02-08-09 Sermon Healing Love

Inspiration: sings refrain and verse 1 of "There Is a Balm in Gilead"

Shawn:
You know, the preacher continually tells us to trust Jesus. I really want to, but I fail miserably at this trust thing. I keep wanting to control everything instead of letting myself be guided by Jesus.

Lori:
Well, someone's got to be in charge. I just wish Jesus would come right here and talk to us and tell us what to do, you know, give us some direction.
Inspiration: sings refrain and verse 2 of "There Is a Balm in Gilead"

Shawn:
I'm no preacher. I don't have the courage to get up in front of people and talk to them about God's love, about the ministry of Jesus. I would stumble all over the place and forget what to say. I would make a fool of myself. I don't have the education or the gift to be a preacher. I just can't do it.

Lori:
My problem is prayer. I feel just like I'm casting words into the wind. I don't know if God hears prayer. I don't know if I am saying the right words or saying them in the right way. I've never had training in prayer and surely couldn't lead people in prayer. I'm no use to God.

Inspiration: sings refrain and verse 3 of "There Is a Balm in Gilead"

How are you today as we gather in this sanctuary; this time and space set aside to sing and pray and hopefully feel the brush of angel's wings and taste the goodness of God's healing love? How are you? How is your heart? How is your Spirit? What do you bring with you as you come?

Have you come with a heart full of gratitude for the ways in which you have seen God at work in your life this week?

Have you come with a heart burdened by sorrow, a mind racked with fear, a spirit troubled by the cares of the world?

Have you come filled with hope or weighed down with discouragement?

Have you come confident about your path or confused by the uncertainty of it all?

Have you come empowered by trust or worn out with worry?

Have you come with a smattering of all of it -the hope and the discouragement, the gratitude and the fear, the trust and the anxiety, the sorrow and the joy, the confidence and the uncertainty?

How have you come today and what did you expect in the coming?

A number of weeks ago when I was beginning my initial planning for today's worship I came across the reading with which we begin our time of reflection.[1] As I read it something in the words touched my heart; perhaps it was my own exhaustion and discouragement; perhaps it was my sense of the fear and dismay, the helplessness and the despair that seem to hold so many captive in these uncertain economic times. But whatever it was, when I actually sat down to prepare my reflections I was uncertain where to go, what to say or how to even begin. As I sat in stillness asking, "OK God what is it that you want me to say and how do this song and these words fit with the passage from Mark's gospel?" another set of questions emerged. "Where is Gilead? What is the balm that is referred to in this song? What was the context out of which this concept grew?

As I searched for the answers, I discovered that there was a tree in the area of the Middle East known as Gilead that held such healing powers that it was said that it was worth "twice its weight in silver." In the Hebrew Scriptures this balm is first mentioned in Genesis 37:25 as a description associated with the traders to whom Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. But it was the next reference that resonated through my being and caught my imagination.

It was in the time of the prophet Jeremiah when the whole of Judah was in turmoil; the society was collapsing, the corrupt centers of power and privilege were imploding, even the most holy place of God, the temple in Jerusalem, lay in ruins. In an agonized lament that could come from the lips of many in our day, the prophet cried out:[Jeremiah 8:18-22 NRSV]

¹⁸My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
   my heart is sick.
¹⁹Hark, the cry of my poor people
   from far and wide in the land:
'Is the Lord not in Zion?
   Is her King not in her?' ...
²⁰'The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
   and we are not saved.'
²¹For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
   I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead?
   Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
   not been restored?

Did you catch it? Even in the midst of his lament, at some level, in some part of his being Jeremiah knows the Source of the healing that is needed. Even as he cries out he knows with certainty that God's healing love is the balm that will ease the pain and bring relief to the suffering. Perhaps it is only as we dare to cry out from the depths of our need that we can begin to see clearly the One who brings a healing balm for our lives and our world.  

How did you come today?

What do you need?

What did you expect as you came through the doors?

Take a deep breath and allow your heart to supply the answer...

You may be like Simon's mother-in-law, immobilized by something that burns to the depth of your soul, feverishly longing for relief but unaware that the One who brings healing and hope has stepped into the room, seen your need and stands ready to take you by the hand and raise you up to more than you ever dreamed you could be. Breathe deeply and open your heart to God's Healing Love as you step into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

You may be like the crowds bringing your loved ones to the miracle worker, but unaware that God's Healing Love stands ready to transform your life. Breathe deeply and open your heart to God's Healing Love as you step into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

You may be like the disciples who have yet to grasp the ways in which Christ seeks to lead all who will follow in his footsteps into the fullness of God's dream for their lives. Breathe deeply and open your heart to God's Healing Love as you step into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

You may be like the blind and the deaf, the lame and the possessed who Jesus has yet to meet, those who will be set free to follow him on the way. Breathe deeply and open your heart to God's healing Love as you step into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

You may be like those who have discovered the good news of God: that we are healed so that we might become healers, set free from all that binds us so that we might be instruments of liberation and loved, that we might join God in loving the world to life. Breathe deeply and open your heart to God's Healing Love as you step into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

Whoever you are and however you have come, Christ is here to meet you with the Healing Love of God. Whoever you are and whatever you need, know this -no matter how impossible it seems, to matter how long it takes there is a balm in Gilead, so breathe deeply, open your heart and allow God's healing Love to lead you into a future far greater than anything you could ever hope for or imagine.

Voice: Dear friends, you do not have to be a magnificent preacher or an astounding person of prayer; just tell about the ways that Jesus loves people. Remind people of the healings that Jesus offered and still offers to us today. Help them understand that all God's people have been called to lives of hope and joy and peace to serve in ways of healing and compassion. That's your job, and your joy. Do not be afraid. The spirit of Jesus is with you. Just share your love and the good news Jesus brings.

Musical Response:  refrain of "There Is a Balm in Gilead"