Like wind in ripe grain

Crossing into 2012

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:32:50 PST

Happy New Year and a blessed Epiphany to everyone! We would especially like to thank all who contributed to the donations that we received by the end of 2011. Your support is critical to the work of La Caramuca Lutheran Mission and we are very grateful.

Last Sunday was not only the first day of 2012, but also, by the church calendar, the day we celebrate the circumcision and naming of the infant Jesus. I was struck by how appropriate was the appointed Old Testament lesson, Joshua 24:14-24. Under the leadership of Joshua (the Old Testament figure for whom Jesus was named), the people of Israel finally had crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. They stood on the threshold of a new era. They were offered a new beginning - and a choice.

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

In this new year of our Lord 2012, we all are presented with an opportunity to start anew, yet the same choice. May God grant that we should fear and love Him above all things, and not worship other gods, whether in obvious or more subtle forms.

Looking ahead

We have replaced the water pump that was stolen and modified the connections so that it may be detached from the well and stored in a more secure place at the end of the day. The plan is to set the pump in place once a week or so, to fill the tank that will supply our public restroom/shower faciiy, as well as our house and preschool in times of emergency. This project, the renovation of the well as an auxiliary water source, and the construction of the restroom/shower facility, is nearly complete. It will greatly enhance our ability to host larger groups of people.

But this is only preparation for what we hope to begin this year: The construction of a freestanding worship/classroom building. Up to now we have been meeting for Sunday service under a covered patio. The roof protects us from the intense tropical sun, but not from the wind and rain, which we have in abundance in Venezuela. A white plastic lawn table draped in the appropriate liturgical color serves as our altar. There is no pulpit or lectern. Aside from exposure to the weather, the biggest drawback to this arrangement is this: When we was have especially good attendance, the patio is filled to capacity and it becomes difficult to maintain a line of separation between the "chancel" and the "nave". Often it is difficult to serve Holy Communion because of the lack of space between the "front row" and the altar.

"The church is people, not a building." This is true. It's even biblical: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pedro 2:4-5). But as people we live in a world of the five senses and of spatial relationships. That is how we understand things.

That is one reason why "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). It is also why our Lord instituted the office of the ministry of Word (that through public preaching the inspired message might be heard audibly) and sacrament (the administration of visible means of grace). And it is just common sense that as creatures of five senses, we are able to dedicate ourselves to certain task better in the appropriate environment. We hope the new building will provide that environment, plus some additional space for Christian education beyond the preschool level.

In fact, our long-term vision is of an center for Christian education serving all of our southwestern region of Venezuela (actually it was first Luz Maria's vision and now I share it). We have had our property plotted and we have the space and plans for six-room complex, plus playground, courtyard and parking lot. May God grant that these plans come to fruition.

Like a thief in the night

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:43:29 PST

Image via Wikipedia

On November 9, Wilson Ramos, Washington Nationals catcher and former member of the Minnesota Twins, was abducted from his family´s home in Valencia, Venezuela. Two days later, he was “happy to be alive” after a police raid on his captors´ hideout.

So the possibility of being kidnapped (or worse) was on our minds Sunday evening, November 13, as Luz Maria and I were attacked and robbed in the comfort of our own home. As I have written previously, in recent weeks we have been robbed of various items, most notably the water pump we bought for the well on our property. But this face-to-face confrontation was a first-time experience for both of us.

Well, it wasn´t exactly face to face, as our attacker was masked. Luz Maria had thought she heard something and got up to investigate, when suddenly he appeared, threatening us with the jagged edge of a broken whiskey bottle.

It was at a moment when we had been lulled into a false sense of security, and has gotten a little careless about locking all our doors and gates. We had just gotten a new watchdog (a purebred Dalmatian named Kyra). She has since proven to be a wonderful dog, but we found out later that she had been drugged that night, probably with some form of inhalant.

We were caught completely unprepared, although both of us later thought of many things that we could have done. All that I could think of was trying to grab our attacker´s wrist before he could harm Luz Maria with the broken glass. I am not sure what she was thinking, but she would not run out the back while I was trying to do this.

Finally we retreated into our bathroom where we were able to slam and lock the door. While I kept peeking through the keyhole and making some noise to keep the intruder distracted, Luz Maria climbed up to the roof and forced an opening in the fiberglass panels. Then she jumped from the roof onto some sponge rubber padding that we had stored outside, scaled the wall on the other side of the house, and ran across the street to where she could call the police.

The police arrived promptly, but still the thief managed to escape. We lost a cellular phone, a laptop computer and my Canon Digital Rebel camera, but that was all. However, we will have to revise our construction plans to take into account additional security measures.

It is tempting to try and explain this crime wave in terms of the social and political unrest in the country, continuing economic problems and so forth. However, no such theories are complete without considering the darkness of the human heart without the light of Christ.

I vividly remember traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1973 for the funeral of my cousin, David Hammes. My cousin had been 20 years old and a student at Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, Illinois (now it´s called Concordia University Chicago). He and Robert Erfourth, his roommate and fellow student, had surprised an intruder in their off-campus apartment. Apparently thinking they were dealing with an ordinary burglar, the two young men had allowed themselves to be tied up, at which point they were tortured and brutally killed with an axe.

Not all poverty-stricken people commit violent crimes, and sometimes horrifying acts may occur in the prosperous suburbs of Chicago as well as the slums of Caracas.

Perhaps it is fitting that the Sunday morning Scripture lessons for November 13 dealt with the Last Judgment. As St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11:

“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Our experience illustrates the need to be constantly sober and alert, not only for the possibility of physical attack, but spiritual trials and temptations, and to be spiritually prepared for our last hour on earth, whether because of our own physical death or the world´s final end.

Bittersweet sound of the bell

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:44:41 PST

Sometimes our mission receives gifts from people in Venezuela. Last year a woman sewed uniform pants for all of our preschool children (ordinarily the families must buy the required clothing). We also have received as donations, one six-stringed and three four-stringed guitars (we're still looking for someone with the skill, patience and dedication to teach our young people how to play them) .

Now we have been given a bell to signal the start of our services. Once, a long time ago, it was a schoolhouse bell. I actually can hold it in my hand, but its chime is strong and clear. We used the bell for the first time October 30, to begin our Reformation Sunday worship.

;The sound of the bell is bittersweet for me. It takes me back through the years to the church where I was confirmed, Immanuel Lutheran Church of Plymouth, Nebraska. Immanuel's bell was bigger; when it was my turn to ring the bell, I would have to pull down on the rope with all my strength. Then the rope would pull me off the ground as the bell rang.

Once I climbed up into the steeple to take a look at that old bell. I remember the steeple well, too. We lived in the parsonage next to the church, and late at night you could hear the steeple creaking in the wind. But, like the bell, that was a comforting sound. The steeple had withstood the storms of the prairie for 70 years, and I thought it would do so for at least 70 more.

The sad part is that, like many Midwestern rural congregations, Immanuel closed its doors in the 1980s. All that is left is the graveyard, with the old church bell set in a monument in front the gate. It still stands, as it were, as a sentinel over the tombs of the people it once called to worship. One can only hope that on that great and final day of the Lord, when the dead will be raised, that old bell will ring once more.

Built on the Rock the Church doth stand,
Even when steeples are falling;
Crumbled have spires in every land,
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distrest,
Longing for rest everlasting.

Hymn #467
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Eph. 2: 19-22
Author: Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1837
Translated by: Carl Doving, 1909, alt.
Titled: "Kirken den er et gammelt Hus"
Composer: Ludvig M. Lindeman, 1871
Tune: "Kirken den er et"

Losing more than a companion

It has been nearly a month since our dog, Peluso, died. (“Peluso” is the masculine form of “pelusa”, which means “fuzz” or “hairball”.) He had lived with us since 2005. We think he died of a heart attack, since the one thing that terrified him was thunder and lightning and we found him without a mark the morning after a tremendous thunderstorm. Peluso was more than a companion, he was our watchdog. Every night he would patrol our property. The wall that we have built keeps humans and animals from casually strolling on and off the grounds, but a determined and able-bodied man can scale the wall, especially under cover of darkness. I believe that thanks to Peluso, we have been spared the losses due to theft that have plagued our community as the crime rate has spiraled. In the past few months, two large public preschools on the other side of town from us have been robbed of all their computer equipment. So has La Caramuca's elementary school.

Sure enough, late one night last week, someone stole the electric pump that we had installed to provide water for our new public restroom facility. Now we will have to replace the pump and beef up the security on the outbuilding we built to house the pump. We also are looking for a new dog, but for some reason watchdogs are in short supply right now.

The Dorcas Project in La Caramuca

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:14:41 PDT

My sister's name is Dorcas Baltazar, and although she has never visited Venezuela, a number of people here are becoming familiar with her first name. More precisely, with the name of her biblical namesake.

According to Acts 9:36, “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas...” Tabitha and Dorcas are respectively the Aramaic and Greek forms of the word for gazelle. Apparently she was known by both names (not an unusual situation in that cosmopolitan era; the Apostle Peter was known as Simon bar-Jonah and Petros, St. Paul as Saul of Tarsus and Paulos). St. Luke goes out of his way to make sure that his Greek-speaking readers knew who he was talking about.

We often speak of the “12 disciples” in reference to the men who Jesus would choose as His apostles, since the word essentially is a synonym for apprentice or student. However, in New Testament usage, all believers in Jesus Christ were known as His disciples, even as all Jews were known as “disciples of Moses.” When Jesus comissioned the 12 apostles, He told them to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Thus, all who have been baptized and instructed in the Christian faith are disciples of Christ.

Nevertheless, Acts 9:36 is the only passage in the New Testament which uses the feminine form of “disciple” (μαθητρια). Luke 10:38 speaks of Mary of Bethany seated at Jesus' feet and listening to His words in the recognized manner of a disciple. There were other women prominent in the life of the early church, such as Lydia of Thyatira (Acts 16:14); Priscilla, who, along with her husband, Aquila, St. Paul called “my helpers in Christ” (Romans 16:3); and Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchreae (Romans 16:1). But perhaps the word “discípula” (it's feminine in Spanish, too) is used in Acts 9:36 to emphasize Dorcas' importance to the church and her exemplary behavior.

“She was full of good works and acts of charity.” It is specifically mentioned that she made clothes for destitute widows and other needy people. So when she unexpectedly died, the church at Joppa (modern-day Jaffa; now as then a Mediterranean seaport, but now part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area as well) prevailed on Peter to implore God's mercy for those who depended on her. And God, in His mercy, miraculously restored her to life (Acts 9:40-41).

Today some dictionaries define “Dorcas society” generically as “a society of women of a church whose work it is to provide clothing for the poor.” The first modern Dorcas society was founded on December 1, 1834, by Methodist women on the Isle of Man as part of the community's thanksgiving for being spared from an outbreak of cholera. There are “Dorcas societies” and “Dorcas circles” in congregations throughout the world, including many Lutheran churches, serving in a variety of ways.

Sometimes these groups call themselves, “the Dorcas Project.” The Dorcas Project of Payne County, Oklahoma, assists women who are dealing with breast cancer.

Now there is a “Proyecto Dorcas” in Venezuela. Recently Luz Maria traveled to Caracas to attend the national convention of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's women's organization, SOLUDAVE (Sociedad de las Damas Luteranas de Venezuela). She was elected vice president (the president is Mayerlin Flores of Ascension Lutheran Church in San Félix de Guayana) and also managed to get passed a resolution to organize Proyecto Dorcas efforts, with the goal of helping the needy, in congregations across Venezuela.

Luz Maria first developed the idea of Proyecto Dorcas several years ago with the help of her close friend, Luise de Muci, a former president of SOLUDAVE. Unfortunately, Luise passed away before Proyecto Dorcas became a reality. However, the passage of the resolution this year is part of Luise's legacy.

Here in La Caramuca, Deisi Yovana Torres has volunteered to manage collection of a special “Proyecto Dorcas” offering of food items and other necessities for the many people who are still homeless after last year's torrential rains in Venezuela.

Summer of the prophets

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:22:28 PDT

We completed our vacation Bible school for the summer in five days, from Tuesday, August 16, through Saturday, August 20. In addition, on Sunday morning, August 21, the sermon was tied in with the final lesson of vacation Bible school and after the service, several students were recognized for outstanding memorization of Bible verses. Sixteen children attended the first day of vacation Bible school, with attendance of around 30 for each of the following days. Each daily session included an opening devotion, songs, crafts and games. This year's Bible school focused on several prophets of the Old Testament: Elijah, Elisha, Joel, Habbakuk and Christ in His role as prophet. The materials were developed and provided to us by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

The text for the first lesson was 1 Kings 17:1-15 (the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath). The objective was that the children might learn that God provides all that we have and all that we need. Each lesson was divided into a teaching of the Law and a teaching of the Gospel. In the first lesson, the message of the Law was that we often are afraid that we will not have everything we need because of a lack of faith that God will provide for us at all times and in all circumstances. The Gospel message: Knowing what God works and how He provides for each of us in our need, He promises to multiply the blessings in our lives, so we seek first the Kingdom of God and all the rest will follow.

