Weeping Day And Night For The Slain
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
In this week’s lectionary passage from the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah describes God’s feeling of utter desolation in the wake of his people’s sinful behavior: “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.” He continues by achingly wondering whether there is any healing to be found: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” That feeling of complete hopelessness and despair is one we all have felt at some point in our lives -- and in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin notes that Jeremiah’s words seem to encapsulate the plight of communities and families who have been victimized by violence. That seems to be especially true in Chicago, where a spate of killings over Labor Day weekend took the city’s total past 500 for the year. The senseless nature of many of the city’s homicides was epitomized by the murder last week of an elderly man watering his lawn. In places like Chicago’s ghettos -- or in Aleppo, the flashpoint of Syria’s civil war -- where human life is so easily taken, we wonder: How can families and friends find healing for wounds that never go away? Is there no balm in Gilead? The only way, Mary points out, to find true restoration is to turn to God and to each other in order to heal the world’s suffering as best we can.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the theme of finding healing, focusing on the stress, pressure, and suffering experienced by pastors as they lead their flock... and how even pastors sometimes find no balm in Gilead. That apparently was the case for a prominent Presbyterian pastor in Arizona who recently committed suicide. While few pastors will find themselves pushed to such extremes, it is a difficult profession emotionally, spiritually, and financially. So how can the clergy -- who are often seen by their congregations as sources of healing and restoration -- find healing and restoration themselves when walking through what the psalmist calls “the darkest valley”? Chris suggests that the people in the pews might follow the advice of Paul when he writes to Timothy to pray for everyone -- and that pastors might be included along with the civic officials that Paul specifies.
Weeping Day and Night for the Slain
by Mary Austin
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
On Labor Day weekend, the city of Chicago reached a milestone that no one wants: its 500th murder of 2016. Five hundred times this year, the news has displayed a blurry family photo or a serene-looking graduation shot and announced another death. Five hundred times this year, and 473 times last year, and hundreds of times in the years before, police have put up yellow tape, interviewed witnesses, taken a body to the morgue, and tried to figure out what caused this death, and what is causing so many others. Everyone has an opinion about the cause: ineffective gun laws, a shortage of detectives, cuts in public services, social decay, reluctant witnesses, a lack of economic opportunity, and mistrust of the police, to name a few.
Whatever the cause, the people of Chicago carry a burden of grief unlike anything in other U.S. cities. Neighborhoods have been hit hard with death after death, and the people of Chicago are experiencing the truth of the prophet Jeremiah’s words: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.... Is there no balm in Gilead?... Why has the health of my poor people not been restored?”
Jeremiah’s words call out the city’s grief, and the people’s questions about when this will end, and why there is no salvation from this sorrow.
In the News
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says lax gun laws in Chicago contribute to the high murder rate: “Bratton agreed with Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who recently said, ‘If we had the gun laws in Chicago that L.A. and New York have we would see our violent crime cut in half.’ ” Bratton noted that Chicago police confiscate guns at a greater rate than New York and Los Angeles, but are hampered by the laws of the city.
Once a murder has been committed, solving the crime is another issue: “Chicago police are solving homicides at a far lower rate than their counterparts in some other major cities, which may reflect how hard it is for detectives to crack the culture of silence surrounding the violence committed by the city’s street gangs. Of the 432 homicides committed between January 1 and August 16 of this year, the department has solved 92, or 21 percent of them, the Chicago Tribune reported.” The level of mistrust between police and citizens surely also plays a role, as Chicago residents await news about the fate of the police officers who shot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. A grand jury will examine whether there was a police cover-up in that case.
Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass says the real story is the number of non-fatal shootings in the city: 2,949 so far this year. “And by shootings,” he says, “I don’t mean thugs shooting off guns in the air. I mean shootings where bullets pierce human skin, destroying flesh, bones, organs, and lives. On average, 12 people are shot in Chicago every day. ‘Shootings are really attempted murders. These are shootings not to scare but to kill, these are bullets hitting bodies,’ Dr. Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminology at Loyola University Chicago, told me. ‘And that’s what we should be calling them: attempted murders.’ In 2015 there were 2,988 human beings shot in Chicago, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune. So far in 2016, there have been 2,949 people shot, according to the Tribune.” These shootings, while not fatal, leave behind a legacy of fear, trauma, medical expenses, and physical limitations.
The people of Aleppo, Syria, have much to lament too, even as a brokered ceasefire is expected to begin this week. As one resident said, “If you ask anyone who lives in Aleppo if they’re happy, or if they’re capable of being happy and forgetting, most of them will tell you my son is dead and won’t be with me this Eid, or my wife is gone, and those who did not lose anyone are living in terror and you cannot be happy when you’re living in terror.” People are suffering in every imaginable way. “Amid the siege, many in eastern Aleppo have been left to subsist on rice or bulgur as their main food. Doctors can no longer come into the city to treat the wounded whose flow continues unabated, nor can they transfer patients out to places such as the Turkish border where they can receive treatment. Medicine and equipment are in short supply, leaving those with chronic conditions to suffer, inadvertent victims of the war who are not counted among the casualties... [there are] more cases of malnutrition, and there is little baby milk remaining in the city. With no regular power supply, water purification and distribution pumps are sitting idle, leaving people without clean water.”
In the Scriptures
In the text just before our selection, God has been lamenting the faithlessness of the people, and wondering why they don’t turn back to the word of the Lord. God promises to destroy human bonds, and to give the people’s goods and lands away. A great selfishness has come over the people, and “from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.” Then the people have a turn to lament, saying “We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.”
Just before this section, verse 17 concludes with “says the Lord.” Some readers believe that this section belongs to Jeremiah, who is well known as “the weeping prophet,” lamenting Israel’s turn away from God and the sorrow he sees around him. Other readers believe that God continues to speak, giving voice to grief over the fate of the people.
The speaker -- whether God or prophet -- is grieved by the sorrows of the people. “Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: ‘Is the Lord not in Zion?’ ” The people of Israel look for a power greater than their devastation, and find that they are not saved. The healing balm of Gilead is no match for this bone-deep sorrow; no physician except God can bring healing into this wound of separation between God and people.
In the Sermon
The people of Israel are in a place of distress that is too deep for easy answers, as are their modern counterparts, the people of Chicago and Aleppo. In each place of unending grief, the presence of God is needed, but people have a calling also.
The sermon might explore what it looks like when God doesn’t fit our expectations. For the people of ancient Israel peace will come too late, as the Babylonian army invades. For the people of Syria, even peace won’t undo the horrors of the past few years. For the people of Chicago, even stricter gun laws and more police officers working cases won’t bring back the dead, relieve the trauma of the survivors, and heal the paralyzed. How do we keep on living when God confounds our expectations? What do we do with a God who seems too slow? How do we sustain hope when everything around us is bleak?
The sermon might also look at how we endure the inevitable hard, awful seasons of life. What resources do we call upon (or develop) to help us live in places of pain? After we voice our own lament, what comes next?
Or the sermon might explore what we owe to each other. Jeremiah is doing his best to call the people back to God, using all of the gifts and energy he has. What do we owe to our fellow citizens when we find them in distress? Pain is distributed unevenly in our world, and it’s easy to look away when it’s not our own misery. Do we have an obligation, born from our faith, to those who are suffering?
