James 5,13-16. 19. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

James 5,13-16     4918

19. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  064  

Justina, Virgin, Martyr at Padua, Italy, 304 

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Pastor, ✠ 1787

7. Oktober 2018 

1. О Great God, our Divine Physician, comfort all who suffer, heal all who are sick, may Your will be done in our lives, so that trusting in Your Providence we set our faith and hope upon You.  Amen. (Starck 260) 

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. James makes the Scriptural and theological connection in his epistle: we pray for those needing healing and forgiveness. But not just any prayer will do; it must be a prayer of faith which believes and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is from the mouth and the pen of James, who with Peter and John bar-Zebedee was one of the three pillars of the mother church in Jerusalem; this James is a younger brother of Jesus. This is apostolic and Christological authority at its finest. 

4. The expectation of James is at odds with our conventional multiculturalism and polytheism. The average person hears „faith“ and makes little or no distinction between true Christian faith and other religions: people pray to their particular god or higher power and the prayer is heard and answered, so the conventional wisdom holds. James refutes all that: there is only One True God, only one true faith in that God and thus only one true type of prayer; only prayer to or through Jesus Christ is powerful and effective. 

5. Thus James can conclude by saying: »The prayer of a righteous person has great strength.« Righteousness is a central theme throughout the Bible; the prophets and the apostles tell us how we lost our righteousness and how we regained it. Adam and Eve were created in the Divine Image and Likeness of the Lord, thus they were created righteous, but Adam forfeited that righteousness for us when he disobeyed the Lord and sinned. The Lord then promised to restore that paradise lost and righteousness forfeited. 

6. The chapters of Genesis unfold the Lord’s promise to restore mankind’s righteousness and He centers it on the most unlikeliest of people: Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was a Chaldean from the city of Ur; the Chaldeans live in Southeast Mesopotamia along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (modern Iraq, Kuwait, North Saudi Arabia and East Syria) who were eventually absorbed into the Babylonian culture and empire. Joshua reminded the Israelites before they entered the promised land: »Long ago, your fathers lived beyond at the Euphrates and they served other gods, then the Lord took Abraham from there and lead him to Canaan (Joshua 24,2-3). Abraham traces his ancestry back to Noah through Shem. It is through Noah’s son Shem that the promise to restore righteousness flows. Noah begat Shem who begat Abraham who begat Isaac who begat Jacob who begat Judah who begat David who begat Jesus. 

7. Our righteousness is grounded upon Jesus. Both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels devote a chapter to showing how Jesus is of the lineage that was promised to sire the Messiah. We are righteous because Christ is righteous; His righteousness is our righteousness. Jesus gives us His righteousness as a gift; it is by grace and received by faith. This grace shows as God’s loving mercy and kindness. 

8. Since we have received Christ’s righteousness, we suffer patiently, we cheerfully praise God, we pray for the sick, we are forgiven, we forgive and pray with Divine authority. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus suffered patiently, cheerfully praised God, heals the sick, forgives our sins and prays for us, both during His earthly ministry 2000 years ago and now in 2018. Jesus is the First Pastor and Elder of His 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 we warmly receive the implanted Word, who is able to save our life« (James 1,21b). Not only is Jesus able to save our life, but He is willing to save our life. Our salvation is His sole concern and priority until He returns on the last day to raise up our body. This Divine concern is the pure, comforting gospel. 

9. As Jesus’ righteous Christians, pray in every circumstance. Pray for those who suffer; pray for those who are sick; pray for those who are unrepentant in there sin. Your prayer as a righteous person has great strength as it is working.  Amen. 

10. 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. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.     

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. James