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The 8th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah presents us with poetry poetry from a profit. The Prophet and in fact after whom the book is named, whom has been called by God to bring forth a word

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of either correction and repentance or word of destruction. The Prophet Jeremiah was to remind Jerusalem was to remind his people Judah of how they had turned away from God to false idols and the call was not purely

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professional. Along the way, the prophet himself had become aware of his own faults and shortcomings. And so the scripture attests that the Prophet was sick and sad even to his soul. Indeed it was the

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case that the state of the Prophet soul was but a reflection of the nation itself. For like the Prophet, the nation was also wounded and sick even unto death. The land had been occupied by foreign

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enemies and they had no access to their own fields and their own orchards, their own vineyards. The nation's sickness caused the profit to cry out asking, is there a bomb in Gilenya? The prophet was

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asking at this moment why healing had not come about in his land? Located the language which we here in the 22nd verse of the 8th chapter of Jeremiah could be interpreted. Why has the flesh not grown

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back on my people here we can imagine Jerusalem and something of a wounded animal or being possessing a flesh wound that now finds itself unable to heal like it naturally should, you know with time and the changing

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of the seasons, it seems that things should have been different. Earlier in the chapter, Jeremiah makes a comparison between his people, in between the different animals in nature, and Jeremiah observes that even though

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the stork seemed to know the correct seasons to migrate to and from different locations and even though the turtle doves no the same. It seems that when it comes to his own people, the seasons have not

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brought much change. Yeah. In fact, his situation was even doubly difficult because although the nation was sick, the scripture lets us know that it did not realize its own sickness. And so part of

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the challenge of his call was that before the nation could even be moved to repentance, their first had to be a correct understanding of the situation. In the words of Jeremiah, it was the case then

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that although the people had fallen down, they imagined themselves as standing up, they believe themselves wise but behaved foolishly, said they had not turned away from God But at turn two false idols. And because

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of this condition that of being both wounded and stubborn , the nation would be dismayed, broken and taken captive. Jeremiah was desperate for a solution and he found none. When he looked to the powers that

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be. Instead, he found two ends of something of a poll before him. On one hand was the enemy, wounding Judah, wounding his own people . While on the other hand, his own people

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sat whitewashing the situation with false idols, empty rituals and ceremonies. Thus, when Jeremiah turned to the enemy to address concerns of his people, he was continuously bruised and when he turned to his own people

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, the situation was quickly abreast under the rug, and so the prophet found himself trapped Damaged on one end, dressed up a little too quickly on the other. And there was no one that would truly

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address the heart of the matter. That is, that would work towards true healing of the nation. And so Jeremiah finds himself calling out asking, is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician

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there? Why then, is there no healing for the wounds of my own people? You know, it occurs to me that although Jeremiah's context is a bit different than ours. That is situation in many

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ways is similar to our own in that like his hours can be called fragmented, divided, even wounded . We all know that a whole host of moral issues calls us to question Today. We sit within

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a society that is still not healed from the wounds of classism, Sexism, anti gay behavior, racism , to name just a few. Just recently, we witnessed the murder of young Terence Crutcher at the

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hands of the Police department of this nation, unarmed , seeking help and instead finding damage and destruction. And yet we know that this wound that is reopened on this day has such a long history and that

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in the very same city, the Terence Crutcher was gunned down. That as early as 1921, we find racist violence destroying an entire black community in Tulsa , known as the Black Wall Street of its day

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, purely out of racist violence. It would seem that there would be so many who would seek to reopen these wounds to cause fresh pain, and even perhaps others who would turn a blind eye to them

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, much like Jeremiah's situation. And so just as in 6th century, Jerusalem had been broken and scattered into pieces. So to our own context is marked by social division in our cities. Identity politics preclude

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the discovery of common ground. While we wrestle with social tension, certain scholars are calling our moment a moral catastrophe. So great, indeed, in fact , that we can't even clearly see our way towards

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the solution. And even at a personal level, there are those who are suffering from their wounds. Yeah, all I'm trying to say is that the context in which we find Jeremiah is not so different

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from our own. And so the question that Jeremiah asked is not irrelevant to our own context. That is, is God not here? Is there no balm in Austin? Mhm. Why then, is

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there no healing for our wounds? Mhm. You know when Jeremiah referred to this term bomb, he was talking about something of an ointment, something of a medicine that is used to treat wounds. We

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know from historical study that bombs were cultivated outside of Jerusalem and all sorts of various places. For example , the historian Josephus says that there was a highly prized bomb that grew at Jericho and that the root

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of the tree that the queen of Sheba brought even to King Solomon was still existing during his time. He was paying attention to the bombs of his time for the right bomb. People will go out of

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their way to get it because with the right bomb , you'll be confident that you can be healed. Bombs can cure all sorts of things, viruses, paper cuts, wire cuts, even cancer in certain

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cases. Certainly the way in which a bomb works as complicated. But one way that we can understand it is that the bomb does two things. It acknowledges the bruise and then it heals the bruise.