The voice speaking here tells us that there is an odd kinship in pain -- when others suffer, we are called to lament on their behalf. We call to God on their behalf, even as God calls out in lament for the suffering too. Mysterious bonds join God and the sufferers, and we are connected to the tearful people of Chicago and Aleppo and even the house next door. There is no balm in Gilead until all the world’s suffering is mended. Until that time, we lift our voices -- like the prophet -- with praise and prayer and tears as the world’s suffering comes into our hearts.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Is There Any Balm in the Parsonage?
by Chris Keating
1 Timothy 2:1-7; Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
For members of Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley, Arizona, Jeremiah’s summer-ending lament is an apt description of their grief over the recent death of their pastor.
During a funeral service for Rev. Larry DeLong on September 3, the church’s communion table was draped with many of his pastoral stoles -- a colorful reminder of the comforting yoke of Christ, as well as the call to pastoral ministry.
DeLong, 60, took his own life on August 26. He’d been the pastor of the large church since 2009, which is located in a retirement community south of Tucson. Is there any balm in the desert of our grief?
As with any suicide, the mysteries surrounding DeLong’s death are complex for his family, parishioners, and colleagues. Like Jeremiah, their joy is gone, their hearts are sick, and grief is upon them. Questions abound -- especially in light of one of his rather perplexing final Facebook posts. Just weeks before, DeLong posted a quirky meme with the quote “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you actually have been planted.”
“We are sad, this church family is very sad,” said associate pastor Paul Phillips. Shortly after a family vacation, DeLong disappeared. His body was found hours later inside his car at a local park. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Married with two teenaged children, DeLong was a former navy chaplain known for his “approachable demeanor, common-sense presentation of the Bible and self-deprecating sense of humor.”
At 6'6", DeLong was an imposing yet gentle figure in the pulpit and around town. Church members attending his funeral were offered a chance to hold or wear one of his brightly colored neckties as a way of remembering DeLong, who once said that “We believe that God is always there, that you don’t fit God into your life, but see how your life fits into God.”
Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. More than 42,000 Americans die of suicide every year, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. About 117 persons take their lives every day -- with those aged 45-64 accounting for about 19 percent of suicides. Perhaps as many as a million people per year make a suicide attempt.
While it is unclear why DeLong took his own life, what is clear is that suicide is more common than we admit. Suicide rates in the United States have been rising since 1999, and have increased worldwide 60% in the last 45 years according to the World Health Organization.
(If you are in crisis, or if you need help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK[8255].)
The stabbing pains associated with suicide grief are accentuated in DeLong’s case because of his multiple roles as husband, father, pastor, leader, chaplain, colleague. For his wife and children, there is the grief of having their private moments exposed publicly. For the congregation and his colleagues, there are the agonizing and unanswerable questions of what signs they may have missed or what may have compounded his inner struggles.
The summer has ended, and their grief is palpable. The bereaved congregation in Arizona may well be asking “Was there no balm in the parsonage?”
Pastors struggle with that question. Ministry is demanding. Pastors experience high rates of depression, which often prompts suicidal thoughts. Pastors are evaluated publicly, juggling multiple roles while responding to emergencies. One study notes that the “strain of these roles is further amplified by having to switch rapidly between them.”
Meanwhile, some pastors feel uncomfortable talking about their stress. The truth of the matter is that at times pastoral life ain’t so pastoral and bucolic -- the weeks are long, the conversations stressful, the contexts isolating. But at least the pay is great, right?
Oops.
There’s a clue, perhaps, within Paul’s exhortations to prayer that might help. One study details how small actions by parishioners can improve the well-being of their pastors. Researchers at Duke University showed that even small words of kindness can improve the emotional lives of pastors. Taking a pastor to lunch, offering to babysit her kids, or even dropping dinner by every now and then can become a soothing aloe poured out on pastors’ withering spirits.
Or even offering to pray for them.
Perhaps Paul’s words could enhance a congregation’s understanding of prayer. We could gift our congregations with the invitation to think creatively about how this lesson on prayer shapes our own ministries. Paul’s words could become an invitation to deeper understanding and thoughtful action.
Thomas Long explores the theological foundation for prayer in 1 Timothy. “God is at work in the world doing saving work,” he writes. “Calling all human beings to their full humanity, summoning worldly rulers to their proper labor for justice, healing the estrangements between humanity and God -- and prayer is one of the powerful ways that Christians actively participate in [God’s] divine saving action” (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus [Westminster/John Knox Press, 2016], p. 63).
Prayer for all -- rulers, governors, emperors, yes, but also pastors, custodians, secretaries, and youth ministers. This is what forms the wellspring of congregational renewal. Here is the balm to soothe pastoral spirits and heal divided congregations. Not words of magic or sentimentality, but prayer modeled on the bold intercession of Jesus.
The community addressed in Timothy lacks understanding of how prayer functions. Prayer seems to have fallen out of fashion among some. In response, Paul calls the congregation to a life of prayer modeled on God’s work in Jesus Christ -- a life of praying for all, including (perhaps surprisingly) the emperor.
This is not to suggest that pastors ought to be on par with royalty. Instead, note the importance Paul places on prayer that is candid and bold. It is the sort of prayer which takes full cognizance of the difficulties of daily life, the grim struggles and staggering threats of life lived in the shadow of a ruthless emperor... or perhaps ministry lived in the shadow of a towering steeple.
In either case, Paul’s pastoral advice becomes balm poured upon the church’s broken and blistered skin. It becomes grace that enables a congregation to see how its petty arguments have damaged its leaders. It becomes a way for our congregations to carry the yoke of Christ, relieving the burden pastors too often carry alone.
“The function of prayer,” says Sister Joan Chittister, “is not magic. The function of prayer is not the bribery of the Infinite. The function of prayer is not to change the mind of God about decisions we have already made for ourselves. The function of prayer is to change my own mind, to put on the mind of Christ, to enable grace to break into me.”
We do not know what prompted Larry DeLong’s tragic decision. But it is possible that those caught in the grinding wheels of ministry may yet find a sweet balm in Paul’s advice to Timothy. In guiding our congregations to offer prayers for all, we may well find the sources of our own healing and hope, leading to lives that are quiet and peaceable.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Thank God for Pain
Dr. Paul W. Brand, who was the chief of the rehabilitation branch of the leprosy hospital in Carville, Louisiana, arrived in London after an exhausting transatlantic ocean trip and long train ride from the English coast. He was scheduled to deliver a lecture and to consult on some cases the next day, and he was getting ready for bed. He took off his shoes, and as he pulled off a sock he discovered that there was no feeling in his heel. Most people would write such a thing off to simply a momentary numbness, but it terrified Dr. Brand. He had convinced himself and his staff at the leprosarium that there was no danger of infection from leprosy after it reached a certain stage. But a loss of feeling in the extremities was the first sign of the onset of leprosy. Had he been wrong?
He found a pin and used it to test his foot for feeling. Nothing. Even when he drew blood there was no pain. Dr. Brand slept little that night and prayed much. In the morning he found the pin and tried again -- and when he felt pain he nearly wept with relief.
