Showing posts with label Catechism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catechism. Show all posts

Jun 16, 2013

Confirmation and first communion for Gianny Vanessa Roa Ruiz

Gianny Vanessa Roa Ruiz and me  Here is the English text of the sermon that I preached for the confirmation and first communion of Gianny Vanessa Roa Ruiz. It was based on Proverbs 9:1-10 and Luke 14:15-24, the appointed Old Testament and Gospel readings for the second Sunday after Trinity, according to the one-year lectionary.


Grace and peace in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many of you are here at the invitation of our sister, Gianny Vanessa Roa Ruiz, because today is the day of her confirmation and first communion She wants to share her joy with you.

We find an invitation in our reading of the Old Testament. "Wisdom has built her house, hewn out its seven pillars killed her victims, mingled her wine, and set her table. She has sent her maids on the topto the rooftops of the town to cry, Whoever is simple, come here.”

In the book of Proverbs, the concept of wisdom is symbolized by the figure of a woman. In chapters before the ninth, is the contrast between the figure of Wisdom, who is good, and a tempting adulteress. These women represent two lifestyles, or two ways. Wisdom is the way of the Lord, that is, how to live according to the will of God. This is the way of happiness that lasts forever. The other is the path of destruction, in which there is the promise of many vain pleasures, but in the end is only a trap.

There is something more, because in our text for today we have a picture of a great feast, prepared by the figure of wisdom with an invitation for everyone. "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed." T his is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, who would be the true incarnation of divine wisdom and who has invited us to eat bread and drink wine, and also His body and blood in the Lord's Supper.
Furthermore,in our gospel for today, our Lord tells a parable, ie a symbolic story, of a man who prepared a great banquet and invited many. "And at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those invited, Come, for everything is now ready."

But what happened? "And they all began to make excuses. The first said: I have bought a field, and I must go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'll try them out, excuse me. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot go. "

What was Jesus talking about in this parable? Obviously, the father of the family is God the Father Almighty. His feast is eternal life in heaven. Why do so many refuse the invitation?  They do not see with eyes of faith the invitation to hear the word and receive the sacraments as a preview of the eternal feast in heaven. They are preoccupied with their businesses or their own personal matters. The same contrast is found in the book of Proverbs. Earthly affairs often seem more urgent or more attractive than seeking first the kingdom of God. However, the wise man, his mind enlightened by the Holy Spirit, understands that heavenly joy lasts forever, not just for the moment.

Furthermore, although the invitation to the Lord's Supper is free and for all, it is available only for a while. When our earthly life is over, so is the invitation and there is no second chance.

Look, many of you have received an invitation card for a wedding. The invitation is a gift for you. It's yours. Nobody can offer money to buy an invitation to a wedding. But what if someone takes an invitation card and throws it in the trash? He is not likely to get another invitation.

First communionIt is a more serious matter with the invitation to the Lord's Supper. We speak of the two kingdoms, the kingdom of God's power nd the kingdom of God's grace. The kingdom of divine power is the order of creation, the domain of His Law. The moral Law is the universal will of God for our lives. All humans are suubject to this Law and only one has fulfilled the Law, the will of God, perfectly. Therefore, to live under the Law is a sentence of physical and spiritual death.

However, one has fulfilled all the Law in our place, Jesus Christ. He paid the price for our sins, so we have our invitation to share in the joy of the Lord's Supper. One day we will be with Him in heaven, but in this world we have the opportunity to receive His body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine of the sacrament. "Do this in remembrance of me" does not just mean looking back to the first century, but also to anticipate the great feast with the church triumphant after the end of the world.
We have eternal life only by grace. No one can buy it and nobody earns eternal life on their own merits, however, we may decline the invitation and there is no other chance to escape eternal death.

We receive eternal life by faith alone through baptism. By our baptism, we are members of the body of Christ, the communion of saints, which is the church. The Bible says the invitation to baptism is for all nations, all families, men, women, old, young and babies. Why not share the sacrament with everyone?

In the Lutheran Church, we recognize only two sacraments, not seven as does the Roman Catholic church. By our definition, a sacrament should be instituted and commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, should be a means of grace (forgiveness), and must have a visible element linked with the Word of God. In the case of baptism, the visible element is water, in the Lord's Supper the visible elements are the bread and wine.

Genesis Marquina, Gianny Vanessa and Oriana Montoya  Confirmation is not a sacrament, it does not give a measure of grace that baptism that does not deliver. It is a ritual that marks the culmination of the preparation for first communion. The difference between the sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper is the warnings that to receive the Lord's Supper worthily, a person must examine his conscience and consciously repent of his sins, and discern the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament. To receive the sacrament unworthily is to receive condemnation, not a blessing.

So we teach these things to young believers with the Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther, written for parents to teach their children. The catechism contains the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father and basic doctrine. Confirmation is a public testimony of faith and a sign that the believer is ready to receive the sacrament.

Now our sister, Gianny Vanessa, has chosen the better portion, like Mary of Bethany. She is a wise girl. Let's welcome her as a communicant member.
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The peace that passes all understanding be with each of you forever. Amen.

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Jul 5, 2012

Knowing it by heart


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Every day we open the preschool with the raising of the Venezuelan flag and the singing of the national anthem, followed by a Scripture reading, the Lord's Prayer and a couple of songs. One song goes like this:
El amor de Dios es maravilloso,
El amor de Dios es maravilloso,
El amor de Dios es maravilloso,
¡Cuan grande es el amor de Dios!

Es tan alto que no puedo ir arriba de él,
Tan profundo que no puedo ir abajo de él,
Tan ancho que no puedo ir afuera de él,
¡Cuan grande es el amor de Dios!

This is based, more or less, on Romans 8:39, “Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There are movements to accompany the words of the song. For example, when you sing, “It's so high that I cannot rise above it,” you lift your hands up as high as you can. You lower your hands as far as you can for “It's so deep that I cannot sink beneath it,” and spread them as far as you can for “It{ s so wide that I cannot go outside of it.”