The text for the study of Elisha was 2 Kings 4:38-44 (Elisha and the miracle of the great pot). The theme was the miracles of God in our lives and the objective was for the children to learn that in any situation, good or bad, God never will leave us and will provide the means necessary for us to emerge victorious. The Law: When we do not trust in God, we do not see His wisdom displayed in our lives, therefore we do not receive all blessings He intends for us. The Gospel: God has the power to transform the bad things in our lives into blessings. The text for the third lesson was Joel 2:27-32. The theme was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in baptism with the objective that the children learn about holy baptism and the Holy Spirit comes to them through the visible means of grace. The Law: God judges all nations according to His commandments and punishes those who do not trust in Him. At times we may believe that we can obtain salvation through our own works and forget that we are saved only by the merits of Christ, Who comes to us by means of Word and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper). The Gospel: God will pardon all who call upon His name and all who receive the Holy Spirit in baptism will be illumined by His gifts and be able to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The text for the fourth lesson was Habakkuk 1:2-4, 3:17-19, and the theme was the just shall live by faith. The objective was that the children understand although many bad things may happen in this world, God does not abandon us, but justifies us through faith in Christ Jesus. Law: We may be tempted to despair, because we do not trust in God does everything good in His perfect time. The Gospel: We may have confidence that God will do justice in the perfect moment because we are not traveling through the valley of fear, but rather climbing the heights of faith.

The text for the fifth and final lesson was Matthew 17: 1-8 (the story of the Transfiguration). The theme was that Christ is now the one and only prophet and that the children understand the office of Christ as prophet, knowing that there is no true revelation from God apart from Him. Law: There are many things that we do not understand, so we look toward our own security and avoid venturing outside our comfort zone. The Gospel: With Christ as our Guide and Counselor, we need not be afraid and look toward the future with hope and joy.

That Sunday's sermon text was 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, in which St. Paul compares Moses, whom the Jews regarded as the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, with Christ, the prophet greater than Moses of whom Moses prophesied, and the liberation of the Israelites from slavery with redemption and new life in Christ. In baptism we cross from slavery to sin to freedom in Christ, as the Israelites by a mighty show of God's power, were able to cross from slavery in Egypt to liberty on the other side of the waters of the Red Sea.

But they still had a long journey to the Promised Land, so God provided for them food and drink in the wilderness, as He provides His body and blood in the Lord's Supper to sustain us through our journey through this life. Despite God's loving care, however, most of the Israelites died in the wilderness and did not reach the Promised Land. So it will be with us if we do not stay true to the faith of our baptism and fall into idolatry. No matter if we receive the blessing of baptism, if we do not live as sons and daughters of God, if we fall into sin and not repent, we will not escape the judgment of God on the Last Day. And if we receive the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily, that is, without repentance, we receive the sacrament to our condemnation.

We give thanks to God for the children who were able to attend this vacation Bible school and we hope to host another during the Christmas-New Year break.

Eight graduate from preschool in 2011

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:10:55 PDT

We closed the 2010-2011 school year July 11 with an informal graduation ceremony for the eight children who will be leaving our preschool for first grade in September. Our graduates are:

Marli A. Albarran P.
Karla V. Altuve R.
Dayimar A. Aranguren F.
Brayan J. Arteaga P.
Geiver J. Cordero U.
Marlenis J. Piñero R.
Solibeth del V. Sanchez S.
Lorianny P. Vivas. M.

All of these children were born in 2005, three years after my first visit to Venezuela.

We also were delighted that many of the older children in our afternoon tutoring program finished the school year with overall grades of "A" or "B", a fact for which we gave thanks during the Sunday service.

My second bicentennial

I am experiencing a national bicentennial celebration for the second time this year. The first time, of course, was in 1976 in the United States. Now, in 2011, Venezuela is marking the 200th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from Spain. Actually, not just Venezuela, but also Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico are celebrating their national bicentennials.

There was a big parade in Caracas and formal ceremonies in other parts of the country, but no fireworks to mark the bicentennial on July 5. That's Independence Day here, but fireworks are not part of the Independence Day tradition in Venezuela, but rather are associated with the Christmas season (setting off fireworks in the nighttime to early morning hours is supposed to mimic the appearance of the angels to the shepherds watching their flocks by night). By the way, Venezuelans also observe April 19 as a national holiday since April 19, 1810, was the day when revolutionary forces deposed the Spanish governor of Venezuela, effectively ending Spanish rule. However, July 5, 1811, was when Venezuela formally declared its independence.

The last decade has been one of economic and political upheaval, conflict and controversy in Venezuela. Despite being on different sides of the issues, I have been impressed from the beginning with the common desire of Venezuelans for a strong, independent nation. No one wants outside interference in Venezuelan affairs, which perhaps reflects the fact that despite winning independence from Spain 200 years ago, Venezuela has since struggled to be free of foreign economic domination and to realize the ideal of equal economic opportunity for all.Venezuela has enormous potential with abundant natural and human resources waiting to be used in the right way.

And what do I remember about my first bicentennial? Apart from the U.S. flag-themed license plates, T-shirts and other paraphernalia, more than a decade of scandal, disillusionment, inflation and unemployment, with still a few dark, depressing years to go.

But in the decade that followed, there was a renewal of national hope and confidence, buoyed by nearly 10 years of sustained economic recovery and the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It was an exciting time to be alive to be alive and to be an American. I saw really grand fireworks displays for the first time during this period, over the waters of Lake Michigan. This occurred at at various times in Chicago, Racine, WI, and Milwaukee. It was one great bicentennial decade.

Those happy days came to an end, of course. Both the best of times and the worst of times in this world pass. The ultimate triumph of good over evil will not occur in the political arena, and the interests of one nation, or alliance of nations, cannot be equated with the kingdom of God (for the elect of God will be gather from all nations, Isaiah 66:18, Revelation 7:9) God will raise up a nation or alliance of nation as a judgment against those that tolerate immorality and injustice (Job 12:23, Jeremiah 25:14). Yet for this reason, all kingdoms and empires of the earth eventually crumble to dust, for all are tainted by sin. Thus the counsel of Psalm 118:9, "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes." We should beware of political movements that promise the complete elimination of war, poverty and other societal problems, for only the Gospel of Christ can transform sinful human nature.

Nevertheless, God Himself ordained civil government to execute the first use of the divine Law: to restrain the outward manifestations of sin, maintain external order and the safety of its citizens. Good government is a blessing and so St. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:2, admonishes all Christians to pray "for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" and so we do every Sunday in La Caramuca, first for the peace of the whole world, but especially for the national leadership of Venezuela, that it, too, may know a period of confidence, independence and hope for the future.

Of the Father's love begotten

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:53:53 PDT

Image via WikiPedia

Trinity Sunday and Father's Day fell on the same date this year (June 19), so there was an opportunity to talk about the person of God the Father and His relation to earthly fathers. That is, earthly fathers are mortal reflections of the our heavenly Father. As it is the divinely ordained role for earthly fathers to protect and provide for their children, God the Father provides and protects us in ways that no human father can. Thus in the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us, we address God as "our Father" and petition Him for all our daily needs.

In the Large Catechism, Luther writes of the first article of the Apostle's Creed, "We also confess that God the Father has not only given us all that we have and see before our eyes, but daily preserves and defends us against all evil and misfortune, averts all sorts of danger and calamity; and that He does all this out of pure love and goodness, without our merit, as a benevolent Father, who cares for us that no evil befall us."

But the Father is only one of persons of the Trinity that we celebrate on Trinity Sunday, so after we recited the Athanasian Creed, I spoke of the relationship between the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit as well.

The Athanasian Creed has always been my favorite of the three great creeds, It has a poetic rhythm that the Apostle's and Nicene creeds lack, but it also is the longest and most complex of them. It is named after, and in times gone by, was attributed to Athanasius, the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, who was the great champion of trinitarian theology agains the heresy of Arianism. Much like the Jehovah's Witnesses of our time, Arius and his followers believed Jesus was the incarnation of a created being, superior to humans, but not equal in divinity to God the Father.

However, it is very doubtful that the creed as we know it was written by Athanasius. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is that the Athanasian Creed specifically addresses heresies that did not emerge until after Athanasius' death (although Arianism still was alive and well in the fifth century, when the creed probably was written).

The doctrine of the Trinity was attacked on several fronts by false teachers because of its importance to our understanding of the person and unique authority of Jesus Christ. We have the revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the New Testament (although there are hints of it in the Old Testament as well) so that we may understand how God could be walking around on earth incarnate as Jesus, while still maintaining order in the universe as the Creator of heaven and earth. Or how Jesus, as true God could take our place on the cross to pay for our sins, while as true man asking the Father, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" Or how God the Holy Spirit can live and act in and through each of us while the Son is no longer with us in visible form.

The Holy Trinity is not a useful hypothesis, but divine revelation. We can understand what it is not, but not completely comprehend what it is As we read in our epistle for Trinity Sunday (Romans 11:33-36, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

We can only know God from what He reveals to us about Himself. He has revealed something of Himself in His creation (thus, as Paul writes in Romans, none may plead complete ignorance of God and His Law), but most of what He has revealed about Himself was revealed first to the prophets of the Old Testament and later to the apostles of Christ. And the apostolic teaching is none may know the Father except through the Son and none may know the Son except through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, sent by both the Father and the Son.

There is a hymn written close to the time of Athanasius, that beautifully expresses the doctrine of the Trinity. The English version, "Of the Father's Love Begotten", is often sung at Christmastime. Unfortunately, we do not have a Spanish translation in the Spanish hymnal that we use in La Caramuca. This is quite ironic, because the author was what we would call a Spaniard today. His name was Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, and he was born in 348 A.D. in what is now northern Spain. He studied law, served as a judge and twice as governor of a province, and finally received high office in the court of the Emperor Theodosius. He retired from public life at age 57 to devote his time to writing Christian poetry.

"Of the Father's Love Begotten" is a translation of "Corde natus ex parentis", set to "Divinum Mysterium," a 12th Century plainsong (a single melodic line without harmony).

Of the Father's love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the Source, the Ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.

Oh, that birth forever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race,
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.

O ye heights of heaven, adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him
And extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.

This is He whom Heaven-taught singers
Sang of old with one accord;
Whom the Scriptures of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the Long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.

Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.

New communion set in service

My mother gave us some money to buy a chalice and platen in membory of my father, who died in 2000. I had hoped to introduce the new chalice and platen on June 19, but the logistics of delivery did not allow me to do so until the following Sunday, June 26. Thanks, Mom, and thanks to former missionary Richard Schlak for bring the set to Caracas from the United States.

We also are grateful to the Crosswalk Sunday School of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Minnesota, for a donation that allowed us to buy materials for the preschool and afternoon tutoring programs, as well as school uniforms for some of our older youth.

Sandro Perez, Jeison Arellano, Pedro Santana, Oriana Montoya.

Baptism on Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:09:02 PDT

Baptizing Maria Alejandra.

Maria Alejandra Ruiz Gonzalez was baptized on Motherś Day, May 8, 2911. Maria, who is nine years old, has three younger sisters, two of whom attend our preschool. When her parents started talking to me about a date for baptism, I assumed they were talking about the youngest of these girls. But, no, it was Maria Alejandra herself who had decided to be baptized after the family began attending Sunday services. Maria Alejandra also is one of the stude ents who Luz Maria tutors every weekday afternoon.

This was almost like an adult baptism, in that she was able to speak for herself in the baptismal rite without any sponsors. Not only that, but at nine years of age, Maria Alejandra stands almost as tall as myself. She takes after her father, who is also named David. I estimate that he stands nearly two meters tall (that's six feet, six inches).

Maria Alejandra and her family.

I assisted in a private adult baptism about 25 years ago. That's a long time, I didn't have any assistants this time, and it was a public ceremony with all of our little congregation as witnesses. So it was something of a novel experience for me.

Maria Alejandra already has been studying the Bible with Luz Maria. We will begin confirmation classes immediately and shoot for confirmation in December.

Plumbing new depths

Thanks to generous donations, we have been able to renovate our well and it is now in operation. The work was completed just in time, as the municipal water system went down again for a day or two. We were able to refill our household tank from the well. With our gasoline-powered generator we were able to keep the electrical pumps running even with the power down as well.

Water from the well.

The power outages that plagued the country last year have continue. It appears that in the state of Barinas we ill wgo back on an electricity rationing plan that will deprive us of power for about three hours every day.

The next phase in our long-term building plan, which we hope to complete yet this year, is construction of an outdoor restroom facility separate from the house and preschool. More and more people afe using the existing facilities right now, but this step will be mainly in anticipation of building a freestanding meeting.house for classes and worship services. According to a plan that we have had drawn up, there is room on the property for a six-room structure with a chapel and office. We intend to add each room on a modular basis, as God gives the growth to our mission.

Spanish Lutherans: a legacy nearly lost

One of the things that first sparked my interest in Venezuela was the story of Juan de Frias, a Venezuelan priest of the Augustinian order, who was convicted and jailed on June 12, 1671, by the Spanish Inquisition for professing Lutheran doctrine. After 16 years in prison, he was burned at stake in Cartagena de los Indios (Colombia) on May 30, 1688. Until hearing this account, I had not been aware that the Reformation had spread outside of northern Europe, much less to the New World, and also that the Spanish Inquisition had been active in this hemisphere as well.

