The Community that Heals

September 30^th, 2018            “The Community that Heals”           Rev. Heather Jepsen

James 5:13-20 with Psalm 124

          This morning we are taking a break from the gospel of Mark and taking a moment to consider the letter from James to the early church.  While I appreciate the challenge of crafting a weekly sermon on whatever gospel reading comes up, I think this week’s lectionary reading from the epistles seems more suited to our church context.  You may remember that we did a Lenten sermon series on James a few years ago and that the book of James is more of a sermon or collection of moral teachings then it is a letter.  In this book, the author is offering lessons, advice, and encouragement to the early church. 

         In the reading for today, James is talking about how the community should lift each other up in prayer.  Throughout this letter, James has offered encouragement to the Christian community in how to live in ways that are different than the ways of the world.  In this passage James is encouraging the community of faith to share the truth of their experiences with each other.  Those who are suffering should be lifted up in prayer.  Those who are blessed should lead the community in singing songs of praise.  And those who are ill should call the church to their bedside.

         Sometimes it can be hard to be honest with each other about what is going on in our lives.  I know I had a hard time deciding when I was going to share with you about the mass that was in my ankle.  On the one hand, I didn’t want to burden you with worry if it was nothing.  But on the other hand, I wanted you to understand why I might have seemed a bit stressed or not really myself.  I have often felt in my ministry career that one of my greatest assets is my honesty.  I have promised to always be real with you, and so I invited you to share in my period of waiting to find out if I had cancer or not.  Just as James calls us to do, the community lifted me in prayer.  And we are all relieved to have a good diagnosis.  I am confident that this community will support me in my surgery this week, and will take care of me as I recover.  I know I can also count on you to take care of each other in my absence, leading worship and offering care as if I were here with you, which of course I will be in spirit. 

         James encourages us all to be honest with each other about our pain and suffering.  In this way we can minister to each other and lift each other up in prayer.  Christians in the first century were just as reluctant to share their suffering as we are today.  In fact, in the early Christian community, sickness was a very taboo subject.  Sickness is a threat to any community, as it can spread among us and harm us all.  In a world of competition and closed resources, the natural response is to leave the sick person behind rather than to risk the spreading of sickness.  James is revolutionary then, when he calls the community to gather around the sick person instead.  We are to pray together, to touch each other, and to show that the sick person is a vital member of the community of faith.  We come together in solidarity, even when it may put the community in danger, as a sign of our faith in God and our rejection of the ways of the world.  James was really pushing boundaries with his teaching, but he is confident that it is within the community of faith that we will experience healing.

         Those of us within the faith community know that the community’s power to heal is real.  When we feel lifted up, when we feel like someone has our back, then we are better able to face the challenges ahead of us.  Even if I had received a cancer diagnosis, I was fully confident that we would make that journey together.  We have done it before for each other and we will do it again.  This is a community that has healing power.      

Experiments have even been done to test the healing power of the church.  In one of my favorite articles in Feasting on the Word, theologian PC Ennis discusses a recent experiment which was designed to test the efficacy of prayer.  He writes . . .

“The members of one group, located on the east coast, were each assigned the name of an ill person on the west coast with whom they were not acquainted and instructed to pray every day for the person’s health.  The members of the other group were each given the name of an ill person whom they knew personally and who was a member of their own church.  Similar instructions were given, to pray for the ill people every day.  The patients who had no personal relationship with their prayer partner showed no significant difference in improvement from the general public, whereas members of the group who had developed a social relationship with their prayer partners through the church, indicated a decided difference in improvement and quality of life.”

So it’s great to have members of say, my uncle’s church, pray for my ankle.  But it matters so much more to have members of my church community pray for me.  When we know each other and lift each other up in prayer, than our prayers are answered and we experience healing.  Healing, spiritual growth, and wholeness all happen here within the church community. 

Of course, when we talk about pain and the need for healing we aren’t always talking about the body.  There are many emotional pains that we can suffer from and the church is called to be a community that heals in those painful situations as well.  In his letter, James encourages the community to confess their sins to each other.  This is a call to be honest about who we are in our private lives, when we come together as a community of faith.  We are called to pray together, so that the community itself may experience healing and grace.  James mentions the power of prayer Elijah experiences and suggests that the Christian community can share in that power as well, if we are willing to be honest with each other and to pray together.  Again, we have to have the courage to share our lives with each other, but if we can do that, then we will be rewarded with the care of this community that heals.

         James also encourages us to bring back into the fold any that may wander from the faith.  This is a form of healing the community itself, the body of Christ.  Of course, this is a bit touchy, as James is asking us to correct each other when we see sin.  This was a common moral teaching in the time of James though it can be a bit of a challenge in our modern time and place.  Rather than engaging in slander, judging, or grumbling against one another; if someone is causing problems in the community or headed in the wrong direction, we are encouraged to gather around them and patiently help them redirect.  I am sure you can imagine this resulting in anger and hurt feelings, but in James’ mind, this is the way the ideal Christian community would operate; mutual confession and mutual correction, all within a culture of support and honesty.  All of these things, prayer, confession, and correction help us to be the community that heals.

         While James reminds us of our need to be in a Christian community, our Psalm this morning reminds us of our reliance upon God.  “If the Lord had not been on our side . . . everyone say it with me . . . if the Lord had not been on our side, we wouldn’t have made it!”  the Psalmist writes.  Without God we would be nothing.  Without God we would be lost.  I love the poetry of this Psalm.  “We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken and we have escaped.”  I can almost hear the frantic flapping of the bird’s wings as it takes flight in a panicked fury.  We were this close to cancer, but it is only a benign tumor.  We were this close to death, but we escaped.  We were this close to being alone and in despair, but the community has grabbed our hands and lifted us out of the pit.  If not for God we would be lost.  “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Sometimes I think of going to church as a form of investing.  You’re not going to get rich coming here, but you are making an investment in your future.  All those Sundays that you are feeling good and would rather go golfing, but come to church instead, are an investment in the community that heals.  When we gather in worship together, we are investing in our unity and our future together.  When hard times come for the church, we will stand strong, we will lift each other up, the Lord is on our side.  And when hard times come for us as individuals, we are here for each other.  There are rides to the doctor, and casseroles to beat the band, and friendly cards to cheer our day, and balloons to welcome us home from the hospital.  If the Lord had not been on our side we would have been lost!  But the Lord is on our side, and the community is on our side.  Look around you; all of these people have your back!  We are a community that heals, and when you come on Sunday to invest in your faith, you are investing in this community. 

As I said earlier, I’ll be gone for the next three Sundays to recover from surgery, but things will carry on here as usual.  There will be sermons and songs, prayers and welcome.  I will pray for you and you will pray for me and we will continue to hold each other in this community that heals.  And together we will remember that it is the Lord who is one our side through it all.  “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  And our help is in the church community that stands together and lifts each other up in love.  Thanks be to God for this wonderful community of faith, the community that heals.  Amen.