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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