God is not silent

Symbol of the Trinity in window of Roca de Eternidad Lutheran Church, Quebrada Seca, Monagas, Venezuela.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On June 3, Trinity Sunday, we read responsively the Athanasian Creed. Normally we recite the Nicene Creed as a preparation for Holy Communion. The Apostle's Creed we confess during midweek services, memorize and study with explanations from Luther s Small Catechism in confirmation classes.

The Gospel text was Matthew 28:18-20, “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 world. Amen.”

So, as I tried to explain, how do we derive from this verse and others like it, three great creeds, all of which speak of the Holy Trinity, and its significance for the life and work of Jesus Christ, and the life and mission of the church? Why is each creed, which roughly follow each other in chronological order, longer and more complex than the last?

Because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1) and their purpose is to sow confusion and error at first, and, if possible, silence teachers of the pure doctrine. So important is a proper understanding of the Trinity to Christian  faith that it has never ceased to be a target for those who would undermine that faith.

It is not that the Bible is not clear on this point. A plurality of persons in one Godhead is implied in the Old Testament (“The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2), “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) and made explicit in the New Testament.

• “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” ((Matthew 11:27)
• “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44
• Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
• “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? “ (John 14:9-10)
• “No one can say  Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Nevertheless, false prophets always use the same strategy as the serpent did with Eve, and the Devil in his temptation of Jesus. “Has God really said....” “Is it not written....” Always a great show of Scriptural knowledge with the suggestion that the clear teaching of Scripture cannot be taken at face value.

English: Nicene Creed, P.Oxy.XVII 2067 Русский: Никейский символ, P.Oxy.XVII 2067 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So at least three times in antiquity, the church found it necessary to summarize and reaffirm what the Scriptures as a whole taught about the Trinity in a common confession of faith. In its earliest form the Apostle's Creed appeared in the late second century, the Nicene Creed in the fourth century and the Athanasian Creed in the late fifth century. As each generation of false teachers learned new word tricks, a more precise, less ambiguous restatement of the trinitarian faith was developed. But the price of precision often is a sacrifice of simplicity, so while a seven-year-old might able to memorize the Apostles Creed, probably not the Athanasian Creed. Yet the Athanasian Creed still is shorter and simpler than the many books that have been written on the subject of the Trinity.

This is so important because the Trinity is not some human conception of what God is like, but is how God has revealed Himself to us. The Christian faith is not primarily a collection of timeless truths that can be expressed in a variety of ways in different cultural settings. It is based on testimony of divine intervention in human history. The true God is not a hidden or silent God, but One who has spoken and acted, and made promises to those who believe in Him. And He has told us that we must think of Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one Godhead, for that is how we must understand how Jesus could be both true God and true man, thus winning for us salvation and eternal life.

Nor will it do, in the interest of political correctness, to substitue some formula like “Creator, Redeemer and Counselor” for “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” These title refer to the works of God, not the distinct persons of the Trinity. Often we think of the Father as being primarily involved in the work of creation, but so were the Son and the Spirit (John 1:1-5 and Genesis 1:2). Likewise, the Father and the Spirit had their parts to play  in the work of redemption, and the Father and the Son in the work of sanctification. But, above all, if we baptize in some other name (and it is singular in the original text) than Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are not administering the sacrament as the Lord commanded.

God is not silent – and neither are we. When we confess any one of the three great creeds, we respond to God s revelation of Himself in the words of Scripture by saying, “Yes, we understand and believe this.” We do this in the great company of all believers who have lived, are now living and will live. Amen.

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Feliz Navidad 2009

A most blessed season a greetings from all of us. We celebrated our first Christmas Eve service in La Caramuca on Thursday, December 24, 2009. It was a communion service followed by a Christmas dinner for about 30 children, youth and adults.

In fact, it was our first midweek service of any kind. It is no mean feat to get people in Venezuela to gather on Sunday morning, never mind during the week. And, as I have said before, church attendance is particularly low during the Christmas and Easter holidays, as nearly everyone heads to the beach or the mountains, or stays home to party. So we thank God for the good response this year.

The Christmas dinner was traditionally Venezuelan: hallacas, pan de jamon and potato salad. Hallacas are like Mexican tamales, but instead of being wrapped in corn husks, they are wrapped and cooked in smoked banana leaves. The ingredients include at least three types of meat. It is the custom to go door to door and present bags of hallacas to your friends and family as a Christmas gift. Hallacas require a vast amount of work to prepare, which seems to be the whole point. Luz Maria and her daughters spent the two days before Christmas Eve cooking hallacas.

Venezuelans consider hallacas more essential to Christmas than anything else and are quite puzzled when you tell them the main dish for Christmas dinner in the United States might be ham, turkey, roast beef or whatever.

