The text this morning is from the Epistle of James, the fifth chapter:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Our text today is a fascinating little exploration into the lives of faithful Christians and a wonderful summation of all that James has been talking about these last few weeks. Up until now, James has been telling us the ways that we sin, the things we should be on guard against. Today’s text, though, tells us what we should be doing in order to fill up that spot.
Think about the other texts today: both of them essentially deal with the idea of vocation, what has the Lord given you to do? If He’s given others to be a prophet, or one who casts out demons, don’t be jealous of them when God has given you to be a parent, a spouse, a friend. God gives to us all our different vocations, and we rejoice and are glad in them, for, even though there is much work to do in them, and we’ve much to keep ourselves busy, every vocation is a blessing from God Himself.
Our vocations will keep us busy, and though there is no escaping the sin that runs through our veins in all that we do, when we focus on the blessing of work that God has given us, we will have less time to actively give in to our temptations. That’s certainly not a bad thing. But what of our avocations? A vocation is a role given to you by God that you fulfill by serving your neighbor. If you’re a parent, you have a child. If you’re a spouse, you have a spouse. If you’re a teacher, you have students. If you’re a doctor, you have patients, and so on. But, an avocation is something outside your primary vocations.
For instance, I’m a husband, father, pastor, and teacher. Those are some of my primary vocations, and which one I’m doing at any given time is dependent on which neighbor I’m serving. However, at any of those times, I might also be a techie, or a pipe smoker, or a beer connoisseur. I might do those outside my vocations, I might do them while I’m doing my other vocations. I also might be a suffering father. I might be a cheerful pastor. I might be a sick husband. I might be a righteous teacher. I mean, this is what James is talking about. What we end up finding out is that our vocations are always our responsibility but sometimes we are gifted with difficult things, too.
If you’re suffering, you learn to pray. The more you suffer, the more you pray, the more you depend on the Lord’s guidance and mercy, His grace and strength. If you’re suffering, you can’t carry it on your own, nor would you want to. If you’re cheerful, you sing praise to God, you lift others up by your voice. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good singer or not, praising God in song is always a wonderful thing. And besides, if you have a bad voice, it just makes people with good voices want to sing louder to cover over you anyway. If you’re sick, call the right people to take care of you. This is why the elders of the church would be called to anoint the sick, not that there’s anything holy in the oil, but they were kinds of doctors as well. The idea of rubbing oil into the body of a sick person is not that dissimilar from rubbing Neosporin into a wound.
But, this is what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to be living our lives, whether in our vocations or our avocations, with a focus on the good work of God for us that we might go out and work good for others. God has placed us in these roles, whether they be primary or otherwise, and we want to serve others. Ultimately, this good of serving others comes out in the mutual consolation of the brethren. When we confess our sins to one another, it keeps all of us on an even footing, where we are all properly humble, not judging one another for their sins because we know how badly we’ve done in that department.
The prayers of the saints are found in the confession of sins, and the confession of sins, even of the sick person, will save them. It may not make them well, that’s not the point, but it will make them saved. It will bring them unto the final day when our Lord returns. This is the point of the story of Elijah. By the power of God, Elijah shut up the heavens for three and a half years, and by the permission of God, Elijah opened the heavens and it rained down upon the earth, bearing fruit.
You have the same permission of Elijah, not to shut up the storm clouds, but to open and close heaven for the forgiveness of sins. By God’s permission, you can forgive the sins of the repentant. By His permission, you must not forgive the sins of those who are not repentant. When the heavens open, the fruits of the earth, the forgiveness of sins spring forth. When we console the brothers, the life of God is restored in them and salvation becomes their entire life and focus. When one is wandering away from the faith, the call to repentance and the forgiveness of sins is brilliant, and it brings them back to the fold of Christ.
See, all of this is for the benefit of others. The sins that we commit, it’s not really for us that we worry about their effect, it’s for others. When we sin, as redeemed children of God, it has more effect on others than ourselves. But, when we seek to serve others, to put them first, whether that is through our vocations or our avocations, we affect those around us by mitigating the effect of our sin upon them. When we busy ourselves living lives that begin to mirror the lives we find in the resurrection of the dead, then we find that we have no time to attack others with our sin.
My grandma always said that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and it’s true, and not just because my grandma said it, but we see it over and over again in Scripture. David, the lazy king who won’t take his armies to battle, sleeps with Bathsheba and murders her husband. Samson, interested in the thrills of the flesh, gives into Delilah and loses his strength, only to be kidnapped and tortured by the Philistines. Simon desired to purchase the Holy Spirit’s power rather than chase after faith. It didn’t work out well for these folks.
That’s because, in some cases, they were disregarding their vocations and that hurt others around them. In other cases, they refused to acknowledge the position God put them in for a season and serve from there, and it was the same. James might as well have written to us, “Are you getting old? Stand up and show the kids what you’re working with! Are you cancerous? Take your treatment as best you can, showing honor to the doctors and nurses around you. Are you cranky? Get over yourself and help others. Are you overwhelmed? Learn to pray and ask your brothers and sisters for help. Are you a new parent? Realize your infant’s screams are praises to the Lord, and then ask someone to come by so you can get some sleep. Do you know a new parent? Don’t just give them random advice, ask how you can help them.”
You understand here what James is doing? He’s telling us to take a survey of what’s going on around us, in our lives and in the lives of those who God has put in our way, those who God has asked us to love, and serve them. And ultimately, the point of serving is not just to serve the temporal needs of body and soul, but the eternal needs of body and soul, to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are hurting and lost. When we are bale to do this, we bring life everlasting to them, we gain a brother, the angels rejoice, and the promise of the resurrection draws nearer.
So, you see, all of this is to tell us that our Lord, no matter where He has placed you, has for you work in mind, and this is a blessing. If the Lord is giving you the work, then you know that He has in store for you love and service towards your neighbor. And, more than that, has in mind for you the resurrection of the dead, where, by the power of Christ, you shall be brought forth out of your grave to live forever with Him. May He who has begun this good work in us bring it to completion in the day of our Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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