Day 68: "… that he might fill all things …"

DAY 68

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

WEEK TEN: THURSDAY 21 MAY 2020

ASCENSION DAY

“… that he might fill all things …”

“Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.” - Prayer for Ascension Day, The Book of Common Prayer

“He … is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.”  Ephesians 4:10. What does it mean for us that Jesus is ascended and fills all things?

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME, MAKING JESUS REAL

“… it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will

not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you … he will glorify me.” - John 16:7, 14

WE CAN LIVE IN THINGS ABOVE WHERE CHRIST IS

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things

above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” - Colossians 3:1

WE CAN HOLD FIRMLY TO OUR FAITH

“… since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” - Hebrews 4:14

JESUS IS INTERCEDING FOR US

“… since Jesus lives forever, … he is able to save completely those who come to

God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” - Hebrews 7:24-25

ALL SPIRITUAL POWERS AND AUTHORITIES ARE SUBJECT TO HIM

“… Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with

angels and authorities and powers in submission to him.” - 1 Peter 3:21-22

Reflective question: Which of these results of Jesus’ ascension means the most to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Acts 1:11 – “‘This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”

Reflective hymn: “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus” – William Dix (1837-1898)

Alleluia! Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now.

Alleluia! He is near us; faith believes, nor questions how.

Tho’ the clouds from sight received Him when the forty days were o’er,

Shall our hearts forget His promise: “I am with you evermore?” 

Day 67: "We’re all in this together for once."

DAY 67

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

WEEK TEN: WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2020

“We’re all in this together for once.”

“Other generations have dealt with far worse with wars and such. It also helps just knowing we’re all in this together for once.” Dustin Sullivan, who lost his job March 19^th.

Two tragic levelers of society are relentlessly sweeping across the world and our nation, the coronavirus and unemployment. Neither are respecters of any of the traditional societal divides around religion, political preferences, financial status or education, although there is a divide when it comes to race, people of color in this country being hit disproportionately harder in both categories of the virus and job loss.

Over the last few years a deepening wound has been inflicted on our national soul by petty incivility and vindictive behavior, by name-calling and the demonizing of any and all who ‘aren’t like us’ pitting Americans against each other, a wound  being called out by these two levelers, bringing us together in a shared trauma and a shared response that is in itself a measure of healing out of reach until now. Indeed, “We’re all in this together for once.” This is non-partisan.

The God-implanted need and desire to work goes back to before the Fall when God directed Adam and Eve to tend both plants and animals as sources of food, a mandate still in place. So when listening to the emotional upheaval going on in the lives of the unemployed it really isn’t ‘just’ about earning an income: it’s also about something much deeper implanted by God, something that finds a sense of fulfillment in labor, and “we’re all in this together for once.”     

A Prayer for the Unemployed

“Heavenly Father, we remember before you those who suffer want and anxiety from lack of work. Guide the people of this land so to use our public and private wealth that all may find suitable and fulfilling employment, and receive just payment for their labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” - Prayers for National Life: For the Unemployed, The Book of Common Prayer

Reflective questions:

If you know someone who has lost their job - will you reach out to them?

If you have lost your job, to whom are you reaching out for moral and spiritual support?

Reflective Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:26 – “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.”   

Reflective hymn: “If I Can Help Somebody” – Alma Irene Thompson (1912-2001)

(Listen to Mahalia Jackson sing it on YouTube)

My living shall not be in vain, then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, then my living will not be in vain.”

Day 66: "Nothing Fails Like Prayer"

DAY 66

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

WEEK TEN: TUESDAY 19 MAY 2020

“Nothing Fails Like Prayer”

“Wishful thinking cannot suspend the natural laws of the universe. Prayer cannot stop a virus. Pius politicians should get off their knees and get to work. House Resolution 947 is wisely calling for a National Day of Reason, because irrationality, magical thinking, and superstition have undermined the national effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.” - From a full page newspaper ad placed by Freedom From Religion Foundation 7 April 2020.

Christianity is not the only game in town, to employ an idiom implying there are no competitors. As we place a greater emphasis on prayer during these unprecedented times, others are equally committed to publicizing their deeply held worldviews in which there is no room for deity and hence no need for prayer. After all, if God doesn’t exist then prayer is an unproductive exercise in futility and a waste of time. 

