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James 5:13-20
! Introduction
We once went to a restaurant and were seated.
We were enjoying the conversation, but after a while we noticed that no one came to take our order.
We wondered what to do, do we go and ask or do we just keep waiting.
Eventually, one of us went to find serving personnel to ask and they had a horrified look on their face.
They had forgotten about us.
When we asked, we got good service.
We were in Vancouver for a month and I was taking some courses at Regent College.
One day when driving home from school the engine all of a sudden quit.
I took a bus to the place we were living and the first thing I did was call home to Manitoba to a friend who is a mechanic and asked him what the problem might be and what I should do.
His advice helped me find a good garage and get the problem solved.
We find it quite natural to ask others for help when we know that we need help and we know that they can help us.
We ask because we are sure we can trust the person and that they will be willing to help us.
Are we as quick to go to God for help?
Do we trust that He will answer?
Do we believe that His answers will be the best for us?
As we come to the last section in James, we find another pastoral word, a wonderful word which encourages us to pray.
I am glad to end the series on James on this note.
As we have listened to what God has to say to us in James, we have often heard difficult words and concepts which we find hard to live by.
Now at the end, James directs our thoughts to God and invites us to pray to the one who can answer.
Recently God has been teaching me about prayer and the importance of prayer.
Many of you have been reading about prayer and I think that across the land today God is calling people to pray.
There seems to be more interest and emphasis in prayer and so I am glad today to talk about asking God for help and developing a relationship with him.
!
I. Prayer In Life 5:13
If you ever go to the home of a dairy farmer, there will be a well worn path from the house to the barn.
Two or three times a day they walk that path.
Many of you have well worn paths to your shop or to your garden or to your neighbour’s house.
The well worn paths in our life tell a lot about what is important to us and where we spend a lot of time.
Is there a well worn path in your life to God?
In verse 13, James writes, “Is any one of you in trouble?
He should pray.
Is anyone happy?
Let him sing songs of praise.”
The first observation I would like to make about this verse is that it recognizes the two sides of life.
Although there are times when we are on an even keel, often we are either leaning towards times of trouble or times when we are happy.
Life is like that.
These are the emotions and experiences we have in life.
How do we deal with those times?
I would like to read this translation from the New Realistic Version.
There it says, “Is any one of you in trouble?
He should worry.
Is anyone happy?
Let him feel guilty.”
That is often how we respond to these very real experiences in life.
James, however directs us in another way.
When trouble comes into our life, we are invited to pray.
Ethel Barrymore writes, “When life knocks you to your knees--well, that's the best position in which to pray, isn't it?”
When things are going just great, that also is the time to pray - this time in praise.
George Failing said, “He who does not pray when the sun shines will not know how to pray when the clouds roll in.”
We have both days of trouble and days of happiness.
In both cases, we need to learn to beat a path to God.
He is the one who can help us in the times of trouble and he is the one who has blessed us when we are happy.
!
II.
Prayer In Sickness 5:14-18
The most common concern that is raised by people in the church requesting prayer has to do with health.
The most prominent and regular prayer item in the bulletin is “Let us pray for healing and for God’s strength for those dealing with health related issues.”
Currently in the prayer calendar that the prayer team receives, 12~/14 people on the prayer team list are there for health problems.
It is likely for this reason that this passage deals primarily with what to do when we are sick.
What do you do when you are sick?
Once again the answer is to pray, but there are some special aspects to this prayer.
!! A. Call The Elders
The first thing that James says we should do is to call the elders of the church.
There are some people who when they are sick like to keep it to themselves.
They don’t want others to know that they are having a problem.
The instruction of James to call the elders tells us that keeping it to ourselves is not the way for a member of the Christian community to act in times of illness.
Calling the elders is not a legal requirement and it is not magical as if the elders are the only ones who have the power to heal.
There is a gift of healing as we learn in I Corinthians 12-14.
This passage is not about an individual with the gift of healing, however, it is about the community of faith which God has given so that we can care for each others.
Going to the elders is a recognition that healing happens in the community of faith.
When we don’t tell the church about our needs, we have bought into the world’s view of individual strength and self sufficiency.
When we tell the elders, we submit ourselves to the community - in this case for their care.
Furthermore, this centres our life in the community of believers.
There are people around who will teach all kinds of things about healing.
You can find healers who will do it if you support their ministry.
People have told me about individuals from other churches who have come to them saying that they are not being healed because they do not have enough faith.
They are hurt and it causes them to question their faith.
Jake told me about a teacher he once heard who told him that a large percentage of epilepsy was demon possession.
Such actions are destructive.
By bringing our health problems to the elders, we accept the leadership of the church and we find both strength and guidance from those we know and trust as spiritual leaders.
One writer says, “the process is to be centred in the congregational life of the afflicted person and flows to the person from the leadership of the local congregation.”
We do not often do that and I am so glad that we are studying this passage today.
We have so many people who have had or are having health problems.
We need to develop a healing ministry in the church and the Bible is very clear that what we need to do is follow this pattern.
I would like to encourage you that if you are sick, or if you become sick, please do not hesitate to call the elders.
We have about 8 ministers and 5 deacons.
I would encourage you to call any one of them.
I do not think that all 13 of us need to come, but several should go and minister.
!! B. Anointing With Oil
When the sick person calls for the elders, they are to do several things.
One is to pray over the sick person and the other is to anoint them with oil.
The context also indicates that confession of sin is involved and I will take a look at that in a moment.
The pattern is pretty simple, but there is one aspect of it that makes us wonder.
What is the need for anointing with oil.
I remember that the first time I did it, I wondered “why do I need to anoint with oil, why not just pray?”
There have been different explanations for the meaning of anointing with oil.
One is that in those days, oil was medicine and what James is saying is that prayer combined with medicine is the path of healing.
We need to be careful because the language used does not seem to mean that this is medicine spoken of here.
Anointing with oil would not be the treatment for every illness and so I don’t think that this is a good explanation.
Some might think that the oil does something magical, that in some ways it promotes healing.
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