After the pandemic, the palms

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

On April 2, 2023, we marched through the streets of La Caramuca in our first Palm Sunday procession since April 14, 2019. A number of our sister congregations in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela did the same.

Although the Venezuelan government continues to urge citizens to take preventive measures, and some medical facilities and businesses still require masks for people to enter, most restrictions on personal mobility have been relaxed. As of April 30, the Venezuelan government reported 267 active cases of COVID-19 throughout the nation, with 17 hospitalized, nine in Comprehensive Diagnostic Centers, eight in private clinics, and 233 receiving supervised community care. With these figures, 1,140 days after the COVID-19 crisis was declared in Venezuela, confirmed cases total 552,627 with 546,504 recovered patients, which corresponds to a recovery rate of 99 percent, and 5,856 deaths.

“Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel, who comes in the name of the Lord!" (John 12:12-18) is the second part of the Sanctus in the liturgy we use today. Both the hosanna acclamation and the words, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” come from Psalm 118:25-26. Psalm 118 is a processional psalm celebrating God's repeated deliverance of his people through the centuries. The faithful would enter through the gates of the Temple in Jerusalem with palms to receive the priestly blessing of verse 26. These words of the psalm also were understood in a messianic sense, like the Old Testament lesson for Palm Sunday, Zechariah 9:9-12.

Something of a Passion play

On Wednesday of Holy Week, members of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church, our neighboring congregation in Barinas, presented a dramatization by their youth of what they had learned about the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Our young people were invited to participate as well. The abbreviated Passion play included Jesus washing His disciples’ feet as recorded in John 13:1-17. Following that were the words of institution, recorded in Matthew 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-23; and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, also were included. We are grateful to Pastor Raimundo Brito, and his wife and deaconess, Sandra, for arranging this event. Their daughter, Sara, brought Easter eggs.

I should explain that this was not the service of the Eucharist dressed up as a modern Jewish Passover seder. This is an important point for us, because surrounding our Lutheran mission are neo-pentecostal sects that teach true Christians should not celebrate Christmas or Easter according to “man-made traditions,” but should observe Old Testament festivals like Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. Some even say Christians should observe Hanukkah, which is not a holiday ordained in the Old Testament, but originated in the intertestamental period. Our role as Lutherans is not to collaborate in the confusion, but in the freedom of the gospel, we approach the Eucharist with all reverence and all clarity.

During the existence of the Tabernacle and later of the Temple in Jerusalem, the focus of the Passover festival was the sacrifice of the lamb, which not only recalled the deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-36; Exodus 13:1-16) but also pointed to the sacrifice of the Messiah (Isaiah 53). In our Lord's time, Passover was one of the three pilgrimages, the name given to the three festivals during which the Jewish people used to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and offer offerings and sacrifices. The others were Shavuot, also called Pentecost, and Sukkot.

Each family large enough to fully consume a young lamb was to offer one for sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem on the evening of the 14th day of the month of Nisan, and eat it that night, which was Nisan 15. If the family was too small to finish eating the entire offering at one time, an offering was made for a group of families. There could be none of the meat left in the morning. The slaughter of the lamb took place in the atrium of the Temple of Jerusalem. The slaughter could be carried out by a layman, although the rituals related to blood and fat had to be carried out by a priest.

This all came to an end with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD. Today, in the absence of the Temple, no sacrifices are offered or eaten at the seder. Rather, a set of Biblical and rabbinic passages dealing with the Passover sacrifice is recited after the evening prayer service on Nisan 14, and is celebrated with the zeroa, a symbolic food. placed on the seder plate (but not eaten), which is usually a roasted leg bone (or a chicken wing or neck).

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was instituted in the context of the Old Testament Passover but it is not the same. Christ, our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:6-8) has been slain, once and for all. We would not and could not offer another sacrifice. We now celebrate only the Lamb's own feast as instituted and ordained by Him. For us Lutherans, the Paschal Lamb is not a memory. He lives!

