The Letter of James, that great work about great works in the name of faith, ends with a pep talk. It's the kinda stuff an inspirational speaker would use to get people off their butts and on the move:
"Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 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. And the prayer offered in faith will make them well, the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned they will be forgiven. 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." - James 5:13-16
There's several things going on here. First is the fact that this is for community. The questions are not for you. Are you sick? Are you happy? Are you in trouble? No, the questions here are about the community. As you think about your community, can you think of anyone who is in trouble? Are there those who are happy? Is there anyone who is sick? Notice, you are being asked to think about others and then given instructions about the instructions you are to give to those people.
And those wonderful James instructions are to do something. Let them pray. Let them sing songs of praise. Let them call upon the elders of the community to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. Let them confess their sins. Let them receive forgiveness from the righteousness among them.
Our basic needs as people have changed very little in 2000 years. People get in trouble. People express happiness. People get sick and people need forgiveness. God gives us all these things through Christ and we experience all these things in Christian community.
The community is where prayer is encouraged. We are all capable of praying on our own, but we are terrible at remembering to pray in the midst of life's troubles. Of course we are. When we are in trouble we're not thinking straight and we're not seeing the hope. It takes friends in community to remind us to pray.
This past month my youngest son started Third Grade and was experiencing some pretty tough times with spelling tests. Even after working on those words every day, he was still not passing. It was a big frustrations for him, for my wife, and for me. My wife could see the hope, however, not in a new way of studying or doubling our efforts; but in prayer. The last three weeks, with prayer added to the equation, my son has gotten A's every week. True story. There is power in prayer and it took someone else to remind him and remind me.
In times of sickness, we need community as well. Oh sure we need doctors and medical professionals. Twenty-first century Americans certainly understand that. But we also need our communities of faith. There is something sacramental about leaders in the community being called to pray over the sick and anoint them with oil. (Jesus commands it in Mark 6 and we sure have a physical element here in James 5. And it does look like there's a whole lot of God's grace bestowed through the act.) The anointing of the sick is indeed a sacrament for our Roman Catholic friends.
There is power in those words and in that oil... power because it is done in the name of the Lord. There in the midst of community God shines the light of healing upon the sick: both physical and spiritual. The power of forgiveness is offered as well and we are reminded by our coach James that getting off our butts and living these spiritual disciplines in community is powerful and effective. Christ is with us in community and will act.
This is where James is such a gift to us for living faith. It's so easy to forget. We don't pray like we ought and so we starve ourselves from knowing the true hope that Christ has given us in times of trouble. We don't sing songs of praise when we're happy and forget therefore who is the source of all our blessings. We go to the doctor when we are sick but forget the prescriptions we need are not just found at Walgreens. We need to be prayed for... we need touch... we need others... we need to be told about the gospel again.
Remember... James' pep talk is for you to think about others and be that shepherd who guides others to these disciplines. It's a pep talk for the community... for it is in community we experience Christ as we ourselves are the body of Christ.
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