Her name was Jewell, a diminutive lady in her ‘60’s in plain dresses with her hair in a bun, no makeup and no jewelry. Hailing from Arkansas, she had transported, intact, her rural Pentecostal culture to the urban sprawl of southern California, and it was there that I met her while a student in a nearby Christian college. A handful of us got to know her fairly well, and were drawn to her at times when we needed someone who knew how to pray. “She could get ahold of heaven,” as the saying goes, and when she prayed you knew Jesus was listening. To this day I have never met anyone like her. She was a classic ‘prayer warrior’ exemplified by the lady in the 2015 theater movie “War Room,” exhibiting a Holy Spirit power that guts the Freedom From Religion ad.

A visualizing of the armament needed to engage in spiritual warfare, laid out in Ephesians 6, includes: a belt (of truth), a breastplate (of righteousness), a shield (of faith), a helmet (of salvation) and a sword (of the Spirit.) But the last listed cannot be visualized, only engaged in: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests … be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” “Nothing fails like prayer?” No, nothing works like prayer.

Reflective question: Are you up to meeting a prayer warrior? Watch the movie “War Room.”

Reflective Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - “… pray without ceasing …”

Reflective hymn: “Sweet Hour of Prayer” – William Walford (1772-1850)

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief my soul has often found relief,

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare, by thy return sweet hour of prayer.

Day 65: Seeking a Balm for the Soul but Imperiling Earthly Health

DAY 65

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

WEEK TEN: MONDAY 18 MAY 2020

Seeking a Balm for the Soul but Imperiling Earthly Health

“Religion is the solace of first resort for billions of people grappling with a pandemic … dread over the coronavirus has driven the globe’s faithful even closer to religion and ritual. But what is good for the soul may not always be good for the body… . In some cases, religious fervor has led people toward cures that have no grounding in science; in others, it has drawn them to sacred places or rites that could increase the risk of infection.” - Recent newspaper article by the same title.

They came for physical healing, kissing the stone enclosure and tossing money through the bars separating them from the grave of the saint they came to revere. It was a Muslim shrine in rural Pakistan, but I have also seen similar behavior in a Hindu temple and a Christian church. There is something universally similar in human beings that, in times of crisis, craves contact with the supernatural as a shortcut to safety and seeks it in rituals, objects and places. Even we rational Presbyterians sense a bit of that feeling at times, when faith falters and life presses in.

The Creator Who has placed that craving for the supernatural within us has also responded to it but not in an object or a place or a ritual: rather in a person. In the midst of the subtle ceaseless pressure of this pandemic, Jesus stands, immovable, all-powerful, encompassing our existence with His, and it is enough. “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” Revelation 1:9. He has us surrounded.

Medicine in antiquity was primitive, and resin and oils from plants like aloe were used, sometimes effectively, to sooth wounds. Such balms for the body became symbolic of balms for the soul, with Jeremiah, facing scandalous national sin, asking the question, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”  This ‘seeking a balm for the soul’ is universal, and the universal response by God is clear: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:17. We keep circling back not to a ritual, not to a place, not to an object, but to Jesus, a person, a relationship, a safe ‘balm for the soul.’

Reflective question: Where are you looking for protection, for safety, during this pandemic?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 27:1 - “The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?”

Reflective hymn: “Near to the Heart of God” – Cleland B. McAfee (1866-1944)

There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God;

A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God,

Hold us, who wait before Thee, near to the heart of God.

Day 64: Steadfastly Following in His Steps

DAY 64

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

WEEK TEN: SUNDAY 17 MAY 2020

Steadfastly Following in His Steps

“Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” - Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Eastertide, The Book of Common Prayer.

Given our sinful nature, following Jesus can be problematic when things are going well. In the time of a pandemic, when we have yet to see the cataclysmic downward turn of everything we had mistakenly thought was stable, it is a challenge. Wherever we turn, institutions are proving to be porous and susceptible to erosion, from health care to government to the economy to industry. In some ways this makes it easier to follow Jesus because all other footprints are fading in trustworthiness – only His, even if invisible, are indelible.    

Jesus illustrated steadfastness in a way the agrarian society, in which He lived, could understand: “‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” Luke 9:62. Even this city boy born and raised in the asphalt of Los Angeles can understand that word picture: look ahead and plow a straight line; look back and plow a crooked line. Jesus is always in front of us, which is where, if we want to follow him, we must always be looking. “‘… tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you, … there you will see him, …’” Mark 16:7. Always in front, always up ahead, always leading, leaving ‘steps’ for us to discern and choose to follow.   

