UCC General Synod - Sunday, June 21

Faithful and Welcoming Churches (FWC) chose lip balm as our 2009 “giveaway” for the UCC’s General Synod in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The technical name is “Savor the Flavor Lip Balm.” 

If you are attending, we hope the mint-flavored, “Vitamin-E enriched lip balm relieves and revitalizes (your) dehydrated lips.”  That’s what we were promised by the promotional company.

Perhaps the imprint on the lip balm or our presence at Synod prompted you to find us on line, to look up Jeremiah 8:22, or both.

So why the lip balm, and why this verse?  What are we saying?

In a world that prefers positive messages, Jeremiah is hardly favored reading.  To be sure, he offers some great words of promise (29:11; 31:33-34; 33:3), but he’s not called the “weeping prophet” without reason.  Jeremiah is mostly about confrontation and warning.

Chapter eight is typical.  “Why does Jerusalem turn away?”  “My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.”  “From the least to the greats, all are greedy for gain.”

Even the prophets and priests, Jeremiah complains, are thoroughly deluded.  “They dress the wound of my people as if it were not serious.  ‘peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”

True to his nickname, Jeremiah cries out in 8:21-9:1,

                Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;

                                I mourn, and horror grips me.

                Is there no balm in Gilead?

                                Is there no physician there?

                Why then is there no healing for my people?

                                For the wound of my people?

                Oh, that my head were a spring of water

                                And my eyes a fountain of tears! (emphasis added)

Is God still speaking to the UCC through this text?

Asking “Is there no balm in Gilead?” in the 6^th century B.C. was like asking, “Are there no cars in Michigan?” in 2009.  Gilead, east of the Jordan, was noted for its production of balm, “an aromatic resin that was regarded as having properties that either eased pain or covered the smell of festering wounds” (New Interpreter’s Bible, IX:648).

Balm was what Gilead did best.  If there’s no balm in Gilead, times are tough.  Hope is elusive.

We in FWC are not here to point out bad news.  We are certainly not here to point fingers.  We do not come as self-appointed prophets to accuse. 

We have all ignored those parts of God’s Word we would rather not hear.  Jeremiah’s condemnation of immorality, injustice, and willful ignorance is a message we all deserve.  We have placed band-aids on deep, infected wounds.  We must join together to weep for our own sins, the sins of our nation, and the sins of our denomination.  None is without fault.

But we in FWC choose to answer Jeremiah’s plaintive cry in 8:22 with the response of African-American spiritual,

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.

Some times I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again.

Our faith-full spiritual ancestors had far more reason to despair of the future than most of us, but they chose to hold on to Christ as balm for their weary souls.

And so must we.

In FWC, we are ECOTs – those who identify ourselves as Evangelical, Conservative, Orthodox, or Traditional.  ECOTs bring balm to the General Synod.

Evangelicals proclaim the evangel, the good news, that God in Jesus Christ has dared to enter our world of dis-ease to bring his salvation for now and forever.

Conservatives conserve the best of our heritage.  Rather than assuming the best news is the current ecclesiastical fad, we humbly hold “the faith of the historic Church expressed in the ancient creeds and reclaimed in the basic insights of the Protestant Reformers.”

Orthodox members of the UCC believe that a central core of essential truth is traceable throughout the history of the church, and must provide the boundaries for our good news.

Traditional means that we are in no hurry to alter the language about God and the connections to the historic liturgy and shaping precedents of wise women and men who have gone before us.  Sometimes good news arrives in an ancient wrapper.

For more on the meaning of ECOT, pick up the booklet, “What is ECOT?” from our display table.  Also join us at one of our Saturday workshops, “Essentials and Non-essentials: The Formula for Unity,” and at our Sunday sponsored lunch at the Days Hotel.  For a lunch ticket, stop by the Sponsored Meal Ticket Table near the main registration area.

If you want to know more about us, stop by our booth (#356) and interact with our people.  You may think all the ECOTs have vanished from the UCC, but we’re still here – still learning, still praying, still loving, still trying our best to offer balm by being both faithful and welcoming.