Reflections

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“On Executive Orders” – February 21, 2025

A Pastoral Letter to the Presbytery of San Jose

Dear Siblings in the Faith, Colleagues in Ministry, and Friends of the Presbytery of San Jose,

Grace and peace in the name of the holy God, revealed in Jesus Christ our Liberator, in the transformative breath of Holy Spirit!

This week, specifically February 19th, marks the 83rd year since the fateful signing of and issuance by President Franklin Roosevelt’s of Executive Order 9066. On that day, through the stroke of a pen, the president directed hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans to be forcibly detained, separated from their homes and families, and imprisoned at a series of internment camps in the Western United States. I have attached here some photos Grace and I took when we visited one of those camps, Manzanar, a couple years back. As many of you know, I grew up in San Bruno. Our family frequented the Tanforan Mall, which was once upon a time a racetrack. Manzanar has an exhibit that described how that same Tanforan racetrack was used as one of several processing centers where Japanese Americans would be registered and then shipped off to any one of a number of internment camps. These fellow citizens were not afforded due process, not regarded with dignity as human beings, and subjected to the suspicion and terror of the federal government, all in the name and under the pretext of “national security” and preserving American interests.

This is Day 33 into this new presidential administration. The sheer volume and velocity of executive orders being issued by President Trump and being implemented have created a situation of chaos, fear, and fomented conditions where real lives are being adversely affected, migrant communities are vulnerable more than they were already, LGBTQIA+ persons’ identities have been eviscerated, constitutional checks and balances that provided a semblance of trust in our institutions are now questionable, global alliances are threatened, American foreign policy that challenged dictators are now cow-towing to those same dictators, U.S. foreign aid that provided needed food and medicines to impoverished communities around the world has all but ceased, and the list goes on and on by the minute. It becomes overwhelming, and there are some days where I wonder what to do next and how to respond. Because the revolutionary changes that the new presidential administration is enacting through the series of executive orders will transform government for years, now is not the time to rest, and certainly not the time to tune out and approach this moment with apathetic resignation.

I am prompted by Holy Spirit to press into the apostle Paul’s exhortation in 2 Corinthians 4:8-12:

“We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us but life in you.”

Here, the apostle is addressing both internal and external challenges to the church’s witness in the first century C.E. Yet, we see visibly before us, in 2025, the pernicious values of empire rearing its ugly head where an unelected billionaire walks with his team from agency to agency terminating civil servants, accessing sensitive information, and, doing so with impunity.

The brazenness of this administration is emboldened not only by his interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision last year affirming the president’s near total immunity from prosecution provided such acts were done as part of official acts and duties of the president. But the brazenness is further emboldened when he views his political mandate on some illusory imprimatur from God. We who are students (and teachers) of history have seen this script play out in human history: Pharaohs, emperors, monarchs, despots, presidents, religious leaders – the constellation of political, religious, and economic leaders who saw their right to rule in dictatorial ways as part of a divine mandate, that somehow they are the anointed person from God.

Thus, the church’s witness of the Gospel and of the loving justice of God must be brought to bear in every moment, and certainly on these perilous times. Now is not the time to rest and retreat, but to confront, interrogate, challenge, and protest the powers and principalities when the vulnerable and disenfranchised are threatened, when hate and fear are instilled into the lives of people, when the values of empire are lifted above the well-being of the poor, the refugee, when fellow human beings and their identities are disregarded.

We give witness of our faith of the One, Jesus the Christ, whose divine mandate to us, whose executive order to all people was and is to love: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love neighbor and stranger as Christ loved us. Period. Full stop.

I’m not experiencing and seeing that executive order in the president’s executive order – whether Roosevelt’s in 1942 nor Trump’s in 2025.

We give witness of our faith of the One, Jesus the Christ, whose divine mandate to us, whose executive order to all people was and is to love: love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love neighbor and stranger as Christ loved us. Period. Full stop.

For us in the Presbytery of San Jose, living out Christ’s executive order to love will mean many things in the contexts of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties. It will mean:

• Being and providing sanctuary to the vulnerable

• Accompanying people through the legal process for protection

• Advocacy through the legal and political processes

• Street and neighborhood protests

• Community organizing and coalition building

• Challenging and critiquing policies and the implementation of them

• Listening to the heart of fellow neighbors and strangers who live in fear

• Listening to the heart of those with whom we disagree

• Loving neighbor and stranger alike

• Praying

• Discerning for wisdom when to act publicly, and when to act subversively

We are a community of faith. And as such, we are called to pray for one another, to support each other, to join our hearts, voices, and lives for the work and witness of Jesus Christ so that the God of love and the love of God may be lifted up in our midst.

These are perilous times, to which we have been called for such a time. May the steadfast love of God inspire us and enable us to bear witness – in word, in deed, in prayer, and in every way – of the divine executive order to love.

In the One who is our Joy and Love,

Neal Presa, Executive Presbyter

Presbytery of San Jose

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A Common Statement of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Moderators & Vice Moderators of General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

A STATEMENT FROM THE ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER (AAPI)

MODERATORS & VICE MODERATORS OF GENERAL ASSEMBLIES

OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.)

Dear Siblings and Friends of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),

Grace and peace to you in the name of the One who was born in, crucified at, and risen from the westernmost land of the Asian continent, Jesus the Christ! 

