An Important Message from Rev. Robert Bayley

Brothers and Sisters in Christ of Patuxent Presbyterian Church:

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and growing up we viewed race riots as something particular to the American South, but then the Watts riots took place in LA during my senior year of college and perceptions across America changed. Now we are seeing riots erupting in response to disturbing killings, and Americans of all racial backgrounds grieve - for the families, for the communities, for our country. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, record unemployment, long lines for food and a country being wounded by divisive rhetoric, we now watch race riots in multiple locations. The bottom line is that racism and brokenness and divisiveness are residents not of a particular geographic section of the country, but rather of the human heart. Jesus reminds us that it is "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, etc." Matthew 15:19. We all have within us the potential for great evil - it's why Jesus came. 

I would simply ask that you include this scenario and these concerns in your devotional time and in your prayers, including asking the Lord to show you what and where and how you might be in a position to address them as a representative of Jesus. Our country needs help and healing and hope, serious concerns for serious prayer.

Appended is a short video from the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA for your consideration. Regardless of whether or not you agree with all that he says, please be open to allowing the Holy Spirit to use it to initiate some thoughtful reflection within and discussion with others.

I remain grateful for the opportunity to serve you as your pastor during this interim time.

Pax Christi,

Pastor Robert

CLICK HERE
for an important message from J. Herbert Nelson, II, 

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PCUSA. 

Day 84: Wrung Out by Grief The People of Wuhan Begin to Explore a Life Where Hope is Possible

DAY 84

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 TWELVE: SATURDAY 6 JUNE 2020

Wrung Out by Grief

The People of Wuhan Begin to Explore a Life Where Hope is Possible

“For more than two months, the people of Wuhan, China, lived under lockdown as their city buckled beneath the weight of the coronavirus that emerged there. Then, gradually, cases ebbed. On April 8, the lockdown was lifted. Now, the residents of Wuhan are cautiously feeling their way toward an uncertain future, some of the first in the world to do so. There is trauma and grief, anger and fear. But there is also hope, gratitude and a newfound patience.” - Recent newspaper article by the same title.

Yesterday we explored hope, the loss of which can lead to despair. Hope is something that does not emerge from a vacuum but is, by definition, contingent on context. Nothing is more available and susceptible to the emergence and cultivation of hope than grief, for grief and hope are polar opposites. Grief sustained cannot be sustained, the forcing of hope a desperate act for the sake of survival, a spiritual and psychological existential response.

Our English noun ‘grief’ while variously meaning a wrong or injustice, comes from a Latin verb meaning ‘to burden or make heavy’ – we get our word ‘grievance’ from the same linguistic source. Grief also conveys the concept of ‘weight’ – so that when some experience significant loss they sometimes say that it is almost more than they can bear or carry.

God extends to us a promise in Isaiah 45:3 when he says, “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places …” Here is a secret embedded in grief that the people of Wuhan are discovering: “There is trauma and grief and anger and fear. But there is also hope, gratitude and a newfound patience.” God has built certain things into us as human beings that, regardless of faith perspectives, can be observed across the spectrum of cultures as native to all: out of trauma, grief, anger and fear the discovery of hope, gratitude and a newfound patience that are not being experienced apart from the pandemic, but because of it.

Reflective question: What do you think God has embedded in this pandemic for you?

Reflective Scripture: Romans 8:28 – “In all things God works together for good…”

                 

Reflective hymn:

“What a friend We Have in Jesus” Joseph Scriven (1820-1886)

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Day 83: With Hope in Your Heart

DAY 83

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 TWELVE: FRIDAY 5 JUNE 2020

With Hope in Your Heart

“Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone! You’ll never walk alone.” - Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Class of 1916, Music by Richard Rodgers, Class of 1923. To the Class of 2020, Congratulations on your commencement. We walk on together. Columbia University, 17 May 2020.

This recent full-page congratulatory ad reminds us that across the country high school and college graduates are experiencing a different kind of commencement into a world marked by an unemployment level unseen since the Great Depression. Many come from families whose homes are facing foreclosure because their parents have lost their jobs or their family-owned business has gone under. The coup de grace to the death of hope for many is a student loan burden calling for repayment in the context of no job prospects.