Now he realized that during the long train ride, sitting immobile, he had numbed a nerve. How blessed was the sensation of pain! He prayed another prayer: “Thank God for pain!”
-- from Ten Fingers for God by Dorothy Clarke Wilson
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
No Humbug
One of the truly great moments in the long history of medicine occurred on a tense fall morning in the surgical amphitheater of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital.
It was there, on Oct. 16, 1846, that a dentist named William T.G. Morton administered an effective anesthetic to a surgical patient. Consenting to what became a most magnificent scientific revolution were John Warren, an apprehensive surgeon, and Glenn Abbott, an even more nervous young man about to undergo removal of a vascular tumor on the left side of his neck.
Both Warren and Abbott sailed through the procedure painlessly, although some have noted that Abbott moved a bit near the end. Turning away from the operating table toward the gallery packed with legitimately dumbstruck medical students, Dr. Warren gleefully exclaimed, “Gentlemen, this is no humbug!”
Morton named his “creation” Letheon, after the Lethe River of Greek mythology. Drinking its waters, the ancients contended, erased painful memories. Today, we know it as an archaic form of anesthesia called “ether.”
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
The Curse of Feeling No Pain
Several years ago on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a young girl thought she was a superhero because she felt no pain. You could kick her, pinch her, scrape her, burn her -- she wouldn’t flinch. But she wasn’t a superhero. She had a rare disorder called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP).
Most of us hear of this condition and think that not being able to feel pain would be a blessing. No tears, no painkillers, no lingering aches. But in reality, not being able to feel pain is dangerous. Pain tells you when you’ve pushed too far, when you’re in a situation you need to get out of, and when something is terribly wrong. If you step on a piece of glass or bang your head too hard, you know you need medical attention. But what if you never felt it?
CIP is the inability to feel pain, and is one of a family of disorders called hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy. Patients can feel pressure but not pain, so they are likely to injure or mutilate themselves without meaning to. This inability to feel physical pain does not extend to emotional pain, however. People with CIP feel emotional pain just like anyone else.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Balm of Gilead
Balm of Gilead (Cammiphora opobalsamum, known as Populus candicans in the United States) is a substance used in perfumes that is derived from the resinous juices of the balsam poplar tree. The tree is a member of the Bursera family, native to the continents of Africa and Asia, and stands about 10-12 feet in height. The cultivated North American variety can grow to heights of 100 feet.
The resin of the tree is collected when it seeps out of the tree during the summer months. Seepage increases when humidity levels are high. Slits are often made in the tree’s bark to collect the resin more rapidly. The bark and leaf buds are also collected.
The herb’s name derives from the ancient region of Gilead in Palestine, known for the great healing powers of its balm. Balm of Gilead is mentioned several times in the Bible and in the writings of Pliny the Elder, who tells of the tree being brought to Rome in the first century CE. The historian Josephus recorded that the Queen of Sheba made a gift of balm of Gilead to King Solomon.
In addition to being used in the composition of perfumes, balm of Gilead is used to soothe ailments of the mucous membranes. It is taken internally to ease coughs and respiratory infections. The balm is also said to relieve laryngitis and sore throats, and it can be combined with coltsfoot to make a cough suppressant.
For the internal treatment of chest congestion, balm of Gilead is made into a tincture or a syrup. For external treatment of bruises, swellings, and minor skin irritations, the balm is combined with lard or oil and applied as needed. The bark, which contains traces of salicylic acid (aspirin), can be combined with willow and rosemary and used as an analgesic to relieve fevers, muscle aches, and arthritic pain.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
The Power of Public Grief
Writing for Psychology Today, Melody Warnick tells of a 2015 study by Miriam Rennung and Anja S. Göritz at the University of Freiburg, who set out to test the effects of sharing negative emotion. They gathered study participants into groups of three or four and had them watch video clips from sad movies like Schindler’s List, either collectively, semi-circled around a large screen, or on their own laptops with earbuds, not knowing that the person next to them was watching the same thing.
Participants who communally watched the same clip felt closer to each other and more socially cohesive afterward than the people who’d stayed in their own head space. Experiencing negative effect together, at the same time, with attention focused on the same depressing point, made them feel bonded.
In other words, the candlelight vigils, the public memorial services, the placing of stuffed teddy bears at community shrines, all of the public demonstrations of grief that people seem compelled to express actually foster social connections among people who vitally need it. Hopefully, write Debra Jackson and Kim Usher in an editorial in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, it’ll “contribute to community healing and recovery from trauma.”
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Phyllis Schlafly, a leader of the conservative movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, was a strong supporter of Sen. Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, which he lost in a landslide. But she is credited as being one of the individuals who set the stage for Ronald Reagan’s landslide presidential victory in 1980. Yet this woman who was so identified with the anti-feminist movement paid no attention to the equal rights amendment (ERA) when it was first introduced in Congress. After it passed the House of Representatives, a friend asked her to debate a feminist on the ERA amendment. It was only then that Schlafly read it. Distraught by its implications, Schlafly founded and appointed herself chairwoman of Stop ERA -- “Stop” representing an acronym for “stop taking our privileges.” Schlafly said, “I knew only one law that was discriminatory toward women, a law in North Dakota stipulating that a wife had to have her husband’s permission to make wine.”
Application: Jeremiah warned us against living a life that was unaware of our social environment.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Philip Kingsley, who recently died, was known as an authority on healthy hair and scalp. He developed a number of products to foster healthy hair -- but he never claimed to be able to stop baldness, just how to deal with it more effectively. His clients consisted of some of the biggest names in the movie industry and politics. Kingsley, known for coining the phrase “bad hair day,” said: “Hair is the single most important part of the anatomy affecting our psyche.”
Application: As we read today’s lectionary lesson, we know that Jeremiah was having a “bad hair day.”
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; Amos 8:4-7
Anna Dewdney was an author and illustrator of children’s books, best known for her Llama Llama books. Dewdney said, “A good children’s book can be read by an adult to a child and experienced genuinely by both. A good children’s book is like a good performance. I don’t feel my world really exists until an adult has read it to a child.”
Application: The prophets wanted the people to be reintroduced to the scriptures with a child-like faith.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; Amos 8:4-7; Luke 16:1-13
Kenneth Briggs, the former religion editor of the New York Times, has just published a book titled The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America. As a lifelong reporter on what he calls the “Godbeat,” Brooks has seen, in his words, the Bible “become a museum exhibit, hallowed as a treasure but enigmatic and untouched.” He says that “people aren’t reading it very much” and that the Bible no longer appears in “public discourse” nor is it a part of the “public consciousness.” Briggs says the Bible remains popular as an “artifact,” a “keepsake,” and as a “rabbit’s foot,” but it is no longer being read. He notes that megachurches have substituted multimedia presentations for the Bible, and that most people leave the exploration of truth to the entertainment industry.
Application: All of our lectionary readings for today discuss what happens when the sacred scriptures are no longer a part of the community and individual lives.
*****
Amos 8:4-7
In her political evangelism, Phyllis Schlafly claimed to be just an ordinary housewife. She always let it be known that she breastfed all six of her children and taught each of them to read before they started school. She was also proud that as a housewife she was able to earn a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. But her opponents called her a hypocrite for something she never shared with the public -- that this “ordinary housewife” was married to an extremely wealthy lawyer who provided her with opportunities that were never available to a real ordinary housewife.