To follow Jesus is to become someone we would never have become without him: “‘Come, follow me, … and I will make you fishers of men.’” Matthew 4:19. During this pandemic, ‘steadfastly following in His footsteps’ begins and remains grounded in God’s Word: wherever He leads, his Word is our life-map: “Direct my footsteps according to your word.” This map is given to us, in the tried and true adage from Alcoholics Anonymous, ‘one day at a time.’

Reflective question: You are asked: What does it mean to follow Jesus? What would you say?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 16:9 - “The mind of man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps.”

Reflective hymn: “Footprints of Jesus” – Mary Slade (1826-1882)

Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, “Come, follow Me!”

And we see where Thy footprints are falling, lead us to Thee.

Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow;

We will follow the steps of Jesus where’er they go.

Sermon Notes: "God Is For Us"

A Stable Word in an Unstable World

“God Is For Us”

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

Sunday 17 May 2020

Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Scriptures: Psalm 139:7-10; Isaiah 43:1-2; Romans 8:31-36

Stability: from Latin ‘to stand’ = to be firm, constant, steadfast, fixed; lit. ‘to be able to stand.’

The source of this ability to stand is the promise of God: “God is for us.”

Key verse: Romans 8:31 – “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

1.       Location - God is for us no matter where we are in life: Psalm 139:7-10.

“… the heavens (height) … depths … far side of the sea … darkness …”

 Q: With which of these ‘locations’ in life do you most identify. Why?

2.       Experience - God is for us, no matter what we are experiencing: Isaiah 43:1-2.

Therefore “… when you pass through rivers … they will not sweep over you.”

                       “… when you walk through the fire you will not be burned.”

The basis of God’s commitment to us, to be there for us:

“… he who created you…

“… he who formed you…”

“… I have redeemed you…”

“… I have called you by name…”

“YOU ARE MINE”

Q: Which of these statements about you means the most to you just now? Why?

3.       Destination - God is for us to the end of the journey, not allowing anything to separate us from Him along the way. “Who shall separate (detach) us from the love of Christ?”

trouble … hardship … persecution … famine … nakedness … danger … sword …

death nor life … angels nor demons … present nor future … any powers … height nor depth … nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate (detach) us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Q: How do these promises affect how you look to your future, passing from this life to the next?

MONDAY MORNING

Christians disagree regarding, and sometimes argue over, the security of the believer in Christ. Read the Scriptures for this study each day this week and see how they influence your belief regarding your security in Christ: to know Him is to belong to Him. Period.

Day 63: The Global Vulnerability of a Global World

DAY 63

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

WEEK NINE: SATURDAY 16 MAY 2020

The Global Vulnerability of a Global World

“Our world is sick. I am not just referring to the coronavirus pandemic, but to the state of our civilization, as revealed in this global phenomenon. The global vulnerability of a global world is now plain to see. What kind of challenge does this situation represent for Christianity and the church - one of the first ‘global players’?” “Christianity in a Time of Sickness,” from a Christian magazine, April 13, 2020

“I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic church,” we confess every time we affirm our faith using the Nicene Creed written in 325. From its beginning the church, the Body of Christ in the world, has understood itself to be catholic, i.e. universal, world-wide. When Jesus commissioned His disciples following His resurrection He said: “‘Go and make disciples of all nations …” Matthew  28:19, and just before His ascension, He told them how this would be implemented: “‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem … and to the ends of the earth.’” Acts 1:8. It was a globalization mandate of a most eternal kind, embedded in the core of the fledgling church by the Creator of the world, a globalization that remains a central mark of the church to this day.

It was a gathering of perhaps 40 people, all sitting on the floor, men on one side women on the other. The music was non-western in this evangelical service in a poor part of Karachi, Pakistan. I can still visualize it - there was nothing to which I could connect from my American way of ‘doing church,’ except for one thing: the presence of Jesus was palpable in the room, filled as it was with people who had, in the midst of a country founded as an Islamic state, turned their lives over to Jesus who was now living in them – with that I could connect, and it was enough. This is the globalization in which we live as Christians, that everyone everywhere who knows Him is someone we ‘know’ through that shared relationship. It is a stronger bond than any ethnic, cultural, economic or nationalistic bond, for it is the only one that will last forever. The challenge for the church is to continue to embrace its global role in the world as the global player it has been for 2,000 years, and to accelerate that role in this pandemic time.  