IMG_0213.CR2 Luz Maria sang this song to her one-year-old granddaughter, Anyi, when Anyi was lying in a hospital bed with dengue fever. Despite the fact that dengue fever causes severe pain in the joints, Anyi began raising and lowering her hands in response to the song!
Rote learning may have a bad name in certain circles, but incidents like this illustrate its value. I am glad that a times of stress in my own life that I have not had to struggle to remember the creeds, the Lord's Prayer, key Bible verses and hymns. This I credit to the liturgical form of worship that we followed as a church (which was found in the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal for the first 20 years of my life).
For Sunday morning worship in La Caramuca, we follow the liturgy in Culto Cristiano, a Spanish-language hymnal first published by Concordia Publishing House in 1964. There has been no complete Spanish-language Lutheran hymnal published since then. Actually, many in the congregation, both children and adults, either cannot read at all or are semi-literate. However, the structure of the liturgy has enabled them to memorize the creeds, the Lord's Prayer, various hymns and the numerous Bible verses that are used in the liturgy.
Our place of worship is only a roofed patio (we hope that soon we might build a real chapel). Our altar is only a white plastic lawn table. Nevertheless we decorate the altar in the appropriate liturgical colors, which also are reflected in the altar candles and my vestments. The liturgical colors are a visual aid to help everyone recall important events memorialized in the church calendar and to remind them that we are, in fact, marking time. We are counting down the days until the Lord's return.
A gentleman named J.A.O. Stubb once wrote of his early experiences in a Swedish-American Lutheran church: “As grandfather turned to the Altar and intoned the Lord’s Prayer and the words of consecration, with the elevation of the host and the chalice, I felt as if God was near. The congregation standing reverentially about those kneeling before the Altar, made me think of Him who, though unseen, was in our midst. I forgot the old, cold church with its bare walls, its home-made pews and its plain glass windows. I early came to know some words of that service, such as: “This is the true body, the true blood of Christ”; “Forgiveness of sins”; “Eternal life.” I venture that all who, like me, early received such impressions of the Lord’s Supper, will approach the Altar or the Communion with a reverence that time will but slowly efface.” (J.A.O. Stubb, D.D., “Vestments andLiturgies”, 1920).
Of course, the Lutheran liturgy is not the invention of Swedish-Americans, nor of German-Americans, nor of any national/ethnic group, but rather is derived from pre-Tridentine versions of the Latin Mass (when people today speak of “the traditional Latin Mass”, usually they are thinking of the Tridentine Mass. This was developed at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and adopted as the standard order of worship by the Roman Catholic Church in 1570 (it would later be replaced as the norm by the post-Vatican II Novo Ordo in 1969).The Tridentine Mass was developed some time after the first specifically Lutheran form of the Latin Mass in 1523. As the Lutheran order of worship retained all the elements of the Mass except those that directly contradicted the principles of “Scripture alone, faith alone and grace alone,” the Tridentine Mass by design reflected the Council of Trent s rejection of those principles.
Nearly all Lutheran churches throughout the world use some form of the revised “Western rite”, translated into vernacular languages. One exception being the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, which subscribes to the Book of Concord, but uses an order of worship based on Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) liturgies. All variations of the Lutheran liturgy draw on the liturgical heritage of the ancient church (and beyond, since the worship of the early church was rooted in the liturgical worship of the Temple and the synagogues) as the most appropriate manner of conducting the ministry of the Word and the sacraments.
Christmas in June

DSC05791 Here in La Caramuca we got some presents early, as we were visited by a delegation from our national church, the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. The delegation included Pastor Elias Lozano, the newly elected president of the ILV; Pastor Miguelangel Perez, vice president of the ILV; and Pastor Abel Garcia, director of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute. They gave us some Spanish Bibles with Luther's Small Catechism included as an appendix. We hope to present them to our next group of confirmands.
These Bibles represent part of the work of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation, an organization that has has published the catechism in more than 50 languages, and published and distributed more than 450 titles and 3 million Lutheran books to pastors, seminary students, missionaries and churches. The Bible translation used is the 1960 revision of the Reina-Valera Bible. This is our preferred translation. There are more contemporary Spanish translations, and I know the argument that contemporary translations based on earlier manuscripts should be better than the translations of the Reformation era based on the Textus Receptus (the Reina-Valera, King James Version and Luther's German Bible). Unfortunately, most contemporary translations either reflect more of the theological and political prejudices of the translators or fail to convey the meaning of the original text as powerfully as the older translations.

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Nov 8, 2010

Six confirmed on Reformation Sunday 2010

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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.

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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.
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Sep 6, 2010

Playground for preschool nearly complete

Pedro and Sandro help build
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:
    Jeison, Jimmy and Jhonny
  • 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.
Virgin of Peace
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.

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Sep 19, 2009

Lutheran ladies forever 15

Quinceaneras 01Luz Maria recently returned from the national convention of la Sociedad de las Damas Luteranas de Venezuela (SOLUDAVE), the Lutheran Ladies Society of Venezuela. The event lasted four days, and it was four days of travel by bus to and from Puerto Ordaz, so she was gone for an entire week. She had the opportunity to share her experiences at the Latin American deaconess gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentina, earlier this year.

The 2009 convention was billed as the 15th in the history of the women's organization (the national meetings are held every two years). I gather there was a minor controversy over whether that was correct, given the uncertainty of some of the early dates. Nevertheless, that did not stop some of the ladies from organizing a "fiesta de los quince años", or 15th birthday celebration.

In Latin American countries, a young woman's 15th birthday party is not like other birthday parties. It is a rite of passage, believed to date back to pre-Columbian times, whichQuinceaneras 02 means she is no longer a girl, but a woman. In Venezuela, at least, what's essential is that the family goes all out to throw an unforgettable party. There are piles of gifts, a huge cake and the "quinceanera" dresses up in the most elegant gown that her family can afford. There always is music and dancing, because the quinceanera's first dance with her father means she then is free to dance with other men (in other words, to be courted for marriage).

At the women's retreat, some of the women dressed up in quinceanera-style gowns and danced with their husbands to the music of a mariachi band. Mariachi music is native to Mexico, of course, but is popular in Venezuela for parties and receptions of all kinds. The ladies never looked lovelier.

