Day 200: Prayer Focus Papua New Guinea

 DAY 200

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 Twenty-nine    Wednesday 30 September 2020

Mission Focus: Papua New Guinea

The MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) plane hit the grassy clearing that sloped upward, providing natural resistance that helped bring the plane to a halt on a short runway carved out of the jungle. The entire small village was out to greet us, and supplies were unloaded. I was introduced to the ‘pastor’ of the village church, a man with a broad smile borne of a vibrant relationship with Jesus. The collection of basic rough wood homes, with windows and doors with no windows and doors were scattered around the clearing. With no electricity and no running water, no store and no clinic, it was a classic definition of primitive, and I shall never forget it.    

While located in Irian Jaya, the Indonesian side of New Guinea on this second largest island in the world, the village shared the same terrain and culture of countless similar villages just a few miles away in Papua New Guinea.

PRAYER FOCUS

+ Pray for a country riddled with corruption, ethnic animosity, witchcraft and ignorance.

+ AIDS is becoming a pandemic through sexual immorality. Pray for the churches seeking to

   address the issue and in the process lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

+ Pray for the bulk of the Christians who are illiterate, susceptible to a blending of superstition

   and the Gospel. Pray for patient literacy teachers combining a teaching God’s Word.

+ Pray that the Holy Spirit will raise up committed, mature leaders in the many ethnic and

   linguistic church groups in isolated primitive villages to stabilize and grow the church.

+ Pray for a healing of divisions between missionaries and church groups.

+ Pray that as they sing their national anthem, below, the words will be alive and true for all.

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 Papua New Guinea

go to: operationworld.org.

Reflective question: Will you commit to pray the next seven days for Papua New Guinea?

Reflective Scripture: Ephesians 4:23 – “…be made new in the attitude of your minds,…”

Reflective hymn:

“O Arise, All You Sons” – National Anthem of Papua New Guinea

Thomas Shacklady (1917-2006)

O arise all you sons of this land, let us sing of our joy to be free,

Praising God and rejoicing to be Papua New Guinea.

Now give thanks to the good Lord above for His kindness, His wisdom and love,

For this land of our fathers so free, Papua New Guinea.

Day 199: A Nation's Anguish

 DAY 199

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 Twenty-nine    Tuesday 29 September 2020

A Nation’s Anguish

As Deaths Reach 200,000

“It is a staggering toll, 200,000 people dead from the coronavirus in the United States, and nearly five times that many  - close to one million people – around the world…The coronavirus death toll in the United States is now roughly equal to the population of Akron, Ohio, or nearly two and a half times the number of service members who died in battle in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined, and about 800 people are still dying daily….Shane Peoples, 41, has had plenty of grief since his parents were taken by the coronavirus this month. It has frequently been interrupted by outrage. He tells their story like the storybook romance it was: Darlene and Johnny Peoples, native North Carolinians, were happily married for nearly half a century, and were exceptionally close and devoted to their children. But that lifetime together ended abruptly when the couple, both of them stricken by the coronavirus, died four minutes apart while holding hands in a hospital room in Salisbury, N.C. They went to the hospital on the same day. They entered the intensive care unit on the same day. And they died on the same day. ‘They held each other’s hands for 50 years,‘ Mr. Peoples said. ‘They held them as they left this earth and they are holding them in heaven.’” - From a current major newspaper article by the same title.

Reading the story about just two of the over 200,000 who have died thus far gives us a glimpse, a window, into the grief being experienced across the country, a grief compounded by being barred from being at the bedside to give a final kiss and say good-by, a grief compounded by the absence of traditional funerals followed by receptions with lots of hugs, a grief compounded by anger at the politicizing of what should be a national unified effort to deal with the virus and an absence of a national unified expression of mourning in the light of those we’ve lost. The absence of such unified national efforts and expressions compounds anger and accentuates but does not assuage grief. We live in a difficult time, a time, as the newspaper article headlines, of ‘anguish.’

To all who mourn Jesus offers comfort and to all who are angry Jesus offers peace.

Reflective question: Will you pray today for someone you know who has lost a loved one from whatever cause?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 5:4 –“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Reflective hymn:

“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” - Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all our lives away,

They fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day.

