This week's author is the Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister, Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Connecticut Conference, UCC.
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.
My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
This passage in James has an interesting start, "Are any among you suffering... are any among you sick?" I suppose there are many ways to answer the "are any among you suffering" question. You could spend a great deal of time trying to figure out who the "any among you" is supposed to represent. If by "any" you literally mean is anybody who is in my general surroundings suffering I would have to answer "Yes!" But if "any among you" is really about the "among you," well then I could probably check the "No" box because my immediate surroundings are pretty clear. The same could be said for the second question. If I am looking for someone in my immediate family who is sick, my answer is "No." But if I have to include my family of origin or my workplace, well now the question has gotten a little murky.
I'm intrigued by these questions in the midst of our health care reform debate. If the screaming from the town hall meetings are an answer to these questions, than our collective answer is No... No one among us is suffering. The thing is that we have to cut out a lot of folks who might have been considered "among us" in some other conversation. Like are "any among you" parents, or "are any among" you children. So my question is how do we determine who is "among us" and who just happens to be standing next to us? Is there some sort of chart somewhere that will tell me when I can count everyone and when I should only count a few?
I suppose I'm being a little too literal. I mean this particular pericope suggests that if the answer to the question is "Yes," then our next course of action is to pray. So I suppose we don't really need Health Care reform but just a good old fashioned prayer meeting. But I'm not so sure we get off the hook that fast. We can't even get to the prayer because we haven't answered the question. We keep dodging the first part of this text... "Are any among you suffering... are any among you sick?"
If we answer "Yes" to either question, than we have to act. The writer of this text gives us a couple of options. We can pray and/or we can call the elders to pray on our behalf. In both cases we are called to act when someone "among us" is suffering or someone "among us" is sick.
I like that fact that the elders are an option. Not because I don't think that young people have something to offer. I'm always on the side of our youth and young adults. I like the elders because I'm sure they've seen an illness or some suffering that is similar to this one before. They have a memory of a previous struggle and they can add that to our prayer request. I like the fact that elders can tell me just how long we've been debating health care reform, when someone else says "this will just take time." I also like the fact that an elder's prayer is seasoned with the truth of not only their own individual struggle, but the struggles they have witnessed of others who are no longer here to tell their story.
So are any among you suffering and are any among you sick? If your answer is "Yes," then I'll see you at the next Prayer (Town Hall) Meeting.
God, be with the suffering and the sick: and with us, that we may act. Amen.
Please remember:
the Rev. Dr. Linda U. Barnes, pastor of the Colchester Federated Church UCC, on the death of her mother, Hazel Ulrich, and the moving of her grandchildren to Ohio;
the Rev. John H. Danner, pastor of the Saugatuck Congregational Church UCC in Westport, on the death of his father, the Rev. Howard S. Danner, Jr., on Sept. 7;
the friends and family of the Rev. Newell Bishop, pastor emeritus of the Congregational Church of North Stonington UCC, who died on Sept. 7;
the Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Hoyt, pastor of the Middlebury Congregational Church UCC, who will be undergoing surgery for a kidney tumor;
our Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree and her spouse, David, as he undergoes chemotherapy and radiation treatment for stomach cancer;
the Rev. M. J. Hinchliff, pastor of First Church of Christ, Congregational, UCC of East Haddam, who is being treated for breast cancer;
the people of Honduras and our ecumenical partners there amidst continuing political turmoil;
the Conference's partners working for peace in Cordoba, Colombia, amidst escalating violence;
the leaders of this nation, that they may meet the challenges of the day with insight, wisdom, and compassion;
those suffering due to the ongoing financial woes of the nation, be they struggling to meet an unaffordable mortgage, confronting the loss of a job, or working to find just resolutions to the crisis; and
those serving or living in war or conflict zones around the world, or where terrorists have struck, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Sudan.
To be added to the prayer list, please send an email to your Regional Minister or to webmaster@ctucc.org.
Central Village
Central Village Cong'l Church
P The Rev. Jean M. McCusker
PE The Rev. Gordon C. Johnson
MM H. Kapszukiewicz
Cheshire
First Cong'l Church of Cheshire
P The Rev. Jeffrey D. Braun
AP The Rev. Alison G. McCaffrey
CE Ms. Deborah L. Gravell
Chester
The United Church of Chester
P The Rev. Kathleen O. Peters
Clinton
First Church of Christ, Inc.
P The Rev. Christopher C. Horvath
PE The Rev. Wilson L. Busick
Colchester
Colchester Federated Church
P The Rev. Linda U. Barnes
CE Ms. Tracy Bausum
To read previous editions of the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/spiritcalendar/
To learn more about or subscribe to the Spirit Calendar, visit:
http://www.ctucc.org/fido/
The Spirit Calendar: September 23, 2009 by Rev. Da Vita D. McCallister, Associate Conference Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministries
