Day 229: Seeking to Be Faithful Together

DAY 229

                              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 Thirty-three    Thursday 29 October 2020

Seeking to Be Faithful Together

“Conflicts are inevitable in all of life and certainly in the church. The history of the church is filled with conflicts and disagreements. Conflicts can be harmful and even destructive. They can cause individuals a great deal of pain and the community of faith immeasurable damage. At the same time, conflicts can be an opportunity for new insights, learning, and individual and corporate growth. Disagreements can illuminate a topic in helpful ways and can present solutions to problems that previously had not been seen. The successful resolution of conflict can also bring people together in a powerful way.” - From a denominational document by the same name.*

‘Together’ – during this prolonged pandemic which will be with us for some time yet, pre-existing differences and disagreements can easily be amplified under the stress of it all, and new issues surface not encountered before exacerbated by the loss of life as we have known it. In the midst of everything we need to know that “God is already present wherever there is brokenness, granting wholeness and peace. God promises to be with us in times of disagreement and calls us to reconciliation, trust, love and forgiveness.” *

As spouses spend more time together at home than in the past, and as parents spend more time with children then they have in the past, tension is sometimes inevitable. Rather than interpreting it as some sort of flaw in the family, accept it as a predictable consequence of living in a time of a pandemic, and turn such times around as you seek to ask what lessons wait to be learned in them. All ‘time’ is in God’s hands – including all times we are ‘together’ – thank God!

*This four-page document can be downloaded free

at: pcusastore.com

Reflective question: In your church family or your own family, where do you need to seek to be ‘faithful together?’

Reflective Scripture: Romans 14:19 – “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

Reflective hymn:

‘Bind us Together, Lord” – Robert Gilman (1946-    )

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken;

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, bind us together with love.

There is only one God, there is only one King;

There is only one body, that is why we sing: (return to first lines)