Before modern medical science really took off in the last fifty years of the past millennium, there were a lot of home and folk remedies being prescribed by well-meaning individuals, but also by con artists and charlatans. The remedy was often administered accompanied by the phrase that the supposed cure was “good for what ails you.” The classic, all-purpose remedy for nearly every condition was a table-spoonful of castor oil. Perhaps some of you suffered through that treatment or gave it to someone else.

After settling on the title for this sermon, I “googled” the phrase “good for what ails you” on the internet. My search resulted in quite an interesting list of old and new products and activities that were or are supposedly good for what ails us. There were a couple of sites online tha…