Jeremiah
8:18-9:1
Eighteenth
Sunday after Pentecost Year C
September
22, 2013
First
Presbyterian Church, Clarksville
And
Harmony
Presbyterian Church
Dr.
Robert Wm Lowry
Jeremiah is
called the Weeping Prophet.
More than any other
of the Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah voices lament over the state of affairs
of the people and the nation.
The Isarelites,
once defined by their love for the God who called and blessed them, have
drifted into new troubling patterns of life in worship, politics and the values
that unite them as a people.
In a way,
Jeremiah’s are timeless words. Our
context may not be the same as the ancient Israelites, but when we look out
over the landscape of the world we share, lament seems to be in order.
Just think about
some of our shared realities.
3.5 million
children die worldwide each year from malnutrition. To put that in some context, 3.5 million per
year is seven per minute. It took me
roughly four minutes to read the scripture this morning.
30 million men,
women and children in Africa, or roughly 3% of the total population, are HIV+
and have no access to medical care.
In southern
China, a woman was recently beaten to death in police custody for handing out Bibles
and in Pakistan young women are frequently beaten by their families for
perceived violations of honor.
One month ago yesterday,
1500 people were killed by their own government in a chemical weapon attack in
Syria.
We look around
the world and we see injustice and prejudice and the inhumanity of humankind
and we need a prophet to lead us in our weeping.
Of course, we
don’t really have to look too far to see the wages of injustice.
Right here at
home, in our own backyards, there is evidence of how far from God’s vision for
the world we have wandered.
One in four
children right here in Arkansas will go to bed hungry tonight.
Here in the
wealthiest nation the world has ever known, the gap between the top earning
worker and the lowest earning worker is greater than anywhere in the world or
in human history.
The moral compass
of our nation is more and more defined by the holy writ of party politics than
the unwavering command of Jesus to love God and care for our neighbors.
If Jeremiah was
here with us today, no doubt he would weep.
He would lament.
Ours is a sorry
state of affairs and worthy of lament; the modern day equivalent of the times
of Jeremiah.
We need a prophet
to give voice to our lament and frustration.
We need a modern
day Jeremiah to cry out with loud voice,
“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
The image of the balm of Gilead
is an interesting choice. Known throughout
the ancient near east for its medicinal qualities, the balm of Gilead was
prized for its restorative powers and the ability of its perfume to cover foul
and offensive odors.
“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
In other words,
is there nothing and no one that can cure this disease and cover the stench of
injustice and unrighteousness? Is there
no physician who can cure these people?
It is important
to note here who is doing the speaking.
It is clear from both the context of the writing and the language of the
prophet that this lament is not Jeremiah’s.
It is God’s. These are God’s
words while looking out over the scorched moral landscape of the people of
Israel.
Apart of me finds
great comfort in knowing that this is God’s voice. It is comforting to hear God speak these
words of frustration and lament and sorrow because knowing that God feels it
too means something. It matters. It reminds me that ours is a God not standing
far and disconnected from the world but one who stands so close that even the
stench of our sinfulness reaches God.
“Is
there no balm in Gilead? Is there no
physician here?”
A part of me finds it very
comforting that God speaks those words.
Another part of me, however, looks at the world’s suffering and wants to
shake a fist at God and say, “if you don’t like what you see, fix it! Quit asking if there is no physician
here. You are the physician! So, physician, heal thyself!”
Part of me is
comforted by God’s capacity to lament, but part of me is also frustrated by
God’s seeming refusal to use God’s capacity to fix what is so lamentable!
“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
Yes there is a
balm and it is you. Yes there is a
physician and it is you! So, God so get
to work!
Of course, that
is not how it worked then and it is not how it works now. Ours is not a God who waves a magic want and
makes it all better.
In fact, it would
go against the very nature of God to do that; to wave a magic wand and make the
whole world ok; to wipe away any trace of injustice or oppression in the
world.
What Jeremiah
gave voice to in lament; what God cries out over in our text today; what we see
when we look across the decaying moral landscape of the world, what we see is
not a design flaw in creation in need of a fix by the creator. No, what we see is the tangible, visible,
enduring wages of human sinfulness in the midst of creation.
The reason God
does not simply fix the world is simply that God did not break it in the first
place.
God said, let
there be light. We are the ones who keep
choosing darkness.
God said, let
there be abundance of life. We are the
ones who choose consumption and greed.
If we take the
Bible at its word, God’s fundamental desire for humanity is that we flourish
and thrive in the midst of God’s creation.
And to achieve that flourishing and thriving, God created the world as a
paradise and made it a gift to humanity.
That we have
taken paradise and made it into a living hell for so many of God’s children is
at the root of God’s lament.
It is clear in
the book of Jeremiah and if we are honest with ourselves, it is clear today,
that the root causes of injustice and inequality in the world are not inherent
in creation but the wages of our individual and corporate sin.
Each year enough
food is grown worldwide to feed every person on the planet, if we only had the
moral courage to get the food where it needs to go.
There is enough
wealth in this nation to ensure that no person goes hungry or without shelter,
if we only had the moral courage to get the resources where they need to go.
There is enough
biblical imperative to lead us to treat each and every person with the dignity
of a child of God, if we only had the moral courage to stand up to racism,
sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and every other human effort to divide God’s
children.
The world that
God created as a paradise is as we have allowed it to become.
And God laments
that state of affairs.
God weeps over
that state of affairs.
God cries out in
anguish, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Still, as much as
our shattering and abuse of the perfect shalom of God’s creation grieves God,
God cannot and will not go along with unjust and inhumane practices by waving a
magic wand and making everything better.
God cannot and
will not wipe away the tangible wages of our sins in this world because to do
so would make God an accessory after the fact to our wanton disregard of the
shalom and promise of creation.
In truth, I think
some of the grieving we hear in God’s voice in this lament over the world is
rooted not only in the suffering of God’s people but in the pain God bears in
knowing that it doesn’t have to be this way.
It doesn’t have
to be this way.
Beneath the words
of anguish and despair; behind the voice of the weeping prophet, there is in
here a message of hope.
Yes, our hearts
are anguished because God’s heart is anguished.
Yet, we who read
these words of lament on this side of the empty tomb read them through the lens
of “Alleluia, he is risen he is risen indeed!”
We can read these
words and participate in God’s anguish and even beg the same questions asked by
God,
“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
But when we ask them, we have the
benefit of knowing God’s promised answer in the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
In Christ, the
creator of paradise defined by perfect shalom comes into the world bearing that
shalom once again.
If the root of
the lamentable state of affairs in the world is our sin, then what balm do we
need but the grace of Jesus Christ? What
physician can heal us beyond the wholeness we find in Christ?
In Jesus Christ,
God snaps the neck of the cycle of destruction and despair that trapped
generations. God, being God, refuses to
let lament have the last word and sends Christ into the world to be the healing
balm not only for Gilead but the whole of creation.
In Jesus Christ is healing balm
and in Jesus Christ is the healer’s hand.
Christ is God’s promise to the world that songs of lament will be
supplanted by hymns of praise.
Even in the midst
of a world of sin and beyond the prophet’s songs of lament, God’s one final
word for all creation rings out; hope.
Is there no balm
in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Yes and yes. On nothing less is our hope built.
Amen and amen.
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