Scripture
My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, 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?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”) “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? (Jeremiah 8:18-22, NRSV)
A Closer Look at the Passage in Context: Jeremiah 8:4-9:1
For many of us, the hymn “There Is a Balm in Gilead” is so familiar, we feel as if we already know this passage, as if we already know its message. It is, however, a powerful passage that deserves a closer look.
Jeremiah 8:4ff resounds with words of judgment and lament that so characterize this book of the Bible. Again and again Jeremiah addresses the people’s waywardness, their straying from right paths, using rhetorical questions to highlight the senselessness of it. One who falls gets up, right? One who strays turns back, right? So why not this people?! Animals show better sense than the people who have gone astray. The focus of 8:4-7 is on the people’s refusal to repent, to turn in a new direction.
Verses nine through 13 turn the critique to the “wise,” religious leaders—scribes, prophets and priests—whose teaching and “wisdom” conflict with the word of the Lord revealed to the prophet. The written word the religious leaders keep is not lived out in the actions God desires. The suffering that results from this judgment will affect not only the religious leaders but their families and communities. In fact, it is not only the wise who are indicted here, but the whole community, “because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from the prophet to priest everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jer. 8:10b-11)
8:14-17 describes the military threat from the North and with great irony describes the people deciding to flee to the city for shelter, only to find judgment and danger there.
Finally, to our central focus: 8:18-9:1, which begins with tears and sorrow. Patrick D. Miller, Charles T. Haley Professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, and others suggest that the one weeping may be God, not only the prophet as many have imagined. In verse 19b and again in verse 22, the prophet asks three rhetorical questions, the third of which is accusatory. “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Of course there is. “The balm was a resin from the Styrax tree produced especially in the Transjordan region and widely used for medicinal purposes.” (Oxford Annotated Bible) It was as plentiful as ever. “Is there no physician there?” Again, the rhetorical question assumes the answer is, “yes, there is a physician there.” Then, the next question accuses, “Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” The problem is not the absence of resources for healing. The problem is the sin and injustice of the people that have resulted in such judgment and suffering. And so our passage ends with the prophet and God weeping “day and night for the slain of my people!”
Theological Themes
Patrick Miller notes the movement from sin to judgment to lament in this and other passages in Jeremiah. “The logic is that in this movement a sinful people evoke God’s judgment and end up in grievous lamentation, a lament that is shared by the prophet and by God.” (p. 642 The New Interpreter’s Bible).
This passage also emphasizes another theme in Jeremiah: turn and return. The Hebrew word shub is used both in describing the people’s turning away from the right path and their repenting, turning back to God. The active nature of “turn away” and “turn back” helps recast sin and repentance from passive states of one’s heart, as they are sometimes seen, to acts and choices that we make. The indwelling of God places conditions on the heart of the believer that must be lived out in their actions.
Too, no single class or sort of person has a corner on sin in this passage. The people of Judah are held accountable, the religious leaders are held accountable, the community as a whole from the least to the greatest is said to experience sin. There can be no finger pointing among those who sin; all are judged…and all are invited to return to God.
Pastoral Implications
There are those who do not have health care coverage in virtually every congregation.
Surely they identify with the cry, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
Too often this identification, however, is made in silence. Many people experience shame about being uninsured and feel a sense of failure. Pastors, congregation members and friends may be unaware of those who experience the stress and physical repercussions of lack of insurance.
Even those who have health insurance may be in the midst of a health crisis of their own or that of a loved one. Surely the cry and question is upon their heart, “Why then has [my] health…not been restored?” To be sure, one needs to recognize that health care coverage is not a guarantee against sickness and injury, and insured people may experience their own struggles and grief over poor health.
Still others may come to this text with the familiar words of the hymn in their head, “There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.” In discussing health in a religious context, one always needs to be mindful of the connection many still make between sickness and sin; surely, if I (or she) had not done something wrong, had not been sinful, I (or she) would not be “punished” like this. Pastoral sensitivity is called for to ensure that the sick, or the uninsured, do not blame themselves, and that others do not blame them and assign a moral judgment to the one who is suffering.
