James Week Five - A Caring Community
Preached by Joshua Taylor
26th of September 2021
“Is anyone among you suffering?”
This opening question of today’s reading feels resonant with our community here in Timaru.
Over recent weeks we have seen two major tragedies unfold in which children and young people have died.
I am sure, like me, you have had many conversations with others around the community about the recent events in our town. I have heard collective shock, questions, concerns, and, plenty of compassion.
There is, of course, so much suffering in the world. But over the last few weeks it feels like the suffering of the world has come to visit our town in a particular and heart-breaking way.
For Christians – this suffering presents a question that we will be asked in its various forms: “How could God let this happen?” “Why is the world so broken?” “How can there be so much suffering if God loves us?”
There are no simple answers.
Simple answers are simply unhelpful.
Blithe comments about the will of God or God’s love won’t do.
One of the best commentaries on suffering and God I have ever read is a short book by David Bentley Hart called “The Doors of the Sea”, in which Hart explores the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami in Asia which killed thousands.
He talks about pain and Christian hope and the tension of living in a world like ours in a way which doesn’t oversimplify the issue but rather honours the New Testament picture of God’s kingdom present now and still to come. Hart looks forward to the coming of God’s kingdom in all its fullness and says:
“Until that final glory, however, the world remains divided between two kingdoms, where light and darkness, life and death grow up together and await the harvest. In such a world, our portion is charity, and our sustenance is faith, and so it will be until the end of days. As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child, I do not see the face of God but the face of his enemy.”[1]
We need to be able to name tragic events such as the ones we have experienced in our town – not the will of God, but rather the result of living in a world pervaded by evil and sin – a world that is broken and where all is not as it should be.
We are people of an Easter faith who hold out the hope that God will wipe away every tear – that there will be no more death, sorrow, or pain.
We don’t explain away tragedy or seek simple answers – rather we find ourselves in a tension – living in a world that is both broken and beautiful and trusting in a God who in Jesus Christ has ultimately conquered death and evil. A God who brings hope and new creation amid the old.
And for James this isn’t just a belief – an abstract idea or a worldview. It is to be an embodied reality.
And so, to the question of suffering James doesn’t give a simple answer but rather he calls a community to action…
In verse 13 James implores the community to pray in the midst of suffering and to sing praise to God in the good times.
This makes me think of Paul’s words in Romans 12:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”[2]
James calls the Christian community to be a community that is sensitive to the pain and hurt of others, as well as capable of celebrating the victories and joys of others.
Over the past five weeks we have explored the book of James. Today we finish our series in James chapter 5. What we see there is James’ call for the Christian community to be a community of care.
James 5:13-20 can feel like a disconnected series of wisdom on various topics – but I think the overarching theme is one of the Christian community being a community of care. A living example of God’s compassion in the world. In times like the ones we are facing, this is more important than ever.
In James 5 we see a bunch of examples of what a wise and caring community look like. James talks about:
-Praying for the sick
-Confessing sin and sharing our burdens
-Telling the truth to one another and taking responsibility for each other.
Praying for the sick
James implores the Christian community to pray for the sick.
James makes a link between healing and the forgiveness of sins. Jesus does the same in various instances in the gospels. This isn’t a causal link. When the disciples ask Jesus who sinned that that blind man was born blind in John chapter 9, Jesus makes it clear that their question and assumptions are wrong.
The best way I have heard the link between forgiveness and healing explained is by Joel Shuman and Keith Meador who say:
“The association of sin with sickness and death is not properly one of blunt, simple causation. There is a sense in which sickness, and death, like the broad category sin itself, are manifestations of life in a creation that has not yet fully come into its own, not yet fully become what by the grace and power of God in Christ it is to be. God has in the cross and resurrection of Christ overcome sin, but that victory is not yet fully manifest. The best of people still become sick, and all people still die, and we are not likely to get particular answers to our asking why this is the case.”[3]
This points to a view of salvation and healing that takes the whole person into account. We need both physical healing and inner healing.
Also, as we pray, we do so in faith asking that God will heal. Whether God will answer in the way we expect – we can trust as Christians in resurrection hope and the ultimate victory of God.
And so, James implores us to pray.
He encourages the elders – that is the leaders of the church to pray for the sick for healing, and he encourages the community to pray for one another that they may be healed too.
James also mentions anointing the sick with oil. This is something we continue to do in our Anglican tradition.
What I love about this, is that it is a symbolic, or sacramental act – it is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace.
But more than this – in the context that James was writing to, olive oil was often used in medicinal ways.
Sometimes in the Christian world you hear odd debates about the prayer of faith for healing vs. using medicine. This is a massively unhelpful and destructive debate. The call in James is not to pray exclusively – the anointing with oil is also a very practical, and helpful medicinal moment in this passage too.
We pray for the sick, and we tend to them with medical care. James gives us a holistic picture of care for the sick.
Confession of sin and sharing of burdens
Not only are we to pray for the sick, James urges us to confess our sins to one another.
Proverbs 28:13 says: “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,
but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (NIV)
This wise saying reminds us that bottling up our brokenness, or a regime of self-help won’t do us any good. We are invited to come before God honestly and openly, to confess our sin.
To sin is to live our life contrary to the call to love God and neighbour. To sin is to break relationship with God by turning our hearts away from him and doing what is right in our own eyes. It is to turn in on ourselves and reject love.
We do this in all kinds of ways and sin lurks at the door constantly, as the book of Genesis puts it.[4]
The invitation to confess to one another is to be a community that remind one another of the forgiveness we have through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We do not struggle alone.
We are saved, rescued, healed, and made new through the blood of Christ and are called to confess our sin and to trust in God’s forgiveness.
This flows into James’ final example of what it means to be a community of care.
We tell the truth to one another.
We are to call each other out to be in good relationship with God and to walk in the way of Jesus. In his sermon on the Mount, Jesus invites us to truth telling and to plain speech.
James notes how important it is that we tell the truth to one another. Our soul depends on it.
There is a whole other sermon to be preached on this alone and the cultural moment we find ourselves in. We live in a time when truth is hotly contested and wildly subjective.
The truth that James refers to is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the testimony that Jesus of Nazareth,
the only Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
To be a community of care is to proclaim this gospel.
At times this truth will be uncomfortable and challenging, but this is the responsibility of the church community.
And when our friends walk away – we have a duty of care to reach out.
So, James calls us to be a community of care:
-To pray for the sick
-To confess our sins to one another
-To tell the truth
In all of this, the POWER OF PRAYER, and the power of God at work is highlighted. James uses Elijah as an example.
Elijah is not held up as special but rather as a man “with a nature like ours.” What Elijah did have though was persistence. He was absolutely dogged and fervent in his prayer. And so the invitation is for us to be also. To be a caring community will require we are a community that prays fervently.
We are invited to share what Isaac the Syrian called “a merciful heart.” A heart that is caught up by the love of Jesus and set on fire by the Holy Spirit that allows us to look to all of God’s creation with a deep compassion and love.
The book of James ends abruptly but it does so with a vision of a caring Christian community. We need this now more than ever.
Let us not write James’ advice off as impractical or too weird or challenging, but embrace the invitation to be a community of care and a people of living hope in the midst of a hurting world.[5]
May God give us moral courage, compassion, and eyes of love this week as we love and serve the Lord. Amen.
[1] David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea, 104.
[2] Romans 12:15
[3] Joel James Shuman and Keith G. Meador. Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion of Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 106-107.
[4] Genesis 4.
[5] A K M Adam, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26-2/commentary-on-james-513-20-2