From July 1 to 4, 2015, Luz Maria and I attended a seminar on the pastoral office conducted in Caracas by Sergio Fritzler of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Carlos Schumann of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile and a representative of Luther Academy; and Sergio Maita of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturin, Venezuela, who is now a missionary from Venezuela to the Dominican Republic. The theme was the pastoral office, but we started with the concept of vocation in the Christian life.
Sergio Maita and Elsy Valladares de Machado.
God has called every Christian to live not for himself but for Christ and his neighbor, living in Christ by faith, and for others through the love of God. The Word of God changes the identity of a human being from sinner and enemy of God to child of God through baptism (Romans 6:4). Every Christian has a vocation as a member of a family, as a citizen of his country, and also in the church. We speak in this regard on the priesthood of the baptized (1 Peter 2:9). Because of the blood of Christ, every believer has the right and responsibility to offer to God petitions, thanksgiving and sacrifices of thanksgiving. However, the Lord has instituted a ministry distinct from the priesthood of alll believers to which not all are called, the ministry of preaching and administering the sacraments. The apostolic doctrine emphasizes the centrality of both the preaching and the sacraments in Christian worship as the means of grace. The doctrine of the ministry delivers the gifts of salvation. The ordained ministry is a mark of the church (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1: 5-9).
"With regard to church government it is taught nobody should publicly teach in church or preach or administer the sacraments without a regular call. " Augsburg Confession, Article XIV. The Latin phrase for "legitimate appeal" is "rite vocatus." Rite vocatus is a public act and does not consist only of congregational authorization, but normally also involves the participation of called and ordained clergy (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 6:1-6, 13.1-3; 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6-7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4).
Luther Academy is an organization that promotes genuine, confessional Lutheran theology and research through conferences, scholarly exchanges, and publications that assist the church both to preserve and to proclaim to the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only saving faith. Luther Academy Luther Academy is now presenting theological seminars throughout South America and Central America, and in West Africa, Uganda, Togo, India and Indonesia.
Carlos Schumann, Bryan Noguera, Obed Coronado, Argenis Rivas,
Abel Garcia, Carlos Loturco and Sergio Fritzler.
Concordia Seminary of Buenos Aires is the seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina, a partner church of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The seminary in Argentina is collaborating with Concordia Theological Seminary of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in offering a series of on-line courses for training confessional Lutheran pastors in Central and South America called "Pastoral Formation in Hispanic America". I am enrolled in this program and the seminar provided me the opportunity to meet four other men from Venezuela who are also participating: Bryan Noguera, Obed Coronado, Argenis Rivas and Carlos Loturco. Also I was reunited with Eliezer Angel Mendoza, a Venezuelan who has been attending the Buenos Aires seminary on a scholarship and who has now graduated.
Abel Garcia, Eliezer Angel Mendoza, Sergio Fritzler and Elias Lozano.
On August 3, 2014, we received Sotera del Carmen Zapata as a communicant member by confirmation. Sotera is a widowed lady who lives a few doors down from us. She began attending our Sunday service occasionally, then more frequently, and finally expressed her desire to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Luz Maria and I began visiting her and studying Luther's Small Catechism with her. In a short time she was ready to be confirmed. The Old Testament lesson appointed for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, Isaiah 62:6-12, provided her confirmation verse: "Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." I preached the sermon on this text. You can read the English translation here.
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.
Soon after becoming a communicant member, Sotera accompanied Luz Maria and her daughter, Yepci Santana, to a regional convention of the Venezuelan Lutheran women's organization, Sociedad Luterana de Damas Venezolanas (SOLUDAVE) in Taguay, in the state of Aragua. Thirty-two women from the Western and Central Zones of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, three national pastors, and Alexander Pérez, director of CPTLN Venezuela, attended the gathering. Alexander Pérez presented each participant with a copy of the Reina-Valera Bible plus Small Catechism. Luz Maria distributed 15 sets of flash cards explaining the Lutheran liturgy.
On June 21, 2014, Luz Maria and I traveled to Barquisimeto and, together with Pastor Abel Garcia, director of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute and representatives of member congregations of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, began a course in the use of Moodle, the world's premier on-line learning platform.
Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It is open-source software first developed in 2002 by Martin Dougiamas, a computer scientist at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.
We just had to meet in Barquisimeto once. The rest of the coursework has been done on-line. Our meeting place was la Universidad Centrooccidental "Lisandro Alvarado" (UCLA, but not the UCLA in California). Established in 1962, the university specializes in the teaching of human and veterinary medicine, and agronomy. We had the opportunity to receive instruction thanks to Laura Restrepo, a member of the university's faculty and El Paraiso Lutheran Church in Barquisimeto (if you are familiar with Latin American literature, you may know there is a well-known Colombian author and journalist named Laura Restrepo. This is not that Laura Restrepo).
