DAY 147: Songs That Signify the Patient is Better Triumphant Music is Played for the Sick and the Health Care Staff

DAY 147

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Saturday 8 August 2020

Songs That Signify the Patient is Better

Triumphant Music is Played for the Sick and the Health Care Staff

“In the 11 days he spent fighting COVID-19 at Montefiore Nyack Hospital, there was one thing Mark Schwarz couldn’t figure out. ‘Occasionally throughout the days there, you would randomly start hearing music playing and wonder, ‘What’s that for?’” Mr. Schwarz, 54, said last week. On April 20, when it finally came time for Mr. Schwarz to leave the hospital, he heard for himself: the cheerful chorus of the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ rang through the hallways to celebrate his discharge.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same name

‘Imagine’ – to borrow from another Beatles’ song, that you went into the hospital with COVID-19, weak, struggling for breath, saying goodbye to family without a hug or a kiss, knowing they would not be able to visit you in the hospital and that you might never see them again, weeks on a ventilator, drugged into a comatose state for your own good, only to awaken, discover you haven’t died, and then one day to have the ventilator removed, to be taken to a regular room and then discharged and, as they roll you down the hall toward what you thought you would never see again - your family and the bright light of the sun at midday, hear the Beatle’s singing on your behalf, “Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it’s all right.” To draw on a phrase from my generation, ‘How cool is that!’

English poet William Congreve in 1697 wrote “Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast,” a quote I kept posted in the music room where I taught music K-6 in an elementary school in Alaska. God’s gift of music does indeed have power to change the lives of those who listen.

Music will survive the cataclysmic end of time however that unfolds when Jesus breaks through the clouds in His second advent, music filling every corner, every niche of creation – ‘Imagine’ – “…every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in  them singing: ‘ To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb,  be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” Revelation 5:13. ‘Here comes the Son – it’s all right!’

Reflective question: If you became ill with COVID-19 and survived, what song would you like to hear as you leave the hospital?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 149:1 – “Sing to the Lord a new song,…”

Reflective hymn:

“When in Our Music God is Glorified” – Fred Green (1903-2000)

How often making music, we have found

A new dimension in the world of sound,

As worship moved us to a more profound, Al-le-lu-ia!

DAY 146: Those We’ve Lost: Abraham Vega 48, ‘Peacemaking’ Texas Sheriff

DAY 146

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Friday 7 August 2020

Those We’ve Lost: Abraham Vega 48, ‘Peacemaking’ Texas Sheriff

He was born in Brownsville, Texas on the US-Mexican border, entered law enforcement at age 19 and never left it. He became the elected sheriff of tiny – population 5,000 – Lynn County in northwest Texas. “As the coronavirus pandemic surged in Texas in recent weeks, Sheriff Vega thought he had taken every precaution against being infected, his wife said. He had underlying conditions and was so scared of getting it, that except for the office he wouldn’t go out….Then last month a colleague tested positive. The next day, Abraham did, too.” Two weeks later he died. His wife said of him, “He wasn’t the chase ‘em down kind of police officer. He had a servant’s heart, and that’s what made him a peace officer.” Indeed, Mr. Vega had that idea tattooed on his chest, a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” - From a current newspaper series “Those We’ve Lost”

As I approach 150 columns and counting, I am grateful for an abundance of material out there from which to draw on for the theming of each day’s entry. In particular I look for things that cause ‘movement’ within me, and this man, Abraham Vega, did that with the testimony he has left behind. Two things lodged inside as I read: “He had a servant’s heart, and that’s what made him a peace officer,” and that he had “…tattooed on his chest, a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ Matthew 5:9. I long and pray for both to be true of me.

There are basically only two groups of people in this world when it comes to peace: those who are peacemakers, and those who create the need for peacemakers. So it is also with servanthood: those who have ‘a servant’s heart,’ and those who think they deserve to be served.

This is a man I would have liked to have taken to lunch and, looking at him asked, “Will you tell me your story?” and then sat back and listened. But there are others, although infrequently encountered, whose lives, whose hearts are also marked by peacemaking and serving others, whose stories we can listen to and in the listening be challenged to ‘go and do likewise.’

Reflective question: Abraham Vega is gone – will you take his place as a servant peacemaker?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 23:11 – “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

Reflective hymn: “Will You Let Me Be Your Servant” – Richard Gillard (1953-    )

Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?

Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

We are pilgrims on a journey; we’re together on the road.

We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

DAY 145: “At war with a virus?” The collateral damage of a metaphor.

