History, Identity and Mission of the Filipinos in America
(Homily delivered by The Rev. Winfred B. Vergara, Missioner for Asian American Ministries on October 15, 2004 at Good Shepherd Church, New York city on the occasion of the 20th anniversary celebration of Metropolitan Filipino Ministry)

I Peter 2:1-5; 9-10
It is amazing how a wide spectrum of people today are turning to the Bible to find answers to their basic questions in life. Tonight, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of MFM, we shall seek answers to three questions Filipinos in American are asking: (1) what is our history? (2) What is our identity? And (3) what is our Mission?

1. HISTORY
The Bible is like God�s love letter to his people. As God�s love letter, it is simple and understandable. Have you ever received a love letter that is so complicated that you have to have a language expert to interpret that to you? That would be a strange letter from a strange friend. But God is not that strange for He is near to us. In Him we live and move and have our being. And so this letter of Peter, written in the context of Israel�s Diaspora is God�s love letter addressed also scattered in foreign lands and it says. �Once you are no people but now you are God�s people; once you have not received mercy, now you have received mercy.�

The people of Israel in salvation-history were a rag tag band of slaves in Egypt. They were, in the word of Jesus, like babes and infants. They were people without power, without country, without homes. They were not a considered a people and so they had no history. Like the masa perditiones, they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. But when the Lord heard their cries and saw their tears, God set them to a journey of liberation---from non-history to history, from no people to a great people, from no mercy to great mercy. From wilderness to Canaan�s land, from promise to fulfillment, God was their refuge and strength, the author and maker of their history.

2. IDENTITY
The history of the Filipino People is not unlike the history of Israel. Three empires colonized Israel: Egypt, Syria and Babylon. The Philippines was also colonized by three empires: Spain, the United States and Japan. If you read through the pages of the Bible and reflect upon the history of the Philippines, you will find much parallelism between Israel and the Philippines.

The Philippine history of Spanish colonization, American Imperialism and Japanese Invasion has created in our psyche a conflict of identities. We stick like a sore thumb among our Asian neighbors because we have the longest history of western colonialism. We are the only Asians whose names are similar to the Latinos. Many of our Asian brethren think that we should belong to Mexico.

Because of our unique historical experience, many of us feel confused about our identity. The theologian Kosuke Koyama said that the Filipino identity is not a singular identity but a shared identity. Historically, we are pre-Spanish Era Filipinos; Spanish-Era Filipinos; American Era-Filipinos; Japanese-Era Filipinos; Philippines-era Filipinos; Martial-law-era Filipinos; Cory Aquino-Era Filipinos; General Ramos Era-Filipinos; Erap-era Filipinos and now Arroyo-Era Filipinos.

I am told that in the early years of Filipino immigration to America, many Filipinos are torn by this confused identity. Some of the Pinoys and Pinays became so insecure and ashamed of their Filipino-ness that they wanted to become white Americans. So they dyed their hair blond, bleached their skin and had some nose job. And they refused to speak their native tongue. I met someone like that: he dyed his hair blond, bleached his skin so white and had a high nose lift. And his name was Michael Jackson!

Today, however, we don�t have to struggle with our identity because the Bible reminds us that our true identity is found in God who accepts us for who and what we are---brown skin, brown hair, brown eyes, flat nose. 1st Peter 2:10 says, �You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.�

Yes, like the people of Israel, we, the Filipinos are also chosen by God to be a holy people. The late Dr. William Henry Scott, the Episcopal missionary-historian who spent most of his time in the Mountain Province of the Philippines said that the �discovery� of the Philippines by the Spaniards was not accidental but providential. God has chosen the Philippine soil with which to plant the seeds of Christianity in Asia and beyond. Dr. Scott said: �it was not in India with its magnificent Taj Mahal; not in Cambodia with its grand Borobodor; not in China with its Great Walls---but it was in the Philippines which could not boast of anything of major human achievement---that the seeds of the Gospel was planted.�

Yes, it was first a foreign plant in the pot imposed upon us by our colonizers. But as history moved on, the Filipino Christians had broken that pot and allowed the Filipino Christianity to grow, to flower and to bear fruits and produce seeds of its own. Today, we Filipino Christians can boast of five centuries of Christian experience. Of all peoples in Asia, we are the ones chosen to become bearers of Asian Christianity, the treasure in an earthen vessel, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. MISSION
As chosen people of God, we therefore have a mission. Listen once again to the words from Peter�s Epistle: �For you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God�s own people---that you may declare the praises of Him who called you, out of darkness into his marvelous light.�

It is a rare privilege to be chosen but it is also a terrifying responsibility. The people of Israel was chosen. But in that privilege and honor, they were also were entrusted with a great responsibility. God�s judgments upon Israel were many because they misused, abused and disused their being chosen. The Lord said through the prophet Amos said, �You only have I known of all the nations of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities� (Amos 3:2).

In other words, because we are chosen to become bearers of the Gospel, woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel. Our mission is to share the Gospel to the �unchurched� and to those who have not heard the Good news because it is God�s desire that all peoples will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

The beginnings of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines are a legacy of sharing the Gospel to the �unchurched.� When the Episcopalian missionary Charles Henry Brent went to the Philippines along with the American military forces, he saw that the lowlanders were already Christianized. They were either Roman Catholic or members of the Philippine Independent Church that broke away from the Roman Church. Instead of proselytizing the Christian Filipinos in the lowlands, Bishop Brent went to the �unchurched Chinese� in Manila; to the �unchurched Igorots� in the Mountain Province; and to the �unchurched Tirurays and other minorities� in Mindanao. Thus the Episcopal Church in the Philippines was born as a mission to the �unchurched!�

CONCLUSION
Today, many of us Filipino Christians, like the Jews, are in Diaspora all over the world. God has scattered us not only due to economic or political necessity but also for a spiritual purpose. By virtue of our multi-national history of colonization, our multicultural and multiracial experience and our identity as the first Christian nation in Asia, we have the rare privilege and great responsibility of becoming bearers of God�s message of love and reconciliation. We are to spread the Gospel wherever we are moved and to plant the seed of the Church wherever we find ourselves. We are entrusted with this task of sharing the Gospel to the �unchurched� not only to Filipinos but also to our fellow Asians but also to the �unchurched� Americans and other racial ethnic peoples and cultures hungry and thirsty for God�s life-giving Word.

We here at MFM (Metropolitan Filipino Ministry) in New York share in this our glorious history and identity. But we also must bear the burden and responsibility of sharing the Gospel to the �unchurched� and to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. May we prove worthy of the calling entrusted to us. Amen.