It has taken us time to put our sentiments to an official statement because we, like so many in our AAPI communities, are lamenting. We are angry. We are frankly tired, fatigued, and exhausted. We are devastated. We are grieving. We are consoling and comforting one another in whatever way we can. We are shaken in our hearts and souls and in every part of our being. Our collective and individual predicaments as AAPI communities are made all the more difficult because we are a people accustomed to being with one another, hugging each other, eating and feasting over plentiful food, sharing stories of our struggles and of our joys. We, like you, can’t do that these days, especially in a time when we need and long for face-to-face, eye-to-eye, body-to-body encounters.  What hasn’t changed is our heart-to-heart unity in condemning violence and its roots, in mourning the loss of lives, and in our shared commitment and renewed resolve to speak up, to fervently pray, and to take meaningful action to see that God’s justice for us as AAPI communities, and, indeed all marginalized communities are brought to fruition.

We are deeply grieving in the aftermath of the March 16, 2021 massacre at Atlanta, Georgia where eight children of God were extinguished by a cold-blooded white shooter.  Six of the victims were Asian/Asian American women – grandmothers, mothers, wives, sisters, aunts, friends, neighbors, caregivers, family providers. We name these siblings in the faith who bear the divine image: Soon Chung Park 박순정, age 74; Hyun Jung Grant [김]현정, age 51; Sun Cha Kim 김순자 , age 69; Yong Ae Yue 유영애, age 63; Delaina Ashley Yaun, age 33; Paul Andre Michels, age 54; Xiaojie Tan 谭小洁, age 49; Daoyou Feng 冯道友, age 44

Selah.

 We cry. We weep. We mourn. With ancient wisdom we bellow from the bowels of our souls: 

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not listen?

 Or cry to you ‘Violence!’

and you will not save?

Why do you make me see wrongdoing

            and look at trouble?

Destruction and violence are

            Before me;

Strife and contention arise.

So the law becomes slack

            And justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous –

            Therefore judgment comes forth

                        perverted.  (Habbakuk 1:2-4, NRSV)

Selah.

The deep pain that reverberated in us and in AAPI communities following the Atlanta massacre are not new to us. We are saddened, we are enraged, and we are tired. We personally know of many AAPI women who are deeply shaken, living in fear and constantly on guard for their personal safety, having to second-guess their every movement and words lest they be on the receiving end of violence, retaliation, and dehumanizing micro-agressions. We call for an end.

Selah.

We have observed that many non-AAPI members in our communities, social media users, in the media, and of the wider body politic fail to recognize the misogyny and anti-Asian racism underlying the massacre that occurred in Atlanta. The Atlanta massacre and the reprehensible description of it as a sex-addict seeking liberation while having a “bad day” are stark symptoms of the deeper poison that has sickened our nation since its founding, namely white supremacy. The Atlanta massacre is a tip of an iceberg of discrimination that AAPI communities–whether immigrants, naturalized, or descendants of immigrants–have endured for generations. When added to this the mistreatment, degradation, belittling, dismissing, and denigration of the personhood and gifts of AAPI women and LGBTQIA+ siblings, we cannot remain silent.

Selah.

The Atlanta massacre follows a long line of hate against our AAPI communities. The group Stop AAPI Hate has catalogued more than 3800 actual incidents of hate during 2020 alone, the first year of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Research from California State University found that while 2019-2020 saw a decline in overall hate crimes, hate crimes against our AAPI communities increased 149%. The Trump administration’s descriptive of the COVID-19 coronavirus as the “China virus” or “Kung flu” exacerbated the anti-AAPI sentiments and stereotypes that are and have been endemic to the United States. We shall not forget, nor can we allow present and future generations to forget, the arduous journey for justice for which our AAPI forbearers struggled and which continue to haunt us even to this day as evidenced from recent events. We have not forgotten such examples as The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its subsequent versions that remained in place for more than six decades, the objectification of Filipinos at the 1904 World Fair as “living exhibits,” the internment of thousands of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans during World War II, post-September 11 inspired hate against any South Asians who looked Muslim. We could mention the 1923 the U.S. v. Thind case that denied South Asians a voice, the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, the destruction of and looting of businesses owned by Korean Americans in the 1990s. The list goes on and on. It is too traumatic for us to recount, a burden of stories too heavy to bear alone.  Our AAPI forbearers have endured, have suffered, and have been made to bear countless incidents of micro- and macro- aggressions every single day, the caricaturing and stereotyping of being “model minorities,” of “exotic Orientalism,” of derogatory names, of being silenced, or assuming that our silent reflections and thoughtful meditations are somehow indications of acceptance or complacency. We ask you to listen to the stories of our AAPI siblings. Don’t speak, don’t explain, don’t theologize. Just listen. Receive our voices, hear us, hear our stories, hear our struggles, hear us. We ask you to give us the space and freedom to grieve, to mourn as a community, to shout, to cry, to huddle together as AAPI communities who are hurting.

Selah.

Like the forbearers of our faith — the diversity of ancestors who have finished the course and whose labors we continue with so many others – we join in solidarity in our lamentation, in our prayer, and in our renewed commitment to condemn, protest, and dismantle all forms of hate, violence, obfuscation, fear, subjugation, oppression, revisionist history-telling, of misogyny, commodification, fetishization, discrimination, and inhumane treatment against AAPI persons and communities and the theologies and systems that support it. 

Join us in taking some of these steps. We are grateful for our AAPI sister and colleague, The Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia, for her wisdom on prescribing these meaningful acts that we all can do.

For white siblings:

  • Trust people of color to know their own experiences. Hear their stories and pain.
  • Sit with the discomfort: embrace openness to what you hear and experience, remaining uncomfortable if you don’t know what to do.
  • Do an internet search before you ask people of color to explain concepts, approaches, or tools.
  • Acknowledge that your siblings of color, especially Asians and Asian Americans right now, are in pain.
  • Take risks and speak up, whether people of color are in the room or not. Don’t require people of color to do the “heavy lifting.”