Application: Amos warned us against practicing deceit.
*****
Amos 8:4-7
Phyllis Schlafly -- known as a conservative leader with staunchly anti-feminist views -- denied that a “virtuous woman” could be sexual harassed at the workplace because, Schlafly maintained, such a woman’s biblical principles would protect her. Furthermore, Schlafly looked upon the atomic bomb as “a marvelous gift that that was given to our country by a wise God.”
Application: Amos warned us against practicing deceit.
*****
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was known for her artistic career, and most notably as a commentator on NPR extolling the virtues of the Gullah food and culture of her native South Carolina. But before Smart-Grosvenor discovered her niche as a spokesperson for Gullah cooking, she spent years searching for a meaning in life. That search took her to an artist’s colony in Paris. As she was walking down the Boulevard Saint-Germain she thought to herself, “I can’t paint, I can’t write, and I can’t sing and dance... but something great and wonderful is gonna happen to me. The myth of Europe made me believe in the possibilities.”
Application: Paul declares in his letter that we do have a purpose in life.
*****
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Leslie Martinson, best known as the director of popular television shows and movies from the 1950s through the 1980s, recently died. Martinson began his career as a reporter for the Boston Evening Transcript. When he was on assignment in Los Angeles, a vision took him on a different career path from newspaper writing to authoring television shows and movies. Martinson said, “I looked at the walls of MGM, and said that’s where I want to go.”
Application: In our call to discipleship and preaching the gospel, Paul wants to make sure that we know where we want to go.
*****
Luke 16:1-13
Phyllis Schlafly -- known for her staunchly conservative views on social issues -- often failed to respect anyone who did not think and believe as she did... something that caused her to lose credibility with those in the middle of the political and social spectrum. When her son John made it public that he was homosexual, his mother took the announcement as a deliberate attempt to embarrass her -- and the revelation did not deter her from continuing to attack homosexuality. Schlafly said of gay couples, and regarding her own son: “Nobody’s stopping them from shacking up. The problem is that they are trying to make us respect them, and that’s an interference with what we believe.”
Application: Jesus taught about respect and acceptance and equality.
*****
Luke 16:1-13
Hugh O’Brian is a familiar name to those who watched television in the late 1950s for his starring role in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. But O’Brian considered his real legacy to be the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership foundation. This organization trained young people, in his words, to “become positive catalysts for change.” O’Brian came to the realization of the importance of contributing to society beyond acting after visiting Albert Schweitzer in Africa.
Application: Jesus challenges us to understand our priorities.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: How long, O God? Will you be angry forever?
People: Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
Leader: Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors.
People: Let your compassion come speedily to meet us.
Leader: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
People: Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
OR
Leader: God is here! Let us worship and praise our God.
People: We come to this place to offer our songs of praise.
Leader: God is in this place and wherever we are.
People: Sometimes we forget that God is always with us.
Leader: Known or unknown, God is always present.
People: With faith and hope, we will expect to meet God everywhere.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Immortal, Invisible”
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
“I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
found in:
UMH: 521
PH: 363
AAHH: 563
NNBH: 500
NCH: 490
CH: 627
W&P: 506
AMEC: 375
“God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale”
found in:
UMH: 122
PH: 272
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELA: 740
W&P: 29
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 349
NNBH: 195
ELA: 284
W&P: 472
CCB: 55
“Pues Si Vivimos” (“When We Are Living”)
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELA: 639
W&P: 415
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Bread of the World”
found in:
UMH: 624
H82: 301
PH: 502
NCH: 346
CH: 387
W&P: 693
“All I Need Is You”
found in:
CCB: 100
“Learning to Lean”
found in:
CCB: 74
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who created us in your image and then became one of us: Grant us the faith to find you at our side in the worst of times so that we may face all life brings to us with hope and love; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us in your image. You then lived among us as one of us. Shine the light of your Spirit upon us, that we may have enough faith to discern your presence among us in even the worst of times. Help us to face all of life with hope and love as we share our pain and grief, our joy and laughter. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to discern God during our dark hours.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We like to think of ourselves as being blessed and special to God when things are going well, but when the tough times come we are quick to accuse God of deserting us. Sometimes we think that bad things should never happen to us because we are Christians. We talk about the incarnation at Christmas, but forget that it was part of Good Friday as well. God, forgive us for our blindness, and renew us so that we might recognize your coming to us in all of life. Amen.
Leader: Emmanuel, God with us, is not just for the holiday season because God is with us always. Receive the love and forgiveness of God, which is ever-present.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship and praise your name, O God, for you are always with us. Your presence is not bound by time nor space.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We like to think of ourselves as being blessed and special to God when things are going well, but when the tough times come we are quick to accuse God of deserting us. Sometimes we think that bad things should never happen to us because we are Christians. We talk about the incarnation at Christmas, but forget that it was part of Good Friday as well. God, forgive us for our blindness, and renew us so that we might recognize your coming to us in all of life.
We give you thanks, O God, for all the times when we are aware of your presence among us and within us. We thank you for the joy of sharing in a loving community, knowing that you are here among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are in distress this day. We know it is difficult sometimes to remember that you love us and are always with us. Help us to be the physical reminders of your loving presence to those we are around.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Do/Did you have a special toy that you like to keep with you? (I had two that I slept with for most of my young childhood.) Sometimes we feel better just having something familiar close to us. It helps us to remember that we are loved and cared for by our parents/family. We can also think about God, who is always with us even when we are sick or scared or upset. We may lose or outgrow our stuffed animals, but we always have God.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7
The Old Testament Bible passage for today is a lament. Have you ever heard this word before? It’s not a word we use very often. A lament is a cry of sadness or a song of sadness. It’s a prayer or song that tells about the sadness. Speaking about being sad, or singing about it, lets a person express their feelings. This can be helpful.
In today’s Old Testament passage, the prophet Jeremiah laments. He talks about how sad he is, and how much it hurts him to watch God’s people struggle. There is not enough food. Poor people are hungry. They are crying out to God for help. All of this makes Jeremiah sad. He cries out to God in a lament: “My joy is gone. My heart is sick. Grief is upon me.” God hears Jeremiah’s lament.
Have you ever seen something that made you feel really sad? What did you see? (Allow the children to share responses.) What did you do? (Again, allow the children to respond.)
[If the children do not volunteer any responses, you may supply your own -- take care to keep your examples on a child’s level. Say something like:
When I see images on TV of people’s homes that have been flooded.
When I see people standing in line for food.
When I see people being hit with clubs or sticks.
It makes me sad.
OR:
When I see someone sitting alone at a lunch table at school.
When I see a dog or a cat that is dirty and hurt and hungry.
I feel sad.]
When I see something that makes me sad, I want to help. I want to fix it. But sometimes the thing that makes me sad is too big for me to fix -- or I don’t know how I can help.
Something I do know: I can pray. I can lament. We can always turn to God. We can share our words with God about what makes us sad. God hears us. God listens to us. God knows about the sad things too.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes to his friend Timothy -- giving him instructions for praying. Paul writes: “I urge you to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for everyone...” In other words -- pray. Pray for everything... even for the things that make you sad. God hears prayers. God hears our cries and our words. God accepts anything we want to say.
