A woman clothed with the sun

We also celebrated Luz Maria's
birthday on May 5.

This year, the church calendar’s “forgotten festival” of Ascension fell on Thursday, May 9, while Mother’s Day fell on Sunday, May 12. But we had our Mother’s Day party with the preschool children on Thursday and celebrated the Ascension on Sunday. The preschool children received their lesson on the Ascension on Monday, May 13.The previous Monday, May 6, the children learned about the miracle of motherhood in general, and the miracles of motherhood recorded in the Bible. That is to say, the birth of every child is a miracle, because God forms a new person in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16). But also there are several stories in the Scriptures in which God grants the gift of a child to sterile women, including some past the age of childbearing (Sarah, wife of Abraham, Genesis 18:1-15; Rachel, wife of Jacob, Genesis 30:22-24; Samson’s unnamed mother, Judges 13; Hannah, mother of Samuel, the prophet, 1 Samuel 1; and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, Luke 1:1-25). Finally, we have the great mystery of the Incarnation, the God Himself born of Mary, a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-7). I expanded on the theme of both human life and motherhood as gifts for the opening devotion of our Mother’s Day party on Thursday, with a discussion of Lois and Eunice, the grandmother and mother of Timothy, faithful women who assumed the responsibility of teaching Timothy the Scriptures from his childhood (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15).

The gift of motherhood.

Of course, that Sunday we remembered all mothers in the prayer of the church. Furthermore, instead of the straightforward Ascension narrative in Acts 1:1-11, I read the more symbolic account in Revelation 12:1-6. It is clear in John’s vision that the “Child caught up to God and His throne” is Jesus, and the dragon is “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world”. But, who is the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head, a garland of twelve stars”? She is not sim ply Mary; the twelve stars indicate that, in the first verses, she represents the Old Testament people of God, with the twelve sons of Jacob as their patriarchs. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), Mary not only names herself the Lord’s maidservant, but says that with the conception of Jesus, God has remembered His servant, Israel, “as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed, forever.”

Celebration Mother's Day.

The “war in heaven” described in Revelation 12:7-12, does not represent the primeval rebellion of Satan and his angels, but the victory of Christ on the cross. For the Devil loses his power to accuse us of our sin in the court of heaven (as in the book of Job).
But the woman remains on earth, where she is pursued by the dragon and his angels for a short time (until Christ returns in glory). Here she symbolizes the New Testament people of God, with the twelve apostles as the patriarchs. 

So in the Revelation account, we have the complete cycle of the earthly ministry of Jesus, from the Incarnation to the AscLension, followed by the age of the church and its mission to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. God the Son leaves to one side the fullness of His divine power, but honors motherhood and our human nature by being born of a woman, then exalts humanity further by ascending not only as true God, but as true man.

Trinity of Friedensau.

Conviction rather than convenience

My grandparents on their wedding day.

My grandparent' s grave.

In 1974, I attended the centennial anniversary celebration of Trinity Lutheran Church of Friedensau, Nebraska. Recently I was invited to the 150th anniversary on Sunday, June 9, 2024, by the current pastor, José Flores. I thanked Pastor Flores for the invitation, but said I would not be able to attend due the difficulties of travel to and from Venezuela.

What does this small congregation in rural Nebraska mean to me and my family? Henry F. Schabacker, my great-grandfather, served the church as pastor from the late 1890s to the late 1920s, the longest tenure of any pastor to date. He and his wife, Frederika, lived in the first parsonage, and raised 10 children at Friedensau.

One of their daughters, Theodora Amanda, married a young man from Texas who was the teacher in the parochial school and the church organist, despite being paralyzed on one side of his body by polio. His name was David Julius Ernst. My grandparents also raised 10 children at Friedensau and their earthly remains are buried side by side in the church cemetery. Alfred H. Ernst, my father’s older brother, was one of the featured speakers at the centennial. At the time, he was the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Nebraska. I do not remember his speech word for word, but according to a local newspaper clipping, “Rev. Ernst praised the church for the record it had made during the past century as it had produced 12 pastors, 27 parish teachers and one parish worker. He said the church had strengthened the faith so that it became a conviction rather than a convenience.”

