In the past two weeks we have explored two different understandings of the phrase: ‘He restores my soul’. Today we examine another –one that claims these words refer to the way God ministers to us when we become spiritually debilitated. Personally, this is the view I find most appealing. Life has a tendency to run down, to get jaded (bored or lacking enthusiasm, typically after having had too much of something) and ragged ((of cloth or clothes) old and torn) or (having an irregular or uneven surface, edge, or outline) at the edges, tired and lacking in zest. In this one phrase ‘He restores my soul’, we have looked or viewed life in many dimension, on the 7th Jan. 2024 we looked at life as a bruised reed, a dimly burning wick, which prompted the good Shepherd to care, provide, guide, protect and secure; on the 14th of Jan. 2024 we studied and learned that life could be restored by a look, whereby Apostle Peter when his denial of our Lord Jesus nearly destroyed him our Lord Jesus having previously prayed for him unlike Judas was finally restored to life by a look and on the 21st Jan. 2024 we looked at when one carelessly and thoughtlessly wander away from the path of life in a sermon titled ‘little islands of worldliness’. These go a long way to tell us that we just have to be more and most conversant with the word of God because it is the only thing that can help us have life and have it more abundantly! A sample of the kind of thing I mean is found in a letter which arrived today: ‘I’m worn down by my circumstances …tired of the pressures …wearied by the constant demands that are being made upon me. Can God do anything for me in this situation?’ I was happy to respond that He can! The Good Shepherd can step into our lives when we feel tired and jaded and provided we let Him in through our belief and faith, He will quickly restore our spiritual life, energy and enthusiasm. In the New Testament, in the Moffatt translation. Lord Jesus is described as a stimulator: “So by all the stimulus of Christ, by every incentive of love, by all your participation in the Spirit, by all your affectionate tenderness” (Phil.2:1). Or Ampc version gives it this way, “So by whatever [appeal to you there is in our mutual dwelling in Christ, by whatever] strengthening and consoling and encouraging [our relationship] in Him [affords], by whatever persuasive [a]incentive there is in love, by whatever participation in the [Holy] Spirit [we share], and by whatever depth of affection and compassionate sympathy” those who know nothing of Christ’s stimulus –His ability to restore tired and jaded souls –are forced to turn to other stimulants to tide them over. Listen to the way that a famous missionary to India describes Christ’s ministry of spiritual restoration: ‘He is like the first rainfall of the monsoon in India –the dry, dusty ground, so barren and hard, the very next day has a green film of vegetation over it. The moisture apparently touches the dead soil …it is alive. So as Lord Jesus touches our parched and barren lives, and [they are revived] with life, with vitality and with hope.’ May you know the wonder of His restoring touch this very moment as you hear and listen to the invigorating words of God Almighty. Faith comes by hearing the word of God and with it come many other things such as healing, providence, protection, caring, security and the total well being of our soul in terms of peace, the Peace of our Lord God that passes all understanding and such the world cannot give, but give He unto us!

Now let us read Jeremiah 30:12-22; 12 For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable and your wound is grievous. 13 There is none to plead your cause; for [the pressing together of] your wound you have no healing [device], no binding plaster. 14 All your lovers (allies) have forgotten you; they neither seek, inquire of, or require you. For I have hurt you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel and merciless foe, because of the greatness of your perversity and guilt, because your sins are glaring and innumerable. 15 Why do you cry out because of your hurt [the natural result of your sins]? Your pain is deadly (incurable). Because of the greatness of your perversity and guilt, because your sins are glaring and innumerable, I have done these things to you. 16 Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity. And they who despoil you will become a spoil, and all who prey upon you will I give for a prey. 17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no one seeks after and for whom no one cares! 18 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will release from captivity the tents of Jacob and have mercy on his dwelling places; the city will be rebuilt on its own [old] mound like site, and the palace will be dwelt in after its former fashion. 19 Out of them [city and palace] will come songs of thanksgiving and the voices of those who make merry. And I will multiply them, and they will not be few; I will also glorify them, and they will not be small. 20 Their children too shall be as in former times, and their congregation shall be established before Me, and I will punish all who oppress them. 21 And their prince will be one of them, and their ruler will come from the midst of them. I will cause him to draw near and he will approach Me, for who is he who would have the boldness and would dare [on his own initiative] to approach Me? says the Lord. 22 Then you will be My people, and I will be your God.