Our tabernacle in la Caramuca

There is a different quality to tropical sunlight. Here the ambient temperature rarely gets above 100 degrees F., and if you find a shady spot with a breeze, even the 80 percent humidity is not that hard to bear. But the midday sun is really something else. It is more intense somehow than back in Minnesota. Most businesses here close down from noon to 3 p.m., than stay open from 3 to 9 p.m., because so few people venture out at midday. They do not use the word "siesta" in Venezuela, but but basically noon to three is the hour of siesta.

But even in the early morning or late afternoon, the intense sunlight can be a problem. We have a covered patio that allows for large gatherings of people with some protection from the Our tabernacleelements. But there's only protection as long as the rain is falling or the sun is shining straight down. Well, really the patio roof does offer a little more protection from the rain, so when the sky is overcast we have been holding our worship services in this patio. But when the sun's ray slide in under the roof, everyone wants to crowd into the small area of shade remaining. So when it's not overcast, we have been setting up the altar and chairs under the shade of our fruit trees.

But, to further complicate things, the weather can change from impending rain to bright sun in a matter of minutes. So by the time you have set up everything under the roofed patio because of the threat of rain, suddenly you have the sunlight problem again. And vice versa, with setting up everything under the trees. Outdoor worship on a regular basis has its disadvantages.

So we bought some tent-like cloth to make curtains to screen out the sun under the patio during worship services. We would like to permanently enclose the patio and make it our chapel, but until then this "tabernacle" will be our solution.

Our altar, by the way, is a plastic lawn table covered with a white table cloth. It allows just enough room for the candles, an open Bible, the chalice and host, and the offering basket after the offering has been gathered. We do not have much in the way of paraments, mainly the candles. I have a red and a purple stole to wear with my alb on the appropriate occasions in the church year, otherwise I have been using a multicolored stole hand-made in Guatemala. However, Luz Maria discovered, when she washed the multicolored stole, that craftsmanship in Guatemala evidently does not include the concept of colorfast dyes. I really need to see about getting the green and white stoles, at least, and something black to wear for Good Friday.

It does seem sometimes a great deal of trouble to instruct our young flock in the liturgy as well as the catechism. In such moments, I remember the words of Bo Giertz on the importance of liturgical worship.

Bo GiertzImage via Wikipedia



Bo Harald Giertz (1905-1998) was the foremost voice for confessional Lutheranism in Sweden during the course of the 20th Century. Born into a family of atheists, Giertz embraced the Christian faith while studying medicine at the University of Uppsala. Ordained in 1934, he served as a parish pastor in rural Torpa, Sweden, until 1949. Then he was appointed bishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden's Gothenburg Diocese, a position that he held until 1970. (The Lutheran Church of Sweden has retained an episcopal hierarchy since the Reformation, basically because the entire existing church hierarchy at that time accepted the Augsburg Confession without batting an eyelash. According to the Augsburg Confession, a historic episcopate is not a necessary mark of the visible church, but neither is such a thing ruled out, if it exists and it fulfills the task of producing faithful, doctrinally sound pastors. So in Sweden there was not much of an impulse for building a new organization from the ground up. Even so, although the Lutheran Church of Sweden presumably has an unbroken chain of ordination dating back to the time of the apostles, it does not have apostolic succession as defined by the Roman Catholic Church. Just in case you were wondering.)

Order from Augsburg Fortress PressBo Giertz perhaps is best known throughout the world for his literary masterpiece, a novel first published in 1941. Its Swedish title, "Stengrunden", may be translated either as "foundation of stone" or "rocky ground." Since these phrases have somewhat differing connotations in English, the English title is "The Hammer of God", taken from the novel's first section. There are three sections to the novel, each one telling the story of a young pastor during different periods of Swedish history, each spaced roughly 65 years apart. Each pastor finds the "modern" or "progressive" ideas that he has picked up in the seminary are not adequate for dealing with the reality of evil in others and in himself. So he is thrown back on the authority of Scripture and the basic doctrines of sin and redemption. One of the points that the novel makes is that ideas of what is "modern" or "progressive" vary dramatically from generation to generation, but the Word of God abides for all time. The first English translation of Giertz's novel was published in 1960, but the most recent (published in 2005) includes ninth and final chapter missing from earlier English versions. A film adaptation of the novel is available on DVD (in Swedish with English subtitles) from Lutheran Visuals.

In the Lutheran Church of Sweden it is the custom for a new bishop upon assuming office to write an open letter to all the pastors in his diocese. Giertz's letter dealt with "Liturgy and Spiritual Awakening." The following paragraphs are taken from an English translation by Clifford Ansgar Nelson:

"The Word of God creates the church. Already in the days of the primitive church the Word of God gave to the life of the church those forms which have continued through the centuries. This includes both those forms which seem to be more or less improvised and spontaneous and those which appear fixed and unchangeable. It is true both of that side of the life of the church which we call awakening and that which we call liturgy. Both are the creation of the Word, and both belong to that heritage which we are called to preserve...

"The relation of liturgy to the apostolic age is obvious. It has flowed through the centuries like a ceaseless stream. It had its first deep sources in the synagogue. It is not only that a few words have remained in continuous use since that time, such as Amen, Hallelujah, and Hosanna, but the whole structural form of our order of worship shows clearly its relation to that worship which Jesus Himself shared in the synagogue at Nazareth and in which, as a grown man, he officiated when He was invited to read and interpret the Scriptures. To the ancient worship of the
synagogue the apostolic church added the Holy Communion, that new creation which she received from the Saviour Himself and which is the center of all liturgy. As it is celebrated still, with the traditional chants, the Preface and the Sanctus, it is essentially a contribution of the first century...

"The deepest significance of liturgy lies in the fact that it is a form which the Spirit Himself has created to preserve and deepen the life which He has awakened in the church.

"Awakening is the fire that flames forth in dead souls. The fire burns in the breast when the sinner feels a pang in his conscience. He is gripped by an uneasiness that makes him ask, "What shall I do?" And the Spirit answers by enlightening the soul about the desperate character of sin and the boundless mercy of Christ.

"Liturgy is the work of the same Spirit in preserving the flame which has been lighted. It is the means by which the awakened soul is bound together with the fellowship of the church. It is a pathway for walking in the light, a road that leads forward through the years, and the soul is ever anew called to join itself with that royal priesthood which worships before the altar of God with prayer and thanksgiving, with Communion, and with a quiet listening to the Word of the Lord.

