Prayer
/The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
-James 5:16
I’ve been enjoying our time with the letter of James this summer - and yes, it is still summer as I write this on Monday, even thought tomorrow is the autumnal equinox.
The letter of James is generally accepted to have been written by (or in honor of) James, the brother of Jesus, which is not our own St. James. Our patronal St. James and his brother John were the sons of Zebedee, referred to as the Sons of Thunder in the gospel of Mark. Our James is thought to have traveled to Spain after the resurrection to preach, and his remains are said to be in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, the end point of the famous pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago. (In Spanish, “san” is saint and “Tiago” is a Spanish variant of the name James.) That’s why you may have noticed so many scallop shells around our church builidng - it is an homage to Santiago.
But since our church is called St. James, I still feel affinity to the writer of the letter of James, even though he’s likely a different St. James than our own. And his advice to us this Sunday is to pray. To pray when you are suffering, to pray when you’re cheerful, to pray when you’re sick or when you’ve done something wrong. He gives the example of Elijah praying for rain in the midst of a devastating drought, and also talks about how when we pray for those who are lost it might be that our prayers can help them find themselves again. Basically, James' advice is: PRAY!
He may not be our James, but we are definitely a praying church. St. James is very enthusiastic about participating in Sunday worship with song and prayer. We have a lively healing prayer team. Our Pocket of Peace contemplative prayer service every Wednesday is a rich well of prayer. We also offer online early morning prayer and night time compline 8 times every week. We are a church that prays. And I think the letter writer would be grateful for our prayers, no matter which James we’re named after.
So how is your own prayer life? We have our corporate prayers together many times a week. Do you make it a habit to pray on your own each day? If you would like to learn more about prayer or work on developing a more intentional practice of prayer, I invite you to explore the 2 minute Prayer Prompts you’ll find on our website, which might get you started with some new ideas and practices.
I’m getting more convinced every day that our city - and our world - need us to live more deeply into our prayerful nature at St. James so that we can become a center for God’s peace for our surrounding community. People are hungering and thirsting for God’s peace and are not sure how to find it. How can we offer Spirit -filled sanctuary to our many stressed-out neighbors?
James writes, “The prayer of the righteous are powerful and effective.” Are we ‘righteous?’ How could we ever know? But what we do know, as James also said, is that when we draw near to God, God draws near to us. And may we invite others to join us there.
