The prayer of faith will save the sick … the minister at the church I attended through most of my junior and senior high school years used this as his introduction to intercessory prayer time every Sunday. His assurance about using this text bothered me a bit … you could tell by his voice that he didn't doubt the truth of this statement. And so he called us to prayer and people voiced their concerns, and he prayed about them all. For six years I heard this and for six years I'm not sure I understood how he could pray with such assurance that this text was the truth. For I continued to see the people he prayed for get sick, I went to some of their funerals, and life didn't seem any different with or without those prayers he lifted up for others. I now wish someone would have talked a bit more about prayer and faith matters.

I've come full circle now to the place where I know this text to be true … that our prayers are saving prayers. That prayer is our way of placing before God our needs and trusting that God will shape and guide us … that our prayers will be answered – sometimes in ways that we can see and understand, and other times in ways we could never have imagined – sometimes in ways that are just the answer we were looking for, other times the answer is not to our liking.

I've come to see that our prayers, and really, our lives are like a tapestry that is always being woven together. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." A tapestry describes that reality for me. Weavers and stitchers know that there are two sides to their work. One they show to the world. It's the finished side, beautiful with a clear design. The underside is a different story – the knots are there, the mistakes and mis-weaves can be seen … and the design is less clear, only a dim approximation of what the other side looks like. To me that describes our prayers … and indeed much of our lives. Most of the time we only see the underside of the tapestry that is being woven of our prayers.

I've also come to know that prayer is a gritty, dangerous activity … and prayer is active. The prayer of faith happens when a group of God's people gathers together to pray a dying man into his rest. It happens when God's people help a woman dying of AIDS have a bit of food and water to ease her into rest. Prayer is gritty and dangerous – just recently I found myself praying for something very direct and specific … only to find the prayer answered in a way I was not so happy about, and yet I find myself taking the answer to be God's guidance and direction. Every Sunday we are called to intercessory prayer … to fill out prayer cards, to kneel at the altar … and I know the truth of this text from James – that the prayer of faith, our prayers of faith will save the sick.

Prayer is just a part of what James includes in describing what might be called the blessed community. Over the past four weeks we have James has been calling us to task. Asking that we put our money where our mouth is, reminding us faith is only faith when it is active – that there is no good in professing a belief if there is nothing to show for that. James has been very hard on the rich. One of the qualities of a faith community is that there be equality – that the poor have the same place as the rich. He reminds the community of that even in this morning's reading. We might miss the reference because oil is something readily available to us, but in the time when James was written oil was a precious commodity. In our reading we find that James calls for anyone … anyone – rich or poor, who is sick should have the elders pray and anoint them with oil. The oil should not be saved for only the rich.

The blessed community is to call its members to accountability. We are to confess our sins to one another and prayer together for our healing. We are to seek out those who wander from the faith and call them back. This restoration is not simply about getting people to come back to worship with us. It is about calling them back to being in a relationship with Jesus Christ … James is bold enough to call such wanderers sinners. To call them back to a relationship with Christ means a restoration of their very soul to life.

James may seem harsh as he calls us to task. He has high standards for the community of faith. I suspect he is harsh because he knows the consequences of unfaithful living and truly wants his community to be the best representation of God's kingdom on earth that they can possibly be. In his closing words he paints a gentle picture of restoration that give away his soft heart: "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." How many times have you stayed away from a group or person because of a wrong you have done, or something you have said … worrying that that act is all people will remember of you. James reminds us this is not the case – that when a wanderer returns the community will rejoice and focus on having the person back, and their "sins" will be forgotten. Knowing this … who are you being called to bring back into a right relationship with Jesus Christ and the community of God's people?

As we close our emphasis on James may we keep his challenges before us – to be faithful not only in our words, but also in our actions … to teach with care, knowing the stakes … to pray fervently for each other, knowing the power and effectiveness of our prayers … and finally to always be about restoring the blessed community so that we might be a sign of God's presence to all who witness our work.