Won’t you join me in a prayer?
Prayer: God of all, you know the pain and struggles in our world. Like us, you see people who are hungry, who are lonely, who hurt. Seeing people and animals struggle makes us sad, O God. We know it makes you sad too. Hear our words of sadness and concern. Give help and hope where there is need, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, September 18, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the theme of finding healing, focusing on the stress, pressure, and suffering experienced by pastors as they lead their flock... and how even pastors sometimes find no balm in Gilead. That apparently was the case for a prominent Presbyterian pastor in Arizona who recently committed suicide. While few pastors will find themselves pushed to such extremes, it is a difficult profession emotionally, spiritually, and financially. So how can the clergy -- who are often seen by their congregations as sources of healing and restoration -- find healing and restoration themselves when walking through what the psalmist calls “the darkest valley”? Chris suggests that the people in the pews might follow the advice of Paul when he writes to Timothy to pray for everyone -- and that pastors might be included along with the civic officials that Paul specifies.
Weeping Day and Night for the Slain
by Mary Austin
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
On Labor Day weekend, the city of Chicago reached a milestone that no one wants: its 500th murder of 2016. Five hundred times this year, the news has displayed a blurry family photo or a serene-looking graduation shot and announced another death. Five hundred times this year, and 473 times last year, and hundreds of times in the years before, police have put up yellow tape, interviewed witnesses, taken a body to the morgue, and tried to figure out what caused this death, and what is causing so many others. Everyone has an opinion about the cause: ineffective gun laws, a shortage of detectives, cuts in public services, social decay, reluctant witnesses, a lack of economic opportunity, and mistrust of the police, to name a few.
Whatever the cause, the people of Chicago carry a burden of grief unlike anything in other U.S. cities. Neighborhoods have been hit hard with death after death, and the people of Chicago are experiencing the truth of the prophet Jeremiah’s words: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.... Is there no balm in Gilead?... Why has the health of my poor people not been restored?”
Jeremiah’s words call out the city’s grief, and the people’s questions about when this will end, and why there is no salvation from this sorrow.
In the News
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says lax gun laws in Chicago contribute to the high murder rate: “Bratton agreed with Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, who recently said, ‘If we had the gun laws in Chicago that L.A. and New York have we would see our violent crime cut in half.’ ” Bratton noted that Chicago police confiscate guns at a greater rate than New York and Los Angeles, but are hampered by the laws of the city.
Once a murder has been committed, solving the crime is another issue: “Chicago police are solving homicides at a far lower rate than their counterparts in some other major cities, which may reflect how hard it is for detectives to crack the culture of silence surrounding the violence committed by the city’s street gangs. Of the 432 homicides committed between January 1 and August 16 of this year, the department has solved 92, or 21 percent of them, the Chicago Tribune reported.” The level of mistrust between police and citizens surely also plays a role, as Chicago residents await news about the fate of the police officers who shot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. A grand jury will examine whether there was a police cover-up in that case.
Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass says the real story is the number of non-fatal shootings in the city: 2,949 so far this year. “And by shootings,” he says, “I don’t mean thugs shooting off guns in the air. I mean shootings where bullets pierce human skin, destroying flesh, bones, organs, and lives. On average, 12 people are shot in Chicago every day. ‘Shootings are really attempted murders. These are shootings not to scare but to kill, these are bullets hitting bodies,’ Dr. Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminology at Loyola University Chicago, told me. ‘And that’s what we should be calling them: attempted murders.’ In 2015 there were 2,988 human beings shot in Chicago, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune. So far in 2016, there have been 2,949 people shot, according to the Tribune.” These shootings, while not fatal, leave behind a legacy of fear, trauma, medical expenses, and physical limitations.
The people of Aleppo, Syria, have much to lament too, even as a brokered ceasefire is expected to begin this week. As one resident said, “If you ask anyone who lives in Aleppo if they’re happy, or if they’re capable of being happy and forgetting, most of them will tell you my son is dead and won’t be with me this Eid, or my wife is gone, and those who did not lose anyone are living in terror and you cannot be happy when you’re living in terror.” People are suffering in every imaginable way. “Amid the siege, many in eastern Aleppo have been left to subsist on rice or bulgur as their main food. Doctors can no longer come into the city to treat the wounded whose flow continues unabated, nor can they transfer patients out to places such as the Turkish border where they can receive treatment. Medicine and equipment are in short supply, leaving those with chronic conditions to suffer, inadvertent victims of the war who are not counted among the casualties... [there are] more cases of malnutrition, and there is little baby milk remaining in the city. With no regular power supply, water purification and distribution pumps are sitting idle, leaving people without clean water.”
In the Scriptures
In the text just before our selection, God has been lamenting the faithlessness of the people, and wondering why they don’t turn back to the word of the Lord. God promises to destroy human bonds, and to give the people’s goods and lands away. A great selfishness has come over the people, and “from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.” Then the people have a turn to lament, saying “We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.”
Just before this section, verse 17 concludes with “says the Lord.” Some readers believe that this section belongs to Jeremiah, who is well known as “the weeping prophet,” lamenting Israel’s turn away from God and the sorrow he sees around him. Other readers believe that God continues to speak, giving voice to grief over the fate of the people.
The speaker -- whether God or prophet -- is grieved by the sorrows of the people. “Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: ‘Is the Lord not in Zion?’ ” The people of Israel look for a power greater than their devastation, and find that they are not saved. The healing balm of Gilead is no match for this bone-deep sorrow; no physician except God can bring healing into this wound of separation between God and people.
In the Sermon
The people of Israel are in a place of distress that is too deep for easy answers, as are their modern counterparts, the people of Chicago and Aleppo. In each place of unending grief, the presence of God is needed, but people have a calling also.
The sermon might explore what it looks like when God doesn’t fit our expectations. For the people of ancient Israel peace will come too late, as the Babylonian army invades. For the people of Syria, even peace won’t undo the horrors of the past few years. For the people of Chicago, even stricter gun laws and more police officers working cases won’t bring back the dead, relieve the trauma of the survivors, and heal the paralyzed. How do we keep on living when God confounds our expectations? What do we do with a God who seems too slow? How do we sustain hope when everything around us is bleak?
The sermon might also look at how we endure the inevitable hard, awful seasons of life. What resources do we call upon (or develop) to help us live in places of pain? After we voice our own lament, what comes next?
Or the sermon might explore what we owe to each other. Jeremiah is doing his best to call the people back to God, using all of the gifts and energy he has. What do we owe to our fellow citizens when we find them in distress? Pain is distributed unevenly in our world, and it’s easy to look away when it’s not our own misery. Do we have an obligation, born from our faith, to those who are suffering?
The voice speaking here tells us that there is an odd kinship in pain -- when others suffer, we are called to lament on their behalf. We call to God on their behalf, even as God calls out in lament for the suffering too. Mysterious bonds join God and the sufferers, and we are connected to the tearful people of Chicago and Aleppo and even the house next door. There is no balm in Gilead until all the world’s suffering is mended. Until that time, we lift our voices -- like the prophet -- with praise and prayer and tears as the world’s suffering comes into our hearts.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Is There Any Balm in the Parsonage?
by Chris Keating
1 Timothy 2:1-7; Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
For members of Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley, Arizona, Jeremiah’s summer-ending lament is an apt description of their grief over the recent death of their pastor.