In addition to Pastor Abel, Luz Maria, Laura Restrepo and myself, our group included:
Pastor Miguelángel Pérez and Zugeimar Aranguren of El Paraiso Lutheran Church, Barquisimeto.
Yenny Gamboa, Juan Carlos and Luis Miguel Silva of La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay.
Obed Coronado of Fuente de Vida Lutheran Church in Puerto Ordaz.
Lino Zerpa of La Ascensión Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana.
Luz Maria's daughters, Yepci and Charli Santana.
By the end of the five-week course, we all should be certified to teach on-line courses with Moodle. The adoption of this system will be a milestone for the Juan de Frias Theological Institute.
The Juan de Frias program of theological education by extension has been a great benefit to the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in the absence of a residential seminary for preparing men for Word and sacrament ministry. A residential seminary is certainly the ideal, but the ILV has not had the resources to establish one so far.
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod once sent missionaries to serve as the theological educators for this program. For years before the explosion of Internet access, they would travel to each of the ILV's widely scattered congregations, training pastors and catechising the laity. Pastor Ted Krey, who now is LCMS regional director of Latin American missions, was the last of these theological educators. Since Pastor Krey left in 2010, the ILV has faced mounting difficulties in maintaining the theological education by extension program. This has been in part because the state of the Venezuelan economy has made it hard for the ILV to find the funds, in part because political unrest and a rising tide of violence has made travel more and more of a risk. God willing, the increased use of the Internet for distance learning will help the Lutheran Church of Venezuela to overcome these difficulties.
How very quickly the "festival half" of 2013-2014 church year has passed for us, but especially the seasons of Lent and Easter. We observed Ash Wednesday amid political unrest that claimed a number of lives, left many more people injured, and led to the suspension of traditional pre-Lenten festivities in many Venezuelan cities. Since then, annual inflation of Venezuela's currency has topped 60 percent, resulting in spiralling food prices. In the first quarter of 2014, inflation climbed by 10.1%, the highest jump in Venezuela's history for the first three months of the year since 1996. According to the newspaper, El Universal, spiraling inflation comes hand in hand with signals that the economy is heading towards recession, amidst a slowdown in manufacture, construction, trade, and stagnant oil production. Recession plus high inflation could mean a new increase in poverty, which in 2013 soared to 27.3%.
Shortages of basic products, like milk, paper and medical supplies, have continued and extended into new categories. Venezuelans, who place a great deal of importance on personal grooming, have had to get used to scarcity of shampoo, cosmetics and deodorant. Coffin production has dropped between 20% and 30% this year for lack of materials, forcing funeral and burial delays.
Power outages have continued as well. El Universal reported that on June 18, localities in the Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre, Nueva Esparta, Aragua, Carabobo, Miranda, Vargas, Mérida, Zulia and Falcón all suffered power outages at the same time. Of course, these blackouts do not make national or international headlines if they are only on a local scale.
Here in La Caramuca, we experience power outages at least once or twice a week, usually lasting two to three hours. Last weekend we were without power for 12 hours. These lengthy blackouts result from the fact that workers for the state-owned electric utility receive less than 40% of the materials needed to fix generation and distribution facility breakdowns.
These problems have led to continued protests, a shake-up in the federal goverment and, of course, increased uncertainty about the future for many Venezuelans.
We have adapted to this constantly changing situation as best we can, primarily by growing more and more of our own fruits and vegetables on our property. In keeping with the objectives of our mission, we have shared our produce with the neediest members of the surrounding community. We also have offered cooking classes to teach the preparation of nutritionally balanced meals in the most economical way possible.
And we have continued to celebrate with joy the great festival days of Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. One Sunday we used white wine for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper because there was no red wine available. I explained to our congregation that we would not change any aspect of the order of Holy Communion to suit our own whims, but the general scarcity of everything now included red wine and that Scripture only requires that the visible element must be wine and not grape juice. The color and other secondary attributes are not of the utmost importance. By God's grace, someone took my little speech to heart and through personal contacts located a place where we were able to buy a case of red wine.
Members of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas joined us for our Easter Sunday service. The Corpus Christi congregation was planted years before our mission in La Caramuca, but has not had its own pastor for some time. We pray for them as Miguelángel Pérez, the presiding pastor of the western zone of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, helps them in extending a call to a new pastor (in fact, Miguelángel and myself are the only ordained pastors of Lutheran Church of Venezuela in the western third of the country at this time).
