Day 266: I Cried

 DAY 266

                              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-eight    Saturday 5 December 2020

I Cried

“Raiden Gonzalez will be turning 5 in a few days, and while he will be surrounded by love and support, he will be missing his parents. Raiden’s parents, Adan and Mariah Gonzalez, died months apart this year after contracting COVID-19, both younger than 35. When Adan was fighting the virus in June, quarantine kept his mother-in-law from comforting Mariah. After his death Mariah and Raiden moved in. Mariah felt fine until October, when she started having chest pains that quickly escalated. As she waited for the ambulance... Mariah said, ‘I don’t want to hurt anymore.’ Mariah suffered complications upon entering the hospital and died the next morning. ‘I didn’t realize that would be the last time I would see her,’ said her mother. ‘She passed too quick – we just weren’t expecting that.’ Her advice to those who hear Raiden’s story: ‘They need to take COVID seriously because it’s no joke.’” - From a current issue of a national newspaper.

I think it was a constellation of things, not the least of which is the subtle cumulative effect of living under the coronavirus over the last 9 months, but also the photograph of a beautiful young couple with their 4 year old son who should have had their whole lives before them to raise this child. When I looked at the picture and read the story, tears filled my eyes. This precious little boy will now grow up and do so without either parent. My tears were for his parents who will not be able to love and raise their son; my tears were for his grandparents who will now try to live long enough to raise him to adulthood; my tears were for this little toddler who will only vaguely remember his parents and not know their loving care as he grows up.   

We live in a culture that looks askance at tears, especially in the eyes of men. But the greatest example of a man who ever lived openly wept twice in public, at the grave of a friend he loved, “Jesus wept.” John 11:35, and over the city of Jerusalem: “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it,…’ Luke 19:41. If Jesus did it we can do it and not feel apologetic or embarrassed. I hope I never lose the ability to be moved to tears by circumstances that affect human beings with whom I share a common humanity. Through my eyes they are always me.

Reflective question: Are you able to comfortably cry? (It’s OK and even healthy, you know.)

Reflective Scripture: Revelation 21:4 – “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Reflective hymn:

“When Jesus Wept” – L. Leinbach, 19^th century Moravian hymnwriter

Jesus wept! Our Lord and Savior, when He was on earth below.

Sympathized and felt for others in their sorrow, grief and woe.

Jesus wept, amazing wonder! For the Son of God to be

So affectionate and tender, to our frail humanity. 

Day 265: Pandemic Escape

 DAY 265

                              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-eight    Friday 4 December 2020

Pandemic Escape?

Maybe Not in Your Dreams

“Studies are shedding light on the preoccupation of sleepers since the outbreak started…’ At least qualitatively you see some shifts in content of dreams from the beginning of the pandemic into the later months…. Dr. Dierdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, writes ‘the sleeping brain has incorporated the threat of Covid-19. The findings reinforce current thinking about the way that waking anxiety plays out during REM sleep: in images or metaphors representing the most urgent worries, whether these involve catching the coronavirus or violating mask-wearing protocols.’” - From a current newspaper article by the same title.

We were spending our annual week at a rented cottage at Laguna Beach, California. My twin brother and our little sister and I were playing in the many tidepools in the rocky area next to the beach, and our dad was fishing near two men also casting into the sea from the edge of the rocky area. Suddenly a large wave crashed over the rocks and swept the two men into the tumultuous sea. We watched as our dad was able to rescue one of the men and stood in numb silence as we watched the other man drown. For years afterward I was tormented by a nightmare of a wall of water coming toward me, awakening just before it got to me. This nightmare continued into college – the event happened when I was 10 years old - the power of context to influence dreams.

Scripture talks about dreams, from Jacob’s ladder to Joseph’s dreams while in Pharaoh’s prison to the angelic visit to Joseph regarding the birth of Jesus to the warning of the wise men to avoid the murderous Herod. These kinds of dreams have their genesis outside of us in the mind of God and differ from the dreams that enter us through earthly circumstances and experiences. In the list of effects of the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit is included the promise that “your old men will dream dreams.” These can be life-encompassing dreams of things that can touch the lives of others for good and for God. It reminds us that God can sovereignly use dreams in our lives, nightmares-no, peace-marked dreams-yes.      

