Preached in recognition of the September 11 bombing of New York City.
If you recall and think back 25 years, where were you 25 years ago?
Some of you weren’t alive 25 years ago, but if you were, you remember the place, you remember the time, you remember that day and that period of time very well.
I remember it was a Tuesday. It was our weekly staff meeting. I was a youth pastor at a church in Anderson, Indiana, and we were having a staff offsite with our team at another church in town. We were in the conference room, just getting started that morning, when a knock came on the door. One of the secretaries peeked in and said, “Hey, just wanted you guys to know, I got some news that an airplane, it seems, crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. It’s kind of a big deal and we’re not sure yet what’s going on.”
That kind of set us back a little bit, but we thought there had been a tragedy, a plane crash. It wasn’t but 15 or 20 minutes later when another knock came on the door. A second plane had crashed into the second tower.
At that moment, something sank even further into the pit of our stomachs. Nobody was in the right frame of mind to continue working, so we said, “That’s it. Go home.” And we did what probably most of you did who were alive at that time. We watched the news constantly for probably the next week or two. We didn’t have cell phones where we could immediately ask what was going on and get updates. We were glued to the news because this was unprecedented.
As that day kept unfolding, it only got worse. The towers fell, there were the other planes, and so many people died. It was horrific. There was panic, fear, and uncertainty.
But there was a small spark in that time, and that was this unification that happened. All of a sudden people came together. It seemed to put our differences aside for a while. We were Americans. We were people. We were neighbors. It pulled the nation together in a way I had never experienced before.
And if you recall that first Sunday afterward, do you know what happened in churches all across America? They were full.
What is it about people wanting to come back and find a place of refuge and hope and connection, realizing there are things out of our control? We need God.
It was beautiful to see and wonderful to experience. I wish it could have stayed there. As the weeks and months passed, the pews and rows got emptier. Division and distraction and separation and politics and culture returned, and pretty soon we were back to shouting at one another from different camps and different corners.
That’s where we find ourselves today, don’t we? There are times when we pull together, but many times it’s the separation that seems to define our age. That’s why we’re in this series called, “Can We Just Talk Without Fighting?”
We’ve been looking at the book of James and what it teaches us about connection, community, and communication: being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, controlling our tongue, seeking godly wisdom, becoming peacemakers, and being witnesses instead of judges.
But even when I think about the series title, “Can We Just Talk Without Fighting?” there’s a part of me that says that’s not good enough. It’s a good start, but is the best we can do simply tolerate one another and coexist?
I believe God calls us to something deeper: a community where we’re known, loved, and able to experience healing and restoration. But I think one of our issues is that we’re not willing to risk what it takes to get there.
We can come to church every Sunday, slide into our seats, greet a few people, worship together, and leave without anyone really knowing us. Even in a life group, we can talk about life and still hold back the things we’re ashamed of, afraid of, or struggling with.
God wants more for us. There’s a last 10 percent that I believe we struggle to give in order to experience it.
I want to talk about being healed, forgiven, and free. All those words are important because there’s something that can only happen when we’re together if we want to experience healing, forgiveness, and freedom.
Some of us need healing, forgiveness, and freedom. I would venture to say all of us do. We carry health problems, financial pressure, relationship struggles, shame, addictions, and things we don’t want anyone else to know.
Maybe you’ve even repented, prayed, and asked God for forgiveness, but you’re still wondering, “Why am I still struggling? Why am I not finding freedom or healing?” That’s where James takes us into that last 10 percent.
James 5:13-20
“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.
Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you’ll be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years. Then he prayed again. The sky sent down rain, and the earth began to yield its crops.
My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.”
As James is ending this letter he’s written to the church, he’s trying to bring everything together. And here’s what I see: God calls us to bring all of life to the church. The highs and the lows. The hurts and the hangups.
This isn’t just a place where we come and say everything’s fine. It’s a place where we say, “God, there are some things going on in my life.”
James tells us to bring all of life into the community. Bring the hardships we normally keep private: financial pressure, marriage struggles, infertility, anxiety, shame. Bring the good things too, because Scripture tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice. In Luke 15, when what was lost was found, people came together and celebrated.
And bring our sickness. As a pastor, I’ve noticed that sickness is one of the things we’re most comfortable asking others to pray about, maybe because illness reminds us that there are things we simply cannot control.
But then James says, have any of you committed sin?
This is the one we don’t like.
This is where we retreat, hide, conceal, and ignore. Who wants to expose that stuff? I don’t.
I don’t want you to know how I sinned this last week. It’s embarrassing. I don’t want you to think less of me. I’m your pastor. My instinct is the same as yours: stuff it deep, hide it, and say, “I’ll work it out with God.”
But from the very first pages of the Bible, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, what was the first thing they did? They hid.
It’s in our human nature to hide. We don’t want things to be known because we think people will think less of us. We don’t want to admit that we’re broken people who struggle with things. But the Bible says bring it all. This is not a place for perfect people, fake people, or pretenders.
Why should we bring it all? Not so it can be displayed, mocked, criticized, or gossiped about. Those are our fears because that’s what happens in places we don’t trust.
God calls us to something different. He calls us to bring it all because He loves us and wants to redeem it all.
You’re suffering hardships? Pray. You’re happy? Sing praise. You’re sick? Call people together to pray over you. You’ve committed a sin? Bring it into the light. Deal with it and move forward.