So how do you “walk on, with hope in your heart” when the panorama of hopelessness surrounds the soul like a 360 degree funeral pall? Hope by definition requires something ahead of itself to which it points, its source other than ourselves. In the reassuring opening words of the Heidleberg Catechism written in Germany in 1562, in the middle of a century racked by plague, famine and war:  

Q: 1. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A: That I belong – body and soul, in life and in death – not to myself but to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ ...

This locates our source of hope not in ourselves but in Jesus Christ. It is a hope that has as its ultimate anchorage the promise of “… the blessed hope - the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” - Titus 2:13. That is always ahead of us, a steady source of hope.

A prayer for you: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, …” - Ephesians 1:18.

Reflective question: Are you ‘walking on with hope in your heart’? If not, talk to the Source of hope. 

Reflective Scripture: Romans 5:5 – “… hope does not disappoint us …”

Reflective hymn:

“It is Well With My Soul” – Horatio Spafford (1828-1888)

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,

The sky, not the grave, is our goal;

Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!

Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

Day 82: Pornography’s ‘Demonic Deal’ Industry Targets the Isolated Amid Coronavirus

DAY 82

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of fait

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK TWELVE: THURSDAY 4 JUNE 2020

Pornography’s ‘Demonic Deal’

Industry Targets the Isolated Amid Coronavirus

“While many Americans are coping with the fear and uncertainty of the global coronavirus pandemic, the pornography industry has responded by providing free access to content – an offer that has drawn harsh criticism from leaders of the fight against sexual exploitation. Global porn consumption rates have gone up significantly with most people confined to their homes.” - Recent newspaper article by the same title.

Online pornography is simply the latest iteration of the sexually explicit drawings placed by the sexually addicted on the walls of homes in ancient Pompeii, buried under and preserved by the volcanic ash spewed out by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The dynamics of addictions are secondary to whatever a person is addicted. But sexual addiction is unique because it strikes at the core of the Imago Dei, the image of God, in which He created human beings as male and female. Lust is the God-created capacity for desire shifted from desiring the Creator to desiring the created. “For it is God’s will that you should be holy, that you should avoid sexual immorality.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:3. If you desire His will for you in this area of your life, He will meet you there.     

Sexaholics Anonymous: sa.org, 1.866.424.8777

Reflective question: Are you, or is someone you know, addicted to pornography? Please call the number above.

Reflective Scripture: 1 Cor. 6:13 “The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord.”

                                                                                                                                                      

Reflective hymn:

“O God Who Made Us in Your Image” – Robert Bayley (1942-    )

Hymn tune: O Dass Ich Tausend – Johann Konig 1738

1.      O God, who made us in your image, as male and female formed our frame,

And in us placed a sexual likeness, that we should glorify your name.

That image long has broken been, confusion reigns through Adam’s sin,

as we define identity.

2.      The sexual images around us are filled with broken truths and lies.

Pornography now steals your image, and sex our culture deifies.

Desire for you has turned to lust, and bound’ries moved we cannot trust,

in this terrain we’ve lost our way.

3.      O Lord, ‘twas in your Incarnation that sexuality you bore;

And climbing Calvary’s cross redeemed it, in us your Image to restore.

Now male and female help us be, your sexual likeness healed and free,

that we might glorify your name.

Day 81: “I put my faith in God and take precautions”

DAY 81

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 TWELVE: WEDNESDAY 3 JUNE 2020

“I put my faith in God and take precautions”

“I chose a career in health care – specifically, critical care – because I wanted to help others in their most vulnerable and dire time of need. I put my faith in God and take precautions by properly donning, removing, and disinfecting my personal protective equipment. But in the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder how much the risk of infection increases from constant exposure.’ - Brooke Spence, Critical Care Nurse, Las Vegas.

After immobilizing my head and neck with a brace, they carefully placed me on a flat board stretcher and loaded me into the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. Injured while playing basketball with some friends, they were afraid I had broken my neck. The paramedics spoke no English and my Spanish was very limited, yet as we sped through the streets of Madrid to the hospital, I was overwhelmed with a sense that they were committed to my care communicated both by the tone they spoke to me and the way they handled me.

There is something about people who commit themselves to caring for the vulnerable, sick and injured that is universal in its motive: a desire to help people. Now the pandemic has turned our gaze in a direction few of us normally would glance, where physicians, nurses, orderlies, EMT’s and paramedics, hospital cleaners and home health care givers are all being tested by the presence not only of a surge in people needing care, some of it critical, but by an invisible potentially deadly enemy lurking in the very places where they feel called to serve others.   

