Day 229: Seeking to Be Faithful Together

DAY 229

                              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-three    Thursday 29 October 2020

Seeking to Be Faithful Together

“Conflicts are inevitable in all of life and certainly in the church. The history of the church is filled with conflicts and disagreements. Conflicts can be harmful and even destructive. They can cause individuals a great deal of pain and the community of faith immeasurable damage. At the same time, conflicts can be an opportunity for new insights, learning, and individual and corporate growth. Disagreements can illuminate a topic in helpful ways and can present solutions to problems that previously had not been seen. The successful resolution of conflict can also bring people together in a powerful way.” - From a denominational document by the same name.*

‘Together’ – during this prolonged pandemic which will be with us for some time yet, pre-existing differences and disagreements can easily be amplified under the stress of it all, and new issues surface not encountered before exacerbated by the loss of life as we have known it. In the midst of everything we need to know that “God is already present wherever there is brokenness, granting wholeness and peace. God promises to be with us in times of disagreement and calls us to reconciliation, trust, love and forgiveness.” *

As spouses spend more time together at home than in the past, and as parents spend more time with children then they have in the past, tension is sometimes inevitable. Rather than interpreting it as some sort of flaw in the family, accept it as a predictable consequence of living in a time of a pandemic, and turn such times around as you seek to ask what lessons wait to be learned in them. All ‘time’ is in God’s hands – including all times we are ‘together’ – thank God!

*This four-page document can be downloaded free

at: pcusastore.com

Reflective question: In your church family or your own family, where do you need to seek to be ‘faithful together?’

Reflective Scripture: Romans 14:19 – “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

Reflective hymn:

‘Bind us Together, Lord” – Robert Gilman (1946-    )

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken;

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, bind us together with love.

There is only one God, there is only one King;

There is only one body, that is why we sing: (return to first lines)

Day 228: Country Focus: Solomon Islands

  

 DAY 228

                              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-three    Wednesday 28 October 2020

Country Focus: Solomon Islands

This country of under one million inhabitants is spread over six islands located due east of Papua, New Guinea and northeast of Australia. While a small country, there are 76 ethno-linguistic people groups speaking 60-70 languages, up to 120 if distinct dialects are included, resulting in an ongoing struggle to form a cohesive government since independence from Britain in 1978. Agriculture and fishing are the main sources of income. The country is overwhelmingly Christian, spread out over Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal churches.

Prayer Focus

+ Pray for many who are embracing a nominal and stagnant form of the Gospel in churches in 

   need of genuine revival from the Holy Spirit.

+ Pray for a healing of the tension and friction between tribes, and therefore also their

   respective Christian church groups, that they might see in each the one church of Christ.

+ Pray for a number of programs focused on training pastors and national leaders that the

   growth they are experiencing will increase and their impact felt throughout all churches. 

+ Pray for the 40% of the population under the age of 15, that they will be open to the Gospel  

   often missing in nominal congregations, and for effectiveness in struggling youth ministries.

+ Pray for patients at Christian hospitals and clinics, for some the only place where they will

   encounter the Gospel message, that in their illness and need they will turn to Christ.

+ Pray for Christian schools that as students receive an education, they will also receive Christ.

+ Pray that as they sing their national anthem, God indeed will ‘save the Solomon Islands.’

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 Solomon Islands

 go to: operationworld.org.

Reflective question: Will you ask the Holy Spirit to place one of these requests in your heart and then pray it daily for the next week?

Reflective Scripture: John 17:20,21 – “’… I pray … that all of them may be one, Father, …’” Jesus

Reflective hymn:

“God Save Our Solomon Islands” – Panapasa and Matila Balekana © 1978

God save our Solomon Islands from shore to shore,

Blessed all our people and all our lands with your protecting hands.

Joy, Peace, Progress, and Prosperity that men shall brothers be,

Make nations see our Solomon Islands, our Solomon Islands,

Our Solomon Islands stands forever more.

Day 227: When God Wore A Mask

 DAY 227

                              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-three    Tuesday 27 October 2020

When God Wore a Mask

“In the Bible the Apostle Paul writes about Moses having to wear a veil to mask the glory of God that shone from his face after his personal encounters with God. Paul goes on to say, “We all, with unveiled (unmasked) faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Along these lines, it occurs to me that the incarnation of God in Christ involved a masking of divine glory in the veil of human flesh. That veil was lowered in the Transfiguration of Christ, which dazzled Jesus’ closest disciples, ripped in twain at the crucifixion, and left among the grave clothes in the glorified, transcendent bodily fullness of God’s eternal life and glory. As thrilling as his full revelation was, the mission of Christ required him initially to wear the mask for our sake. Without the mask of human flesh, without its tearing on the Cross, no resurrection could have occurred – neither for Jesus nor for us.” - From the blog of the president of a Christian university.