Reflective question: Are you troubled by bad dreams during this pandemic? Pray the Scripture below each night as you get into bed. Are you open to God placing a good ‘dream’ in your life?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 4:8 – In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

Reflective hymn:  

“I Have a Dream’ – Pamela Pettitt (1954-2005) from Martin Luther King

“I have a dream” a man once said, “where all is perfect peace;

Where men and women, black and white,

Stand hand in hand and all unite in freedom and in love.”

Day 264: Learning in Plaque Time

DAY 264

                              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-eight    Thursday 3 December 2020

Learning in Plague Time

Excerpts from a sermon by C.S. Lewis,

Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 1939

“I think it is important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates absolutely no permanent human situation; it simply exaggerates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to live under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would have never begun.” - From a lengthy article drawing on Lewis’ sermon in a current Christian magazine.

What is the point Lewis seeks to make? It is this: that there are no such times as could be viewed as perfect for the pursuit of knowledge and beauty, and that such pursuits, therefore, should not be postponed because of any particularly difficult time in which we find ourselves. We live in such a time, and students of all ages are struggling to integrate the pursuit of knowledge into the larger encircling upheavals of economic, political, climate and pandemic forced realities.

  

And beauty? Thanks to technology the world of the aesthetic can be accessed on the internet, museums toured, art shows visited, concerts enjoyed, all in the comfort of home. As for ‘natural beauty,’ legion are the number of online opportunities to view the sometimes jaw-dropping beauty of God’s incredible creation, a single word – nature - encompassing the vastness and diversity of the planet we call home. Indeed, all of nature shouts a silent witness to God: “For God’s invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Romans 1:20.

The author of the above referenced article observes, “If a thing is worth doing outside of Covid- time, it is still worth doing in Covid-time.” And so with C.S. Lewis, in war or in plague, we maintain a steady course in the pursuit of knowledge and beauty in our relationship with God.

Reflective question: Seeking knowledge and beauty are ways to seek God. In what ways has the pandemic robbed you of these pursuits? What do you need to do to establish both in your life?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 22:37 – “’Love the Lord your God…with all your mind.’”

Reflective hymn:

“God be in My Head” – The Sarum Primer of 1558

God be in my head and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes, and in my looking;

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;

God be in my heart and in my thinking;

God be at my end, and at my departing.

Day 263: Country Focus Ukraine

 DAY 263

                              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-eight    Wednesday 2 December 2020

Country Focus: Ukraine

Once under the heel of the Soviet Union and the oppression of religion that accompanied that atheistic state, Ukraine is now an independent country with freedom of religion dominated, however, by a heavy traditional, historical and cultural presence of the Orthodox church, which counts some 60-70% of the population as members. Under communism they suffered greatly, millions were killed, and millions more quietly and sometimes secretly kept their faith alive. A bridge between the east and the west, this makes for opportunities and tensions in both culture and church.   

Prayer Focus

+ Pray that Evangelicals will find ways to build on the rich 1,000 history of the Ukrainian church.

+ Pray for protection and continued growth in the missionary agencies birthed by Ukrainians.

+ Pray for the raising up and training of mature leadership, a primary need in the church.

+ Pray for continued fruitfulness for parachurch ministries reaching students in universities.

+ Pray for thousands of street children and thousands more in orphanages.

+ Pray for thousands still living with the health effects of the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.

+ Pray for thousands of Orthodox priests that the words of their liturgy will come alive for them

   and then in them and then through them to those attending services.

+ Pray for foreign immigrants, many from the middle East, some of whom who are open to the

   Gospel, that as they become believers and return to homelands, they will be a witness there.

+ Pray for wisdom and insight for Evangelicals as they encounter aggressive American cults

   competing for the souls of the Ukrainian people, particularly JW and LDS missionaries.

Jesus’ Prayer Request each Wednesday:

“’The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest,

therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Jesus – Matthew 9:37-38.

For additional information on praying for Ukraine go to: operationworld.org.

Reflective question: Will you commit to praying the next seven days for these Ukrainian requests?

Reflective Scripture: Revelation 3:22 – “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

Reflective hymn: 

“Lord I Call…” From the sung liturgy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Lord, I call upon You, hear me! Hear me, O Lord!

Lord, I call on You, hear me! Receive the voice of my prayer,

When I call upon You! Hear me, O Lord!

Let my prayer arise in Your sight as incense,

Hear me, O Lord!