Most of us are not in one of these categories, but all of us are potentially candidates for their care. A lesson to be learned during this pandemic is in the dual clear commitment to trust in God and take the necessary steps to protect ourselves. A face mask is not a political statement: it is rather a statement about our trust in God and our commitment to take intentional steps to protect ourselves and those around us, a commitment to compassionate wisdom, reflecting the God who has made us – “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145:8-9.   

Reflective question: Trusting in God and using wisdom – will you do both? Will you reach out in some way to those caring for the sick?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 3:13 – “Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding.”

Reflective hymn:

“We Come to You for Healing, Lord” – Herman Stuempfle Jr. (1923-2007)

You touch us through physicians’ skills,

through nurses’ gifts of care,

And through the love of faithful friends, we lift our lives in prayer.

Day 80: Practice Better Listening

DAY 80

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of fait

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK TWELVE: TUESDAY 2 JUNE 2020

Practice Better Listening

“The world is moving at a much slower pace during the coronavirus pandemic, which presents a unique opportunity to listen to those close to you, or to those you wish were closer to you. Whether in person or on the phone, listening develops understanding, strengthens ties and shows you care. And it’s also how you know when you’ve heard enough and it’s time to give each other some space.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same name.

The four or five people surrounding her bed in the hospital room were well-meaning as they strongly petitioned heaven for a miraculous healing of her terminal cancer. ‘Claiming’ her healing, they then left and in the stillness of their absence I waited, finally asking, “What do you think is happening, Helen?” to which she replied, “I’m dying, and I wish someone would acknowledge it.” She had told her close praying friends the same thing, but they weren’t listening.

The Biblical admonition is strong and unavoidable, not a suggestion but a command: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, …” - James 1:19. The Triune God is a listener – “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” - Jeremiah 29:12, and He calls us to go and do likewise. Seven times to seven churches God the Spirit doesn’t ask for a spoken response but rather a listening ear: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says …” Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 11, 22.

The coronavirus initiated hours, days, weeks, and months of constant interaction unlike anything most have known before. How are we responding? For some, the pressure, anxiety and even fear precipitate increased talking to the point of grating incessant chatter. Others withdraw for many of the same reasons and enter a time and place of almost reclusive silence. Both scenarios make genuine listening to others in the house unlikely. How we listen to others in some ways is mirrored in how we listen to God, and vice versa. We would do well to embrace Samuel’s conversational posture toward the Lord in our dialogue with God as well as with each other, a sort of ‘you-speak-first-and-I’ll-listen’ attitude: “Speak, for your servant is listening.” - 1 Samuel 3:7.

Reflective question: In what relationships with God and/or others do you need to listen more and talk less?

Reflective Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:7 – “There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.”

Reflective hymn:

“Master, Speak! Thy Servant Heareth” – Frances Havergal (1836-1879)

Master, speak! And make me ready,

when Thy voice is truly heard.

With obedience glad and steady, still to follow every word.

I am listening, Lord, for Thee: Master speak, O speak to me!

Day 79: Yesterday

DAY 79

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of fait

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Week Twelve – Monday 1 June 2020

Yesterday

“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay,

Oh, I believe in yesterday.” - John Lennon and Paul McCartney © 1965

“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone on my head and by his light I walked through darkness! Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil. When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square, the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their feet; … those who saw me spoke well of me … because I rescued the poor … I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger … People listened to me expectantly …” - Job 29.

If ever there can be found in all of Scripture an individual with a more justifiable longing for ‘yesterday’ it is Job. His losses were catastrophic – property, people – his children, and position in the community. All gone. The lament of The Beatles is the lament of Job. Like Job and the Beatles, some of our yesterdays we would like to recreate and preserve in place. Others we would like to recreate and revise. We can’t do either. Yesterday, by definition, is yesterday: beautiful or bleak – it is gone. Sorry Marty McFly – there is no “Back to the Future.”

While our losses are not as extensive and extreme as were Job’s we all, without exception, have lost the way things were before the pandemic. Paul’s response to loss? “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 3:13-14. Corrie ten Boom, who experienced a Job-like loss in WWII, summed it up succinctly: “In Jesus the best is always yet to come.”