DAY 145

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Thursday 6 August 2020

“At war with a virus?”

The collateral damage of a metaphor.

“How much meaning can and should be found in a pandemic that has strewn indiscriminate fear and loss across the globe? According to the medical doctor and ethicist Lyda Dugdal, our country currently lacks a ‘common existential narrative,’ a shared story that can illuminate the meaning of widespread suffering and death. I think she’s right, with one exception – the meaning we find in war.” - Recent article by the same name in a Christian magazine

As a nation, we have been engaged in military conflict of some kind, somewhere, for 222  of our 244 years, from the Revolutionary War up to the war in Afghanistan. As a culture we understand the metaphor of war: we battle cancer, and we declare war on poverty, drugs, terrorism,  crime and now a virus. War language galvanizes except when it doesn’t, as in the Vietnam War, and in the present situation rather than unite us as a nation with a common foe the virus itself has become a weapon, politicized at the expense of the populace, placing us in an unenviable position of being shunned by most nations for fear of our contaminating their countries further. The collateral damage within the country is division and death; outside, closed doors. It remains that our ‘common existential narrative’ is not the image of war but our common suffering.

An alternate template for our response to COVID-19 can be found in the Book of Job, where Job, the ultimate  sufferer, appears at first read to resign himself to it all. But a closer look reveals a man whose inner resolve has been strengthened to endure through a fearless examination of his own heart, motives and attitudes. People can gather around shared suffering in a way that unites them without the combative language of warfare and still pursue the same end, the eradication, in this instance, of the virus. Ultimately, warfare imagery that counts is reserved for things unseen between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12.      

Reflective question: In what ways can a war metaphor serve you spiritually during this pandemic?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 21:31 – “…victory belongs to the Lord.”

Reflective hymn:

“Victory in Jesus” – Eugene Bartlett (1895-1941)

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever!

He sought me, and He bought me with His redeeming blood.

He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him.

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

DAY 144: World Prayer Focus: South Korea

DAY 144

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Wednesday 5 August 2020

World Prayer Focus: South Korea

Korea is a land of contradictions. Home to Presbyterian, Methodist and Pentecostal (Assemblies of God) megachurches, their Christian witness is sometimes weakened by histories of internal strife and church splits. Huge Presbyterian congregations of 10,000-20,000 are known for their weekday 5:00 AM hour long prayer meetings, but such churches have at times been less than consistent in their witness to the larger Korean society. It remains that six of the ten largest congregations in the world are in South Korea and all are fervently evangelical in their faith and missions focus. South Korea is second only to the United States in the sending of missionaries around the world, increasingly going into places where Americans, with our growing ‘us first’ and at times hostile attitudes toward other countries and cultures have made us less than welcome.

Prayer Concerns

+ For church members and leaders to catch strife when it begins and seek servant’s hearts.

+ For the thousands of Korean missionaries around the world, many in hostile countries.

+ For a growing generation gap between traditional society and imported western decadence.

+ That the Holy Spirit will protect the passion of over 150 missionary sending agencies.

+ For young Koreans studying in Korea and elsewhere preparing for full time Christian service.

+ For an impact on church and society of the publications of over 150 Christian publishers.

+ For the burden of the Korean church for their relatives in oppressive North Korea.

+ For 3.6 million youth in over 400 universities – the need is great for more Christian workers.

For the full country profile and prayer needs

for South Korea go to operationworld.org.

Jesus’ Prayer Request each Wednesday:

“’The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38.

Reflective question: Read Matthew 28:16-20. Which part speaks most personally to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 28:19 – “Go and make disciples of all nations,…”

Reflective hymn:

“Lord, You Give the Great Commission” – Jeffrey Rowthorn (1934-    )

Lord, you give the Great Commission: “Heal the sick and preach the Word.”

Lest the church neglect its mission, and the gospel go unheard,

Help us witness to your purpose, with renewed integrity:

With the Spirit’s gifts empower us for the work of ministry.

DAY 143: Doomscrolling Again? Snap Out of It.

DAY 143

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Tuesday 4 August 2020

Doomscrolling Again? Snap Out of It.

“As the pandemic forces us to stay home,

there are ways to break the habit of bingeing on bad news.”