Pan de jamon is bread with slices of ham baked in. This you can purchase from the bakery. The potato salad is jus potato salad.



St. Nicholas visits our preschool

We closed the preschool for the three-week holiday break on December 12 with a Christmas party for the children, their teachers and parents. San Nicolas (also known as Papa Noel or even Santa Claus) made a special appearance. If you follow the church calendar, you may recall Sunday, December 6, was the day of commemoration for Nicholas of Myra, the fourth-century bishop who provided the historical template for all the variations of the gift-giving elf king.

Recently it was reported that Dr. Caroline Wilkinson of England's Manchester University, using measurements of the bishop's skull (which still exists) and modern computer technology, reconstructed the face of St. Nicholas. The result is quite similar to traditional portraits of St. Nicholas, except for one thing: He had a badly broken nose, similar that of a boxer or hockey player. This might be considered consistent with the story that Nicholas got involved in fisticuffs with the arch-heretic Arius at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., a fight that had to be broken up by fellow bishops.

Jesus and John the Baptist

However, since the beginning of the Advent season, we have spoken more of John the Baptist and his relation to Jesus, both at Sunday service and in the midweek Bible lesson in the preschool. The story of how Mary visited her relative, Elizabeth, after the archangel Gabriel had announced the impending birth of Jesus (Luke 1:39-45) provided the opportunity to talk about when human life begins. The passage in Luke says that in his mother's womb, John leaped for joy at the sound of Mary's voice, because even unborn John was a prophet and knew that Mary was, as both his mother, Elizabeth and the angel had said, "blessed among women" and would give birth to the promised Messiah. This passage is one of many in the Bible which asserts that human life begins in the womb and that, therefore, those who say abortion does not constitute the taking of a human life are wrong.

We also talked of how John the Baptist, with his call to repentance, was, as Luther wrote, the consummate preacher of the Law, which convicts people of sin. But Jesus, was in His Person the living Gospel itself, Who through his life, death and resurrection made possible reconciliation between a just and holy God, and sinful human beings. But the relationship between Jesus and John illustrates that Law and Gospel are inseparable. They were friends and relatives, and both were sent by God. The archangel Gabriel announced both their births and both births were miraculous; Jesus was born to a virgin and John to a woman past childbearing years. Jesus said of John, "Among those born of women, there has arisen none greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:2-10) and in Matthew 17:10-13 that John fulfilled the prophecy that Elijah would return before the Messiah came. John said of Jesus that he, John, was not worthy to untie Jesus' shoelaces and "Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:27-30).

Finally we talked of the difference between John's baptism and the baptism of Jesus. The baptism of John was an exterior ritual that expressed an interior state (repentance), which is how some people think of Christian baptism today. But, as John himself said, the baptism of Christ is quite different. It is truly baptism with water and the Holy Spirit, in which we receive the forgiveness of sins, the adoption as children of God and the righteousness of Christ. The promise of baptism does not depend on our own will, understanding or state of mind, and in that we take comfort in times of doubt.

Our Spanish hymnal, Culto Cristiano, contains a version of the Matins service with the Benedictus or Song of Zechariah (the words are based on Luke 1:68-79, the priest Zechariah's song of thanksgiving upon the birth of his son, John the Baptist). Sadly we have not had much opportunity to use the Matins service here, and I am not sure if I can recall the music well enough to sing the Spanish version of the Benedictus. But it always was, along with the Te Deum Laudamus, my favorite part of Matins.

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Let us praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
For He has come and redeemed His people.
He has raised up a mighty Saviour for us
From the house of His servant David,
As He promised long ago
Through His holy prophets,
That He would save us from our enemies,
From the power of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our ancestors,
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
To rescue us from the power of our enemies,
So that we might worship the Lord without fear,
Holy and righteous in His sight
All the days of our lives.
And you, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,
To give the knowledge of salvation to His people
By the forgiveness .of their sins.
Through the tender mercy of our God,
The day of salvation will dawn on us from heaven,
To shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.


Speaking of light in the darkness

Thanks to generous donations from supporters in the United States, we have purchased a gasoline-powered generator. Several weeks ago Luz Maria went out to get an estimate on the price of a generator and found a wide array of models of different sizes and prices. When we returned to the shop where she found the best deal, there were only two models left in stock. Clearly other people had the same idea that we did. We continue to experience almost daily power outages of several hours duration.

There remains one obstacle to putting the generator in place; another of our mysterious shortages of materials, this time of cement. We do not want to run the generator in our living quarters, neither do we want it stolen, so we must build an outdoor enclosure. And that will have to wait until we can get cement.

Nevertheless we thank the donors for this Christmas present.

Luz Maria receives her education degree

Luz Maria received her "licenciatura" in elementary education on June 3, 2009.

