Sermons on the Calling of Abraham

In a city as transient as Washington, DC, studying “The Call” of Abraham is bound to have consistent relevance. But no matter the location, in places around the world and throughout time, God has called his disciples to leave what they know and follow him into the unknown. Sometimes obedience bears fruit in an inward transformation. Other times, it requires physical relocation.

Japanese American history provides an example of the latter. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. That spring, families were forcibly relocated, first to temporary “assembly” (detention) centers and then to “relocation” (incarceration) camps. 

This injustice fell on Japanese Americans of all faith backgrounds, including Christians. Local pastors had to shepherd their congregations, not only through the uncertainty and upheaval of day-to-day survival but also through the understandable doubt and bitterness that could easily take root. Their sermons during that spring, compiled in a publication called The Sunday Before, illustrate how they comforted and exhorted their congregations ahead of the ordeal to come.

Following Father Abraham

Although these pastors referenced a variety of Scripture, Abraham appeared several times, particularly in the sermon of Sohei Kowta, who shepherded Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church in Orange County, California. In an April 1942 message in neighboring Los Angeles, Kowta traced how Abraham lived in faith, hope, and love, and encouraged his brothers and sisters to emulate the “Migration Leader.”

Like anyone faced with a call like Abraham, these Christians had lots of questions, which Kowta listed: “Where does the government want us to move? How does the government move us there? How will the government treat us there?” He acknowledged that the “lack of definite information … has given our people an untold amount of anxiety and unrest” and that “there has not been much faith in the government.” But he pointed back to Abraham, “a man of faith [who] went out, not knowing where he was going.”

One of the things Japanese Americans did know was that they were only allowed to take what they could carry to camp. Many would have to leave behind valuable property and items, or sell them for extremely low prices to buyers exploiting the situation. After naming the hardship, Kowta raised the story of Mary and Martha to remind the church family that “for the life at the camp, we need not very many things. … But let us be sure to make at least those three dominant qualities [of faith, hope, and love] that we find in Abraham, our own ‘personal belongings.’”

Blessed to Be a Blessing

Carrying these qualities to camp with them was not only how they would survive as individuals and families. It was also the way they would be blessed, as Abraham was, to be a blessing to others. Kowta says, “Fully equipped with these virtues, we shall then have nothing to be afraid of. Give us a desert, we shall make it a beautiful garden; give us a wasted land, and we shall change it into a productive field; give us a wilderness, we shall convert it into a fruitful orchard.” Indeed, once Kowta and many of his church members ended up at Poston Relocation Center in Arizona, they contributed to a Christian movement crossing churches, denominations, generations, and languages — a ministry that saw many come to faith in Jesus.

Although our specific calling today may not be the exact same as these Japanese Americans, we too can draw encouragement from Kowta’s closing words:

“… no man can justly blame the Japanese people for feeling a deep sense of attachment to what they are soon to leave behind. But, we Japanese shall not be like the thoughtless wife of Lot. We shall not foolishly look back and weep and mourn, and turn ourselves into pillars of salt. Rather, we shall be like Abraham, the mighty migration leader; filled, not with hatred or bitterness, but with faith, hope and love, we shall go wherever God wants us to go, and as we go along we shall bless the people everywhere, as did Abraham of old.”

 For more about Kowta’s and others’ sermons, see Tom Sugimura’s Christianity Today article, “How Japanese American Pastors Prepared Their Flocks For Internment” (2023).