"There can be no normal church life without liturgy. Sacraments need
form, the order of worship must have some definite pattern. It is possible to live for a short time on improvisations and on forms that are constantly changing and being made over. One may use only free prayers and yet create a new ritual for every worship situation. But the possibilities at soon exhausted. One will have to repeat, and with that the making of rituals is in full swing. In circles where people seek to live without any forms new forms are nevertheless constantly take shape. Favorite songs are used again and again with monotonous regularity, certain prayer expressions are constantly repeated, traditions take form and traditional yearly ceremonies are
served. But it would not be wrong to say that the new forms that grow up in this way are usually less attractive and more profane than the ancient liturgy. They contain less of God's Word, they pray and speak without Scriptural direction, they are not so much concerned about expressing the whole content of Scripture, but are satisfied with one thing or another that seems to be especially attractive or popular. The new liturgy that grows in this manner is poorer, less Biblical, and less nourishing to the soul than the discarded ancient order.

"Awakening needs liturgy. An awakening that shall have lasting value must nurture a devotional life that will live on through many a long year and that will become a heritage to be passed on from generation to generation. A sound awakening should therefore move in the direction of leading people into a regular worship life and a faithful use of the sacrament of Communion, showing them how to celebrate the common worship in a proper way and to use aright the churchly books of devotion. It is absolutely necessary that our young people, beginning at the time of confirmation, should learn to understand the service of worship at the altar, to find their
way in the hymnal and lectionary, and to be able to participate in the kind of worship which is used in the local church."
Adios, Norman Borlaug

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In chapter 6 of "Gulliver's Travels", author Jonathan Swift opined that, "Whosoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together."

There was never a better living example of this than Dr. Norman Ernest Borlaug, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and passed away Sept. 12, 2009, at 95 years of age. I had the privilege of hearing him speak at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, in 1999. He called for continued research and development of crops genetically engineered to be more drought- and disease-resistant in order to feed the world's still-growing human population.

During the 1950s and 1960s, public health improvements fueled a population boom in developing nations. This led to dire predictions in the late 1960s and early 1970s that in 15 to 20 years the entire world would be swept by famine and war, due to the impossibility of producing enough food for an overpopulated planet. Millions were doomed to die in order because there was only so much room on "Spaceship Earth."

That scenario did not come to pass, mainly because of research directed by one dedicated scientist, Norman Borlaug. He began working in Mexico during the 1940s to develop higher-yield, drought- and disease-resistant strains of wheat. By 1956, Mexico had become self-sufficient in wheat production and the research was turned over to Mexican scientists that Borlaug and his colleagues had trained. With the help of the Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Borlaug and his team turned their attention to introducing new crop varieties and agricultural practices to Africa, India and Pakistan.

The results of Borlaug's work became known as "the Green Revolution." World food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India alone, grain yields more than quadrupled, while requiring less land to be placed into production.

Borlaug was born the great-grandson of Norwegian immigrants. His grandparents were founding members of Immanuel Lutheran Church of Cresco, Iowa. Borlaug escaped hard times on the farm during the Great Depression by winning athletic scholarships to the University of Minnesota. He majored in forestry and worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho before returning to Minnesota to earn his master's degree and doctorate in plant pathology.

From 1975 to 1980, Borlaug served on the board of trustees for Bread for the World, the Christian anti-hunger organization founded by former Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod pastor Arthur Simon.

The whole world would have been a different place without Norman Borlaug and probably not the kind of place where Luz Maria and I could be peacefully proclaiming the Gospel on the far western edge of Venezuela. So let us give thanks to God for Norman Borlaug's accomplishments and his willingness to use them for the benefit of humanity.



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Jul 20, 2009

Giving thanks for a successful semester

Sandro's diplomaOn July 5, the first Sunday in July this year (and also Independence Day in Venezuela) Sandro Perez requested a special prayer of thanksgiving for the completion of another semester of school. Our summer break has begun and the new semester begins in mid September. Sandro, who suffered a couple of bouts with dengue fever this past year, will start seventh grade. This is an important moment for Sandro, because many children in our community drop out of school after sixth grade (the maximum amount of education required by law).

Angie Perez and Noel Marquina also will enter seventh grade next semester. Sandro and Noel have been confirmed, while Angi is preparing for her confirmation this fall. She and Sandro are not related; Perez is a name like Smith, Jones or Johnson in the United States. The Venezuelan equivalent of "John Smith" would be "Pedro Perez".

We also prayed for the health of Angi s brother, Jimmy Perez, who was ill to the point of coughing up blood, but who now is recuperating and for the nations of the world to peacefully resolve their problems. Amid our everyday concerns, all eyes have been glued to the television for news of -- well, not so much the aftermath of Michael Jackson's death, although the pop star's funeral was enough of a spectacle to merit extensive coverage. People here are more concerned with the civil unrest in Honduras and what it means for all of Latin America.
Later in the week Luz Maria went to town with Sandro and some of the other children receiving scholarships from Children's Christian Concern Society of Topeka, Kansas, to help them buy school uniforms with their scholarship money. Almost all Venezuelan schools, public or private, require school uniforms. The children in our preschool wear a uniform that consists of a red shirt and blue slacks.

On Wednesday, July 15, we had a graduation ceremony for 12 children who will be leaving our preschool and starting first grade next semester. The group included Luz Maria's granddaughter, Oriana Montoya, who will celebrate her seventh birthday in December. Oriana was born just six months before my arrival in Venezuela in 2003, so strange as it seems to say, I have known her nearly all her life.
Oriana receives her diploma
The other graduates were:

  • Kelvis Artahona
  • Yerika Galindez
  • Kemberling Altuve
  • Gianny Roa
  • Jeiximar Arellano
  • Yorman Poveda
  • Maikel Caraballo
  • Jhon Piñero
  • Ana Garcia
  • Gaudis Rangel

Only Gaudis was not able to attend the graduation. The rest were there with their families. I opened by reading from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, verses 1-10. Then, since the children learned the Lord's Prayer this semester, I led them in singing a version of it set to music. I liked this song from the first time I heard it. Ruth Witte, wife of Pastor Henry Witte, a former missionary to Venezuela, sang it to a group of vacation Bible school children at Roca de Eternidad (Rock of Ages) Lutheran Church in Quebrada Seca, Monagas.

Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos,
Santificado, santificado sea Tu nombre.

Venga a nos, Tu reino, Señor, hágase tu santa voluntad.
En el cielo y la tierra, haremos Tu santo voluntad.

Danos hoy, dánoslo Señor, nuestro pan, el pan de cada día,
Y perdona nuestras deudas, así nosotros perdonamos.

No nos dejes caer en tentación; antes bien, líbranos del mal.
No nos dejes caer en tentación, líbranos del mal.

Porque tuyo es el reino, Señor, el poder y toda la gloria,
Por los siglos de los siglos, para siempre, aleluya, amén.

I cannot sing like Ruthie Witte, nor can I play the cuatro (four-stringed guitar). But the children sang from memory and with impressive volume and enthusiasm, which was the main idea.

Later on, Vicar Alonso Franco arrived from Barinas to lead the children in more songs to the accompaniment of a guitar. He was delayed by rain and road construction, but that really did not matter. Alonso has begun teaching the guitar to a group of boys in La Caramuca on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have given up trying to learn guitar chords for the time being so these guys will have the chance to practice with our guitar.

After saying a prayer for the coming semester, for the children passing on to first grade and for those returning to our preschool, the graduation ceremony continued with the awarding of diplomas, and, of course, cake and refreshments.

Homilectics and hermeneutics


Dr. Douglas Rutt in CaracasFrom June 29 to July 3, 2009, I attended a seminar in homilectics in Caracas, taught Dr. Douglas Rutt of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Actually, the course combined the study of homilectics (preaching) and hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) as the two are closely related. It is a course generally taught to second-year students at the Fort Wayne seminary. Our thanks to Dr. Rutt for his willingness to travel to Venezuela to teach this course.

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Nov 6, 2008

Five confirmed in La Caramuca

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"So, when's your second communion?" That was the question from Elihu, a boy just old enough to understand that we had a "first communion" service for five confirmands, Sunday, November 2, 2008. It is a very good question, one that we are asking ourselves. Only for us it is more in the form of a prayer to the Lord to help us follow this great first step with many more.

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Each confirmand received his or her own Bible with their confirmation verse written on the first inside page and signed by Pastor Krey, myself and Eduardo Flores. The confirmands and their confirmation verses are as follows:

Aaron Josué Montoya Santana:

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble" Psalm 46:1.

Adriana Karolina Talosa Mendoza:

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying: I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall
not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" John 8:12.

0311200812Dariana Estefania Talosa Mendoza:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" Matthew 6:33.

Noel Alexander Marquina Villamizar:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" Joshua 1:9.

Sandro José Pérez Pumar:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1.

We sang songs based on some of these verses, including "Dios es nuestro amparo" (Psalm 46) and "El Señor es mi luz y mi salvación" (Psalm 27). Psalm 46, the appointed psalm for the day was also the inspiration for Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress".

Earlier that morning we sang both "Dios es nuestro amparo" and "Castillo Fuerte" ("A Mighty
Fortress" in Spanish) at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas, because November 2 was Reformation Sunday according to the liturgical calendar used by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. In many countries, Reformation Sunday is celebrated the Sunday before October 31, if the 31st does not fall on a Sunday. (Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.)

So we had red paraments on the altar in both Corpus Christi and La Caramuca to symbolize the continuing activity of the Holy Spirit in the Reformation and in the church today through Word and sacrament. We also will have red paraments next Sunday, November 9, as we celebrate the Sunday of the Fulfillment. On most liturgical calendars, the Sunday of the Fulfillment, when the church looks forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus to take His redeemed people into heaven, is observed on the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent season. However, according to our Venezuelan church calendar, November 16 will be All Saints' Day, a commemoration of all Christians who have departed this life, but especially the blessed martyrs. On November 23, the last Sunday in the liturgical year, we will celebrate the festival of Christ the King, which is combined with the observation of the Sunday of the Fulfillment in many churches. During these last two Sundays of the Pentecost season, the paraments on the altar will be white.

This arrangement of the church calendar, while somewhat unusual, is consistent with the tradition that the last Sundays of Pentecost focus on the end times, in anticipation of Christ's Second Coming, even as we prepare to remember His first appearance on earth during Advent.

I should also mention in regard to October 31, that Halloween is known in Venezuela, but is more of an imported, totally commercialized holiday. In fact, the Venezuelan government has tried to discourage the observance of Halloween for this reason. A more authentic Venezuelan tradition is el Día de los Muertos on November 2. Like the Day of the Dead in Mexico, the Venezuelan holiday has roots deep in pre-Columbian culture. But the Day of the Dead in Venezuela avoids some of the more occultic aspects of its Mexican counterpart. There are no skulls made of sugar and no graveside altars with offerings of food and beverages to the departed. Rather, much like Memorial Day in the United States, it is the day to lay flowers on the graves of loved ones.

Baptism of Luis GabrielSunday, November 2, 2008, also was notable for the baptism of Luís Gabriel, infant son of Lusveidis and Luís Orellana in Corpus Christi. I got to hold the bowl of water (there was no baptismal font) while Pastor Ted Krey baptized the child. I played a more active role in the administration of Holy Communion in Corpus Christi and La Caramuca, distributing the bread while Pastor Krey distributed the wine.

Which brings me back around to the question: What happens next for our little flock in La Caramuca? Pastor Ted Krey, who has been the supervising pastor for myself and vicar Eduardo Flores, will leave for the Dominican Republic at the end of this year. The good news is that I
have been extended a call from the Lutheran Church of Venezuela to serve as a national missionary in the Western Zone, with my base of operations in La Caramuca. I will be authorized to preach and administer the sacraments myself to those who need them. The date of my ordination has been set for December 13, 2008, at El Salvador Lutheran Church in Caracas.