In my Ascension Sunday sermon, I emphasized that the Ascension of Christ is linked with the mission of the church, which is this: To prepare people for the second coming of Christ, when He will come in glory to judge all nations. How do we do this? By proclaiming the gospel, to call people to repentance and salvation before the second coming of Christ. We could not do this without the Ascension of Christ, because with all authority in heaven and earth, He sent the church the Holy Spirit to help proclaim the gospel everywhere. Like the angels, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven said, will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. Clouds hid Christ, and Christ in the clouds revealed. Among his Ascension in the clouds and his return in the clouds is the time to proclaim the gospel, to repent for his glory in Christ as Lord and Savior.
But the apostles had a question for Christ before His Ascension. "Lord, will you restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?"
The apostles, like many people at that time thought of the Messiah, the promised Savior of Israel as a political hero, who would defeat the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel to the glory of the days of David and Solomon. But Christ was not this type of Salvador. He was much more. He won spiritual freedom for the whole world, not just independence for one single country. So Jesus' answer was as follows: "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath put in His own power; But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. "
When I was a boy, I enjoyed playing an
educational card game called “Authors”. The deck of cards consisted of eleven sets of four cards each representing the works of eleven famous authors. The object of the game was to form complete sets of the four cards comprising the works of a particular author. I remember
another such card game called “Famous Movie Monsters”, which was
just as much fun, although not so high-brow.
Luz Maria has developed a set of
cards for the historic Lutheran liturgy. The object is to answer correctly as many questions as you can. Her daughter, Charli,
provided the graphic design, while the text on each card was taken,
with the author's permission, from an explanation of the liturgy (in
Spanish) by Edmund Mielke, former missionary to Venezuela and now the
pastor of Grace
Lutheran Church, Brandon, Manitoba. Luz Maria and Charli have put
together 10 sets of these cards with the intention of selling them
for a nominal fee at the national convention of SOLUDAVE (Sociedad
Luterana de Damas Venezolanas), the Venezuelan Lutheran women's
organization. Luz Maria hopes the card game will be used as a tool
for teaching the history and importance of the liturgy in all of the
member congregations of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.
Rev. Mielke entitled his treatise
“Oficio Divino” (Divine Office). English-speaking Lutherans
perhaps more often use the expression “Divine Service” in
reference to what the Augsburg Confession continues to call “the
Mass.” According to Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession,
“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the
Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest
reverence.”
The term “Mass” is derived from the
Latin word for dismissal. In the early Christian church, it was
customary, after the preaching, or “service of the Word”, to
dismiss all who were not baptized members of the church and then
celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Thus, in the western
half of the Roman Empire, where Latin was adopted as the liturgical
language, the “mass” or dismissal of the unbaptized, at first
signified the beginning of the sacramental service. Later it came to
mean the entire service.
What is called “the Mass” in the
tradition of the western European church is called the “Divine
Liturgy” in the Greek Orthodox churches of eastern Europe and Asia.
“Liturgy” comes from the Greek λειτουργια
(“leitourgia”). This is a compound word combining “leitos” or
public, with “ergon”, which means work or action. Leitourgia
originally meant something provided as a service for the public by a
benefactor of the ruling class. In Spanish, “oficio” can mean
“official function” or “ministry” (the word for what we
usually mean by “office” in English is “oficina”.) In fact,
the word “leitourgia” occurs in the New Testament, where it is
usually translated into English as “service” or “ministry”
(Luke 1:23, 2 Corinthians 9:12, Philippians 2:17, 30, and Hebrews
8:6, 9:21). In Luke 1:23, Zachariah goes home when "the days of
his liturgy” (αι ημεραι της λειτουργιας
αυτου), or service in the Temple, are over.
In the Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the Old Testament read by people who did not know
Hebrew in New Testament times ) the word “leitourgia” (and nouns
and verbs derived from it) is used to translate verses describing the
ritual service of the temple (Numbers 4:24; Joel 1:9, 2:17). In
Hebrews 8:6, the high priest of the New Covenant (Jesus) performs a
better kind of “liturgy” than that of the Old Testament priests
and Levites (νυνι δε διαφορωτερας τετυχεν
λειτουργιας, οσῳ και κρειττονος εστιν
διαθηκης μεσιτης, ητις επι κρειττοσιν
επαγγελιαις νενομοθετηται) by sacrificing
Himself once and for all time for the sins of the whole human race,
and by continuing to act as Mediator between God and man. For this
reason, propitiary sacrifices of animals have been eliminated from
the worship of the New Covenant (because Christ's sacrifice on the
cross covers all sin), as have the ceremonial/ritual purity laws
which had to be obeyed before anyone could enter the Temple and
participate in the Old Testament rites (because we enter the presence
of God made holy by the blood of Christ).
