DAY 133
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 Eighteen – Saturday 25 July 2020
When People Don’t Believe the Pandemic is Real
“I currently work in Caracas, Venezuela, responding to the pandemic as a member of Doctors Without Borders. We do everything possible to guarantee that patients are treated humanely, to provide not only good medical care, but to give them confidence that we are by their side. What worries me the most about this pandemic is the number of people who don’t believe that it is real.” - Medical doctor in a recent newspaper article
We have friends who don’t believe the coronavirus pandemic is real. I have relatives who believe it is a political ploy to try to discredit the other party. And still others are choosing to believe a combination of arrogance and ignorance over science and training and experience. Stunning. Meanwhile, back at the hospitals reaching capacity, medical professionals are struggling to keep up with the numbers, doing everything they can like the doctor in the article above to keep people alive. And, as in New York City and now elsewhere refrigerated trucks are in use to store the dead, whose surviving family members are not in denial – they know it’s real.
This is nothing new. The history of plagues and pandemics has provided surprisingly similar patterns of reaction, with emperors or kings fairly consistent in their attempts to minimize the plague in the mistaken belief, in their historically notoriously insecure egocentric world, that it reflects on them. Meanwhile the general populace were dying. Communication was mainly word of mouth. Today with the internet conspiracy theories and false rumors cast in inflammatory language are a second pandemic, inflicting a wound deep in our national soul.
"The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps." - Proverbs 14:15. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is intended not just to get us to heaven but to give us insight and discernment on the way. Just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Truth, not falsehood, marks all of the life of the Christian in this pandemic. “I am the truth.” Jesus said. Let’s follow Him, not rumors.
Reflective question: How are you doing in your perception of the pandemic?
Reflective Scripture: Exodus 23:1 – “You must not pass along false rumors.”
Reflective hymn: “We Are Called to Be God’s People” – Thomas Jackson (1931- )
We are called to be God’s prophets, speaking for the truth and right,
Standing firm for godly justice, bringing evil into light.
Let us seek the courage, our high calling to fulfill,
That we all may know the blessing, of the doing of God’s will.
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