Powerful Prayer

A Sermon by Nada Sellers

February 24, 2008

James 5:13-18

On July 7, 2005, A. J. Jacobs decided to spend a year living by the Bible – literally.  Jacobs is an editor at large for Esquire Magazine, who grew up in a secular Jewish household.  As an adult Mr. Jacobs has always called himself an agnostic – certainly not a believer.  Yet at some point he describes himself becoming impressed with the power of religion as “an enduring force” and determined to explore his own religious background.  Intrigued by an uncle of his, who would withdraw $300 from the back, tie the bills to his sleeves and wander the streets looking for widows who needed cash, per the command given in Deuteronomy 14:25, Jacobs decided to begin his own quest.  His goal?: “to find the original intent of the biblical rule or teaching, and follow that to the letter.¹   One of the first areas Jacobs set out to tackle was his penchant for lying, “A righteous man hateth lying…” according to Proverbs 13:5 (KJV):

Day 64: A spiritual update (he writes): I’m still agnostic, but I do have some progress to report on the prayer front.  I no longer dread prayer.  And sometimes I’m even liking it.  I’ve gone so far as to take the training wheels off and am testing out some of my own prayers instead of just repeating passages from the Bible… Right now, the one that’s working the best for me best is thanksgiving… In Deuteronomy, the Bible says that we should thank the Lord when we’ve eaten our fill – grace after meals it’s called.  Christians moved grace to the beginning of the meal, preappetizer.  To be safe, I’m praying both before and after… The prayers are helpful.  They remind me that the food didn’t spontaneously generate in my fridge.  They make me feel more connected, more grateful, more grounded, more aware of my place …²

More connected, more grateful, more grounded and aware … Can you think back to some of your earliest attempts at prayer?  How did you start?  (RECEIVE COMMENTS?)  And who helped you understand what to do?  Maybe you remember watching someone as they prayed and this helped you get a sense of what might be involved… maybe you had someone close to you encourage you to pray.   Mr. Jacob’s efforts at biblical literalism notwithstanding, there are so many ways to pray and there are so many reasons to pray, that few definitions seem to do it justice.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives a beautiful definition of prayer from Saint Therese of Lisieux:  Prayer is a “surge of the heart,” a look toward heaven, a “cry of recognition and love, embracing both trial and joy.”³   Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who brought contemplative prayer into ordinary awareness, describes prayer as

... freedom and affirmation growing out of nothingness into love.  Prayer is the flowing of our innermost freedom, in response to the word of God.  Prayer is not only dialogue with God: it is the communion of our freedom with [God’s] ultimate freedom, [God’s] infinite Spirit.⁴

According to tradition, The New Testament book of James, was written by James, the brother of Jesus, a prominent leader in the Jerusalem church who was part of the first generation of the Christian movement.  Evidence gathered within the New Testament documents, identifies James as a witness to the risen Christ, and possibly as one involved in mission with his family.  Paul identifies him in Galatians as one of the “pillars” of the Jerusalem church.  The “letter” James writes is a full of pastoral counsel, concerned with the moral and ethical  balance needed to be a Christian under siege and feeling the persecution of Roman occupiers.  Deep concerns for the economically disadvantaged and oppressed are matched with strong condemnation for the wealthy who take advantage of others not only by their practices but also by their attitudes.  James deplores killings and violence, anger and impatience; he is eager to instruct his listeners that seeking God’s help in prayer (4:1-3) is the way to go.⁵

James has a lot to say about prayer, and though not everyone agrees on the identity of the writer, it’s clear that the writer wishes to address a community of disciples, on the issue of prayer as an expression of truth: when one is suffering or dealing with illness, the community is called to prayer; not just prayer for the person in need but prayer in confession to each other, in order that through prayer, healing might happen.  These prayers are powerful prayers, applied not only to the sick individual by also to the community as such.  One can hear clear parallels with the teachings of Jesus, concerning healing, as found in all four gospels:  prayer has the power to heal individuals from their illness and communities from their alienation. The prayer of the righteous and faithful will save the sick person and Jesus will raise that person up just as Gospel accounts describe Jesus’ healings.  There is no distinction here between saving the soul and saving the life, between being raised up out of a sickbed and “raised up” in resurrection.  James’ confidence resembles Jesus’ own: “Ask and it will be given unto you.” (Matt. 7)⁶   The word “prayer” appears in every verse between 13 & 18, it pops out everywhere.  James is promoting powerful prayer, that is, prayer as a request based in faith.  The first part of verse 16 implies that sometimes sin is a cause of illness, as well as a hindrance to healing, a common linkage in the ancient mind and something James notes with reference to Job and his “friends” back in chapter 5.⁷

It’s the second half of verse 16 that contains the assertion that “the righteous person’s prayer is very powerful in its effectiveness.”  And who are the righteous?  Those whose behavior demonstrates that they are following God’s will – those who confess their sins to one another, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation.⁸   James cites the fourth Old Testament figure of his letter, the prophet Elijah, as a person of powerful prayer.    “Elijah was a person just like you, my readers,” James insists, sharing the same nature, including the experience of suffering.  You want to learn about a prayer warrior, who squared off with the worst of the worst, read up on Elijah, Jezebel and Ahab.  With fervent  intensity, the prophet’s prayer causes rain to be withheld and later, causes rain to occur; his prayer worked! He and God were in close communication and the results speak for themselves.  James is not so naïve as to be insisting that every prayer results in automatic resolution as the person praying requests; back in chapter 4, he notes that some prayers fail “You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your passions.” Much depends on the motive of the person who prays, and all prayer is bounded by God’s providence and favor.⁹

What are we to make of this? I think we are meant to realize that to pray is to change.  Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us; transforms our lives, our desires, our passions.  “The closer we come to the heartbeat of God, the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to our Savior,” is how Richard Foster describes it, in his classic The Celebration of Discipline.¹⁰ Those who have explored the frontiers of faith in the Christian tradition did not simply tuck prayer in on the periphery of their lives, prayer was their life. William Penn, Quaker statesman and early settler and founder of Pennsylvania, wrote of Quaker leader George Fox,  “Above all, he excelled in prayer.. The most awful, reverend frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say was his in prayer.”¹¹   Visionaries and exceptional leaders in all times, bear witness to this powerful prayer: lesser known people like Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones in the labor movement, and Fanny Lou Hammer of the civil right movement.  There are the well-known figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who rises every morning for several hours of prayer.  Thomas Kelly bears this witness to prayers pervasiveness:

There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once.  On one level, we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs.  But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.¹²

And what of James, the brother of the Lord?  Tradition holds that he was called “Old Camel-knees” a reference to the effect of his frequent kneeling in prayer.¹³   We too, are to be constant in prayer, and to confess our sins and pray for one another, giving and receiving forgiveness and so, being remade, receiving healing and restoration.  The specific situation of sickness and anointing in community points to how we as the church, are to be about prayer in a whole different way than what the world does … “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” to achieve what God wants to be about in this world, whether on behalf of believers or non-believers.  And we are co-laborers in this process – far from a fixed universe with good on one side and evil on the other, and a clock-maker God, the God of the Bible invites us to participate in helping to determine the outcome of events according to Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:9.  Remember that God changes God’s mind in accord with Moses’ prayer and God’s unchanging love for a people he chose. (Exodus 32).  Prayer is not simply an exercise in biblical literalism; it is the deepest devotion of our spiritual lives in Christ, and it can be a powerful, life-changing, world-shaping feature of our lives.  Let James remind us, God restores us, when we offer the powerful prayer of faith and we stand ready for the change that will surely come.  Amen.

Endnotes