Christ also instituted certain means
for His salvation to be made known to the world and for the
strengthening of the faith of those who believe. First the public
proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth and instruction
in the doctrines of the faith (John 20:21-23, Matthew 28:19-20), and
the sacraments of baptism (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Lord's Supper (1
Corinthians 11:23-24).
By “Divine Service,” “Divine
Liturgy” or “Divine Office”, we mean the public preaching of
the Word, which Christ Himself instituted for the benefit of
believers and those who have yet to believe, and the administration
of the sacraments, baptism for the receiving of people into the
household of faith, and Holy Communion for the strengthening of faith
in those who believe.
Article V of the Augsburg Confession
states, "To obtain such faith, God instituted the preaching
office to give Gospel and Sacraments. Through these, as through
means, he gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where He
pleases, in those who hear the Gospel.” Likewise Article XXIII of
the Augsburg Confession says, “the sacraments were ordained, not
only to be marks of profession among men, but rather to be signs and
testimonies of the will of God toward us, instituted to awaken and
confirm faith in those who use them. Wherefore we must so use the
sacraments that faith be added to believe the promises which are
offered and set forth through the sacraments.”
The service of the Word and sacraments
is central to Christian worship. Although the New Testament gives no
detailed description of early Christian worship, several other things
are associated with the ministry of Word and sacrament: prayer (1
Timothy 2:8), singing of hymns (Ephesians 5:19). Scripture readings
(James 1:22) and offerings of thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Put all of these components together and a certain structure emerges.
Thus we define Christian worship as God delivering the gifts of His
grace, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life to
those who repent and believe, through the means of Word and
sacrament, the grateful response of His people with prayer and
praise. This basic structure, or “liturgy”, has stood the test of
time. We see it in the earliest full descriptions of the church's
worship, such as the writings of Justin Martyr or the Didache.
Because this structure is based directly the teachings of the Holy
Scriptures, it is not negotiable and may not be set aside.
There are elements of the historic
liturgy that we have inherited from the church of past centuries that
are neither expressly commanded or forbidden by Holy Scripture. These
are called “adiaphora”, from a Greek word that often is
translated as “indifferent matters.” Many people think that to
say something is an adiaphoron is to say it's purely a matter of
personal preference, but this is not so. If something is commanded
or forbidden by Scripture, then one is faced with a simple black
versus white proposition. To refuse to do what God commands in
Scripture, or to do what Scripture forbids is to defy the will of
God, pure and simple. With adiaphora, however, there may be shades of
gray. To accept or reject an adiaphoron may depend on the historical
or cultural context in which one finds oneself.
For example, early in the 20th Century,
many German Lutheran congregations in the United States adopted the
custom of placing a United States flag on one side of the chancel and
a “Christian flag” (a red cross on a blue field against a white background) on the other.
This was because in the years preceding, during and following World
War I, there was a great deal of prejudice and animosity toward
German-speaking immigrants. The German Lutherans wanted to show that
they were both devout Christians and loyal citizens who recognized
the United States of America as “one nation under God.” Nowadays
this practice strikes some people as blurring the proper distinction
between church and state, and identifying Christianity too closely
with “the American way of life.” Who
is right? To display the banners of church and state in this way
may have made sense in a certain time and place, but may not be
considered appropriate in a more global era. That is the nature of
adiaphora.
The Lutheran approach to such matters
is a variation of the principle, “If it works, don't fix it.” If
some practice has become part of the common heritage of the church,
does not contradict Scripture, serves a useful purpose and does not
create misunderstandings, it should by all means be preserved as ṕart
of our worship.
Martin Lutheran published his “Formula
Missae” (Latin Mass) in 1523. In his introduction to it, he wrote:
“We therefore first
assert: It is not now nor ever has been our intention to abolish the
liturgical service of God completely, but rather to purify the one
that is now in use from the wretched accretions which corrupt it and
to point out an evangelical use.”
So we say along with
the Apology (Defense) of the Augsburg Confession, Articles VII and
VIII: 33, “...we
believe that the true unity of the Church is not injured by
dissimilar rites instituted by men; although it is pleasing to us
that, for the sake of tranquillity [unity and good order], universal
rites be observed, just as also in the churches we willingly observe
the order of the Mass, the Lord’s Day, and other more eminent
festival days. And with a very grateful mind we embrace the
profitable and ancient ordinances, especially since they contain a
discipline by which it is profitable to educate and train the people
and those who are ignorant.”