Day 198: Yom Kippur

 DAY 198

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 Twenty-nine    Monday 28 September 2020

Yom Kippur

Day of Atonement

“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work – whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you – because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.” - Leviticus 16:29-30.

Today begins the marking of Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement, in the calendar of Judaism the year 5781, the highest of all High Holy Days. ‘Yom’ is the Hebrew word for ‘day,’ and ‘kippur’ comes from a word that has to do with cleansing or atoning, a day of importance for observant Jews and many secular Jews as well. Traditionally it requires that in order to know atonement for one’s sins one must engage in prayer, repentance, fasting and giving to charity. While looking  back to the Second Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed in 70 AD, temple sacrifices are remembered but not repeated.

Atonement – while its origin is in Latin, it is most often remembered by its parts: at+one+ment, a contraction from the 16^th century having to do with making reparations or to reconcile, or to unite. Atonement is that which makes possible the uniting of God and fallen humanity. To atone for sin is to pay for sin in such a way that reconciliation then becomes possible.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews, written to Jewish believers, puts it this way: “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one

sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are to be made holy.” For Jews the Day of Atonement is repetitive; for Christians it is a done deal, a comforting thought during this time of a pandemic.

Reflective question: For what sins have you been trying to atone? Is it working?

Reflective Scripture: Read/pray Psalm 51:1-17.

Reflective hymn: 

“Rock of Ages’ – Augustus Toplady (1740-1788)

Not the labors of my hands, can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Day 197: Mercy and Pity

 DAY 197

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 Twenty-nine    Sunday 27 September 2020

Mercy and Pity

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. - The Book of Common Prayer: For the Sunday Closest to 28 September.

While I like the phrase “running to obtain your promises” in the prayer for today, I am drawn more to our growing need for the qualities of mercy and pity in our society, for they seem to be increasingly in short supply on the national level, even as countless numbers of ordinary citizens exhibit mercy in their responses to needy neighbors and the sick and hospitalized.

‘Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison” is recorded as being part of the worship of Christians as early as the 7^th century. It is solidly Scripture-based, with the Psalmist pleading multiple times for mercy, and the sick, the blind, and the desperate crying out “Lord, have mercy in me” in the Gospels. It is used today in Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Lutheran churches as well as in some Methodist and Presbyterian congregations. It is always an appropriate prayer, ‘The Kyrie.”  

If mercy is what we ask of the Lord, it is pity or compassion with which He responds. Showing mercy can be a perfunctory act in a court of law without any personal involvement. Pity and compassion, on the other hand, originate in the deepest part of who a person is, and in this instance, who God is, having to do literally with movement in the deepest internal organs of a person, what the King James Version translates as “the bowels of compassion.” 

May the ancient liturgical worship prayer “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy” find a comfortable place within us in our deepest place of need, in what our prayer reminds us are the chief ways God shows His power, sustaining us on our pandemic journey.

Reflective question: In what deepest place do you need to cry out, “Lord, have mercy?”

Reflective Scripture: Luke 18:38 – “’Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”

Reflective hymn:

“There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” – Frederick Faber (1813-1863)

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea.

There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows are more felt than up in heaven.

There is no place where earth’s failings have such kindly judgment given.

Day 196: God as Shelter

 

DAY 196

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 Twenty-eight    Saturday 26 September 2020

God as Shelter

“If you’re like me, the phrase ‘unprecedented times’ has been ringing in your ears and weighing on your heart over the past few months. Whether written in one of the countless ‘our company’s response to COVID-19’ emails from presidents and CEO’s across the country or heard in newscasts or updates from local and national government officials, or in social media posts and conversations with friends expressing the felt pain of racism, these words remind us that we are in a challenging moment in time. In these unprecedented times, however, I am encouraged by the truth that God is our anchor and shelter during storms.”  A current communication from the president of a Christian university.

