Keeping the Faith as Family

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

JOB Video

Cheese quiche and Garbage Pail Kids.

My Grandma was a great lady… cheese quiche and garbage pail kids.

Farmor had cancer...

I was raised Jewish.

As I shared with you in the past,

OT thought was the goodness and the misfortunes that came in your life were reflections of your spiritual walk with God.

Now I didn’t know any of that as a child, I wasn’t some deep thinking theologian at the age of 5 or something. But I did ask the same question most people ask. WHY?

Horrible things happen in this life, pain, heartbreak, suffering—all types of affliction.

Let’s look at that word affliction real quick.

Affliction [noun] something that causes pain or suffering ‘infliction of pain or humiliation,’ specifically ‘religious self-mortification’)

Affliction means not to hurt someone so much that they die, but rather to hurt them so much that they can’t truly live; so that the afflicted long for death’s sweet release.

Now that is intense but I will tell you people around our world live their every day. These wounds could be physical, they could be mental, they could be internal or external.

T-Kris’s affliction was he was unloved by an entire community

Maybe your affliction is you suffer from depression

Maybe your affliction is you suffer from the loss of someone close

Maybe your affliction is you suffer from the weight of your previous mistakes

Maybe your affliction is you suffer from tremendous or chronic physical pain.

James is speaking to the afflicted.

James is speaking to those afflicted with trouble, James is speaking to those afflicted with sickness, James is speaking to those afflicted with sin.

Surviving such affliction takes faith. It also takes community.

The New International Version Chapter 5

13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.

If we are in trouble, we are called to cry out.

If we are in a moment of celebration we are called to rejoice!

Why?

Community

Your highs help someone’s lows. Your low’s help someone’s highs.

Next James talks to the sick… They are to cry out. Why? To spur the community around them to action.

The New International Version Chapter 2

2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

skipping forward to the end of vs 10...

The New International Version Chapter 2

So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Now interestingly enough James then speaks to sin in the same sentence. That is notable!

The New International Version Chapter 5

If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

I want to focus on something here,

we are called to treat the sick the same way that we treat the sinner. We don’t go to those hurting and say what did you do? Or how could you? We go to them in comfort and pray for healing and restoration don’t we?

The New International Version Chapter 6

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.

In the same way we are called to restore the sinner. Repair them, in the same way we you would reset a broken bone or stitch up a cut.

Is the church known for calling out sin or restoring people? What are you known for?

SO WHAT????

The New International Version Chapter 5

We are called to be a community, a family. We are called to hold each other close not just accountable. When someone gets to a point of desperation we are great at leaping in to help and save the day, but often these are deaths by 1000 cuts, the process is long and the pain is minor piece by piece. We are called to community, we are called to be there. We are called to be loving and patient. We are called to endure and hope. We are called to be faithful.