Pray, Church!

We are called to get so involved in the work of prayer that we are praying as James calls us to pray.  Pray for the suffering and show them love.  Pray for the sick and bring them comfort.  Pray for the lost and lonely, and bring them back to community.  Anoint the ill and discover the power of God working through you.  Pray, and be transformed.  We cannot get this close to God and avoid it.  Prayer changes the church.

Think for a moment about your life as a church.  Where can you bring this God-empowered act of prayer into your community?  Are there those who are alone and sick, separated from the church?  Can you go visit them?  Are there those who are suffering - in fear or doubt? Can you go pray with them?  Can you find opportunities to reach out to people in need during a dinner on Wednesday nights or during choir practice or at vacation bible school?  Where are you as a church, and where can you bring God's power, as God's partner in divine work?

Our life as a church is cross-shaped.  Love God, love God's children.  The end of James is only the beginning.  Go into the world, and pray.

Prayer: The Horizontal Component

But the vertical part of the cross is not the only part.  There is the horizontal arm of the cross - our relationship with our neighbors.  Take a look at the passage again.

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.

Haven’t you ever heard someone say that he or she could feel the support of prayer?  I think that is an action of God at work in our lives.  How could anyone feel the support of prayer - or even know about it - except that the Holy Spirit intervenes?  We pray because when someone is suffering, we can love them through prayer.

The passage tells us to pray over the sick and anoint them.  Olive oil was commonly used for medicinal purposes at the time – think of the story of the good Samaritan who “bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil” (Luke 10:34).  The act of anointing with oil as a religious rite is only mentioned twice in the NT – Mark 6:13 and here in this passage of James.

If we look at this passage carefully, we can see that this is different from the traditional use of oil as a healing medicine – the healing in this passage comes from God, not the oil.  I hope you have had the opportunity to participate in a service of anointing.  It can be an undeniable example of the power of prayer - and the power of God to act through prayer.  A couple of years ago at Annual Conference, I was invited to assist with anointing at a service of healing.  There wasn't much instruction concerning what to do, and I needed instruction!  I had no idea how to anoint someone.  I was given the oil, and a few words to say, and sent to my station.  I was very nervous.  As the service progressed, I knew I was on holy ground, praying and anointing people as they approached where I stood.  This was made abundantly clear to me as three women came forward.  Two were supporting the third, who was obviously ill.  She was weak, leaning on her friends.  Her head was covered in a scarf, and her hair was gone.  All three were crying.  As they came close, I felt inadequate. How could I help this woman?  But I am one to follow instructions, so as they came close, I asked her name, and prayed.  In that moment, I realized the power of prayer.  It wasn't up to me to heal this woman - God acted through my actions.  It was God's power that was present with all four of us.  I don't know - and will never know - if the woman was physically healed, but I know all four of us, all four of us who were by this time crying in the presence of God - were healed.  We pray together, as community, because the power of God can work through us to heal each other.

Prayer: The Vertical Component

So, why do we pray?  Sometimes, when my two boys would ask "Why?!" I would say, "Because I said so."  Why do we pray?  At the simplest, the answer to that question is "Because God says so."  But I do think there is more to it.

The James scripture is the last few verses of the book of James.  It is a letter that was written, not to a particular church, like Ephesians or Corinthians, but to scattered churches. It concerns itself with heavenly wisdom, as opposed to worldly wisdom, and it urges Christians to live a life that reflects their beliefs.  Perhaps the most famous verse from the book of James is part of the second chapter, verse 26: for faith without works is dead.  The book of James has three main concerns: taking care in how we speak, showing care to those in distress and living lives that resist worldly sins.  I think it might be surprising that a book so full of action would end on words that encourage prayer.  And yet, Pope Francis said, "You pray for the hungry.  Then you feed them.  That's how prayer works."  There is wisdom for us in that.

For me, a cross illustrates the function of prayer in our lives.  There is the vertical bar - it represents the commandment to love God - and prayer is our connection to God.  There is the horizontal bar - representing the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves - and prayer connects us to community.

When I think about prayer, I'm stunned and amazed that the creator of the universe wants us to pray.  As a child, I took it for granted.  As an adult, I know that it is extraordinary that God offers us an invitation to be in relationship.  Think about that for a moment.

