No maybe about it: Turn, Cover, & Pray ~ James 5:12-20 (a series on James)

¹² Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. ¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

It’s our last sermon on the book of James. And when I think of the ending of James, my mind goes to where I imagine most of you go – to Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid (1985), take a look (click on the link below).  

Mr. Miyagi explains James 5:12

And James says, “amen.” You “yes” James, safe. You “no” James, safe. You James guess so, [makes squish gesture] just like grape.”

          1.    “Above all, my brothers and sisters” there is no maybe, vs. 12

So apparently James has heard you. He’s heard you say that he has written your favorite book. He’s excited about your passion, your interest in his words, and he has one last question for you: “Will you do it? What’s it going to be, yes or no?” Notice this is a “self-assessment.” James has already told us that our job is not to review others. That we aren’t qualified to do so (James 4:11-12). You don’t know enough to judge or condemn someone else. You do know enough, however, or you should, James says, to look into the mirror of the Word and judge yourself (James 1:22-24). So here we go:

Do you want wisdom? (1:5)

Will you persevere? (1:12)

Can you listen well to the Bible and have a conversation, without anger or always talking? (1:19-21)

Are you willing to humbly practice what you preach? (1:22-25)

Can you control your tongue? (1:26)

Do show favoritism? (2:1)

Do you harm or ignore the poor? (2:6)

Do you practice the “royal law” [Leviticus 19:18]? (2:8)

Does your faith work? (2:14)

You get the picture.

Notice that it’s not so much “no” but indecisiveness or half-heartedness that’s condemned (vs. 12). That’s because the spiritual life is best ordered by both “yes” and “no.” James

never commands you to be perfect and an honest “no” can be the first important step on the path toward repentance. A genuine “no” can signal a new willingness to carefully look into the mirror of Scripture and see your actual behavior. The problem of following Jesus is rarely a sincere “no.” It’s more often a half-hearted, “will see,” or a lackluster “meh.” A truthful “yes” or “no” will rightly determine what you do next.

So give an honest answer and act appropriately. If you need help, ask for it. If you need to repent, do so. If you’re doing well, say so, with humility and without judgment, pray for others and praise God for God’s grace. So what’s it going to be - yes or no? You do James “guess-so,” squish like grape.

          2.    So you’ve made your assessment. Now, where are you at?, vss. 13-18

You’ve done the self-assessment. Where do you find yourself?

Are you in trouble? Happy? Sick? Requiring confession? Needing to pray or receive prayer? Have you wandered from

the truth? Have you gently sought out a wanderer? Where are you at? Here’s the thing – wherever we find ourselves, James offers, us all the same word. A profound theological word that must order our fellowship if we are ever to be the kind of church that James would be proud of. It’s the simple, three-letter word “let.” After the assessment, James grants us permission to acknowledge what we’ve discovered.

Where ever you find yourself, we will “let” you be here - even the half-hearted because there is always the ability to repent. The praise of our passage, the promise of healing, the return of the sinner doesn’t begin with anything we do but with God’s gracious “let” that gives us permission to announce, to reveal, to acknowledge, where one is at.

So we are instructed by James to “let” the troubled or sufferer “pray.” To “allow” the encouraged one “sing.” To “permit” the sick “call.” The challenge for us is, Do we let people in our midst encounter God where they’re at?  Do we “let” the broken come and pray? Do we offer freedom for others to celebrate and “let” them sing?
Everyone – James tells us – should be acknowledged, permitted, and known, capable of sharing their joy, trouble, thankfulness, disappointments, even health problems. And in that state of trouble they can reach out to both God and us. We must “let” them do that in this place. And by “them” I mean you and me. And yet I’ve been a pastor long enough to know that it is often in this place that people feel the least able to be themselves. And I wish to say as your pastor, “You can dare to be a sinner among us.” We will “let” you. We will not offer judgment but the forgiveness that James states in such a matter of fact sort of way. We may gently call you to repentance, but we will let you be with us. And church we must be very cautious that in our desire to avoid sin we don’t jeopardize who we are as a fellowship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

the go-to-pastor-theologian on discipleship, is right that in many churches “the final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.” James would say, “They don’t ‘let’ sinners in their midst.”
You can also be fully human in this place, with us, just like Elijah, James says in vs. 17. Elijah whose prayers stopped the rain was a human being like us. And this Elijah feared for his

life and in a state of deep depression wanted to die. This Elijah felt alone. This Elijah, the prophet of God who called fire down from heaven, ran and hid. That is the Elijah who prayed. By the way, another NIV foible in my opinion. The translators state that Elijah “prayed earnestly” (vs. 17) but the Greek is more enigmatic and mundane actually. It actually states: “Elijah prayed prayers.” It’s not an idiom that expresses intensity but rather one that aims to say, “praying was precisely what Elijah did.” Why? Why pray, if even badly? Because, you’re human. Why pray prayers? Because even Elijah, the depressed and anxious prophet did, and they “worked,” and he was a human being just like us.

          3.    Finally, turn, cover and pray, vss. 18-20.

The three actions of our passage: turning, covering and praying are critical if we are to be a part of James’ fellowship. They are words, however, that hold a lot of meaning and I would like to explore that meaning by focusing on them as images. Yes, James says “Whoever turns a sinner . . .” but what does that look like? How should we view such “turning”? Is it a “turn around or I’ll shoot”? Is it, “Freeze!

Turn around slowly and keep your hands where I can see them!” Here’s what I think. Here’s the way we turn others around. Not with commands or tricks. Not with shame or guilt. Not with punishment or harm. But with intimacy and love like Jesus did. Like this (call someone forward and drape an arm over them). And notice, you would only be this close to a friend. This is a posture of trust.

What does it look like to cover a multitude of sins?

Maybe it’s like toweling off a kid coming out of the bath –

cold and naked, shivering. You need warmth and love and someone to help you dry off.

Maybe like someone with a wound. You need gentleness and care to be bandaged up. The wound already hurts so be easy. Blow on it when you apply the antiseptic. Wounded people don’t need to be punished or shamed.

Maybe like my wife on an Air France flight to Paris with a daughter Emma, who was an infant. I know I’ve told this story before but the good stories are ones worth telling again and again. The flight was notable for two reasons: 1) the drunk guy who was sitting across the aisle from my wife and 2) the large group of Hasidic Jewish women on the flight. In fact, the second reality was what led my wife to have sit by the drunk guy in the first place because the Jewish women were not allowed to sit next to any man, let alone an inebriated one. So Marianne was struggling to comfort Emma on a very full flight and then found herself needing to change her at her seat because of a long line for the bathroom. And what happened next was both so shocking and mysterious that she tells it with a certain delight. As she began to undo Emma’s clothes she was unaware that the Hasidic Jewish women began to slowly and silently surround her, separating her from all of the other passengers. When she took off her diaper – in an utterly startling motion – the Jewish women all grabbed their skirts and fanned them out to cover her and the baby making a human changing room to hide them from

prying eyes. They κεκαλυμμένον(ed) her. That’s the verb in Greek that James uses to describe “[to] cover a multitude of sins.” It means to cover; keep secret, hidden; to coat or dress. What kind of covering do you need today?

What does it look like to pray? Let’s try it. It doesn’t look like superhumans who converse with God without fear, or pain, or doubt. Elijah was a human being just like us. It’s about bringing one another before the one who is “able to raise up,” who is healer, savior, and king. It’s about singing what’s on our hearts. It’s about confessing what binds us so tightly that we can’t breathe. It’s about offering a “let.” What do you say, “yes” or “no”?