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| Attendance at our January 1, 2014 service of morning prayer. |
We began 2014 with the service of morning prayer on January 1,
celebrating the circumcision and naming of Jesus, according to the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 21. Also we reflected on Joshua
24:14-24 as a basis for renewed dedication to walking with the Lord in
the new year.
On January 2, we learned of the death of Javier
Mirabal. The 38-year-old man had been hospitalized with an infection,
but appeared to be recovering. He was not a communicant member of our
mission, but rather of another "evangelical" church (in Venezuela, the
word "evangelical" refers to almost any congregation that is not Roman
Catholic). Nevertheless he was a great friend and supporter of our
mission and in 2007 had stood up as a sponsor at the baptism of one of
our members, Jimmy Perez. Javier was a schoolteacher and the only member
of his family to earn a university degree. He enjoyed passing out
tracts provided by "Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" (the Spanish arm of
Lutheran Hour Ministries).
A respected and well-liked young man, his family's misfortune moved the
entire community and his funeral drew a remarkable number of guests. We
had prayed for Javier's health on January 1, and remembered the family in our prayers in our celebration of the Epiphany
on Sunday, January 5.
The following week,
the death of Monica Spear,
former Miss Venezuela and actress, garnered international headlines. On
Monday, January 6, she and her husband, Henry Thomas Berry, were
murdered on the highway near
Puerto Cabello, Venezuela's main seaport.
The couple’s car reportedly broke down and they resisted a robbery which
occurred while they were awaiting a tow truck. Their five-year-old
daughter was with them and lived to tell of the crime. The couple had
been separated for a year and a half, but were in the process of
reconciliation. They had celebrated with a trip to the Venezuelan Andes
and were on their way back to Caracas.
Their deaths rocked the
entire nation and led to a historic summit between opposing political
factions in this deeply divided country on resolving the problem of
Venezuela's level of violent crime,
one of the highest in the world.
In
Job 14:1-6 , Job cries to the Lord , "Man that is born of a woman is of
few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is
cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. And dost thou
open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with
thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his
days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast
appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; Turn from him, that he may
rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day."
It was a
deep cry of misery for the universal sinfulness of the human race ,
which brings the judgment of God upon us all. Rich or poor, famous or
unknown, we all must face the hour of our death. Even though we might
think we have years of life ahead of us, we have no guarantee that the
end might not be upon us this very day.
Yet for all that life is
short and fragile, it is not with sadness that we say , God has put
limits on our time here. St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, "
Nor , brothers , do we want you to be ignorant about those who fall
asleep , lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those
who sleep in Jesus . "
Many people think that there is no
existence beyond this earthly life , so we must enjoy as many of the
good things of this life as we can. This is the path of greed and envy
because we can never have enough of the good things of this world. This
lifestyle leaves us feeling empty , because we know the purpose of life
is more than being born , competing so we can acquire what we can and
then die . We know that we were created to live as children of God , in
communion with Him. For those that believe in Him, there is the promise
of eternal life in Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ says that
Christ has fulfilled the will of God in our place, also suffered the
punishment for our sins in our place, so that on the Day of Judgment
when we must give account of our lives, no matter the duration, we will
escape the wrath of God by being clothed with the righteousness of
Christ. and not have to worry about our short-term destiny, because God
has decreed our long-term destiny: eternal life with Christ. Amen.
For her confirmation, I presented Sotera with a copy of the Bible (the Reina-Valera Spanish translation) with Luther's Small Catechism included as an appendix. We just received another package of these Bibles, published by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation of Macomb, Michigan, thanks to the efforts of Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones (CPTLN), the Venezuelan arm of Lutheran Hour Ministries. We are grateful to have received the shipment, because importing any type of merchandise into Venezuela is not easy these days.
