Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 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. 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. 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. 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. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
(James 5:13-18)
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I thought it was interesting that James ended this passage with a story about the great prophet Elijah. Elijah is considered the greatest of the Jewish prophets but we Christians have a tendency to overlook him. At most he gets referred to during Advent when he’s described as the forerunner to John the Baptist, who came preaching repentance and preparing the way for Jesus. But Elijah was far more than that. He was a great prophet, one who spoke with kings and one who spoke for God. The story that James refers to takes place in 1 Kings 17 and 18, and it's a great example of effective and persistent prayer. By way of summary, Elijah spoke to Ahab, the King of Israel, and told him what God had revealed to him: that no rain would fall on the land. God had decided to judge Israel because of all the idolatry that the people were practising. Over the course of two chapters, God then uses Elijah to bring Israel back to faith, and so eventually Elijah prays for the drought to be ended and for rain to come - which it did. One thing we learn from that story is that we should only pray for those things that we believe God will or at least can do. In 1 Kings 18:1 we're told that God had told Elijah that rain would come and so Elijah prayed persistently for it because his prayer was based on what he believed God would be able to do; his prayer was an act of faith in God. Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel to pray for rain, and as he did he told his servant to look toward the sea for any sign of rain. So Elijah wasn't just praying, he was actually looking for results. Sometimes prayer becomes a rote activity; an act of habit rather than an act of faith. But Elijah expected something to happen in response to his prayer. I think that's probably why James concluded this little passage about prayer with the story of Elijah. James understood that to pray without the faith that prayer will have some sort of impact is rather pointless. It can be hard to remain faithful in prayer. Several times Elijah's servant, who had been instructed to watch for rain, came back to say that there was no sign of rain. Sometimes it's like that for all of us: we pray but it seems as if nothing is happening. When we pray, it's important not to get discouraged but to pray faithfully and patiently, with the belief that God is hearing us. James in our passage identified four circumstances in which he encouraged God’s people to pray. Each one of those circumstances contains within it its own unique challenges that can make it difficult for us to remain faithful and persistent in prayer.
The first may be the most obvious: we are to pray when we’re in trouble. James doesn’t define exactly what type of trouble he’s talking about. I suppose the possibilities are almost endless, aren’t they. Trouble can follow us around. Some of the troubles may be big; some may be small - but that’s usually an outside perception. When you’re the one dealing with trouble, whatever the trouble is, then to you it’s big trouble. You might be waking up in the morning thinking, “Uh oh. I didn’t get my homework done. The teacher’s going to be mad.” Or you might be facing a day when you know announcements are going to be made that might affect your job. Maybe it’s your first day of unemployment and you don’t know what to do. Perhaps your marriage is breaking up or you can’t afford your mortgage. There are all sorts of possibilities. You could be Joe Girardi, watching helplessly as the Blue Jays soared past you into first place, or you could be a Christian in Syria waking up to another day of potential persecution. Little things, big things, foolish things or unimaginable (to us) things. Troubles are troubles. In any and all situations of trouble, whatever they may be, whether they’re big or small, the promise of God’s word, according to Psalm 46, is that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.” Praying in times of trouble is always a good idea.
The second circumstance in which James tells us that we should pray is perhaps a little less obvious: he tell us that we should pray when we’re happy. I think we all get the concept of praying when we’re facing trouble. But happiness can be a spiritual problem; a spiritual block. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Patch Adams,” you might remember the scene when Patch (then a medical student played by Robin Williams) was on the verge of being kicked out of medical school, with one of the reasons given being “excessive happiness.” Happiness can be a problem, and it can even make people suspicious. We are called to be joyful - but that’s a state of being rather than a state of mind. Happiness is a state of mind. It’s an emotion largely based on our current circumstances being good, and happiness can easily disappear when things turn not so good. Sometimes happiness can be a bit of false bravado; a cover for how we’re really feeling at any given time. Sometimes happiness can be something that makes us forget about God. If happiness is caused by good things happening in our lives, then it’s easy for us to forget about our need for God, and we start to let that relationship slip. God becomes “useful” to us, so to speak, when things are bad, but is easily cast away when things are good. Richard Nixon had many flaws, but he was both intelligent and perceptive, and as he once wrote, “Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.” Praying when we’re happy helps us build that relationship with God, and it makes God an ever-present reality in our lives; a constant companion through all of life rather than a cosmic therapist we approach only when we need help. Praying when we’re happy is always a good idea.
The third circumstance James tells us to pray in takes us back to the obvious: we should pray when we’re sick - or, when someone we know and love is sick. I suspect those kinds of prayers probably constitute the bulk of the prayers we offer. Healing prayers, prayers for recovery, prayers for those in the hospital, prayers for those who are dying, prayers for those who are in pain. All these are good and valid reasons to pray. The Bible is full of stories of healings and prayers for healing. When John the Baptist had some doubts and sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was, in fact, the Messiah, Jesus’ response was: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” Most of that is about healing of one kind or another. Jesus was about healing rather than judgment; he was about making people well rather than making them feel guilty. To continue that ministry, we pray for those who are sick - for ourselves when we’re sick; for others when they’re sick. Praying when we’re sick or when those around us are sick is always a good idea.
Finally, the fourth circumstance James tells us to pray in takes us to the uncomfortable: we should pray when we’re sinning, or, when we’re tempted by sin. It’s a subject people don’t like to talk about very much. Sin gets short shrift in the church today, I think because over the years we’ve cast a very broad net when it comes to what is and isn’t sin, and dealing with sinfulness has become more about exerting control over people’s lives than offering them healing and wholeness. I don’t need to tell people what their sins are or to make judgments about what sin is or is not. Suffice to say that sin is that which we do which God does not approve of. And God gives us conscience to know when we’re about to take such a step and freedom of choice to proceed or not. Ultimately, we are called to love God and to love our neighbours. That was the law as defined by Jesus. We are called to act accordingly and as long as what we’re doing isn’t unloving toward either God or neighbour then I have no quibble with it. But, when we’ve not listened to our conscience and we’ve fallen into the pit, so to speak, or when we start to feel that fight going on inside - “I know I shouldn’t do this, but …” that, we should know, is the time to turn to God in prayer. We pray against temptation, we pray for forgiveness when we’ve given into temptation and we pray for grace to cover us. Praying when we’re sinning - or being tempted to sin - is always a good idea.
Prayer is hard work. We don’t always get immediate results, and ongoing prayer that doesn’t seem to be answered can be challenging, frustrating and disappointing. As someone once said, “God give me patience - and give it to me now!” But sometimes we have to be persistent in prayer. Jesus’ parable, which we heard earlier, is a classic example of the value of being persistent in prayer. It’s a parable, and so not to be taken literally, but it’s one of my favourites, as Jesus essentially tells people to keep praying, because if you keep bugging God long enough, God might give in just to get you off his back! As I said, we’re not supposed to take that literally. God always welcomes our prayers, and I suspect that God welcomes as many prayers as we want to offer. You can’t read Jesus’ parables and the images he uses in them without realizing that he had a wonderful sense of humour, and here Jesus’ point - made in a typically humourous way - was that you have to be prepared to keep praying and praying and praying. Just like Elijah did, just as James is telling us to do here. In good times or bad times, in troubled times or in happy times, in rain or in sunshine, in sickness or in sin - pray. And - keep praying.
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