"Two Things I Know About Prayer"
James 5:13-20
September 28, 2003
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John Fleming
Just this week, I heard again the story of the woman who had to change jobs. She loved her old job and she had been there for several years, but now that her children were a little older, she needed a job that paid more money. Soon her two kids would be going to college and she wanted them to be able to go to wherever they wanted to go. So she looked for a new job in her field, found one, and soon was working there. This woman was active in her church. In fact, you might say that when the doors of the church were open, she was usually there. She was there for the worship services. She was enrolled in a long term Bible study. She volunteered with the youth program, much to the disappointment of her teenager. There is something in teenagers that doesn't want their parents to volunteer in youth ministry. She also took a turn rocking babies in her church's nursery every three months. She is the kind of member that every pastor loves to have in his church. With her new job came more money, but it also meant that she had to start all over again, working from the ground up to get ahead. She usually left early in the mornings and did not get home, sometimes, until late at night. And unfortunately, her new job also required her to work weekends. So, when the doors of the church were open for all of the things that she loved, this lady was at work.
There was not a lot that she could do in the church and that bothered her. So she made an appointment to see her pastor to talk to him about this. She went into his office, plopped down in one of the chairs in his office, and quickly got to the point of her visit. She told her pastor about her new job and why she had taken it and how it was affecting her church life. It was important to her that she take her membership vows seriously. Her pastor tried to tell her that it was all right, that sometimes doing things for our families takes precedent. She heard what he said, looked up at her pastor and said, "I don't have a whole lot of time to do things these days. But at night, when I go to bed, before I turn off the lights, I take the newspaper with me and I read about all the babies that have been born in our city, and I pray for them. And I turn over and read the list of the names of those who have gotten marriage licenses and I pray for the couples who will soon be married. And I turn over to the page that announces deaths in our town. And I read their names and the names of their families and I pray. Then I reach for our newsletter, and I read the names of the people on our prayer list, and I pray that God will bless their health and give them peace." Her pastor looked up at her as a tear started trickling down her cheek. Then she said, "I can't do much these days, pastor, but I can pray."
I am not the pastor in this story and one of you is not this woman, but if I were him, I would want her to know how important her prayers were and how important prayer is.
Which, I think, is also high on James' list as he concludes his letter to the church at Jerusalem. Well, before we go on, I would like to remind you about some of the things that I have said about this letter of James. There has been trouble with this letter from it's get-go. You might remember me telling you that the great German reformer, Martin Luther, did not think that it belonged in the New Testament. Do you remember me saying that Luther called James an epistle of straw? Here is what I think, I think that the letter's main problem is that it is not like all of the other letters in the New Testament. You will know this, most of the letters in the New Testament are Paul's letters. Paul's letters dominate the New Testament and all of them, every one of them have an enormous amount of depth to them. James' words are not all that heavy. In fact, I think that James' words are easy to understand; it hardly takes any effort at all to know what James is getting at. Paul's words are different. In fact, the writer of Second Peter, which is a letter a lot like James, has a line in it that reads, "There are some things in Paul's letters difficult to understand." I agree. James' words are not so hard. Here is what I think. I think that Paul wrote theology for the entire church. His letters were intended to circulate from house church to house church. James' words, on the other hand, were intended for one church and a particular people. I think on James' mind was this concern, "How is the church to be the church?" So in his last words of his letter, James, I think, counsels the church that if they are going to be who they are supposed to be, then they need to be about two things. First, they need to pray for one another. And second, they need to care for one another.
Which leads us to the words that are our scripture lesson for this morning. After telling the church that they need to wait patiently for the coming of the Lord, James says that the Jerusalem Christians need to be in prayer for three different groups. First, for those who are suffering. Second, for those who are sick. And third, for those who are sinning. Which I think is a pretty good cross section of the kind of people that will find in any church. James' prescription for all three of these groups in the church is the same. If you are suffering, he says, pray. If there are any among you who are sick, then you should pray for them. And if there is someone among you who has sinned, and they confess their sin (there is that disclaimer), then you are to pray for them. So if you take this letter of James seriously, and I hope that you will, then you will understand that the church ought to spend most of it's time praying.
Church, can I be honest with you this morning? These words are straight out of my heart, as are most of the words that I preach. There are some weeks when preaching seems straightforward, not easy, just straightforward. For instance, take the story of the prodigal son. We know how a sermon based on that text is going to go. It is going to go in one of three directions. A preacher worth his salt will focus on the boys' father, the son who left, or the one who stayed home. Now the preacher's job is to find some new and interesting ways to get the point across, but you know the point is to homecoming. You know that when the words are read. And then there are some lessons like our lesson for this morning. It isn't straightforward. I want you to know that I struggled with these words this week.