Resurrection and baptism

We celebrated Easter Sunday with the baptism of Pedro Jesús Gael Santana Marquina. Little Pedro happens to be Luz Maria’s 14th grandchild. He was baptized with a cast on one leg because of being born with a malformed foot. Thanks be to God, he received the necessary orthopedic operation and later the sacrament of baptism.

For the Gospel lesson, I read all of the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel, which is the succinct account of the empty tomb, the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus, the Great Commission and the Ascension. Mark 16:16 is a key passage used in the Small Catechism and in our baptimal rite.

“What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Which are these words and promises of God? Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanations, Concordia Publishing House, 2017).

Titus 3:5 was the special baptismal verse for Pedro Jesús. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” God uses baptism as a means to transmit and seal to the believer the inestimable benefits of salvation. The baptized is born anew to eternal life. As is implied in the dialogue between the Lord and Peter in John 13:6-10, but the renewing thus begun by the Holy Spirit continues throughout the life of the Christian until completion in our own resurrection.

For we have this promise in Romans 6:3-5, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

News from the chicken coop

Nothing gets you moving in the morning like the cry of prairie hawks circling above the chicken coop. We did some renovation this month to improve protection against predators and make more room for our growing flock. (By “we”, I mean Luz Maria’s grandsons, Eduar and Ignacio Garrido. Eduar turned 16 on April 26). We now have 8 hens, four of which are laying, four roosters (we need to get rid of three; males are expendable), and 35 young chickens. A dozen eggs costs about $3.21, while less than a penny per kilo of chicken feed keeps our hens laying four to six eggs per day.

A house of prayer for all the nations

José Miguel Albarran Pumar was baptized on on August 16, 2020, the 10th Sunday after Trinity. Since 2005, 23 people have been baptized at our mission. Of those baptized, 11 have received their first communion here.

The sermon text was Luke 19:41-48, which is St. Luke’s account of the cleaning of the Temple by Jesus. I noted that the Israelites in the Old Testament had a special place, a house for all the people to come together for worship, prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord. In the beginning that place was a tent, built in front of Mount Sinai under the direction of Moses. This tabernacle served the people on their pilgrimage in the desert. When the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle remained for many years in the city of Shiloh, then in Jerusalem. King Solomon replaced the tabernacle with the first temple of wood and stone a thousand years before Christ. At Epiphany Lutheran Mission, we worshipped first under a roofed patio, but now we have a beautiful chapel. Like the Temple of Jerusalem, this is a house of prayer for those of all nations who worship in Spirit and in truth. For us, the house of the Lord is wherever the Word is preached in its purity and the sacraments administered according to the Lord’s command. It is a special place because the Lord Himself has invited us to gather at an appointed place and time to receive His gifts (Hebrews 10:25). Our bodies also are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corintios 6:19). As our Lord cleared the moneylenders from the Temple, he cleanses our bodies and renews us in spirit through holy baptism. The church, both as the assembly of believers and place where believers assemble, belongs to Christ. He is the One who sustains it and has promised to keep it until His coming.

Distribution of food from LeadaChild

That same Sunday we distributed foodstuffs to 27 families, thanks to support from LeadaChild, a mission society based in Olathe, Kansas and dedicated to supporting Christian education around the world. We have received financial support from LeadaChild since 2006. In the past, we have distributed donations from LeadaChild as “scholarships” for students in our preschool and Luz Maria’s afterschool tutoring sessions. That is to say, as cash for the families to buy school supplies, clothing and food. This time around we purchased food

items in bulk, in order to get better value for our rapidly devaluing Venezuelan currency. Dividing the currency among the families would mean each household would get less than if we bought the food in one purchase. We were able to do this because of the automobile that we purchased with other donations this past year. Thanks to the car, we drove to the food distribution point and brought the food back to the mission.

On Saturday, August 8, we participated in a Zoom videoconference with Nury de Millian, LeadaChild director for Latin America. We listened to presentations on how to reopen Christian schools during the pandemic, testimony from a COVID-19 survivor, and advice from the Rev. Abdiel Orozco Aguirre, the pastor of Castillo Fuerte (Mighty Fortress) Lutheran Church in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and a immunohematologist.