Spanish Bible from LHF.

During my interesting correspondence with Pastor Flores, he told me how he had been the director of Russian Lutheran Hour Ministries shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. “ On Christmas 1992 I stood on Red Square in Moscow singing Christian carols with other Christians for the first time in 75 years,” he wrote. While in Russia, Pastor Flores met Dr. Matthew Heise,who spent 12 years as Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod missionary in former Soviet-bloc countries like Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia. I replied that I also had corresponded with Dr. Heise, who is now the executive director of the 

Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF) and the author of a book about Lutheran churches under Soviet rule. The LHF has greatly helped our mission and the Lutheran Church of Venezuela by supplying us with Spanish Bibles, translations of the Small Catechism, and other Spanish-language materials. Although we no longer receive printed copies of the LHF magazine "Buenas Noticias" ("Good News") on a regular basis, Luz Maria and I keep our back copies as supplements for Bible studies. 

The Spanish Lutheran Hour ("Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" or CPTLN) also was of great service while it maintained operations in Venezuela. In addition to broadcasting, CPTLN maintained a large printing operation. Until CPTLN Venezuela closed its doors in 2014, we received and distributed 300 CPTLN tracts per month.

High school students distribute first aid supplies

In anticipation of their high school graduation in July, Eduar Garrido and his classmates have completed a project to distribute first aid supplies to educational institutions in our area. On May 23, they visited our preschool for this purpose. Eduar is a communicant member of our mission congregation and a past recipient of scholarships from LeadaChild, one of our sponsoring organizations. The other students are Cindy Escalona, Yandry Gómez, Tatiana Niño, Franyelis Martínez, Reinaldo Ramírez and Luisana Yañez.

Ascension, Mother's Day and maybe a miracle

Ascension of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is the fortieth day after Easter. According to the ancient calendar of the church, this is the day to celebrate the Ascension of our Lord, the proper end of His earthly ministry. However, here in la Caramuca we will do so this on Sunday, April 20. 

Ascension Day is not a public holiday in Venezuela, so we would not expect a large attendance at a midweek service. However, because of the importance of this event in story of Jesus, I do not want it to pass unnoticed. So we will observe Ascension Day this Sunday when most of our members will be in attendance.

In the sermons for the last two Sundays, I have spoken of the importance of the Ascension and of Pentecost (which is not a national holiday, either). The risen Christ could not remain in this world in visible form, but rather had to complete the plan of redemption through the restoration of His divine power and authority with His human nature intact (He is no longer confined to one time and place, but is available as true God and true man to intercede for us with God the Father in all times and places)  and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His church, so that the church might be empowered, through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world until the second coming of Christ in glory, at which time all will be raised and all who believe will ascend to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This is the real rapture that will take place on the Last Day, as prophecied in the Scriptures and in contrast to the fictional "pre-tribulation rapture" of the "Left Behind" books and movies.

National days off in Venezuela that correspond to dates on the liturgical calendar include all of the week before Christmas and after Christmas until Epiphany (January 6); the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (Carnaval): and all of Holy Week.  In addition, various regions celebrate local holidays dedicated to supposed apparitions of the Virgin Mary and Roman Catholic saints who are supposed to be patrons of that particular locality.

The historic influence of Roman Catholicism and contemporary ambivalence toward it are evident in other aspects of Venezuelan civil law. For example, abortion is illegal, except in cases where terminating the pregnancy would save the mother's life, and merits a sentence of up to two years in prison for a woman who has an authorized abortion and up to three years for the doctor who performs it. Yet contraceptives are widely available and used. You can buy condoms off the rack in most pharmacies and many supermarkets. Consequently, the annual birth rate in Venezuela (20.1 births pér 1,000 people) is roughly equivalent to the U.S.birth rate in the mid 1960s, when abortion was illegal in most states, but the use of contraceptives had become widespread. Currently, the U.S. birth rate is 13.8 births per 1,000 people. It is chilling to reflect that the United States probably would not have such a low birth rate without allowing the murder of children in the womb.