Then I learned of Casiodoro de Reina, a former monk who fled his monastery near Seville, Spain, one step ahead of the Inquisition and eventually ended his days as a Lutheran pastor. De Reina is most famous for leading a collaborative effort to translate the Bible into Spanish. First published in 1569, this translation is known as the Reina-Valera Bible, and, in its various revisions, still is the most widely distributed Bible in Latin America.


Seal of Spanish Inquisition Image via Wikipedia

Recently the Latin American edition of Discovery Channel began airing "En Nombre de la Fe", a documentary about Spanish Inquisition's activities in the Americas. It mentions an even earlier Lutheran martyr, Mateo Salado, who was burned at the stake in Lima, Peru, on November 15, 1573. Born Matheus Saladé in 1526, he was a Frenchman who emigrated to Spain and came into contact with the Lutheran community that had sprung up in Seville. A taste for adventure led him to embark for the New World in 1561. He lived in Lima as a hermit and was regarded by most people as a religious eccentric until he was arrested in 1570 and executed three years later in the city's first "auto-de-fe" (public execution of heretics). Salado lived among some pre-Columbian ruins. Today this area has become a cultural center and archaeological site named in his honor, "Huaca Mateo Salado." It is one of Lima's premier tourist attractions.

The Spanish Inquisition established three "branch offices" in the New World, first in Mexico City and Lima, and later in Cartagena de los Indios. The first auto-da-fe in Mexico took place in 1574; a Frenchman and an Englishman were burned as Lutherans, according to Juan Antonio Llorente's history of the Spanish Inquisition,

Although created by papal decree in 1480, the Spanish Inquisition was under direct authority of the Spanish monarchy and its specific objective was the suppression of religious dissent in Spain and its colonies (there was a separate "Portuguese Inquisition" that operated in Brazil and other territories claimed by Portugal).At first the Spanish Inquisition targeted Jews and Muslims, or, more precisely, former Jews and Muslims who were suspected of being less than completely sincere in their conversions to Christianity. With the rise of the Reformation in northern Europe, the Spanish Inquisition turned to its attention to !the Lutheran heresy".

Valladolid, Spain via Puertas Online

In Spain the Inquisition's tribunals in Valladolid in the north and Seville in the south became expecially notorious for persecution of Lutherans. On May 21, 1559, 14 people were burned as Lutherans in Valladolid, Sixteen others escaped death by recanting their Lutheranism, but were subjected to imprisonment and confiscation of property, nonetheless. A second auto-da-fe took place in Valladolid on October 8, 1559, in which 13 were burned as Lutherans, while 16 others escaped death by recanting.

In the ancient city of Seville, 21 people were burned as Lutherans on September 24, 1559. More would have died, but Francis Zafra, the priest charged with reviewing accusations of Lutheranism by the Inquisition, was secretly a Lutheran and was able to save many from being condemned. He himself escaped from Seville after being discovered, and was burned in effigy.

On December 22, 1560, 14 more people were burned as Lutherans in Seville. According to Llorente, "The opinions of Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant reformers, were not disseminated in the other cities in Spain with the same rapidity as at Seville and Valladolid; but there is reason to believe that all Spain would soon have been infected with the heresy, but for the extreme severity shown towards the Lutherans. From 1560 to 1570 at least one auto-da-fe was celebrated every year in every Inquisition of the kingdom, and some heretics of the new sect always appeared among the condemned persons."

It was a relentless campaign that stymied the progress of the Reformation in Spain and its colonies for nearly 500 years. But the truth of God's Word can never be completely obscured, and in the 21st Century, there is not only a Lutheran Church of Venezuela, but also a Lutheran church-body in Spain itself. On October 10, 2010, Juan Carlos Garcia Cazorla was installed as the first national pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spain (la Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Española or IELE) in Seville.

In 2000, a Lutheran family in Toledo, Spain, partnered with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina (IELA), to lay the foundation for a Lutheran church in Spain. An Argentinean missionary from the IELA was sent to lead outreach efforts, and a second arrived in 2002 to build upon his work, establish a congregation and extend outreach into other areas of Spain.

With the financial and logistical partnership of LCMS World Mission, the IELE was planted and recognized by the Spanish government in 2004. The IELE maintains a congregation in Asturias (northern Spain) and mission posts in Andalusía, Madrid and Catalonia. Several members of the church attend pastoral programs in order to provide the IELE with new pastors for the future.

Pascua, Passover or Easter?

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:04:26 PDT

Feliz Pascua to everyone! I could say "Pascua" is Spanish for "Easter", because it is, but it literally means"Passover." In Spanish Bibles, the word used for the Jewish Passover festival is "Pascua", starting with Exodus 12:11 and continuing into the New Testament accounts. However, this is not a peculiarity of Spanish, according to an article by Anthony McRoy, posted on Christianity Today magazine's Christian History blog. In most of the languages of the world, the same word is used for the Jewish feast of Passover and the Christian celebration of Christ's Resurrection. The major exceptions are English and German, which use the words "Easter" and "Ostern" for the Christian holy day.

According to the Venerable Bede, an English monk who lived from 673 to 735 A.D. and who is a major source of information for modern historians about early Anglo-Saxon culture, the month of April was once dedicated to worship of the goddess Eostre. Anglo-Saxon language and culture was closely related to that of the Germanic tribes on the European continent, and 1,000 years after the Venerable Bede, Jakob Grimm (one half of the Brothers Grimm), wrote in his 1835 book, Deutsche Mythologie, that the festival of Ostern was derived from the worship of the goddess Ostara (an Old High German form of Easter).

These claims are often used to bolster the assertion that Christians copied existing pagan customs to accomodate new converts and that the church's liturgy and calendar are not truly Biblical, or even reflect early Christian belief.

One problem with this assertion, at least in the case of Easter, is that there is very little evidence outside of works of the Venerable Bede and Jakob Grimm that anyone ever worshipped a goddess called Eostre or Ostara. But there is an even bigger difficulty. McRoy writes:

"The Nordic/Germanic peoples (including the Anglo-Saxons) were comparative latecomers to Christianity. Pope Gregory I sent a missionary enterprise led by Augustine of Canterbury to the Anglo-Saxons in 596/7. The forcible conversion of the Saxons in Europe began under Charlemagne in 772. Hence, if "Easter" (i.e. the Christian Passover festival) was celebrated prior to those dates, any supposed pagan Anglo-Saxon festival of "Eostre" can have no significance. And there is, in fact, clear evidence that Christians celebrated an Easter/Passover festival by the second century, if not earlier. It follows that the Christian Easter/Passover celebration, which originated in the Mediterranean basin, was not influenced by any Germanic pagan festival."

Likewise, there is a popular notion that Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25 (or January 6 in Eastern Orthodox tradition) because pagans were celebrating the rebirth of the sun-god on that date and converts felt slighted that they did not have anything to celebrate. (The winter solstice, the longest night of the year, generally falls around December 21. Following the solstice, daylight hours gradually increase, thus the sun has been reborn.)

Of course, the Bible does not give a specific date for Christ's birth. Writing for Biblical Archaeology Review, Andrew McGowan notes that Clement of Alexandria in 200 A.D. listed several dates on which different groups of Christians celebrated His birth: March 21; April 15, 20 or 21; or May 20. It was not until 274 A.D. that the Emperor Aurelian declared December 25 a pagan holiday dedicated to worship of the sun (with little evidence that the date had special significance to anyone before the Christian era). By that time Christians in the western half of the Roman Empire had settled on December 25 as the day of Christ's birth, while in the eastern empire, January 6 had become the accepted date.

Why those dates? McGowan writes: "Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover...Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation -— the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year."

As for the eastern church: "In the East, too, the dates of Jesus’ conception and death were linked. But instead of working from the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the easterners used the 14th of the first spring month (Artemisios) in their local Greek calendar -— April 6 to us. April 6 is, of course, exactly nine months before January 6 -— the eastern date for Christmas."

Some of our holiday customs, such as Christmas trees, Easter eggs (maybe), holly and mistletoe, may have prechristian origins. But McGowan notes that prior to the fourth century A.D., Christians took great pains to distinguish Christian worship from the idolatry that surrounded them. "From the mid-fourth century on, we do find Christians deliberately adapting and Christianizing pagan festivals.

A famous proponent of this practice was Pope Gregory the Great, who, in a letter written in 601 C.E. to a Christian missionary in Britain, recommended that local pagan temples not be destroyed but be converted into churches, and that pagan festivals be celebrated as feasts of Christian martyrs. At this late point, Christmas may well have acquired some pagan trappings."

But the true roots of Christian worship and the church year are in the highly liturgical worship of the Old Testament, with its annual cycle of Scripture readings, sacrifices and sacred meals. This is not the result of human habit or whim.

Our Lord Himself knew exactly what He was doing when He instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper during the Passover meal. God Himself commanded the Israelites to observe Passover every year in Exodus 12:1-14, to remember how they were saved from divine wrath in Egypt (the tenth plague which claimed the life of every firstborn son) by the blood of a lamb without blemish. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it...The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt."

Divine judgment falling upon the firstborn son foreshadows the Passion of Christ as does the offering of an unblemished lamb. We also find this foreshadowing in Genesis 22, where God calls upon Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only begotten son. Abraham follows God's command, firm in the hope that at the last moment, God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice in place of Isaac. And so that particular story ends, but the longer-term significance is that the real sacrificial lamb would be One Who was both the only begotten Son of God and a descendant of Abraham.

Jesus knew that after His last supper with His 12 disciples, there would be no more need to sacrifice animals for the atonement of sins. He Himself would atone for the sins of all people once and for all. The old Passover would be replaced by a new one in which God's wrath would "pass over" all who believe because of the "sign" of Jesus' blood.

Thus, "the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). Instead of offering up a lamb from our flocks in hope of placating God's wrath, we receive the body and blood of the Divine Lamb, Who has already redeemed us from our sins. In case anyone misunderstands this part, St. Paul writes in the verses following, "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." And likewise, in 1 Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"

The new covenant in Christ's blood was not intended as a negation of the old, but rather a fulfillment and an amplification of it. We no longer sacrifice animals because Christ's sacrifice on the cross is all-sufficient. We do not observe the ritual purity laws of the Old Testament because we may approach God covered in the purity of Christ. We are adopted as members of God's people not through circumcision, but through baptism, also commanded by our Lord (Matthew 28:19-29), foreshadowed by the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and linked to the Lord's Supper.

"I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
In other words, life in Christ means participating in an exodus from slavery with others who have passed through the waters of baptism and who receive the same spiritual food and drink, that is, the body and blood of Christ. We only need to be baptized once, because Christ only needed to die on the cross once. But we continue to receive His body and blood, not just once a year, but as many times as we have the opportunity to partake of it, to sustain us in the wilderness of this world until His return in glory. It is then that we will enter our Promised Land.

But if we may freely approach God in worship and prayer with Christ as our Mediator, we still approach the same holy and righteous God of Abraham, Moses and the patriarchs. "Therefore," St. Paul writes, "my beloved, flee from idolatry." All of the Israelites passed through the Red Sea and were sustained by spiritual food and drink in the wilderness. "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased...Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day."

This is a reference to the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32. How could the Israelites have fallen into idolatry so quickly after witnessing the miracles that Moses performed in the name of their God, and God Himself leading them in the form of pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night? Because they adopted a form of worship in imitation of the popular religiosity of the day. They made a golden image of the God that brought them out of Egypt as they imagined Him (no pun intended). They worshipped this image in the sensual and emotionally wanton way the pagans worshipped their gods. Soon what could not be distinguished from idolatry became idolatry and sexual immorality. As St. Paul writes, this stands as a lesson for us, that our worship should center on the preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the sacraments, as our Lord Himself commanded, with due reverence for the divine mysteries with which we have been entrusted and respect for the Biblically sound traditions of the church of the ages, not modeled on the idolatry of our time.

Draw nigh and take the body of the Lord
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured.
Offered was He for greatest and for least,
Himself the Victim and Himself the Priest.

He that His saints in this world rules and shields
To all believers life eternal yields,
With heavenly bread makes them that hunger whole,
Gives living waters to the thirsting soul.

Approach ye, then, with faithful hearts sincere
And take the pledges of salvation here.
O Judge of all, our only Savior Thou,
In this Thy feast of love be with us now.

Hymn #307
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 34:8
Author: Latin author unknown, c. 680
Translated by: John M. Neale, 1851, cento, alt.
Titled: "Sancti, venite, corpus Christi sumite"
Tune: "Old 124th"
1st Published in: Genevan Psalter, 1551

Remember those for whom Christ died

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:11:32 PDT

Last month the news of natural disaster in Japan captured the world's attention. Of course, we have heard of the events that continue to unfold in Japan, but here in La Caramuca there was tragedy on a more personal level. A 17-year-old boy who lived just down the block from our mission was murdered in the wee hours of a Sunday morning after attending a street party. Sad to say, he was never involved in any of the activities of our mission, but the family was known to all and his death had quite an impact on the community, although I doubt that his death made international headlines. We remembered his family in prayer that same Sunday.

