“Whole and Healed”

James 5:13-20

September 26, 2021

White Rock Presbyterian Church

“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16a, NRSV)

When I first started preaching, I tried to begin each sermon with a funny story of some sort. I’d been told–and could agree from my own experience–that getting people to laugh, or even just smile, at the beginning of a sermon is a good way to loosen them up, to feel more connected to the preacher, and to make them a little more receptive to whatever the message of the day was going to be.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a funny story to tell this morning! I wracked my brain for one the last couple of days, and I could not think of any…which feels like a sad reflection of the amount of humor in my life these days! I think I need to up the fun-quotient in my life…

In the meantime…we are just going to jump in to the text. Because there are several pieces of today’s passage that have been jumping out at me all week as I’ve reflected on it.

The one I’m going to mention first is this: “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up…” 

And I just have to say it: Really, James?? Really?! Is it that simple? 

“The prayer of faith will save the sick…” 

That idea, perhaps, has led to some sick people being healed–with people of faith praying fervently and frequently for their healing, for their sickness to be taken away, for God to raise them up from whatever illness has taken them down. 

But I suspect it has led to more pain than healing, more doubt than deliverance, more guilt than good health. 

“The prayer of faith will save the sick…” If ONLY it were that simple! 

What about those who have been sick, and have prayed, and have not been saved?  Those who have been sick, who have prayed and been prayed for, and have not been saved? Do they simply, as is often then suggested to them (by other people of faith!), not have enough faith? Have they simply, as is often suggested to them, not prayed enough? Is God simply not choosing to listen to their prayers??

“The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up…” Really, James?

We’re going to move on–but I’ll come back to that…some other day! But we are going to move on, because there’s some really good stuff in this passage that I also want to lift up. Good stuff that gets at the heart, I believe, of what it means to be a community of faith. 

And that starts in the very beginning of our text, where it says, “Are any among you suffering?” followed by “Are any cheerful?” followed by “Are any among you sick?” Because in those three questions, pretty much all possible states of existence are covered! 

According to one commentary I read, the Greek word translated as “suffering” “refers not only to the ‘suffering’ of persecution, but to anything that can contribute to a negative life experience, such as sorrow, depression, ill health, bad family or social situation, economic exigencies. Use your imagination.”  (workingpreacher.com). 

And the word translated as “cheerful,” according to the same website, includes not just a sense of feeling happy in the moment, as we might think of someone who is “cheerful,” but indicates something closer to “an inner self that is doing well, [a state of being that] has to do more with a holistic sense of the self rather than to just being ‘cheerful.’” 

And the third question, “are any of you sick?”, well, that refers to people who are sick, although, again, according to this website, “the term used here is regularly used to refer to any kind of sickness or bodily infirmity, either short range or long.” 

“In sum, so says the website, “the author’s quick statement of alternatives pretty much includes anyone we might imagine, including ourselves.” (workingpreacher.com)

I’m tempted to ask those three questions right now, and ask for a show of hands–but I’m not going to. I suspect if i did, though, we would all end up with our hands raised, whether in response to the question of suffering, or feeling cheerful, or experiencing some sort of sickness. All of us, right now, I suspect, in response to at least one of James’s questions, if not more than one, could say, “Yes. Me. I am.” 

And in response to all three of them, James says, effectively, “Turn to God. Remember God. Call on your faith.” 

If you’re suffering, he says, pray. Turn to God.

If you’re feeling cheerful, sing songs of praise. Remember God.

If you’re sick, call people from your church and ask them to pray for you. Call on your faith.

And not only turn to God and remember God and call on your faith by yourself–but do it in the context of your community of faith. None of this we’re supposed to do on our own. Or at least not only on our own. Not the praying when we’re suffering, not the singing when we’re cheerful, certainly not the being-prayed-for-when-we’re-sick. 

It’s all part of sharing a life together as a community of faith. 

Like we do here. 

A few verses later James says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” (cf. James 5:16, NRSV)

And that “you” in the “so that you may be healed” is plural. The healing James is talking about is not individual. The healing offered here is communal.

In fact, in The Message, that verse reads, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.” (cf. James 5:16, The Msg.)

“…so that you can live together whole and healed.”

Don’t just share the things that make you feel good about yourself–you can do that anywhere. But share also the things that make you ashamed. There’s space to hold that in a community of faith. 

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other…”

Don’t just share the moments that make you look good–you can do that anywhere. Share also the moments that don’t, the moments that make you look not good but real. There’s space to hold that in a community of faith. 

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other…”

Don’t just share the times when you did the right thing–you can do that anywhere. But share also the times when you didn’t. There’s space to hold that in a community of faith. 

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other…”

When sacred space is created within a community of faith, space in which we can confess our sins to one another, space where we feel safe acknowledging the reality of our humanity to one another, that means, by default, that there is, there must be, space to be authentic with one another…space to be honest with one another…space to be brave with one another…space to share hard things with one another. 

When this kind of space–which is sacred space–exists within a community of faith, space that allows us to feel safe confessing our sins to one another, that means, by default, there is, there must be, space in which we are compassionate with one another…space in which we are merciful with one another…space in which we are gentle with one another…space in which we share forgiveness with one another.

And when we can offer that to one another–not perfectly, of course, but faithfully and sincerely–when we can do those things: when we can be authentic and honest and brave with one another, and compassionate and merciful and gentle with one another, sharing both hard things and forgiveness, and on top of all of that, when we can then pray for one another–then, James says, you will be healed.

You PLURAL.

You all.

We all. 

In doing that–in confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other, we will be healed–we as a community of faith, we as seekers after God, we as people who are wanting to live and love as Jesus did, we who are part of the Body of Christ. We who are real flesh and blood humans with aches and pains and sickness, with joys and heartaches, with worries and hurts, with fears and longings, with responsibilities and obligations, with great capacity for both profound beauty and terrifying ugliness…

As we are able to truly be in community with one another, knowing ourselves and each other as God’s beloved and acknowledging to one another the reality of our humanity and the ways we mess up, and in the midst of all of that, praying for each other with tenderness, and compassion, and mercy, and grace…then we shall be healed.

Because we will be held.

And nurtured.

And accepted.

And forgiven.

And loved.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.