In Venezuela's educational system, there are nine grades of elementary school. Then you go to the equivalent of high school, except that in only two years you receive the title of "bachiller". This is what in English we would call a "bachelor's degree", except that it is really the equivalent of a high school diploma. You need your bachiller before you can enroll in a university. But instead of four years of undergraduate coursework, you have to take six years worth of university courses before you get the licenciatura.

As alternatives to public and private universities, there also are vocational-technical colleges that offer "technical" degrees, but these do not count toward the licenciatura. The title of licenciatura is necessary if you want to be a doctor, lawyer or some other type of professional.

After you get your licenciatura, you may, much like in the United States, earn a master's degree after two more years of postgraduate study and, two years after that, a doctorate.

Luz Maria earned her licienciatura by taking continuing education courses from la Universidad Nacional Experimental de los Llanos "Ezequiel Zamora". This translates roughly as "Ezequiel Zamora National Research University of the
Plains". It's a mouthful in either Spanish or English, so the university is commonly known by its acronym, UNELLEZ. It's pronounced "oo-nay-zhays", except the way people say it here it sounds like one syllable.

UNELLEZ is much like the "land-grant" universities of the United States, in that it was established as a combination of an agricultural research station and a teacher's college. In fact, the UNELLEZ motto is "La universidad que siembra" or "The university that plants". They mean this both in an agricultural sense and in the sense of teachers sowing the seeds of knowledge. It's as good a university motto as any, I suppose.

Most of Luz Maria's fellow graduates also received their degrees in education, but there was a smaller group that received licenciaturas in animal science.

UNELLEZ is located on the road from La Caramucas to Barinas. On our way into town we first pass the military base, then the prosperous suburb of Alto Barinas (where you find the big, North American-style shopping malls) and finally, on the outskirts of the city itself, the entrance to the UNELLEZ campus. This is a circle with a fountain in the center and surrounded by food stands and street vendors' kiosks.

UNELLEZ owns a large tract of land in La Caramuca, just a few blocks from us. Rumor has it that one day the university will develop this property into a branch campus. The resulting influx of jobs and people would have a great impact on the community and on our mission.

Image via Wikipedia

By the way, Ezequiel Zamora was a hero of Venezuela's Guerra Federal, a five-year-long civil war in the mid-19th Century. Zamora was born in 1817, in the midst of Venezuela's War of Independence from Spain. As a grown man, he became a champion of the Federalist cause. The Federalists envisioned Venezuela as a constitutional republic with a strong central government, similar to the United States. This plan was opposed by the powerful land-owning class that wanted to keep Venezuela a feudal aristocracy (but without having to pay taxes to the King of Spain).

On December 10, 1859, as a general in the federal army, Zamora led his troops to a sweeping victory in the Battle of Santa Ines, which took place only 36 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the city of Barinas. This was one of three critical battles which led to a Federalist victory in 1863. However, Zamora was killed in 1860, less than year following the Battle of Santa Ines.

Trinity Sunday and the Athanasian Creed

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June 7, 2009, was Trinity Sunday and I took advantage of the opportunity to introduce our flock to the Athanasian Creed. They know the Apostle's and Nicene creeds. I reminded the members of our new confirmation class that the Apostle's Creed, which we will study in depth, is the shortest and simplest of the three great creeds. The Nicene Creed is a little longer and more involved,
but the Athanasian Creed is undoubtedly the longest and most complex.

Despite its length, the Athanasian Creed was always a favorite of mine. Because the congregation only recited it publicly once a year, on Trinity Sunday, I was sure that made it a very special creed. Later, as an adult, I realized that nobody was clamoring to recite the Athanasian Creed more than once a year because of its length and the use of words that you never hear in everyday conversation, like "uncreated" and "co-eternal".

Nevertheless, I hope to introduce the custom of publicly reciting the Athanasian Creed on Trinity Sunday in La Caramuca. This year I just read it as part of the sermon, after a brief discussion of the sermon text, Matthew 28: 18-20, as one of the key passages that provide the foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity and of the life of Athanasius of Alexandria, the brilliant and courageous fourth-century theologian who defended the Trinitarian doctrine against the Arian heretics.

Without getting into the intricacies of the Arian controversy, I explained that in Athanasius' day, just like today, there are people who think that it should be enough to say there is one God and leave it at that. As Athanasius maintained, however, the Scriptures do teach the doctrine of the Trinity and without a proper understanding of the Trinity is essential to understanding the person and work of Jesus Christ. And apart from know Christ as He reveals Himself in the Scriptures (rather than some wish-fulfillment portrait of what you think Christ should be), there is no hope of salvation.

Which is, of course, why Jesus commanded His disciples, "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, and teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you..."