Title: “Embraced by the Light that is God”

Scriptures: James 5:13-20

9/28/03 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

The last two weeks we have studied the Gospel of Mark, but have also read from the Letter of James.  If you have never read this brief and straightforward letter, I encourage you to do so.  Scholars are not sure who the author is, but there is some possibility that it might have been written by James, the brother of Jesus.  He became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and was martyred during the years before the outbreak of the Jewish war of 66-70 CE.  In brief, James was very knowledgeable of Jewish law and in his letter he is concerned with “assisting the churches to whom he writes to work out their faith in good deeds and holy habits.”  (NRSV, The Spiritual Formation Bible)  

In today's passage we hear instruction at the very end of the letter on the role of the church community in offering prayer to those who are suffering, singing to those who are cheerful and the anointing of oil to those who are ill.  He is quite bold in his belief in the power of prayer and then closes the letter with the admonition to church members that that they do their part in reaching out to those who have wandered from the church and bring them back to the fold.  

This reading reflects that from the earliest of times the church community was a vessel of God's grace as we have found rituals and traditions that remind us of God's abiding, healing, forgiving and empowering presence.  

The vessel of grace I want to talk about today is prayer.  James declares that the “prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective”.  He tells us about Elijah who was able to pray and cause the rain to stop or make it fall.  He encourages them to pray for one another, to confess their sins so that they may be healed.  

We talked at length about this in our Bible study class last week - affirming how important prayer is, while being troubled by some of the proclamations that James declares.  (Did Elijah really make the rain stop and then fall?) We realized how problematic any passage of the Bible could be when we take it so literally that each word grates on our 21st century-rational minds.

The famous East Coast preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, wrote a book in the 1950's called The Meaning of Prayer.  In it he writes: “Praying is first of all a native tendency.  It is a practice like breathing or eating in this respect, that men engage in it because they are human, and afterward argue about it as best they can.”

We must begin any conversation on prayer with the recognition that by its very nature, we are talking about something mysterious, thus it can never be completely understood or explained.  To talk or argue about prayer is never-ending, but that should not stop us from starting, it should only humble us enough to recognize our limitations.  

Recognizing my limitations - I would like to share some reflections with you on prayer that have come from my own experiences and study, trials and conversations.

Spoken prayer can be beautiful and powerful.  I have heard and read, and even occasionally spoken a few myself - that have felt like they came from the Source of life itself.  

One time about four years ago I was in my office on a Sunday morning getting ready for the Sunday service and was especially nervous. It was in the midst of a period in my life when a great deal of changes was happening in my personal life and thus here at the church as well.  I was anxious and scared a lot back then and Sunday's were particularly difficult.  The Rev. Kizzie Jones was preaching that day about one of her trips to Turkey and I mentioned to her how anxious I was.  She did not hesitate for a moment but touched my head and spontaneously prayed on my behalf, that God's peace might rest upon my shoulders and fill my heart with calm.  Her words were a balm for my nerves.

There are books of prayers that touch on every possible life transition, that are beautiful in their ability to speak to the human condition and link us to the healing power of God.  There are times and places when spoken prayer is vital and can speak to our deepest selves and bring light to the darkest corners of our existence.  

But through the years I have found that spoken prayer can sometimes get in the way of deep prayer.  I find more and more that few words or none, combined with an image of God as Light in my mind's eye, is most powerful.  

Prayer is foremost a relationship.  It is a way of uniting with God.  

Today when I led joys and concerns, using a candle in the center of the sanctuary, I wanted you to experience what I believe happens in prayer.  When we pray, we are uniting with God.  When we say the name of someone we love that is hurting, or share the good news of a joy - it is a way of affirming that that person or place is enveloped in the light that is God.  

By naming them, it is like we are turning the light up a bit brighter as we unite with God in our care or celebration for them.  And because they are embraced by that light, most often I have found that no words are necessary.

When we share our joys and concerns we respond with the words: “O Lord hear our prayer, or praise.”  In some ways these words don't quite fit what I believe is happening in our time of sharing - A better response might be: “We unite our prayer or praise with You, O Lord.”

This image or form of prayer has evolved for me as my own theology and relationship with God has evolved as well.  Through the years I have struggled with the traditional viewpoint of God as all-powerful and have come to believe that when God gave his/her creation freewill, God released that part of God's self.  All creation is free to be in relationship with God or free to turn away.  Nature has formed its natural laws that cannot be changed by us or by God.  I do not believe that cancer is an act of God any more than hurricane Isabelle is.  Bad things happen to good people and vice versa, not by God's hand - but by a collection of many other things that God cannot control.

We are a society that likes quick fixes and needs a cause and an effect; we often make God into that image - the Big Fixer and the Head Designer - but these images do not affirm the gift of freedom that God has given to all of us.   When we image God as the Big Fixer we are disappointed time and again in life and in God because things don't go the way we want them to. (I've often thought that an American bumper sticker might read: “Life isn't fair and God isn't listening, let's go shopping.” If we are honest with ourselves, many of us shop when God disappoints us!)

One of my seminary professors wrote and taught something I still remember, “God is not a punisher or a wounder, but neither does God let our wounds be wasted.”  Another one of my favorite writers, Sue Monk Kidd, ponders if perhaps it might be better to picture God as the “Divine Midwife” rather than the “Divine Physician”, a presence that works with us rather than one that fixes us.  

I am well aware that sometimes prayers are “answered” and miracles happen.  That is part of life's mystery, but it is not because someone had more faith, seemed to know how to ask the right prayers or because God plays favorites.  I believe it can be healing to ask for what we want in prayer when it helps us “lay our burdens down”, or if it can help us continue to wait through a hard cold winter when hope and new life seem unreachable.  But overall - I have found my relationship to God runs less hot and cold as I have come to understand prayer as a way of uniting with God and God's love and less as a vehicle of getting what I want.  

When I hold people in the light of God, when I hold myself there, my children, or the children of the world - I feel myself bound with them, to Some One, Some Force, that so loves this creation, that I find myself in that moment held by a deep understanding that, no matter what happens, “all will be well”.