Reflective question: What in your ‘yesterday’ do you need to let go of so you can focus on today?                                                                                                                                                       

Reflective Scripture: Isaiah 43:18, 19 – “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! ... I am making a way in the wilderness …” 

Reflective hymn:

“Yesterday, Today, Forever” – Albert B. Simpson (1843-1919)

Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.

All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name!

Glory to His name! Glory to His name!

All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His name! 

Day 78: The Promised Gift of Your Holy Spirit

DAY 78

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 Twelve – Sunday 31 May 2020

PENTECOST SUNDAY

The Promised Gift of Your Holy Spirit

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - Prayer for Pentecost Sunday, The Book of Common Prayer.

The Father we somewhat understand because it is a matter of nomenclature: we all have had one and many of us are one. The Son we understand at least a tad more because he “was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” as the creeds remind us, “and became man.” We know – we’ve seen pictures of him in our childhood Sunday School books. But the Holy Spirit – nothing in our system of existence is remotely comparable. No templates, no metrics, no controlled laboratory pursuit will enable us to pin down this third person of the Trinity, no matter how hard we try, in our doctrinal statements. Jesus likened the Spirit’s movements to the wind in John 3:8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” In our theological and doctrinal controlling of the Holy Spirit we miss His sole mission on planet earth: “He will bring glory to me,” said Jesus in John 16:14. Everything the Holy Spirit does, without exception, has this as its ultimate purpose.  

Some provocative challenges regarding the Holy Spirit.

1.      “… (we) call on the Church to undertake a new and creative exploration concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit … We believe the Church needs to pray for a sensitivity to see the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the world today.” - The Work of the Holy Spirit, approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1970.    

2.      “As a foolish church presupposes his presence and action in its own existence, in its offices and sacraments, ordinations, consecrations, and absolutions, so a foolish theology presupposes the Holy Spirit … only where the Spirit is sighed, cried, and prayed for does he become present and newly active.” - Karl Barth (1886-1968) Swiss Reformed theologian in his 1962 lectures on evangelical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Reflective question: Are you open to seeking, embracing ‘the promised gift of the Holy Spirit?’

Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 5:18 – “… be filled with the Spirit, …”

Reflective hymn:

“Spirit of the Living God” – Daniel Iverson (1890-1977)

Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.

Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.

Sermon Notes for Pentecost Sunday: "You Will Receive Power"

A Stable Word in an Unstable World:

“You Will Receive Power”

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Sunday 31 May 2020

PENTECOST SUNDAY

Luke 24:36-53                                                  

Acts 2:1-18                                                         

Acts 1:1-8

Stability: from Latin ‘to stand’ = to be firm, constant, steadfast, fixed; lit. ‘to be able to stand.’

Key verse: Acts 2:17 – “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people.’”

1.      We are SAVED by God’s power: Romans 1:16/John 3:3, 6   “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes …” “Spirit gives birth to spirit … you must be born again …’” 

2.      We are FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT by God’s power: Acts 4:31   “‘…enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”      

3.      We are given POWER OVER SIN by God’s power: Romans 6:6; Titus 2:11, 12   “… our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless so that we should no longer be slaves to sin …” “God’s grace … teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” 

4.      We learn EFFECTIVE INTERCESSORY PRAYER through God’s power: Romans 8:26   “… the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express…the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

5.      GOD’S WORD BECOMES ALIVE in us thru God’s power: Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16   “The Word of God is alive and powerful…” (KJV)

“All scripture is God-breathed, …”

6.      We are given POWER TO WITNESS through God’s power: Acts 1:8   “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses …”

7.      We are GUARDED for heaven by God’s power: 1 Peter 1:5   “… an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

What is the bottom line when it comes to the person and work of the Holy Spirit?

Jesus: John 16:12-14 – “… when the Spirit of truth comes … he will bring glory to me ...”

MONDAY MORNING

Seven days, seven sources of stability – take this outline one entry per day, look up the larger Scriptural context, reflect on it, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you how it applies to your life.

Day 77: “Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer.”

Day 77

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 ELEVEN: SATURDAY 30 MAY 2020

“Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer.”