La Caramuca Lutheran Mission will continue to depend on the prayers and financial support of our friends in the United States, as there is no large, strong congregation in the area to support our work, and the national church-body does not have the funds to support all the mission
work that must be done. There is an urgent need for Christian schools and churches here despite the widespread poverty. That is why I have taken the rather unusual step of remaining in Venezuela rather than returning to one of the seminaries in the United States and seeking a
call to the ministry after graduation there.

Our little flock

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Oct 25, 2008

Gates of beauty

Luz Maria at the large gate

Open now thy gates of beauty,
Zion, let me enter there,
Where my soul in joyful duty
Waits for Him Who answers prayer.
Oh, how blessèd is this place,
Filled with solace, light and grace!

These words comprise the first verse of Catherine Winkworth's translation
of an 18th Century German hymn based on Psalm 100. During her lifetime (1827-1878), Winkworth translated more than 80 German "chorales" dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries for use in the Church of England. Her work has never been equaled and her translations are well-known not only to Anglicans, but also to English-speaking Lutherans around the world. She is credited with introducing a distinctively German musical form to a culture shaped by the English language. Winkworth also had 44 of her original poems published (in English), as well as two books documenting the foundation of mission work among the poor. The daughter of a wealthy textile mill owner, she herself was involved in charitable work among the disadvantaged in Victorian England and was a tireless advocate of higher education for women.

Luther's seal in iron"Open now thy gates of beauty" ran through my mind as I gazed upon the newly installed gates to our mission. God willing, this will be a place of His solace, light and grace. There are three gates, one large one for vehicles and large groups of people, and two smaller ones for normal entrance from the street. All three incorporate Luther's seal (the
cross inside a heart inside a rose) as part of their design. The plan was to have Luther's seal on only one gate, but the man who did the ironwork was really taken with the design. Luz María was at pains to explain to him that the seal is not just a decoration, but is meant to identify who we are and what we believe.

Recently Luz María ran across a new community profile of La Caramuca that someone had printed up. Under the "Religion" heading, it said that there were two churches in La Caramuca, one being the Roman Catholic church on the plaza and the other being "Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" ("Christ For All The Nations"). The second one would be our mission, because we dutifully distribute tracts printed by CPTLN, the Spanish arm of Lutheran Hour International Ministries. CPTLN has been broadcasting on Venezuelan radio and television since the 1940s and the phrase "Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" is a familiar one, but CPTLN is not as strongly associated in people's minds with the Lutheran Church of Venezuela as we might like.

The struggle to establish an identity for the Lutheran Church of Venezuela takes on an added note of seriousness when you consider there is a decidedly non-Christian group active in Venezuela with a history of copying Lutheran symbols. This would be the Rosicrucian Fellowship, which has 20 lodges and chapters across Venezuela, including nearly all the cities where the Lutheran Church of Venezuela has congregations.

"Rosicrucian" is derived from both the Latin and German words for "rosy cross" and it is no accident that the Rosicrucians have an emblem that incorporates both a rose and a cross like Luther's seal.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship is one of those groups that seek esoteric or "hidden" knowledge under a veneer of Christian symbolism and terminology. Invariably such groups deny the sufficiency and clarity of the Bible as the rule of faith and seek a "deeper" source of knowledge.

At first the Rosicrucians claimed to have discovered the "philosopher's stone" (the secret of transmuting metals, especially lead into gold) and the key to physical immortality. Nowadays the Rosicrucians run newspaper ads making more modest promises of health and wealth. The main distinction between the Rosicrucians and other esoteric groups, from the Cathars of the 12th Century all the way back to the Gnostics of the early Christian era, is that the Rosicrucian movement emerged in 17 Century Germany, that is to say, against a background of Lutheran orthodoxy. Imagine, if you will, that the more recent New Age Movement in the United States had started in Wisconsin rather than California.

In fact, one of the founding documents of Rosicrucianism was written byJohann Valentin Andreae, a grandson of Jakob Andreae, one of the signers of the Formula of Concord in 1577 and an editor, along with Martin Chemnitz, of the Book of Concord in 1580. Johann Andreae was something of a wayward youth, having been expelled from the University of Tubingen for playing a practical joke and later flunking his ordination exam at the Stuttgart Consistory. Eventually, however, he was ordained a Lutheran pastor and became quite the respectable citizen. He freely admitted writing in his younger days the document that had come to be associated with Rosicrucianism, but claimed it was intended as a parody of similar writings. Not everyone believed this, and Johann Andreae's name still had enough of an association with the occult for him to be identified as one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, a "secret" organization actually founded in 1956, but which claimed origins in antiquity. The Priory of Sion was exposed as a hoax by scholars and journalists in the 1960s, but its false claims were asserted to be factual by author Dan Brown in the preface to his notorious novel, The Da Vinci Code.

The Rosicrucians later developed ties with the Masonic Lodge and piggybacked on the movement of Freemasonry throughout the world. As I have written before, the Masonic Lodge also is quite active in Venezuela.

Candles in the dark

Adrian Ventura, Armando Ramos and Eduardo FloresOn Sunday, October 19, Pastor Adrian Ventura, president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, visited Barinas. That morning at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church, Eduardo played the guitar, I led the opening Service of the Word, and Pastor Adrian preached and administered the sacrament of Holy Communion. His sermon was excellent, but perhaps the most notable aspect of the service was that as it was underway, Venezuela experienced its third nationwide power blackout in the last six months. The electricity was cut off that morning and for most of the rest of the day.

The church has no air-conditioning, but there are two banks of fans on each side of the sanctuary to provide ventilation. However, these were not working during the blackout. Pastor Adrian and I both were wearing white albs over our regular clothes. Generally Venezuelans handle the tropical heat better than North Americans, but I noticed Pastor Adrian's face also was shining with sweat by the end of the service.

Later that afternoon, Pastor Adrian visited La Caramuca with Eduardo and Armando Ramos, former pastor in residence at Tierra de Gracia Lutheran Farm.

