Are
there Any Among You?
Today, I would like to point us to
the categories of people found in the church that James writes to. He writes of
people who suffer, are sick, wander, and are cheerful.
I believe if his question, “Are there
any among you who” suffer, are sick, wander, and are cheerful were asked to us
today, the same implied answer would be given today as was given then—yes,
there are. The suffering, sick, wanders, and joyful make up the Christian
community.
And so I ask you today the same question asked then, “Are there any among you… Are there any among you
Prayer
Are there any among you
Who
suffer?
Yes, you mourners
With aches in those empty spaces
where the dead used to reside.
Unresolved emotions and connections
careen off into nowhere.
It’s like swinging at a baseball
only to realize you aren’t holding a bat.
You
are among us
Yes, you abused ones
You who do not feel safe in your
home
Long quiet from neglect punctuated
by punches and bitter words
Long afraid from threats—sometimes
just implied
Long deprived, unwilling or maybe
unable, to speak your terrible truth
You
are among us
Yes, you poor ones
Caught by staggered wages and
automation
Inflation and globalization gobbling
up your daily bread
It feels like there is little love
or dignity in work when it isn’t enough to feed your family
You
are among us
Yes, you who have suffered tragedy after tragedy
Until it appears normal and you feel
like giving up
Giving into the numb shell-shock of
life as you’ve experienced it
You
are among us
To
you who suffer, James says pray.
Pray, yes that God might act—that
God’s promises might be brought back before Him, reminding God, rubbing God’s
ears with those promises.
Pray too, that you might hear again
those same promises brought before God. That they might become truths to you
afresh—again—that you would come to trust God.
Walk forward, trusting God to be for
you and not against you.
Trust God as you keep on keeping on
in the face of your troubles.
Respond to these indignities of life
knowing the dignity of being Children of God.
Are there any among you
Who
are sick?
Yes, and it makes you understand why
the ancients lumped sin and sickness together. Just as people avoid sinners,
even more so they avoid the sick.
It’s a lonely lot—being sick.
In a hospital room, daytime Soaps
and pain your only friend.
You
are among us
Yes, you overwhelmed by stress and
strain, by anxiety or depression.
You who the world looks at and
shrugs “it’s all in your head” “just get over it” “just be tough.”
You
are among us
James commends your brothers and
sisters to you—he calls on us all to visit the sick, to renew bonds of
fellowship.
There is a comfort in community that
can not be underwhelming or oversold. A visit from those who care for you, from
your brothers and sisters in Christ, such a visit can be extraordinary.
Are there any among you
Who
wander?
Oh yes, there are those easy targets, those who have
shifted their priorities away from community in general, and the Church in
particular—church-folk grumble at sports, TV time and the idolatry of overwork.
And yes, not only are folk who
wander away from worship diminishing themselves, but they also diminish the
community—we are more fully the body of Christ when we are all together in
worship.
But,
they are not the only ones who wander—the pious in the pews do as well.
Often we are like the disciples in Mark’s Gospel, “teacher, they will not
follow us.”—Notice they are worried
about them following us, not following Jesus.
Think of the raft of political cartoons
about the Pope addressing Congress
—a
Donkey saying “He’s with me, look what he has to say about care of creation,”
and
an Elephant saying, “No, he’s with me, look what he says about the sanctity of
life.”
And then Jesus shows up, coughs, and
says, “actually he’s with me.”
James insists we bring the wanderers
back.
Yes, bring folk back to worship—no doubt that is an important thing.
But see too that, we wander when we
fuse Jesus to ideology or try to get people to follow after us instead of after Jesus—when we elevate anything out
beyond our Lord.
Are there any among you
Who
are cheerful?
Yes, there are.
every time you receive what is
nourishing and necessary for life—food, clothing, money, good government, good
weather or good friends—that is from God—that
is something worth being cheerful about.
As James adds, it is worth being
thankful for—worth singing about, worth praising God for, it is worth marking
that moment—cultivating, like a growing garden—cultivating that joy.
And Angela, Jeremy… Kathy…
Carter—today is a day to be thankful for. Today we are thankful for this
Baptism—marking Carter as belonging to the God who has loves you and never will
let you go.
Thankful for a life that will be
lived holding onto God, the God who already holds us tight.
A
life clinging to God through suffering, and sickness, and wandering and times
of great cheer as well.
A
life lived with the God who we find in Jesus, who loves us even when we can not
love ourselves.
Yes, today we are cheerful for the
Baptism of this newest Child of God.
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