It is a commentary both tragic and troubling that a national health crisis should become politicized, and the wearing of a mask or not the subject of encounters sometimes public and sometimes violent. What have we become as a nation? The world looks at us aghast and is unsettled by the America they have known for so long as a beacon of stability and strength, now in its present state of disarray.

When God wore a mask it was for the benefit of others. Had Jesus not veiled or masked his eternal glory and deity in human flesh, the world could not have handled it. It was his disguise, so perfectly planned it was said that “… though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” John 1:10. Indeed, when was the first time we recognized Jesus for who he really is, so that our perception of him has been forever altered?       

Jesus has modeled for us the wearing of a mask for the benefit of others – let’s follow Jesus.

Reflective question: How does your wearing a mask out of concern for others honor Jesus?

Reflective Scripture: John 1:14 – ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”

Reflective hymn:

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” – verse 2 - Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,

Late in time behold him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail th’ incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.

Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

Day 226: Our Father

 

DAY 226

                              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-three    Monday 26 October 2020

Our Father

Hymn text and tune by

Martin Luther, Reformer  1483-1546

1. Our Father, who from heav’n above has told us here to live in love,

And with our fellow Christians share our mutual burdens and our prayer,

Teach us no thoughtless word to say but from our inmost heart to pray.

2. Your name be hallowed. Help us Lord, in purity to keep your Word.

That to the glory of your name we walk before you free of blame.

Let no false teaching us pervert; all poor deluded souls convert.

3. Your kingdom come. Guard your domain and your eternal righteous reign.

The Holy Ghost enrich our day with gifts attendant on our way.

Break Satan’s pow’r, defeat his rage; preserve your Church from age to age.

4. Your gracious will on earth be done as it is done before your throne,

That patiently we may obey in good or bad times all you say.

Curb flesh and blood and ev’ry ill that sets itself against your will.  

5. Give us this day our daily bread and let us all be clothed and fed.

From warfare, rioting, and strife, disease and famine save our life

That we in honest peace may live, to care and greed no entrance give.

6. Forgive our sins, let grace outpour that they may trouble us more;

We too will gladly those forgive who harm us by the way they live.

Help us in each community to serve and love with unity.

7. Lead not into temptation, Lord, where our grim foe and all his horde

Would vex our souls on every hand. Help us resist, help us to stand

Firm in the faith, armed with your might; your Spirit give your children light.

8. Deliver us from evil days, from every dark and trying maze;

Redeem us from eternal death, console us when we yield our breath.

Give us at last a blessed end; receive our souls, O faithful friend.

9. Amen, that is, it shall be so. Make our faith strong that we may know

We need not doubt but shall receive all that we ask, as we believe.

On your great promise we lay claim. Our faith says amen in your name.

Reflective question: All these verses are prayers amplifying ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. Which of these verses/prayers speak most to you? Will you pray it daily until it breaks open within you?

Reflective Scripture: Read ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in its larger teaching setting of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:5-15.    

Day 225: Loving What God Commands

DAY 225

                     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-three    Sunday 25 October 2020

Reformation Sunday

Loving What God Commands

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; 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: prayer for the Sunday closest to 26 October.

‘Loving what God commands’ could easily be a summary of the life of Martin Luther, Reformer, 1483-1546. Throughout his tumultuous (at times) life, his deepest desire was to honor God and love what He has commanded in His Word.  

Today millions of Protestant churches around the world are marking Reformation Sunday, reflecting on a movement of the Holy Spirit through flawed but sincere individuals seeking a  course-correction for the Body of Christ on earth, the Christian Church. It loosed religious, educational, economic, and political change that revolutionized Europe, launched Protestant countries into empire building and economic development, and fueled what was to become the United States of America, a unique experiment in democracy funded by an economy based on the Protestant work ethic articulated by Reformer John Calvin. 

Today we pray that God will “increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and love” - a tall order if we are serious in our praying it, and asking that we might ‘obtain what he promises’ is equally demanding for it is contingent upon our ‘loving what he commands.’ There is only one problem: we, by nature, do not love what God commands; rather, we find his commands uncomfortable at best and onerous at worst. Hence, we pray that he ‘make’ us love what he commands. It is a matter of our choice. Whether Anabaptist, Lutheran or Reformed, the Reformers were driven by a burning desire to do what God commands in His Word, and in His Word alone.

