James 5,13-16 5212
19. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 064
Calixtus, Bishop of Rome. Martyr 222
14. October 2012
1. O Triune God, for as much as without You, we are not able to please You; grant that the working of Your mercy may in all things direct and rule our hearts. Amen.
2. 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 heal 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, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great strength as it is working.
3. Not just any prayer will do. The Apostle James says it must be a prayer of faith, and the only true faith is that which trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. This comes from James, an apostle, one of the three pillars (Peter and John bar-Zebedee are the other two) in the mother church in Jerusalem, and younger brother of Jesus. This is apostolic authority at its finest.
4. Too often we give mere lip service to the apostolic authority. When the holy apostle speaks of faith, our multicultural and polytheistic ears hear „any sort of faith“. We think: the Mormon has his faith, the Jew has his faith and the Wiccan has her faith. They all pray to their God or higher spiritual power, and God (either our Christian God or theirs) hears their pray and it is thus effective (efficacious). James says something entirely different, and all the other apostles echo his teaching: there is only One True God, there is only one true faith and thus there is only one proper prayer that is heard. The One True God is the Triune God who has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures. The one true faith is faith in Jesus, that is, Christianity. The one proper prayer that is heard and answered by the Triune God are those prayers offered to Him by His Christian people. Any other god or goddess is not the One True God. Any other religion is not the one true faith. Any other prayer is simply no prayer at all. It is Christ alone and His Christian Church that counts.
5. The apostle says: »The prayer of a righteous person has great strength.« Righteousness is the central theme of the Bible. God created Adam and Eve in His Divine image and likeness; He created them righteous, but Adam lost this righteousness, exchanged it for sinfulness and passed original sin on to every one of us. Paradise was lost and our righteousness was gone. How do we regain it? God tells us how we regain it in His Bible.
6. Many think they can earn this righteousness. Polls conducted among Christians who say they believe that a person is saved by faith alone consistently reveal that one-half of those whose say this don’t actually believe what they have just said. This should not really be any surprise, because God created us with a conscience and a perfect knowledge of the law. Even after the Fall, we have the vestiges of this law in our conscience; we are hard-wired to understand the law; we are comfortable in and with the law. Our fallen and corrupt nature honestly thinks we can earn righteousness before God, either by doing the commandments of the law or by making our own list of precepts by which we hope to earn God’s favor.
7. Righteousness is not earned; it is given to us by God as a free gift. We do not need to plead with God, entice Him or make promises to Him, for He gives us His very righteousness on account of His loving mercy and kindness.
8. This does not mean this righteousness was achieved easily or lightly. It cost God the Father His very best, His only begotten Son, to merit us our righteousness. Jesus went through hell to make us righteous. He suffered the scorn of friends and family who could not, and would not, believe that He was Yahweh’s Christ. He suffered harsh, condemning words from the religious leaders in His day. One of His own apostles betrayed him and handed Him over to be executed. Another apostle and close friend betrayed Him not once, not twice, but three times denied His acquaintance in the span of an evening. His own chosen people cried for, and demanded from Pilate, His execution. All but one apostle and a few women forsook Him while He was crucified. He endured inhuman humility and agonizing suffering for six hours on the cross. Even His Heavenly Father forsook Him that Friday afternoon. Jesus endured all this, and more, for you so that He could declare you righteous and justified.
9. Your righteousness is, rightly speaking, Jesus’ righteousness. On account of Christ’s righteousness you suffer patiently, you cheerfully praise God, you pray for the sick, you are forgiven, you forgive and pray with might. Jesus is your righteousness. Jesus suffered patiently, cheerfully praises God, heals the sick, forgives your sins and prays for you, both during His earthly ministry 2000 years ago and now in 2012. Jesus is the First Pastor and Elder of His beloved bride, the Church. Everything that James exhorts in his epistle, Jesus completely fulfilled when He lived and walked upon this earth in the 1. century. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, »and in gentleness you warmly receive the implanted Word, who is able to save your life« (James 1,21b). Not only is Jesus able to save your life, but He is willing to save your life. Your salvation is His sole concern and priority until He returns on the last day to raise up your body. This Divine concern, dear Christian brothers and sisters, is the pure, comforting gospel.
10. Martin Luther wrote the following in his Preface to the New Testament: „For „gospel“ [Euangelium] is a Greek word and means in Greek a good message, good tidings, good news, a good report, which one sings and tells with gladness. For example, when David overcame the gigantic Goliath, there came among the Jewish people the good report and encouraging news that their terrible enemy had been struck down and that they had been rescued and given joy and peace; and they sang and danced and were glad for it [1. Samuel 18,6].
11. „Thus this gospel of God or New Testament is a good story and report, sounded forth into all the world by the apostles, telling of a True David who strove with sin, death and the devil, and overcame them, and thereby rescued all those who were captive in sin, afflicted with death and overpowered by the devil. Without any merit of their own Jesus made them righteous, gave them life and saved them, so that they were given peace and brought back to God. For this they sing, and thank and praise God and are glad forever, if only they believe firmly and remain steadfast in faith.
12. „This report and encouraging tidings, or evangelical and Divine news, is also called a New Testament. For it is a testament when a dying man bequeaths his property, after his death, to his legally defined heirs.
And Christ, before His death, commanded and ordained that His gospel be preached after His death in all the world [Luke 24,44-47]. Thereby He gave to all who believe, as their possession, everything that He had. This included: His life, in which He swallowed up death; His righteousness, by which He blotted out sin; and His salvation, with which He overcame everlasting damnation. A poor person, dead in sin and consigned to hell, can hear nothing more comforting than this precious and tender message about Christ; from the bottom of your heart you must laugh and be glad over it, if you believes it true. Now to strengthen this faith, God has promised this gospel in many ways by the prophets in the Old Testament“ (Luther 358-59) and the apostles in the New Testament.
13. Jesus is not some moralistic, therapeutic god who is tame enough and generic enough to keep society moral and civilized. Such a Jesus is not the Biblical Christian Jesus but a deistic Jesus who is embraced as the lowest common denominator, a Jesus who never offends anyone, keeps everyone happy and can be accepted by all people. The Biblical Christian Jesus is a Christological, Sacramental justifying Jesus. Jesus is the Christ, the one chosen by God the Father to save the world from sin, death and the devil. Jesus is sacramental: He gives to us the gifts of forgiveness and righteousness in the preached Word, the waters of Baptism and with the bread and wine of His holy Supper. Jesus has justified us by His death and resurrection; He has made us holy and righteous. He does not stop there, however. Jesus works in us and through us, uses the righteousness He has given to us, to bless the world and our neighbors.
14. O hold on to this dear Jesus! Don’t let the world water Him down. Don’t let the devil snatch His gospel away. Don’t let ministers, churches and other Christians turn the crucified and risen Jesus who saves you from our sins into a feel-good moralistic and therapeutic god. Let Jesus and His Word stand. If it offends, then let it be offensive to those who would refuse the gift of salvation Jesus freely gives. If it pleases, then let it be pleasing in all its justifying freedom! Jesus says you are righteous, and so you are. Believe it. The Holy Spirit will work out this righteousness in your life day after day. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Lord, Your steadfast love is manifested in Your Beloved Son; Your steadfast love endures forever; You do not forsake the work of Your hands. Manifest Your steadfast love in us so that we are assured of our salvation and our neighbors blessed by our deeds of love. Amen.
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I. „Preface to the New Testament“. Jaroslav Pelikan, Ed.; Hilton Oswald, Ed.; Helmut Lehmann, Ed. Copyright © 1960 Fortress Press.
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