Day 26
Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland
WEEK FOUR: THURSDAY 9 APRIL 2020
HOLY WEEK: MAUNDY THURSDAY
“A Pledge of Eternal Life”
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Prayer for Thursday of Holy Week, The Book of Common Prayer
It was a hot Southern California summer evening, Friday July 3rd, 1959 to be exact. My grandmother had invited me to what they called a ‘camp meeting,’ church every night for a week, in her Pilgrim Holiness Church. Every night I went, this 16 year old, baptized and confirmed Presbyterian who didn’t know Jesus and was wandering in the cults and the occult. Then that evening, a simple salvation message, an invitation to come forward and accept Christ, and my life was changed forever – yes FOREVER, for a ‘pledge of eternal life’ was implanted in the deepest part of who I am by the Holy Spirit, and it has marked me from that day to this.
On this Maundy Thursday, sitting in the upper room with Jesus, tasting the bread and the fruit of the vine, being told it is all for us, that every individual who believes in this bread and this cup “has everlasting life” (John 6:25-59), is a confrontation with eternal life in the context of time. These Sacramental symbols held in our hands that all too soon shall return to the earth are portents of things to come because they communicate something that is ‘now,’ eternity, eternal life that begins, not when we die, but when Christ enters our very physical bodies.
You might not have a specific date as do I, but you can know that in the deepest part of who you are there is something alive, something lasting even beyond your own physical death.
Reflective question: Do you know Him, Whom to know is life eternal; do you know that there is embedded deep within you this ‘pledge of eternal life’ through Christ?
Reflective scripture: John 17:3 – “’Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’”
Reflective hymn: “Just as I Am” – Charlotte Elliiott (1789-1871)
Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.
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