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.