LeadaChild was founded in 1968 as Children’s Christian Concern Society (CCCS) by Jim and Edie Jorns as agricultural missionaries to the Zacapa region of Guatemala. Their idea was to build a boarding house next to the new Lutheran school in Zacapa so that poor children would receive proper care while attending at the school. Jim and

Edie diligently gathered support from friends, family, and church members in their home state of Kansas. Throughout the years, CCCS grew to provide support to project sites in five world regions – Guatemala, Central America and Haiti, South America, West Africa, and Asia – and also supports an afterschool program in Bethlehem. The organization’s name was changed to LeadaChild in 2013.

I had heard of the Jorns’ mission work in the 1980s, when I was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kansas, the congregation in which Edie was raised. Luz Maria and I were privileged to meet Jim and Edie in 2006. Last fall we met Dr. Philip J. Frusti, the current executive director of LeadaChild, in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Frusti, a Lutheran teacher and former school principal, graduated from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Pray for recovery

 

We praise the Lord that Yepci Santana, Luz Maria’s daughter, is recovering from COVID-19 in Lima, Peru. Other members of Luz Maria’s family, with who we have not had face-to-face contact are recovering as well. Also in Peru, Kalen Yolanda Incata Fernández, wife of Martin Osmel Soliz Bernal, a pastor with the LCMS Mission in Lima, was diagnosed with COVID-19 after giving birth to her first child. Also, we should remember Diana Malik, a Global Lutheran Outreach missionary, who has lost 11 members of her extended family to COVID-19 in Kazakhstan. Holy and mighty Lord, who has promised, “no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Psalm 91:10), we beseech You to hear our cry for those who are suffering and dying under the visitation of COVID-19. Mercifully bless the means which are used to stay the spread of the pandemic, strengthen those who labor to heal and comfort the afflicted, support those who are in pain and distress, speedily restore those who have been brought low, and unto all who are beyond healing grant Your heavenly consolation and Your saving grace, through Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Baptism in the time of COVID-19

Baptism of Reiber Santiago.

Reiber Santiago Pirela Parra.

On Pentecost Sunday, May 21, 2020, seven-month-old Reiber Santiago Pirela Parra, received the gift of new life in Christ through holy baptism. We also celebrated the Eucharist for the first time since “national quarantine” was declared about two months ago.

In my last communication, I expressed hope that the quarantine would be lifted by Pentecost and we would be able to resume offering the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Of course, immediately after I wrote those words, the quarantine was extended to June 12. But the rules have since been “relaxed”. What does that mean? Well, the 2019/2020 school year’s a wash. Schools, including our preschool, will not reopen until the new school year begins in September. Students are supposed to complete their studies on-line (something of a challenge, as I will explain) and we have opened the preschool every morning to distribute food and homework assignments to families in our community. Although the availablity of public transportation has been greatly reduced, we have been able to obtain the food through use of the car that your donations enabled to purchase.

The Lord's Supper.

In addition to closing of schools, most businesses are allowed to operate for a strictly limited number of hours per day, although the “relaxation” means some businesses are able to stay open longer now. No one is supposed to walk the streets and public areas without a facemask and maintaining about a meter of distance from other persons. In order to enter a place of business, you must have your hands sprayed with disinfectant. However, as far as I know, there are no rules specifically pertaining to place of worship. Since our chapel is not on public property, we have continued to hold Sunday morning services, although we will not celebrate the Lord’s Supper again until after June 12. Those who attend our Sunday morning worship are a small group of people that we see every day anyway. Nobody in our vicinity has shown signs of COVID-19 infection so far, so praise be to God for that as well.

Facemasks are in fashion.

Two thousand years of experience and scientific study have shown the likelihood of contagious disease being passed through the sharing of the communion chalice is very low. If your immune system is that compromised, you really should not leave your house anyway. Of course, we tell our communicants that they are not obligated to receive communion every time it’s offered, and if there is any indication that that they might be infected with COVID-19, they should stay home. While we certainly do not believe or teach that the Lord has promised the faithful immunity to pestilence whether we take precautions or not, we do believe that He will watch over us as we do the work that He has commanded His church to do.

