Youth Led Worship

A. J. Watson
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 18, 2006

There are two types of events in life, simple and complex. Some might say simple events are taking out the trash or deciding between vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Complex events might be trying to complete a calculus problem written in Spanish. James 5:16 certainly isn't calculus in Spanish, so its got to be the simple event right? Confess, Pray, Be healed. But it's not so easy for me, not at first glance. I can handle the pray part and I can handle the “be healed” part, but the first three words get me every time. “Confess your sins” That is a scary prospect, and it's certainly not a simple endeavor. I mean honestly, me? Confess to others? I'll do the calculus.

James 5:16 reads: “ confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” I think this passage is about as straightforward as you will see in the bible. Confess to each other, pray for each other, be healed. It would all be so simple if I didn't have to confess to others, or would it.

Confessing sins to each other. What does that look like? At first I thought it was a command to stand and tell - for all to hear – the list of transgressions I have made in the past. That's some scary stuff. But when I read the passages leading up to 5:16 I got the feeling James isn't telling us to do that. His directions seem to be geared more to confessing to those we have directly sinned against so that we may be forgiven and healed.

I think of it this way. When I was smaller and would say something mean or rude to some one else, my parents would make me apologize. The other person would accept the apology and being the young children we were all would be forgotten and in no more than ten minutes our best friend status would be reaffirmed. If that apology never came though… oh boy, not only would we not be friends, he wouldn't let me play with his toys, and to top it off, his dad could beat up my dad. Two very different out comes wouldn't you say? All over a few spoken words. 34

This is very much the same thing James is talking about. Confess your sins to those you have sinned against so that you may heal the relationship. Be honest with one another. I can think of a lot of problems would be solved if we would just follow that rule. Confess to those you have sinned against.

The second part of James 5:16 is much simpler, and easy to digest than confessing to others. “Pray for each other so that you may be healed.” It needs no explanation. Pray for each other's well being. Pray for their health, pray for their soul. Unfortunately, like the confession of sins, I don't think it is done nearly enough. I know that when I pray at night, its on most occasions for myself in some form or fashion. I will pray for my family, and close friends, but rarely do my prayers focus solely on the well being of others… I don't think I'm too terribly different than anyone else. This is not what the bible is instructing though. We have been clearly called to pray for others. The glorious thing about these prayers we are being told to pray, is that they will be powerful and effective. They have the power to heal those we pray for and have them heal us. *If we go at it with an honest heart the world is our tomato. Just checking if you are paying attention*

I think James's instructions can be summed up easily in 4 words and if you take nothing else away, I hope you remember this: Confess, Pray, be healed. And even though actually doing these things may not be as easy as taking out the trash, it certainly isn't calculus in Spanish.