“Everything is awful. The world as we remember it has ended…This experience of sinking into emotional quicksand while bingeing on doom-and-gloom news is so common there’s now internet lingo for it: ‘doomscrolling. Exacerbating this behavior, shelter-in-place orders leave us with little to do other than to look at our screens: by some measures, our screen time has jumped at least 50 percent.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same title

From childhood I have been a citizen of the world: a stamp collection I began in grade school introduced me to every country, a collection extensive enough that I could sell it to finance my first semester in a Christian college. From childhood I have devoured National Geographic magazines. As an adult I subscribe to national news magazines, daily newspapers, and watch multiple news outlets every evening. This would be fine in normal times but these are not normal times: no matter where I turn, one thing is always staring back at me: the global pandemic. I am in danger of doing what the article cautions against: bingeing on bad news, or ‘doomscrolling.’  

What about you? Such activity is not intentional – we don’t seek out bad news, it seeks us out and won’t go away. And yes, it can be depressing. So what practical steps can we take to bring balance to our news intake? Here are three things the article suggests with my take on them.

FIRST – Control your time. Decide on the amount of time you are comfortable giving to news, prioritize the news sources and then choose which ones fit into your time boundaries.

SECOND – Practice meditation. And lest this word sound uncomfortably like ‘eastern religion,’ God talks about the one “…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” Psalm 1:2. Framing each day – “day and night” – with God’s Word can help balance all the waking time in between and protect us from ‘doomscrolling’ overload.

THIRD – Connect with others. The most fundamental statement God has made regarding human beings created in His image is that “It is not good for man to be alone.” Genesis 2:18. In this day of social isolation multiple internet platforms can connect us to others.

Reflective question: Which of the three steps above do you most need to focus on to avoid ‘doomscrolling?’

Reflective Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “For everything there is…a time…”  

Reflective hymn:

‘Open My Eyes” – Clara Scott (1841-1897)

Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;

Place in my hand the wonderful key, that shall unclasp and set me free.

DAY 142: “We Are All Humans”

DAY 142

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Monday 3 August 2020

“We Are All Humans”

Tailors in Gaza Make Protective Equipment for Israel

“Ziad Qassem’s 25 years as a tailor seemed worthless in the cruel economy of the blockaded Gaza Strip: Unemployed for eight months, piling up debt, he sat idle in his apartment, worried how he would provide for his wife and five children. The coronavirus came to his rescue. Gaza garment factories have been bombarded with new orders since early March by merchants from – of all places – Israel, ordinarily seen by much of Gaza’s Palestinian population as the enemy…Several tailors interviewed said they had no compunctions making masks to protect people in Israel…’At the end of the day, we are all humans,’ said Raed Dahman, 42, at Hassanco in Gaza City. ‘We should try to make sure everyone is safe, without exceptions.’” - From a recent newspaper article by the same title

My paternal grandfather was born in England the year after the American Civil War ended, in 1866 – it’s not that far behind us in the collective memory of our country. And now we are experiencing a social civil war in which Americans are overtly being pitted against each other depending on their political party, and people of color and immigrants are portrayed in subtle ways as being of less value than ‘the rest of us.’ Over all this is a horrible pandemic that we share with the rest of the world, yet we are withdrawing from that larger world at a time when it is critical that we stick together to pursue common solutions for the sake of all.   

When God looks at the planet He only sees people – no political persuasions, no skin color – well, actually He does see skin color because He created it and delights in it. “God so loved the world” John 3:16 cries out, and therefore those who would demonize and divide people for any reason stand under God’s judgment.  Perhaps a humble unknown tailor in another culture has something to say we need to hear: “At the end of the day we are all humans. We should try to make sure everyone’s safe, without exceptions.” May God watch over Raed Dahman and his family.     

Reflective question: Where do you need to ask the Lord to open your eyes to someone you don’t like for whatever reason, and see that you are both human?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 145:9 – “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Reflective hymn:

“Help us Accept Each Other” – Fred Kaan (1929-2009)

Teach us, O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life

We struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.

Teach us to care for people, for all, not just some,

To love them as we find them or as they may become.

DAY 141: Safety

DAY 141

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one  Sunday 2 August 2020

Safety

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: Prayer for Sunday closest to 3 August

The first time I took a spiritual gifts inventory I scored highest on martyrdom, which the author  smilingly said is the gift you get to use only once but which in actuality is the gift of feeling safe in situations where others would be afraid and not feel safe. I would have to say that, while I have walked the back streets of Cairo, Egypt with a friend at night, gone into the barrio above Medellin, Colombia beyond where the police would go and drug lords ruled to attend a Bible study, and sat outside in the dark visiting with people in rural Pakistan where extremists and cobras are a part of life, the place where I felt the least safe in my life, for a time, was not in places like these but in church. The details are in the Lord’s hands, to whom the church belongs, but it was for me a chapter in my life where I was frightened. While that specific church in which I was the pastor became an unsafe place for me, during my transition from it I found myself visiting another church where anonymously I could feel safe because no one knew me there – except Jesus, and His presence made it a safe place.      

