Sermon for September 29, 2024: Praying for Each Other based upon James 5:13-20

James 5:13-20 The Prayer of Faith

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. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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     One of my seminary professors talked about there being two kinds of prayers, “help me, help me, help me” and “thank you, thank you, thank you.” I think he got the idea from Christian writer Anne Lamott, who eventually wrote a book called Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Lamott, who came to a Christian faith from what I’ve read called her “rock bottom” from drug and alcohol abuse, understands prayer as a central feature of our shared faith. When she paid attention to her prayer life, she saw themes that she refined down to “help, thanks, wow” as an easy way to talk about the heart of her conversations with God. I remembered Lamott’s work and my teacher’s use of it when I read today’s scripture. Christian faith comes with many tools. Here, the first one James recommends in prayer.

     The scholar Cain Hope Felder describes today’s reading as “a litany of pastoral concerns.” As Kelsie Rodenbiker notes in her commentary on this text, though much of James is about pointed critiques of the community and clear instructions on how to maintain faithful integrity, the book as we have inherited it also acknowledges the struggles of the community and points them to the tools of the faith that can help them address those struggles. In her commentary on this text, Dr. Noelle Damico also reminds us that the small churches like the ones being addressed in James were likely made up mostly of quite impoverished people. James does note that there are wealthy people around, and sometimes they are given unearned privileges due to their wealth. Even with that being said, most of these churches were full of mostly poor people. And, it is hard to have what you need to survive when you’re poor.

     James believed that Christ compelled his followers to build a community that relieved suffering, not one that compounded it. An active, engaged prayer life was part of that relief of suffering.  Where the wealthy would have places of honor and privilege outside of the church, within the walls of the church, according to Damico, they were to practice living as equals with the poor. According to Dr. Damico, prayer, with and for one another, became one mechanism by which “the community orders and reorder itself as an assembly of equals, both in fundamental critique of the wider world and in loving support of one another as we seek God’s guidance for how to live.” Listening to and praying for one another helps us see each other as whole people, beloved by God, and worthy of compassion, care, and dignity.

     Prayer isn’t the only tool in the Christian’s toolkit, either. Music, companionship, and the sharing of medication are listed as tools of the church, too. Our church particularly appreciates the music part. Look at our choir and all the folks who have chosen to join. And, later in the service Jeff and Steve will share a piece of special music that Jeff wrote. Jeff wanted to share it today in honor of beloved and recently departed Joan Edwards. James specifically mentions songs of praise.... those sound like “thanks” and “wow” prayers to me, though “help” might show up there sometimes, too.

     The companionship and medication part is interesting, too. “Calling the elders” is a lot like receiving visits from the deacons or from me. I always pray with folks when I visit, if they’d like. And, I use oil in anointing sometimes. That can seem like a weird, ancient holdover into modern practice, it has roots in ancient healing practices. In his notes on this verse, Dr. Cain Hope Felder points that this oil isn’t simply a ritual element that brings a nice smell or holy ambiance to the prayer session. The oil was a common medicinal remedy. He cites some other verses where medicinal oil is used.

      Isaiah 1:6 talks about tending to bruises and sores with oil as a medical treatment. Also, in the healing scene in Mark 6:13, oil, alongside prayer, is used to heal sick people. During a purification ritual in Leviticus 14:10, 12, 15-16 where someone has been suffering from leprosy is examined to see if they are healed, oil was put on the right ear, thumb, and toe of the person who was healed. It wasn’t always easy to afford this medicine, so it is good that the church seems to be encouraging people to share it with one another, along with their companionship and prayers. Prayers and medicine are part of Christian faith, and so is the responsibility to make sure that people have access to both.

     Rodenbiker points out that in James, “the body belongs to the soul and the soul belongs to the body.” The sufferings of our soul and our body are connected, and both deserve attention and care within Christian community. The final portion of our reading addresses this connection. Confession is of use and an honor for us to receive. Gay Byron points out that confession In James also often means confessing to those whom we have wronged. Yet again, the spiritual behavior we are encouraged to adopt is a relational one. The Wisdom of God will shape us into people who care for each other... through prayer, through song, through companionship, through sharing of resources, through confession and amend-making.... if we will let it.

     Like Elijah, we are regular people invited into an active, prayerful faith. And, while we know that it is dangerous to pass along theologies that tell people God must be punishing them if their prayers aren’t answered, we can take this message to heart: The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Byron points out that the final way that prayer is discussed in this reading is as a way to restore those who have been lost to community. Dr. Byron says of this portion of the reading, “For those who hold fast to an active faith, immersed in prayer and accountability, there is a path to life and freedom from sin.” Sin here is separation from God and from each other. This is ultimately our greatest calling when we pray for each other: we connect to each other and to God. May we not forget these basics of care in our faith and offer them to one another. In our suffering and in our cheer, may we pray our “help mes,” our “thank yous,” and our “wows.”

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
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an interview with Anne Lamott about Help, Thanks, Wow: https://www.npr.org/2012/11/19/164814269/anne-lamott-distills-prayer-into-help-thanks-wow

Cain Hope Felder's introduction to James in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Noelle Damico, "Proper 21[26]), Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year B Featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice, Ronald J. Allen, Dale P. Andrews, and Dawn Ottoni- Wilhelm, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011).

Gay Byron: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26-2/commentary-on-james-513-20-5