Reiber Santiago’s parents, Ronelbys and Maria José, told me nearly seven months ago that they wanted their baby baptized in our chapel. But they wanted her sister in Caracas to be godmother. After waiting for her to able to travel from Caracas, they finally decided that this was not going to happen any time soon. They wanted Reiber Santiago baptized, so that if he did get sick and die, he would have the promise of heaven. So it was done on perhaps the best of days for a baptism, Pentecost.

Learning English.

In addition to continuing Sunday services, we have begun a new confirmation class and lessons in English for interested students. Everyone likes it when I sing the Mickey Mouse song. “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! Mickey Mouse! Mickey Mouse!” Watch for my Appalachian gospel/Memphis blues fusion version on iTunes.

To everything there is a season

As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven”, and sometimes the time for everything is all at once. We have entered Venezuela’s rainy season, the period from May to November in which total rainfall may add up to 78 inches. Just in time, too, because the water level in our well was getting very low. However, now we have the problem of heavy cloud cover reducing the efficiency of our solar-powered electrical backup system, combined with longer and longer power outages almost every day. There have been a few times the system has not been able to keep the lights on all night, because of lack of time for the batteries to recharge. We have had to become more conservative in our consumption of electricity in order to compensate. However, a somewhat more pressing concern is that our cellphone/Internet service used to last six hours after the public power went down, but now it only lasts two to three hours. This means that after a particularly long blackout, we will be without electricity, telephone, television and Internet service. This stymies the children trying to complete their studies on-line, but of course the situation is potentially more troublesome than that as we are completely cut off from the outside world.

Lit by solar lamps.

Sun-dried meat.

And we had a power outage that lasted three days in the week before Pentecost! The cause apparently was a powerful storm taking down power lines, but as far as we knew it could have been a much worse crisis. Furthermore, our auxiliary system does not keep the refrigerators in our home or the preschool going. Luz Maria was able to save the meat that we had stored by drying it in the sun, a technique that she learned in her childhood. The dried meat must be simmered in vegetable broth before being eaten, but it is quite tasty in the end.

Prayers for the Twin Cities!

There has been a wave of violence across the United States, evidently sparked by the tragic case of George Floyd. But the Twin Cities have been the epicenter and I was particularly struck by this Facebook plea from St. Michael’sLutheran Church of Bloomington, Minnesota, on May 29. St. Michael’s sent me to Venezuela as a lay volunteer in 2003 and has continued to support our mission in La Caramuca to the present day. So on Sunday we prayed for St. Michael’s and all the churches and communities affected by the rioting and looting, and also asked for better understanding and harmony between people of all races, especially through the peace found in Christ which passes all understanding.

Thank you, St. Michael's.

This is a call for prayer for the greater Minneapolis community. Areas of Minneapolis have been devastated by violent protests. The protests are reportedly coming to Bloomington and the suburbs tonight. Please take time to stop and pray now for peace.

Lord Jesus Christ we come to you our shelter in the present storm and we ask that you bring peace.

- For those who affected by the violence both physically and emotionally, especially for those who knew and loved George Floyd, bring your peace.

- For the protesters in the streets allow them to be people of peace.

- For the police who are called on to protect people and property allow them to respond in peace.

- For those who are afraid to leave their homes because of nearby violence reign your peace upon them.

Lord Jesus Christ you are the Prince of Peace and the Lord of lords. We trust you and seek your peace today, tomorrow and eternally. Amen.

The bricks and mortar of the Church

A blessed Holy Week to everyone!

The numbers change daily, but as I write this, there have been165 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Venezuela, with seven deaths and 65 recoveries in a country with a population of 29 million people according to the last census. That figure probably is lower now with an estimated 4 to 5 million having fled to neighboring nations in the wake of Venezuela’s economic meltdown. Despite the borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana being closed, in theory, hundreds of Venezuelans have been making their way back home, because quarantine measures in other countries have left them without jobs and income to pay high rents. Since confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been much more numerous in these other countries, the returning Venezuelans are likely to have been exposed.