Safety – whether it’s in a strange place or the sanctuary of a church, we all need to feel safe. The absence of feeling safe in church means we won’t feel we can relax and be open to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives in that place. Our prayer today asks four things of God to help us “continue in safety” as we journey through a pandemic time which can be difficult to navigate:

“cleanse” – what the Holy Spirit does within us as we confess and forsake sin in our lives;

“defend” – what the Holy Spirit does, more often than not in ways we aren’t even aware of;

“protect” – work of the Holy Spirit alerting us to areas where we need to be careful;

“govern” – with humble hearts we obey God’s Word. – that’s how He governs in our lives.

Reflective question: How safe in general do you feel in life? In church? At home? At work?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 1:33 – “…whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm”

Reflective hymn:

“O God, We Yearn for Safety”–Carolyn Gillette (1961-    )

O God, we yearn for safety; we long to be secure.

Yet faithful, loving service, is what you value more.

You give us what is needed, You love, forgive and save.

Then, sending us to serve you, You call us to be brave.

DAY 140: A Swiss Legacy

DAY 140

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Saturday 1 August 2020

A Swiss Legacy

Today is Swiss National Day, their Fourth of July. It was on 1 August 1291, 729 years ago, that the country of Switzerland began with three cantons or states. Today Switzerland is comprised of 26 cantons, one of which is Geneva. It was in Geneva in the mid 1500’s that the Reformer John Calvin ruled a theocratic city state based on the Reformed faith he espoused.  It was there the Genevan Psalter of 1561 was created containing all 150 Psalms set to music. Calvin held forth in St. Peter’s Cathedral, where a Christian church was first built in the 4^th century, the present edifice having been built beginning in 1160. I have sat in that church and wondered what it must have been like to hear Calvin preach and the people singing God’s Word, the Psalms. 

Geneva has long since become secular but this Swiss legacy of singing Psalms has remained a unique part of those churches called Presbyterian or Reformed. To this day all Presbyterian hymnals contain many of the Psalms set to music with some of the music from the Genevan Psalter, some small Presbyterian denominations only sing the Psalms, and the hymnals of the  Christian Reformed Church contain all 150 Psalms set to music with many of the tunes from the Genevan Psalter. Perhaps one of the most familiar is Psalm 100, “Old Hundredth.”    

Psalm 100 – Old Hundredth

All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.

Serve him with joy, his praises tell, come now before him and rejoice!

Know that the Lord is God indeed, he formed us all without our aid.

We are the flock he surely feeds, the sheep who by his hand were made.

O enter then his gates with joy, within his courts his praise proclaim!

Let thankful songs your tongues employ. O bless and magnify his name!

Because the Lord our God is good, his mercy is forever sure.

His faithfulness at all times stood and shall from age to age endure.

During this time of a protracted global pandemic, we need the inner support of this timeless text and its original tune – think “The Doxology” we sing each week, to help us on our way and through the day. God’s gift of music and of singing is intended to be a source of strength, hope, comfort and courage. Let’s avail ourselves of it. And ‘Happy Birthday Switzerland!”

Reflective question:  Which verse above most speaks to you during these COVID-19 days? Why?                                                                                                                             

Reflective Scripture: Read Psalm 100 in your Bible and then its paraphrase above.

Reflective hymn: Using its original tune – think “The Doxology,” sing Psalm 100, above.

DAY 139: Ordinary Time

DAY 139

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Friday 31 July 2020

Ordinary Time

What time is it in the church year? Depending on our church tradition we are familiar with certain blocks of time that we mark and celebrate:

+The First Sunday of Advent – the ‘new year’s day’ of the church through Epiphany 6 January, the coming of the wise men;

+Ordinary Time from the Sunday after Epiphany to the Sunday before Lent, not counting Transfiguration Sunday;

+Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday to Holy Week to Easter;

+Easter Season from the Sunday after Easter to Ascension Sunday and Pentecost Sunday;

+Ordinary Time: The Sunday after Pentecost to the last Sunday before the first Sunday of                 

Advent, when the Gospel readings on Sundays focus on the teaching and ministry of Jesus. Just

as Jews in antiquity structured their year around the Old Testament feasts, so the early Christian church followed that pattern but marked time with the life of Christ.

