Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "The Gift of Prayer … The Burden of Prayer"

Text: James 5:13-20

They should call for the elders of the church

and have them pray over them …"

"The prayer of faith will save the sick,

and the Lord will raise them up …"

I suppose I’ve read these verses dozens of times –

since James is one of my favorite books of the Bible –

but they’ve never seemed quite as real to me

as they did when they showed up this past week.

On the one hand, of course this is what we believe:

Every week, we share our "joys and concerns"

about our own lives,

and the lives of people we care about,

and we pray for one another.

On the other hand …

even though it feels like a blessing to know that

our prayers may make a difference in their lives,

doesn’t it also feel a little strange?

It raises at least as many questions as it answers.

Do those who are sick get well faster

if there are people praying for them?

Do they get well even faster

if there are lots of people praying for them?

Does it matter whether it’s the "elders of the church" doing the praying,

or can it be anybody who cares enough to take the time?

If you’re the one who’s sick, should you be praying for yourself also,

or is it more important that other people are doing the praying?

For many of us, I suspect,

it’s difficult to keep a balance between

wanting to be appropriately rational and scientific,

and wanting our faith to play a role as well.

Twenty-first century instructions, even for Christians,

are far more likely to read:

"Are any among you sick?

They should call their doctor

and then pray that their health insurance will cover it."

If you start to have chest pains while you’re at home this afternoon,

who will you call first?

The elders of the church,

or 9-1-1?

Please say your answer is 9-1-1!

Do most of us get a flu shot,

or do most of us simply pray that the virus will pass us by?

If you have a chronic condition like diabetes, or high blood pressure,

do you treat it with medication, and monitoring,

and changes in your lifestyle,

or only with prayer?

We like what modern medicine has to offer us, for the most part.

I know that I would have been dead long ago

if it weren’t for antibiotics.

Most of us here have lived long enough,

and been through enough in terms of our health,

to know that in previous generations,

we might not have lived as long as we have.

But where, in our rational, reasonable, scientific-method world,

is there a space for prayer to function?

Well, on that count I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that I don’t know

how prayer and science fit together.

I cannot explain it in any terms

that do justice to both our faith

and our knowledge about how the world works.

The good news is that I don’t have to be able to explain it

in order for it to be true.

I cannot design an experiment that will demonstrate it;

I cannot write an equation that will account for it;

but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t so.

Without getting too weird about it,

I will tell you that my experience of the past month demonstrates to me

that prayer makes a difference of some kind –

even if we can’t explain it –

which science can’t explain either.

My own physician would be glad to tell you

that there is no reason for me

to be doing as well as I’m doing right now.

Well … there is a reason,

but it isn’t medical.

Having said that, though,

we need to go on to reflect about those times

when we have prayed for someone

and they did not get well.

Because I don’t want to sound at all like I’m implying

that if you just get enough people praying for you,

you’re bound to get over whatever it is you’ve got.

That is one of the mysteries about prayer, isn’t it?

Sometimes you get what you asked for,

and sometimes you get something quite different.

It doesn’t mean that God wasn’t listening …

just, that God gave you what you needed

rather than what you thought you needed.

One of the most amazing things for me

about this whole journey of getting sick and then healing,

and then getting sick again and healing again …

has been the complete absence of fear.

I have been so surrounded by prayers

that I have known, at some deep level,

without even being able to articulate it very well,

that whatever happens,

it’s somehow going to be okay.

That’s a gift that God will give to any one of us,

in response to our prayers …

whether for ourselves, or for someone else.

It may be that whatever illness or injury we have

is beyond healing in any physical sense.

And yet, God will give us peace, and comfort,

and a sure sense of hope that whatever happens in this life,

our story is not over.

With prayer, we can help one another

to receive that gift from God.

Prayer is an incredible gift.

It changes things,

and it changes us.

But because it is so powerful,

there is a sense in which

prayer is also a burden.