God is at work among a suffering people for their future well-being. Though they have been wounded in the judgment they have experienced, God promises healing. These verses are the opening section of the Book of Consolation. God is the speaker, and it is clear that God has entered deeply into the people’s suffering and seeks to deliver and heal Israel. However much Israel deserves the consequences for their infidelities, God will not leave the people to wallow in them. God will inaugurate a new day and extricate them from the effects of their own sin. So the clear gospel word is stated: have no fear, be not dismayed, for I am with you, and I will save you (30:10-11). The present time of captivity is a time of chastisement, for sin will not go unvisited or unpunished; yet, it is not an end in itself, but a means to refine and restore Israel (30:11). The promised salvation, Salvation can mean saved from something (or termed deliverance) or for something (and termed redemption). Paul preached that salvation comes through the death of Christ on the cross which redeemed sinners from death and for a grace-filled life. More has both internal and external aspects, and the image of healing is used to describe both (30:12-17). God’s healing is as comprehensive as is God’s salvation: individual and communal; present and future; spiritual and psychical/bodily; religious and social/economic/political. It would entail deliverance from fear and dismay, removal of their enemies, and returning the scattered ones from various lands to their homeland. Even cities and homes will be rebuilt, the few shall become many, they shall be honored, and joyful sounds shall once again be heard on the street (30:18-20). No human source or creational resource is capable of bringing healing to this devastated people. Only God can be their healer: “For I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no one seeks after and for whom no one cares!” (30:17). And “Then you will be My people, and I will be your God.” (30:22). As we read all of these and try compare them with what is happening in Israel and what Israel has become so far today in the face of the whole world: from being that bush based on the portion of land given to them on their return now to that nation that has become one amongst the world powers and leading nations in the world with the best state of the art technology and showcasing the outcome of their deep researchful outbreak. And more is yet to come!

In November of 1997, a forum called “Sin and the Art of Zen Archery” was held at a synagogue in New Jersey. The forum, which featured panelists from several world religions, was on the topic of sin. In the discussion that followed, one woman objected to the whole idea of sin, saying, “I don’t know whether there is any proper place for evil in human nature. If I believe part of me is evil, how will I ever overcome evil?” That question is haunting. If sin is within me, how can I ever escape it? “Your Hurt is Incurable” The Prophet Jeremiah described Judah’s sin in medical terms. That haunting question expresses what Jeremiah meant when he came right out and said that Judah’s spiritual condition was terminal, which is incurable as in terminal disease. From the human standpoint different from God’s standpoint, there was no remedy for the condition of Judah. They had an incurable sickness. They were mortally wounded. There was no medicine available. It was a “get your affairs in order” kind of situation. If that’s the prognosis, likely course, what about the diagnosis, the identification of the nature? Then the question is What mortal wound, what infectious disease laid the people of God on their deathbed? The answer, of course, was Sin. Moreover, the cause of the illness is no mystery. Sickness, sickness leading to death is the outcome of sin, disobedience, and flagrant disregard of God. Judah is caught in a deep disease of its own making, the disease of unfaithfulness and self-sufficiency. You too and I suffer from this incurable malady. You too and I are in captivity to iniquity, our iniquity! You and I have a bad case of sin, and you and I will not — cannot — recover on our own. It will take more than a couple of days in bed and a few bowls of chicken soup to put you and I back on our feet. Sin is an incurable disease you know, and you and I have got it. We just confessed that “we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against [God] in thought, word, and deed.” The Book of Common Prayer (prayer book used by the Anglican Communion) expresses it well also: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us.” In other words we have led ourselves all through instead of allowing Christ to lead us and thus have landed ourselves in a mess! Sin is not dormant, only to pop up every now and then. Sin can be viewed like a chronic illness which will never go away. Or it’s like a vicious strain of bacteria that has grown resistant even to the most powerful antibiotic. It’s a restless evil at work in us day and night, even in while we sleep. It always endeavors to move us away from God and make us self-absorbed and neglect our duties to our neighbors even to ourselves. These impulses are at times lighter, at times stronger. It spreads in the soul until it carries the sinner to the grave. Imagine if skin cells did not have the power to regenerate. Imagine if wounds never healed. Imagine how hideous people would look if every cut, scrape, bruise, or blemish were permanent. Now imagine the hideous effects of the sin we have allowed to fester. Imagine idolatry added to immorality, compounded by selfishness and injustice. If you could look inside of your own soul, you would see a malignant evil. Who could ever heal such a spiritual cancer? How can sin ever be cured? What hope do we have left?