For siblings of color:

  • Know that you are a beloved child of God.
  • Remember that your story is valued, no explanations or justifications required.
  • Be gentle with yourself. Focus on self-care.
  • Reach out to your community of support. You are not alone.

With the forbearers of our faith we long to say: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

With the forbearers of our faith we can affirm: “In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.” (A Brief Statement of Faith, lines 65-71)

With the forbearers of our faith we pray, we grieve, and we will act.  Let us all be joined in our strength, in our wills, in our might, in our love, and by God’s grace, towards God’s transformative justice for our AAPI communities, and, indeed, for every peoples long silenced.

 

With the love and justice of our Asian brother, Jesus the Christ, we are:

The Reverend Larissa Kwong Abazia, Vice Moderator, 221st General Assembly (2014)

The Reverend Dr. Neal D. Presa, Moderator, 220th General Assembly (2012)

The Reverend Dr. Tom Trinidad, Vice Moderator, 220th General Assembly (2012)

The Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator, 218th General Assembly (2008)

Selah.

 

 

 

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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Friends,

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Reconciler.

We write to you as former Moderators of the General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor churches, as disciples of Jesus Christ committed to the Gospel’s witness and promise of reconciliation, and as agents of God’s transformative justice in the church and in the world.

The brazen march of white nationalist supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11 and 12, 2017, and President Donald Trump’s subsequent responses that equivocated on clearly identifying, denouncing and condemning those same groups as instigators of hatred and violence brought the spotlight upon the deeply embedded and pernicious poison of racism and white supremacy so endemic in society and, we dare say, in the church. We are increasingly alarmed when notions of nationalism and racial superiority are masked and clothed in terms of the Christian faith, or confused with the Gospel, or somehow supersede the clear exhortation of sacred Scripture to love your neighbor as Christ loved the Church, or when the Christian faith is used to inspire and organize hatred and bigotry.

We are wisely instructed by the struggles of our faith forebearers when fascism in the form of Nazism was on the rise in the 1930s, resulting in the Theological Declaration of Barmen, which categorically and emphatically denounced the effects of Nazism in the church and in society: “. . .we may and must speak with one voice in this matter today. Precisely because we want to be and to remain faithful to our various Confessions, we may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation.” Then again, nearly four decades ago, our South African sisters and brothers stood courageously against the white governmental policy of apartheid and the theologies that undergirded and rationalized that sinful regime. The Belhar Confession stated: “. . .we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and color and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ.”

In so doing, we join with our Stated Clerk, General Assembly Co-Moderators, and Presbyterian Mission Agency Interim Executive Director in calling the church to confess and repent of the ways in which we have been complicit and failed to disrupt, challenge, and undo white supremacy and racism. (see their pastoral letter:
https://www.pcusa.org/news/2017/8/14/pcusa-leaders-condemn-white-supremacy-racism/ )

As our concerns, sadness and anger have increased over the state of affairs we find ourselves as a nation, we are also equally determined and committed to active prayer and prayerful action, as we know so many of you are doing in thousands of churches, in counter-protests in streets across the country, in letter writing to and visits with elected officials, in mobilizing through social media, in face-to-face/neighbor-to-neighbor conversations. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in summarizing the 19th century abolitionist leader Theodore Parker, exhorted: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

May we, as the present-future generation of God’s people in this time and for this time, work and pray for the reconciliation of all of God’s children, and may the Lord grant us grace and courage for the facing of this hour.

Yours in the service of Christ,

The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, 214th General Assembly (2002), PC(USA)
Elder (Dr.) Thelma C. Davidson Adair, 188th General Assembly (1976), UPCUSA
The Rev. Dr. Susan R. Andrews, 215th General Assembly (2003), PC(USA)
The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Bohl, 206th General Assembly (1994), PC(USA)
Elder Patricia Brown, 209th General Assembly (1997), PC(USA)
The Rev. John M. Buchanan, 208th General Assembly (1996), PC(USA)
The Rev. David Lee Dobler, 205th General Assembly (1993), PC(USA)
The Rev. John M. Fife, 204th General Assembly (1992), PC(USA)
Elder Price Gwynn III, 202nd General Assembly (1990), PC(USA)
The Rev. Charles A. Hammond, 192nd General Assembly (1980), UPCUSA
The Rev. Robert Lamar, 186th General Assembly (1974), UPCUSA
The Rev. Harriet Nelson, 196th General Assembly (1984), PC(USA)
The Rev. Dr. Neal D. Presa, 220th General Assembly (2012), PC(USA)
Elder (Dr.) Heath Rada, 221st General Assembly (2014), PC(USA)
The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, 218th General Assembly (2008), PC(USA)
Elder Rick Ufford-Chase, 216th General Assembly (2004), PC(USA)
The Rev. Dr. Herbert D. Valentine, 203rd General Assembly (1991), PC(USA)
Elder William H. Wilson, 197th General Assembly (1985), PC(USA)

[Cross-posted at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/statement-former-pcusa-general-assembly-moderators-charlottesville]

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Lord’s Day 42 (Q/A 110-111): STEWARDSHIP OF GENEROSITY

110 Q.   What does God forbid
in the eighth commandment?

A.    God forbids not only outright theft^1 and robbery,^2
punishable by law.

But in God’s sight theft also includes
all scheming and swindling
in order to get our neighbor’s goods for ourselves,
whether by force or means that appear legitimate,^3
such as
inaccurate measurements of weight,^4 size, or volume;^5
fraudulent merchandising;
counterfeit money;^6
excessive interest;
or any other means forbidden by God.