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The bomb is in place just anywhere on the skin , but on the part that has been wounded. And when one goes to place bomb on the skin , it isn't to reopen the wound, but to

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heal it. And in this way the bomb does the job of confronting and healing the wound thoroughly and effectively, the prophet Jeremiah knew all this and so we cried out for the bomb. But even beyond

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this, the term bomb can have another meaning and I think that the prophet Jeremiah was trying to get at this meaning as well. You see there is debate as to whether or not the questions which Jeremiah

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raised in the text were literal or figurative. That is whether Jeremiah was really looking for a bomb or whether he was asking the question to which he already knew the answer. Indeed, it is likely that

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it was a bit of both in these questions so that we could understand Jeremiah's question not only about the possibility of a bomb and Gilead, but also as a rhetorical question intended to jog the spiritual memories of

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the jordanians. Yes, it is true. The hebrew word for the word bomb sorry is different than the word I'm thinking of, That word being to anoint my sock. But the basic idea between bomb

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and anointing is the same. They consist of a practice where one applies oil agrees to soften and protect a wound. Either a bomb or an anointing can be used to refer to pouring or spearing out as

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to well, to protect wounds and to aid in their healing in the old testament. In fact, the practice of anointing by pouring oil on the head was used as a symbolic act for officially designating and

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setting apart a person for certain public leadership, not leadership just for themselves and for their close loved ones before the community. In other words, it could be the case in this text that even as the

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prophet Jeremiah cries out for a healing balm, that he is also crying out for the anointing. That in the midst of asking this literal question About a bomb, that Jeremiah was also asking a rhetorical one

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meant not only to keep the jordanians mindful of the true activity of God, the healing activity of God , but to also keep before them the memory of their anointing, of his anointing. The anointing applied

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not just by anyone but by God. The anointing that brought with it a covenant and life in the spirit here, Jeremiah brings to mind that special moment when the prophet is anointed and in doing so brings

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to mind so many other special moments. For example , when the prophet Samuel pours a flask of olive oil on SARS head to anoint him as king or the moment where the great prophet Elijah anoints Alicia who

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will one day take his place. And certainly certainly Jeremiah thought of his own call an anointing. Where even as Jeremiah is telling God that he is too young and unprepared for the situations of the world,

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the scripture tells us the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb . I knew you before you were born. I set you apart. I appointed you as prophet to

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the nations. Certainly there was enough evil present in Jeremiah's day, with the enemies seeking to destroy and his own leaders given to false gods. But Jeremiah was determined to find the healing in all of this

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and new that the healing of God could only be brought about by the anointing of God. And so Jeremiah raised the question of a bomb of a need for fresh anointing church. I suspect that like Jeremiah

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, we in our own context need something of a bomb to heal the land and the people. Certainly , this is an understatement for as noted, before we face a host of social problems, perhaps what

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we need now as in Jeremiah's time is a fresh anointing, a fresh uniting from God. For as in Jeremiah's day, we are continuously damaged on one end and to quickly dressed up on the other,

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with so few taking time to address the heart of things to work towards true healing. And so I suspect that like Jeremiah, we too might need to hear this question that our spiritual memories might be jogged

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, that we understand the anointing on our lives, that we understand that we have been anointed for such an hour by the power of the Holy Spirit and that in this power there can be healing in the

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land. Whenever we talk about power in the spirit , we acknowledge that the spirit and the anointing is the presence and power of God at work in the world to accomplish his purposes. The scholar daniel Miliary

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will remind us that the power of the Holy Spirit brings new life and freedom in christ and even the possibility for new community it is this spirit. Yes . The same spirit that overtook jesus when he proclaimed

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that the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. The same spirit that harkens when we are asses anyone among you sick let him call for the

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others of the church to pray. And yes, that same spirit that God promises that God will pour out on all of humankind, on daughters, on sons. That we would prophesy and dream dreams these

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days, that we would see visions. It is indeed the case that what we need today is a fresh anointing or rather that we need in this hour to forget not our anointing, but to remember the

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call with confidence that God has placed on each and every one of our lives. Like Jeremiah, we are searching for a bomb. A real bomb, one that can fully face the evils of our time

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. While at the same time holding tightly to the expectation that trouble won't last always. We need the kind of bomb, the kind of anointing that wouldn't dare to overlook these ills, but the kind that

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won't leave them there either. The kind of bomb , in the words of Gwendolyn brooks that allows us to deal with both hell and health. The bomb that has the curves to say both, that the

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river turns, but also the courage to turn the river, the kind of bomb that builds with love Like morning rise May God have a blessing to you