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to ‘place’ a vulnerable country in your mind and heart to pray for that country as well as for the church there during this pandemic?

Reflective Scripture:  John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, …”

Reflective hymn:

“In Christ There is No East or West – John Oxenham (1852-1941)

In Christ there is no East or West, in Him no South or North;

But one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.

Day 62: Hilda Churchill 108

DAY 62

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

WEEK NINE: FRIDAY 15 MAY 2020

Hilda Churchill, 108

“Hilda Churchill survived the Great War, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that claimed her sister, the Great Depression and World War II, but eight days before her 109^th birthday she became Britain’s oldest recorded victim of the coronavirus … She tested positive for the virus only the night before.” Those We’ve Lost: Faces from the Coronavirus Pandemic, news item 2 April 2020

Psalm 90:12 invites us to pray a prayer: “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Neither Hilda nor her sister were able to ‘count’ their days.  So how do we ‘number’ our days,’ as though we could count them and know exactly how many we have left?  

I like the way The Message translates this verse: “Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!” Here’s the thing: we can’t know our days, but God does know them: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them came to be,” Psalm 139:16. The omniscient, all-knowing God knows the number of our days without determining them so we can leave them in His hands and concentrate on ‘living well’ today. I have ‘numbered,’ counted or reckoned my days to be someone else’s responsibility, and therefore can focus on the second half of the petition in Psalm 90:12, seeking wisdom from God in my life.

There is a way to approach the unknown number of days in our lives, found in James 4:13-15:

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city,

spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” 

Here are my days numbered that will be on my grave marker:

Robert Gilmore Bayley 1942-

What comes after the dash is in God’s hands.

Reflective question: What do you plan to do with the time after the “dash” on your grave marker – what would you like it to contain? Ask the Lord to guide you in your answer.

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 10:27 – “The fear of the Lord adds length to life …”

Reflective hymn:

“I Am Thine, O Lord” – Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me.

But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee.

Day 61: A Time for Isolation, Reflection and Burying the Hatchet

DAY 61

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

WEEK NINE: THURSDAY 14 MAY 2020

A Time for Isolation, Reflection and Burying the Hatchet

“With more than three million cases of Covid-19 worldwide and over 200,000 deaths, with huge numbers of people coming to terms with their own mortality or the mortality of someone they know, many are excavating their pasts and reaching out to those they once knew and fell out with. Sometimes it’s just to say hi, other times they’re hoping for détente, and other times they want to mend a fence, or at least patch it with duct tape.” Newspaper article 30 April 2020

The phrase ‘bury the hatchet’ is an idiom found in American English taken from Native American tribes, a central sign of peace in numerous treaties between them and the United States government. Such a treaty was The Treaty of Hopewell in which my ancestors were participants. Signed in 1795, it established the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation in the southeastern United States.  Article 13 of that treaty reads: “The hatchet shall forever be buried, and the peace given by the United States, and friendship re-established between the said states on the one part, and all the Cherokees on the other, shall be universal.” As with all such treaties it was abrogated just 30 years later when President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which initiated the tragic Trail of Tears, which my ancestors walked.    

As the isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic invites people to reflect on their lives and their relationships, ‘burying the hatchet’ is being experienced as healing and forgiveness. Every Sunday we ask God to treat us in the exact same way we treat others in this realm of forgiveness: “… and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” Matthew 6:12. Jesus covers all the bases when it comes to burying the hatchet, mending fences, seeking and offering forgiveness. If we need to ask someone to forgive us: “… if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, … first go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24. And if we need to offer forgiveness to someone: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Matthew 18:15. Either way, we are to initiate the forgiveness transaction.

Reflective question: To whom do you need to go and ask for or offer forgiveness?

Reflective Scripture: Colossians 3:13 – “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Reflective hymn:

“Forgive our Sins as We Forgive” – Rosalind Herklots (1905-1987)

“Forgive our sins as we forgive” You taught us, Lord, to pray;

But You alone can grant us grace to live the words we say.

Lord, cleanse the depths within our souls and let resentment cease;

Then, by Your mercy reconciled, our lives will spread Your peace.

