Reflection on James 5:13-20

 

As James finishes his letter, he gives us a vision of what the Christian community could be.  It could be a community full of prayer.  And, we are not talking about reciting the Lord’s Prayer repeatedly, or any other memorized, rote prayer (though they have their place too).  No, he is talking about prayer that comes from a suffering heart.  It is the prayer that spills out when you have tried everything, and everything has not been enough.  It is a prayer that seeks Jesus to intervene because no one else can fix what has become broken.  And, it is a prayer that is not prayed alone.

You have prayed alone before, right?  You have prayed the desperate prayer in the middle of the night that seems to echo dully out the window and into the darkness, finding no ear up which to rest. 

But, James’ vision of the Christian community is far from this lonely image of an unheard prayer of solitude.  Quite the opposite, he says that if one is suffering in such a way, they should call the elders of the church, and they should come and surround the person, praying over them and anointing them with oil.  The Christian community, the church, is presented as this community of prayer that actually cares, and actually comes, and actually is present in each other’s lives.

Are you celebrating anything?  Well, let us hear about it and then we will sing a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God!  Let us throw a party and celebrate the goodness of the Lord!  You can never sing too many songs, nor can you have too many parties in James image of the Jesus community.

And, on top of it all, this community is to be a safe place to bring your sins, and your failures, and your struggles.  After-all, for James, it is hard to have forgiveness if you cannot even confess what it is for which you need forgiveness!  But, if you honestly bring your struggles and your sins to your fellow believers (and to God), James promises that “anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.”  James continues to urge, “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.”

That is what the Christian absolutely could look like!  It could look like this group of people who loves like Jesus loves, prays for healing as Jesus prays, celebrates the goodness of God as Jesus celebrates, is unafraid to tell the truth about our sin as Jesus is unafraid, and forgives each other in abundance as Jesus forgives.  The Christian community could absolutely look and sound like this: the very real body of Christ.

I have seen this before.  I have seen it with my very own eyes, and have experienced it with my very own voice and body.  I have experienced this living, breathing community of faith that James envisions.  James says that “faith without works is dead,” but the community I experienced could in no way be considered dead by James.

They are a small, but spirit-filled congregation in Argentina.  When you enter their church building, you will notice a few things right off the bat.  You will first notice the broken windows above the altar and the stains of water damage marking the walls below.  You will also notice the organ, with books and chairs stacked on top.  It has not worked for years and there has been no money to fix it.  Interestingly, against one wall you will see pews stacked on top of one another.  They were formerly in the middle of the worship space, but now, highlighting the center of the worship space you will discover chairs in a circle around a central altar.

As the congregation gathers, the majority in their 20s but the oldest in their 90s, they talk, and laugh, and decorate the space with flowers from their home gardens, and they set up handmade candles gifted by relatives.

As worship begins, they share the all the good things that God had done for them throughout the week.  These are not announcements though; they are conversations throughout the space, people talking over one another; laughter rising through the holes in the broken windows above. 

Soon we sing songs of praise, and after we talk again with one another, sharing our struggles, and sins, and pains with one another.  One man shares how he tripped up on his battle with alcohol that week, and those around him give him a forgiving hug.  After the readings and the sermon, everyone taking a part in the reading and leading, we gather in a huge circle, taking turns as we pray for all that our neighbors had shared earlier, both their joys and their struggles. 

As we finish singing the last song (played on a guitar by one of the students in attendance) the local baker sneaks out of the worship space and returns with a huge, beautiful cake.  It is a Peruvian refugee’s birthday.  She had no family in Argentina.  She was utterly alone, except for her new Christian family who now surrounds her, and sings, and gives her gifts. 

I wish that James could have seen it.  He would have been so amazed by how alive, and authentic, and real these people’s lives of faith were together.  There was nothing dead about their faith.  There was nothing “put on” for show about their faith.  There were no masks with fake smiles and fake concern being worn for the sake of pleasantness and good order.  These were real people, sharing real joys, and real pains and struggles, and actually taking the time to listen and share and do this thing that we call the “faith” together.  When you are there, you know for a fact that Jesus is present.

As we were leaving worship, one of the young women came up to my traveling partner and myself and asked, “How was it?  What can we do better?”  She assumed that we “United States Americans” had some secret to the faith that was bigger and better, that she needed to learn before we left.  That is always the impression the media seems to provide after-all: that United States Americans, with their unlimited funds, do everything better.

I did not know what to say, because they had it all.  All she had to do was read James and see that they had it all.  They were a living community of faith that in no way shape or form was dead to the life and death of Jesus Christ.  Their community was wise in faith beyond imagination.

My response: “What you all have here is truly a gift.  Keep being exactly who you are.”

Young people these days appreciate people who are real.  They can smell a fake from a mile away.  They can sense a cover-up immediately.  They know when it is all a show.

But, in the same way, they also appreciate honesty, and humility, and someone they can relate to.  They appreciate connecting, in a real way, with someone else who is willing to share their own lives and share their own faith.  They appreciate when the prayers are real, and when you celebrate their joys, and when, because of you, they know for certain that they are not alone.  They know when Jesus is present and when people have pushed him away.

What a joy it is, then, when they find the Christian community as painted by James.  What a gift it is when they are able to find people praying in the way of Jesus, and celebrating in the way of Jesus, and forgiving endlessly in the way of Jesus, and searching and finding in the way of Jesus.  What a gift it is to have a people of God who actually care if you wander, as James says, “from the truth.”  And, what a gift it is to have a people of God who actually, actively, seek to bring you back, because you are a beloved child of God.  They truly care and truly believe that you deserve better than having a life of being lost and wandering towards cliffs and crevasses that lead to death. 

What a gift it is to be together, as a part of the body of our savior Jesus Christ.