Mother's Day games

Mother's Day

Which brings me to the event that captures most people's attention here in May: Mother's Day. It is said that in terms of generating economic activity (purchase of cards, gifts and flowers, phone calls, and so on), Mother's Day in Venezuela rivals Christmas. The positive aspect of this is that in Venezuelan culture, motherhood is not somewhere down the list of goals to which a woman may aspire, but is a central part of her life and necessary to the continuation of all human life.

The negative aspect is that the strong focus on motherhood to some extent is an attempt to compensate for the lack of strong male role models in many Venezuelan homes. Absentee fatherhood also is a cultural tradition with many men taking little responsibility for the raising of their children. Latin American "machismo" insists that a strong, virile man does not let himself get tied down by one woman and her children. This creates a dysfunctional pattern of family relationships which, of course, perpetuates itself for generation after generation.

Nonetheless, we had an excellent Mother's Day activity in our preschool on May 9, the Wednesday before the official observance of Mother's Day on Sunday, May 13. After a brief devotion, mothers (or grandmothers) and children enjoyed games, refreshments, cookies and cake. On Sunday we gave thanks for and implored God's blessing on our mothers in the prayer of the church.

Prayers answered

Anyi Vanesa Garrido

We also prayed for three-year-old José Ignacio Garrido, who had been hospitalized the previous week with dengue fever; his one-year-old sister, Anyi, who was subsequently diagnosed with dengue; and also six-year-old Maria Andreina Ruiz, who was hospitalized with a broken arm. Torrential spring rains have created more habitat for the mosquitos that carry dengue fever.

Since last Sunday, José Ignacio has made a sudden recovery. The attending nurse said it was hard to believe that his charts from the day before the recovery and from the next day were charts for the same child. So perhaps we can count that as a small miracle in answer to our prayers. Little Anyi remains hospitalized in serious condition, however.

Postscript from Friedensau

When we lived in Nebraska, my family often would spend Memorial Day visiting my grandfather's grave at Trinity Lutheran Church of Friedensau. Friedensau,  which means "Peaceful Meadow", was in the late 19th Century a flourishing community of German immigrants in the Blue River valley. The town was first settled by people from Indiana and Illinois, most of whom were former parishioners of Pastor John Kern. In 1874, Kern himself arrived to give Friedensau its name and establish Trinity Lutheran Church.

By 1885, Friedensau had two Lutheran churches, a school, post office, mill, lumberyard, hotel, livery stable, blacksmith shop and other businesses. However, in 1887  the railroad was built five miles to the south, through what is now the town of Deshler. The businesses and many of the people moved to Deshler, and now all that remains of Friedensau is the original church and its cemetery.

I remember asking why there were so many children's graves in the cemetery. It was because of scarlet fever, which was often fatal to children before penicillin became a widely available antibiotic in the 1940s (it was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928).

David Julius and Theodora Ernst

My grandfather, David Julius Ernst, was himself the victim of childhood disease. I did not know this for many years, because he died in 1946, 12 years before he was born. But when he was a boy, my grandfather contracted polio and became paralyzed on one side of his body. Nevertheless, he grew up to be a schoolteacher, church organist and choir director. Born and raised near Austin, Texas, he met my grandmother, Theodora Schabacker, in Friedensau, where she was the pastor's daughter. They are buried side by side there now.

When I think of these hardships of the past, I give thanks to God for the medical discoveries that have eliminated such things as smallpox, polio or scarlet fever as threats to the well-being of children. Yet I reflect on how human life still is a fragile and precious thing, and I give thanks to God for the gift of every human life, no matter how brief, and for the courage and faith of parents who are willing to give the gift of life to the next generation.

And, especially in this season of Eastertide, which draws to its close at Pentecost, let us give thanks for the hope of the resurrection and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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