“The coronavirus-induced limitations on life have arrived … No doubt some will tell us why God is doing this. A punishment? A warning? Perhaps the Biblical tradition we really need to turn to is lament. Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer … In the Bible God also laments. The Spirit groans. Jesus weeps. God grieves for his world. It is not part of the Christian vocation to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain – and to lament instead.” - Bishop N.T. Wright, Church of England, in a recent newsmagazine article

Rounding a curve, their two-year-old in the back seat before the days of car seats, grabbed at the door handle to steady himself. The door had opened and he was flung out to his death. I can still picture standing in front of that little open coffin with a little boy with his little toys, the only child of his young parents, as they wept and ask “why?” I also remember having no words, only tears as we together lamented the loss of this precious little life, and the absence of answers. 

Of all the literary structures or genres found in the Book of Psalms, lament is the most often turned to because these Psalms resonate with all of humanity where loss sooner or later intrudes in silent unexplainable ways and we need a place to which we can go and cry out to God, meet with his silence and still end up praising him. What is the structure of a lament?

Psalm 13 

Lament: 13:1-2 - “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

Petition: 13:3-4 - “Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.”

Praise: 10:16-18 - “But I trust in your unfailing love …”   

    

As if to legitimize lament and make sure we would know that He carried all of our laments with him to the cross, Jesus uttered a history-cleaving cry from a psalm of lament: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1, the universal question “why?” met with the thundering silence of God. Sometimes it is enough to know that He knows when we don’t.

Reflective question: If you were to write out a lament to God, how would it look? Give it a try. (Go to annarborvineyard.org for help.)

Reflective Scripture: Read/pray Psalms of lament 10, 13, 17, 22, 25, 31, 43, 55, 61, 69, 73, 88, 102, 130.

Reflective hymn:

“Out of the Depths” – Psalm 130 – Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Out of the depths to Thee I raise the voice of lamentation;

Lord, turn a gracious ear to me, and hear my supplication.

If Thou shouldst count our every sin, each evil deed, or thought within,

O who could stand before Thee?

Day 76: Despite Uncertain Times, Choose Optimism

DAY 76

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 ELEVEN: FRIDAY 29 MAY 2020

Despite Uncertain Times, Choose Optimism

“With the endless stream of urgent news pushing the boundaries of our mental health, it seems laughable to suggest optimism right now. Maybe you’re worried about losing your job, losing your home or losing a loved one. Maybe you already have. Maybe you’re worried about your own health, and maybe you feel helpless or doomed … at its core, optimism doesn’t require you to sweep anxious negative feelings under the rug. It’s not about smiling when you don’t feel like it. Optimism is simply being hopeful about the future, even when the present feels wholly negative.” - From a newspaper article 11 May 2020 by the same title

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the order was given that all Japanese, whether foreign born ‘issei’ or those born in America and citizens -‘nisei’, were to be removed from the west coast and placed in what were euphemistically referred to as ‘relocation camps.’ This forced evacuation order with only 48 hour notice saw the loss of farms, homes, businesses and personal possessions. One of these camps was in the middle of the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona, and they remained there until the end of the war in 1945. 

How would you have responded? Assuming the loss of everything they owned, and facing an incarceration of an uncertain duration and an equally uncertain future after they would be released, they planted gardens – beautifully landscaped floral gardens – they made the barren desert around their tar papered army barracks bloom. Only fifteen years after their release I was living in one of those barracks, serving a semester and a summer as a missionary intern on the reservation. It was there that the older Indians spoke to me about the gardens and did so with a sense of awe and amazement at their beauty, gardens now gone except within their memories. Though incarcerated, those Japanese found an optimism during a very uncertain time that echoed Isaiah 35:1, “The desert and the parched land … will rejoice and blossom.” They remain for me an experiential reminder of the choices before us all in difficult times.

Reflective question: Where in this pandemic do you need to intentionally choose optimism?                                                                                                                       

Reflective Scripture: Philippians 4:8 – “… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, … think about such things.”  

Reflective hymn:

“Higher Ground” – Johnson Oatman (1856-1922)

I’m pressing on the upward way, new heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I’m onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lord, lift me up and let me stand, by faith on heavens table land;

A higher plane than I have found – Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

Day 75: Collateral Damage: “A Tsunami of Hate”

DAY 75

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 ELEVEN: THURSDAY 28 MAY 2020

Collateral Damage: “A Tsunami of Hate”

“The coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering … anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets … immigrants and foreigners have been vilified as sources of the pandemic, …” - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 8 May 2020 

I was visiting an orphanage in Albania, filled to the doors with children from toddlers to teenagers. Without birth certificates, they were denied access to everything from health care to public schools. They were all Roma, Gypsies, disliked – and sometimes hated – across Europe.