Ruth Rivero de Kempff, 1957-2011

Also this past month, many longtime members of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela remembered in prayer the family of Ruth Kempff, who died March 23, 2011, after a painful struggle with cancer. She was born Ruth Rivero in Venezuela, August 5, 1957. She married Mark Kempff, a former missionary to Venezuela and now a member of the faculty of the Center for Hispanic Studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, on July 30, 1978. Their surviving children include Raquel and Rebeca. There was also a son, Juan Marcos, who died shortly after his birth in 1982. Ruth also is survived by her older sister, Ramona, who is married to Rudy Blank, another former missionary to Venezuela and also a member of the Center for Hispanic Studies faculty.

Whether it is death and destruction on a grand scale, or the death of a friend or relative, we may take consolation in the fact that God cares for all of us and no life is insignificant to Him. "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). In the person of Jesus Christ, God Himself entered a world full of suffering and death, and suffered all, even death, that no matter how brief our time here might be, or how much we might be afflicted, in baptismal grace there is always the promise of eternal joy with Him. We recall this especially during this season of Lent and also that since no one is guaranteed a certain number of years on earth, we should live in anticipation of being called home to the Lord at any time. If we seek first the kingdom of God, than we may look back without regrets and forward with joy.

Cholera and swine flu, too

We would ask you to pray for the health of everyone in Venezuela.

In February I became ill and was confined to bed for a couple of days after receiving an antibiotic from our doctor. I could tell from the questions that he asked that the doctor was trying to find out whether he had a case of cholera on his hands. Fortunately, it probably was just food poisoning.

Image via Wikipedia

In fact, there was a brief outbreak of cholera in February. Venezuelan Minister of Health Eugenia Sader said that around 300 cases were treated before the disease was declared under control. The cholera apparently was brought to Venezuela by Venezuelans who attended a wedding in the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic has recorded 238 cases of cholera since November. The disease came from neighbouring Haiti, where an epidemic has killed almost 4,000 people. Almost 200,000 Haitians have been infected since the epidemic broke out in October, but aid agencies say the rate of infection has slowed. For Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, it is the first cholera outbreak in more than a century.

But no sooner had the cholera crisis passed than swine flu took center stage. Venezuelan health officials on March 28 said that 415 people have been diagnosed with "swine flu" (H1N1 influenza) in 19 of the country's 24 states. Two people have died from swine flu since an initial spate of cases were confirmed on March 17. George Jenkins of the World Health Organization attributed the sudden rise in flu cases to an unusually cold and rainy summer.

Kyrie, eleison, eleison

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:23:59 PST

We observed Ash Wednesday with a service of evening prayer centered around a version of the Great Litany and the imposition of ashes. We had about 15 people in attendance.

"Litany" with a small "l" means "a liturgical prayer consisting of a series of petitions recited by a leader alternating with fixed responses by the congregation." Litanies are among the oldest forms of Christian prayer. As it is sometimes said that the first creed of the church was "Jesus is Lord", in contrast to "Caesar is Lord" (with the word, kyrios, implying lordship in a divine sense), the earliest litanies incorporated "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord have mercy") as the fixed responses.

"Kyrie eleison" is believed to have originally been a supplication to Caesar. This type of litany survives to this day in forms like this:

P: In peace, let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

P: For the peace from above and for our salvation let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

P: For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

P: For this holy hourse and for all who offer here their worship and praise let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

P: Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.
C: Amen.

However, in the order of the Divine Service that we follow on Sunday mornings here in Venezuela, as well as other places, "the Kyrie" is "extracted" from the prayers and follows the Introit, sandwiched between the Gloria Patri and the Gloria in Excelsis:

Lord have mercy upon us
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord have mercy upon

The Great Litany, the super-deluxe model, first appeared around the sixth century A.D. and in western Christendom came to be known as "the Litany of the Saints" and in Greek Orthodox Christianity as "the Litany of Peace." At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther revised "the Litany of the Saints", mainly by removing pleas to the Virgin Mary and the saints, and intercessory prayers for the dead and for the Pope. Luther published this litany in both Latin and German, and it is this form of the Great Litany that is used in Lutheran churches today. In addition, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer essentially translated Luther's version of the litany into English and included it in the first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, so Lutheran and Anglican versions of the litany are very similar.

The Great Litany is essentially a penitential prayer, asking God for forgiveness of sins and remembering Christ's suffering and death on the cross, as well as imploring His protection and blessing in all circumstances of earthly life. So it is appropriate to use the litany during an Ash Wednesday evening service.

Maybe next year we will try singing it.

More building begins

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:23:38 PST

Thanks to generous donations forwarded to us by Venezuela Lutheran
Mission Partnership, we have begun construction of outdoor sanitary
facilities as a first step toward building a freestanding
classroom/chapel building. The need for this building is growing along
with Luz Maria's tutoring program in the afternoon. This program
has grown to the point where we have had to split it into different
age-groups at different times.

Water for the new sanitary facilities will be pumped from the well at
the botton of our hill. The well also would be used to supply water for
our fruits, vegetables and the ornamental plants that make for a pleasant environment in which to learn, play and worship. We consume a good portion of our homegrown fruits and vegetables, and donate the excess produce to needy
families. (Our "crops" include oranges, avocados, bananas, grapefruit,
limes, cassava and squash. Luz Maria also recently planted some papaya
trees, but these have yet to start producing.) The additional water
system would allow us to conserve our drinking water during those periods when the public water supply is down (sometimes for as long as a week.)

Of laptops and Linux

Oriana receives her Canaima laptop.

Last week, Luz Maria's granddaughter, Oriana, brought home an early birthday present: a free laptop computer, courtesy of the Canaima Project. (Oriana turned eight on February 7. She was born two months before I met her grandmother in 2003.)

The Canaima Project is a national program similar to the international One Laptop Per Child initiative which has distributed 2.1 million low-cost laptops to schoolchildren around the world, including such Latin American countries as Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Brazil.

However, the Venezuelan program is more closely tied to Intel Corporation's Classmate PC Project, which is separate from One Laptop Per Child but also very similar. The Canaima Project laptops are PC Classmate computers purchased from Portugal and reprogrammed with Canaima GNU/Linux, a special version of the Linux operating system designed with educational software for Venezuelan schoolchildren. There are plans to manufacture clones of the Portugese computers here in Venezuela later this year.

The Canaima Project so far has distributed 299,350 laptops to first-graders and 540,844 laptops to second-graders in Venezuela. As of February 2, 2011, the Venezuelan government had delivered 6,600 laptops to second-graders in communities in and around Barinas.

I was pleased to see the project promoting Linux. In 2008, we took a dozen young people in La Caramuca to a course in Ubuntu Linux
taught by Zulay Puerta, a member of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas. As part of her
teaching position with the public school system, Zulay was assigned to
teach a course in Ubuntu in the nearby town of La Mula.

Open-source software like Linux offers many advantages to educational and non-profit organizations, especially in developing countries, due to the lack of prohibitive licensing fees. However, obstacles to adoption of Linux include a. unfamiliarity: and b. easy access to pirated software, ironically enough.
Recently I installed Ubuntu 10.0.4, the latest stable version, on our desktop and laptop computers. How did I do this? By buying a DVD from a street vendor. Ubuntu Linux is available for download from the Internet, but since our Internet connection is rather slow and we are subject to frequent power outages, this is not the best option for us.

And you can buy anything from the buhoneros, or peddlers, that throng the streets of any Venezuelan town. Food, clothing, arts and crafts, motor oil, you name it. There's nothing quite like buying a glass of orange juice squeezed on the spot from locally grown oranges. Of course, you also can buy anything that can be recorded on a CD or DVD -- movies, music, software or Playstation games -- and most of it contrary to international law. One exception is the open-source software. Linux CD and DVDs are intended to be freely copied and distributed. But I could have purchased Windows Vista or Windows 7 disks, complete with the necessary codes to "crack" the anti-piracy technology.

When I first visited Venezuela in 2002, the buhoneros still sold bootlegged movies on VHS tapes and music on audiocassettes. As the price of CD burners dropped, the cassettes disappeared. Likewise, as DVD burners and DVD players have become more and more economical, movies on tape have become obsolete. But the illegal trade continues. At least with software you have a choice that's better for ethical and other considerations.

Reaffirmation of faith and fidelity

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:44:40 PST

Depending on how you look at it, we closed the old year or began the new year with a reaffirmation of wedding vows. Luz Maria's daughter, Wuendy, and her husband, Jesus Mogollon, renewed their marital commitment at our New Year's Eve service, December 31, 2010.

Although they have been married since 2007, Wuendy and Jesus sought our prayers and God's blessing as they take another big step in their life together. They will move to Quebec, Canada, in March. Jesus is a software engineer who got in on the ground floor of a startup company that since has become quite successful. The entire company, all of its employees and their families, will move from Caracas to Montreal to take advantage of business opportunities up north.

One might wonder, what do Venezuela and Canada have in common? For one thing, petroleum production in both countries. Jesus' company specializes in the development of automated processing software, the programs which control the petroleum refining and other highly automated industrial processes.

Image via Wikipedia

Wuendy and Jesus have been diligently learning French as a prerequisite for moving to Quebec. Luz Maria and I hope this will prove useful in finding a Lutheran congregation in Quebec, We don't know about any Latino outreach in Quebec by the Lutheran Church - Canada (Eglise Lutherienne du Canada), although we know the LCC has devoted a great deal of its resources to international mission work in Nicaragua. Also at least two Lutheran missionaries to Venezuela have been Canadian: Edmund Mielke, who is now pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Brandon, Manitoba, and Ontario native Ted Krey, who is now Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod regional director of missions for Latin America and the Caribbean. Pastors Mielke and Krey both spent a lot of time in Barinas, which is why the cross we have above our altar at La Caramuca Lutheran Mission is modeled after the official symbol of the Lutheran Church - Canada.
However, there are a number of French-speaking congregations in Quebec affiliated with the LCC. Lutheranism is not new to the province, according to David Somers, an LCC pastor in Montreal who was instrumental in the development of the new hymnal. Many early immigrants from France were Lutheran, escaping the Wars of Religion that pitted Protestants against Roman Catholics.

In November 2009, the LCC published Liturgies et cantiques lutheriens, the first complete French Lutheran hymnal in 35 years. Liturgies et cantiques luthériens includes 434 hymns, including never-before-published material from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, three settings of the Divine Service, Matins, Vespers, and Compline, Holy Baptism, marriage, and funeral services among many other liturgical resources.

More than 2,500 copies of the French hymnal are now in circulation and are used in Africa, Europe and Haiti, as well as Canada. There are growing numbers of Lutherans in French-speaking Africa, especially in Madagascar.

We can only hope that one day we will have a Spanish hymnal that surpasses Culto Cristiano, first published in 1964. Culto Cristiano contains 476 hymns, all the propers based on the historic one-year lectionary, orders of public and private confession, the Divine Service, Matins, Vespers, the Psalms, prayers for various occasions, the Small Catechism, and special orders of service for weddings, funerals and other events. However, it does not contain orders for some of the liturgical practices that have been revived in the last 45 years, such as imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday and the Good Friday tenebrae service, and some practices that are typical here in Venezuela, such as the blessing of a new house. Of course, we do have a supplement, Ritual Cristiano, that covers the blessing of a new house, and even such things at the dedication of a cemetery or a baptismal font, but it would be nice to have all these things in one volume. Culto Cristiano also does not contain a number of excellent songs that we have found useful in teaching children and young people, such as "Alabare, alabare", "Padre Nuestro" (a metrical version of the Lord's Prayer), "Creo en Dios el Padre Eterno" (the Apostle's Creed set to music), "Dios es nuestro amparo" and others.

The reaffirmation and blessing of the marriage of Wuendy and Jesus was an opportunity to just what marriage is in God's eyes. What it is not: A private contract between two individuals for their personal pleasure, no matter how mutual the satisfaction might be. If it were, it might not matter if both partners were of the same sex, or how many partners a person might have. However, marriage is the most public institutions, instituted by God in the beginning as part of His order of creation. Because God also instituted civil government to restrain immorality, the administration of laws upholding the sanctity of marriage and family fall within the domain of secular authorities. Those who do not respect what God has ordained regarding marriage are rightly subject to punishment by the state and by God. Furthermore, a government which fails to conform the civil law to the divine law invites the judgment and wrath of God upon the entire nation.

Our New Year's Eve service also provided the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of placing all your plans in God's hands. Because of Christ's atoning suffering and death, those who believe are restored to a right relationship with God. Thus we may pray to Him with confidence, trusting that He intends for us "a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11) and that "all things work for the good of them that love God, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Above all else, we have the promise in baptism that, no matter what happens to us in life, we are assured of eternal happiness with Christ in the life to come. Amen.

Children win caroling contest

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:52:46 PST

A group of our older preschool children placed first in a Christmas carol-singing contest in the town square November 30, 2010. The group, which we called "Niños Cantores" (Singing Children) competed against similar groups from all the other preschools in our area. Niños Cantores included:

Karla Altuve
Brayan Arteaga
Geiver Cordero
Sugleisbeth Pérez
Marlenis Piñero
María Ruiz
Solisbeth Sanchez
Lorianny Vivas

The word for what they sang is actually "villancico", a form of popular song that originated in 15th Century Spain. In time villancicos with apropriate religious themes were written and performed on the festival days of the church's liturgical calendar. In contemporary Latin America, the term "villancico" is used almost exclusively in reference to Christmas songs, making it virtually synonymous with "Christmas carol", as understood in the English-speaking world.

