DAY 190: Earthly Things

 DAY 190

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-eight    Sunday 20 September 2020

Earthly Things

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those things that shall endure; 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: For the Sunday closest to 21 September.

We watched as the simple wooden coffin, set on a few planks of wood over the opening of a large grave dug in the desert and piled high with flammable dry mesquite wood, was set on fire. As the coffin and body burned and fell into the grave, so did the things piled on top: a sewing machine, a suitcase full of clothing, and other items the family felt the deceased would need or want in the next life. This was on the Indian reservation in Arizona where I spent a semester and a summer.

Visiting the National Museum in Cairo I saw a vast hoard of ‘earthly things’ retrieved from the graves of Pharaohs intended for their comfort in the afterlife. I’ve watched as people have placed things, sometimes of great value, into the coffins of loved ones. “I gave it to her and I want her to have it,” one woman said to me as she placed a valuable ring on her mother’s finger just before the coffin was sealed. Irrational, emotional, personal, and reflective of something deeper.  

‘Earthly things’ - what is it about them that makes it hard for us to let them go, that makes us think we absolutely have to have them not just in this life but also in the next? Jesus told about a man who had many things and planned to build a bigger building in which to store them. “Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you will die. And your barnful of goods – who gets it?” Luke 12:20, The Message. Indeed – God’s provocative question to us all.

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to show you ‘earthly things’ to which you are attached?

Reflective Scripture: 1 John 2:15-17 – “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”    

Reflective hymn:

“I’d Rather Have Jesus” – Rhea Miller (1894-1966)

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I’d rather be His than have riches untold;

I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.

I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

Than to be the king of a vast domain,

or be held in sin’s dread sway.

I’d rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.