Zion Detroit was founded on June 4,
1882, by a group composed mostly of German immigrants from West
Prussia, now a part of Poland (this is the region from
which my great-great-grandparents emigrated in 1839). By the early
1890s, the congregation had almost 3,100 parishioners, and was, at
the time, the largest congregation in The Lutheran Church Missouri
Synod, which it had joined in 1883 (of course, at the time the LCMS
was not named the LCMS, but rather the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of
Missouri, Ohio and Other States).
Pastor Braden is an adjunct member of
the faculties of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana,
and of Concordia University Ann Arbor, Michigan, He teaches Biblical
Greek online for the seminary, and New Testament for the university.
Pastor Braden speaks fluent Spanish from having spent his childhood
in Cadiz, Spain, where his father, an office in the U.S. Navy, was
stationed.
It always is a privilege to study under
qualified instructors provided by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's
Juan de Frias Theological Institute. La Fortaleza Lutheran Church of
Maracay, Venezuela, hosted the seminar. This is the church where Luz Maria and I had our marriage solemnized (because in Venezuela, first
you are legally married in a civil ceremony and later, if you desire,
there is a service of blessing in the church).
Also, when I first
arrived in Venezuela in 2003, I lived in Maracay with Pastor Ted Krey
(now LCMS World Missions regional director for Latin America and the
Caribbean) and studied Spanish at the Language College. Also at the
time, Ross Johnson, who is now director
of the LCMS Disaster Response ministry, was serving his vicarage
at La Fortaleza Lutheran Church.
Edgar Coronado, the current pastor of
La Fortaleza, was one of the first Venezuelans that I met when I
toured the country in April 2003, before I began my long-term service
that July. So it was with many fond memories that we traveled to
Maracay.
Luz Maria and I did a presentation on
the pastoral office, comparing the treatment of the subject in John
Theodore Mueller' s "Christian Dogmatics" and chapter 6 of Sergio
Fritzler's “El Oficio Pastoral”.
I remember reading the complete,
unabridged English translation of Pieper's work by T. Engelder, J. T.
Mueller; and W. W. F. Albrecht in my father's study years ago when I was a boy. It
was a major influence on my thinking. Pieper, by the way, was also a
native of Pomerania, the land of my ancestors. He was born west of
Danzig (now known as Gdansk).
Sergio Fritzler serves as director of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the seminary of la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Argentina (IELA) (Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Argentina). The chapter that we were assigned from
Fritzler's book is more of a historical overview in the way
perceptions of the pastoral office have changed from the time of
Constantine (fourth century A.D.) until the present, while Mueller's
handbook of systematic theology deals the topic in a more abstract
way.
Nevertheless Luz Maria and I recognized a common theme: We
Lutherans believe in apostolic succession, although in a manner
different than that of the Roman Catholic Church. Christ Himself
instituted the office of pastor to continue the work of the apostles:
Preaching and teaching the apostolic doctrine and administering the
sacraments. God calls and places men into the ministry of Word and
sacrament using the church as an instrument. However, the right of
apostolic succession is based on fidelity to the Holy Scriptures, not
on an historic episcopate supposedly dating back in an unbroken line
to the time of the apostles.
Luz Maria elected president of women's
organization
From Sept. 5 to 8, 2013, Luz Maria
attended the national convention of Sociedad Luterana de Damas
Venezolanas (SOLUDAVE), the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's women's
organization. It took place at a retreat center near Barquisimeto,
with the focus being on a study of the prophetess Deborah in the Book
of Judges and the role of women in the church. Luz Maria was elected
president of the organization.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
It would have been more fitting to
have had the procession of the Cross on Palm Sunday. However, our
visitors from Barquisimeto were not due to arrive until the following
day, so it became part of the opening worship for our three-day
regional retreat for preteens on Monday.
We had the cross made for the
processional. It is a plain, wooden cross three meters in height
(that's an inch and a fraction short of 10 feet). I carried it in
front of the group as we marched around Barrio Las Lomas, singing
hymns. The cross did not seem so heavy at first, but my arms and
shoulders were aching at the end of the trail.
The Ark of the Covenant, symbol of the
promises God made to Israel at Mount Sinai, was solemnly carried in
front of the people of Israel as they crossed the Jordan River into
the Promised Land (Joshua, chapters 3 and 4) and also before the
people in a march around the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). When King
Solomon had built the first Temple of Jerusalem, the ark was carried
in solemn procession into the innermost part. Processions of the
cross reflect
this Old Testament imagery.
Christians
began marching in the streets behind a processional cross in the
fourth century A.D., when such demonstrations became tolerated in the
Roman Empire. The processions moved from church to church, with
participants, alternately saying or singing prayers, psalms, and
litanies.
The procession of the Cross also
embodies another metaphor from the ancient world used in both the Old
and New Testaments, that of the triumphant king's victory parade.
Isaiah 60:11 says.