In fact, Spanish versions of some carols familiar to North Americans are popular in Venezuela. One example would be "Noche de Paz" ("Silent Night" in English or "Stille Nacht" in the original German). There also is a song sung in Venezuela to the tune of "Jingle Bells," but intead of "dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh", the lyrics speak of Christ's birth and the joy of Christmastide.

However, many villancicos are written in colloquial Spanish and allude to things specific to their country of origin, even a particular region within that country. That can make them difficult to translate into English. Such is the case with "El Niño Jesús Llanero," a song that our preschool children were assigned to sing.

"El Niño Jesús Llanero" is actually a modern villancico, written by Simon Diaz, a Venezuelan folk singer and entertainer who still is very much alive. Born August 8, 1928, in Barbacoas, Venezuela, he is known throughout the country as "Tio Simon" (Uncle Simon), because of his long-running children's television program, "Contesta por Tio Simon". Indeed, over the years Simon Diaz has hosted many different radio and television programs, appeared in films and stage plays, and recorded more than 70 musical albums. His works have been performed by artists such as Placido Domingo, Ray Conniff, Julio Iglesias and Ruben Blades. In 2008, Simon Diaz received the the Latin Recording Academy Trustees Award in Houston, Texas.

Despite Diaz's international reputation, however, the focus of his life's work has been to preserve and renew the culture of Venezuela, especially that of los Llanos, the Venezuelan plains region. So it is with "El Niño Jesús Llanero." In keeping with the Savior's humble origin, the song paints a poetic portrait of the Christ Child as an Indian boy of the prairie, clad in sandals (although sandals of gold) and a white hat, with a spinning top in his hand as is typical of such boys.

The following is the chorus and first verse of the song, with my attempt at English translation:

En mi conuquito
Las flores del campo
adornan su belleza
y brille su splendor

Niñito llanero, indio soberano
dámele cariño, dámele ternura
al venezolano

In my garden, the wildflowers
adorn your beauty and shine with your splendor

Little prairie boy, Lord of Indians
Show affection and tenderness to Venezuela

The second song was to be a traditional carol of our own choosing, which was "Cantemos, cantemos." This one is much easier to translate:

Cantemos, cantemos, gloria al Salvador
Feliz nochebuena, feliz nochebuena
con el Niño Dios

Tu eres la esperanza, Tu la caridad, Tu eres el consuelo de humanidad.

Let us sing, let us sing, glory to the Savior
Happy Christmas Eve, Happy Christmas Eve
with the Christ Child

You are the hope, you are the charity, you are the consolation of mankind.

The third song was to be an original, unpublished composition. Luz Maria wrote this one:

Repiquen los tambores, suenen las maracas
nosotros cantamos, nosotros cantamos
si nos dan hallacas

Alegres cantamos en este parrandón
saberes y sabores, saberes y sabores
con el Niño Dios

A nuestras maestras, las gracias les damos
y a los que no escuchan, a los que no escuchan
dame mi aguinaldo

Que no sean pichirres, que no sean pichirres
nosotros no vamos

Beating drums, maracas sounding
we will sing, we will sing
if you give us hallacas

Let us sing joyfully at this festival
of crafts and cooking, of crafts and cooking
with the Christ Child

To our teachers, we give thanks
and to those who will listen, who will listen
(we say) Give me my Christmas treat

To those who are cheapskates, to those who are cheapskates
we will not go

The hallaca is the traditional Venezuelan Christmas tamale.

Niños Cantores by Mision La Caramuca

Rains leave thousands homeless in Venezuela

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:38:11 PST

A normal rainy season in Monagas.

More than a week of torrential rains have created a national crisis in Venezuela, left more than 30 people killed in floods and landslides, and thousands homeless across Venezuela. We remain high and dry -- and safe -- here in La Caramuca, but we would ask you to pray for those affected and contribute to any relief efforts.

More than 30 dead from heavy rains in Venezuela
December 02, 2010 16:44 EST

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez says more than 30 people have been killed in floods and landslides in Venezuela, and he is pledging to speed construction of public housing to help thousands of evacuees.

Speaking to evacuees on Thursday, Chavez said they would receive homes and vowed to accelerate construction of public housing projects in the Caracas area.

Chavez said the government was assisting more than 15,000 families that fled homes amid torrential rains. He said the government has more than 300 disaster shelters open across the country.

The heavy rains during the past month have continued well past the usual end of the wet season in Venezuela.

Venezuela Responds to "Heaviest Rains in Over 40 Years"

By Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, December 1st 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela's national government on Tuesday extended to four states the emergency decreed 10 days ago in response to torrential rains that have battered the country since early November. According to the presidential commission assigned to manage the storm's affects on Venezuela's people and its infrastructure, almost 11,000 security forces are currently mobilized to help with emergency measures, including food aid distribution, evacuations, housing shelter management and road repairs. According to Spain's El País news source, as of Tuesday night the storm's death toll reached 29 people, including several children.

Due to dangerous conditions provoked by the storms, the states of Vargas, Miranda and the Capital District of Caracas joined Falcon yesterday in the government-decreed state of emergency.

According to weather experts at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), this November's rains were the heaviest seen in Venezuela in over 40 years. Rain is expected to continue for the next 48 hours.

Vice President Elias Jaua confirmed on Tuesday that rains have forced some 5,500 people to flee their homes and that an additional 56,000 have been negatively affected. Jaua also announced the suspension of classes at all levels of education in 11 of Venezuela's 23 states so as to "protect Venezuela's children" and "allow rescue teams greater movement on roads into flooded areas."

As of Wednesday morning, over 33,000 people have been attended by the government's emergency support services, with a total of 259 refuge centers currently providing government-managed emergency shelter. In addition, several dozen schools opened their doors to rain victims as temporary residences and private hotels in and around the Caracas area ceded some 850 rooms to the government's emergency housing efforts.

Of the 10,988 security forces mobilized to assist in aid efforts, 5,000 are members of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, 2,331 are volunteers of the Bolivarian Militia and 3,657 are of the Civil Protection Services.

President Hugo Chávez on Sunday offered Miraflores Presidential Palace as a "symbolic" place of refuge for 100 people, or 26 families. "Today I have ordered that they move to Miraflores…where we recently built rooms, small residential units, for the comrades of the security [staff]," said Chávez who cancelled his weekly television address to visit affected areas of Falcon state.

Over half of those affected by rains, 35,000 people, live in western Falcon state. Hotel Venetur, in the area of Tucaca of Falcon, opened its doors to hundreds of families.

Venezuela's Ministry of Science and Technology informed residents of Falcon state that all users of Movilnet cell phone services received a one-time supplement of 25 bolivars of cell phone credit as well as 50 free text messages so as to communicate with their families. The Ministry also informed residents that, as of December 1st, all public phones in the state will allow callers three minutes of free calling time.

Nationwide, 112 roads have been damaged and transit is limited as a result. Jaua on Wednesday called for drivers from eastern Venezuela to avoid heading towards Caracas, unless absolutely necessary. These roads, according to Jaua are being repaired "by 220 machines sent out by the government, with the support of the private sector."

Oil refineries in Zulia state suffered electrical shortages as a result of the storms, though Venezuela's state-owned firm PDVSA confirmed that "gasoline supplies to the national and international markets are guaranteed."

In Miranda, an important source of agricultural production for the population of Caracas, 66,000 hectares of agricultural lands have been flooded.

Venezuela's Maiquetia International Airport this week was forced to defer a number of international flights to smaller, less-affected airports while a number of both national and international flights have been cancelled.

"Regrettably in Venezuela we don't have a preventative culture," said Víctor Lira, Director of Venezuela's Civil Protection Services. "[A culture] that first investigates, does the corresponding studies, before placing residential units on unstable grounds."

"Because there aren't sufficient housing solutions for the people, the people look for solutions on their own account," affirmed Lira. "For this reason people tend to invade terrains, they weaken protective soil cover, they build on anything, there is no management of residential waters, and all these are factors that add up."

On Wednesday, as Chávez received 26 affected families at Miraflores Palace, he called on all Venezuelans, including ministers, governors and mayors, to open their homes to flood victims.

"This is a national emergency, and it is time to leave aside personal comforts, egoisms, and open our hearts and homes to our fellow Venezuelans," said Chávez on Venezuela de Television (VTV). He also called on the offices of the vice presidency, publicly owned Channel 8 and other government-owned buildings to remodel one floor of each building for emergency housing. Chávez assured the families that within one year they will leave Miraflores and move directly into their own homes or apartments.

Venezuela's National Assembly on Tuesday approved the first of two drafts of the Emergency Law for Housing and Urban Terrain which, according to the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN), allows the State to "decree the creation of emergency zones for the occupation of urban terrain apt for housing." If and when this new law is passed, lands that are either "unused or underutilized" – including a number of extensive golf courses located near major highways outside of Caracas referred to by Chávez last Sunday – become possible targets for expropriation.

Published on Dec 1st 2010 at 6.16pm

Goodbye, Grandma, God bless you

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:40:58 PST

She was born Clara Helen Viola Kurth, January 16, 1917, in Haakon County, South Dakota. Years later she would tell me that, as the last of seven children, her parents gave her all the names of female relatives for whom they had yet to name a girl.

She died November 27, 2010, having outlived her parents, all of her siblings, two husbands and two of her five children. She was my last surviving grandparent and one of the greatest of the great cloud of witnesses that have surrounded me all my life.

Grandma grew up on the Kurth homestead southeast of Philip, SD. As a teenager, she would cook for the men that her father hired for his threshing crew. One of the young men was my grandfather, Anthony Hollis Hemmingson. They were married on September 29, 1935, and stayed together until Grandpa´s death on November 11, 1979.

The Kurth homestead still stands.

During the late 1930s Grandma and Grandpa lived on a farm south of Belvidere, SD.They moved to the town of Kadoka, SD, in 1942. Grandma continued to develop her talent for cooking. She worked as a cook at the H&H Restaurant, the Kadoka hospital and nursing home, and the Kadoka high school and grade school. For a time, she and Grandpa managed their own restaurant on Main Street.

Anthony Hollis Hemmingson

In 1969 Grandma and Grandpa moved to Lovington, New Mexico, as the South Dakota winters were becoming hard on my grandfather's arthritis. Grandpa passed away in New Mexico, as did my Uncle Tony (Anthony Richard) Hemmingson in 1996, her second husband, Orville "Tim" Long in 1997, and my Uncle Loren Hemmingson in 1998. Nevertheless, she continued to live in New Mexico until 2004.

Grandma's faith was a never-failing source of consolation to her during those years of loss. She and Grandpa were both baptized and confirmed as Lutherans and received Word and sacrament regularly, first at Zion Lutheran Church in Kadoka and later at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Lovington, NM. I consider this shared faith their best legacy to me.

I last saw Grandma in 2006 when Luz Maria and I visited her at my Uncle Arnie's house in Spearfish, SD. We both knew it probably would be our last meeting in this life, and she was moved to tell me how glad she was that I had found Luz Maria.

Grandma's body will be buried next to that of my grandfather in the Lovington, NM, cemetery. Their common epitaph, “For by grace are you saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). This also is the basis of the hymn, “By Grace I'm Saved, Grace Free and Boundless,” by Christian Scheidt, 1709-1761.

By grace I'm saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Hath Scripture ever falsehood taught?
Nay; then this word must true remain;
By grace thou, too, shalt heav'n obtain.

By grace! None dare lay claim to merit;
Our works and conduct have no worth.
God in His love sent our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth;
His death did for our sins atone,
And we are saved by grace alone.

By grace! Oh, mark this word of promise
When thou art by thy sins opprest,
When Satan plagues thy troubled conscience,
And when thy heart is seeking rest.
What reason cannot comprehend
God by His grace to thee doth send.

By grace God's Son, our only Savior,
Came down to earth to bear our sin.
Was it because of thine own merit
That Jesus died thy soul to win?
Nay, it was grace, and grace alone,
That brought Him from His heavenly throne.

By grace! This ground of faith is certain;
So long as God is true, it stands.
What saints have penned by inspiration,
What in His Word our God commands,
What our whole faith must rest upon,
Is Grace alone, grace in His Son.

By grace to timid hearts that tremble,
In tribulation's furnace tried,--
By grace, despite all fear and trouble,
The Father's heart is open wide.
Where could I help and strength secure
If grace were not my anchor sure?

Six confirmed on Reformation Sunday 2010

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:23:22 PST

Six young people were confirmed at our mission on Oct. 31, 2010. Here is the list of their names and confirmation verses:

Jeison Manuel Arellano Farías, Philippians 4:7
Jimmy Orlando Pérez Chinchilla, Joshua 1:9
Angie Yoximar Pérez Chinchilla, John 10:27-28
Yhonny Alexander Torres Ortega, Philippians 4:13
Pedro José Santana Reimi, Psalm 50:15
Karelis Santana Reimi, Psalm 51:10

This is the message that I had for them:

Today, Reformation Sunday, is a day of confession in two ways.

First, the confession of our sins. Every Sunday we begin the Divine Servie with the general confession of sins and receive absolution before the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. This is the day of first communion for six of you.

