James—Prayer and Restoration: Psalm 24: 1-6; James 5: 13-20
In full honesty, Independence Day, or Fourth of July, as some say, is not my favorite holiday in the whole scheme of national holidays. As it falls right in the middle of summer, the holiday is usually swelteringly hot here in Georgia. Beaches, pools, and anything fun are overwhelmingly crowded. I’ve grown far less enamored with fireworks, especially given the devastating effect they have on veterans with PTSD for whom the sound of fireworks can be devastating. Lastly, I dislike the messy convolution of church and nationalism. Yes, the church should be supportive of our institutions and should encourage good citizenship; however, we must be careful running afoul of the giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and giving to God what is God’s. Blurring that line is uncomfortable for me.
But we must still ponder the question that the church lives and moves within society, within our nation, and within the civil institutions we have created, so how does the church do this? What course should the modern church chart to have effective ministry, growing faith, and sharing grace and love around the world? There are three things we should look at: authority, relationship, and mission.
First we must recognize the proper authority and practice of our churches. Psalm 24 tells us this: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For God laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.” Not only do we rely on God, find our strength in God, and have all the good aspects of our faith in God, we also must realize that God is an authority figure in our lives deserving of our respect. That is because God is…well…God, worthy of worship, praise, and love. God created the heavens and the earth and all that is within both of them, and as such, God has authority over what God has created.
In and through that authority, James gives us a few specific practices as part of our faith. If we have hardship, pray about it. If we are happy, sing praises to God. If we are sick, call the elders to pray and anoint the one who is ill. If you find yourself having done wrong, confess that wrongdoing and seek forgiveness (which you will always find in God). If you are earnest in your prayer and faith, expect an answer from God. Though these things seem simple enough to do, we often forget to do them. Prayer is often an afterthought. Praising God seems to be only in our minds instead of actually done. We get angry and stubborn instead of confessing and finding humility. Easy concepts that James lays down here can be forgotten in the busy-ness of life. But they call us to render to God what is God’s—our time, our thoughts, our attention, ourselves.
That rendering to God demands that we live in a good and right relationship with God first and foremost, but, hold on, because we’ll expand that idea globally in just a bit. Psalm 24: 4-5 tells us of this relationship by asking who may stand in God’s holy place: “Only those whose hands and heart are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior.” In law, we have the doctrine of unclean hands. It means (loosely) that, if you are just as guilty, you cannot come to court seeking a remedy for what has been done to you. For instance, and I promise this actually happened, if you are selling drugs, you should not call the police because someone stole your drug money. Clean hands, pure heart, faithful relationship—these are things which we should be striving for in life.
James also touches on the idea talking about someone who wanders from faith and is brought back. He notes that the person bringing the wandering one back will be greatly celebrated. That is because we shouldn’t be nosy about one another’s business, but we should help one another grow and develop in our relationship with God. Our desire should be to help, lift up, and encourage one another, not destroy and tear each other down, and not to meddle in one another’s lives for bad purposes. There’s an old saying, “Live and let live.” I actually think it’s a little lacking because we are all connected to a degree. My college community service group expanded on it saying, “Live, let live, and help live.” We should be about the business of helping others to live, to love, and to grow in faith, peace, and hope.
Lastly, not only do we live in right relationship with God, but we should also live in good relationship with those around us. Not only do we render to God what is God’s, but we must also contend at some point with Caesar. That calls us to stand for truth and justice in this world, even as Christ teaches and did himself. That doesn’t mean dragging the church through politics. But there are Gospel and Biblical truths on which the church must stand and insist.
We must take a stand to be reconciling and welcoming of all people who seek God and who seek to worship with us. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This is Paul’s clear call to stop seeing differences and separations and to start living as if each person we see is a child of God in need of God’s loving, changing, and matchless grace. As a quote I saw recently said, “You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love. Always be kind.”
We are to stand on the truth of helping the poor, the widow, and the orphan. In Mark 12 Jesus told a parable about the faith of a widow who gave everything she had. In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about caring for the least of these. In Exodus we read the command not to take advantage of the widow or orphan. In Luke 14, Jesus says when you prepare a banquet invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.
Jesus also defends the marginalized in life including parables and stories about the good work of Samaritans and speaking with the Samaritan woman. Jesus also defends the immoral woman charging that the one without sin should cast the first stone. Over and over, we see Jesus, and those who followed him standing for what is right, not on politics, not on Democrat or Republican, right or left leaning policies, but on the truth of the Gospel and the commandments to us in the rest of the Bible. These things the church cannot ignore or compromise on. Our ultimate mission is to bring grace and God’s love to the world, but we cannot shirk the other duties given us as well, to listen and to do God’s Word as James says.
The church must stand firm on what is right, yet also the church must live in the modern era of life. James calls us to maturity and growth. Change in life is inevitable, but I’ve learned people don’t necessarily fear change. They fear loss, that something may be taken away from them. But here is another truth I know. As long as you and I stand in right relationship with God, and render to God what is God’s, he will continue to help us to grow. We will never be abandoned and never be lost and wandering. God never has and never will leave us. But, be mindful not to let the distance between you and God grow either. Follow closely as God leads and even as God continues to march us forward—perhaps into the unknown, but always in faith.