When the saints come marching in

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:13-14

In 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church on the eve of All Saints Day. He did this, in part, because the original significance of the Festival of All Saints had been all but forgotten. The castle church of Wittenberg, which also served as the univerity’s chapel, was the largest repository of relics of the saints outside of Rome. Many of those relics would be put on display on All Saints’ Day. Indulgences would be granted to those who came to the church to view the relics of the saints on that day. The 95 Theses, of course, were a series of talking points that questioned false teaching about penance, purgatory, indulgences, the definition of “the saints”, and, ultimately, the authority of the papacy.

In the early church , certain days soon were dedicated to the memory of each of the apostles and evangelists. A festival day to remember all martyrs, that is, those who had died for the faith, was kept on May 13 in the eastern church according to Ephraem Syrus (died c. 373). In the Eastern Orthodox churches of today, All Saints Day is observed the Saturday before Pentecost. All Saints Day was celebrated on May 13 in the western church as well, until Pope Gregory III (731–741) changed the date to November 1. Later on, November 2 was designated “All Souls Day” to honor the faithful departed who had died in the faith, but not for the faith.

Over time, a complex body of errors obscured the proper observance of these festival days on the church calendar. First, that Christians must not only repent and confess their sins, but also do acts of penance to receive absolution. Second, those who are unwilling or unable to perform the required penance in this life will have to do so after physical death in an intermediate state between heaven and hell called purgatory. Third, the Office of the Keys (Matthew 18:18; John 20:22-29) gives the Pope authority over human souls after death, so that he may shorten the time spent in purgatory (which is not eternal condemnation). Fourth, he may do this by drawing on “the treasury of merits” accumulated by persons who have done sufficient good works to avoid purgatory. These are “the saints”, defined in this fifth error, as those who are known to be in God’s presence because prayers for their intercession before God were answered by miraculous intervention verified by the church.

So now we celebrate October 31 or the preceding Sunday as the beginning of the movement which freed the church from this soul-strangling tangle of errors. Luther took up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) to affirm the truths of Scriptures such our epistle for Reformation Day, Romans 3:19-26.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

Furthermore, we may celebrate All Saints Day with the understanding that “all saints” means all of us who have been baptized in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and sanctified (made holy ones or saints) through the work of the Holy Spirit. But especially we honor the saints who have passed from this vale of tears to glory, for in them the work of sanctification is complete. We praise God for the mercy shown them and us, and for the examples they provide for us in our continuing struggle here on earth (says Article XXI of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession says).

Therefore, it is the custom in many Lutheran churches to read the list of all members who have returned to the Lord in the preceding year, although some do so on the last Sunday of the church year (just before the beginning of the Advent season). On Reformation Sunday, October 30, 2022, we in particular remembered Marisol Torrealba who died on October 29, 2022. Luz Maria and I had regularly prayed with her during her long struggle with cancer and taught her the Catechism. Although she completed the Catechism, confessed her belief and her sins, she passed before being publicly received into our congregation. However, her sister and niece remain communicant members and we prayed for the whole family as well. We also gave thanks for the 21 people who received their first communion at our mission on Reformation Sunday since 2008, the last being Diana Torres in 2021, and Rita Maria Zapata who was received by reaffirmation of faith on Reformation Sunday 2020.

Reading, writing and Reformation

In the week before Reformation Sunday we had our first general meeting with the families of our preschool students. Among other things, I talked about how the Lutheran Reformation gave new impetus to Christian education. The movement was successful, in part, because Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable-type printing press in 1450 made translations of the Bible available to common people at a reasonable cost. But to take advantage of the new opportunity for Bible study, more people had to learn to read. So the Reformers promoted schools for everyone. The objectives of Christian education include not only learning skills necessary for everyday living, but also that which is needed to understand God’s Word and apply for the benefit of our neighbors. Our preschool enrollment stands at 20 children with a waiting list, because we need to find another teacher to care for more young ones.

Tropical wind and rain strike Venezuela

National authorities indicated that at least 17 states with a total of 120 municipalities in Venezuela have been affected by heavy rains causing floods, flashfloods, and landslides since October 8, 2022. The states that have been affected include Anzoátegui, Aragua, Barinas, Bolívar, Carabobo, Distrito Capital, Falcón, Guárico, Mérida, Miranda, Lara, La Guaira, Portuguesa, Táchira, Trujillo, Sucre, and Zulia. Flooding, river overflow, and landslides were reported on October 17 in Aragua state (central coast of Venezuela), resulting in casualties. According to the government of Aragua, three people died and 50 households have been affected due to river overflow in Girardot Municipality. A downpour caused a dam to overflow, causing a flood that carried rocks, trees and mud down a main road in El Castano, a suburb of the city of Maracay about 119 kilometers (74 miles) southwest of the capital Caracas. Severe flooding caused by torrential rains hit a mountainous coastal region of Venezuela's La Guaira state on October 28, 2022, leaving a town's streets drowned in mud. The El Cojo river burst its banks in the town of Macuto causing devastating damage and leaving a huge clean-up operation.