During a funeral service for Rev. Larry DeLong on September 3, the church’s communion table was draped with many of his pastoral stoles -- a colorful reminder of the comforting yoke of Christ, as well as the call to pastoral ministry.
DeLong, 60, took his own life on August 26. He’d been the pastor of the large church since 2009, which is located in a retirement community south of Tucson. Is there any balm in the desert of our grief?
As with any suicide, the mysteries surrounding DeLong’s death are complex for his family, parishioners, and colleagues. Like Jeremiah, their joy is gone, their hearts are sick, and grief is upon them. Questions abound -- especially in light of one of his rather perplexing final Facebook posts. Just weeks before, DeLong posted a quirky meme with the quote “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you actually have been planted.”
“We are sad, this church family is very sad,” said associate pastor Paul Phillips. Shortly after a family vacation, DeLong disappeared. His body was found hours later inside his car at a local park. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Married with two teenaged children, DeLong was a former navy chaplain known for his “approachable demeanor, common-sense presentation of the Bible and self-deprecating sense of humor.”
At 6'6", DeLong was an imposing yet gentle figure in the pulpit and around town. Church members attending his funeral were offered a chance to hold or wear one of his brightly colored neckties as a way of remembering DeLong, who once said that “We believe that God is always there, that you don’t fit God into your life, but see how your life fits into God.”
Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. More than 42,000 Americans die of suicide every year, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. About 117 persons take their lives every day -- with those aged 45-64 accounting for about 19 percent of suicides. Perhaps as many as a million people per year make a suicide attempt.
While it is unclear why DeLong took his own life, what is clear is that suicide is more common than we admit. Suicide rates in the United States have been rising since 1999, and have increased worldwide 60% in the last 45 years according to the World Health Organization.
(If you are in crisis, or if you need help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK[8255].)
The stabbing pains associated with suicide grief are accentuated in DeLong’s case because of his multiple roles as husband, father, pastor, leader, chaplain, colleague. For his wife and children, there is the grief of having their private moments exposed publicly. For the congregation and his colleagues, there are the agonizing and unanswerable questions of what signs they may have missed or what may have compounded his inner struggles.
The summer has ended, and their grief is palpable. The bereaved congregation in Arizona may well be asking “Was there no balm in the parsonage?”
Pastors struggle with that question. Ministry is demanding. Pastors experience high rates of depression, which often prompts suicidal thoughts. Pastors are evaluated publicly, juggling multiple roles while responding to emergencies. One study notes that the “strain of these roles is further amplified by having to switch rapidly between them.”
Meanwhile, some pastors feel uncomfortable talking about their stress. The truth of the matter is that at times pastoral life ain’t so pastoral and bucolic -- the weeks are long, the conversations stressful, the contexts isolating. But at least the pay is great, right?
Oops.
There’s a clue, perhaps, within Paul’s exhortations to prayer that might help. One study details how small actions by parishioners can improve the well-being of their pastors. Researchers at Duke University showed that even small words of kindness can improve the emotional lives of pastors. Taking a pastor to lunch, offering to babysit her kids, or even dropping dinner by every now and then can become a soothing aloe poured out on pastors’ withering spirits.
Or even offering to pray for them.
Perhaps Paul’s words could enhance a congregation’s understanding of prayer. We could gift our congregations with the invitation to think creatively about how this lesson on prayer shapes our own ministries. Paul’s words could become an invitation to deeper understanding and thoughtful action.
Thomas Long explores the theological foundation for prayer in 1 Timothy. “God is at work in the world doing saving work,” he writes. “Calling all human beings to their full humanity, summoning worldly rulers to their proper labor for justice, healing the estrangements between humanity and God -- and prayer is one of the powerful ways that Christians actively participate in [God’s] divine saving action” (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus [Westminster/John Knox Press, 2016], p. 63).
Prayer for all -- rulers, governors, emperors, yes, but also pastors, custodians, secretaries, and youth ministers. This is what forms the wellspring of congregational renewal. Here is the balm to soothe pastoral spirits and heal divided congregations. Not words of magic or sentimentality, but prayer modeled on the bold intercession of Jesus.
The community addressed in Timothy lacks understanding of how prayer functions. Prayer seems to have fallen out of fashion among some. In response, Paul calls the congregation to a life of prayer modeled on God’s work in Jesus Christ -- a life of praying for all, including (perhaps surprisingly) the emperor.
This is not to suggest that pastors ought to be on par with royalty. Instead, note the importance Paul places on prayer that is candid and bold. It is the sort of prayer which takes full cognizance of the difficulties of daily life, the grim struggles and staggering threats of life lived in the shadow of a ruthless emperor... or perhaps ministry lived in the shadow of a towering steeple.
In either case, Paul’s pastoral advice becomes balm poured upon the church’s broken and blistered skin. It becomes grace that enables a congregation to see how its petty arguments have damaged its leaders. It becomes a way for our congregations to carry the yoke of Christ, relieving the burden pastors too often carry alone.
“The function of prayer,” says Sister Joan Chittister, “is not magic. The function of prayer is not the bribery of the Infinite. The function of prayer is not to change the mind of God about decisions we have already made for ourselves. The function of prayer is to change my own mind, to put on the mind of Christ, to enable grace to break into me.”
We do not know what prompted Larry DeLong’s tragic decision. But it is possible that those caught in the grinding wheels of ministry may yet find a sweet balm in Paul’s advice to Timothy. In guiding our congregations to offer prayers for all, we may well find the sources of our own healing and hope, leading to lives that are quiet and peaceable.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Thank God for Pain
Dr. Paul W. Brand, who was the chief of the rehabilitation branch of the leprosy hospital in Carville, Louisiana, arrived in London after an exhausting transatlantic ocean trip and long train ride from the English coast. He was scheduled to deliver a lecture and to consult on some cases the next day, and he was getting ready for bed. He took off his shoes, and as he pulled off a sock he discovered that there was no feeling in his heel. Most people would write such a thing off to simply a momentary numbness, but it terrified Dr. Brand. He had convinced himself and his staff at the leprosarium that there was no danger of infection from leprosy after it reached a certain stage. But a loss of feeling in the extremities was the first sign of the onset of leprosy. Had he been wrong?
He found a pin and used it to test his foot for feeling. Nothing. Even when he drew blood there was no pain. Dr. Brand slept little that night and prayed much. In the morning he found the pin and tried again -- and when he felt pain he nearly wept with relief.
Now he realized that during the long train ride, sitting immobile, he had numbed a nerve. How blessed was the sensation of pain! He prayed another prayer: “Thank God for pain!”
-- from Ten Fingers for God by Dorothy Clarke Wilson
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
No Humbug
One of the truly great moments in the long history of medicine occurred on a tense fall morning in the surgical amphitheater of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital.
It was there, on Oct. 16, 1846, that a dentist named William T.G. Morton administered an effective anesthetic to a surgical patient. Consenting to what became a most magnificent scientific revolution were John Warren, an apprehensive surgeon, and Glenn Abbott, an even more nervous young man about to undergo removal of a vascular tumor on the left side of his neck.
