18th Sunday after Pentecost
Shiloh Lutheran Church
A few years ago I was talking to my doctor about my asthma and said I hadn’t been having any trouble at all. In fact, I said, I’m fine most of the time. I go so long between asthma attacks that sometimes I wonder whether I really have asthma at all. She informed me that what I have is mild, intermittent asthma. I thought afterward that this is a good description of how we often approach prayer: our prayer life, if we’re not intentional in cultivating something more, tends to be mild and intermittent. It’s mild; we don’t put much effort or energy into it. And it’s intermittent; it’s not a regular discipline but something that happens from time to time when there’s a crisis or a felt need. It’s like my asthma: it usually doesn’t occupy much time or energy, and when it does it’s in response to a trigger, something that produces a sense of need for a limited period of time. It’s clear that James (and the rest of the New Testament for that matter) envisions prayer as something more than this. God doesn’t want our prayer lives to be mild and intermittent; He wants prayer to be at the very center of our lives.
Throughout this letter, James has been concerned about the way we use the gift of speech. In chapter one, he says: “let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (v. 19). In chapter two, he condemns empty, pious words: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (vv. 15-16). Most of chapter three is occupied with the misuse of the tongue: “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (v. 10). Chapter four begins with the problem of conflicts and disputes in the church, and James says: “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters” (v. 11). And the chapter ends with a warning against presumptuous speech: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring” (vv. 13-14). This problem of how we use the gift of speech is a major theme in James, and it’s significant that these final verses are centered around the way we speak in God’s presence. If we find ourselves convicted by the things James says about speech, the place to begin is by giving attention to our prayer lives.
The first thing we can see in these verses is that the context for a life of prayer is the Church. We come into God’s presence, not primarily as individuals but as members of the body of Christ. It’s difficult for us to see this, living in such an individualistic culture, but most of the exhortations in the New Testament epistles are addressed to churches, not individuals. Even our language obscures this, because there’s no second person plural pronoun (in the south, the word “y’all” is an attempt to remedy this lack). So when Paul says in Ephesians 4: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,” we instinctively read the word “you” in the singular: Paul is talking to me, an individual who’s chosen to follow Jesus Christ. But the word in Greek is plural; he’s calling the church as a body to lead a life worthy of the calling they’ve received. It addresses us individually because God has graciously called us to be part of the Church.
Notice the strong emphasis on the corporate body in these verses in James: “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick?” The people in these different life situations are identified first as part of the church. If any are sick, they’re to “call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.” Their need is to be brought into the church body and the church (with the elders acting as representatives of the body) is to bring the situation before God in prayer and anointing. Illness tends to isolate us, cut us off from one another; by giving us this instruction, James is seeking to preserve the oneness of the body. A few verses later he says this: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” Sin isolates us, so we confess our sins and receive forgiveness and cleansing. The point is that prayer takes place in the context of the church body. We come into God’s presence in prayer, not primarily as individuals but as those who’ve been called into the body of Christ. God is preparing the Church as a bride for His Son, and He’s graciously included us.
When I was a new Christian I often heard this advice about prayer: “just talk to God and tell Him how you feel.” I’ve never found this very helpful in developing a life of prayer. One thing that happens when I follow this advice is that my prayer revolves around myself and my own concerns and usually gets no further. Eugene Peterson says he had the same problem and that books of written prayers helped him break out of this self-centered cycle of prayer: “I found that books of prayers sometimes primed the pump of prayer when I didn’t feel like praying. And I found that left to myself, I often prayed in a circle, too wrapped up in myself, too much confined to my immediate circumstances and feelings, and that a prayerbook was just the thing to get out of the brambles and underbrush of my ego, back out in the open country of the Kingdom, under the open skies of God” (Living the Message, p. 338). Books of written prayers put us in touch with the historic Church; they train us in a more adequate language for prayer and praise, and they guide us out of our small worlds and into the larger world of God’s kingdom.
I’ve given John Baillie’s book, A Diary of Private Prayer, to many people (John Baillie was a Scottish theologian in the mid-20th century). The great thing about that book is not that it’s John Baillie’s prayers; the great thing about it is that his prayers are rooted in the Church. Baillie learned to approach God as part of the body of Christ, and his prayers reflect that larger perspective. We also have a book of written prayers in our Bible. When we make use of the Psalms in prayer, we’re praying with words that the Church has used since the beginning (following the example of Jesus, who prayed the Psalms). Pray the Psalms; they’ll help you learn to enter God’s presence across the whole range of human experience; they’ll free you to pray more honestly. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, the very first words remind us that we’re part of a larger body: “Our Father.” We come into God ‘s presence as members of the body of Christ, and there is a great wealth of help in the Church for cultivating a life of prayer.
The second thing to notice is that the way we speak to God is connected with the way we speak to others. James discussed this earlier in the letter: “With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (3:9-10). These closing verses of James begin with verse 12: “Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by any other oath, but let your ‘Yes” be yes and your ‘No’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” He’s not talking here about cursing, but about emphasizing the truth by taking an oath, like when someone says, “I swear to God this is true.” This kind of speech is rooted in dishonesty. We’re saying, “I may not tell the truth most of the time, but you can be sure what I’m saying now is true, because I’ve taken an oath.” James is saying that this kind of basic dishonesty will undermine your relationship with God.
