Living in the Spirit

September 24, 2021

Scripture Reading: James 5:13-20

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

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.

Evil distracts keeping us agitated about things that often do not impact us directly, pulling us away from really making a difference for good in this world. Evil’s impact is heightened by “gotcha” media that is more interested in making money than informing. We are caught in a maze that keeps us lost and has no way out.

God’s answers to our challenges are direct and straightforward, using Love as a guiding principle in everything we do. James, the author of the above Scripture, was a real champion of keeping it simple stupid. Wearing masks and socially distancing to reduce virus contagion may be the best example of that. If the fossil fuel industry had invested as much money in finding ways to reduce carbon emissions as it did in buying lawmakers, it might have solved its pollution problem by now. The same may be said for the industrial war machine, who, with a bit of ingenuity, could build machines that would help address other problems like global warming. People who are adamant about passing laws to make abortion a crime, rarely support legislation that would provide affordable, accessible health care, quality education, and lifting families out of poverty. All together are proven methods for ending abortions by addressing unwanted, unplanned pregnancies. Now that voters are catching on to their actions, these distractors try to stop people from the vote.

Rather than getting caught in a maze, we might want to walk a labyrinth, an intricate, sometimes symbolic pattern that has a path that leads into a center. I was taught one way of walking a labyrinth as one enters; they meditate/contemplate identifying anything separating them from God. When they arrive at the center, laying those shortfalls before God, they seek forgiveness. As they return via the labyrinth to the entrance, they rejoice in the forgiveness and Love of God and leave better prepared to face the distractions of life.

Prayer: God of Mercy and Justice, forgive us of our foolish ways, and empower our ability to love like Jesus. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.