Rev. Donald K. Toriumi (1914-1980) was the English pastor of the Japanese Union Church in downtown Los Angeles. He had been installed as pastor scarcely one month before evacuation when he preached on “The Tie That Binds” from Romans 8:35-36, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’”
The apostle Paul placed a rhetorical question before the persecuted church in Rome: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
The expected answer: “No one and nothing at all can separate us.”
After laying that foundation, Paul then recounted common fears among the Christians of his day before quoting from the worship hymnal of ancient Israel: “Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Psalm 44:22). Toriumi looked to Paul just as Paul had looked to the psalmist for spiritual strength in troubled times. By doing so, he recognized that soul care was a sacred trust passed down through generations of believers both in song and in the treasury of Scripture.
Paul eventually answered his own question explicitly: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). Christians could overcome any difficulty by remembering that they were loved by God. No earthly tribulation could overwhelm the church or separate God’s people “from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If believers ever doubted this truth, they could simply look at God’s loving sacrifice of sending his Son to die upon a cross: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (v. 32).
As a complement to Scripture, Toriumi also looked back through history as his congregation sang a classic hymn penned by Rev. John Fawcett.
Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above. Before our Father’s throne, We pour our ardent prayers; Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, Our comforts, and our cares. We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear; And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain; But we shall still be joined in heart, And hope to meet again.[1]
Toriumi related the story of Fawcett’s own sacrifice for his beloved church.
There was a minister of a poor country church in England whose family was becoming so grown up that the budget of the family expenses could not be met by the salary. This minister, Rev. John Fawcett, had ministered to the people of his congregation for many years. He loved them and he was loved by them. The community, being poor, could not pay him a larger salary.
One day, he received a call from a large church in London to become its pastor, and the salary was much larger. After much deliberating, he decided to accept this call from the church in London. When he announced his decision to the members of the church session, the church officers asked him not to leave. Not forgetful of the smallness of the salary, they requested him not to leave the church, for only he could understand the complicated situation of the community and the needs of the particular individuals. Later, other members of the church visited him, begging him not to leave. However, he thought it would be much better for his children to have proper education and physical care, and for him not to run up large bills here and there, and finally lose the ability to minister to his people adequately.
The parting day came. He preached his final and farewell sermon to his beloved people. Just outside the church were several wagons loaded with the family possessions and books. After the benediction, the people still begged him not to go. Rev. Fawcett summoned all his power to keep his decision and got on the wagon. As he looked down into those tear-stained faces, his mind recalled the sorrows, temptations, joys, and the growth of the faith of these people and the present needs of each one of them. He could not leave them. He got down from the wagon, and prayed with the people. As he thought of this experience, the words of the hymn which we have just sung, came to his mind.[2]
Toriumi recognized that music had a way of translating the church’s shared theology across the centuries. He also empathized with Fawcett’s sorrow as he prepared his own congregation for departure. Many of Toriumi’s congregants had been baptized in Union Church. Others had been married in the sanctuary or had mourned at the funerals of loved ones. As the church grieved their losses, however, Toriumi reminded them that much of what they practiced in the past would be carried with them to the camps:
We have brought our heartaches unto our Heavenly Father as we prayed for comfort, strength and courage. We have joined together in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Through sermons and the ministry of music, we came to know the presence of God, and were able to live a little more closely to Jesus’ Way of Life. Here we have found many of our friends, and deepened our fellowship. This tie that binds our hearts at the Union Church is a strong one. Even though we may be separated from each other, let us keep this tie of Union Church in our hearts.[3]
Like Paul and Silas, not even persecution or prison could prevent the church from praying and singing hymns to the Lord (Acts 16:22-25). In fact, Toriumi hoped that the camps would reunite their fellowship with brothers and sisters from other churches whom they previously saw only at conferences and joint meetings.
Toriumi also encouraged his church to thank God for the kindnesses offered by non-Japanese believers. They might never have experienced these blessings of Christian love apart from the evacuation, for such precious fruits only grew in the fertile soil of suffering.
A Chinese family was looking after the belongings of the Uno family for the duration of the war. On the night before evacuation, Mrs. Chan cooked supper for the Unos so that they could pack without bothering with the preparation of the evening meal. . . . I saw an American man going after giving bottles of water to the families having small children, so that while on the way to the camp or after reaching the camp and waiting to check their belongings and assignments, the little ones might have water to quench their thirst. The American churches on the west side prepared hundreds of lunches for the evacuees. . . . Also, they are working out ways and means to help in the transportation problem of bringing the baggage of the evacuees to the church on the morning of departure. When we leave Los Angeles, we are not going to be forgotten. No, we have thousands, yes, even millions of fellow Christians thinking of us and offering to help us in any way possible. The Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Book Store are making plans so that Sunday School materials and other supplies may be available for our use. Rev. Paul Davies of the Congregational Board took 100 copies of hymnals to the Santa Anita Assembly Center the other day. Indeed, it is the universal Christian family.[4]
God lovingly ministered to hurting believers through the kindnesses of human instruments, so they should not shirk God’s love by clinging to bitterness or unforgiveness. Thus, Toriumi called his church to serve others (Acts 20:35) and to demonstrate Christian love to those whom they would encounter in the camps:
There is one way that this Christian tie to God can be broken, and that is from within us. When we refuse to live the way of Christ, when we refuse to acknowledge the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, we cut ourselves off from God. Since God is our Heavenly Father and we are fellow-members of this Divine Christian family, let us live in the manner of the sons of God.[5]
The children of God keep the family together by giving and receiving Christian love without restraint, for Jesus Christ, our elder brother, is the church’s example of self-sacrificial love (Mark 10:45). Followers of Christ must therefore imitate his sacrifice: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (8:34b-35). Nikkei believers in the camps comforted themselves with the unfailing love of Christ and were then able to comfort others with the same love they themselves had received (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). In the words of the apostle John, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
[1] John Fawcett, Blest Be the Tie that Binds (1782).
[2] Donald K. Toriumi, “The Tie that Binds,” sermon cited in Hunter and Binford, The Sunday Before, 18-19.
[3] Ibid., 20.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 21.