These six have been instructed according to the Small Catechism of Martin Luther, so they understand the importance of confession and repentance of all immorality and false belief before receiving the true body and true blood of Jesus Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine. Because he does not believe the words “given for you” or “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” or doubts them, is not worthy, nor is ready to receive Christ's body and blood. As St. Paul says, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:28-29).

By confession, we also mean public confession of the faith. In today's text (John 8:31-36), our Lord tells us, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The freedom Christ speaks of is freedom from sin. The truth of Christ, that is to say, His sacrifice on the cross, frees us from slavery to sin and Satan. Christ paid the price for the sins of the whole world on the cross, and so we are justified by faith in Him, and not by our own works. However, to remain true disciples of Christ, we must abide in His Word.

In holy baptism we received the complete assurance of eternal life in Christ and began the life of faith, we were born again of the Holy Spirit. Baptism was our first confession of faith by the work of the Holy Spirit. As it says in Mark 16:16, “He who believes and is baptized, will be saved; but he does not believe, will be condemned.” In baptism we receive the gift of saving faith.

But, it is possible to lose the benefits of baptism, if we do not abide in the Word of God. We have this Word in the Holy Scriptures, the source and rule of our faith. The Scriptures, written by the apostles and the prophets, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, tell us all that we need to know for our salvation. In the Bible, God speaks to every one of us.

But abiding in the Word is not just a matter of listening, reading and reflecting inwardly. The Word at times demands a verbal response.

For it also is the work of the Holy Spirit when we say “I believe” in the Word of God. As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.”

Also, when Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” our Lord replied, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah; for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father, Who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

On the day of their wedding, a bride and groom promise each other to love and live together until death. But, for them to fulfill this commitment, it will be necessary, at times, to reaffirm these vows in the years to come, in times of joy or grief. What do you think, should it be sufficient for a man and wife to say to each other, “I love you” on their wedding day and never again? For a man to kiss his wife on the wedding day and never again? Of course not!

In the same way, the promise of salvation and faith that we receive in baptism is for always. But a times we must reaffirm our trust in the Word of God, not just to reinforce our own faith, but to testify of Christ's truth to the world.

That is why on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, calling the church back to the basic truths of the Holy Scriptures: justification by faith alone, salvation by grace alone and the Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith. Later, Luther, a simple German monk, stood before Charles V, in his day emperor of all Europe and as King of Spain, ruler of the Spanish colonies in the New World, including Venezuela, and representatives of the Roman church and the empire and confessed this faith.

Karelis, Pedro, Jeison, Yhonny, Angie, Jimmy.

They said to him, “Recant the teachings of justification by faith alone, salvation by grace alone and the Scriptures as the only rule of faith under pain of death.” And Luther replied, "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicteyd each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

In your confirmation today, six of you will publicly confess the faith in which you were baptized. Let us thank God that we live in a country where there is freedom of conscience, so that you do not confess under pain of death at this very moment. However, as you have abided in the Word of God until this moment, you must testify to its truth with your lips. Also, today we remember Luther and others who risked their lives for the pure doctrine of the Bible and express our solidarity with believers in countries where Christians are persecuted.

May God bless you richly on this Reformation Day, and this day of your first communion. Amen.

Passage to Portuguesa

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:05:36 PDT

We took our show on the road Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, with a journey to the town of Piritu in the neighboring state of Portuguesa. There is another place called Piritu in the eastern Venezuelan state of Anzoategui, also known as Puerto Piritu because it is a Caribbean beach resort town. As such, it could not be more different than Piritu, Portuguesa, a small farming community with the usual array of basic services and agriculture-related businesses.
We visited the home of Dina de Solanillo. When I first met Dina in 2003, she and her husband, Elvis (yes, he is named after the late Mr. Presley) were members of La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay. Dina served for some time as the church secretary. When I last saw them, Dina, Elvis and their newborn child were living in a tiny apartment. It consisted of one room, and not a very large room at that.
About eight months ago, Elvis found a better job in a butcher shop in Piritu, Portuguesa, and the family moved there. Now they have a much larger house, big enough to accommodate them and their two children, Sara and Josue. The problem is that there is no Lutheran church in Piritu, or in all of Portuguesa, for that matter. Piritu is about a two-hour drive from Barinas and approximately the same distance from Barquisimeto. So we are sharing the responsibility of ministering to the Solanillos with El Paraiso Lutheran Church of Barquisimeto.
The most difficult part about this, of course, is that we do not have our means of transportation. Rather we have to rely on public transportation or hire someone to drive us. This time, Luz Maria's brother, Robert, took us to Piritu, even though his son's 15th birthday party was that afternoon (the 15th birthday is a very important event in Venezuela, as in most Latin American countries).

Cost is only part of the difficulty with hiring transportation, there are also the logistics of coordinating your schedule and those of the people you mean to serve with that of a third party. I dream of the day when La Caramuca Lutheran Mission might have a minivan for transporting people and/or equipment and materials.
Our school year begins
The opening of our preschool for another semester was delayed to October 4 due to an important national election the last week in September. We were able to complete the installation of our playground equipment as well as needed maintenance projects.

In this new semester we are introducing a new method of teaching basic reading skills. Yolanda Marquez, the author of the book and accompanying teaching materials, came to our preschool on October 8 to explain the concept to the families of our preschool children. Venezuela has 26 states and territories, roughly corresponding to the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet (from Amazonas to Zulia). Actually, there is some repetition (Amazonas, Anzoategui, Apure, for example), so the name of every state does not correspond exactly to a letter of the alphabet, but if not, the name of the state capital or some landmark does. Also there are some sounds in Venezuelan Spanish that are treated as separate letters, although they do not correspond to the symbols of the common alphabet. But the goal is for the children to learn to associate letters, numbers and colors with geographical locations, using sounds and images of the traditional dress, music, food and natural wonders of each area to reinforce the point.

We had more visitors on October 9. Luz Maria's mother, Carmen, brought her younger sister, Eloena, to visit the preschool. The family organized a big celebration of Carmen's 80th birthday on Oct. 10, so people came to Barinas from across Venezuela for the event. Eloena lives in Ciudad Bolivar in eastern Venezuela.
Finally on Sunday, Oct. 11, Pastor Luis Moya of La Reforma (Reformation) Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana attended and assisted me with our worship service. Pastor Moya is a member of the administrative council of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, which met in Barinas that weekend. It was his first trip to the state of Barinas and he specifically was looking forward to visiting our mission.

Playground for preschool nearly complete

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:06:59 PDT

By the grace of God and the generosity of supporters in North America, we soon will have built a playground for the preschool. We thank everyone who helped us raise the funds in time for the new school year.

The playground includes a swingset that we purchased from a metalworking shop in the nearby town of Barinitas, and a wooden clubhouse/jungle gym built by woodworkers also from Barinitas.
There were two men working on the wooden structure for a couple of days, then Señor Artilio started showing up by himself. So two of the youth from our mission, Sandro Perez and Pedro Santana, began helping him.

The playground equipment already has seen a lot of use and the new school year hasn't even started yet. We also have been able to do some needed maintenance work on our water system.

Five to be confirmed

God willing, we will confirm five on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. The young people who have been faithfully attending confirmation class include:

Karelis Santana;
Pedro Santana;
Jeison Arellano;
Jhonny Torres;
Jimmy Perez

Trip to Trujillo

As summer vacation time draws to a close, Luz Maria and I took a couple of days off and traveled to the city of Trujillo, capital of the state of Trujillo, the smallest of Venezuela's three Andes Mountain states. The city, situated 3,134 feet above sealevel, features many historic landmarks. It was in Trujillo that Simon Bolivar issued a "Declaration of War to the Death" against Spain in 1813. Actually he meant to the death or until Spain recognized Venezuela as an independent nation, whichever came first. Fortunately, it was the second option that came first and there also is a monument in Trujillo that marks the spot where Bolivar and Pablo Morillo, the leader of the royalist troops declared an armistice in 1820.

Luz Maria and I spent an afternoon enjoying Trujillo's many beautiful parks and plazas, and narrow streets winding between houses in the classic Spanish colonial style (the city is named after Trujillo, Spain). The next morning we visited the city's major tourist attraction, la Virgen de la Paz (the Virgin of Peace) monument which stands above the city at an elevation of 5,249 feet above sealevel. The statue of the Virgin Mary holding a dove is 153.28 feet high, a little more than 2 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty (not counting the Statue of Liberty's foundation and pedestal, which add approximately 150 more feet to the height of the monument). The Virgin of Peace was built in 1983 according to a design by sculptor Manuel de la Fuente and plans by engineer Rosendo Camargo.

The Virgin of Peace is the object of religious devotion (the state government, which maintains the site, reported 11,000 visitors during Holy Week 2010) and there is a Roman Catholic chapel housed inside of a geodesic dome at the base of the statue.

But if you are not into veneration of the Virgin Mary, the statue allows a panoramic view of the surrounding area. We entered at the base and climbed the stairs all the way to the top (there is an elevator as well, but it currently is not in working condition). There are four observation ports along the way and in the statue's head you can climb a narrow ladder to peek out her eyes. Luz Maria climbed the ladder and found the "eyeball" view really wasn't worth the effort.

The climb to the top was a bit of exercise, but the stairwell was comfortably wide, much wider than the stairwell in the tower of Holy Hill Basilica in Hubertus, Wisconsin, at least as I remember it from 20 years ago. Holy Hill, located 30 miles northwest of Milwaukee, is the highest peak in Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine region. The top of the hill itself is 1,300 feet above sealevel, while the tower rises another 192 feet. A favorite fall pastime for Milwaukeeans is to drive to Holy Hill when the trees of the Kettle Moraine are changing colors, sampling fresh apple cider from farms along the way.

One reason we chose a trip to Trujillo is because preschool plans include teaching the children about the 23 states of Venezuela, starting with their home state of Barinas and continuing with the neighboring mountain states. So we will have plenty of pictures of Barinas, Merida and Trujillo with which to begin.

Preschool graduation 2010

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:32:38 PDT

We concluded our 2009-2010 school year with a graduation ceremony at the preschool, July 16. Most of our eight graduates and their families attended the previous Sunday's service, at which we gave thanks for having the children in our preschool and prayed for their future starting with first grade in September. I was pleased to note on both Sunday and Friday that for the first time two of our graduates, Elias Montoya and Genesis Marquina were baptized at our mission.

The other six graduates were:

Diego Sanchez
Breitny Morales
Suneisbeth Pacheco
Eduar Cuevas
Carla Peralta
Anny Arteaga

We also were pleased and honored to have two important figures in our local community attend the graduation ceremony: Noel Marquina, father of Genesis and president of the Barrio Las Lomas community council; and Yelvis Selina, director of all the preschools in our sector. These two left early from graduation ceremonies at other preschools specifically to attend our graduation.

There is reason for us to feel optimistic at this point. The population of La Caramuca continues to grow and the existing first-grade classrooms will be filled to capacity this year. If we could raise the money to build additional classroom space, the next few years would be a good time for us to expand our program to include first grade students.

Honoring marriage and martyrdom

On July 25, 2010, Luz Maria and I marked the sixth anniversary of our wedding ceremony at La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay. Of course, we have two anniversaries, since we were married in a civil ceremony in La Caramuca November 29, 2003. In Venezuela, religious marriage ceremonies are not legally binding. You have to publicly sign the contract, along with witnesses, in front of a civil magistrate. Actually, first you have to apply for the marriage license and the date for the civil ceremony is set by the magistrate according to his (or her) convenience.It took us seven months from the date of the civil ceremony to arrange a church service asking God's blessing on our marriage. Because of the complications and expenses involved in a "proper" church wedding, many people will forgo it in favor of having their pastor come to the magistrate's office and say a prayer before the civil proceedings begin.

On both our dates, Luz Maria and I always give thanks for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we received to work in partnership toward the realization of a Lutheran mission in La Caramuca. There is no doubt that we have accomplished much more as a married couple than either of us could have on our own.

On the church calendar, July 25 is the day of the Apostle James the Elder. This is James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, fellow apostle and evangelist, as distinguished from James, son of Alphaeus (or Clopas), another of the original 12 apostles, and James the Just, brother of Jesus and bishop of the church in Jerusalem after the death of James the Elder.

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By the way, Venezuela's national capital is named after James the Elder. The city was founded July 25, 1567, and its full name is Santiago de Leon de Caracas (literally, "St. James of the Lion of Caracas"). The city seal incorporates the Cross of St. James and a lion,
James the Elder is the second Christian martyr mentioned by name in the New Testament, after the deacon Stephen, and one of the only two apostles whose deaths are recorded (the other being Judas Iscariot). According to post-apostolic Christian writings, his brother John was the only apostle to die of old age. The Scripture readings appointed in our lectionary for the Day of St. James reinforce the theme of sacrificing all for Christ and there are lessons to be learned by all Christians, these passages speak quite directly to those who have been called into the public ministry of the church.

The Old Testament reading, 1 Kings 19:7-18, God finds the prophet Elijah hiding in a cave and asks him what he is doing there. Elijah replies, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” There always are those who rebel against the authority of God's Word, and thus against those who attempt to preach and teach it, even with violence. But as God revealed to Elijah that he was not alone, that were 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed down and kissed Baal, God in various ways reminds those of us charged with preaching the Word that wherever it is preached, there also will be those who respond in faith and so will be saved.