Both Warren and Abbott sailed through the procedure painlessly, although some have noted that Abbott moved a bit near the end. Turning away from the operating table toward the gallery packed with legitimately dumbstruck medical students, Dr. Warren gleefully exclaimed, “Gentlemen, this is no humbug!”
Morton named his “creation” Letheon, after the Lethe River of Greek mythology. Drinking its waters, the ancients contended, erased painful memories. Today, we know it as an archaic form of anesthesia called “ether.”
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
The Curse of Feeling No Pain
Several years ago on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a young girl thought she was a superhero because she felt no pain. You could kick her, pinch her, scrape her, burn her -- she wouldn’t flinch. But she wasn’t a superhero. She had a rare disorder called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP).
Most of us hear of this condition and think that not being able to feel pain would be a blessing. No tears, no painkillers, no lingering aches. But in reality, not being able to feel pain is dangerous. Pain tells you when you’ve pushed too far, when you’re in a situation you need to get out of, and when something is terribly wrong. If you step on a piece of glass or bang your head too hard, you know you need medical attention. But what if you never felt it?
CIP is the inability to feel pain, and is one of a family of disorders called hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy. Patients can feel pressure but not pain, so they are likely to injure or mutilate themselves without meaning to. This inability to feel physical pain does not extend to emotional pain, however. People with CIP feel emotional pain just like anyone else.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Balm of Gilead
Balm of Gilead (Cammiphora opobalsamum, known as Populus candicans in the United States) is a substance used in perfumes that is derived from the resinous juices of the balsam poplar tree. The tree is a member of the Bursera family, native to the continents of Africa and Asia, and stands about 10-12 feet in height. The cultivated North American variety can grow to heights of 100 feet.
The resin of the tree is collected when it seeps out of the tree during the summer months. Seepage increases when humidity levels are high. Slits are often made in the tree’s bark to collect the resin more rapidly. The bark and leaf buds are also collected.
The herb’s name derives from the ancient region of Gilead in Palestine, known for the great healing powers of its balm. Balm of Gilead is mentioned several times in the Bible and in the writings of Pliny the Elder, who tells of the tree being brought to Rome in the first century CE. The historian Josephus recorded that the Queen of Sheba made a gift of balm of Gilead to King Solomon.
In addition to being used in the composition of perfumes, balm of Gilead is used to soothe ailments of the mucous membranes. It is taken internally to ease coughs and respiratory infections. The balm is also said to relieve laryngitis and sore throats, and it can be combined with coltsfoot to make a cough suppressant.
For the internal treatment of chest congestion, balm of Gilead is made into a tincture or a syrup. For external treatment of bruises, swellings, and minor skin irritations, the balm is combined with lard or oil and applied as needed. The bark, which contains traces of salicylic acid (aspirin), can be combined with willow and rosemary and used as an analgesic to relieve fevers, muscle aches, and arthritic pain.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
The Power of Public Grief
Writing for Psychology Today, Melody Warnick tells of a 2015 study by Miriam Rennung and Anja S. Göritz at the University of Freiburg, who set out to test the effects of sharing negative emotion. They gathered study participants into groups of three or four and had them watch video clips from sad movies like Schindler’s List, either collectively, semi-circled around a large screen, or on their own laptops with earbuds, not knowing that the person next to them was watching the same thing.
Participants who communally watched the same clip felt closer to each other and more socially cohesive afterward than the people who’d stayed in their own head space. Experiencing negative effect together, at the same time, with attention focused on the same depressing point, made them feel bonded.
In other words, the candlelight vigils, the public memorial services, the placing of stuffed teddy bears at community shrines, all of the public demonstrations of grief that people seem compelled to express actually foster social connections among people who vitally need it. Hopefully, write Debra Jackson and Kim Usher in an editorial in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, it’ll “contribute to community healing and recovery from trauma.”
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Phyllis Schlafly, a leader of the conservative movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, was a strong supporter of Sen. Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, which he lost in a landslide. But she is credited as being one of the individuals who set the stage for Ronald Reagan’s landslide presidential victory in 1980. Yet this woman who was so identified with the anti-feminist movement paid no attention to the equal rights amendment (ERA) when it was first introduced in Congress. After it passed the House of Representatives, a friend asked her to debate a feminist on the ERA amendment. It was only then that Schlafly read it. Distraught by its implications, Schlafly founded and appointed herself chairwoman of Stop ERA -- “Stop” representing an acronym for “stop taking our privileges.” Schlafly said, “I knew only one law that was discriminatory toward women, a law in North Dakota stipulating that a wife had to have her husband’s permission to make wine.”
Application: Jeremiah warned us against living a life that was unaware of our social environment.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
Philip Kingsley, who recently died, was known as an authority on healthy hair and scalp. He developed a number of products to foster healthy hair -- but he never claimed to be able to stop baldness, just how to deal with it more effectively. His clients consisted of some of the biggest names in the movie industry and politics. Kingsley, known for coining the phrase “bad hair day,” said: “Hair is the single most important part of the anatomy affecting our psyche.”
Application: As we read today’s lectionary lesson, we know that Jeremiah was having a “bad hair day.”
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; Amos 8:4-7
Anna Dewdney was an author and illustrator of children’s books, best known for her Llama Llama books. Dewdney said, “A good children’s book can be read by an adult to a child and experienced genuinely by both. A good children’s book is like a good performance. I don’t feel my world really exists until an adult has read it to a child.”
Application: The prophets wanted the people to be reintroduced to the scriptures with a child-like faith.
*****
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; Amos 8:4-7; Luke 16:1-13
Kenneth Briggs, the former religion editor of the New York Times, has just published a book titled The Invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America. As a lifelong reporter on what he calls the “Godbeat,” Brooks has seen, in his words, the Bible “become a museum exhibit, hallowed as a treasure but enigmatic and untouched.” He says that “people aren’t reading it very much” and that the Bible no longer appears in “public discourse” nor is it a part of the “public consciousness.” Briggs says the Bible remains popular as an “artifact,” a “keepsake,” and as a “rabbit’s foot,” but it is no longer being read. He notes that megachurches have substituted multimedia presentations for the Bible, and that most people leave the exploration of truth to the entertainment industry.
Application: All of our lectionary readings for today discuss what happens when the sacred scriptures are no longer a part of the community and individual lives.
*****
Amos 8:4-7
In her political evangelism, Phyllis Schlafly claimed to be just an ordinary housewife. She always let it be known that she breastfed all six of her children and taught each of them to read before they started school. She was also proud that as a housewife she was able to earn a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. But her opponents called her a hypocrite for something she never shared with the public -- that this “ordinary housewife” was married to an extremely wealthy lawyer who provided her with opportunities that were never available to a real ordinary housewife.
Application: Amos warned us against practicing deceit.
*****
Amos 8:4-7
Phyllis Schlafly -- known as a conservative leader with staunchly anti-feminist views -- denied that a “virtuous woman” could be sexual harassed at the workplace because, Schlafly maintained, such a woman’s biblical principles would protect her. Furthermore, Schlafly looked upon the atomic bomb as “a marvelous gift that that was given to our country by a wise God.”