Preaching the Lesson
“Sin-sick soul” is not a medical condition, it is a spiritual condition. And it is not only an individual complaint but the status of society.
The themes of turning away and repenting and a movement from sin to judgment to lamentation are especially fitting in the context of Cover the Uninsured Week as it is observed by congregations across the nation.
While we might like to keep the notion of sin vague and at arm’s length, we are confronted by concrete examples close to home:
· How would God judge our nation’s sin in allowing 8.5 million children—the same number as every first- and second-grader in our country’s public schools—to lack health insurance and suffer the consequences?
· How would God judge the sin of our nation allowing nearly 44 million people to lack health insurance, and live sicker and die younger as a result?
· Can it be other than sin to live in a nation blessed with unparalleled health technologies, trained health care providers, state-of-the-art health care facilities, and allow one in eight persons to lack health insurance and the access to the care that he or she needs?
· How would our silence and inaction on solving the problem of the uninsured be judged, when we know that people who are uninsured live sicker and often die younger as a result?
Surely, this fails to meet God’s standard of justice and God’s expectations of community and compassion.
Our scripture gives voice to the anguish that the prophet and God feel at the sin of the people, at the unrelieved suffering, at the failure of justice and compassion.
The prophet asks rhetorically, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
The answer, or course, is that there is. There is balm, as always. There are physicians as before. “Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” The difficult truth is that their health has not been restored because of the nation’s injustice and lack of compassion, because of their stubborn refusal to live as God’s beloved community.
When those who are uninsured live sicker and die younger, surely we too cry, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people been restored?”
When uninsured women with breast cancer are twice as likely to die of it than insured women, surely we cry “Is there no balm in Gilead…”
When uninsured men are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed at a late stage of colon cancer as men with insurance, will we ask, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”
When children without health insurance are seven times more likely to go without needed medical care than children who have health insurance, shall we not demand to know, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?”
Would this cry be on the lips of Rosemary? Rosemary was laid off from her job in September and cannot afford her COBRA premiums, which would have allowed her to pay to continue the coverage previously provided by her employer. As a survivor of breast and cervical cancer, premiums for individual private insurance are sky-high. Although at risk for a recurrence of her cancers, she has been unable to afford even a basic check-up with the doctors that she saw for her original treatment. Instead, she lives in fear for her health.
Would Tabitha ask with us, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” Tabitha, the mother of two small children, is self-employed as a licensed in-home child care provider. Both of Tabitha’s children are covered by Medicaid. However, with a monthly income of $1,600, Tabitha earns too much to qualify for Medicaid herself and too little to pay for private insurance.
Should we not ask, “Why has the health of my poor people not been restored?” when we hear the experience of Robert? Robert, the father of two young children, is a self-employed seasonal general contractor who for a long time was unable to afford the costs of private health insurance for himself, his wife and their children. Although he recently managed to pay for coverage for his children and wife, he is only able to afford catastrophic coverage for himself. Because of his limited coverage, he has not sought care for a chronic condition that would improve with treatment.
We need not remain stuck in “lament.” Today, as in Jeremiah’s day, God invites us to turn away from the wrong path and to return to God, to fulfill God’s standard of justice and compassion. Cover the Uninsured Week states the choice before us simply: We can let millions of Americans live without health care coverage, or we can do something about it.”
Prayer
O God, our Comforter in sorrow, our hearts ache this day for the millions of people who suffer illness and injury, for those who lack health insurance and cannot get the care they need, for those who despair and fear they will not be saved.
You are the Balm of our souls. Restore our hearts and wills to wholeness with your healing balm, we pray, so that we will be prepared to act with justice and love to care for your people. Move our hearts to weep with their pain. Move our hands to reach out with comfort. Move our wills to work so that the resources you have blessed us with are available to all. Amen.