Day 262: Those We've Lost - Irvine Baxter

DAY 262

                              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-eight    Tuesday 1 December 2020

Those We’ve Lost

Irvine Baxter, 75 “Predictor of the End of Days”

“’We are on the brink of the greatest prophetic fulfillment in 2,000 years,’ the Rev. Irvin Baxter Jr., founder of Endtime Ministries, told his listeners as he opened an April episode of ‘End of the Age,’ his television program. ‘It appears that all the pieces of the puzzle are in place for the final seven years to Armageddon to begin yet this year.’ ‘The way it appears to me that it’s coming down,’ he told his listeners, ‘it is very likely that you and me and the entire world will enter the final seven years to Armageddon yet in 2020.’ Mr. Baxter, who was 75, died on Nov. 3. An announcement by Endtime Ministries said the cause was complications from Covid-19, a disease that, in other broadcasts, Mr. Baxter had implied was a punishment from God for the world’s sins, …” - From an ongoing newspaper series by the same title.

A traditional opening hymn for the first Sunday of Advent is a familiar text by Chares Wesley:

Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain;

is the opening line, the final verse concluding with the cry of the church for 2,000 years:

O come quickly, O come quickly, alleluia! Come, Lord, come.

In between the first and second advents of Christ, Christians have been attempting to corelate the second event with contemporary events in history. With the proliferation of technology, news becomes instant, and sincere Christian teachers like Irv Baxter seek to narrow the information field to a point where they believe they can indicate when Jesus will be coming back. It is our human desire to deal with ambiguity, a desire to have things nailed down. But faith in Jesus asks for an abandoned trust in the total absence of objective evidence, and this includes all that pertains to his second advent. All he asks is that we be ready.

Reflective question: As we celebrate the first advent or coming of Christ this season, what do you believe about the second coming of Christ?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 24:36 – “But about that day or hour no one knows, …”

Reflective hymn:

“Coming Again” – John W. Peterson (1921-2006)  

Marvelous message we bring, glorious carol we sing,

Wonderful word of the King, Jesus is coming again.

Coming again, coming again,

May be morning, may be noon, may be evening and may be soon!

Coming again, coming again; O what a wonderful day that will be –

Jesus is coming again!

Day 261: Of the Father's Love Begotten

 

DAY 261

                              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-eight    Monday 30 November 2020

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

1. Of the Father’s love begotten ere the worlds began to be,

he is Alpha and Omega, he the Source, the ending he,

of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,

evermore and evermore!

2. O that birth forever blessed, when the Virgin, full of grace,

by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race;

and the babe, the world’s Redeemer, first revealed his sacred face,

evermore and evermore!

3. This is he whom heav’n-taught singers sang of old with one accord,

whom the Scriptures of the prophets promised in their faithful word;

now he shines, the long expected; let creation praise its Lord,

evermore and evermore!

4. O ye heights of heav’n adore him; angel hosts, his praises sing:

All dominions bow before him and extol our God and King;

let no tongue on earth be silent, ev’ry voice in concert ring,

evermore and evermore!  

5. Christ, to thee, with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to thee,

hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unwearied praises be,

honor, glory, and dominion and eternal victory,

evermore and evermore!

- Aurelius Clemens Prudentius 348-413 AD

The doctrine of the nature of Christ was under attack. In response, Emperor Constantine convened a Council in 325 AD that hammered out the Nicene Creed. During this time Aurelius, who was born and died in the Roman province now known as Spain, wrote this earliest extant hymn text in response to the controversy and in defense of the divinity of Christ. A lawyer and politician he retired to spend his later years as an ascetic, reading Christian writers and the Bible, fasting and praying, and writing Christian poetry. He lived and wrote between two of the worst plagues in history, the Antonine Plague of 165-180 AD and the Plague of Justinian of 541-542 AD. This hymn, one of many he wrote during this time between plagues, is still sung today during Advent to a simple plainsong Gregorian chant-like melody, “Divinum Mysterium.”

Reflective question: Thinking about the nature of Christ, which of these verses most speaks to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one.” – Jesus.  

Day 260: He Shall Come Again

DAY 260

                              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-eight    Sunday 29 November 2020

ADVENT I

“He shall come again”

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended into hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

- The Apostles’ Creed

For all the focus this season on the first coming of Jesus Christ, the first Sunday of Advent – indeed, all four Sundays of Advent, has historically focused on the second coming of Christ, something we affirm constantly in our reciting of the Apostles’ Creed but to which we give little or no thought after the recitation concludes. It remains, however, that for all the attention being given to a babe in a crib, wise men and shepherds, the greater and far more dramatic event is yet to come, the conclusion of chronos human history and the overt ruling of the world by Jesus Christ. During this time of a global pandemic, economic upheaval, and political chaos, it’s comforting to know God has a future secured for us that we can count on – the second advent. 