Almighty and merciful God, who through your blessed Son Jesus Christ appeased the fury of the wind and calmed the waves of the Sea of Galilee: We beg you to have mercy on us, your defenseless people, and deliver us from all evil that may befall us because of storms, floods and other manifestations of your power. Through Jesus Christ, your only Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, always one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Be still, my soul, the waves and wind still know, the voice of Him who ruled them when He dwelt below.

Rainy days and Sundays

As I grew up in a Midwestern U.S. farming community, I learned to expect a special prayer for spring rain on Rogate Sunday, the fifth Sunday after Easter. This seemed just common sense, since April to May was the time for tillage and planting of spring crops. Many years later I learned this was a vestige of a tradition dating back to 470 A.D. Days of penitence and prayer, including a procession outside the church, were historically observed on April 25 (St. Mark’s Day on the historic church calendar), and on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord.

These were called Rogation Days and, like Rogate Sunday, the name is derived from the Latin verb rogare, which means to ask or pray. The appointed Gospel reading for the last Sunday before Ascension is John 16:23-30, in which Jesus tells His disciples (verse 23), “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” There are two Greek words translated as “ask” in the passage. The first, ἐρωτάω, in context, means “to ask a question”, while the second, αἰτέω, means “to petition or request”. “In that day”, after Jesus has ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit will answer our questions of faith through the inspired Scriptures while we may petition the Father for all of our material and spiritual needs in the name of Jesus. See my May 22, 2022 sermon.

The farmer’s prayer typically is for just enough rain at just the right time to assure a bountiful harvest. In Venezuela the Rogate Sunday petition often is to hold off a little on the rain. Venezuela is located just north of the Equator, so daily temperatures vary only slightly throughout the year. As a rule, it is cooler in the mountains (many mountain towns have both the altitude and daily high temperature posted on the city limit sign) and hotter in the lowlands. However, there is a dry season (which usually runs from mid-December to mid-April) and a rainy season (usually, from late April to mid-November). Average yearly rainfall amounts in the lowlands and plains range from a semiarid 430 millimeters (17 inches) in the western part of the Caribbean coastal areas to more than 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) in the Orinoco Delta. We live on the western plains, where there difference between the dry and rainy seasons is especially sharp. During the rainy season, the prairie turns into a network of wetlands and the cowboys who work the region’s large ranches often wear rubber-soled boots.

April and May of this year have proved true to form for us, with many days of torrential rain and strong winds. More frequent, prolonged power outages probably are a result of this and we are grateful for our solar panels and a pedal-powered emergency backup system, courtesy of K-Tor.

Mother’s Day and the gift of life

In Venezuela, Mother’s Day is a secular holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May, as it is in the United States. This year’s date, May 8, coincided with the third Sunday after Easter. The appointed Gospel reading, John 16:16-22, was quite appropriate for the occasion.

Jesus says in verses 20-22, in reference to His death, resurrection and ascension: “ Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Many prophetic texts of the Old Testament also compare the tribulations that the people of God must endure before the arrival of the Messiah to the pain followed by joy of childbirth: Micah 4:9-10; Jeremiah 13:21; Isaiah 21:2-3; 26:16-21; 66:7-14). Read the sermon text in English here.

Friday, May 27, was the day after the actual Ascension Day (40 days after Easter, but we celebrated the Ascension on Sunday, May 29). That is when we began, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, a series of consultations with pregnant women of the community, offering them moral support and advice. An opening devotion is my responsiblity, and I began with prayer on meditation on classic pro-natalist texts. That is to say, texts which explain that children are a blessing from God, life begins at conception and all human life is precious to God at all states of development.

The Lord says to the prophet in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Likewise, Psalm 139:13-14, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Our lives belong to God by the order of creation. As He directly formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, He gives the gift of life to all people using human parents as His instruments. That is why the first of all commandments in Scripture is “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:27). Marriage was instituted by God before the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, and procreation was to result from God’s blessing.

Every new life also belongs to God by the order of redemption, because Christ died for the sins of all human beings. St. Paul writes in Galatians 1:15, “But when God who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.” Before the Lord appeared to the former persecutor of Christians on the road to Damascus, He had ordained his birth and influenced his entire life, his education, his intellectual development in such a manner as to enable him later to become a chosen instrument.

Finally, we have St. Luke’s account of the Visitation, when Mary, who had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, came to the house of Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is it granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1:42-44). The evangelist says that it was the Holy Spirit that moved Elizabeth to prophecy that Mary’s child, already growing in her womb, would be delivered as a healthy baby and would deliver the entire world from sin. And her unborn child shared in her joy.