What I mean by that is this:

If we have at our disposal something

that has that much power to effect change –

whether in situations, or in other people, or in ourselves –

if we have that much potential power we can tap into …

it carries with it tremendous responsibility.

It never ceases to be a gift and a joy,

but it also carries with it a certain weight.

Because if we can make a difference by praying,

but we are too busy to pray,

or too afraid that it seems superstitious somehow,

or too timid to approach God about certain things …

If, for whatever reason, we don’t assume the burden

of prayer for one another and for our world,

we may be standing in the way of God’s work,

not just standing on the sidelines.

Even supposing that our prayers

don’t "change God’s mind" about some things,

or cause God to act in ways that God otherwise wouldn’t have acted …

what does prayer do for the good of the world?

Let’s take an example that shouldn’t be too controversial …

let’s talk about world hunger.

I suspect that we could all agree

that God would prefer that God’s people have enough to eat.

We each might have our own notions about how God should fix the problem …

Some of us, in our prayers,

would ask God to increase the harvests.

Others of us might focus on ending drought.

Others might pray for a solution to overpopulation.

Still others might ask God to open the hearts of corrupt leaders

who keep their own people from getting food.

And others might repent of their own gluttony,

and ask God whether their overindulgence

has caused some people to not have enough.

But all of us, regardless of our opinion,

would be bringing it to God.

And what happens when we come to God?

Well, there’s one thing that definitely happens,

and one that might happen.

It might be that the weight of our combined prayers

actually creates some kind of kink in the fabric of the universe

and changes the situation that we’re praying about.

It’s always possible that God created the universe such that

a vast sum of prayers actually does create

a kind of force for good that cannot be avoided.

I know that sounds kind of weird,

and I’m not saying that it is that way,

but I am saying that God could have created it that way

if God wanted to!

So that might be a result of our bringing our prayers to God.

But what always results when we come to God,

with whatever is on our minds,

is that God listens, and God speaks to us.

Those answers take our prayer seriously

and they take us as pray-er seriously.

So, for example, God might respond to one prayer by saying,

"Let me take care of this one;

where I really need your gifts and energy at work

is on something different."

And to another, God might say,

"You can help if you’ll give up

those daily double-mocha lattes,

and send the money you save to Heifer Project."

To one, God might suggest

"Write a letter to your congressperson,"

but to another,

"You could make a difference if you went and

spent two years in the Peace Corps."

God honors the fact that we have brought the problem to God,

and directs us concerning how we can help fix the problem.

That doesn’t mean that God will not, or cannot,

act without us …

just that God usually wants us involved as well.

The scary thing about prayer is that,

while we can argue till we’re blue in the face

about whether prayer actually changes God’s mind about anything …

what we know from experience

is that prayer, seriously entered into, changes us.

In my own experience, that’s not all it does,

but that’s what generally makes us nervous about it.

The fact that God might say to us,

"You do it."

Prayer is not a burden in the sense of

being a huge weight that we must carry around.

In fact, it’s a burden precisely because it is such a powerful gift.

If, through prayer, we have the power

to remove a stumbling-block from someone’s way,

how can we not do so?

If our prayers can help to bring back

someone who is wandering from the truth,

don’t we have a responsibility to offer those prayers?

If our prayers can help heal those who are sick,

don’t we have an obligation to pray?

If we really believe that prayer makes a difference,

regardless of how it does it,

don’t we need to let it fly and see what happens?!

You all have been an important part of my healing process

this past month.

None of you is a physician;

none of you is an ambulance driver;

so far as I know, none of you is a lab technician …

yet your prayers have strengthened me

and brought me through some very difficult and dangerous days.

You have power that you may not even know you have.

We have power that God has chosen to give to us …

the power of prayer.

A gift, and a burden, that God chooses to trust us with

and to use for good.

May we assume that gift, that burden, that power, willingly …

for each other and for a world in need.

Amen.