Caring for Community
Text: James: 5:13-20
After last week’s brief foray into Presbyterians Sharing… We find ourselves back with our conversation with James. As short as this book is relative to others, its power is hard to ignore. I looked at the other suggested readings, perhaps looking to preach on something that is directly connected with today being World Communion Sunday… to talk about the elements that we use in celebration… bread and wine, symbolizing the body and blood, and what unifies us as Christians. Yet James’ call for prayer has a deep resonance in any community. The importance of caring for one another within the local congregation is vital to how we live out our faith. In fact, it’s so important that it is precisely what unifies us as Christians… entirely appropriate for a day like today.
As I have mentioned before, James was less a letter and more a sermon. It was originally delivered to a congregation somewhere in that intervening period between the initial short-lived persecutions under Roman Emperor Nero, and the much more vicious oppression under Emperor Domitian. At the time, without any kind of external threat, the faith community that James addresses had developed a sense of complacency. Rank, wealth, and social status had become far more important, and were in danger of eclipsing the real reason that they gathered together. Infighting was starting to materialize, and James knew that if this congregation did not pull together, their whole purpose of being would evaporate, and they would fall apart. Maybe it sounds a bit harsh, but James really pulls in this sense of purpose… why are we here? What is it that God is calling us to be? What is the point of being the church anyway?
James doesn’t let up, either, but at least he doesn’t simply criticize without offering the alternative. He doesn’t spend all his time saying what they’re doing wrong, but he balances it with what he understands as being a genuine response to Christ in the life of the church. Chapter five, in the closing paragraphs is where he places the bow on his argument:
Instead of sniping and playing favourites, instead of sitting around and doing nothing, James has a simple solution: pray… pray together… pray for the suffering, pray for the sick, pray in rejoicing… but most of all come together and pray together as a community… because through the process we come to a greater understanding of who we are, and what God calls us to be.
The challenge is, prayer is not something that we tend to do together, or perhaps it’s better to say we don’t really do it well… The challenge is we really don’t have a good handle on it. Yes, we do come together on Sunday mornings to pray, that’s inherently part of what worship is. Yet as 21st Century North Americans, we have been taught that prayer is something that’s entirely personal. Even when we come together in worship, it is still this sense of “me” and God… that somehow the rest of the community isn’t involved in prayer. It’s the way that we’ve been taught… and we don’t really give ourselves a chance to really consider the power that prayer has in the community.
Keep in mind that James is the one that reminds us that “faith without works” is dead. Our faith is reflected in what we do, in tending to the needs of others. Prayer, by extension, is the same. Prayer is something that we do in the community, for the community and with the community. It is very much a part of our life as a church together. Not only that, prayer by definition recognizes where people are at in their own lives.
If any among you are suffering… they should pray.
If any among you are cheerful… they should sing songs of praise… a different kind of prayer, but prayer all the same.
If any of among you are sick, get together with them, and pray with them, and anoint them…
Notice the theme? The prayer that James is talking about here is a movement to action. Prayer is not a solitary, confined thing that we turn inside ourselves, close our eyes and shut out the world… prayer is something that we do together, with one another, and it often happens right in the very actions of caring for one another. The call to prayer that James makes comes after encouraging people to a living faith. For James, prayer is something that is active.
A few years ago, I was privileged enough to be able to work with Habitat for Humanity. I helped found the Seaway-Glengarry affiliate in Cornwall, which became a rallying point for faith in action amongst many churches in the community. For many of the people that I talked to in the process, this was a way to put their faith in action… a living prayer of sorts, to help someone within their own community in a hands-on way. During our first build, one of the volunteers commented to me about how the whole construction of the home was like a prayer itself. She was right… the rhythm of the hammers, the flow of people moving materials around the site, everything that they did was prayer… because it was literally getting one’s hands dirty doing God’s work.
I had the honour and privilege of offering the final prayer when we dedicated the home on early on Easter Sunday morning 2000, where people from all over the community, from different churches and local businesses gathered together, and joined hands around this new home. Yet the words that I offered simply reflected the prayer that was already there.
For James, prayer is a hands-on kind of experience. It is not is not arm-twisting God to our own designs and desires, it is letting ourselves be open to God in all aspects of life. We let ourselves be vulnerable, we let ourselves the opportunity to listen to what God is whispering to us. In this, it isn’t God who changes to our will… but the other way around… we let ourselves be changed and transformed into what God is calling us to be.