Likewise, in the epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 4:9-15, "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things."

Kretzmann´s commentary says, "Paul has in mind either a public procession on a great festival day, in which the condemned criminals on their way to the arena marched last, or he thinks of gladiators who, no matter how often they escaped death on one day or during one season, were always brought forth again and were thus doomed to die... The ministers of Christ must pass for fools, because they preach Christ crucified, a message which in no way conforms with the wisdom of the world..." The lay Christian, not obligated to preach publicly, may escape for a time being the target of the world's wrath, but it is the pastor's duty to be such a target, to endure all manner of humilliation and mockery that the Gospel of Christ may be proclaimed in all its power and purity. For this reason, the pulpit and altar must be kept off-limits to those who are not prepared to be stewards of God's mysteries, those who only want a soapbox for their own opinions, and the attention and praise of the crowds.

Jesus Himself makes this point in the Gospel reading, Matthew 20:20-28. After the mother of James and John has requested special positions of honor for his sons in the kingdom of heaven, He says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” All Christians must be prepared to serve and care for the needs of other, but especially those entrusted with positions of authority in the church must be the servants of the servants of Christ. Those who publicly preach the Word especially must be prepared to share the "cup" and "baptism" of which our Lord speaks in these verses. This means that the public ministry is not just a ministry of words, but of actions which reflect, on a smaller scale, the suffering and death of Christ.

Kisses sweeter than wine

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:01:34 PDT

It sounds like a line from a love-song and it is. You probably have it heard it somewhere, sometime. "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" was first recorded by the Weavers in 1951 and later by Jimmie Rodgers, Eddy Arnold, Andy Williams, Jackson Browne and Waylon Jennings, among others. The chorus goes, "Uh, oh, she had kisses sweeter than wine."

The chorus of "This Magic Moment", another classic ballad, features a variation on the phrase. The singer recalls the first kiss with his beloved as being "sweeter than wine, softer than a summer's night." "This Magic Moment" was originally released by the Drifters in 1960 and later by Jay and the Americans, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, among others.

Who knows whether the writers of these American pop standards were consciously borrowing from the Bible, but it's hard not to hear an echo of the Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon), verse 2: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine." Verse 1 is the book's title: "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's."

I opened our discussion of courtship and marriage for the youth with a meditation on the Song of Songs. Luz Maria got the idea for a series of such discussions after hearing rumors of many pregnant sixth-graders this year and learning that as of 2010, Venezuela has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Latin America, although teen pregnancies are increasing throughout the region.

The Song of Songs seemed appropriate to me, even though explaining its message in a simple manner posed a challenge. Franz Delitzsch, a German Lutheran scholar and theologian of Jewish descent, called it "the most obscure book in the Old Testament" and, in some ways it is. This is primarily because the Song of Songs is a lengthy poem consisting almost entirely of dialogue. The problem is that the text offers very few clues as to who is talking and when. It is as if the book of Job started right in with the debate over why the righteous suffer with no framing narrative about who Job was or what kind of predicament he was in, and with no phrases like, "Then Job said..." or "Then Elihu said..." or "Then the Lord spoke..." This has led to an abundance of speculation, much of it rather fanciful, about how many "voices" there are in the poem, who is speaking, and the details of the underlying narrative.

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What is clear is that there are at least two speakers, a woman called "the Shulamite" (the Hebrew word appears in no other book of the Old Testament and might be a proper name) and a man, apparently King Solomon. The two express their feelings for each other over the course of a courtship, wedding and marriage, a relationship that is tested at every stage. Ultimately, however, the Song of Songs concludes with a triumphant reaffirmation of marital love and commitment (chapter 8, verses 5 to 7).

The Song of Songs is frankly sensual in its language. The writer is keenly attuned to colors, sounds, smells, textures and tastes. He (the first verse would indicate that Solomon himself wrote it) is deeply appreciative of the beauty of the human form as well as the corresponding beauties of nature and the landscapes of Palestine. Thus the Song of Songs may be read as an affirmation of the goodness of God's creation and of romantic love and marriage, and a corrective to the many Old Testament warnings against the temptations of the flesh.
But there is more to it than that. Since ancient times the Song of Songs has been interpreted a symbolic representation of the relationship between the Lord and His people. The traditional Jewish interpretation is that the Song of Songs is a picture of the history of Israel beginning with the Exodus, which is why to this day the Song of Songs is read in synagogues during Passover. Later Cbristian commentators would see the Shulamite as a symbol of the Church and her kingly bridegroom as Christ.

How is this connection made? The moral of the story in Song of Songs is that commitment plus fidelity equals a lasting relationship characterized by joy, contentment and complete trust in the beloved. This principle may not only be applied to the most intimate of human relationships, but also to relationship between God and His people. Hosea 2:16.20 makes this clear:

“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband"...and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD."

And again in Isaiah 54:5

"For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called."

On the negative side, not only does the Old Testament condemn the sexual immorality and perversion of the pagan world, but idolatry in itself is considered adultery. Jeremiah 3:1 says this: "You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD."

Given this theme of fidelity, it might seem inconsistent to identify the Shulamite's suitor as Solomon, since the historical books of the Old Testament tell of the king's many wives and concubines, and his eventual fall into idolatry. But not if Solomon is seen in a prophetic fashion as prefiguring another son of David who would bring justice and mercy to His people. In fact, Solomon is portrayed as a messianic figure in 2 Samuel 7:12–17, Psalm 72 and also in Matthew 12:42.

In the New Testament, St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, "I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

And in Ephesians 5:22-32, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

Finally in Revelation 19:7-9, there is the triumphant vision of Christ, the Lamb of God, His bride, the Church, and the eternal wedding-feast:

"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready...And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

In conveying these ideas to the youth, it helped to point out how the Song of Solomon was the source of words and images in some of their favorite songs. For example, Song of Songs 2.4 says, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love," while in chapter 6, verse 3, we read, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." One of the songs that the children and youth really like to sing is called "Su Bandera sobre mi es amor" (His banner over me is love) and the first stanza is "I am Christ's and Christ is mine; His banner over me is love."

Likewise, in Song of Songs 2:1 we read, "I am the rose of Sharon; I am the lily of the valley." So in the song, "Cristo es la Peña de Horeb" (Christ is the Rock of Horeb), the second stanza goes, "Cristo es el lirio del valle de los flores, la Rosa pura y blanca de Sarón."

After the opening meditation and prayer, Luz Maria led the group in a discussion of what physical changes they could expect as they entered adolescence. and how that might affect their emotional, intellectual and social development. She talked about some of the immediate consequences of early pregnancy and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the long-term consequences of becoming sexually active too soon and outside the bounds of matrimony.

Luz Maria says that, based on the discussion so far, the youth have inadequate knowledge of basic facts of life, despite having an idea of what condoms and birth control pills are. However, their families have responded favorably and we will have at least one more session.

Anyi Vanesa baptized

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:44:09 PDT

Anyi Vanesa Garrido Santana was baptized Saturday, June 19, 2010, on her brother José Ignacio's second birthday.

Over the years I had assisted in the baptisms of children and adults, but this was the first time that I said the words of baptismal regeneration, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" and applied the water. It was a most moving moment, as I had explained to all involved that in her baptism, God Himself called Anyi by name and adopted her as His child through faith in Jesus Christ.

To me it was a marvelous thing how the appointed lessons in the one-year lectionary for June highlighted this event. On June 6, I preached on Luke 16:19-31, the parable of Lazarus the beggar at the rich man's gate. In truth, we do not deserve anything good from God. In His eyes, we are all dirty, disgusting beggars like Lazarus in our Lord's parable. We are sinners who deserve eternal punishment in hell. By nature, we are enemies and rebels against God. However, as the epistle for that day (1 John 4:16-21) said, God is love and in His love sent His only Son to be the Savior of the world. Christ suffered and died on the cross, so that we might have the promise of eternal life with God. Therefore, we will have no fear on Judgment Day, for we will be saved by grace.

On June 13, I preached on Luke 14:15-24, the parable of the great banquet, symbolizing the invitation to eternal life, which begins not in the remote future, as the Pharisee believed, but right now as we are born again of water and the Spirit. That is why Jesus emphasized the immediacy and urgency of the Gospel.

The text for June 20, Luke 15:11-32, the parable of the prodigal son, was most appropriate both for the baptism of Anyi and for Father's Day, for it spoke of a father's unmerited love for his sons and his desire to save the one that was lost.

Dr.David P. Scaer, chairman of the systematic theology department at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, calls "(the) popular slogan "Word and sacrament," a phrase so much a part of Lutheran theology that it enjoys a stellar ranking of the second magnitude,slightly below the three solas" (faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone). My years of observation and study in Venezuela have confirmed the truth of this for me, especially if you tack another word, "ministry", onto "Word and sacrament." Nowadays, "ministry" is loosely used to mean almost any kind of good work, but the one true ministry of the church is the public preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments.

In an article published in the January-April edition of Concordia Theological Quarterly, Dr. Scaer explains that although baptism is in itself a one-time act, "The continued effective force of baptism becomes visible and audible in the assembly of the worshipping Christian congregation. The believers assemble as the baptized, and the rite of baptism is repeated and reflected in the church's liturgy. The triune invocation derives its authority from the One who instituted baptism, and again the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost becomes the possession of the baptized. Sins are confessed as a repetition of the denouncing of Satan's kingdom and are forgiven again in the name of the Triune God to whom the believer belongs by baptism. The faith's requirements are repeated in the credal recitation. True worship of the church is the commemoration of baptism."

Dr. Scaer continues to say that, "Preaching should not be viewed as a separate function but rather it represents to the believer that same Christ in whose death and life he
shared through baptism. Preaching directs unbelievers to baptism to find Christ and believers back to baptism to reestablish their faith in Him. The organic unity between baptism and preaching must be preserved." In the Great Commission, the command to "teach them all the things that I have commanded you" does not precede, but follows the command to baptize and make disciples of all nations (implying that it is the sacrament of baptism that makes disciples).

Since in baptism we receive the gift of new life in Christ, once and for always, it does not make sense that this sacrament should be denied to infants. However, since the command to teach follows the command to baptize, the church, the community of believers, has the responsibility for the continued instruction in the faith of those who have been baptized.

There is a custom in Venezuela, and I have witnessed this myself, called "postura de agua." In many parts of Venezuela today as in times gone by, the Catholic priest will visit a village once a year to celebrate Mass and perform marriages and baptisms. However, many people grew impatient with waiting for the priest to show up either to formalize sexual unions or perform baptisms. So the concept of "postura de agua" arose. The man of the house does an abbreviated version of the baptismal rite and immediately after splashing water on the baby "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," they immediately - and I mean immediately roll out the beer and finger-food for a big party. There is no sense of the beginning of a new life in Christ and the need to continue nurturing the child in faith and prayer. However, it is not the ritual itself or the phonetic formula, "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost" that gives baptism its power, but the Holy Spirit acting through the Word (the proclamation of forgiveness of sins in Christ) and the water (as the visible element of the sacrament), creating faith in the baptized and strengthening the faith already inspired in those who bring the child forward for adoption in the family of God, that is, the church.

Change can be painless

We have changed our hour of Sunday service from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. Originally it was set at 4 in the afternoon because I had the responsibility of assisting with the morning service at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas. Now I do not have that duty and we long have a problem with the later hour. That is, at 4 p.m. the tropical sun is situated at just the right angle to shine under the roof of our covered patio. No one wanted to sit in the direct sunlight (you wouldn't, either). We tried various means of providing shade, but nothing really worked. So we changed the hour to 10 in the morning and no one seems to mind at all.

History of La Caramuca

On June 16, 2010, the preschool children had the privilege of hearing Lorenzo Medina talk about the history of La Caramuca. Mr. Medina was president of the town council from 1982 to 1992. While the city of Barinas is more than 400 years old, La Caramuca emerged as a community in 1948. The first deeds to the land were written in the late 1800s, but until the 1940s the entire area was the private property of one or two families. From 1948 to 1974 there were only 16 houses in La Caramuca, now home to around 5,000 people. Mr. Medina also spoke of various local legends and landmarks, including la Casa de las Piedras (House of Stone), a geological oddity that I have not seen, but would like to.

Making the most of Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:18:53 PDT

Mother's Day is quite a big deal in Venezuela. In terms of sales volume of cards, gift, food and other items, Mother's Day is nearly equal to Christmas as a commercial holiday. But celebrating Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May is not a native Venezuelan tradition. Rather, it is the modern, secular version of Mother's Day which originated in the United States during the early 20th Century.

For a long time in western Christendom, the special day for honoring mothers was the fourth Sunday of Lent, still marked on the historic liturgical calendar as Laetare Sunday.Depending on the year, Laetare Sunday may fall on any date from March 1 to April 4. "Laetare" is Latin for "rejoice". The introit for Laetare opens the service with words from Isaiah 66:10, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her..."

However, the tradition of celebrating the fourth Sunday in Lent as " target="_blank">"Mothering Sunday" apparently only survives in Great Britain, Ireland and perhaps a few other places. With a few other exceptions, a majority of nations have officially accepted the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day since President Woodrow Wilson established this date as a U.S. holiday in 1914.