O Author of life, who did not reject our first parents in their disobedience, but gave them the hope of salvation in Eve’s Offspring. Turn the hearts of all who believe they hold the power of life and death, and who trust in the choices of the sinful heart over the promises of God. Bring them into the knowledge of what is good, that they may know the profound value of all human life, which You have created and redeemed, and the everlasting truth of salvation in the Offspring who has crushed Satan’s head forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Praying for rain

Sharing water with neighbors.

A blessed Eastertide to all! We have made it through Lent, the season of special emphasis on reflection, fasting and repentance; relived the drama of Christ’s suffering and death during Holy Week; and celebrated His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. The next festival day in the church year rightfully is Ascension Day, which this year we will observe on Sunday, May 13. However, this year we await with special anticipation, the preceding Sunday, May 6.

The fifth Sunday in the Easter season is known as Rogate Sunday. Rogate comes from the Latin rogare, meaning “to ask” or “to pray.” The key verse in the appointed Gospel reading, John 16:23-33, says this: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. " Here Jesus reveals to His disciples that after He has been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He will be the one Mediator between God and man. He promises that all prayers addressed to the Father in His name will be heard and answered.

We hope for heavier rains.

 It also so happens that in most parts of the world, Rogate Sunday falls during the period when farmers hope for plenty of rain for a bountiful harvest of spring crops. Due to crop failures in fifth-century France, Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, introduced the custom of penitential processions for this purpose, not just on Sunday, but also on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day (the fortieth day after Easter, because that’s how long the risen Christ appeared to believers in visible form before His Ascension). These were called the Rogation Days as the custom spread from France throughout western Christendom. Nowadays, in an increasingly urban society, the observance of Rogation Days has been largely forgotten, but if, like me, you grew up in the rural midwestern United States, you may remember Rogate Sunday as the Sunday especially dedicated to agricultural concerns.

Light evening rain.

Now Venezuela lies north of the equator, so there technically are four seasons as there is the same progression of increasing and decreasing daylight hours. But the variation is less extreme than in, say, the Dakotas or northern Minnesota. Daytime high temperatures remain between 80 and 90 degrees F. and the only way you can tell it’s supposed to be mid-winter in January, for example, is that the temperature drops to 60 degrees in the wee hours of the morning. That’s here on the plains. Up in the mountains, the temperature may drop below freezing and never get far above 70 degrees F. So it is said there really are only two seasons in Venezuela, the rainy season and the dry season.

Wating for water.

The heavy rainfall usually starts in April and this year we are looking forward to it. The reason is that the public water system in our community is off-line and may stay that way for the foreseeable future. We are relying on the well on our property to supply water not just for our home, preschool, livestock, and fruit and vegetable crops, but also for neighbors who have no wells of their own. So far we have been able to meet the demand by being frugal in our use of water, but the water level in the wells keeps dropping. We really could use timely rains to recharge the well. By the fifth Sunday in Easter, either we will be giving thanks or renewing our prayers for rain.

Oh, God, most merciful Father, we beseech Thee to open the windows of heaven, and send fruitful rains upon us, to revive the earth, and refresh the fruits thereof. Graciously hear our prayer in this our necessity that we may praise and glorify Thy name forever; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Orange peels, rain and dengue fever

On April 18, Edwar Garrido and Isela Barrios represented our preschool in a “science experiment” competition. They took first place with their demonstration of why an unpeeled orange floats in water while a peeled orange does not (because the orange rind is full of air pockets). Edwar turned five years of age on April 26 and Isela will turn five on July 7.

Anyi, Edwar s sister, celebrated her second birthday on April 13. They both received birthday cards from the Sunday school children of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Minnesota, for which we are grateful. Their grandmother, Luz Maria, celebrated her birthday on May 5.

On April 12,  the city of Barinas was struck by the most intense rainstorm in 40 years. A record 162 millimeters (one liter of water per every square meter)  fell in four hours. The roads in and out of town were closed,; electricity, telephone and Internet services went down; and more than 100 families were left homeless. About 800 houses were flooded to some extent., including that of Luz Maria s sister, Rosaura.

Normally, the rainy season does not begin until late May or early June, but we already are in the thick of it. Cumulative rainfall for the first 12 days of April on the average is 123 millimeters, but by the end of the  day April 12 had reached 327 millimeters.

We have not been directly affected by the heavy rains. However, all the moisture has resulted in increased mosquito populations, including the species that carry dengue fever. Anyi and Edwar's three-year-old brother, Jose Ignacio, this week was diagnosed with dengue.

Dengue fever is caused by one of four different but related viruses. It is spread by the bite of mosquitoes, most commonly the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which is found in tropic and subtropic regions. It begins with a sudden high fever, often as high as 104 - 105 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 to 7 days after the infection. A flat, red rash may appear over most of the body 2 to 5 days after the fever starts.

Other symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Headache
• Joint aches
• Muscle aches
• Nausea
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Vomiting

There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. Fluids are necessary if there are signs of dehydration. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is used to treat a high fever.

Please remember Jose Ignacio in your prayers.

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