September 19, 2010 - Proper 20, Year C (RCL)
There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole,
There is a balm in Gilead
to heal the sin-sick soul.
You can’t help but think
of the hymn we sang earlier this morning/of that well known hymn
when you hear the words of the book of Jeremiah
that we read in our first reading today.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
For the last month or so,
we’ve been reading the words of Jeremiah;
week by week,
we’ve heard the story
of the failures of the people of Israel, the people of God
to live as God
would have them live.
On the surface
they look fine;
they show up to worship regularly;
they observe all the rituals.
But scratch a little deeper
and what you find...
well, nothing.
Now you know the stories.
Way back, in Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy.
God begins
by creating the world and everything in it, people included.
And from the very beginning
it’s clear
that God is their God
and they are God’s people.
They have a unique relationship.
And that relationship undergirds
the whole of their lives.
God loves them, God leads them, God rescues them.
And God gives them laws,
laws that shape their lives,
that create a society
of peace and justice,
a place where everyone belongs,
and everyone is cared for,
laws that remind them
of the God who loves them so much.
We know the laws.
The Ten Commandments
are a kind of summary of them.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Honour your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor’s wife, or your neighbor’s anything else.
Those laws, and more,
are woven throughout their lives;
they determine how they relate to one another,
what they eat,
how they live,
and, not surprisingly, how they worship.
And so years pass, hundreds of years,
and we get to the time of Jeremiah.
And somehow
the laws have been forgotten.
They’re doing okay
on the ones to do with worship and ritual.
But it’s as if
they’ve forgotten everything else.
No idols?
“The people down the road
keep a little statue in their living room. It’s supposed to make sure they have healthy children and good crops.It can’t hurt
for us to have one too, just in case.”
Don’t steal?
“Well, God said we’re supposed to leave
the crops around the edges,
the ones that spread further than we planted,
for the poor. But they’re ours really, we paid for the seed,
so why should they get anything.”
Don’t covet?
“But Jacob over there
has such a nice house,
and well, I want to be able to give my family one just like that,
and I know that I’m supposed to offer to God
a tenth of all I earn,
but if I do that, there won’t be enough for the addition on my house,
so maybe
maybe this year
I’ll just give a little less. Five percent.
It’s still a lot. and next year, next year I’m sure
I’ll be able to afford
a little bit more.”
Meanwhile
they show up to worship
once a week,
and they celebrate the holidays,
and they offer the prescribed sacrifices
when their children are born.
They pull out their religious faith
and put it on show;
they think, hope, assume, that that
will keep God happy.
And the rest of the time
they get on with life
as if God had nothing to do with it.
And as you can imagine,
God isn’t real happy about it.
And so God calls the prophet Jeremiah
to warn the people
that if they keep on going
the way they have been,
they’re in trouble.
But today’s reading
is a little different.
Because this time
it isn’t a warning.
This time
it isn’t news of judgement.
This time we hear
how God is feeling.
And God
is devastated.
These people
who God loves,
loves more than anything else,
these people
are messing up.
And God
is crying.
You know that thing that parents sometimes say
when they’re disciplining their children. you might have said it yourself?
“This hurts me
more than it hurts you.”
And as a child, you say,
“Yeah, right.”
but as a parent, it’s true.
When your children mess up
you feel it.
That’s how God feels.
“My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick...
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.”
The people have messed up,
and God is not so much angry
as sad.
And God
has almost
run out of hope.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Now fast forward
six hundred years.
Jesus is born,
and grows up.
And at the age of thirty, begins to preach.
And he shows up in his hometown, the place where he grew up,
and begins to read, this time
from another prophet, Isaiah.
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’
And then he begins to preach.
“Today this is fulfilled.”
And at first everyone is listening.
But then
Jesus begins quoting proverbs at them.
“You say, physician, heal yourself.
But I say...”
And the people begin to question.
This
is the boy they have seen grow up,
the son of the carpenter,
now claiming
to do the work of God, the work of a prophet.
Claiming himself
to be the fulfillment of the words
of the great prophet
Isaiah.
But worst of all,
claiming to be
the physician, the healer.
Which doesn’t sound much to us.
But one of the words used in the New Testament
that means to heal
also means
to save.
And they begin to wonder,
is Jesus
somehow
claiming
to be a savior?
And they get angry.
And chase Jesus
out of the synagogue.
But his words remain.
Today this is fulfilled.
Jesus is the healer, the physician.
Jesus is the savior,
God’s lament
goes unanswered in Jeremiah,
but in Jesus,
in Jesus
the answer is yes.
Yes, there is a balm in Gilead;
yes, there is a physician.
And the way Jesus saves,
the way Jesus heals
is to offer us forgiveness.
Forgiveness
for everything
and anything
we have done.
And all we have to do
is ask.
Which is why, in the service of Baptism, we ask that question in the baptismal covenant,
“Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”
Because we know
that when we mess up.
we make God weep.
But we also know
that we have a physician, a healer, a savior,
and we will be healed, we will be forgiven.
For the big sins,
and the little ones.
So turn to God.
Confess your sins.
And know that God is gracious,
and through Jesus Christ, the great physician,
you are healed; you are saved; you are forgiven.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010