The season is called ordinary from the Latin ‘ordinare’ to put in order by numbering. An ‘ordinal’ is a number used to place something in order, as first, second, third, etc. Thus this coming Sunday will be the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. In a non-church way we use the word ‘ordinary’ to convey something familiar, in the usual order or the way things normally are.

However, there is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time this year, with a global pandemic, increased famine, high unemployment, racial tension and a severely broken political system. looming ever larger before us. In this context we rest secure in the knowledge that its ordinariness has to do with its numbering by God, who keeps track of everything and loses sight of nothing. Ordinary time is always extraordinary time with the God of it all at the center of it all.

So in the midst of Ordinary Time we go about our ordinary tasks that help give us an awareness that ordinary things continue as they have been. Most of all God’s extraordinary love, grace, strength, comfort and hope are ‘ordinary’ each day as we walk through the pandemic.

Reflective question: For what ‘ordinary’ things during this season of Ordinary Time can you give thanks?

Reflective Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:6 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Reflective hymn:

“For the Beauty of the Earth” – Folliot Pierpont (1835-1917

For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies:

Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

DAY 138: “When this is over”

DAY 138

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Thursday 30 July 2020

“When this is over”

“When this is over, may we never

again take for granted

A handshake with a stranger

Full shelves at the store

Conversations with neighbors

A crowded theater

Friday night out

The taste of Communion

A routine checkup

The school rush each morning

Coffee with a friend

The stadium roaring

Each deep breath

A boring Tuesday

Life itself.

When this ends

may we find

that we have become

more like the people

we wanted to be

we were called to be

we hoped to be

and may we stay

that way – better

for each other because of the worst.”

- A poem written in response to the coronavirus by Laura Fanucci, writer and theologian.

Reflective question: In what ways are you intentionally planning on being better “for each other because of the worst,” when this pandemic is over?

Reflective Scripture: 2 Peter 3:18 – “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Reflective hymn:

“More About Jesus” – Eliza Hewitt (1851-1920)

More about Jesus would I know, more of His grace to others show,

More of His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me.

DAY 137: Prayer Focus: Jordan

DAY 137

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Wednesday 29 July 2020

Prayer Focus: Jordan

As this column has evolved over time, I began awhile back to use the prayer or Collect for each Sunday from the Book of Common Prayer. This will continue. A few weeks ago our focus for the week was prayer for the world and I referenced a resource, Operation World, for such a personal engagement. Now I am adding a ‘country focus’ each Wednesday, whatever country appears in that book on the given date. Today it is Jordan.  

While Sunni Islam is the state religion, religious freedom is guaranteed. Jordan is 96% Muslim and just over 2% Christian with the largest groups being Orthodox and Catholic. Evangelicals are a tiny minority. These minorities have minimal contact with Muslims when it comes to evangelism. A Christian population once almost 7% of the population is now just over 2% due to emigration, discouraging local churches who feel the loss. Congregations also tend to be older.

PRAYER CONCERNS

+ Steady drain of potential leadership who emigrate. Ask God to raise up strong leaders.     

+ Outreach to Muslims is minimal. Pray for believers to gain a heart for their conversion.

+ Unreached groups with no meaningful Christian witness, in addition to the Muslim majority:      

    millions of Palestinians, large Bedouin and Gypsy groups. Pray for evangelists to reach them.

+ Iraqi refugees in refugee camps: pray for open doors to allow Christian aid groups in to serve.

+ Pray for Christian TV coming from Cyprus that the Holy Spirit will use it to reach lost souls.

+ A few Christian bookstores exist: pray that the Holy Spirit will use literature to touch lives.

+ Pray that the small number of evangelical churches will learn to work together in outreach.

For the full country profile and prayer needs for Jordan go to operationworld.org.

Jesus’ Prayer Request each Wednesday:“’The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38.

Reflective question: Will you pray each day this week for the church in Jordan?

Reflective Scripture: 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord…is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance.”

Reflective hymn:

“Rescue  the Perishing” – Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

Rescue the perishing; care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.

Weep o’er the erring one; lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing; care for the dying. Jesus is merciful; Jesus will save!

DAY 136: It’s 2022. What Does Life Look Like?

DAY 136

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Tuesday 28 July 2020

It’s 2022. What Does Life Look Like?