Reflective question: – If you knew Christ would return next week, what would you do? Change?

Reflective Scripture: Revelation 3:11 – “I am coming soon.”

Reflective hymn:

“Joy to the World,” a hymn about the Second Coming, Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove

the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love,

and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders, of His love.

Day 259: Holy Friends

Day 259

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-seven    Saturday 28 November 2020

Holy Friends

“What if you came out of this pandemic stronger and more faithful than when you began? That was the question I posed to the congregation as we embarked on a project to transform our board of deacons from a problem-oriented ministry to one inspired by the concept of holy friendship, as dean of Duke Divinity School L. Gregory Jones has written: ‘Holy friends challenge the sins we have come to love, affirm the gifts we are afraid to claim and help us dream dreams we would otherwise not dream.’ In holy friendship, we open ourselves to an honesty that is critical to our growth but can be uncomfortable for us to hear.” - From an article by the same name by a pastor in the current issue of as Christian magazine.

It was our first Sunday in a new church and a reception was being held for us. A woman came up to my wife and announced that she wanted to be Ruth’s best friend in the church. Needless to say that went nowhere fast – if there is anything that friendship is NOT it is instantaneous. 

Etymologically ’friend’ comes from an ancient word meaning ‘to love,’ and has to do with attachment and commitment. Sound familiar? It should because as Christians we are already engaged in such a friendship: “…I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you,” says Jesus to us in John 15:15. 

Friendship by dynamic definition must of necessity be a two-way street or it is not, at the end of the day, truly friendship. Over the years as I have watched ‘friends’ come and go I have realized that the definition of a true friend is reduceable to 6 simple words: ‘A friend is someone who stays.’  Again, sound familiar? “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you” says our redeemer God in Hebrews 13:5. Whatever the dynamics, times of agape love and times of frank words that might for the moment hurt, a friend remains in place. Perhaps this pandemic is an opportune time to examine our relationships and become intentional about friendships of depth, durability, candor and affirmation. Where to start? The definition above of holy friends.

Reflective question: Who would you say are your best true friends? For whom are you the same?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 27:6 – “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, …”

Reflective hymn:

“My Song is Love Unknown” – Samuel Crossman (1624-1683)

He came from his blest throne, salvation to bestow.

But men made strange and none the longed for Christ would know.

But O, my Friend, my Friend indeed,

Who at my need his life should spend!

Day 258: Social Listening

Day 258

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-seven    Friday 27 November 2020

Social Listening

“How do we listen to one another in a fractured world? Our society is polarized by increasing partisanship…the gulf between the aisles is widening and opinions of the ‘other side’ are souring. We see it in conflicts on the streets, read it in the news, hear it online…Some days, social media seems to only amplify the noise. Discourse can give way to grandstanding and scattershot broadcasting, but there is an alternative use for social media that allows us to connect more deeply, serve authentically and do so with less stress and doubt: social listening. Social listening is a practice that requires us to quietly, humbly observe conversations happening on social media…learn from them,…We know that healthy relationships require listening, yet we can forget the same is true for online communications. On social media, as in life, it’s important to listen more than we speak.” - From an article by the same name in the current issue of a Christian magazine.

We have all become too familiar with a term we knew nothing about a year ago: social distancing. Now comes another new concept thanks to the pandemic: social listening. We all need recalibrating in this department as there was a corporate loss of an ability to listen with sensitive ears when Satan asked a ‘listening question’ so long ago: “Did God really say…?”  It’s been dull of hearing from that day to this.

If we find we are unwilling or unable to hear others in terms of social listening, the dynamic remains consistent: we are unlikely able to listen to God, for the receptive mechanism within is one. Conversely learning to be quiet in the presence of God to listen for the Holy Spirit speaking  in prayer and in Scripture will bring to human interaction the same dynamic of quiet listening.   

James 1:19 is as with so much of what God says to us in His Word not a suggestion but a command: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Social

listening is not adjunct to our existence, but central to it. Let’s add it to our skill set.

Reflective question: Where in your relationships do you need to talk less and listen more?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 141:3 – “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Reflective hymn:

“O Lord, Make Haste to Hear My Cry” – 1912 Psalter

O guard my thoughts , I now implore,

And of my lips O keep the door;

Nor leave my sinful heart to stray,

Where evil footsteps lead the way.