Is There a Balm in Giead

IS THERE A BALM IN GIEAD

Mount Hope UMC

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 New Living Translation (NLT)

Jeremiah Weeps for Sinful Judah

¹⁸ My grief is beyond healing;
    my heart is broken.
¹⁹ Listen to the weeping of my people;
    it can be heard all across the land.
“Has the Lord abandoned Jerusalem?^[a]” the people ask.
    “Is her King no longer there?”

“Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols
    and their worthless foreign gods?” says the Lord.

²⁰ “The harvest is finished,
    and the summer is gone,” the people cry,
    “yet we are not saved!”

²¹ I hurt with the hurt of my people.
    I mourn and am overcome with grief.
²² Is there no medicine in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why is there no healing
    for the wounds of my people?

9 ^[b]If only my head were a pool of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
    for all my people who have been slaughtered.

Back in Jeremiah’s time physicians were not the esteemed, privileged profession they are today.  They were no more than quacks.  The Balm of Gilead was a rare perfume used medicinally and named for the region where it was produced.  The expression stems from William Tyndale’s language in the King James Bible of 1611 and has come to signify a universal cure in figurative speech.  Some scholars have concluded that the actual source was a terebinth tree.

This balm is mentioned a number of times in the Bible, beginning in Genesis 37:25, Genesis 43:11, Jeremiah 8:22, and Ezekiel 27:17.  The balm was one of the commodities Hebrew merchants carried to the market of Tyre and in 1 Kings 10:10, it was among the many precious gifts of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.  In the New Testament we hear of the woman with the vial of the precious perfume – the balm – that she pours out on Jesus feet and wipes them with her hair.

            In Jeremiah’s text, he is hurting for his people because of their sin, disobedience and obstinance against God.  They have turned their backs on God and are making false idols to worship.  He is watching them do everything that will make God angry and take his favor away from them and they have lost faith in God’s ability to protect them from their adversaries.

            Look at what we’re experiencing in the world today.  We, too, find it painful to watch our government treat illegal aliens like cattle, locking them up in cages and taking children away from their parents.  We are hurt and angry when we see the police stop, beat and kill black men for no apparent reason.  Our hearts ache just like Jeremiah’s when we see that people are turning their backs on God and doing what they feel is right in their own eyes by taking matters into their own hands.

            It’s painful to hear of the school shootings, shootings at concerts, movie theaters, and in our churches – places where people have gathered for years to learn, worship or enjoy life.  Places once considered safe.  It makes us cry to hear of children been abused by caregivers and parents; killed by those who are supposed to protect them; abducted and sold into prostitution or for their body organs.  It hurts.  And it causes us to be overly protective of our children.  Being more watchful of those who are around them – even in our churches.

            Jeremiah probably saw all of this and some more.  The people were moving far away from the law of God that was in place to protect them.  They were making their own laws and living by their own standards.  This caused him great grief.  He wondered where was the Lord?  Why is the king of Zion not present to see what is going on?  He says, “the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved.” His lament was that they saw God provide in the good times yet they did not heed the warning that winter was coming and they had not made provisions for the winter season.  They were about to enter a time of hibernation.  We are entering into fall.  A time where we prepare for the winter season.  A time when we hope our cupboards and freezers are full because we will need the food to sustain us through the bleak, dreary days of winter.

            Like Judah in Jeremiah’s day, our nation is reeling from shockwaves of violence, intolerance, anger, suspicion, and fear.  It feels as if our whole country is about to ignite, fueled by long legacies of racism, xenophobia, heterosexism, and religious intolerance.  It takes away our joy and we grieve for our country, especially because it seems the person fueling these emotions is the man who sits at the head of our government.  The man who is supposed to be the protector of our Constitution.  The man who is supposed to be the President of all people, who seems to be the President of only a few very wealthy and a very white group of people who support his same racist, xenophobic, heterosexist and far right religious views.

            We should all be suspect when someone uses religion to advance their personal and political views.   