Your gates shall be open
continually;
day and night they shall not be shut,
that people
may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led
in procession.
Also 2 Corinthians 2:14:
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the
fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Processions of the cross, with either a
plain cross or a crucifix, also have a
long and honorable history in Lutheranism. The Reformers objected
specifically to the Corpus Christi procession, because it involved
actual public display and adoration of the host (communion bread).
They did not, however, object to the idea of a procession of the
Cross. Many Lutheran churches have never abandoned the practice of
processionals, especially on festival days. For it is a principle of
our confession that the practices of the ancient church, if they do
not conflict with the clear teaching of Scripture, should be
preserved to every extent possible.
In Venezuela, of course, one must walk
a certain fine line. On the one hand, many of the
evangelical/pentecostal sects here consider even the display of a
plain cross to be too “papist”.It is not our intention to give
offense, or create a stumbling-block for the faith of these people
(per 1 Corinthians 8:13), but for Lutherans this position is
completely unacceptable. The cross, and not just the unadorned cross,
but especially the crucifix, is the central symbol of the faith, the
visual expression of what itś all about. We call our theology the
“theology of the cross”, because Christ's suffering and death on
the cross was His victory and ours. He atoned for our sins on the
cross and thus gained for us the hope of eternal life. Certainly, “if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in
your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17), but to celebrate Easter without
Good Friday is to preach a gospel of “cheap grace,” of salvation
without atonement.
On the other hand, in popular Roman
Catholic piety here (as elsewhere in the world), people often will
pray to the image of the Crucified. Thus, to avoid tempting anyone to
the sin of idolatry, we chose a plain cross for our procession.
Fun for preteens of all ages
Our guests during the first three days
of Holy Week included Miguelangel Perez, pastor of El Paraiso
Lutheran Church in Barquisimeto, and Sandra Lopez, Katharina Ramones
and two young girls from Nueva Vida Lutheran Mission in Barquisimeto.
The rest of the children attending the retreat were from our
neighborhood in La Caramuca. Total attendance was around 50 people.
Tuesday was devoted to Bible study and
activities reminiscent of vacation Bible school. The theme of the
retreat was “Timothy: A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus” with
special emphasis on 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15:
“And how from childhood you have been
acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise
for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Wednesday's event was an outing to the
Paguey River. The people from Barquisimeto had all returned home by
end of day Wednesday, but for us Holy Week activities were not over.
We observed Good Friday with a 5 p.m. Service and celebrated Easter
as part of our regular Sunday service. Children who attended the
Easter service received leftover watermelon and other goodies.
On December 6, 2012, the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) granted Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity status to Venezuela's “Diabolos
Danzantes” (Dancing Devils), With this decision, the
Dancing Devils take their place alongside such cultural
manifestations as Spain’s flamenco dance, Turkey’s Mevlevi Sema
ceremony, and, Mexico’s mariachi music.
For people who are not familiar with the custom, dancers wearing
elaborate paper-maché devil masks accompany the traditional Corpus
Christi day procession to the sound of heavy drumbeats. The dance
stops in front of the doors of the local Roman Catholic church, where
the dancers kneel to receive a blessing from the priest. This is
supposed to symbolize the defeat of the evil spirits by the presence
of Christ's body and blood. The Dancing Devils ritual is practiced in
San Francisco de Yare and about 14 other towns and villages in the
central states of Miranda, Guarico, Carabobo, Cojedes, Vargas and
Aragua.
This is a prime example of the “folk Catholicism” found
throughout Venezuela, practices not initiated by and usually not
actively promoted by the Catholic hierarchy, but which have come to
be at least tolerated by the Church as part of popular piety.
The Dancing Devils are rooted in indigenous Latin
American shamanism and African
religious beliefs brought over by slaves of the Spanish. At
first the
Catholic Church tried to suppress the Dancing Devils rituals, but
later incorporated them into the observance of the feast of Corpus
Christi.
Feast of Corpus Christi Procession, Piazza di San Marco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Corpus Christi” is Latin for “Body of
Christ.” The feast of Corpus Christi was first celebrated in 1246
in the Diocese of Liége in what is now Belgium. In 1265, by decree
of Pope Urban IV, it became a feast day throughout western European
Christendom. It is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday,
or often nowadays, on the following Sunday. Celebration of the feast
of Corpus Christi involves a procession to the church with a wafer of
communion bread displayed in a special vessel called a monstrance,
usually of a sunburst design.
The rationale behind the feast of Corpus Christi is
this: According to the liturgical calendar of the ancient church,
Maundy Thursday was the day to celebrate the institution of the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper by Christ. However, this aspect of
Maundy Thursday often was overshadowed by the great drama of Holy
Week (His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, trial before the
Sanhedrin, accusation before Pontius Pilate, examinationn by King
Herod, torture and crucifixion, and resurrection on Easter Sunday).
