Scripture. Mark 1:29-39. NRSV.
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
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When I sit down to write the final version of my message early on whatever day I am going to preach - Sundays when we meet in person, Saturdays when I am recording - the first thing I do is read the passage over again, and pray. I pray to hear whatever God wants me to say. I pray for my mind to settle so that I CAN hear whatever God wants me to say. Sometimes it takes a little more to get in the right frame of mind. This morning, after I lit my candle and set up my document and read the passage again and prayed, I still wasn’t quite there. So I turned to YouTube and I found a video of operatic sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman singing “There is a Balm in Gilead.” I got lost in the music, and in the feeling the words inspired.
Healing has been on my mind for quite a while. As individuals and as a nation, we are in great need of healing right now. We have been living through a time like no other in living memory. We are angry, frustrated, rebellious, depressed, anxious, fearful, and grieving. We are wounded in spirit.
In first century Palestine the people were suffering under the yoke of the Roman occupation - the Pax Romana, Roman peace, brought to their nation and maintained at sword point. They were over taxed. Rape and forced labor were common. They were not safe in their own country. There were frequent rebellions, put down easily by Roman soldiers. They were wounded in spirit. They were also hopeful, waiting for the one whom God would send to free them, because God had ALWAYS sent someone to free them.
John had been preaching repentance and baptizing, and prophesying the Messiah’s coming. He baptized Jesus, and God spoke, saying you are my beloved son. Then, we are told, the Spirit forced Jesus into the wilderness for forty days where he was tempted by Satan, after which (and after John’s arrest) he started preaching in Galilee. He called his first disciples, went into Capernaum to preach in the synagogue there, cast out a demon - who recognized him! but whom Jesus silenced - and then, along with James and John, went home with Simon and Andrew for dinner. This story takes place at the very beginning of his ministry. The people who had heard him preach and seen him cast out the demon in the synagogue had begun to spread the story of what they had seen and heard. And all those who had been waiting began to think that this, this man from Nazareth in Galilee, might be the one they had been waiting for.
Mind you, the people didn’t begin to spread the news of Jesus’ teaching and healing until after the events at the synagogue - and Mark tells us that Jesus and company went to Simon and Andrew’s house immediately, directly from the synagogue that day. So he wasn’t yet all that famous - his reputation did not precede him to Simon’s mother-in-law. She didn’t know him as a healer, and yet, when he touched her, when he took her hand and lifted her up, the fever left her.
Meanwhile, the story of what happened in the synagogue spread like wildfire throughout the city. Those who heard it brought their sick and demon-touched from all over the city for healing - and heal them he did. And again he silenced the demons, so that they could not tell the people who he was.
Later on Mark will tell us about the woman who had been hemorrhaging for years, and having been hearing stories about Jesus’ for quite some time, had so much faith in Jesus’ healing power that she believed if she could just touch the hem of his clothing she could be healed. And that Jesus would say to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Faith healing. It’s one of those kind of touchy parts of Christianity. Like speaking in tongues and casting out demons and prophetic visions. It’s one thing to believe that the ancient prophets and Jesus and some of his disciples and saints can do these things, but now? When we hear about faith healing we might think about one of those Big Tent revival preachers we see on TV shows and movies touching someone’s head and they fall to the floor, or throw away their crutches and kick up their heels as they dance down the aisle back to their seat, with everyone in the tent calling out Hallelujah! Of course, on TV shows the preacher is usually a fake, the person who was healed is a plant, and the people who were so desperate for a cure that they would put all their money in the basket, hoping that they, too, could be miraculously healed were invariably disappointed. They might be told that their faith just wasn’t strong enough.
Way too many people believe that if you ask God for healing, you will be healed IF you have enough faith. When I was in seminary one of my classmates came in, obviously distressed. When we asked what was wrong he told us his pastor had been fired the night before. She had been diagnosed with lupus a few months earlier, and it did not go away even after many prayers for healing. The congregation’s Board told her that she clearly did not have sufficient faith in God, or she would have been healed, and they could not have a pastor who was that lacking in faith. This was wrong on so many levels . . .
The Hollywood version of faith healing notwithstanding, being healed by faith is definitely a thing. It’s just that asking for a specific type of healing might not be fruitful. I don’t know whether you have ever been the recipient of prayers for healing, but I have. When I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1999, facing major surgery I started asking for prayer. The congregation I belonged to prayed, and all of my friends prayed, and they asked all their friends to pray. One friend sent a prayer request to a family member in Jerusalem, who stuck the prayer in the Wailing Wall. I could feel their prayers. I could feel God’s love. It was like I was being held in giant hands, or like a baby chick safely tucked under the hen’s wings. The cancer did not miraculously leave, but because of all those prayers I had peace of mind. My anxiety and worries were relieved. And because we tend to heal better when we aren’t worried, that allowed me to heal from the surgery so quickly it surprised the doctor! Prayers for healing may not “cure” the body, but they can absolutely heal the soul.
It is not just individuals who require healing of heart and spirit. Jeremiah tells us that God lamented over the suffering of his people.
“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 8:21-22. NRSV)
I think maybe God is speaking those words again today, for us as individuals and for our nation, indeed for the entire world. Our spiritual health is in need of healing, of restoration. We are in need of that balm, that physician. We are in need of healing touch. Our souls are tired. Our hearts are wounded. Our worries and anger and frustration and all of those things, all of those sins, keep us sick, keep us from being well - they keep us from good spiritual health, from loving as God would have us love. And God laments, God mourns when we are not well, when we are hurting.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Yes! Yes, there is.
There IS a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
To heal the sin-sick soul
The physician we need is Jesus, who came into the world, who was sent into the world to heal us all, to reconcile us all with each other and with God, in love. The balm is prayer, which we feel through the touch of the Holy Spirit, who brings us wisdom, who brings us understanding of God’s desires for us.
There is a balm in Gilead. And it is in our hands. Our discipleship challenge for this week is to apply that balm to all the peoples of the earth - to pray for the healing of all the wounded hearts and spirits - for an ending to the anger and hatred and division, the worries and anxieties and frustrations. For wholeness and healing. For a restoration of good health to all of God’s people. And all means All.
