Day 37: “Outrageous Nonsense”

DAY 37

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 SIX: MONDAY 20 APRIL 2020

“Outrageous Nonsense”

“Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, ‘Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!’ and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” - James 2:14-17, The Message

Eugene Peterson (1932-2018) pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. Early on he realized that most of his congregation did not read their Bibles and did not connect with it in church so over the years Peterson, a scholar in Hebrew and Greek, compiled what is called a dynamic equivalence translation that has become The Message. “Faith without works is dead” reads the NIV; “outrageous nonsense” reads The Message.

Today as we are immersed in a pandemic, billions of dollars are being distributed to every person in the United States. Tens of millions of minimum wage workers have lost their jobs and are in desperate need of this infusion of cash. At the same time cash is being distributed to households earning six figure incomes never dreamed of by most Americans, people who do not need it at all – this is outrageous nonsense.

To say to those in need ‘our thoughts and prayers are with you’ and do nothing to help them in some tangible way is to live in this passage from James. So here’s a challenge from God: if you are in a position of income security, identify a local non-profit that is focused on providing food, payment of utilities, etc. for those who have lost their minimum wage jobs and are living frightened for their future, or those defending the unborn, and donate your stimulus check to that non-profit. That’s what I will be doing. I believe it to be the only God-honoring response to what is otherwise an ‘outrageous nonsense’ giving cash to those who don’t need it.

Reflective question:  If you don’t need it, what will you do with your stimulus check?

Reflective scripture: Proverbs 19:27 – “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.”   

Reflective hymn: “The Church of Christ Cannot Be Bound” – Adam Tice (1979-    )

True faith will open up the door and step into the street.

True service will seek out the poor and ask to wash their feet.

If what we have we freely share to meet our neighbor’s need,

then we extend the Spirit’s care through every selfless deed.