The feast of Corpus Christi was intended to reaffirm the importance
of the sacrament and the real presence of Christ' s body and blood.
The feast of Corpus Christi became quite an important event in the
late Middle Ages and there are many traditions associated with it in
many countries.
A stained glass window, Confessio Augustana, a symbol of the faith of the Church Catholic epitomized in the Augsburg Confession. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At the
presentation of the Augsburg Confession to Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V in 1530, the northern European princes who had signed the
confession refused the Emperor's command to join in a Corpus Christi
procession. The observance was banned in Lutheran territories, until
mandated by imperial authorities under the infamous Leipzig
Interim of 1548. This decree was overturned by the Peace of
Augsburg in 1555, but the feast of Corpus Christi continued to be
marked on some Lutheran church calendars until 1600. In more recent
times, there has been a revival
of interest in the feast of Corpus Christi among more “high
church” Lutherans.
Lutherans, along with many Anglicans, reject the
idea that the bread and wine are only symbols of the body and blood
of Christ. However, Roman Catholics, along with the Greek Orthodox
churches and some Anglicans, believe in transubstantiation. This
means that the bread and wine are completely and permanently
transformed into the body and blood of Christ when the priest speaks
the words of consecration. The bread and wine actually vanish and
what's left on the altar is the body and blood of Christ, even though
it retains all the outward aspects (taste, smell, texture) of bread
and wine. You might put the elements of the sacrament under an
electron microscope where they would appear to have the molecular
structure of bread and wine, but they really would be the body and
blood of Christ.
The Lutheran view often is incorrectly described as
“consubstantiation”, that is, the body and blood are somehow
fused to, or merged with the bread and wine. The writings of some
Lutherans of a more “high church” bent might suggest this, but
mainstream Lutherans believe that the body and the blood, and the
bread and the wine, are all present at the same time, without the
body and blood ever ceasing to be completely the body and the blood,
or the bread and the wine ceasing to be completely bread and wine.
There is a lot more to the different doctrines of the sacrament,
but suffice it to say that from a Lutheran perspective, adoration
(worship) of the visible elements (bread and wine) is wrong. The
feast of Corpus Christi is all about the adoration of the visible
elements. A few Lutherans think that you can have something like a
Corpus Christi procession without tempting people to worship the
communion bread, but strictly confessional Lutherans do not. And I
have not even touched on the wisdom incorporating into this ceremony
music and dance so firmly associated with shamanism.
The UNESCO decision is ironic in light of the fact
that is something of a “Ban Halloween” movement here in
Venezuela. The argument is that Halloween is an “imported” North
American holiday with pagan origins in the ancient Irish harvest
festival of Samhain. The first point is fairly accurate, most of the
customs that we associate with Halloween gained currency in the
United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Whether that means
anything given the European and African background of the
“authentically Venezuelan” Dancing Devils is another question.
The second claim is
a misconception that has become very widespread. In fact, the
Christian observance of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day (including
the dates) developed far outside any Irish sphere of influence, and
became universally practiced throughout eastern and western
Christendom even before St. Patrick set foot in Ireland.
This illustrates that while as Christians we should
be well-informed and constantly pray for discernment when evaluating
whatever human traditions that we encounter. When I was preparing to
leave the United States on my first mission trip, we were told that
we must be able to distinguish between what is good and bad (with the
Holy Scriptures as our rule) and what is simply different from what
we are accustomed to. This is not always easy, especially because,
as St. Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 8, certain things may not be
forbidden to the Christian by God's express command, nevertheless
within certain cultural contexts be so strongly associated with false
beliefs and practices that is best for us to avoid them, lest we send
the wrong message to others.
Like Venezuelans today, the early Christians of
Corinth were surrounded by a highly syncretistic society.
“Syncretism” means extractingcustoms, phrases and symbols from
fundamentally irreconciliable belief-systems and claiming that you
have reconstituted them into a harmonious whole. Not only is
syncretism intellectually dishonest, but the Bible roundly condemns
it, starting with the First Commandment (“Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me”). The point of most of the ceremonial laws set
forth in the books of Moses was to thoroughly distinguish the worship
of the God of Israel from that of other gods.
The principle is affirmed many times throughout the
Old Testament. “And Elijah came near to all the people and said,
“How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If
the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the
people did not answer him a word.” 1 Kings 18:21.
By New Testament times, the Jews had,
within their own cultural enclaves, largely abandoned gross idolatry.