In addition God forbids all greed^7
and pointless squandering of his gifts.^8

^1 1 Cor. 6:10
^2 1 Cor. 5:10
^3 Luke 3:14; 1Thess. 4:6
^4 Prov. 11:1; 16:11
^5 Ezek. 45:9[-11]; Deut. 25:13[-16]
^6 Ps. 15:5; Luke 6:35
^7 1 Cor. 6:10
^8 Prov. 5:16

111 Q.   What does God require of you
in this commandment?That I do whatever I can

A.    That I do whatever I can
for my neighbor’s good,
that I treat others
as I would like them to treat me,^1
and that I work faithfully
so that I may share with those in need.^2

^1 Matt. 7:12
^2Eph. 4:28

LORD’S DAY 42 (Q/A 110-111)
“Stewardship of Generosity”

It is true that we can feel overwhelmed with the enormous amount of need, feeling like we must do everything to help, and we end up scrambling to do anything that we end up doing nothing. A generous spirit doesn’t assess the quantifiable; a generous spirit just gives.

This is not reckless abandonment; we are to be wise with our resources. Yet when we are conditioned to take, to stand up for our rights, to seek that which we feel we are entitled to or what we are told we are entitled to, we miss out on opportunities to share in that which God supplies. Why share? Yes, because God desires for us to give what we have freely received. Yes, because if you have that which your neighbor needs you have a moral responsibility to assist in his/her need. And yes, our mothers and grandmothers are right…stealing is just plain bad, giving is just plain good.

But lest we all of a sudden become generous philanthropists (which would be great) for charity and philanthropy’s sake, Q/A 110-111 does not prescribe philanthropy; its attention is human flourishing to the glory of God; its trajectory is outward and upward. A few years ago our family went to Paris. In the Saint-Chapelle there are a series of stained-glass windows that tell the story of the Christian faith. Each panel is to be read in the boustrophedon manner – reading in an S-shape, starting from the lowest left-hand corner, left-to-right, then right-to-left, alternating successively as you reach each level above the other, working your way from bottom to top, to the uppermost right-hand panel.

Generous giving in the pattern of God’s own generous giving toward us and in God’s desire for us are in like manner, the boustrophedon manner. The triune God who did not withhold even His own Son, comes to us, demonstrates to us such lavish love, and, through the Holy Spirit works in us to extend generous giving to this person and that person, to this community and that. In the giving, we can discern the upward trajectory, as our giving is as an offering to God, acts of worship. Every act of giving, if we see and regard it as God-moments, as God-directed, as God-delighted…they direct us to the One who has given what we have in small and big measure.

Like the Sainte-Chapelle stained-glass windows, every panel lends to the richer story of the faith, where we can comprehend the wideness and breadth of the beauty of God, of God’s gift-giving, of God’s gifts, and of every person whom God brings into our lives.

All this is to say that the contrary realities—what Q/A 110 calls “theft and robbery. .  .scheming and swindling—elide the beautiful generosity of God, dishonor God, and make us less than human, or, even un-human.  We become as ravenous animals, out for ourselves, for our gain, for our consumption, for our satisfaction. This would be to remain in one stained-glass panel, and, in fact, shattering the precious glass itself. On many levels, “theft, robbery, scheming and swindling” destroy relationships or the potential for having one; exhibit a lack of beneficial creativity and edifying imagination; and at bottom, the acts and thoughts leading to or actualized in stealing commodify people, commodify God, and commodify ourselves.

Rather, the Spirit of God unleashes us to be generous: generous with our lives, generous with what we have, generous with what we don’t yet have (which then become prompters for prayerful hope to meet the need of our neighbor in a fuller way). Generous giving and being generous stewards of what God has given to us are our lifelong, worshipful acts towards the flourishing of our neighbor, to the glory of God.

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Lord’s Day 41 (Q/A 108-109): BEING SINGLE

108 Q.   What does the seventh commandment teach us?

A.    That God condemns all unchastity,^1 and that therefore we should thoroughly detest it^2 and live decent and chaste lives,^3 within or outside of the holy state of marriage.^4

^1 Lev. 18:27-28
^2 Jude 23
^3 1 Thess. 4:3-5
^4 Heb. 13:4; 1 Cor. 7

109 Q.   Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery?

A.    We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why God forbids all unchaste actions, looks, talk,^1 thoughts, or desires,^2 and whatever may incite someone to them.^3

^1 Eph. 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 6:18-20
^2 Matt. 5:[27-28]
^3 Eph. 5:18; 1 Cor. 15:33

LORD’S DAY 41 (Q/A 108-109)
“Being Single”