Prayer, Healing, and Anointing
James says, “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.”
What I see here is that faith is not just something between me and God. It’s a shared responsibility. We often think about faith as very individualistic: “I’m going to pray to God. I’m going to pray for healing. I’m going to pray for forgiveness.” But here James calls people together.
Why call the elders? It’s an act of submission that says, “I need prayer. I need help. I need healing.” It isn’t because pastors or elders have some special power.
And the oil isn’t magical either. It’s just olive oil. Like bread and the cup in communion or water in baptism, it is a tangible expression of something God is doing. Throughout Scripture, anointing represented God’s presence and someone being set apart for His purpose.
The power isn’t in the oil or the person praying. James says the prayer is offered in the name of the Lord. It’s in Jesus’ power that we believe.
Then we come to this promise about healing. Does God always heal? I don’t know why He doesn’t. I’m frustrated that He doesn’t. I’m frustrated when we can read a Scripture like this, pray and anoint someone, and the next day they’re still hurting.
But I also know God can heal. He can heal in an instant. Maybe He heals over time. Maybe healing ultimately comes when we go to heaven.
James didn’t put this passage here so we could say, “God’s going to do whatever He wants anyway, so we’re not really going to pray.” He wants us to pray in faith. Not some pumped-up faith where I work myself up to a certain level, as if enough faith can force healing.
Faith as a mustard seed. Faith says, “I can’t, but God can.” That’s faith.
We bring all of ourselves. We pray together. It’s not an individual battle.
Confessing to God Forgives. Confessing to Each Other Heals.
Then James widens this out to the broader community. He’s been talking throughout the book about grumbling, fighting, complaining, and jealousy. He’s saying these things should be transformed in the body of Christ.
And at the end, he gives us this: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
When was the last time you confessed your sins to somebody else? Maybe it’s something from your past. Maybe it’s something from this week.
Again, what we want to do is hide it. “I’ll take care of it with God.”
Maybe you say, “Wait. Shouldn’t we confess our sins to God?”
Yes.
First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
That’s great news. God will forgive us.
So why should we confess our sins to each other if God already forgives?
Because confessing to God forgives. Confessing to each other heals.
Some of us have confessed to God. We’ve been forgiven. But we’re still asking, “Why am I continuing to fight this private battle?”
God honors you coming to Him, but I wonder if part of the reason we continue to struggle is that we’ve buried it deep and haven’t allowed anybody else into it.
When we share it, when we voice it, when we speak it, it exposes that sin. It’s like pulling the curtains back and letting light shoot in.
We’re afraid of that light because we think it’s going to expose us. But it can actually be a healing light, a light that brings growth instead of condemnation, love and restoration instead of hiding.
And it’s not about broadcasting everything to the whole church. “Attention everybody, I’m going to share all my dirty laundry.”
No. You don’t need to know everybody’s business. But somebody does.
That’s what this is calling us to. Somebody. A trusted brother or sister in Christ who has learned the way of the Lord, who will respond with love, kindness, comfort, compassion, and understanding.
Then James doesn’t say, “Confess your sins and let the other person give you all the answers.” No. Pray for each other.
You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to have all the wisdom. You can simply say, “I will pray for you. Thank you for allowing me to come alongside and lift you up before the Lord.”
And James says we do this so that we may be healed.
If there’s one thing I want you to take away, it’s this:
You can’t heal what you won’t reveal.
We wonder why we struggle, but you can’t heal what you won’t reveal.
That’s what God has created us for in community. Not just to sit in church and sing a couple songs together and listen to a good word, even though that’s part of it. Not just fellowship, eating together, talking about God’s Word, and serving the community, even though those things matter too.
If you want healing and forgiveness and restoration, we’ve got to be vulnerable with one another. Are we willing to risk it? Who do you have in your life that you can trust, where you can share and reveal what is hidden for healing?
Moving From Rows to Circles
James closes his letter with this:
“My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.”
People wander. We struggle. We get off the path.
But this is supposed to be a community where brokenness can be shared, where people come together and help restore one another and say, “Come on back into the fold. We love you. Let’s walk in the right path. Let’s pray together.”
That’s a completely different picture of community from anger and struggle and fighting and backbiting.
Let’s be this kind of community. Let’s bring all of life together. Let’s not settle for distant relationships, fake facades, secret pain, and hurt. Let’s invite others into those places, not to condemn us, but to lift us up and pray for us.
We talk about moving from rows to circles. Have you moved from sitting shoulder to shoulder with people to actually sitting in a circle with them and being willing to share some of the hard stuff?
Maybe it’s not something that needs to be shared with an entire group. Maybe it’s one individual, one other person. You begin by saying, “Would you pray for me? I want to share something with you. I’ve got to get this off my chest.”
As I was preparing this message, God really impressed on my heart that I needed to do that myself. I tried to talk myself out of it, but I had to make a phone call. I had a conversation, and I shared some things I didn’t want to share.
God was convicting me. I had to do it too. I don’t preach to you as someone who’s above God’s Word. I’m under God’s Word.
So who do you need to talk to?
Maybe it’s one person you trust, someone you can say to, “I need to get something off my chest. Would you pray with me?”
What are the areas of your life that you have not been willing to reveal? How much longer are you going to continue hiding those things and not finding freedom?
There is no condemnation. There is love. There is support.
