James 5:13-20 (NRSV)
Read James 5:13-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Verse 14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Verse 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Verse 16Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Verse 17Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Verse 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. Verse 19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, Verse 20you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Devotion
Most of the time when we come to worship or gather with other folks of faith we put our best foot forward. Someone asks the polite question, "How are you?" "Just fine," we answer with a smiling face. Some days that's the honest truth, but often it is not. Have you ever noticed that when something terrible happens in a person's life—maybe something in your own life—there is an almost automatic tendency to hide that truth from our faith family? People with broken lives mysteriously quit coming to church, crawling into their protective shells precisely when they need a community of faith the most. And we are left asking: "Where did Jim ever go?" "What happened to Maria?"
The book of James invites us to imagine a different sort of community, a place where we tell honest stories about ourselves and in so doing crack the doors wide open to invite others to do the same. "Are any of you suffering? Are any of you cheerful? Are any of you sick?" Then there is a place for you here around the table of Jesus. Here we can be in conversation about what's breaking us. Here we can come and be part of a new kind of community where we can be our needy old selves, fellow beggars of God’s grace.
Prayer
Gracious God, we bring our needy old selves to you again. We come with hands wide open and you fill our empty hands with every good gift. Help us to never cease singing and praying with one another. Through your grace may we mysteriously become what you call us to be, the Body of Christ. Amen.