This isn’t a reflection to extol living a single life as a bachelor, nor is it a reflection to extol being married; I commend both, as one who was a bachelor and as who is married with children. I was blessed as a bachelor, and I am blessed as a married guy. Being single is not for everyone, as is being married is not for everyone.  Both are gifts from God, and, as such, are to be treasured, honored, and received with thanksgiving. Both also share a common trait: both are callings/vocations, and, as such, are intended to strengthen and deepen our relationship with God. In this upward sense, whether as a bachelor/bachelorette, widow, widower, divorced, or (re-)married, is your particular relational vocation glorifying God, and, enabling you a greater delight in your relationship with God; in short, is your mind, heart, and body singularly focused on God and delighting in God? Q/A 108 and 109 discuss the seventh commandment’s prohibition on committing adultery. As the Decalogue, in each and in toto, is an expression of God’s character, the seventh commandment expresses the jealousy of God, the singular focus that God has upon us, God’s desire to be worshipped and glorified by God’s creation, not because of a divine narcissism or a divine necessity, but out of worthiness for who God is and what God has done. God’s heart pulses for deep love for us; thus, the first commandment’s exhortation, “You shall have no other gods but Me.” The seventh commandment is an extension of that first commandment (all other commandments are extensions of that first commandment), but from another angle – our intimate human relationships.  Our intimate, human relationships are gifts that offer a window into God’s deep desire, delight, and love for us. Are we being faithful in our relationships – in singleness or in marriage?  How we regard those whom we love is a key evidence of how we regard the invisible, almighty God. When Grace and I got married 12 years ago, we shared that during our single days, we each prayed to the Lord for a mate whose passion for the Lord surpassed our own.  It’s not that we could quantify passion, but our prayers were hopes that whomever we married, we desired another whose commitment was singularly to God, and secondarily, to the other. This was essential because we as human beings are faulty and are easily guided by our own rationalizations and fleeting emotions. Secondly, being human beings, we are mortal, and if Grace’s undying love were to me and me alone, or me to her and her alone, when either of us predeceased the other, will our world crumble and shatter to a point that we would be unable to live, unable to function, unable to have any more meaning, significance, value, worth, purpose and calling in life; our singleness nor our married state could not replace God, could not satisfy the mind’s, heart’s, body’s longing for what only God can provide.  If God were made to serve our singleness or our marriage, then singleness or marriage would have become our god, and a counterfeit god it would have proven itself to be. Q/A 108 and 109 force the diagnosis upon us: Is your singleness or marriage serving to have you delight in God and in God’s ways?  An adulterous mind/heart/body is a double-minded, double-hearted, double-bodied person.  To whom is your singular focus? And are you encouraging others to live out their callings/vocations to delight in God, whether in their singleness or in marriage? Grace and I understand our marriage to be an exhibition of the Gospel (God’s love in Christ for the Church), as well as building up one another in our discipleship of Jesus Christ. If, in our singleness we were committed to the Gospel and discipleship, then, surely and hopefully, now in our marriage, God desires and expects that in our married state there would be that ongoing commitment to the Gospel and discipleship, if not an enhancement and expansion of that commitment. Likewise, in your singleness – whether unmarried, divorced, widow/widower – are you exhibiting the Gospel and discipleship of Jesus Christ? Being single applies to singleness and marriage. Because at its heart, being single is about a singular focus – the singular focus of God upon us, and God’s calling to us to be singularly focused on God as we discover this in our relational commitments to one another.

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Lord’s Day 40 (Q/A 105-107): DIGNIFYING DIFFERENCE

105 Q.   What is God’s will for you
in the sixth commandment?

A.    I am not to belittle, hate, insult, or kill my neighbor—
not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture,
and certainly not by actual deeds—^1
and I am not to be party to this in others;
rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge.^2

I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. ^3
Prevention of murder is also why
government is armed with the sword.^4

^1 Matt. 5:21-22;Gen. 9:6; Matt. 26:52
^2 Eph. 4:26; Rom. 12:19; Matt. 5:25; 18:35
^3 Rom. 13:14; Col. 2:23; Sirach 3:27*; Matt. 4:7
^4 Gen. 9:6; Exod. 21:14; Matt. 26:52; Rom. 13:4

*Sirach is a deutero-canonical book, treated with respect but not as canonical by the 16th  century reformers.

106 Q.   Does this commandment refer only to murder?

A.    By forbidding murder God teaches us
that he hates the root of murder:
envy,^1 hatred,^2 anger,^3 vindictiveness.

In God’s sight all such are disguised forms of murder.^4

^1 Rom. 1:29
^2 1 John 2:9,11
^3 James 2:[13]; 1:20; Gal. 5:20
^4 1 John 3:15

107 Q.   Is it enough then
that we do not murder our neighbor
in any such way?

A.    No.
By condemning envy, hatred, and anger
God wants us
to love our neighbors as ourselves,^1
to be patient, peace-loving, gentle,^2
merciful,^3 and friendly toward them,^4
to protect them from harm as much as we can,^5
and to do good even to our enemies.^6

^1 Matt. 22:39; 7:12
^2 Eph. 4:2; Gal. 6:1-2; Matt. 5:9; Rom. 12:18
^3 Matt. 5:7; Luke 6:36
^4 Rom. 12:10
^5 Exod. 23:5
^6 Matt. 5:44-45; Rom. 12:20-21

LORD’S DAY 40 (Q/A 105-107)
“Dignifying Difference”

Following the tragic events of the 9/11 attacks, the wise insights of the former Chief Rabbi of London, Sir Jonathan Sacks, provided a faith-based, robust framework to engage difference.  In his book The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid a Clash of Civilizations, Sacks prescribed that we as a human race must move beyond mere toleration of differences of beliefs and perspectives, and move towards dignifying difference.

What it became vividly apparent on a global scale expressed realities on the local level – i.e. indifference, sarcasm, to outright disregard, disrespect, and utter hatred towards others with whom we disagree, when left unchecked and unaccountable, can erupt into murderous acts involving passenger jets crashing into buildings, decades of warfare in the Middle East or separation of families in a divided Korean peninsula.

Toleration of each other and merely seeking amicable co-existence with one another treats members of the human household, and members of the household of faith, as like college roommates who can choose to engage and relate, to come and go as we please; in short, to merely exist as entities.