Confirmation class by candlelightThe following day, October 20, we experienced another blackout in the evening. This one was local, affecting only La Caramuca, although that did not make a lot of difference to us. In addition to the three nationwide blackouts, there have been an increasing number of local blackouts nearly every week. Like most developing countries, Venezuela suffers from a lack of
adequate infrastructure (roads, telephone and electrical lines, waterworks). Years of inadequate public investment in infrastructure have resulted in a decaying power grid that is no longer capable of meeting consumer demand.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of electric lights, Luz María and I hosted our regular Monday confirmation class by candlelight. We have five young people who have been faithfully attending confirmation class on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. One of them is Sandro Peréz, the boy
who recently was hospitalized for dengue fever. We thank God that he is completely recovered. Our goal is to have these five confirmed by Pastor Ted Krey on November 2, when he visits Barinas for perhaps the last time before leaving Venezuela for the Dominican Republic.

Oct 3, 2008

Sandro suffers dengue fever

Sandro Pérez on the Apure RiverTwelve-year-old Sandro Pérez, who lives across the street from us, has been one of our more faithful and attentive students in both Sunday school and confirmation class. Always cheerful, mature for his age and showing signs of musical talent, Sandro is receiving financial assistance to stay in school from Children's Christian Concern Society of Topeka, Kansas. Unfortunately, Sandro was hospitalized this week with dengue fever.

Dengue fever is spread by Aedes aegypti, a species of mosquito that thrives in tropical regions. Over the last four years, local health agencies have made a dedicated effort to control the spread of dengue by spraying with pesticide the areas where Aedes aegypti may breed. The mosquitos breed on water standing in artificial containers such as plastic cups, used tires, broken bottles, or flower pots, so there also has been an effort to educate everyone on the importance of sanitation as a means of preventing Aedes aegypti from reproducing.


There is no vaccine or cure for dengue. Those stricken must wait for the disease to run its course.

Symptoms include:
  • Severe muscle and joint pain (which is why dengue is also known as "bonebreak fever").

  • Fever

  • Chills

  • Constant headaches

  • Bleeding from nose, mouth or gums

  • Severe dizziness

  • Loss of appetite
The more advanced stage of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever, may produce shock and hemorraging, leading to death. The fatality rate for all forms of dengue is relatively low (5
percent), nevertheless it was a serious matter for someone as young as Sandro.

Luz Maria and I visited Sandro in the pediatric clinic, and the other youth in the confirmation class prayed for him and made cards from construction paper for us to present to Sandro on our next visit. We thank God that Sandro returned home the next day and we gave the cards to him there.

Separation of light from darknessNew semester begins

Webegan a new semester of the preschool September 15 with 24 children enrolled. Every week begins with the singing of the national anthem and praying the Lord's Prayer. For seven weeks we will focus on the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. Yepci had the children
draw with white crayons on black construction paper to symbolize the creation of light and the separation of night and day on the first day of creation.

Old dog, new tricks

In case you missed the entertainment industry headlines, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Sharon
Stone all have turned 50 this year. This month it will be my turn, along with country music stars, Alan Jackson and Tanya Tucker. While I have not attained the same level of wealth and fame as some of my contemporaries, I have always been considered something of a legend in my own mind.

Guitar ManAnd I am taking guitar lessons for the first time since I was about 16 or 17. Eduardo is teaching a number of people how to play musical instruments, primarily the cuatro (Venezuelan four-stringed guitar). Luz María's daughter, Charli, is learning to play the cuatro. But while the cuatro is relatively easy to learn, while the six-stringed guitar is more complicated. I hope that by volunteering I will encourage more of the young people to learn the guitar. I also realize that since:

  • Singing is usually a part not only of Sunday morning worship, but also of Bible studies and more informal gatherings here, and;

  • I cannot always count on having someone else to provide musical accompaniment;
I should have some knowledge of the most commonly available and versatile instrument (Beethoven once called the guitar a symphony orchestra in one instrument).

Some of the larger congregations in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela add an electronic keyboard or piano, and drums to the guitar as part of an instrumental ensemble. Pipe organs
are quite rare. I have seen only one pipe organ since my arrival in Venezuela and it was not in our Lutheran Church of Venezuela congregations. What's more, it was the only pipe organ I've ever seen that might fit in someone's living room.

Kenny Rogers in the cybercafe

As I sat in the cybercafe, uploading photos, the owner, Alexis, played a CD of Kenny Rogers' greatest hits that his brother had brought him from the United States. Since I was the only customer at the time, I suspect it was for my benefit. It brought back of lot of fond memories
of the days when Kenny regularly scored No. 1 hits on both the country and pop music charts. I always liked "Reuben James", a song about a white orphan boy adopted by a black sharecropper:

"Reuben James, you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind,
A faded shirt, a weathered brow, callused hands upon the plow,
I loved you then and I love you now, Reuben James."

After awhile, Alexis came over to talk to me. I had told him something about our mission in La Caramuca. "Is your mission affiliated with the Baptist church?" he wanted to know.

"No," I said. "It's supported by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela."

"I have read about Martin Lutero," Alexis said. "Many of the things he did were very good." His concern seemed to focus on the indulgence trade. "I don't understand people taking money from other people like that in the name of God."

Then Alexis seemed to change the subject. "What can you tell me about the Mormons?" he asked.

"The Mormons do not believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity," I said. "Nor do they believe that Jesus Christ made full atonement for the sins of all people on the cross."

"I have talked to the young Mormon missionaries," Alexis said. "Their families give a lot of money to their church, but they receive only a small amount to live on. I don't understand this."

Then he revealed that he had talked to representatives of a number of the religious groups that are active in Venezuela. "It is so hard to know what is the truth," he said.

"All false religions have one thing in common," I said. "They teach that we must earn God's favor by our own works. But the Bible teaches that Christ paid the price for all our sins on the cross and that only through Him may we be reconciled with God."

"Many people here would rather pray to the santos, the saints, rather than God because they believe that if they have done wrong, God will not listen to their prayers," Alexis said.

Then some more customers came in, and he had to attend to them. The moment was gone. But before I left, I gave Alexis the address of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church and invited him to attend on Sunday and learn more about what we believed. God grant that I have another opportunity to talk with Alexis about these things.

Apr 30, 2008

Learning the catechism

Karelis Santana

Luz María's granddaughter, Karelis Santana, surprised me by “reading” the 10 Commandments from the Small Catechism. Actually, she is seven years old and cannot read, but she knew the commandments by heart. That was in its way even more impressive.

