sermon James 5-13-18 Innisfil Beach Retirment center
Story about being young. Waiting for my father to come home from work. Praying that he would not be hurt. How God answered my prayer when I was 45.
In our epistle reading today, James tells us that prayer is our communication life-line with God. It’s the most important line of our lives. So the principle is to keep our prayer line open and use it often, every day. And trust that God uses the line to. God uses prayer to transform us, to give us insight about those relationships that matter most to us at whatever stage of life we find ourselves.
To pray for a friend who is ill, for a colleague who is depressed, for a family whose loved one has died, for those who are victims of social injustice, for heroes and villains, is not a naive attempt to influence God’s will, but a gesture of our humanity, our compassion to make space for others in our hearts. To pray for others is to make them a part of ourselves.
God also prays with us or enters into prayer with us when we don’t expect it sometime. Its not a one way line. So when we ask for things in prayer, are we might also be prepared to consider being changed by God’s prayer to us in ways we did not expect. We may come to find gratefulness for a situation that we never thought we could be grateful for.
God who raised Jesus from the dead, and before brought Israel up out of its suffering in Egypt is the same God that wants a loving relationship with each one of us today. When we pray we tap into the resurrection power and hope that Jesus Christ gave to us.
So you may sometimes get discouraged from time to time, thinking that life does not offer much. Then pray your life as you live it as Jesus prayed his life as he lived it. And share your prayers with others.
Pray it like you were planting flowers, or boiling water for tea, or turning on the television, or falling asleep, or playing cards. Offer your daily activity up to the Lord. Pray your activity simply and honestly, for it is meant to be a natural reflex like breathing.
Jesus taught us that God is never far away from us. That every where we turn, God is there. That God is present in every instinct and breath we take, in our prayers and daily work. That God is gracing us. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ. Amen.