As creatures made in the image of God, we understand who we are derivatively from our Creator; the triune God is personal, relating to one another (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) in community, and relating to the creation God made.  This means we are fully human when we are in relation with the triune God and with one another. And because no two are exactly alike, we are made to engage in difference, with difference, not indifferently.

While one necessary step to engage difference is to acknowledge difference, which is what toleration does, merely acknowledging doesn’t really engage, doesn’t bring one eye-to-eye, face-to-face, hand-to-hand with the other. Such engagement is necessary to truly, really, and fully confront our fears, our anxieties, our anger, and unrequited hopes.

That’s what dignifying difference does.  Sacks bases dignifying difference on the Jewish notion of covenant.  In a covenant, you must fully engage, laying yourself on the line for the other, promising to be with the other come hell or high water; it’s a resilience to stick with the other when the going gets rough.  It’s also attempting to understand the mind and heart of the other, to see the world through the other’s life. It’s giving dignity and worth to each person, to their attempts at wrestling with life, to their interpretations, perspectives, and backgrounds.  Imagine stepping into the shoes of the broken humanity of the terrorist in the cockpit of that airplane seconds before it smashed into the World Trade Center tower. Sure, there was seething anger; but what about the man’s family, images of his parents, of his village, memories of a childhood.  We see this exemplified in the late Pope John Paul II’s humble and courageous visit to his would-be assassin in prison, offering him forgiveness, seeking to understand the man, not as a killer, but as a fellow human being.

All of this is easier said than done. And that’s precisely the point. To dignify difference necessarily requires the intervention and intrusion of God upon our wills, upon our minds and hearts. There is no human strength that we can muster to empathize with a perceived enemy or an actual foe; there is no amount of human willpower that would cause you or I to sit down across the table with one who has denied our humanity, disregarded our faith and personhood, or tore up our reputations.  It’s takes hard work; it takes God working upon us.

Q/A 105-107 addresses the sixth commandment of killing, of committing murder, and the treacherous terrain that leads to it. Human beings kill with missiles, bullets, and knives; but we also kill with angry Tweets, racist words, sarcastic looks, silent gossip, sexist jokes. Or still worse, outright indifference, apathy, and ignorance of each other, an intentional setting aside akin to the shrugging of the shoulders, and a “whatever…who cares?” kind of an attitude toward each other.  In every respect, any or all of the above denies the other as created in the image of God, placed on God’s green earth to be in relationship with us, and gifted to us for some reason or another yet to be discovered.

Q/A 107 hits the nail on the head (hitting it lovingly, of course! :) – it’s not only that God wants us to withhold from killing each other – that’s toleration; there’s a positive, intentional aspect. To not kill is to play it safe; to move beyond not killing to actually loving your neighbor is taking the ultimate risk; and love takes risk.

God approaching us as Jesus Christ, taking on flesh that was strange to God’s own divine nature – here’s dignifying difference par excellence. To dignify difference is to love our neighbor, is to love God, and is to embody the life of Jesus in us.

 

 

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Lord’s Day 39 (Q/A 104): SLAVE TO NO ONE, SERVANT OF CHRIST

104 Q.   What is God’s will for you
               in the fifth commandment?

A.    That I honor, love, and be loyal
to my father and mother
and all those in authority over me;^1
that I submit myself with proper obedience
to all their good teaching and discipline;
and also that I be patient with their failings—^2
for through them God chooses to rule us.^3

^1 Eph. 6:1[-9]; Col. 3:18, 20-24; Eph. 5:22; Prov. 1:8; 4:1; 15:20; 20:20; Exod. 21:17; Rom. 13:[1-5]
^2 Prov. 23:22; Gen. 9:25; 1 Pet. 2:18
^3 Eph. 6:4,9; Col. 3:19, 21; Rom. 13:[1-5]; Matt. 22:21

 

LORD’S DAY 39 (Q/A 104)
“Slave to No One, Servant of Christ”

This Q/A, and several of the Scriptural proof-texts attached to Q/A 104, have been abused by slaveholders/slavemasters to oppress and dehumanize their subjects; it’s been used to subjugate whole nations; it’s been misused to rationalize abusive relationships and domestic violence.

Lord Acton’s apt observation holds true: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  In human hands and in the human will, we take God’s good gifts and twist it for our own ends and our own purposes; by dehumanizing our neighbor, we dehumanize ourselves, and become monstrous savages who commodify people, who monetize our relationships for our own ends.

Despite the misuses and abuses of the fifth commandment, Q/A 104’s explication of it, and the Scriptural proof-texts appended therein, there is great value in what is being said.

Do we honor our parents (or those whom we regard as our parents), whether they are living or dead,  in what we do, in what we say. Would they be proud of your action or your speech?

There’s a delight I have in seeing how my sons give me so many chances to throw a baseball or football, like as if we were playing for the first time. As my sons mature and grow in their strength and accuracy, they’ve already come to know what I’ve lived with all my life – I’m not a Babe Ruth, nor am I a Joe Montana. And with them, that’s ok. They give me the chance to throw yet another ball – sometimes the football spirals, more often it wobbles like a penguin flying in the air. And the chances they give me honor me for what I am able to teach them, even within my limitations.

Q/A 104’s beauty comes in the realistic recognition that all those whom we look up to fail us in small ways and big ways. Our family, our friends, our superiors…every single human being fails us; we fail ourselves. We are disappointed, hurt, wounded on every side. There’s no surprise there.

One of the powerful affirmations of the Reformed theological tradition is its view of humanity: we are 100% sinful as we are 100% redeemed.  The nicest, kindest person also has within, a heart that lurks with deception, trickery and cunning. Likewise, the meanest, baddest, rudest person has an element of God’s grace within.  This is not a semi-Pelagian reduction of the human nature; this is a true recognition that all of us, without exception, fall short of the glory of God.

