Day 50: A Journey of Faith Through the Black Plague

DAY 50

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 EIGHT: SUNDAY 3 MAY 2020

A Journey of Faith Through the Black Plague

With Ulrich Zwingli, Swiss Reformer, 1484-1531

In the heart of the city of Zurich, Switzerland stands the imposing Grossmunster, completed around 1220 on the site of a church constructed by Charlemagne 400 years earlier. As a Swiss citizen, it is a church I have been in many times - an impressive edifice. Ulrich Zwingli, Swiss Protestant Reformer, held forth there for many years, engaging in the expository preaching of Scripture, verse by verse, and declaring with conviction salvation through Jesus Christ alone. During his tenure there a plague swept the city, taking one-third of the population, and his days were spent comforting the sick, consoling the grieving, and conducting funerals. He himself contracted the plague but lived to tell about it. He wrote a hymn, referred to as “The Black Death Hymn” or “The Plague Hymn,” his text written from within the plague itself, over time, in stages: his contracting of it, his acceptance of his own impending death, his miraculous healing recovery, and his awareness that he still would die but in God’s timing, not Satan’s. Let’s ‘enter’ a plague and journey through it in time and text with Zwingli, in his personal testimony of faith.

Zwingli facing his mortality as he becomes ill.

1. Help me, O Lord, my strength and rock; lo, at the door I hear death’s knock. Lift up Thine arm, once pierced for me, that conquered death and set me free.
2. Yet, if Thy voice in life’s midday, recalls my soul, then I obey. In faith and hope earth I resign, secure of heaven, for I am Thine.

Zwingli recognizing he is dying from the plague.

3. My pains increase; haste to console’; for fear and woe seize body and soul. Death is at hand. My senses fail. My tongue is dumb; now, Christ, prevail.
4. Lo! Satan strains to snatch his prey; I feel his grasp; must I give way? He harms me not, I fear no loss, for here I lie beneath thy cross.

Zwingli experiencing a miraculous healing.

5. My God! My Lord! Healed by thy hand. Upon the earth once more I stand. Let sin no more rule over me; my mouth shall sing alone to thee.
6. Though now delayed, my hour will come. Involved, perchance, in deeper gloom. But, let it come; with joy I’ll rise, and bear my yoke straight to the skies.

Reflective question: With which of these verses do you most identify? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 118:17 - I will not die but live and proclaim what the Lord has done.”

Reflective hymn: Zwingli’s “Black Death/Plague Hymn,” above.