But we tend to sectionalize our faith… we draw these artificial lines between, and divide up our time, into which we try to fit our prayer. It’s like we try to make room for it on our calendar. “Let’s see… I’m booked up for appointments today, gotta pick up the kids from the hockey practice tonight, ooops… wait… CSI is on… can’t miss that… maybe a slot in there just before bed.” We have turned our time for prayer into an appointment, rather than letting prayer become a part of who we are at every moment of the day.
A few years ago, there was a minister within the Presbyterian Church in Canada who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis… ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease by it’s more familiar name, he was the minister at Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterdown, just down the road from us. When he could no longer work, Chris began writing a personal journal that he distributed across the church called “For Words…” I remember one the earliest editions of that Journal, where he was describing how conscious he was becoming of his own breathing… and how much prayer itself is like the way we breathe. At its best, prayer is like breathing, it becomes a part of who we are, it’s something we just do. It happens at every moment during the day… It is only when we think about it do we become more conscious of it, feeling the air moving past our nostrils or mouth, filling our lungs, and then moving out as we exhale.
This was incredibly profound, given that Chris himself would himself ultimately lose the strength to breathe. Chris died four years ago this summer. Yet the Chris’s powerful reflections on prayer still have a great impact on the community that he prayed with and prayed for him.
James concludes his sermon about faith in action with this call to prayer. He wraps it all up nice and neat, telling us that no matter who we are, no matter where we are in life, prayer is effective… it works. Why? Because it helps us to tune into what God is calling us to be, and through this process, we are changed and more apt to be able to respond. I often conclude the prayers of the people with the line, “help us to be the answer to prayers of others, and help us to see the answer to our own prayers in others.” I wasn’t the one who coined the phrase, but it has enough resonance that I often make use of it. James reminds us that prayer is part of being Christ’s church, it is part caring for community.
When we come to the table today, our actions of taking the bread, of drinking the wine. It’s as much a part of our prayer together as a community, but my prayer is that all of the actions that we take, in all that we do are indeed the kind of living, breathing prayer that James encourages.
Amen.
After last week’s brief foray into Presbyterians Sharing… We find ourselves back with our conversation with James. As short as this book is relative to others, its power is hard to ignore. I looked at the other suggested readings, perhaps looking to preach on something that is directly connected with today being World Communion Sunday… to talk about the elements that we use in celebration… bread and wine, symbolizing the body and blood, and what unifies us as Christians. Yet James’ call for prayer has a deep resonance in any community. The importance of caring for one another within the local congregation is vital to how we live out our faith. In fact, it’s so important that it is precisely what unifies us as Christians… entirely appropriate for a day like today.
As I have mentioned before, James was less a letter and more a sermon. It was originally delivered to a congregation somewhere in that intervening period between the initial short-lived persecutions under Roman Emperor Nero, and the much more vicious oppression under Emperor Domitian. At the time, without any kind of external threat, the faith community that James addresses had developed a sense of complacency. Rank, wealth, and social status had become far more important, and were in danger of eclipsing the real reason that they gathered together. Infighting was starting to materialize, and James knew that if this congregation did not pull together, their whole purpose of being would evaporate, and they would fall apart. Maybe it sounds a bit harsh, but James really pulls in this sense of purpose… why are we here? What is it that God is calling us to be? What is the point of being the church anyway?
James doesn’t let up, either, but at least he doesn’t simply criticize without offering the alternative. He doesn’t spend all his time saying what they’re doing wrong, but he balances it with what he understands as being a genuine response to Christ in the life of the church. Chapter five, in the closing paragraphs is where he places the bow on his argument:
13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should
sing songs of praise. 14Are 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. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise
them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
Instead of sniping and playing favourites, instead of sitting around and doing nothing, James has a simple solution: pray… pray together… pray for the suffering, pray for the sick, pray in rejoicing… but most of all come together and pray together as a community… because through the process we come to a greater understanding of who we are, and what God calls us to be.
The challenge is, prayer is not something that we tend to do together, or perhaps it’s better to say we don’t really do it well… The challenge is we really don’t have a good handle on it. Yes, we do come together on Sunday mornings to pray, that’s inherently part of what worship is. Yet as 21st Century North Americans, we have been taught that prayer is something that’s entirely personal. Even when we come together in worship, it is still this sense of “me” and God… that somehow the rest of the community isn’t involved in prayer. It’s the way that we’ve been taught… and we don’t really give ourselves a chance to really consider the power that prayer has in the community.