But it's not only that - God not only wants to be in relationship with us, but God wants to partner with us in the work of God in the world. Mark Douglas wrote, "...prayer uniquely binds human and divine activity together such that it is difficult to see where one ends and the other begins."

A few years ago, I had a stack of "thinking about you" greeting cards on my desk.  I was considering what to do with them.  I took some time in prayer, and while I was listening, being quiet, a few names came to mind, so I sent the cards to those people.  A week or two later, one of the women to whom I sent a card made a special effort to stop by to see me (from out of town).  She said that she had been in the hospital, and the card arrived the day she got home, and it was exactly what she needed to hear - she had been so encouraged by it.  The truth is, I didn't know she was even sick, and yet I sent her a card.  God did that.  I did that.  I don't know where the dividing line is, but it is prayer that makes it possible.

Philip Yancey wrote in his book Prayer, "The partnership binds so tight that it becomes hard to distinguish who is doing what, God or the human partner.  God has come that close...the advance in intimacy is striking."  The truth is, God has work for us to do, together, and that is why we pray.  And I challenge you to get that close to God and not be changed.

Defiling Words

Sunset at farm, Biltmore Estate.

In Sunday school yesterday, we were talking about a passage from James:

but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.  James 3:8-12

The conversation turned very literal at that point. We bemoaned the state of society and the habit some have of cursing.

I have, in my time, asked people to refrain from the habit, especially when in the company of children. That said, I don't think literal cursing is what this passage is about.

The most defiling words that come from my mouth are not curse words. They are plain, simple words that hurt others. They are the words for which I need to apologize, the words that damage relationship, that lower self-esteem. They are the words that I wish I could take back.

It is those words that are defiling, not my (albeit) infrequent use of curse words.

Faith without works

Rather a long scripture (relatively) today:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,* if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. James 2:14-26

This was one of the scriptures we were asked to read for our Disciple class last night. We were then to consider the question, "What does it mean that faith without works is dead?"

From my musing --

Our faith in God calls us to action. Faith without works is faith without obedience. We are called by God to a particular rule of life -- called to live a life that shows forth love in action. We are motivated to that life by our awareness of being loved by God and by our willingness to be obedient and to be transformed by God so that we can do what he calls us to do. We do not earn grace and love through our works; we give evidence of love and grace through our actions.

Clear Vison

One more post (maybe) rooted in James.

Lueking wrote in Disciplines this week:

Faithful doing of the word comes from seeing, really seeing, in others with needs of every kind none other than Jesus himself...Doing because of seeing is blessed beyond words.

A friend of mine consistently asked for prayer to clear vision. It seems simple, but it is a dangerous prayer. It is a risking thing to ask for yourself or for someone else. Clear vision.

• To see what God wants for your life
• To see one's own sin
• To see Jesus himself in the needs of someone else
• To see God's will as more important than your own.
• To see God's will AS your own.

Clear vision. It's a dangerous, risking prayer that can lead -- probably will lead -- to action. According to the quote above, it is the source of faithful doing of the word.

Perhaps James is implying that clear vision leads to "religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father."

And we can take joy and comfort in the rest of Lueking's quote: doing because of seeing is blessed beyond words.

And I could greatly paraphrase is to say, "Seeing because of our blessings from God results in doing beyond words."

The Fruit of Belief

Still thinking about James....

There always seems to be a conflicting thought in my mind when it comes to James. James seems to be so centered to doing that the case could be made that one must do in order to earn grace.

For a person who believe that grace is an unearned gift, this presents a challenge.

Every once and a while, God gives me a reminder -- a gift -- that untangles my thoughts where this is concerned. Read this verse from James 1:

Verse 22: But be doers of the word, not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

And then in Disciple again this week (R. Dean Lueking's writing really spoke to me), I found this:

Hearing but not doing the truth is unthinkable in the new creation Christ Jesus has brought.

To say that one believes in Christ, believes in God, has devoted oneself to following God, and then to do nothing is evidence of self-deception. How can one believe, and then not respond? It's not the response that earns the grace, it's the response that confirms the belief in the grace, in the Christ, in the God.

Don't deceive yourself; instead, believe, and your belief can't help but yield fruit.