Day 60: Let Us Gather Far Apart for a Dinner

DAY 60

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

WEEK NINE: WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2020

Let Us Gather Far Apart for a Dinner

“Within days of the coronavirus stay-at-home orders, as I realized what we were losing – hugs, brushing one another’s shoulders as we scoot our chairs closer to the table, cooking and eating together, gifts of our time and attention – in isolation, … I missed my loved ones …” Samin Nosrat in a recent newspaper article: “Let’s Gather, Far Apart, for a Dinner of Lasagna.”

 

Meals figure centrally in the Bible. When Joseph saw his brothers after a betrayal followed by years of separation, “… he said to his house steward, ‘Bring the men into the house, and slay an animal and make ready; for the men are to dine with me at noon,’” a meal of reconciliation, Genesis 43:16. When the father saw his prodigal son coming home he said, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast …” a meal of forgiveness. Luke 15:23. Two men on the road to Emmaus, joined by Jesus after his resurrection, didn’t recognize Him. “When he was at table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, … and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, …” a meal of seeing someone in a new way. Luke 24:30-31.  

For Christians two significant meals, though separated by thousands of years, are intertwined – Passover and The Lord’s Supper. This central act of Christian worship involves a meal, and looks to the end of time when all of God’s people will be seated at the most extravagant catered meal in history: “‘I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, …’” Matthew 8:11.   

Challenge: following the Scriptural pattern of meals with others, put together your own “Gathering Together for Dinner Far Apart.” Pick a date and time.  At the appointed Zoom meeting time, each with their devices in front of them, tell stories, share your special food and tell its story, share family stories, laugh, cry, and if Christians, each share a meaningful Bible verse, pray together, then have coffee and dessert. No one should have to eat alone.

Reflective question: Who will you invite to your dinner and what will you prepare?

Reflective Scripture:  Psalm 23:5 – “Thou preparest a table before me …”

Reflective hymn:

“Christ, You Often Sat at Dinner” - Carolyn Gillette (1961 -    )

Same hymn tunes as “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus” or “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy”

Christ, you often sat at dinner with the outcasts and the poor;

You reached out to every sinner, sharing bread and wine and more –

You proclaimed that God’s great table is a joyful, welcome place;

No one wears an outcast label or is turned away from grace.

Day 59: Reconciling the Pandemic with the Nation’s Self-Image

DAY 59

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

WEEK NINE: TUESDAY 12 MAY 2020

Reconciling the Pandemic with the Nation’s Self-Image

“‘It can’t happen here’ is an enduring refrain in American culture, a reflection of the idea … that the United States has a special destiny and stands apart from the forces shaping the rest of the world. Now with a devastating global pandemic definitely happening here, much of the nation is asking how and why and what it means that a country that sees itself as the world’s wealthiest, most powerful and scientifically advanced leads the world in both cases and confirmed deaths.” Newspaper article 29 April 2020 

On March 21, 1630 a Puritan preacher, John Winthrop in Southampton, England delivered an address to a group of Puritans about to embark on a journey to the new world. These Massachusetts Bay settlers were told that what they were about to establish would be as “a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people upon us.” A number of Presidents have employed Winthrop’s image of “a city on a hill” in their addresses to the American public, most recently President Ronald Reagan. In our history it became the basis for a belief in an ‘exceptionalism’ built on top of a controversial doctrine of Manifest Destiny resulting in a nation that perceives itself as different from all other nations, set apart, some would say, by God.

Plagues and pandemics can function as levelers among the nations of the world, and within the United States among various social, ethnic and economic classes. No country is immune, no segment of society is immune, no one enjoys a perceived exceptional status from God. Indeed, only one nation in history has enjoyed that status, the ancient nation of Israel, a theocracy, ruled by God.

So we as a nation and we as individuals are being given a sober opportunity to assess our image of ourselves, to reflect on our status in the world, recognizing that a perceived exceptionalism provides no protection from an invisible virus that knows no borders. It takes a humble heart for an individual, as well as a nation, to look to either side of ourselves and see the rest of humanity, not below us, but shoulder to shoulder with us on this pandemic journey of life.

Reflective question: Are you thankful for this wonderful country in which we live? Pray for it.

Reflective Scripture: Acts 17:26 - “And he made from one man every nation to live on all the face of the earth, …”

Reflective hymn:

“O God of Every Nation” – William Reid Jr. (1923-2007)

O God of every nation, of every race and land,

redeem the whole creation with your almighty hand.

Where hate and fear divide us and bitter threats are hurled,

in love and mercy guide us and heal our strife-torn world.