Verses 19-20 encourage us to confront one another: “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.” The temptation when we see someone falling into sin is to call our friends and say, “do you know what I just saw? Can you believe a Christian acting like that?” When we do this, it undermines our relationship with God. The way we’re speaking to one another cuts us off from God and destroys our prayer life. James is saying, “don’t gossip about what you’ve seen, but also don’t just ignore the problem. Go to the person and say, ‘it looks to me like you’re wandering from the truth; am I mistaken? If it’s true, I want to help you in any way I can, and I’ll certainly pray for you.’”
In his first letter, Peter gives this warning to husbands: “Husbands... show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life – so that nothing may hinder your prayers” (3:7). “Show consideration... so that nothing may hinder your prayers.” If you don’t show consideration, if you don’t pay honor to your wives, your prayers will be hindered. We can undermine our prayer life by the way we speak to other people. So, if you want to cultivate a life of prayer, “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.” There’s a direct connection between the way we speak to God and the way we speak to one another.
The third thing to notice is that everything in our lives should be brought into God’s presence in prayer. Prayer isn’t just about spiritual things. In prayer, we invite God’s presence into every area of our lives. “Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick?” (The Message). Don’t just cry out to God when you’re in trouble. When things are going well, give thanks to Him, since He is the source of all good. He wants us to be aware of Him in all the experiences of our lives, good and bad.
One of the most helpful books I’ve read in the past 10 years is The Sacrament of the Present Moment, by Jean-Pierre de Caussade (an 18th century Jesuit). De Caussade encourages his readers to encounter God in the duties of the present moment. Whatever it is that God has called us to do, the way to know Him is to be attentive to Him and obedient to the duties of our calling. “Divine action cleanses the universe, pervading and flowing over all creatures. Wherever they are it pursues them. It precedes them, accompanies them, follows them” (p. 3). We can get so intent on pursuing God that we forget He is pursuing us. Then, a few pages later: “You are seeking God... and he is everywhere. Everything proclaims him to you, everything reveals him to you, everything brings him to you. He is by your side, over you, around you and in you. Here is his dwelling and yet you still seek him. Ah! You are searching for God, the idea of God in his essential being. You seek perfection and it lies in everything that happens to you – your suffering, your actions, your impulses are the mysteries under which God reveals himself to you” (p. 18).
God us pursuing us; He is all around and within us, but we miss Him because we’re not attentive and because He appears in surprising ways. So here’s de Caussade’s advice: “There remains one single duty. It is to keep one’s gaze fixed on the master one has chosen and to be constantly listening so as to understand and hear and immediately obey his will” (p. 9). He says obedience to the duty of the moment can be a sacrament. Sacraments are tangible things that enable us to connect with God; they’re like doorways into the invisible world. Be attentive to the things God does for you throughout the day, things you’d be likely to take for granted; these things can become sacraments as you turn your heart to God and give thanks. When you encounter difficulties, these things can also be sacraments, when you remember that God is there, ready to help carry you through the experience. If we’re attentive, we’ll find that God is reaching out to us all the time, calling us into His presence. The more we pay attention, the more we’ll find that everything in life proclaims Him to us. James is calling us to turn to God in all the experiences of life: “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick?” He’s not giving us a complete list; he’s saying, “whatever is going on in your life, turn your heart to the Lord.”
When we invite God into every area of our lives, we not only come to know Him, we experience His help and intervention in surprising ways. That’s the point of James’ example in verses 17-18: “Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years is did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.” When we hear of people who’ve had a strong prayer life, we very quickly put them on a pedestal and think, “of course, I could never pray like that.” James wants to remind us that Elijah was like us, a weak, frail human being, but prayer connected him with all the resources of God.
George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilization, the mission group we worked with, has been a major influence in my life. Thousands of people have given their lives to Christ through his ministry. What many people don’t know is that George came to Christ through the prayers of a housewife in northern New Jersey who was concerned about the local high school. Mrs. Clapp had been praying for this school for years; she not only prayed for students to come to Christ, she also prayed that many of them would go out into the mission field. George Verwer was a student at that school, and he had no interest in the gospel. His goal in life was to make lots of money. But she prayed for him and sent him a Gospel of John in the mail. He says that he just couldn’t get away from that gospel. He read it over and over, and a short time later, at a Billy Graham crusade, he gave his life to the Lord. And then, through his witness in that high school, over 200 other students came to Christ. George Verwer went on to begin the work of Operation Mobilization, which now works all over the world, and many other students became missionaries in other organizations. But it all began with the prayers of Mrs. Clapp, who had a burden for the school in her neighborhood and who believed God’s promises.
These kinds of things don’t usually happen in response to a mild, intermittent prayer life. Mrs. Clapp was someone who gave herself to prayer, who saw prayer as a high priority in her life and who spent time learning to pray. If you want to cultivate a life of prayer, this passage in James is a good place to begin. Take seriously the importance of the Church in learning to pray: be faithful in corporate worship, and be willing to learn from the historic Church how to enlarge your prayer life. Be careful how you speak to others, and be quick to repent when you sin with your tongue, knowing that carelessness in this area can undermine your relationship with God. And practice attentiveness to God in every area of life; pay attention to the ways He reaches out to you as you’re going about your duties throughout the week, and use every opportunity to turn your heart to Him in thanksgiving and cries for help. As you do these things, and persevere in doing them, you will be cultivating a strong life of prayer.
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