We observed Mother's Day on Sunday, May 9, with activities after the service, and in the preschool Monday, May 10. Both times there was cake and refreshments. There were two cakes on Sunday. One was for all the mothers in attendance and the other was a birthday cake for Luz Maria (her birthday is May 5).

For Sunday's sermon text, I used the epistle for Rogate Sunday (the fifth Sunday after Easter, or the sixth Sunday of Easter, depending on how you phrase it), James 1: 22-27, especially verse 27, which says, "Religion pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

It says in part, "An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels...Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her."

According to the book of Genesis, Eve, the first woman, was created to be a blessing to her husband and her children, and God intended all children to have both mothers and fathers. But sin entered the world, and now there are all sorts of unfortunate situations, such as single parents who do not have the resources to raise young children on their own, senior citizens who have no families to care for them, and, of course, children who have no parents at all. In the time of St. James, widows and orphans were the most marginalized members of society. It still is the mark of living Christian faith and love to care for those less fortunate than ourselves. Not that we are saved by our good works, but rather saving faith bears fruit in our loving others as God has loved us.

On Monday, I once again read from Proverbs 31 and lead an opening prayer, but the occasion was more just an opportunity for the mothers to enjoy presentations from their children (one being a song-and-dance number on proper table etiquette).

Beyond confirmation class

On Sunday, May 16, Noel Marquina received his certificate from the Juan de Frias Theological Institute for completing the course in "Basic Christian Doctrine". Noel is the first of our youth to complete a Bible study course beyond basic confirmation instruction.

A fine cassava crop

The rainy season continues and one result has been a reduction in the duration of our daily power outages to two hours or less. Another is the fine crop from the cassava that Luz Maria planted. Cassava is a tropical tuber that is often used as a substitute for potatoes here. They grow potatoes here, but mainly up in the mountains. You can order french-fried cassava instead of french-fried potatoes at McDonald's restaurants in Venezuela.

Another potato substitute is plantains. Plantains look like bananas, but are not as sweet. They taste more like, well, potatoes. Some people prefer plantain chips to potato chips as a snack.

Luz Maria also planted a small grove of papaya trees, but it may be another year before they start producing. Our avocado trees are in full production now, We still have plenty of limes, too.

An Eastertide gift of new life

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:34:17 PDT

Anyi Vanesa Garrido Santana, Luz Maria's eighth grandchild, was born April 13, 2010, weighing in at 3.65 kilograms. Anyi is her mother, Sarai's first daughter. Her two brothers, Edwar José (two years old) and José Ignacio (about one year), at first referred to her simply as "la niña" (the girl). After a time, they absorbed that idea that she has a name, although sometimes when they say "Anyi Vanesa", it sounds like "Angi Belleza" (Angi the Beauty). I am not sure whether that is what they intend to say or not.

That Wednesday afterward, I talked with the preschool children about Anyi's birth and also about the birth of Moses (Exodus 2:6). Once upon a time, I said, the people of Israel, the nation to whom God had promised the birth of a Savior, were slaves in Egypt. But their God was them and blessed them in that the women of Israel were strong and easily gave birth to many children, "not like the women of Egypt." So the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, became alarmed at how the Israelite population was growing in comparison to that of the Egyptians, and ordered the baby boys of Israel to be killed.

Likewise, I said, there are people today who say there are too many people in the world, not enough natural resources to provide for everyone, and so maybe some children should not even be born. But this is contrary to the will of God, who is the true Giver of all life, to Whom every new life is precious and has a place in His design.

So we see in the story of Moses how God foiled the evil plan of Pharaoh to keep the Israelites under Egyptian domination. The baby destined to liberate Israel from slavery was placed in a basket to float hidden in the reeds of the Nile while his sister kept watch over him. And the sister's name was Maria, just like the mother of the Child destined to liberate all people from sin, death and the devil! (Maria, or Mary, of course, is derived from the Hebrew name rendered "Miriam" in English translations of the Old Testament, but the Reina-Valera Bible has it as Maria.)

When the Pharaoh's daughter came down to the banks of the Nile to bathe, she found the baby Moses and wanted him for her own son. So the man who one day would defeat the king of Egypt grew up in the Egyptian court, although his sister made sure that he had his true mother as a nursemaid.

A later chapter in the story of Moses was the theme of a presentation by the youth after the Palm Sunday service. We had a good crowd (between 20 and 30) composed of children, youth and adults for Palm Sunday. The youth communicated through drama, dance and art what they had learned about the Ten Plagues, the first Passover and the Exodus, and how these events prefigured the events of Holy Week.

There were about 10 in attendance for the Good Friday service, which consisted of our order of evening prayer with a meditation on the seven last words of Jesus from the Cross. For Easter Sunday we had between 10 and 15 in attendance. I was pleased with this, because most of the homes in our community were padlocked during Holy Week as the families went on vacation during the week-long holiday.

Pray for rain

After months of drought, we have entered Venezuela's rainy season. The arrival of tropical rains has raised hopes that water levels in the Orinoco River will rise enough to sustain normal levels of electrical power generation by the Guri Dam facility, which provides about 80 percent of the electricity for the country. However, it appears the government's electricity rationing plan will remain in place for another two months. In other words, we still are experiencing daily power blackouts of at least three hours in duration. We pray that the rains will continue and that by the end of this period, the blackouts will have ceased.

Stations of the Cross

noreply@blogger.com (David Ernst) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 06:34:30 PDT

Although we have a small group of people that have been baptized and confirmed as Lutherans, our mission actually serves a somewhat wider community. Because there are so few schools with any kind of Christian orientation here, some of the people who send their children to our preschool are devout Roman Catholics or Pentecostalists. The father of one of our little girls is the pastor of a Pentecostalist church, while two of our preschool teachers are Catholic (ideally, all of our teachers would be Lutheran, but Venezuelan law dictates that the preschool have a certain number of state-certified teachers and there are not that many state-certified Lutheran teachers here).

Of course we do not demand that faithful members of other churches join ours in order to send their children to our preschool. Attendance at our Sunday services is alway be invitation. Therefore, we strive to maintain a solidly Lutheran position in doctrine and practice while respecting the beliefs of those who subscribe to other confessions.

The preschool will be closed for Holy Week, therefore we are using this week to teach the preschool children that Holy Week means something other than vacation time. One of our teachers, Yosaira, had approached me with her huge family Bible. It was a "Catholic" Bible, including the "deuterocanonical" books in its Old Testament and some beautiful color-plate illustrations of the traditional Stations of the Cross. Yosaira thought perhaps we could scan the illustrations and use them to teach the children about the events of Good Friday.

The Stations of the Cross were first mentioned in writings from the fifth and sixth centuries as a series of numbered stops for pilgrims to meditate and pray while retracing the Via Dolorosa, or Christ's path from the Garden of Gethsemane to Golgotha, in Jerusalem. Supposedly these were places where Jesus paused on His way to the Cross, except for the last four which involve Him actually being nailed to the cross, dying, and being taken down and laid in the tomb. Eventually a list of 14 "stations" became the accepted norm and every year to this day hundreds of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem follow this pattern in following the Via Dolorosa.

Somewhat later, since relatively few people had the time or money to travel to Jerusalem, it became a devotional practice to recreate the path to the Cross with paintings or crosses along a circumscribed route in a church or elsewhere. For example, in Colonia Tovar, a German-Catholic enclave in the mountains north of Caracas, the main street of the town is marked with crosses representing the Stations of the Cross as it winds down to its end at St. Martin of Tours Church.

The imagery of the Stations of the Cross have provided inspiration for Christian art for centuries. Not only paintings and sculpture, but also Christian theater, as the European "Passion Play" tradition incorporates dramatizations of the various stations. This includes Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ," which is essentially a Passion Play on film (see postscript on Passion Plays).

However, there is a problem with the traditional Stations of the Cross: Not all of them are really part of any of the New Testament narratives. The traditional 14 Stations of the Cross are as follows:

Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus is given his cross
Jesus falls the first time
Jesus meets His mother
Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
St. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
Jesus falls the second time
Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
Jesus falls the third time
Jesus is stripped of His garments
Jesus is nailed to the cross
Jesus dies on the cross
Jesus' body is removed from the cross
Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense

Only eight of these stations have clear Scriptural foundation. Numbers 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 do not and the traditional representation of Jesus' body being placed in His mother's arms as it is lowered from the cross in number 13 is an embellishment of the New Testament story. The Roman Catholic Church today recognizes this and, as I pointed out to Yosaira, in 1991 Pope John Paul II approved an alternative form of the Stations of the Cross that is completely consistent with the Scriptures. This form also was approved by Benedict XVI in 2007. This is the new pattern:

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested
Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin
Jesus is denied by Peter
Jesus is judged by Pilate
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns
Jesus takes up His cross
Jesus is helped by Simon to carry His cross
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
Jesus is crucified
Jesus promises His kingdom to the repentant thief
Jesus entrusts Mary and John to each other
Jesus dies on the cross
Jesus is laid in the tomb
Jesus rises from the dead on the third day

I told Yosaira I would have no problem with using this form of the Stations of the Cross. We used most of the pictures from her Bible and I filled in the gaps with graphics from the Wisconsin Synod Web site.

There is another problem with the Roman Catholic interpretation of the Stations of the Cross and that is this form of devotion still is considered an "act of reparation" or, in essence, a meritorious work.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Reparation

"Reparation is a theological concept closely connected with those of atonement and satisfaction, and thus belonging to some of the deepest mysteries of the Christian Faith. It is the teaching of that Faith that man is a creature who has fallen from an original state of justice in which he was created, and that through the Incarnation, Passion, and Death of the Son of God, he has been redeemed and restored again in a certain degree to the original condition. Although God might have condoned men's offences gratuitously if He had chosen to do so, yet in His Providence He did not do this; He judged it better to demand satisfaction for the injuries which man had done Him. It is better for man's education that wrong doing on his part should entail the necessity of making satisfaction. This satisfaction was made adequately to God by the Sufferings, Passion, and Death of Jesus Christ, made Man for us. By voluntary submission to His Passion and Death on the Cross, Jesus Christ atoned for our disobedience and sin. He thus made reparation to the offended majesty of God for the outrages which the Creator so constantly suffers at the hands of His creatures. We are restored to grace through the merits of Christ's Death, and that grace enables us to add our prayers, labours, and trials to those of Our Lord "and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ" (Colossians 1:24). We can thus make some sort of reparation to the justice of God for our own offences against Him, and by virtue of the Communion of the Saints, the oneness and solidarity of the mystical Body of Christ, we can also make satisfaction and reparation for the sins of others."

Certainly Colossians 1:24 read in context does not support the above assertions. Paul writes in Colossians of the redemptive work of Christ as being sufficient to atone for all the sins of all men. In verse 24, he says that he is able to endure "the sufferings of Christ", that is, the difficulties that he, as a preacher of the Word, experiences above and beyond the normal problems of life for the sake of Christ, as being something that will benefit Christ's body, the Church. If he, Paul, is able to endure these sufferings, then perhaps the Church will be spared some suffering for the sake of Christ. But as in baptism Christians share in the resurrection of Christ, they also will share some of the same sufferings as Christ (persecution and rejection by the world). In no sense, however, do our sufferings add anything, or need to add anything, to the price Christ paid for our sins on the cross.

I addressed this issue in an introductory talk to parents and children on Monday and again in my presentation of the pictures on Wednesday, saying that our worship and praise during Holy Week were not required of us to earn His love and favor, but rather were our response to what Jesus did for us on the cross. Through His suffering and death on the cross He paid the full price for our sins and that therefore we are justified before God through faith in Him, not through any of our works. Therefore, the Stations of the Cross ares simply a tool for us to remember and appreciate Christ's sacrifice for us.

No preschool next week, but our Holy Week schedule includes services on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Postscript on Passion Plays

When Luz Maria and I visited my family in South Dakota in 2006, we stopped at the Spearfish Amphitheater in Spearfish, S.D., which for nearly 70 years was the main venue for the Black Hills Passion Play. The Black Hills Passion Play was presented on a 350-foot outdoor stage with seating for 6,000 people. Performances were Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays during the summer months.

In 1932 a troupe of Passion Players from Lünen, Germany, where a Passion Play had been presented since 1242, began touring the United States. One of them was Josef Meier,
a seventh-generation Passion Player. Their script was in German, which meant their engagements were limited to theaters and churches frequented by German-speaking immigrants. Because of political and economic conditions in Germany, Meier decided to stay in the United States. He had the script translated into English, hired American actors to replace the German cast, and while touring various towns, began looking for a permanent home for his Passion Play.

Spearfish was chosen in part because of the site's excellent natural acoustics. The amphitheater was built in 1939. During its heyday, the Black Hills Passion Play company not only made special appearances throughout the United States and Canada, but in 1953 established a winter home in Lake Wales, Florida, where the play was presented until 1998.

There were no performances scheduled for the winter of 2006, but Luz Maria and I were given a personal tour of the Black Hills Passion Play Museum by Guido Della Vecchia, husband of Johanna Meier, Josef's daughter. Guido spoke Italian while Luz Maria spoke Spanish, and they were able to communicate to a limited extent.

So I was saddened to learn that the Black Hills Passion Play gave its final performance in 2008. For me, the Passion Play was always part of the Black Hills, just like Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument and the Needles. I understand the museum is still open.

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Stations of the Cross