Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Day 65: Seeking a Balm for the Soul but Imperiling Earthly Health



DAY 65
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: MONDAY 18 MAY 2020

Seeking a Balm for the Soul but Imperiling Earthly Health
“Religion is the solace of first resort for billions of people grappling with a pandemic … dread over the coronavirus has driven the globe’s faithful even closer to religion and ritual. But what is good for the soul may not always be good for the body… . In some cases, religious fervor has led people toward cures that have no grounding in science; in others, it has drawn them to sacred places or rites that could increase the risk of infection.” - Recent newspaper article by the same title.

They came for physical healing, kissing the stone enclosure and tossing money through the bars separating them from the grave of the saint they came to revere. It was a Muslim shrine in rural Pakistan, but I have also seen similar behavior in a Hindu temple and a Christian church. There is something universally similar in human beings that, in times of crisis, craves contact with the supernatural as a shortcut to safety and seeks it in rituals, objects and places. Even we rational Presbyterians sense a bit of that feeling at times, when faith falters and life presses in.

The Creator Who has placed that craving for the supernatural within us has also responded to it but not in an object or a place or a ritual: rather in a person. In the midst of the subtle ceaseless pressure of this pandemic, Jesus stands, immovable, all-powerful, encompassing our existence with His, and it is enough. “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” Revelation 1:9. He has us surrounded.

Medicine in antiquity was primitive, and resin and oils from plants like aloe were used, sometimes effectively, to sooth wounds. Such balms for the body became symbolic of balms for the soul, with Jeremiah, facing scandalous national sin, asking the question, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”  This ‘seeking a balm for the soul’ is universal, and the universal response by God is clear: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:17. We keep circling back not to a ritual, not to a place, not to an object, but to Jesus, a person, a relationship, a safe ‘balm for the soul.’

Reflective question: Where are you looking for protection, for safety, during this pandemic?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 27:1 - “The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?”

Reflective hymn: “Near to the Heart of God” – Cleland B. McAfee (1866-1944)
There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God;
A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee, near to the heart of God.

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