Prejudice – sometimes overt hatred, infects all human hearts, its source. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 16:19: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder …” and 1 John 3:15 says  “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer …” Hatred, prejudice and murder all share in common the denial of the equal value of the other person.

What is it about external threats – in this case a pandemic – that calls forth in some the best in humanity of compassion and selfless service to others, and some the opposite: animosity, anger, hatred, scapegoating. In our brokenness, we have a tendency to need someone we can view as less than we are, someone we can blame for what’s wrong, as though in some way such an attitude and behavior protects us, makes us a better person, when in reality the opposite is true.

It was said of Joseph’s jealous eleven brothers that … they hated him …” Genesis 37:8, so they sold him into slavery in Egypt. And then there’s Amnon, David’s son, and his half-sister Tamar, David’s daughter: “… he raped her. Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her.” 2 Samuel 13:14-15. We don’t need to engage in such blatant behavior as Joseph’s brothers or Amnon, for hatred to find its way into our hearts. But we do need to heed the admonition in Proverbs 4:23: “… guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Reflective question: Will you ask the Lord to show you anyone in your heart you don’t view as of equal value to yourself? Now ask him to show you how to deal with it.

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 10:12 – “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

Reflective hymn:

“Jesus Loves the Little Children” – C. H. Woolston (1856-1927)

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight –

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Day 74: The Pandemic and the Omnis of God

DAY 74

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 ELEVEN: WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2020

The Pandemic and the Omnis of God

During our two years in New Zealand where I served as Transitional Minister at St. Peters-in-the-City Presbyterian Church in Tauranga, North Island, I had the opportunity to teach a semester at nearby Faith Bible College. The class was Introduction to Systematic Theology. It was a struggle for most, as the younger generations are no longer exposed to a systematic way of thinking through what they believe, as my generation was with the catechism in confirmation class. What perplexed them the most, I recall, was the classic category of the attributes of God, the ‘Omnis.’

PAN: We are now living through an historic pandemic, a word that comes to us from ancient Greek: ‘pan’ meaning ‘all’ and ‘demic’ from ‘demos’ meaning people – think democracy. Thus this is a virus that is affecting ‘all people’ around the globe.

OMNI: Now come other words easily unpacked tracing back to their ancient Latin roots, identifiers of the characteristics or attributes of the Triune God, who is also ‘omni’ – ‘all.’

God is Omnipresent = The Triune God is in all places.

          “‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:24

God is Omniscient = The Triune God has all knowledge.

           “… God … knows everything.” 1 John 3:20

God is Omnipotent = the Triune God has all power.

           “For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power …” Romans 1:20

God is Omnificent = the Triune God has all creative ability.

            “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1  

As we continually find ourselves facing a ‘pan’ of undetermined duration, we can ask the Holy Spirit to build within, a deep, keeping faith in our God who is ‘omni’ in all areas of our existence. 

Reflective question: Which of these omni characteristics of God do you most need in your life today as you live in the context of a pandemic?

Reflective Scripture: Malachi 3:6 – “I the Lord do not change.”

Reflective hymn:

“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” – Walter Smith (1824-1908)

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes.

Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,

Almighty, victorious – Thy great name we praise.

Day 73: ‘Truly in the Trenches,’ Doctor Dies by Suicide

DAY 73

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 ELEVEN: TUESDAY 26 MAY 2020

‘Truly in the Trenches,’ Doctor Dies by Suicide

“A top emergency room doctor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital died by suicide Sunday…She had described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients. ‘She tried to do her job, and it killed her,’ her father said. … She was always the physician who was looking out for other people’s health and well-being. … Dr. Lorna Breen was also a deeply religious Christian …” - Newspaper article 28 April by the same title

It was a Sunday evening service showing a Christian documentary film in which a family mourned the loss by suicide of their son who had joined a cult, which they blamed for his suicide. I sat there in silence, knowing what no one else in the sanctuary knew, that a member of our own congregation who clearly knew Jesus in her life, was at that very moment in intensive care in the hospital after trying to take her own life. She was, as was Dr. Breen, ‘a deeply religious Christian.’

