Today we worshiped at Iglesia Evangelica Maranata, in Cusco, Peru. This church was recommended to us by our driver of multiple days. His name was Lenny Russo and he was a believer. We asked Lenny for a church recommendation in advance of Sunday morning. Lenny knocked it out of the park by telling us about Maranata. This was a great worship experience.
When you think of Peru, you may think of it as a uniformly Catholic nation. It is not.
The demographics of faith are changing across Peru, as well as across Latin America more broadly. Peru is about 80% Catholic and 20% evangelical, per what Lenny told us. The research we did after seems to bear out these percentages. The number of evangelicals is growing quickly across Latin America. When I asked Lenny about how the shift toward evangelicalism is seen in Peru, he told me - "The Catholics don't like it, but there really isn't anything that they can do about it."
He also said that the Covid event had served as a miracle of sorts, in that it made people think about their disposition toward death and eternity in a way that they had perhaps not done before. As the pandemic spread, people got saved in large numbers across Peru.
While staying in the country, we both have had a quick uptick in our Spanish comprehension. Because of this, we could understand much of the sermon. It was about the prodigal son and the importance of a positive attitude in a Christian life.
As you'll see, the congregation was socially distanced and definitively masked. Peru is a country of 32M people, and claims around 200K deaths from Covid. That means Peru has about ten percent of the US population and nearly one third of the US Covid deaths.
That is a massive hit.
In addition to the spiritual demographics, the ethnic makeup of Peru is of note. The majority of Peruvians are mestizos, which are people of mixed heritage that is both indigenous and European. The majority of the people around Cusco are not mestizos, instead they are ethnically Incan. Virtually all of the people here in the highlands speak Quechua in addition to Castellano, which is the word they use for Spanish in Peru. The history of oppression that the Incas experienced at the hands of the Spanish, as well as the history of dying by disease during the colonial era, means that this country is very obedient to masking. The expectation everywhere is to be double masked. We additionally had to wear face shields on both the train and bus when we went to Machu Picchu. Most places take your temperature when walking in, and some spray your hands and clothing upon entry.
In short, the Covid experience is everywhere here and it has influenced every interaction that we have had.
Despite all of the Covid activity, we still were eager to worship while in the country.
When we arrived at Maranata, we thought we were late to the 10 am service. Instead, we arrived at the end of the Quechua service. We talked with some people on the stairs up to the church and they said that the service in Castellano would start at 11 am.
We thought we were late, but we were early.
We sat down in the auditorium and watched people start streaming in. The band was warming up. The backup singers and dancers filled the stage. Everyone did microphone checks by counting in Castellano. There was excitement in the air and it was promising to be a great service.
As more and more people came in, the auditorium started to fill. Eventually, the praise band started. The congregation immediately engaged with the music. Everyone was clapping, moving their bodies with the rousing tunes, lifting their hands skyward... it was great! It felt similar to the beginning of worship at Freedom House in many ways.
The most moving part of the worship was when the entire room started singing "Espiritu Sancto, viene, viene, viene, viene in este lugar" over and over again. This translates to "Holy Spirit, come, come, come, come into this place." Beth was crying rather emotionally during that phase of the worship. She later described it as "a fresh indwelling of the Spirit."
The sermon was an analysis of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I understood most of the sermon. The themes of the sermon greatly resembled Tim Keller's book that I recently read named The Prodigal God. In both the sermon and the book, the argument is made that the eldest son is an oft-overlooked character of great consequence in the parable. He is the personification of the risk that we run in moving into a place of works-based theology, as well as the example of what can happen as and when we might move our relationship with God into one of narrow legalism.
It was a very good sermon.
The pastor ended his message by explaining that when the eldest son objected to the feast that had been set for his errant-and-now-redeemed brother, the Father didn't chastise or even correct the eldest son. Instead, the Father invited him into the feast, to participate as a welcomed guest.
That is what we can partake in - Lavish love in the face of our insistence that reality can be constructed according to our self-centeredness. Such is the nature of the God that we may follow, should we choose to.
This was an extremely consequential church visit. We felt the profound unity within the Body of Christ in a unique way. Peruvian Christians and American Christians joined together to sing and worship our common God.
This worship experience drove home that we Christians must be about the business of forming connections within The Body. Such Christian unity is key to tikun olam, the Hebrew concept of healing the world, and it is also a prerequisite for the return of Yeshua. The return of Yeshua is a part of Christian theology that invokes to the Aramaic word Maranatha, which also happens to be the name of the church that we attended today.
Maranatha translates to "Lord, come!" These are the last two words in the Bible.
Such an event and the revelations that came from it were a very transformative experience for the two of us.
Thanks to Maranata Church for a great worship event.
p.s. - Of note, I blogged this from the city of Cusco in the Andes Mountains of Peru!
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