate gift as well as nascent and insipient
ability to lead in what Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry says as “The Jesus
Movement,” the movement for compassionate evangelism and racial reconciliation.
We should
not be content to follow but to lead. So I will call on you to move from being
followers to being leaders, from disciples to disciple-makers---and to take
risks for God.
I will call
on you to take risks in the ministry. If you are a Filipino American clergy, I
challenge you to be creative and let your imaginations run wild. Do not be
content on staying by the sidelines. Get into the arena. Don’t stay on the river bank, jump into the
river because you know how to swim. Don’t stay on the shores, let down your
sails and ride the waves because you are a sailor and a fisher of people. Life
is an adventure----and the Christian faith is full of surprises!
If you are a lay leader, I call on you to take
risks in politics. I was appalled to learn that there are many Filipinos who
have been U.S. citizens for a long time but have never voted. They have not
exercised their right of suffrage. When asked why, they said “the politicians
are all the same” and “I do not want to get involved.” Well, this coming
presidential election on November is quite different. The stakes couldn’t be
higher. The outcome of the elections may determine whether there will be a new
resurgence of racism and hostility against new immigrants or a continued march
to inclusion and multiracial unity.
The talk
about building walls, deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants and banning
Muslims is frightening not because it cannot be done without a having a constitutional
and social crises, but because it can be done and had been done in the past. Racism
is no respecter of persons. It has caused so much suffering not only on the
Native Americans, the Black Community, the Latino/Hispanic community but also
on the Asian cmmunity!
U.S. history
is replete with racism against Asians. In 1882, after they helped build the California
mining industry and the transcontinental railroads, the Chinese Exclusion Act
was promulgated. As Ellis Island in New York City was welcoming new immigrants
from Europe, Angel Island in San Francisco became the clearing house of mass
deportation of the Chinese whom American racists demonized as “the yellow peril.”
In the
1930’s while the Philippines was still a vassal of the United States, Filipinos
were sent to America for two reasons. Some were sent to American universities
to study and to return to Philippines to institute American democracy. They
were called the “fountain pen boys.” But the others were sent to farm the field
of California and to work the canneries in Alaska. They were called the
“Manongs” as most of them were Ilocano males. They were not allowed to bring
their wives or petition their girlfriends and were not allowed to marry by
virtue of the “anti-miscegenation laws.” This whole generation of Manongs lived
and died as the bachelor society.
In 1942,
following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the onset of the Pacific War, over250,000
Japanese in the West Coast, many of them US citizens, were imprisoned in
Internment Camps, just because they looked like the enemy. Some were able to
return after the war to their homes but many of their properties destroyed,
their lives shattered and their spirits crushed.
So if we do
not want a repeat of this bad US history, we Filipinos and Asians should shake
off our complacency and get ourselves wet in this equal struggle for “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness” which are the foundations of American society.
If you are a community leader in your own right, I would even
challenge you to run for public office. When I was a priest in San Jose,
California in the 1990’s, I served as spiritual adviser to the Filipino
American Council and get to know some leaders who made a difference in the
community. I was encouraged by their faith and concerned of their blunders,
especially when they fought among themselves. But I particularly remember seeing
the victory of the first Filipino mayor in Milpitas, Henry Manayan. Then he was
followed by another Filipino, Mayor Jose Estevez.
I had invited Mayor Manayan as guest preacher at the church
I founded, Holy Child Episcopal Church, and in one of his visits, Manayan preached:
“There are three equalizers in American society: first, hard work; second,
education; and third, politics.” So if you are a Filipino American, and if you
have the gift and skill of leadership, and if you have a “high moral compass
and empathy for people,”(as the famous South Asian American, Mr. Kassir Khan
would say), get into politics! Start by being involved in your local community
as what Mayors Manayan and Estevez had done, then affiliate yourself with a political
party that speaks of Christian values and morality and finally run and win an
election!
CONCLUSION
So this is the challenge I’m giving you today. And let me
sound a warning. If you have a talent and you do not use it, it will be taken
away from you. If you have a calling and
you do not respond, God’s judgment will be upon you. In the Old Testament, God
said to Israel: “Of all the people in the world, you only have I known, you
only have chosen, therefore I will punish you for your disobedience.”
God’s calling is irrevocable, and to us Filipino Americans,
God’s calling for us, bearing our Christian history and upbringing, is to
become ministers of love and reconciliation. We must work for justice and
peace, we must preach of love and forgiveness and we must call people to
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As “beggars who found bread,” let us tell
others beggars where and how to find this Bread of life. Let us therefore, rise up to the challenge of the Jesus Movement!
Now, we seldom do it in the Episcopal Church, but today, I
ask you: If the Holy Spirit is convicting you to this message, if the Holy
Spirit is asking you to respond to God’s calling, I ask you to stand and I will
pray a special prayer.
(Note: Around 2/3 of
the congregation stood up and responded to the call. The Rev. Dr. Winfred
Vergara prayed extemporaneously for the
Holy Spirit to guide and govern the lives and ministry of those who responded.)