We also were pleasantly surprised by Leandro Zapata, a boy between 10 and 12 years of age. Every week before beginning the Sunday school lesson I lead a brief service of evening prayer. This includes an invocation, the Lord's Prayer, Apostle's Creed, a Scripture lesson and meditation, a litany, individual prayers and songs. The children take turns saying prayers, and usually they give thanks for their parents, siblings, friends, etc. However, last Sunday, without any prompting Leandro prayed for “all the children in the street who are hungry.”

We have invited the parents of four families to the prayer service and hope that soon we will have a complete worship service and Sunday school on Sunday afternoons in La Caramuca.

One lesson that I recently read to the children, John 14:15-21, seemed particularly relevant to what they are studying:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it neither sees Him or knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me, and I in you. He that has My commandments, it is he that loves Me. And he that loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Thus, I explained, we memorize God's commandments to keep them, not because we fear God's wrath, but because of the love God has shown us in sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins that we may live as children of God. Furthermore, God has sent us His Holy Spirit to give us the strength to live according to God's holy will and has promised eternal life to those who love Him. But those who reject God´s mercy in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit will one day know the wrath of the one truly righteous and incorruptible Judge.

On Mondays, the preschool week begins with the singing of the Venezuelan national anthem. Following this, I lead the children (those old enough to follow, anyway) in the Lord's Prayer and read a simple Bible verse, for example, John 3:16 or Romans 8:28.

La boda en Barinas

On April 25, 2008, I had the privilege of reading several Scripture verses at the wedding of Lusveidis Pinzon and Luís Orellana at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas. Pastor Ted Krey traveled from Caracas to perform the actual wedding rite, while my fellow vicar Eduardo Flores lead the congregational singing with his guitar. Two sisters, Angly and Zoivy Vargas, sang a duet. Rafael Flores, Eduardo's brother, and Isaac Machado, son of José and Elsy Machado, served as ushers. Both of these young men are studying for the ministry with Pastor Krey in Caracas.

Double doors

Lusveidis is a longtime member of the church and there were many people at the wedding. Fortunately, the church's seating capacity has been greatly expanded. Corpus Christi has undergone a lot of physical changes in this past year. The building was once a bar, and for the first few years that the congregation occupied the site, there would be drunks wandering in on Sunday morning (!) and trying to order spirits of a different sort. Now, however, it is looking more and more like a church, especially with the front entrance consisting of double doors inlaid with stained glass. Of course, there is also the new kitchen and bathroom facilities, meeting room for Sunday school and weekday classes, and the apartment where Eduardo lives.

First birthday for Edwar Jose

April 25 was also that the day that Luz María's youngest grandchild so far, Edwar José Garrida, marked his first year of life. Edwar's mother, Sarai, is carrying Edwar's sister, so soon there will be a total of seven grandchildren.

I have found that in writing sermons, many times the chosen text speaks to me as much as to anyone else. This was certainly case for Sunday, April 13, 2008. The Gospel text was John 10:1-10:

“Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

“Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

“Then Jesus said again, “Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”

The most obvious lesson in this passage is that there is only one way to heaven – through faith in Jesus as the incarnate Son of God who died on the Cross the sins of everyone and who rose again on the third day. This passage immediately precedes the perhaps more familiar verse where Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd. Typically in Palestine, a sheepfold is a corral surrounded by a high stone wall with a single door in and out. A watchman guards the door and only opens it for those he knows as the true shepherds of the sheep. The stone wall not only keeps out wolves and other four-legged predators, but also the two-legged kind who would also rob and kill the sheep.

Anyone who teaches that there is a way to heaven other than through Christ is a spiritual predator who does not have your best interests at heart. These are the thieves and robbers. Christ Himself, of course, is the true Shepherd, the one to whom the sheep belong. Then there are the watchmen or gatekeepers, who Martin Luther in one of his sermons identified as the Old Testament prophets, the Twelve Apostles and nowadays those of us who are entrusted with the public preaching of God's Word. Our solemn duty is not to allow anyone but Christ access to His flock. When we preach, we preach in His name and if the sheep do not hear His voice – that is to say, God's Word – in our preaching, they are right to flee from us. We must also encourage the sheep to study the Word and learn to recognize His voice.

Farm dog

Here is another way to look at it. I gather that it is not the custom in Palestine or most of the Middle East to use sheepdogs to herd the flocks. But to my more European way of thinking, this makes sense: We are the dogs of Christ. It is up to us to guard the flock from the false prophets, the teachers of false doctrine, even, with God's help, those enemies of God's people who are more than flesh and blood.

My sermon text for March 30, 2008, the second Sunday of Easter, was John 20:19-31. This passage is understood as the institution of the office of the public ministry, for Jesus breathes on his 11 chosen disciples and tells them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The parallel passage in Mark 16:14-18 identifies this forgiving and retaining of sins with the preaching of the Gospel: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.” And likewise in Luke 24:46-47: “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

But of course, the most well-known parallel to this sermon text from John is Matthew 28:19-20, otherwise known as the Great Commission: “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I have found it very helpful to think of the Great Commission in this context, as it seems there is much confusion on this point. The command to preach, administer the sacraments and make disciples of all nations is indeed given to the church as a whole, but indirectly. The command was directly given to those whom Christ had called to be his apostles, and today it is given to those who the church has called to be pastors in Christ's name. This is why Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession declares, “no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called.”

The missionary task of the church is the establishment of congregations where believers may gather around the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, and where unbelievers may hear both Law and Gospel proclaimed. “Friendship evangelism” (laypeople showing Christian love toward their neighbors, talking about their faith and inviting friends and relatives to attend church with them) is the fruit of Word-and-sacrament ministry, but not the basis of missionary activity. Once formed, every congregation has the right and responsibility to call a pastor, therefore it is the responsibility of the church as a whole to provide qualified men to answer these calls.

When I first came to Venezuela, I had the idea of serving as some sort of support person for the national Lutheran clergy. Then I realized that what the Lutheran Church of Venezuela desperately needed was not so much support personnel as those who could be authorized to preach and teach. As I came to a clearer understanding of mission and ministry, I realized that God had led me to a place where I could do nothing else but seek ordination and a call to serve as a true missionary in La Caramuca.