Over the years, my sons have called me their hero. But they also know, and I know, that while I may be heroic at times, there are many more days when I rely upon their abundant forgiveness, patience and love towards me.

When we are servants to Jesus Christ and Christ’s way of seeing and doing things, we are free, we are set free to see ourselves and all people the way that Christ sees us and the way Christ relates to us.  In that way, we become bound not to ourselves, or the dictates of others, or guided by the definitions that others put on us, but by Christ. At the same time, we can receive the good graces from all people – what they have taught us, what they continually impart to us to show us God’s love – and enfold that into our lives and into our being.

In his treatise On Christian Teaching, St. Augustine provided a helpful hermeneutic to discern and determine whether a particular doctrine, and, by extension, a Scriptural interpretation, was on track with the overall Scriptural witness, in sync with the ancient, ecumenical theological traditions of the one holy catholic apostolic Church, and whether they comported with the thrust of God’s redemption in Christ through the Spirit.  His hermeneutic has been dubbed the “rule of love”: does the doctrine/interpretation enable the Church to love God more and deeply and to love neighbor more and deeply?

Augustine’s “rule of love” is most applicable to Q/A 104 and the application of it in our lives and in our relating to one another and how others relate to us. With the sins and failings of ourselves, of our parents, of our family, friends, neighbors, superiors, etc., are the graces that we offer and receive enabling us and them to love God and love neighbor more and deeply?

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Lord’s Day 38 (Q/A 103): ALWAYS A PACIFIC GUY

103 Q.   What is God’s will for you
in the fourth commandment?

A.    First,
that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained,^1
and that, especially on the festive day of rest,
I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people^2
to learn what God’s Word teaches,^3
to participate in the sacraments,^4
to pray to God publicly,^5
and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.^6

Second,
that every day of my life
I rest from my evil ways,
let the Lord work in me through his Spirit,
and so begin in this life
the eternal Sabbath.^7

^1 Titus 1:5; 1 Tim. 3[:1]; 4:13; 5:17; 1 Cor. 9:11, 13-14; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:15
^2 Ps. 68:27; 40:10-11; Acts [2]:42, 46
^3 1 Cor. 14:19, 29, 31
^4 1 Cor. 11:33
^5 1 Tim. 2:1-3,8-9; 1 Cor. 14:16
^6 1 Cor. 16:2
^7 Isa. 66:23

 

 

LORD’S DAY 38 (Q/A 103)
“Always a Pacific Guy”

In an ordination service for a teaching elder/minister of Word and Sacrament, there is a moment where there is a giving of the symbols of office (the so-called traditio symboli instrumentorum). This time involves immediate family members or a close friend giving the newly ordained minister a liturgical stole, a cross, a Bible, and, almost always, a liturgical robe. The investing of these symbols of office collectively express that the ordinand is now ready to function as teaching elder, carrying with her the blessing and prayers of the community, and expressing upon him the community’s confirmation of God’s calling.

On the occasion of my ordination, my parents and parents in-law placed a black Genevan gown on me.  This was then followed by words from a dear friend of mine and a ministry colleague who exhorted me to never forget that underneath my ministerial garb and the trappings of the ordained office, I am a man, a Pacific guy, a boy from the islands. (I was born in Guam if you didn’t know)  His was a necessary reminder then, and everyday since then, that my core identity is as a child of God who entered this world at that little island in the Pacific.

When I reflect upon Q/A 103, I’m brought to the Pacific islands from whence I came. The fast-paced urbanites of New York City or Los Angeles will wax impatience in Guam or any tropical island for that matter because there’s an easy-go-lucky, “Qué sera, sera” (whatever will be, will be) posture towards life; in my Filipino culture, we call it “bahala na” (loosely translated, “let it be.”)

Things in the island get done….eventually. Don’t sweat it, we’ll get to it. Stop looking at the clock, pull out a chair, grab a Styrofoam plate, go to the feast table, get some food, some drink, and enjoy your family, friends, and neighbors.  No need to drive 60 or 70 mph to get to your destination..not that you could anyway, it’s too small of an island. Cruise at 30 mph, you’ll get there. Don’t sweat it. Bahala na.

What matters in the island is God’s beautiful creation around you (the blue skies, the coconut treets, the white sands, the warm breeze, the blue water, the multichrome flowers and birds, the green gecko on your ceiling) and God’s beautiful image-bearers around you – your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, godparents, next door neighbors, their friends,…and anyone in the island who wishes to join the party.  The people matter, you matter. God matters.

Q/A 103 and its description of what the fourth commandment is about tells us that – the people matter. You matter. God matters above all else.  When we want all of the “i”s dotted and “t”s crossed, when we want all of our ducks in a nice neat row, when we stress, and our overly anxious hearts want our life and the world around us to be perfectly on-time, perfectly planned, and perfectly controlled, the Lord of the Sabbath says, “Cool it.”  There’s a time for work, but you weren’t made for just work. The Sabbath is a welcome gift from God, our Creator who knows our limitations, even when we are erratic and want to transcend our God-given limits; pay attention to physiological/physical signs of stress, the emotional and mental evidence, and the pangs of the soul.

When the Sabbath is lived into, we find a restful freedom to let go and let God. It’s a comfort and consolation that even when we are sleeping and slumbering, the God of the Sabbath neither slumbers nor sleeps.  We are creatures, not the Creator. And as such, we honor and express our love and thanksgiving to God by being still and believing/trusting that God is God and we are not.