Reflective question: Will you pray this prayer sincerely, knowing it will change your life?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 46 – the paraphrased text for Luther’s great hymn, below.  

Reflective hymn:

“A Mighty Fortress is our God” – verse 1 - Martin Luther (1483-1546)

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Day 224: Covid Will Not Win - GASPERINO

Day 224

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-two    Saturday 24 October 2020

Covid Will Not Win:

Meet the People Powering a Hospital in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York

Dr. James Gasperino, 

Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Chief of Critical Care

“There are new challenges ahead and I’m preparing myself and my team for the next wave. Covid will not win. I go from bedside to boardroom. But I always value the front-line position role. I still go to every rapid response and cardiac arrest in the hospital. And during Covid I wanted to let people know that I’m right by their side every step of the way. We’re a team, and I’m going to lead you through this. It’s the oldest hospital in Brooklyn, a team of people that has a commitment to patient care and helping the community. And I’m really proud that when they hit the door we did a great job for them. I recall one night – it was one patient after another, after another. And they were so sick. I said to myself, if this keeps up, we’re going to be overwhelmed here. Because I hadn’t seen anything like this before. And then it hit me. My taste changed, and that was a sign I was coming down. I went to get up and I just collapsed. I thought I broke my jaw. There were a few dark moments there. A lot of people said, ‘O, you’ve changed a lot, you seem happier.’ I’m grateful that I’m alive, because a lot of people didn’t make it. And, you know, it could’ve been me.” *From a three-page article by the same name in a national newspaper.

What can we learn from Dr. James Gasperino? First, he has accessed the God given gift of being able to see ahead and engage in intentional preparation with his team. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, …” Proverbs 6:6-8 is a reminder that God has created even the ant to do likewise. 

Second, he has determined that “Covid will not win,” the title of this three-page newspaper feature. Resoluteness in the face of such an adversary reflects an element of faith in the absence of proof ahead of time, a quality and capacity God has placed within every human being.

Third, “I’m grateful that I’m alive,” after having Covid, a reminder that we all should express genuine gratitude to God each day for the gift of our lives without having had Covid.

Reflective questions: James, a brother of Jesus, an early church leader and martyr. As James laid his life down for his beliefs, will you pray for James Gasperino for strength as he lays his life down for his patients?  Which of his three lessons for us speaks most to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 118:17 – “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.”

*The profiles quoted in this series were written by Victor Blue, Sheri Fink and

Catrin Einhorn and published in the New York Times Wednesday 30 September 2020.

Day 223: Covid Will Not Win - ZAMAN

Day 223

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-two    Friday 23 October 2020

Covid Will Not Win:

Meet the People Powering a Hospital in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York

Dr. Kiran Zaman, Clinical Fellow

“Even when I think about it right now, it gives me goosebumps. It was a very scary, very overwhelming experience. It was a nightmare. Toward the end of the morning report almost every day there would be a rapid response or an unfortunate code blue and we would run over. And the day would just go on like this, running to these rooms finding Covid patients in extreme respiratory distress, gasping for air. Some of them made it. Unfortunately, some of them didn’t. I will never forget their faces, the things that they said right before they were at the verge of death or getting intubated. ‘Oh my God, Doctor, please make sure I live,’ or ‘Tell my wife this. I love her.’ There was a very sick young Covid patient. He was actually looking at his daughter’s pictures right before he got intubated. He told me, ‘Tell my wife I’m going to come home.’ And he was swiping his daughter’s pictures on his cell phone, he made a cross on his chest. And then he got intubated and unfortunately that same night he died. We did everything to save him, but we couldn’t. I used to watch doctor dramas or soaps on TV, see these people saving lives and wish I was like them someday. I don’t think anybody ever imagined to be in something as intense as this pandemic. This was a very humbling experience. I consider myself lucky that I was part of this hospital. I learned from each and every experience, whether it was as a human being or as a physician. When your sickest patients start improving, there’s no match for that feeling. I don’t know how to explain it in words – it’s like magic.” *From a three-page article by the same name in a national newspaper.

What can we learn from Kiran Zaman? First, it’s OK to acknowledge that sometimes life is “a very scary, overwhelming experience.” Confessing the truth is the first step to dealing with it. 