Just before he lapsed into a state of unconsciousness from the drugs he had taken to end his life, and as he was being wheeled out of his home on a gurney by the paramedics to be taken to the hospital to save his life, he turned to me and cursed me for interfering with his suicide attempt. He was an agnostic, and he was my father.

Christian, agnostic, the intersection between individual worldviews or religious belief systems and mental illness is not available for parsing, and it is unwise to assign to any the blame for someone taking their own life. It takes countless turns in perception for a person to arrive at a place where consideration of taking their own life is not an abhorrent thought. I know - I’ve been there. Depression can wax and wane, and medication can help, but through it all remains one constant: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” – and at the end of the day it is enough. Hebrews 13:8.  “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is the trustworthy promise of this constant Christ, Hebrews 13:5. At the end of her day, Dr. Sara Breen knew this to be so.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1.800.273.8255

Reflective question: Are you, or is someone you know, suicidal? Please call the number above.

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Reflective hymn:

“Jesus Lover of My Soul” – Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Other refuge have I none; hangs my helpless soul on thee;

Leave, O leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.

All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring;

Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing.

Day 72: We Rise or Fall Together

DAY 72

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 ELEVEN: MONDAY 25 MAY 2020

MEMORIAL DAY

We Rise or Fall Together

“This is a challenging and solemn time in the life of our nation and world. A remorseless invisible enemy threatens the elderly and the vulnerable among us. A disease that can quickly take breath in life. Medical professionals are risking their own health for the health of others and we are deeply grateful. Officials at every level are setting up the requirements of public health that protect us all. And we all need to do our part.

“The disease also threatens broader damage: harm to our sense of safety, security, and community. The larger challenge we share is to confront an outbreak of fear and loneliness. … We cannot allow physical separation to become emotional isolation. This requires us to be not only compassionate but creative in our outreach. And people across the nation are using tools of technology in the cause of solidarity.

“At 9/11 I saw a great nation rise as one to honor the brave, to grieve with the grieving, and to embrace unavoidable new duties.  And I have no doubt, none at all, that this spirit of service and sacrifice is alive and well in America. Let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are essential, powerful tools of national recovery. Even at an appropriate social distance, we can find ways to be present in the lives of others, to ease their anxiety, and share their burdens.

“Let us remember the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly. It is especially important that we care in practical ways for the elderly, the ill, and the unemployed.

“Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants, we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful, in the sight of God. We rise or fall together and we are determined to rise.” 

- President George W. Bush, Saturday 2 May 2020.

“Together…” comes to us from the prepositional prefix “to” and an Old English word for “gather.” It is something we currently are unable to experience with government restrictions currently in place barring gatherings, ‘together’ times. “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” Psalm 133:1. We still have this potential within us as a nation. Let’s seize it.    

Reflective question:  On this Memorial Day will you call a veteran or someone of a different political persuasion than you and see how they are doing? And offer to pray for them.

Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another, …”

Reflective hymn:

“God of our Fathers” – The National Hymn – Daniel Roberts (1841-1907)

From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,

Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;

Thy true religion in our hearts increase,

Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Day 71: “Do not leave us comfortless, …”

DAY 71

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 ELEVEN SUNDAY 24 MAY 2020

ASCENSION SUNDAY

“Do not leave us comfortless, …”

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. - Prayer for Ascension Sunday, The Book of Common Prayer

It’s been 40 days since the resurrection, a day marked by the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, which always falls on a Thursday. The Sunday following is always celebrated as Ascension Sunday, today, and 50 days after the resurrection is marked by 50, ‘pente’ – Pentecost, next Sunday. So now here we are with the disciples in between these two events, and before his ascension Jesus can read the anxiety in their faces: he was alive and ministering in power, then he was crucified and died, then he came back from the dead, then he tells  them he’s leaving again, and in fact, he does just that. Can you feel the tension, the anxiety?

So, before he leaves them and ascends into heaven, Jesus makes them some promises that were fulfilled ten days later on the Day of Pentecost. “And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter (parakleton), that he may abide with you forever; …I will not leave you comfortless (orphanous): I will come to you … But the Comforter (parakletos), which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:16, 18, 26 King James Version.

