Pray for one another

James 5:13-20New International Version (NIV)

The Prayer of Faith

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

For the month of September, the focus of our messages have been on the epistle of James and as we conclude this month, we will also conclude with the end of James’ letter.  As we have journeyed through James we have discussed such things as living out your faith, taming the wild beast, and last week we focused on wisdom.  As we finish up with James this morning, we conclude by combining each of these.  James Boyce, a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, says this about the concluding section of James’ letter;

The summation of that teaching is now gathered in this concluding section of the letter. Its words might be described as a confident vision of a caring community. Such a community exercises its wisdom not in lofty exercises of philosophy or logic to bolster or entertain the self, but rather in the recognition and use of the powerful resources God has given for the care of the community in which each of us thrives through mutual benefit.

A confident vision of a caring community -- that is a powerful phrase.  And how does this caring community have a confident vision and create such a place that thrives through mutual benefit of one another?  The answer is the focus of our scripture this morning, the culmination of James’ letter.  We are called to pray for one another.  It sounds so simple but typically we find it incredibly difficult.  

Like I said, sounds so simple but following through as Jesus commands in Matthew 5:44, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is often a difficult task.  We kind of scoff at a scripture like that when we hear it and move on with our lives.  We hear that said or we read it and we think, “I will pray for my enemies after I pray for everything else.” That way if we forget, we have gotten our prayers in for the more important things.  Personally, the last thing on my mind each day is praying for my enemies.  Enemy may be a strong word but how often do we pray for those who have upset us each day?  Not me.  This is important for us to understand and even more important for us to start doing.  I am not saying that those whom you are praying for will drastically improve but there is something important about prayer that we may be forgetting.  We are praying to God.  A God who created you, me, this planet and this universe.  We are praying to a God who is so incredibly powerful and we have a tendency to forget that.  We pray for the improvement of our own lives and faiths, the lives and faiths of our family and friends.  Why can’t the same prayers for those whom we disagree have the same effect on them?  When someone is battling for their life, we pray and pray for that person and their family.  We place our hope in God to help improve the situation.  Yet, we do not do the same for those whom scripture calls our enemies.  If we think our prayers won’t work, then we are seriously underestimating God’s power.  Like I said, our prayers for our enemies may not fix the behavior of our enemy but it creates a sort of compassion in our hearts for them.  When we pray for someone that we disagree with there is such power and grace found in those prayers.  We create a path for understanding to take.  As I prepared this sermon, so many thoughts and emotions of the people whom I have hurt, the people whom I have said mean things to and about, the people who really get under my skin flooded back to me.  When we seriously consider all those whom we can and should be praying for we can become overwhelmed so my advice would be to take it day by day.  Each day, as you pray for your family and faith, take a moment to pray for one person who bothered you in some way that particular day.  Each day pray for one person that you don’t normally pray for.

Ok, so we have talked about praying for one our enemies but what about our prayers for one another?  We have a lot of responsibility to each other.  Our world is pretty individualistic anymore but as a Christian community, we honestly have a lot of accountability to one another.  I’m going to reread James 5:13-16 and pay special attention to how James encourages us to interact as a community of believers:

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

It can be as difficult to pray for those within our congregation as it can be for our enemies... How many of us pray for those in this very room?  How many of you pray for your pastor?  How many pray for the other churches in town?  How many of us confess our sins to each other?  That is taking it to the next level and you’re probably thinking, “Ok, I can handle praying for those in this congregation and even my enemies but I will not confess my sins to these people.”  I would be crazy to think that we sit here and confess our sins and shortcomings to each other but imagine how humbling that would be.  Think about what kind of community it would create if we were willing to share that information with one another.  Just think about how much grace would have to surround us if we did that.  Crazy I know but that is James’ suggestion to help keep us accountable to one another. We don’t need to share that kind of info with everyone but we should share that info with someone.  

“If one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”  Wandering from truth is not just leaving one’s faith.  To better understand what James meant here, we need to better understand truth.  As Christians, there are certain truths which we feel we cannot waiver from and William Barclay has come up with a way to help us figure out such truths.  Truth must meet all of these criteria: Truth is something;

1. we must love (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
2. we must obey (Galatians 5:7)
3. we must display in life (2 Corinthians 4:2)
4. that must be spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15)
5. must be witnessed to (John 18:37)
6. that must be manifested in a life of love (1 John 3:19)
7. that is the gift of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ (John 16:13-14)

“Christian truth is something which must be done.” That is how Barclay concludes his commentary of James.

Praying for each other keeps us closer to the truth. Prayer is a noun and the act of praying is a verb.  Something we are and something we do.  As we have journeyed through the epistle of James, I hope that you have learned that faith is communal, it creates action and it is inclusive.  In outlining truth, each one of the criteria required action.  Truth, like faith, is not meant to be idle.  Pray for one another.  Amen.