Nobody that we know has been stricken with the virus, much less died, but police are patrolling the streets of La Caramuca to make sure no one is on the street without a facemask, and that people maintain a proper distance in the food markets. Access to the city of Barinas has been restricted. The slaugherhouse, which is the major source of employment in La Caramuca, is still in operation, but with hours per week greatly reduced (agriculture is the major industry in our state, Barinas, with an emphasis in livestock production).

We suspended our annual Palm Sunday street procession and marked the first Sunday in Holy Week with the service of morning prayer. We always have celebrated the Eucharist every Sunday, but for the last two Sundays we have not. Since the communion service always includes the sharing of the peace, and morning prayer does not, we made this change to mimimize physical contact. I also am not greeting people at the door until it appears the worst of the pandemic has passed. The members of our small flock all see each other every other day of the week anyway, and we do not expect visitors until the crisis is over. If and when the virus appears in our surrounding community, it is unlikely that it will be spread through our Sunday morning gatherings. And the people continue to show up. But we will take some precautions.

Living stones

“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5

Sometimes it is said that the church is not a building, but people. Ŧo precise, it is ŧħe assembly of believers gathered around the Word of God preached in its purity and the sacraments administered according to the Lord’s command (Augsburg Confession, Article VII). Since the church on earth exists in three dimensions, and the living stones of the spiritual house are creatures of flesh and blood, and the sacraments consist of visible elements linked to God’s Word, this implies a physical place where God’s people meet. A house of brick and mortar (or whatever building material is available) that is an image of the spiritual house.

The preaching of the Word is proclamation, seed cast throughout the field (Matthew 13:3-23; Mark 4:3-20; Luke 8:4-15). It is broadcast to all who have ears to hear. So it makes sense to extend public preaching through a PA system, the radio, television or the Internet. But the sacraments are incarnational; the infinite is made finite in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The grace of God is made particular to each believer, but normally not to each believer in isolation, but in community. As the sacraments can be seen and touched, as the words of confession and absolutions must be heard, there must be a solid house of prayer and worship. The house of God’s people is God’s house, and its doors must be kept open for those who seek a place of refuge. Amen.

Until day dawns and the morning star rises

Studying the Transfiguration.

It began with a star.

 

In Venezuela, dates are written day/month/year, rather than month/day/year as in the United States. But on the first Sunday of this month, that distinction did not matter, as it was 02/02/2020 either way. Not only that, but the date could be read the same way from left to right or right to left. This was the first such “palindrome day” in 909 years and the only one that will occur in this century.

Of course, Sunday also was Groundhog Day (the prediction is an early spring) and the first time the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 50 years. 

For us, however, it was Transfiguration Sunday. Epiphany season is all about the light of Christ. The Magi saw it in the Star of Bethlehem. Three of the disciples, Peter, James and John, saw one last vision of it before the darkness of Gethsemane.

. “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, this is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:16-21

Baptism of Jesus.

Just three of the apostles were taken to the top of the mountain where they saw the light of Christ made visible and audibly heard the voice of the Father. But our faith does not depend on mountaintop experiences, but rather the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the clear Word of the Scriptures.

Likewise the sacraments. As at the Transfiguration, the Father’s voice said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” at the baptism of Jesus, which was our theme for the first Sunday after Epiphany. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are present at the baptism of every Christian.

Please pray for us

Well, January 2020 was a month that got people talking about end-time texts, what with earthquakes in Puerto Rico and other parts of the world, wildfires in Australia and floods in Indonesia.

We continue to pray for the victims of these natural disasters. We would ask you to pray for us as Venezuela already is in the midst of a public health crisis due to shortages of medicines, and is not prepared to face the threat of a new virus from China. Venezuela was hit hard by the last great pandemic, the Spanish flu of 1918.

Our preschool is back in session, but of 31 children enrolled, eight have at least one parent who has left Venezuela to find better-paying work abroad. Please pray for the restoration of united families.

Heavenly Father, bring relief to all who suffer this day.  Ease the anxieties of those who are distressed. Send help to those who are distraught. Graciously defend all from fire and flood, war and pestilence, hunger and want. Deliver us from our trials that we may be free to give You thanks and praise. Amen.

Studying geography.