Comforter, in the antiquated language of the King James Version, refers to the Holy Spirit. The Greek is a compound noun with the prepositional prefix ‘para’, ‘alongside’ (think parallel parking), and the verb ‘kaleo,’ ‘to call.’ So the Holy Spirit is One ‘called alongside’ us on our journey, our faithful companion to see us home safely. Because we live on this side of Pentecost, we can celebrate Ascension Sunday knowing that for us ‘the Comforter has already come!’

Reflective question: How does the Ascension of Jesus connect the Holy Spirit to you today?

Reflective Scripture: John 14:17-18 – “… the Spirit … he lives with you and will be in you … I will not leave you orphans …”

Reflective hymn:

“The Comforter Has Come” – Frank Bottome (1823-1894)

O spread the tidings ‘round, wherever man is found,

Wherever human hearts and human woes abound.

Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound: the Comforter has come!

Day 70: Taking Care of Each Other - “Define Neighbor.”

DAY 70

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 TEN: SATURDAY 23 MAY 2020

Taking Care of Each Other - “Define Neighbor.”

“‘We are all grappling with personal concerns, worry for our loved ones – and to see our hospital family come together to take care of our patients and each other has been very heartening.’” - From an area hospital spring 2020 publication “COVID-19 Special Edition.”

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, “What’s written in God’s law? How do you interpret it?” He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence – and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” ”Good answer,” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor?’”

Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill – I’ll pay you on my way back.”

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said “Go and do the same.” - Luke 10:25-37, The Message.

“While this has been a very difficult time for our area, nation, and the world, we also know challenges like this create strong people,” said a physician from the above-referenced area hospital. “We’ve all had our daily lives upended. But we have also seen great teamwork, innovation, and genuine care for others.” When this is over, may this be said of us as well.

Reflective question:

Who needs you to care for them in some way today?

Who is the neighbor in the story of the Good Samaritan? Will you be someone’s neighbor today?

Reflective Scripture: Luke 6:31 – “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Reflective hymn: “Help us to Help Each Other, Lord” – Jubilate Hymns (2020)

Help us to help each other, Lord, each other’s load to bear;

That all may live in true accord, our joys and pains to share.

Day 69: "A Prayer in a Time of a Pandemic"

DAY 69

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 TEN: FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020

"A Prayer in a Time of a Pandemic"

From the book Coronavirus and Christ by John Piper

© 2020 Desiring God Foundation

published by Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois

“Father:

At our best moments, by your grace, we are not sleeping in Gethsemane. We are awake and listening to your Son’s prayer. He knows, deep down, that he must suffer. But in his perfect humanity, he cries out, “If it is possible, let this cup pass.”

In the same way, we sense, deep down, that this pandemic is appointed, in your wisdom, for good and necessary purposes. We too must suffer. Your Son was innocent. We are not.

Yet with him in our less-than-perfect humanity, we too cry out, “If it is possible, let this cup pass.”  Do quickly, O Lord, the painful, just, and merciful work you have resolved to do. Do not linger in judgment. Do not delay your compassion. Remember the poor, O Lord, according to your mercy. Do not forget the cry of the afflicted. Grant recovery. Grant a cure. Deliver us – your poor, helpless creatures – from these sorrows, we pray.

But do not waste our misery and grief, O Lord. Purify your people from powerless preoccupation with barren materialism and Christless entertainment. Put our mouths out of taste with the bait of Satan. Cut from us the roots and remnant of pride and hate and unjust ways. Grant us capacities of outrage at our own belittling of your glory. Open the eyes of our hearts to see and savor the beauty of Christ. Incline our hearts to your word, your Son, and your way. Fill us with compassionate courage. And make a name for yourself in the way your people serve.

Stretch forth your hand in great awakening for the sake of this perishing world. Let the terrible words of Revelation not be spoken over this generation: “Yet still they did not repent.” As you have stricken our bodies, strike now the slumbering souls. Forbid that they would remain asleep in the darkness of pride and unbelief. In your great mercy, say to these bones, “Live!” And bring the hearts and lives of millions into alignment with the infinite worth of Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Reflective question: Which line in this prayer speaks to you? Why? Spend time reflecting on it.

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 130:1 – “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.”

Reflective hymn: “Out of the Depths” – Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Out of the depths I cry to you; O Lord, hear me calling.

Incline your ear to my distress in spite of my rebelling.

Do not regard my sinful deeds. Send me the grace my spirit needs;

Without it I am nothing.