Day 247: The Holy Spirit said

DAY 247

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-six    Monday 16 November 2020

“The Holy Spirit said”

“Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” - Acts 13:1-3 NIV.

Yesterday the congregation in which I have been serving as pastor during their interim time elected their next installed pastor, a candidate selected by a group elected by the congregation to seek and identify this candidate on their behalf, a team representative of the larger congregation, not unlike the gathering at Antioch. Whether through such a representative team, a single individual like a bishop, or an entire congregation, the Holy Spirit is still doing even during a global pandemic what He has been doing since this event in the early church: calling men and women to serve in particular positions in the Body of Christ. 

Pastors, elders, deacons, missionaries, evangelists, chaplains – yes, but this business of being called and set apart for something in God’s kingdom work isn’t for a select few, it is for all who belong to him – He has no members of His body who are on disability or are furloughed. When  Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,”  he was making a profound statement about the fundamental nature of every single person who claims Christ as Lord: you have a role to play, set apart by the Holy Spirit.

This pandemic, when so much is changing in our lives, makes for an opportune time to ask the Lord what He has set us apart for in the world in which we live. To ask is to know he is listening; to ask is to trust he will answer; to ask is for us to respond to what he says.

Reflective question: Will you ask?

Reflective Scripture: Isaiah 6:8 – “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”

Reflective hymn:

“Here I Am, Lord” – Dan Schutte (1947 -     )

I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry.

All who dwell in deepest sin, my hand will save.

I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright,

Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have head you calling in the night.

I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.