A Balm in Gilead
A sermon in The Other Six Days social justice series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 20, 2008
Jeremiah 8:18-22; Mark 2:1-12

Jeremiah 8:18-22 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?

Mark 2:1-12 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

I. BEGINNING

We’re sick, my friends. As a country, we are not in a state of health.

The World Health Organization has ranked the United States of America as having only the 37^th best health care system in the world. [1]

The U. S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance. [2] That’s just barely in the top 20%. We’re behind Costa Rica and just ahead of Slovenia. [3]

A. Our Health

Two thirds of all adults over age 20 are overweight or obese. That's 133 million Americans. [4] Overweight and obesity cost the country $117 billion in combined costs.

24.1 million Americans have heart disease—that’s 11 percent of the population. [5]

The United States ranks 118^th in terms of the mortality rate, just behind Cambodia, Greenland, and Bangladesh. [6]

Life expectancy in the United States is 77.9 years, which now ranks 42^nd in the world, down from 11^th two decades ago. [7]

B. The people covered

Nearly 16% of the U.S. population is uninsured, numbering 46,995,000 people. [8] In addition, an estimated 15 million Americans are underinsured, lacking adequate insurance for their health needs. [9]

C. The costs

The cost of health insurance has increased dramatically over the past decade, far surpassing the general rate of inflation in most years. Between 1989 and 1996, the average amount an employee had to contribute for family coverage jumped from $935 to $1,778. In 1990, American companies spent $177 billion on health benefits for workers and their dependents; that number rose to $252 billion by 1996, or more than double the rate of inflation. [10]

Almost 50% of the American public say they are very worried about having to pay more for their healthcare or health insurance, and 42% report they are very worried about not being able to afford healthcare services.

Nationally, the cost of premiums for family coverage ($11,480) outpaced the earnings of a full-time, minimum wage worker ($10,712).

A 2005 survey showed that more than 25% said housing problems resulted from medical debt, including the inability to make rent or mortgage payments and the development of bad credit ratings.

According to research from Harvard University, medical-related bankruptcies have jumped 2,200% since 1981. The middle class accounts for 90% of those cases. And in many of these cases, the families who suffered bankruptcies had health insurance. They just couldn't keep up with the rising costs. [11]

On a per-car basis, General Motors now spends more money on health insurance than on steel. Starbucks reports that they now spend more on health insurance than on buying coffee. [12]

We are in bad shape. We are not well. The health of our poor people is not restored.

II. The Balm in Gilead

Health, too, was on the mind of the prophet Jeremiah. In the early sixth century B.C., Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. The words that we read from the eighth chapter of Jeremiah speak to the prophet’s observation of those events:

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?

Gilead was a place across the Jordan river, known for its healing balm—a balm that was traded far and wide for the purpose of healing. It was well known to all the inhabitants of the land. The Ishmaelite traders who take Joseph into captivity in Egypt, were carrying balm from Gilead. It was a widely known fact that there was balm in Gilead. The question is clearly rhetorical.

So, why then is the health of the people not been restored? Because something was getting in the way. Wickedness, injustice, and idolatry all stand in the way of their healing. Healing is at hand but they are prevented from receiving it because of their own lack of faithfulness to the covenant.

What it is then, that prevents our health from being restored? What is preventing us from receiving the healing of the balm of Gilead?

III. Two Myths

We do not have the same kinds of idolatries that the ancient Israelites did. We’re not off building pagan shrines to Asherah or Baal. At least I hope you’re not.

But our idolatries are much more subtle, they’re the things we put our faith in instead of in God.

A. Individualism

One of the biggest obstacles that we have in this country is our own great myth of rugged individualism. We believe that everyone’s life is the result of the effort they’ve put into it. We believe in the “self-made man” and “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” and so on.

And so, there is a tendency to look at the broad issue and feel that people could be in better health if they took better care of themselves, worked harder, and earned enough money for health insurance.

Of course, like all our thinking on this subject, it falls short. None of us, not one, has earned everything we have. We did not earn the teachers who instructed us, we didn’t earn the parents who raised us, we did not earn the race we were born into, the community we grew up in. So many of these factors are outside of our control that we can barely take credit for anything other than the effort we apply to the circumstances we were given. And in many ways, the circumstances determine whether the effort we apply will amount to anything.

Buying into the myth of rugged individualism is preventing many from receiving the balm of Gilead.

B. Entitlement

But the opposite idea is likewise problematic. The idea that the things we need are things that we’re owed. This is the entitlement mentality. The one that drives lawsuits by parents against professors who grade their children too low. The mentality that believes that everything we desire should just be handed to us. The philosophy that creates a culture of irresponsibility and blame. From this perspective, those without healthcare are being denied what is their right to have. Resentment builds towards those who do have and the situation remains unresolved. The balm in Gilead is not reached.

IV. The Faith of the Friends

There is another way and it is found in the passage from Mark that we read tonight. There is something about the story from Mark that I find really compelling. In it, Jesus returns home to Capernaum after traveling around Galilee preaching and healing. There is a huge crowd at his house and the doorways are blocked. Four men are bringing a paralyzed friend to Jesus to be healed. They see the crowds but cannot make their way through. So they go up on the roof and dig through the roof and lower their friend down. We all know that in dramatic fashion, Jesus heals this paralyzed man who is able to take his pallet and walk.

What often goes unnoticed is that Jesus takes action to heal this man because he is moved by the faith of the friends. It is not the paralytic’s faith that impresses him. It is the faith of the four men who bring this man to Jesus, trusting that he can heal him.

I think that example speaks to us. For it dashes our idolatries of rugged individualism and entitlement.

Health would not have come to this paralyzed man that day on his own. How would he have gotten to see Jesus that day? A strictly individualistic understanding would have left this man on his pallet at home.

Nor did the man sit and expect healing to come to him just because. He would likewise have been left without healing.

No, health came to him because his friends cared enough to bring him to the source of healing and by their faith, he was healed.

So it is with us—we are called to be like those friends. Carrying those in need to healing. We do this out of faith, not guilt. Nor do we do it begrudgingly, but joyfully.

But it is an ethic neither of rugged individualism nor of entitlement. It is an ethic of caring for one another. When we are faced with the question of who shall provide healing for those in need, the only Christian answer we can come up with is: “We will.”

V. END

I do not know what the solution to the healthcare crisis is. Is it a governmental system? Is it a system of private insurance? I do not profess to know the answers to such complex questions, nor would I insult you intelligence by claiming to.

But I do know this one thing: as people of faith, we cannot stand idly by and do nothing. Jesus calls us to rise above the idolatries of individualism and entitlement, to a community of caring. A community that out of love seeks the healing of our neighbors. That out of love will go to whatever lengths are necessary to bridge the gap. That may mean advocacy for legislative change. That may mean helping one another to lead healthy lifestyles through accountability. That may mean ensuring that healthy foods are available to people at the lowest income level, where very often the cheapest food is the worst for you. That may mean working toward creating cultures of health.

We may have to dig through a few roofs to help those in need. We may have to presume on grace to do it.

There is a balm in Gilead. Christ calls us to bear up the sick and bring them there for healing.

[1] http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html

[2] Id.

[3] http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

[4] http://win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/index.htm#preval

[5] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/heart.htm

[6] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html

[7] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293008,00.html

[8] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/heart.htm

[9] http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=280812

[10] http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/healthinsurance.html

[11] http://www.illinoiscovered.com/crisis.html

[12] http://www.illinoiscovered.com/crisis.html