On Thursday we will celebrate Thanksgiving.  That doesn’t seem possible, does it?  I am looking forward to celebrating a much more traditional Thanksgiving this year than we were able to celebrate last year.  Thanksgiving has been an important American tradition since it became a national holiday in 1863, some thirty years after Lima Methodist Church was founded!  But another important thing to note about Thanksgiving becoming a holiday in 1863 was, that was right in the middle of the Civil War!  At a time when citizens of the same country were at war, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation making the last Thursday in November a national day of thanksgiving.

You can read the entire proclamation on the internet, but let me offer this summary.  Lincoln observed that, even though the nation was at war, some amazing positive things were also happening.  While engaged in civil war, our country was vulnerable to foreign attack, but Lincoln observed that, by the grace of God, we had avoided other conflicts.  Laws that kept society going were being upheld, order was maintained, and except for the fighting, life was going on in a somewhat normal fashion.  Despite massive casualties, the population of the country continued to increase.  Settlement continued to move westward.  The fields continued to produce their crops, which was a tremendous blessing, but other resources were emerging from the ground as well, including precious metals and ores.  All of this bounty, Lincoln concluded, was a sign of God’s mercy.

Lincoln wrote:

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

 

I love that as a country, we set aside one day at year simply to give thanks.  Of course, giving thanks is something we should do every day, but making Thanksgiving an annual celebration helps us honor how important the discipline of giving thanks is.  It’s the same thing with Christ the King Sunday.  Today is the last day of our liturgical year, the day we set aside to remember that one day, Jesus is going to come back.  And this time, it won’t be as a vulnerable, powerless infant.  It will be as a mighty victor!  Honoring Christ as our King is something we should do every day.  But by setting aside this one day a year to focus on it, we honor how important the discipline of worshipping Jesus is.

The tradition of celebrating that Jesus is one day going to return is as old as Christianity itself.  But in the early Church, it was generally believed that Jesus was going to come SOON.  James wrote, “Be patient and stand firm, for the Lord’s coming is near.”  No one knew the day or the hour…but in the early church, it was assumed it would be within the lifetime of the current or possibly next generation.  That’s why people like James wrote with such urgency.  There was a limited window of time to do good.  Don’t dilly dally, get out there and do good!

So it’s something of a surprise, that James would choose to end his action packed letter to the early church by talking about prayer.  James has experienced that sometimes the best—or only–action we can take is to pray.  He assures us that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  There are some situations we are powerless to fix on our own.  But we can always pray.  And our prayers are powerful and effective.

But even as James urges us to pray, he recommends praying in action-oriented ways.  If you’re in trouble, pray—well, that’s not very specific. But then he says, if you’re happy, sing songs of praise.  He offers a concrete way of DOING prayer, and this is one we are really good at.  Is someone sick?  Get a group of spiritually mature Christians together, so they can make a house call and anoint the sick person in the name of the Lord.  I carry a vial of anointing oil in my worship bag, I’m ready if anyone asks.  But I must confess, I don’t use the anointing oil all that often. And I’ve never gathered up a prayer posse and said, let’s go!  We have a prayer to DO!

James also recommends we DO prayer by confessing our sins to each other.  I have participated in this type of prayer many times as both the confessor, and the hearer of the confession.  People associate confession with the Catholic Church, but confession is a practice needed by all Christians.  All of us can give the gift of hearing another person’s heavy heart, and offering them God’s grace.

James also recommends we pray for each other, that we might be healed.  Here at Lima, we have a prayer chain that gets updated once a week with prayer concerns.  We take prayer requests at almost all our meetings and worship services.  We are big believers in praying for each other, because we have experienced that prayer helps.  We can, as our friend Rev. Janet Hess says, lay down a pathway of prayer for people to walk on as they heal.

We believe prayer creates a culture, an atmosphere, that changes things for the better.  Sometimes it changes the person or situation we’re praying for.  Other times it changes us.  In some ways, praying is the least we can do.  It doesn’t cost any money, it doesn’t take much time, it can be done without a great deal of effort.  But because prayer connects us to the loving presence and transforming power of God, it is also in some ways the MOST we can do.  Could there be any more powerful or effective action to take than prayer?

The problem is, not ever situation we pray about gets better, and it is easy to get discouraged. That is why the next thing James urges is for us to be patient in prayer.  He offers Elijah as an example.  Elijah was a prophet who was faithful to God, but lived in a time when God’s people were by and large very unfaithful.  That means, Elijah was by and large unpopular!  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain—and it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years!  It took a severe drought—plus some other dramatics—to get the people’s attention and bring them back from worshipping Baal to once again worshipping God.  Once their hearts were restored, Elijah prayed for rain, which was desperately needed.  But God did not send the rain immediately.  Seven times Elijah sent his servant on a journey, to look toward the sea for rain clouds.  Elijah prayed that whole time, trusting in God to take care of God’s people’s needs.  Finally, on the seventh trip, the servant came back and said, I see one little cloud.  That was all the evidence Elijah needed.  He sent the servant to the king to warn the people to take shelter before the heavy rains came.  Elijah’s prayers were powerful and effective—but they were also a long-term commitment.