The truth is Sin is such a part of us that we cannot get rid of it unaided by Christ. But God in Christ can. He is the Great Physician, as Jeremiah promised: “For I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord” (v. 17a). First God says we have a wound that is incurable; then He promises to cure it because only Him can. First He declares that our injury cannot be healed; then He vows to heal it. How can that be? Is that a contradiction? Remember what Lord Jesus said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12), and “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (19:26). Where we have problem is in our trust and belief in the Lord our God. God promises to do the impossible. He promises to cure what is incurable and to heal what is beyond healing. The promise of healing is a promise to make new flesh grow over an old wound. God is the great Physician of His people. God doesn’t want to leave His people alone in sin and wretchedness. God cannot ignore sin and evil. So, He desires to restore us, to heal us. God is not seeking to destroy the world and start afresh. He’s seeking to redeem and restore that which is so corrupted. Our restoration can only come about by God healing us. There is only one cure for iniquity, only one remedy for guilt, only one atonement for sin, and that is the blood of Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross. We ourselves cannot overcome evil, but Lord Jesus Christ won the victory over sin through His death and resurrection. The work of Christ on the cross was done to cure the incurable wound of sin promised in Prophet Jeremiah’s time. What can heal our sin? Only God, and only through the death of His Son on the cross. Do you believe this? The belief is the only thing God wants from us, yet we find it very hard to do! We Christians are very quick to think of salvation as an externally as a change of status. Justification by faith alone. That’s vitally important, but not the only thing. We cannot forget that our salvation involves healing. After justification comes Sanctification. This is a change in us. The sick body needs health, and our sick souls needs healing. God heals us. He gives us medicine. When that medicine has been applied, the disease is halted, and it grows weaker. Since we are under the doctor, under Christ and live mindful of our illness, we shall be healed. For that poison decreases more and more from day to day and we always wipe out, wash, and cleanse the wound. In the meantime we endure the cure of Christ our true physician. Remember, this is like a chronic illness. It will not go away. It’s like my wife Laurin said a narrator. She has Crohn’s Disease. There is no cure. The medicine she is on keeps the disease at bay. So long as she takes the medicine, avoids certain foods, eats other foods that are good for her, the disease is kept mostly under control. The medicine doesn’t cure the disease. No, the disease is kept at bay. So it is with our sin, if only we can use the knowledge of God’s word to live our life, it amounts to avoiding certain food, and once this is done sin is not increasing again and eventually its stagnation and eating other good food which amounts to doing the right thing through Christ aid can invigorate the body back to life! Christ, our doctor promised us the most complete cure to eternal life. We get in the Resurrection. In the meantime, the doctor gives us medicine, an exercise routine, and He prohibits us from doing or omitting things which might increase or aggravate the disease in us. What is the medicine? We ought to pray daily, hear and meditate on God’s Word daily, attend the sacraments, and purge ourselves the poison and rottenness via confession. The Lord’s Supper is sometimes called the Medicine of Immortality. These are God’s means of healing us. We need to use these means, so that we are healed, cleansed of the poison of sin, until we are truly and entirely purged. That is why we have every first week of the month as our healing Sunday worship which we have warned members not to be missing! But now if a sick person should like their sickness and refuse every cure for their disease, won’t they die? Certainly, for thus it is with those who follow their desires in this world. Or if a certain sick man does not see that he is sick but thinks he is well and thus rejects the doctor, this is the kind of person who wants to be justified and made well by its own works. The source of our healing is God. We cannot cure ourselves. The disease is naturally incurable. It is healed only by God. The Judean exiles in Babylon couldn’t free themselves. They were waiting, hoping, longing for their Messiah to come. They prayed that He would deliver them from all the misery of their captivity. We look to the same Messiah to come in among us today and heal us. He already came and freed us from our bondage to sin by His death on the cross. We believe that He has come, and we have hope that He will come again. In the meantime, God gives us His Word and Sacraments to strengthen and preserve us in the true faith, to life everlasting. So come, take your medicine. May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.