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.

Making the most of Mother's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond confirmation class



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

A fine cassava crop

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

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

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

Related articles by Zemanta

• Flowers for Mothering Sunday (apostcardaday.blogspot.com)
• In Honor of Mom: Creative Mothers Day Activities (lifescript.com)
• Breeding Cassava to Feed the Poor (preview) (scientificamerican.com)