But the “Hellenized” Jews (who had been more or less assimilated
into Greco-Roman society) and the gentiles from whom would grow the
early Christian church, had to deal with a society awash in
syncretism. They constantly were under pressure to conform to such a
society's expectations.
The Greeks and the Romans considered themselves
quite broad-minded when it came to religion. They were eager to hedge
their bets, cover all the bases. No sect or cult should be slighted,
in case those devotees might actually have the ear of a powerful god
or goddess.
St. Paul called attention to this when
he visited Athens: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you
are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of
your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the
unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I
proclaim to you...” (Acts 17:22-23).
The city of Corinth, as St. Paul knew
it, was considered “the Empire in miniature.” It was a thriving,
multi-cultural center of trade, where every nationality under the
power of Rome was represented. Corinth also was filled with pagan
temples of every description.
One practice common to nearly all the
pagan cults was animal sacrifice. However, when the flesh of these
creatures was not consumed as a burnt offering, it remained fit for
human consumptions. Usually the priest and priestesses of the temple
would be given the choice of the finests cuts of meat. But there
still would be a lot of meat left over, and much of it would be
consumed as part of the religious celebrations in the dining halls
that were attached to most of the temples. Still there would be meat
unconsumed, so there usually was a meat market or butcher's shop
located in the vicinity of every pagan shrine.
Moreover, when not in use for
specifically religious purposes, the dining halls would be rented out
for public or private parties. The main course at these banquets, of
course, would be the meat that had been sacrificed on pagan altars.
In other words, as a matter of everyday
life in Corinth, it was difficult for Chritians to avoid eating meat
that had been sacrificed to pagan gods. This was just one example of
how pervasive paganism was in the culture in which they found
themselves, indeed, the culture in which most of them had been
raised. One the hand, the Christians wanted to be free of the
spiritual bondage of paganism, yet they also believed they had a
mission to proclaim the Gospel to their unbelieving neighbors. So
what were they to do?
Some Corinthian Christians thought
that, since they no lonber believed in the old gods, not only was
eating meat purchased from a public market not a problem, attending a
feast at the pagan temple wasn't, either. Even if a public banquest
were to begin with the invocation of a god or goddess, but since the
pagan deities didn't exist, so what?
Paul's answer to these people is while,
in an objective sense, pagans gods do not exist and are therefore
powerless over the Christian, the invocation and worship of these
gods does mean something to those nvolved. They are in spiritual
bondage, for they have substituted the worship of created things for
the worship of the true God. Those who engage in idolatry (worhip of
false gods) show that they are enslaved to sin. Enslavement to sin
means enslavement to Satan and his angels; therefore, pagan
sacrifices are offerings to spirits in rebellion against God, that is
to say, demons (1 Corinthians 10:20).
Verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 8 is most
likely an early Christian creed or confession that was recited as
part of Christiann worship:
There is one God, the Father, from whom
are all things and for Whom we exist.
There is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through Whom are all things for for Whom we exist.
One cannot publicly confess this truth
and yet even silently acknowledge the invocation of a pagan god, for
to do so is to deny the liberty that we have gained through baptism
into Christ. In chapter 10, Paul ties the issue of meat sacrificed to
idols to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper by way of emphasizing
that full communion in the life of the church is not open to those
who participate in syncretistis worship:
“The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we
break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there
is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the
one bread....You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of
demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of
demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-21)
But beyond an absolute prohibition
agains participation in pagan religious ceremonies, the Christian
must connsider the context of a particular situation and whether a
particular action clearly confesses faith in Christ alone, or whether
it will mislead others into thinking faith in Christ is only one of
number of equally valid “spiritual paths.” Eating meat is not
wrong in itself, regardless of whether the meat originated in a pagan
temple, but Paul says it would be better never to eat meat than to
tempt “the weaker brother” into a relapse into paganism.
Finally, the Lutheran Reformers had ths
to say in the Formula of Concord, published in 1577, in response to
the Leipzig Interim and other attempts to force observance of the
feast of Corpus Christi and other rites:
“We believe, teach, and confess that in time of
persecution,
when a clear-cut confession of faith is demanded of us,
we dare
not yield to the enemies in such indifferent things,... In
such a case it
is no longer a question of indifferent things, but a
matter which
has to do with the truth of the Gospel, Christian
liberty, and the
sanctioning of public idolatry, as well as
preventing offense to
the weak in faith. In all these things we have
no concessions to
make, but we should witness an unequivocal
confession and
suffer in consequence what God sends us and what he
lets the
enemies inflict on us.”
(Epitome of the Formula of
Concord, Article X. Church Usages, paragraph 6.
God of grace and God of glory, grant us wisdom and
courage for the living of these days. Amen.
