Day Three: Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

Day 3: Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
TUESDAY 17 MARCH 2020
"The Disease that Prowls Through the Darkness"

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” Psalm 91:5-6

I take the title for this reflection from the translation of this verse found in The Message, which reads: “Fear nothing – not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, not disease that prowls through darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon.” 

No matter how it is written it all reads the same: there is a universal tendency to fear that which can harm us and over which we have no control, whether it be wild wolves, flying arrows, disease or disaster. For none of these is there a warning. And from none of these is there protection.

The problem with anything that prowls in darkness is that we can’t see it and what we can’t see we can’t control and what we can’t control we fear. This fear rooted in absence of control has its genesis in, well, Genesis, a direct result, not a side effect, of disobeying God who, in seeking Adam with the question “’Adam, where are you?’” received the painful reply that has marked every person ever born from that day to this: “’I was afraid …’”   Genesis 3:9,10.

This disease that prowls through the darkness has a name, coronavirus, but naming it doesn’t diminish its threat – it prowls as in darkness because we can’t see it anywhere, only be told of its presence after it has struck. And so we are afraid, anxious, even if we won’t admit it.

None of us has ever lived through such a time as this. And it is to such times as this that God came in infant, helpless, vulnerable form, a coming marked by an invitation to set aside the fear that has haunted our species from day one: “Fear not …don’t be afraid …” were the first words spoken by angels to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, to Mary, to Joseph and to the shepherds.

Reflective question: Where is there fear in your heart due to this present crisis?

Reflective promise from God’s Word: Isaiah 43:1
“’Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine.’”

Reflective hymn text: “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” 
Come, Thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.

Reflective prayer: write your own.

PRAYER REQUEST: click here to submit.