DAY 234
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-four Tuesday 3 November 2020
Battle for the Soul of a Nation
A presidential vote to settle a question:
‘What do people want to become?’
“It is a phrase that has been constantly invoked by Democratic and Republican leaders. It has become the clearest symbol of the mood of the country, and what people feel is at stake in this election. Everyone, it seems, is fighting for it…. That the election has become a referendum on the soul of the nation, suggests that in an increasingly secular country, voting has become a reflection of one’s individual morality – and that the outcome hinges in part on spiritual and philosophical questions that transcend politics: What, exactly, is the soul of the nation? What is the state of it? And what would it mean to save it?” - From a current newspaper article by the same name.
What is the soul of the nation? To seek the ‘soul’ of the nation is to seek an amorphous thing. There are just under 330 million ‘souls’ populating the United States of America, each one like snowflakes unique and unlike any other, one of a kind. If there is a ‘soul’ in this country, it consists of the collective content of 330 million of us – we together are the ‘soul’ of this nation.
What is the state of it? We are who we are – no more, but also no less. Today we seem to be in a state of disrepair, of increasing brokenness. While people mirror leaders they follow, ultimately the responsibility for who we have become must be laid at our own feet- we have become who we are, which means that we therefore can make this a ‘moment to decide’ what kind of body politic we want to be going forward. Today is a day of decision regarding our national soul.
What would it mean to save it? To be ‘saved’ politically would require politicians willing to commit to a return to civility in public discourse, respect for others with whom they disagree, and to bi-partisan efforts for the betterment of American society. To be ‘saved’ spiritually requires individual ‘souls’ seeking the Deity in “one nation under God” for a 21st century version of the Great Awakenings, that have periodically swept the landscape of America, changing lives through powerful encounters with Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Reflective question: Taken from the subtitle of the article: Who do we want to become?
Reflective Scripture: Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Reflective hymn:
“Once to Every Man and Nation” – James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, off’ring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and the light.
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