“Experiencing Healing Balm in Life” Dr. Edward Chinn Pastor, All Saints’ Episcopal Church 9601 Frankford Avenue Philadelphia, Pa. 19114 19 October 2000

Many years ago, an English sailor broke his leg. Friends told him to write to the Royal Society of Physicians and tell them what he did to heal the fracture. He did write and tell the Society his story. He broke the leg by falling from the top of the mast. He dressed the broken limb with tar and fibers from a hemp rope. He smeared the tar on his leg and used the rope fibers. In three days, the sailor was able to walk just as well as he could before the accident. Physicians at the Royal Society expressed amazement at the sailor’s story. No one had ever suspected that tar and rope fibers had such healing powers. They debated this use of tar on a broken leg. The sailor stuck by his story. The Royal Society might have remained puzzled for many years, except for a postscript in the sailor’s last letter. In the PS, he wrote: “I forgot to inform your honors, by the way, that the leg was a wooden one.”

Ancient people spread a healing ointment made from herbs on their limbs. This ointment came from herbs that grew in a fertile land east of the Jordan River called Gilead. People used this ointment as a medicine to heal and t o relieve pain. They called it the “balm of Gilead.” We still use the word “balm” for something that soothes, comforts, and heals. Shakespeare spoke of sleep as the “balm of hurt minds.” In the sixth century before Christ, Jeremiah felt sorry for the self-inflicted wounds of his nation. He wrote: “Surely there is a balm in the land of Gilead. Surely there is a doctor there. So why aren’t the hurts of my people healed?” (Jeremiah 8:22, NCV).

Healing Balm in Forgetting Yourself Once there was a grandfather who suffered from arthritis that crippled him. One day his grandchildren asked him to tell them about his great teacher, a famous rabbi named Baal Shem Tov. The grandfather began to tell them how the great rabbi used to jump up and down and dance when he was praying. The grandfather became so caught up in telling the story that he forgot himself. He stood up and began to jump and dance to show how his teacher had done it. In that moment of excitement, the healing balm of forgetting himself gave him new strength.

Dr. Charles Menninger founded the Menninger Clinic and the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. His son, Karl, helped him. Both father and son practiced psychiatry. Dr. Karl Menninger gave a lecture on mental health in a certain town. At the end of the lecture, he answered questions from the audience. One man asked, “What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” People in the audience expected Menninger to reply, “Consult a psychiatrist.” He astounded them by saying this, instead: “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person.” Karl Menninger was advocating the healing balm of forgetting oneself.

Healing Balm in a Fresh Start In December 1914, fire destroyed the great Edison laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey. In one night, Thomas Edison lost two million dollars worth of equipment and the records of most of his life’s work. The buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete. People thought they were fireproof. At the height of the fire, Edison’s 24-year old son, Charles, ran about trying to find his father. He found Thomas Edison standing near the fire and calmly watching the scene. The wind blew his white hair. “My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “He was 67 years old-no longer a young man, and everything was being destroyed.” When Thomas Edison saw his son, Charles, he told his son to find his mother and bring her there. “She’ll never see anything like this again as long as she lives.” The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said: “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew!” Three weeks after the fire, Thomas Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph. There is a healing balm in a fresh start.

The message of Jesus offered the healing balm of the fresh start. Jesus talked about “The God of One More Chance.”

“A man named Peter stumbled bad, Lost all the love he ever had. Fouled his own soul’s divinest spring, Cursed, swore, and all that sort of thing. He got another chance, and then He reached the goal of God-like men!

“A boy goes wrong, the same as he Who fed swine in the far country; He seems beyond the utmost reach Of hearts that pray, of lips that preach; Give him another chance, and see How beautiful his life may be.” There is a healing balm in a fresh start.

Healing Balm in Favorable Words A member of All Saints’ Church told me that when she first heard the title of this hymn, she thought it was, “There is a BOMB in Gilead.” The correct title is “There is a BALM in Gilead.” A word can be a balm or a bomb. A positive word makes you feel good. A negative word leaves you feeling depressed and defeated. Words release energy! There is a healing balm in favorable words. In the library we call The Bible, listen to these sentences from The Book of Proverbs.

“Sharp words cut like a sword, but words of wisdom heal” (Proverbs 12:18, CEV).

“Worry is a heavy burden, but a kind word always brings cheer” (Proverbs 12:25, CEV).

Healing Balm in a Fundamental Change Optimism is the belief that the good will finally prevail over the evil in the universe. There are two types of optimism. There is “superficial optimism” and there is “realistic optimism.” Superficial optimism can be seen in the words of Robert Browning: “God’s in his heaven-All’s right with the world” (Pippa Passes). Jeremiah has nothing but scorn for the people in his day that offered such superficial optimism. Jeremiah saw how sick his nation was. He says this about the superficial optimists: “They dress my people’s wound, but skin-deep only, with their saying, ‘All is well.’ All well? Nothing is well” (Jeremiah 6:14, NEB). In both national and personal life, we need to reject superficial optimism. You do not cleanse the water in a well by painting the pump.

Beyond superficial optimism is “realistic optimism.” You find realistic optimism in the message of Jesus who said: “In the world you will have trouble. But courage! The victory is mine; I have conquered the world” (John 16:33, NEB). There is a healing balm in a fundamental change of outlook and lifestyle. In this sense, there is indeed a “Balm in Gilead.”