Application: Amos warned us against practicing deceit.
*****
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor was known for her artistic career, and most notably as a commentator on NPR extolling the virtues of the Gullah food and culture of her native South Carolina. But before Smart-Grosvenor discovered her niche as a spokesperson for Gullah cooking, she spent years searching for a meaning in life. That search took her to an artist’s colony in Paris. As she was walking down the Boulevard Saint-Germain she thought to herself, “I can’t paint, I can’t write, and I can’t sing and dance... but something great and wonderful is gonna happen to me. The myth of Europe made me believe in the possibilities.”
Application: Paul declares in his letter that we do have a purpose in life.
*****
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Leslie Martinson, best known as the director of popular television shows and movies from the 1950s through the 1980s, recently died. Martinson began his career as a reporter for the Boston Evening Transcript. When he was on assignment in Los Angeles, a vision took him on a different career path from newspaper writing to authoring television shows and movies. Martinson said, “I looked at the walls of MGM, and said that’s where I want to go.”
Application: In our call to discipleship and preaching the gospel, Paul wants to make sure that we know where we want to go.
*****
Luke 16:1-13
Phyllis Schlafly -- known for her staunchly conservative views on social issues -- often failed to respect anyone who did not think and believe as she did... something that caused her to lose credibility with those in the middle of the political and social spectrum. When her son John made it public that he was homosexual, his mother took the announcement as a deliberate attempt to embarrass her -- and the revelation did not deter her from continuing to attack homosexuality. Schlafly said of gay couples, and regarding her own son: “Nobody’s stopping them from shacking up. The problem is that they are trying to make us respect them, and that’s an interference with what we believe.”
Application: Jesus taught about respect and acceptance and equality.
*****
Luke 16:1-13
Hugh O’Brian is a familiar name to those who watched television in the late 1950s for his starring role in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. But O’Brian considered his real legacy to be the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership foundation. This organization trained young people, in his words, to “become positive catalysts for change.” O’Brian came to the realization of the importance of contributing to society beyond acting after visiting Albert Schweitzer in Africa.
Application: Jesus challenges us to understand our priorities.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: How long, O God? Will you be angry forever?
People: Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
Leader: Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors.
People: Let your compassion come speedily to meet us.
Leader: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
People: Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
OR
Leader: God is here! Let us worship and praise our God.
People: We come to this place to offer our songs of praise.
Leader: God is in this place and wherever we are.
People: Sometimes we forget that God is always with us.
Leader: Known or unknown, God is always present.
People: With faith and hope, we will expect to meet God everywhere.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Immortal, Invisible”
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
W&P: 48
AMEC: 71
STLT: 273
Renew: 46
“I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”
found in:
UMH: 521
PH: 363
AAHH: 563
NNBH: 500
NCH: 490
CH: 627
W&P: 506
AMEC: 375
“God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale”
found in:
UMH: 122
PH: 272
NCH: 32
CH: 70
ELA: 740
W&P: 29
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 349
NNBH: 195
ELA: 284
W&P: 472
CCB: 55
“Pues Si Vivimos” (“When We Are Living”)
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELA: 639
W&P: 415
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Bread of the World”
found in:
UMH: 624
H82: 301
PH: 502
NCH: 346
CH: 387
W&P: 693
“All I Need Is You”
found in:
CCB: 100
“Learning to Lean”
found in:
CCB: 74
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who created us in your image and then became one of us: Grant us the faith to find you at our side in the worst of times so that we may face all life brings to us with hope and love; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for creating us in your image. You then lived among us as one of us. Shine the light of your Spirit upon us, that we may have enough faith to discern your presence among us in even the worst of times. Help us to face all of life with hope and love as we share our pain and grief, our joy and laughter. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to discern God during our dark hours.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We like to think of ourselves as being blessed and special to God when things are going well, but when the tough times come we are quick to accuse God of deserting us. Sometimes we think that bad things should never happen to us because we are Christians. We talk about the incarnation at Christmas, but forget that it was part of Good Friday as well. God, forgive us for our blindness, and renew us so that we might recognize your coming to us in all of life. Amen.
Leader: Emmanuel, God with us, is not just for the holiday season because God is with us always. Receive the love and forgiveness of God, which is ever-present.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship and praise your name, O God, for you are always with us. Your presence is not bound by time nor space.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We like to think of ourselves as being blessed and special to God when things are going well, but when the tough times come we are quick to accuse God of deserting us. Sometimes we think that bad things should never happen to us because we are Christians. We talk about the incarnation at Christmas, but forget that it was part of Good Friday as well. God, forgive us for our blindness, and renew us so that we might recognize your coming to us in all of life.
We give you thanks, O God, for all the times when we are aware of your presence among us and within us. We thank you for the joy of sharing in a loving community, knowing that you are here among us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those who are in distress this day. We know it is difficult sometimes to remember that you love us and are always with us. Help us to be the physical reminders of your loving presence to those we are around.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Do/Did you have a special toy that you like to keep with you? (I had two that I slept with for most of my young childhood.) Sometimes we feel better just having something familiar close to us. It helps us to remember that we are loved and cared for by our parents/family. We can also think about God, who is always with us even when we are sick or scared or upset. We may lose or outgrow our stuffed animals, but we always have God.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7
The Old Testament Bible passage for today is a lament. Have you ever heard this word before? It’s not a word we use very often. A lament is a cry of sadness or a song of sadness. It’s a prayer or song that tells about the sadness. Speaking about being sad, or singing about it, lets a person express their feelings. This can be helpful.
In today’s Old Testament passage, the prophet Jeremiah laments. He talks about how sad he is, and how much it hurts him to watch God’s people struggle. There is not enough food. Poor people are hungry. They are crying out to God for help. All of this makes Jeremiah sad. He cries out to God in a lament: “My joy is gone. My heart is sick. Grief is upon me.” God hears Jeremiah’s lament.
Have you ever seen something that made you feel really sad? What did you see? (Allow the children to share responses.) What did you do? (Again, allow the children to respond.)
[If the children do not volunteer any responses, you may supply your own -- take care to keep your examples on a child’s level. Say something like:
When I see images on TV of people’s homes that have been flooded.
When I see people standing in line for food.
When I see people being hit with clubs or sticks.
It makes me sad.
OR:
When I see someone sitting alone at a lunch table at school.
When I see a dog or a cat that is dirty and hurt and hungry.
I feel sad.]
When I see something that makes me sad, I want to help. I want to fix it. But sometimes the thing that makes me sad is too big for me to fix -- or I don’t know how I can help.
Something I do know: I can pray. I can lament. We can always turn to God. We can share our words with God about what makes us sad. God hears us. God listens to us. God knows about the sad things too.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes to his friend Timothy -- giving him instructions for praying. Paul writes: “I urge you to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for everyone...” In other words -- pray. Pray for everything... even for the things that make you sad. God hears prayers. God hears our cries and our words. God accepts anything we want to say.
Won’t you join me in a prayer?
Prayer: God of all, you know the pain and struggles in our world. Like us, you see people who are hungry, who are lonely, who hurt. Seeing people and animals struggle makes us sad, O God. We know it makes you sad too. Hear our words of sadness and concern. Give help and hope where there is need, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, September 18, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