In the Sabbath rest, the assembling together of God’s people in corporate worship is the primary place that our hearts and minds are kindled to this divine awareness of our limitations and God’s limitless love and care for us and the entire creation. In Word and in Sacrament, in prayer and with praise, the people of God are recalibrated and refreshed, to let go, and let God.

Yes, worship is like being ordained and being re-ordained, all over again. Gathering in worship is being confirmed in our God-given calling that began in the waters of baptism, where letting go and letting God was the only thing we could do.

That’s where our lives need to be – a continually calling that let’s go, that lives as we do in the Pacific islands.  Bahala na.

 

 

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Lord’s Day 37 (Q/A 101-102): YOU ARE MY WITNESS

101 Q.   But may we swear an oath in God’s name
if we do it reverently?

A.    Yes, when the government demands it,
or when necessity requires it,
in order to maintain and promote truth and trustworthiness
for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good.

Such oaths are grounded in God’s Word^1
and were rightly used by the people of God
in the Old and New Testaments.^2

^1 Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Isa. 48:1; Heb. 6:16
^2 Gen. 21:24; 31:53; Josh. 9:15, 19; 1 Sam.24:[21-22]; 2 Sam. 3:35; 1 Kings 1:29; Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:23

102 Q.   May we also swear by saints or other creatures?

A.    No.
A legitimate oath means calling upon God
as the only one who knows my heart
to witness to my truthfulness
and to punish me if I swear falsely.^1
No creature is worthy of such honor.^2

^1 2Cor. 1:23
^2 Matt. 5:34-36; James 5:12

 

 

LORD’S DAY 37 (Q/A 101-102)
“You are my witness”

 Read the story of the patriarch Jacob (Abraham’s son) and how he labored many years to win the hand of Rachel, Laban’s daughter.  I’m struck by how Jacob toiled beyond the agreed upon time, with no textual indication that he resisted or justified himself towards Laban. Only after Laban cheats him for the  Nth time does Jacob tell Laban how terrible he had been treated. (Genesis 31:1-8ff)

Fast forward to Jacob’s son, Joseph, the one sold to Midianite traders. Upon being entrusted in a leadership post in Potiphar’s (a captain of Pharaoh’s guard) household, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph.  Joseph resisted but Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph and he was summarily imprisoned. The text said, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love” (Genesis 39:21a)

We cast our common lot with politicians in wanting to self-justify ourselves and try our best to protect our integrity and  reputation. Having a well-documented paper-trail is a key to corporate risk management; in other words, make sure your butt is covered at all times and in every way.

Q/A 101-102 speaks to us about keeping our word, living lives of integrity when others aren’t looking, and who will be our witness and guard our integrity and passion.

This is not to say that we don’t keep the paper trail; we do, we should and we must. We have to be wise with the threads of communication we have – emails, text messages, faxes, recordings, archived testimonies.

But there’s something to be said about making our “Yes” be “Yes” and our “No” be “No.”

We can prove ourselves to be right, but relationships aren’t built and deepened by who is right, or justification of right-ness and the proof of another’s wrong-ness. Can you imagine being in a friendship or any relationship where it was about proving yourself to be right to win an argument or proving the other person to be wrong.

We can heap all of the paper trail and electronic evidence, but what we’ll end up being is a church, community, nation, and world of individuals who seek self-protection, self-justification, in which everyone walks on egg shells.

I think of the thousands who have been wrongly accused, wrong imprisoned, and for some, wrongly placed on death row, and later to be released after decades behind bars. When heaps of evidence were brought before courts decades prior to shuttle them to prison for crimes they didn’t commit, they were left to languish in prison, with the Lord as their witness. Only in time was their innocence confirmed; our mass incarceration and death penalty systems are needing drastic and comprehensive reforms.  The great, late Nelson Mandela comes to our mind, whose 25 year imprisonment galvanized his resolve against apartheid and strengthened a movement to free South Africa of that pernicious evil.

To whom do we entrust our reputations, our integrity, our best or worst face?

Q/A 101-102 is a reminder to us that God alone is trustworthy and true. The best we can do, by God’s grace, is to live lives and speak words that are as trustworthy and true, with God as our witness. These two sections evoke thanksgiving in us because it kindles in us the trust that God does have our back, that when we make our “Yes,” “Yes” and our “No,” “No” the pieces will come into place somehow. Therein lies our freedom – we can be free from constant self-justification, we are set free from incessantly proving ourselves right, or winning the argument, or spinning the truth to put our best face or foot forward; we are unshackled from finding the politically-safe angle. We are free to just be.

For God to be our witness, and no one else (not even the smartest, most holy person you can think of), is to confess that the Lord has always and will forever be trustworthy and true; the Lord’s track record of being honest, of being true to who He is, to what He says He will do…every single time, God has shown Himself to be true.

God doesn’t pummel us with being right; we would plead no-contest before the Almighty.

What God does do, because this is a real relationship after all, is call us to trust in Him, to love Him, as He demonstrates again and again His true and trustworthy love for us; God has us covered through and through.

If there was anyone who should have and certainly could have justified and protected himself – Jesus Christ was the One.  In Matthew 4, he had the opportunity in the wilderness as Satan presented three chances to prove himself. At the ultimate place of proof, Jesus could have avoided death and called upon the angels to rescue him from the cross.

But it wasn’t about proving himself, nor about proving the rightness of the argument. If it were, it would have ended long before, and Pilate would not have had his way.

Thanks be to God! We can place our trust and confidences in God.  God is our witness. Let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No.