Keep in mind that James is the one that reminds us that “faith without works” is dead. Our faith is reflected in what we do, in tending to the needs of others. Prayer, by extension, is the same. Prayer is something that we do in the community, for the community and with the community. It is very much a part of our life as a church together. Not only that, prayer by definition recognizes where people are at in their own lives.
If any among you are suffering… they should pray.
If any among you are cheerful… they should sing songs of praise… a different kind of prayer, but prayer all the same.
If any of among you are sick, get together with them, and pray with them, and anoint them…
Notice the theme? The prayer that James is talking about here is a movement to action. Prayer is not a solitary, confined thing that we turn inside ourselves, close our eyes and shut out the world… prayer is something that we do together, with one another, and it often happens right in the very actions of caring for one another. The call to prayer that James makes comes after encouraging people to a living faith. For James, prayer is something that is active.
A few years ago, I was privileged enough to be able to work with Habitat for Humanity. I helped found the Seaway-Glengarry affiliate in Cornwall, which became a rallying point for faith in action amongst many churches in the community. For many of the people that I talked to in the process, this was a way to put their faith in action… a living prayer of sorts, to help someone within their own community in a hands-on way. During our first build, one of the volunteers commented to me about how the whole construction of the home was like a prayer itself. She was right… the rhythm of the hammers, the flow of people moving materials around the site, everything that they did was prayer… because it was literally getting one’s hands dirty doing God’s work.
I had the honour and privilege of offering the final prayer when we dedicated the home on early on Easter Sunday morning 2000, where people from all over the community, from different churches and local businesses gathered together, and joined hands around this new home. Yet the words that I offered simply reflected the prayer that was already there.
For James, prayer is a hands-on kind of experience. It is not is not arm-twisting God to our own designs and desires, it is letting ourselves be open to God in all aspects of life. We let ourselves be vulnerable, we let ourselves the opportunity to listen to what God is whispering to us. In this, it isn’t God who changes to our will… but the other way around… we let ourselves be changed and transformed into what God is calling us to be.
But we tend to sectionalize our faith… we draw these artificial lines between, and divide up our time, into which we try to fit our prayer. It’s like we try to make room for it on our calendar. “Let’s see… I’m booked up for appointments today, gotta pick up the kids from the hockey practice tonight, ooops… wait… CSI is on… can’t miss that… maybe a slot in there just before bed.” We have turned our time for prayer into an appointment, rather than letting prayer become a part of who we are at every moment of the day.
A few years ago, there was a minister within the Presbyterian Church in Canada who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis… ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease by it’s more familiar name, he was the minister at Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterdown, just down the road from us. When he could no longer work, Chris began writing a personal journal that he distributed across the church called “For Words…” I remember one the earliest editions of that Journal, where he was describing how conscious he was becoming of his own breathing… and how much prayer itself is like the way we breathe. At its best, prayer is like breathing, it becomes a part of who we are, it’s something we just do. It happens at every moment during the day… It is only when we think about it do we become more conscious of it, feeling the air moving past our nostrils or mouth, filling our lungs, and then moving out as we exhale.
This was incredibly profound, given that Chris himself would himself ultimately lose the strength to breathe. Chris died four years ago this summer. Yet the Chris’s powerful reflections on prayer still have a great impact on the community that he prayed with and prayed for him.
James concludes his sermon about faith in action with this call to prayer. He wraps it all up nice and neat, telling us that no matter who we are, no matter where we are in life, prayer is effective… it works. Why? Because it helps us to tune into what God is calling us to be, and through this process, we are changed and more apt to be able to respond. I often conclude the prayers of the people with the line, “help us to be the answer to prayers of others, and help us to see the answer to our own prayers in others.” I wasn’t the one who coined the phrase, but it has enough resonance that I often make use of it. James reminds us that prayer is part of being Christ’s church, it is part caring for community.
When we come to the table today, our actions of taking the bread, of drinking the wine. It’s as much a part of our prayer together as a community, but my prayer is that all of the actions that we take, in all that we do are indeed the kind of living, breathing prayer that James encourages.
Amen.
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