We entered the “ten Boom House” in Haarlem, Holland through the watch shop on the first floor, up the stairs to the next level of living space and up again to a back bedroom where behind a wall was a place of safety some 6-8 feet long and barely three feet wide. It was here that Jews were hidden by the ten Boom family from the Nazis. While they were imprisoned and all of her family but Corrie died in prison camps, the Jews they hid in their hiding place survived. The wall has since been opened up, and visitors may stand in that cramped space, “the hiding place.” I have stood in that space, a moving and memorable experience. Years later Corrie would write a book by that name and the Billy Graham Association would make a full-length movie about her story, also called “The Hiding Place,” a film every Christian should see.

The writer above reminds us that “…the truth (is) that God is our anchor and shelter during storms,” Biblical imagery, ancient yet timely, reminding us that the God who made us intends to make sure we are safe. Massive unemployment, a global pandemic, social and political unrest and global warming can render us feeling helpless and exposed. We need a place to shelter, and that ‘place’ is the Triune God.  God as our shelter does not mean we are removed from the storms of life, but rather that our deepest person is kept safe in their midst. It remains true: “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:39.

Reflective question: How does the Triune God function for you as a hiding place, a safe place during this time of a pandemic and all else that is going on?  

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 32:7; 56:3 – “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble…” “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.”

Reflective hymn:

“You Are My Hiding Place” – Michael Ledner (1952-    )

You are my hiding place,

you always fill my heart with songs of deliverance,

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you.

Day 195: It is Hard Work

 DAY 195

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 Twenty-eight    Friday 25 September 2020

It is Hard Work

“What we think is as important as what we speak. How often have we entertained a daydream or meditated, and our thoughts end up going to something that disturbs us? What is even more disturbing is that perhaps our thoughts were out of our imagination and were not based on reality or things that had not happened or are unlikely to happen… . It is hard work not thinking in fearful or negative ways about what is happening in our families, our homes, our relationships, our work, our churches, our grocery stores, and so on. The world is full of information that is bad and dark. But 2 Timothy 1:7 says, ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’”  From the current issue of a Christian magazine devoted to the healing ministry of the local church.

There’s a country western song that came out in the early 1990’s sung by The Flatlanders of West Texas, “My Mind’s Got a Mind of Its Own” - 

My mind’s got a mind of its own,

It takes me out-a-walkin’ when I’d rather stay at home;

Takes me out to parties when I’d rather be alone,

My mind’s got a mind of its own.

I like the obviousness of these lyrics because that’s exactly what our minds are too adept at doing, taking us places where we’d rather not go. So why do we let our minds take us there? At times there is a sense of despairing helplessness when it comes to where our minds take us but where we’d rather not go, and many, perhaps most of us simply capitulate. So yes, it’s hard work, but God is on our side. His Word to us:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strong-holds…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

Reflective question:  Does your mind ‘take you out a-walkin’ where you’d rather not go? Will you ask the Holy Spirit to change your mental walking habits? He will if you ask.

Reflective Scripture: Romans 8:6 – “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”

Reflective hymn:

“Take Thou Our Minds, Dear Lord” – William Foulkes (1874-1938)

Take Thou our minds, dear Lord, we humbly pray,

Give us the mind of Christ each passing day;

Teach us to know the truth that sets us free;

Grant us in all our thoughts to honor Thee.

Day 194: An Unknown Future

DAY 194

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 Twenty-eight    Thursday 24 September 2020

An Unknown Future

When we face an unknown future that we can’t imagine yet,

When the closeness we have treasured turns from blessing into threat –

As we miss our friends and loved ones, as we crave community,

May we look, God, in this season, for a whole new way to be.

Jesus faced the lonely desert as a time to look within;

There he met such trial and conflict, there he knew you were with him.

In this time of separation when we miss the life we’ve known,

May we hear your voice proclaiming: “I am here! You’re not alone.”

May we cherish those around us as we never have before.

May we think much less of profit; may we learn what matters more.

May we hear our neighbors’ suffering; may we see our neighbors’ pain.

May we learn new ways of offering life and health and hope again.

God, when illness comes to threaten, and when so much here goes wrong,

May we know one thing for certain – that your love is sure and strong.

You’re beside us in our suffering – and when times are surely tough,

We may face an unknown future, but it’s filled, Lord, with your love.