We should never expect prayer to be a quick fix.  Remember how James started his letter?  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  Perseverance.  In order for our prayers to be powerful and effective, we will need perseverance.

Thankfully, there are occasions when praying does give us a sense of immediate relief.  When we worship God, our prayers of praise make us feel good.  When we give thanks to God, our prayers of gratitude restore our sense of wellbeing.  When we pray for others in need, we connect to our trust in God’s goodness.  When we pray for ourselves, we are seeking God’s divine will, and what better sense is there in the world than to know Emmanuel, God is with us?

But most Christians, as they mature and grow, will experience times when they struggle to pray.  When God feels far away, and nothing seems to help bridge the gap.  Some writers call this the “dark night of the soul”.  Many spiritual writers agree that, while dark nights of the soul are not fun, they are a fact of life.  In fact, they are a necessary ingredient to maturing.  There will be hard times.  No rain for 3 ½ years, like Elijah struggled through.  A civil war that lasted for four years and 27 days like President Lincoln governed through.  A pandemic that will linger who knows how long that we are living through?  Learning to pray during difficult times is a key skill if we are going to persevere in the faith, and become mature and complete.

The book of James offers several suggestions to help us persevere.  This week I took a little time and re-read the whole book of James, and made a note of every verse that gives advice on how to persevere in the faith.  If anyone lacks wisdom, pray.  If you are in a humble circumstances, take pride in your high position before God.  Don’t be deceived or doubt—every good thing comes from God.  Keep the royal law, and love your neighbor as yourself.  If you see a need you can fulfill, do the good you can!  Hold on to mercy, because mercy triumphs over judgment.  Give yourself and others grace.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  And again, do the good you ought to do!

James could have finished his letter by reiterating any of his previous points, but he chose to end his letter by focusing on prayer.  James has asked us to demonstrate our faith in a variety of ways.  Don’t just be hearers of the word, be doers of it!  But now he emphasizes that we can’t be doers of the word without prayer.  Our ability to do good, and to persevere in the faith, depend on staying in close connection with God.

Today is Christ the King Sunday, a day we focus on loving God with loyalty.  The Bible says God’s love for us is steadfast.  That’s not a word we use much.  But it means constant, unchanging, always moving in the same direction.  Is our affection for God always moving in the right direction?  No, we call it the human condition:  we are not able to love God as consistently and whole-heartedly as we would like.  And these days, I think it’s even harder.  During the pandemic, I have talked to more than a few people who feel their love for God is waning.  They are just not feeling as connected as they did before.

If that is the case for you, and you would like some folks from church to form a prayer posse and come to your house, well I don’t know if we’ve ever done that before, but I bet we can find a way to do that!  We can anoint you with oil.  We can put you on our prayer chain.  We have trained listeners, we call them Stephen Ministers, to talk and pray with you.  We have a lot of resources to help!  Please don’t go through this dark season alone!  We don’t know when the Lord is coming back, but we can see the truth in James’ statement, “Be patient and stand firm, for the Lord is coming near.” If you will allow yourself to be ministered to, in time, you will indeed see the Lord has come very near.  We don’t know how to fix every problem in the world, that’s for sure.  But we should be pretty adept if the problem is someone needs a DOING of prayer.

This week I met with our four pre-school classes for chapel.  I told each class about how I missed them last month because my nose wasn’t working right, and I had to go to the hospital to get it fixed.  I told them, you know, I never thought to thank God for my nose before!  But recently I found a children’s book, celebrating the wonder of noses, and I realized, I never gave thanks for my nose before.  But I no longer take my nose for granted.  It is really a remarkable body part and does so much for us!  I’m going on record today as saying, “Thank you God for my nose and for people who could fix it!”

But what if things cannot be fixed?  Abraham Lincoln was president when our country was in danger of splitting.  No surgical procedure could cure the division in our nation’s soul.  But he did what he could, which was to observe our country’s many blessings, and to lead the way for people to say thank you to God.  James was writing at a time when the early church was divided within and facing pressure without.  No surgical procedure was available to fix the situation.  But he did what he could, which was to equip people to persevere in the faith.  He did not want anyone to fall away.  In fact, he ended his book by saying, if anyone wanders from the truth, do all you can to bring that person back!  He did not want anyone to miss out on the blessings that come with persevering and growing in the faith.

As we close this liturgical year and celebrate yet another Christ the King Sunday separated by the pandemic, let’s do what we can.  Let’s be reminded that Jesus is on the throne, even in the most difficult of circumstances.  He was King of Kings two thousand years ago, when James wrote his letter.  He was King of Kings back in 1863 when Thanksgiving got started as a national holiday.  He is King of Kings today.  So let’s give thanks.  Life is not perfect.  There is much that is broken, and quick fixes are rare.  But we have been given what we need to endure for long periods of struggle.  We have the majesty of the Creator.  We have the Lordship of Christ.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit.  And we have each other.  Praise be to God, from whom all blessings flow.  Amen.