Isn’t it funny how we put our hope and trust in anyone and everything but God?  We trust the government, we trust our employer, we trust our creditors, we trust our church.  We trust Boo and ‘em and all them let us down when we need them most!  We even trust Momma and Daddy.  All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.  And when all have turned their backs, we’re angry because we stood by their side when they were in need.

            The other thing we are guilty of is looking at God as a magician.  We think God is like the Great Oz.  We expect God to help our sports teams win or we look for signs from him in Facebook posts from friends or sites that professes a religious connection. 

            Jeremiah demands that the people should behold, look at and see, the mortal wound that afflicts their entire nation.  We need to look at our mortal wounds.  One of the commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.”  This commandment does not mean to cause someone to die.  It means to kill someone’s spirit.  Snatch their soul.  Like Judah, we have to stop pretending that nothing is wrong, stop turning our heads from the wrongs of society thinking somebody else will fix it, stop ignoring the voices of the wounded and oppressed and stop silencing those who testify to the wrongs that have been done.  Jeremiah tells the politicians and religious leaders to stop claiming they have the magic words or special liturgies that will make everything better because they do not.  In fact, they make matters worse.

            Jeremiah is asking if there is some resource or medicine, some radical change that is needed and how to bring it about.  Why do we keep suffering the same afflictions?  And Jeremiah and we feel powerless and all he or we can do is weep.  Is there a balm in Gilead?

This nation suffers the same wounds, they are just exposed in a new way.  To create the change you want to see, you have to first honestly expose the wounds.  Call it what it is.  William Shakespeare wrote “a rose by another name still smells as sweet.”  Well stink don’t smell like a rose.  It smells like stink and no amount of Fabrese will cover up the stench of injustice.  And those of us who are not in Christ Jesus end up asking, Is There No Balm in Gilead, no hope for the sin sick soul?

As professing Christ followers we are the balm in today’s Gilead.  We are the ones who must take a stand a speak out against the lies and the injustices being carried out today.  And not just to each other.  We have to be the balm in the courtroom, in the jail house, in the state house, and in the White House.  We have to call a spade a spade in grace and love.  We have to be the change we want to see.

Last night I went to a District clergy and spouse/significant other bowling event.  A young man who was invited by his “friend” arrived wearing a very offensive t-shirt.  I was shocked because I knew he had to know the group he was going to be socializing with, but I knew the person who invited him and they didn’t seem to be bothered by the shirt.  Our DS arrived and was invited to the young man.  Several minutes later I noticed he had turned his shirt and was wearing it inside out.  The DS had said something to him about the shirt and he changed it for her.  Now, I greeted him when he arrived and I saw the shirt and offered him a team jersey to wear and he declined my diplomatic approach, but he responded to our DS who probably was more forthright in her approach to the situation.

Some folk truly do not know any better.  And some folk want to see how far they can push that envelope.  And that’s why we have to be the balm in Gilead today.  There are young adults and children who have not had someone train them in the way they should go.  They have very little sense of right and wrong.  Back many of us were growing up, we had the “Village” – our neighbors, our parents friends, and our older family members – who corrected and taught us.  The “Village” is non-existent today.  Our balm has become extinct.

But I contend it is not too late to do better.  We have to or else we will become like the dinosaur – extinct.  It starts with being a balm to those who need to hear a word of comfort, a word of grace, an act of kindness, a helping hand, a listening ear.  That is the balm we can offer today.  It doesn’t take much time or effort.  There is no threat of getting in someone else’s lane.  Sometimes we need to get in somebody else’s lane because they are riding down the wrong road and we need to redirect them to the road to Jesus.

We always make the excuse that it’s “none of our business”.  But, church, we are our brother’s keeper.  It is our business what others do.  It’s a reflection on us if we just let things remain as they are.  It threatens our very existence because we are the balm in today’s Gilead.  We just need to start spreading the balm through the Word of God.

We should allow the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 be a balm for us to walk in the authority Jesus has given us to be a balm for others, “ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Church, we are the balm.