Hymn text by Rev. Carolyn Gillette,

Presbyterian Church U.S.A. minister - © 2020

Reflective question: How would you describe your future in one honest sentence? Now talk to the Lord about it.

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 6:28-34

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown unto the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagan runs after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Reflective hymn: See the Scripture text above written for this pandemic time in which we live.

Day 193: Mission Focus Norway

DAY 193

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 Twenty-eight    Wednesday 23 September 2020

Mission Focus: Norway

Norway is one of four northern European nations where, during the Reformation, the Lutheran church became the state church and remained so until 2017. However, the Lutheran church is still the church of the bulk of the population with full freedom of religion extended to all religious entities. Unlike the state churches in the rest of Europe, the Lutheran church in Norway has in the past had many pastors who were soundly evangelical in their beliefs and preaching. As that becomes less the case, Norwegians increasingly reflect the secular worldview of their neighboring Scandinavian Lutheran countries. The Norwegian Lutheran immigrants to the United States in the latter half of the 19^th century brought this Lutheran faith with them and to this day are more religious than their European cousins. 

Prayer Focus

+ Pray for a new wave of genuine revival experienced in the Lutheran church of the past.

+ Pray for Lutheran pastors to be ignited by the Scriptures they read in church each Sunday.  

+ Pray for young people who are disproportionately secular in their worldview.

+ Pray for small groups of immigrants, including Buddhist Sinhalese with only 2-3% Christian.

+ Pray for small non-Lutheran evangelical and Pentecostal churches seeking to bear witness to

   the Gospel, but are looked at warily as they are not part of the traditional Lutheran church. 

+ Pray for the small but faithful missionary organizations seeking to reach out from Norway

   to the world with the Gospel.

+ Pray that as they sing their national anthem, below, Norwegians will truly “praise the Lord.”

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 the world,

go to: operationworld.org.

Reflective question: What is God putting in your heart to pray for the precious people of Norway? Will you pray that prayer for the next week?

Reflective Scripture: 1 Chronicles 16:24 – “Declare his glory among the nations,…”

Reflective hymn:

Norwegian National Anthem – verse 7 – Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1832-1910)

Men of Norway, be your dwelling cottage, house or farm,

Praise the Lord who all compelling sav’d our land from harm.

Not the valor of a father on the battlefield nor a mother’s tears,

But rather God for us our vict’ry sealed.

Day 192: Praying for our Leaders

 DAY 192

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 Twenty-eight    Tuesday 22 September 2020

Praying for our Leaders

Biblical Prayer from Scriptures for Leaders in Government

“As a follower of Christ, part of our faithful work is to pray for our leaders and those in authority, be they royalty, prime ministers, elected presidents, governors, law enforcement and elected representatives at all levels… . Sometimes praying for our leaders is easy. Perhaps government leaders are leading with vision, with excellence and transparency, solving problems and improving the lives of the citizenry. Sometimes praying for our leaders is difficult. Perhaps we are in disagreement with our leaders. Perhaps we think their lives are so far from God that we think there is no hope for them. Perhaps we think their vision for the country is different than ours. That does not change Paul’s charge to us as believers.”  Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International.

And what is that charge from God’s Word, that is not a suggestion but a command?

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIV.

This is an invitation to serious non-partisan prayer. ‘Partisan’ is simple to trace, meaning ‘part’ or to side with one part against another, ‘partisans’ sometimes used interchangeably with ‘guerillas’ in civil warfare. We are being increasingly divided as a nation, Americans pitted against each other. We need to unite in a non-partisan way and intercede between now and the election.

For seven days of non-partisan prayer

grounded in Scripture for leadership go to: prmi.org,

scroll down to “Latest Posts,”

then scroll down to “Prayer for our Leaders in Government.”

Reflective question: Will you commit to pray daily from now to the election for our country’s leadership? If so, use the seven-day guide at the web site above.

Reflective Scripture: See 1 Timothy 2:1-4 above for whom to pray, and explicit reasons why such prayers are directly related to our own daily existence in this country.

Reflective hymn:

“God Bless America” – Irving Berlin (1888-1989

God bless America, land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam,

God bless America, my home sweet home,

God bless America, my home sweet home.