Listen a little longer and you will see what I mean. The first two groups that James says that we are to pray for are not the problem. His first piece of advice is that if you are suffering, then you should pray. I do not think that we know that many people who are truly suffering. Oh, from time to time there are people that we know who are suffering, maybe with cancer or some illness like that. But by and large we don't know many who are suffering. I think that our heads would have bobbed a little more if James had said that those who are struggling should pray. I believe that more of us struggle than suffer. I think that James' advice really is that we do not have to suffer or struggle alone. God wants to be involved in our pain. Then James mentions the second group on his heart. James says that if there are any among us who are cheerful, then we should sing songs of praise. That makes sense doesn't it? This is something that we are not so good at. We are quick to lodge the complaints in our prayer times, and not so fast to thank God for the good things that are happening. James says that we must do this. I agree. We must do this.
But then James spends the rest of his verses about prayer counseling what we must do with those who are sick and those of us who are sinning. I know what James is trying to say. I know his point. I know that James is saying that there are two things that separate us from our communities of faith, sickness and sin. I don't think that it is by chance that for the first time in this letter of his, James uses the word church. I know that James is saying that those who are sick cannot just lay there, but have a responsibility to call the elders of the church to pray for them. And I know that James is saying that the church cannot just stand back and wait for good health to return. You see, friends, the church is supposed to rally behind and support those who are ill, to show itself to be there for one another. I know all this, and now you do too, and so maybe it is straightforward. We are supposed to be there for one another as a church.
But still I struggled this week with some of James' words. Listen to one of the lines that caused this. James writes, "The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up." I do not think that I will soon forget Linda Garner, a lady about my age, who was a member of the first church that I served. Linda taught school with Susie and half way through my tenure there, learned that she had cancer. It was the kind of cancer that started in one place and ended up everywhere else. But Linda, you see, believed that she would be healed and one Wednesday night, she called for the elders of the church, which was me, and ten of her closest friends, and we gathered in our sanctuary and we had a healing service. I was a couple of years out of seminary. I had never done a healing service before. To be honest with you, I really didn't know what I was doing and so I relied heavily on God to lead the right way. At the altar, with a little oil on my fingers, we prayed for Linda and for her healing. And we prayed for those who were with her, for their marriages, and for other significant things in their lives. Not many months later, I was the one who read scripture lessons and preached a service celebrating her life. Listen again to James' words, "The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up." Were we not faithful when we prayed. Why was Linda not raised up? Here is what I learned this week friends. What James says here about prayer is the same thing that is said about prayer throughout the Bible. Sometimes what it means to be raised up, is to raised up to eternal life with God, as hard as it is for us to understand that. There is no distinction here between the saving of the body and the saving of the soul.
Tony Compollo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon when he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. He prayed boldly for the man's healing. That next week, he got a telephone call from the man's wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Tony thought that when she used the word in the past tense, that his cancer somehow had disappeared. But then she said, "He died, but please don't feel bad about it. When he came into church that Sunday, he was mad. He was 58 and mad at God. He was mad that he hadn't been healed. It was awful being around him. But then you prayed for him, and after you did, a peace came over him and somehow a joy came in him. Tony, the last three days were our best days. We sang hymns, we laughed, we read scripture, we prayed. Oh, these last days were wonderful days." Tony was about to hang up when she said this, "He wasn't cured, preacher, but he was definitely healed."
We pray for two reasons, friends. First, because we know what will happen, we will be changed. That man in Oregon was changed. And then secondly, we pray because we don't always know what will happen. We always pray with hope. There is a popular story of a young preacher who was visiting a very old and sick woman in the hospital. At the conclusion of their visit, he said, "I want to pray for you. Is there anything special that you would like for me to pray for?" With all the strength that she could muster, she said, "Of course. I want for you to pray that I'll be healed." Now he was an educated pastor, been to seminary and all that. He understood things and his prayer went something like this, "Lord, we pray for our sister to be healed. But if that is not possible, Lord, get her peace and a willingness to accept her situation. Amen." As soon as he finished his prayer, the woman opened her eyes, threw back the covers, put her feet over the side of her bed, stood up and said, "I'm well! I'm well!" She ran out the door, ran down the hallway, dancing and saying, "Look at me! Look at me! I'm well!" Dumbfounded by this, the preacher left the room, went out to his car, opened his car's door, put his head down on the steering wheel and said, "Lord, don't you ever do that to me again!"
To God, I say, Lord, do that to me every time. We are all in this life together, friends. What you do affects me and what I do affects you. So, please pray for me and I will pray for you, and who knows what will happen. Let us pray.