“It’s 2022, and the coronavirus has at long last been defeated. After a miserable year and a half, alternating between lockdowns and new outbreaks, life can finally begin returning to normal. But it will not be the old normal. It swill be a new world, with a reshaped economy, much like war and depression reordered life for previous generations. Thousands of companies that were vulnerable before the virus arrived have disappeared. Dozens of colleges are shutting down, in the first wave of closures in the history of American higher education. People have also changed long held patterns of behavior: outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out.” - From a recent newspaper article by the same name

Daydream – fantasize – put yourself in the future beyond the global pandemic. Write down the following:

Q: What would you like to see return and be the same as it was before?

Q: What would you like to see be different than is was before?

As much as we would like to, we cannot control any of the things we have written above. God’s Word warns us about such prognosticating in James 4:13-14: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.”

Jesus cautions us in the Sermon on the Mount regarding the unknown future in Matthew 6:34:   “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” I like the way The Message puts it: “…don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”   

Reflective question: In answering the questions above, what one thing is most important for you?

Reflective Scripture: James 4:14 – “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

Reflective hymn:

“God of the Ages” – Margaret Clarkson (1915-2008)

Lord of past ages, Lord of this morning,

Lord of the future, help us we pray:

Teach us to trust You, love and obey You,

Crown you each moment, Lord of today.

DAY 135: “We’re all suffering from coronavirus caution fatigue”

DAY 135

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Monday 27 July 2020

“We’re all suffering from coronavirus caution fatigue”

“In April, the COVID-19 pandemic felt like all anyone could talk about. It was the top story on the news every night. By and large, everybody who could was staying home. The pandemic felt urgent, immediate, terrifying….case counts are rising in half of U.S. states…So why are we going back to ‘normal life’, even when the virus is still actively spreading? Jacqueline Gollan, an associate professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has coined a name for this phenomenon based on her 15 years of  research into depression, anxiety and decision-making: ‘caution fatigue.’ …Now, months in, the prolonged mix of stress, anxiety,  isolation and disrupted routines has left many feeling drained. As motivation dips, people are growing lax about social-distancing and putting themselves and others in harm’s way.” - From a current news magazine article by the same name

Whether from caution fatigue or carelessness or denial of it all, growing numbers of individuals have thrown caution to the wind and crowded into  bars, dance floors, parties and churches, and clusters of COVID-29 infections have emerged from such gatherings shortly thereafter. The insidious nature of this unseen foe is that it does not discriminate between parties and prayer meetings, spreading with invisible silence from person to person.    

Not only in our fight against a virus but in our struggle in the unseen realm with an unseen enemy, we are called to be ever vigilant. Peter calls us to resist caution fatigue in his first letter to the scattered church in1 Peter 5:8 when he says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” KJV. The whole familiar set of armor given in Ephesians 6 is a reminder that we are engaged in spiritual warfare of some kind at all times, and the weapons provided are given to ensure we don’t become weary, fatigued.

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to show you where, because of caution fatigue, you are letting down your guard, and how you can take steps to correct your weak places?

Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 6:13 – “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Reflective hymn:

“Soldiers of Christ, Arise” – Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul;

Take every virtue, every grace, and fortify the whole.

That having all things done and all your conflicts past,

Ye may o’ercome thro’ Christ alone and stand complete at last.

DAY 134: Passing Through Things Temporal

DAY 134

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

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty – Sunday 26 July 2020

Passing Through Things Temporal

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: Prayer for the Sunday closes to 27 July

The tiny infant was born premature and with complications. I stood with the family around her incubator, reached inside with some water on my hand and placed my hand with that water on her forehead and gave the gift of baptism to her little life. She died the next day and a few days later I conducted her memorial service, her father giving the message. In another church I visited with a woman who was 100, whose funeral I did shortly after the visit. A few days or 100 years – both ‘passed through things temporal.’ We all do.  

Temporal – it comes from the same Latin root ‘tempus’ or ‘tempor’ from which we also get our word ‘time.’ Many old grandfather clocks have these words on their face: “Tempus Fugit,” time flies, and indeed it does:  we “pass through things temporal” in the ceaseless movement of time  unable to slow it down. Things temporal can include possessions, positions, relationships, or ?

So how do we pass through time, “through things temporal” and “lose not the things eternal?” This takes intentionality on our part, passive Christianity being non-productive. Paul gives us a template for each day on our temporal journey when he reminds us to “…not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” Thus in

2 Corinthians 4:16-17 the temporal and the eternal are constant companions on our journey.    

Reflective question: As you pass through things temporal, what things eternal come to mind?

Reflective Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:18 – “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

Reflective hymn:

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” – Helen Lemmel (1864-1961)

O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face;

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.