Second, life’s crises can turn us into different people depending on our choices. That Kiran has made some good choices is reflected in her seeing all this as “as very humbling experience.”

Third, she sees life as an opportunity to learn: “I learned from each and every experience.” A teachable spirit in a person is a valuable thing, something with which God can work.

Reflective question: Kiran is Sanskrit for ‘ray of light.’ Will you pray for her that she can be this for patients in the darkness of Covid? Which of her lessons for us speaks most to you? Why?  

Reflective Scripture: James 4:6 – “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Day 222: Covid Will Not Win - CRUZ

Day 222

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-two    Thursday 22 October 2020

Covid Will Not Win:

Meet the People Powering a Hospital in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn New York

Elvin Cruz, Security Officer

“We lost a lot of our coworkers here, very close people. That really hurt us. We’re still grieving. The job is more or less policing the hospital. With the virus, it changed drastically. A lot of our coworkers were out, so a lot of us had to step up to different roles. I was helping the guys in transportation. We were bringing the bodies out in stretchers. The mind plays with you. Working in the hospital, you don’t know whether you are exposed or not. You know what I think is one of the biggest things that you learn from this? You discover that you have a heart. Through this ordeal, you’ve seen people change. They learned that they have something that they could give, that they could make a difference. During this time people got to see how good you feel about yourself when you let the good come out of you.” *From a three-page article by the same name in a national newspaper.

What can we learn from Elvin Cruz? First, the grieving of fellow workers who have died of the virus says they were more than just co-workers, but “very close people.” That says Elvin and others were intentional about how they related to each other before COVID-19 hit, and it served them well once the virus hit. This is a model the church can learn from Elvin and his coworkers.

Second, “one of the biggest things you learn from this” is that “You discover you have a heart.”

This is something that cannot be reduced to words - you can only know it when it happens to you and recognize it in others when it happens to them, an unseen gift from God for Elvin and his co-workers.    

Third, “They learned that they have something that they could give, … make a difference … let the good come out of you.” Crises are crossroads where we find ourselves faced with making choices. Elvin and his co-workers could have chosen anger, fear, depression, but instead they made choices that resulted in their making a difference, a lesson for us all.

Reflective questions: Elvin, a variation of a French name brought to England in the Norman conquest, meaning ‘noble’ or ‘friend’ – it appears that he is both. Will you pray that God will protect his ‘heart’? Which of the three lessons Elvin has for us speaks most to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 17:22 – “A joyful heart is good medicine, …”  

Day 221: Covid Will Not Win - DE SOUZA

Day 221

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-two    Wednesday 21 October 2020

Covid Will Not Win:

Meet the People Powering a Hospital in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York

Dr. Sylvie de Souza, Chair, Emergency Medicine

“Coronavirus has made me probably even more aware of the value of human connection in treating illness, because we’re really deprived of that, the patients are deprived of that. It’s made me more vulnerable, more grateful to be there and be able to do something to help those that I could help. My job is to oversee a team of E.R. physicians and residents in training. My favorite part of my job is the team, the E.R. team, my colleagues. The fear of this coming back is the hardest part now, and thinking about those we have lost that we weren’t able to help and really weren’t able to honor in the end, or their families weren’t able to honor in the manner they would have wanted to. Facing the day brings a mixture of emotions. There is the anxiety of just returning to the scene of so much death and illness and pain and suffering. There’s the hope that we never have to see this again in our entire careers. Definitely coming home is a different story. Then I think all of us have trouble sleeping, trouble resting. Even though it seems quiet now, I don’t think any of us are at peace.” *From a special three-page article by the same name in a national newspaper.

What can we learn from Dr. Sylvie de Souza? First, something as evil as COVID-19 has given her a most positive gift: “the value of human connection” resulting in both vulnerability and gratitude, a reminder that God really does waste nothing and brings good out of bad.

Second, she is able to recognize and address her “mixture of emotions” rather than simply deny them. Emotions are gifts from God and can actually serve us well as we explore them. Left unattended, they can exhaust us.

Third, she can identify the elusiveness of peace: “I don’t think any of us are at peace,” an acknowledgement that opens the door for “… the peace of God that transcends all understanding.” Philippians 4:7. We can’t seek what we don’t acknowledge we need. 

Reflective questions: Sylvie, a French form of Sylvia, a forest dweller. Will you pray for her for that peace that she confesses is elusive, especially in her “mixture of emotions”? What of the three lessons she has for us speaks most to you? Why?

Reflective Scripture: Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”