Sermon Notes for Sept. 17th
September 17, 2006
James 5:13-20
“Pray for One Another”
1. The message for today in the book of James is very straightforward.
What are the three priorities of the church?
A. To pray for those who are ill and suffering
B. To sing and be cheerful and give thanks to God for our life.
C. To confess our sins that we might be forgiven
And, so, what I want to talk about this morning is
The part about prayers. Prayers for ourselves, prayers for the church, and prayers for one another.
Bearing in mind, that singing and other forms of inspiration are also very important in the life of the church. For we come here not only to pray … but also to be inspired and to be forgiven.
But, as I mentioned last week, as we prepare for Stewardship month in October, I want to address each of the four things we pledge as a members … as we seek to uphold the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.
Last week, I talked about our presence and participation in worship and how we are going to start a new Wednesday night meal and worship service in order to bring more people in the church (especially families) together. So, this Sunday is about prayer.
2. And what I want to say, right up front, is something that maybe you don’t immediately think about when you think about prayer. And that is that prayer is about priorities. Prayer is about priorities.
You know the old saying, “better be careful about what you pray for because you just might get it.”
And, for this reason, prayer is so important for it often reveals what we desire, what direction we want to go, and what is most important in life.
Which is why one of the most important aspects of prayer is discernment. What is discernment? Discernment is knowing what it is that we really want and need in life. And so we sometimes pray to God for the ability to know what is most important in our lives … and what we must do to achieve it.
For the truth is … sometimes we could be praying for the wrong things. We could have the wrong priorities. Isn’t that true?
3. This past summer I took some classes on prayer and meditation. One of the presenters was a Jewish man, but instead of practicing Judaism he was a practicing Zen Buddhist. That’s pretty interesting and Jewish Zen Buddhist. And in the course of our class I learned that one can practice Zen meditation and still be a Jew or even a Christian. Zen meditation is not so much a religion as are other forms of Buddhism, as it is a method for centering ones life. In this respect, it is not that different from other forms of centering prayer practiced in Christian monasteries and retreat centers like the Episcopal House of Prayer near St. Cloud where I go twice a year for prayer and meditation.
Well, in the course of the discussion the speaker revealed that he was also interested in sports. So, I asked him what he thought of Phil Jackson the very successful professional basketball coach of the Los Angelus Lakers and Chicago Bulls. (For those of you who don’t follow pro basketball, I should point out that Jackson is widely known for his unorthodox coaching style and his use of meditation to prepare players before games. For all this, Jackson has the nickname of the Zen Master.)
Well, I wasn’t sure what his response would be … but he surprised me by saying, “Jackson may be a great coach and into Zen and all that, but there is a big difference between what he is doing and Zen Meditation. And that is – that Zen is NOT ABOUT WINNING!
4. Zen meditation is not about winning. Well, well.
In brief, then, Zen is a sect of Japanese and Chinese Buddhism, and is based on the practice of MEDITATION rather than on adherence to a particular religious belief or scriptural doctrine. The purpose of Zen meditation is to let go or detach from the world of objects and desires in order to get in touch or become conscious of ones inner self or Buddha nature.
What this means, he said, is that there is no ulterior motive or worldly goal to Zen and therefore it cannot be directed toward winning a basketball game or anything of that sort. Which is not to say, that prayer or meditation before a game might not help a player to play better. But to use Zen to win games is contrary to its basic nature. So, much for that. And while I do not practice Zen, it sort of makes sense.
Which raises the important question for me, since I do practice Christian meditation or what we commonly call prayer, what am I praying about? Am I praying to get in touch with my inner self or my soul? Am I praying to get in touch with God? Or what?
And in this regard I started to wonder about so-called Christian athletes who pray before the game or make gestures to thank God when they score a touchdown. Well, I wonder, how much of a sports fan – is God anyway?
And how important is winning? Or losing?
5. Now, in terms of priorities, let us return to the book of James for a moment and be reminded that we are to prayer for one another. We are to pray for those who suffer and those who are ill. This, according to the scriptures, is a legitimate goal in prayer.
And so we do, but maybe not enough… Recently, I visited a friend who is pastor of a Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. She told me how they have started a healing service once a month or every other month. Now, it turns out that they are located right next to the University of Minnesota Hospital, and have many visitors who are coming down to see people in the hospital. And healing is very much on their minds.
This healing service is well attended. During the service one person is selected to share their own personal experience with God’s grace in their life. There is a liturgy of prayers but no sermon. It is very meaningful, the pastor told me, for people really seem to appreciate hearing how someone has struggled or struggles with illness or suffering in their life and how they believe God is helping them.
Pretty amazing! And this is exactly what the book of James advises us to do … “Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord.” And we forget that in those days there was no modern medicine and the only healing available was spiritual healing.
6. Problem is, nowadays, we all live longer and while modern medicine has cured many life threatening diseases, nowadays many people face the reality of chronic conditions and pain for which there is no quick cure. And so, even today, spiritual healing is sometimes the only course of action.
Now, of course, we do pray for people on Sunday. Those who are in nursing homes and hospitalized during the week are noted in the bulletin. But, we also come to sing and do other things during worship and we cannot devote the whole hour on Sunday to prayers for healing.
So, I am wondering about what it would be like to have a healing service every once in a while here at our church where those with special concerns could come and find strength and courage and hope in the midst of life’s struggles. This is something to think about. And I would like to hear from some of you what you think. Would this be of help to you or others you know?
7. Now, as you know, our Stewardship time will begin in October.
Most people, of course, immediately think about Stewardship as about money. But, as we know, it is more than money. Stewardship is also about prayers for one another, it is about our presence in worship and involvement in other aspects of the church, and it is about our use of our time and talent as well as our gifts. In short, it is about how we manage our resources. Which is another way of asking the question “How shall we set our priorities?”
So, let us suppose for a moment, that we should decide to pray for our church - which we should all do, of course. In fact, we would all agree that we should to that, right?
But what would the most important thing be to pray for? What would be at the top of the list? This is a little harder, don’t you think? Because if I asked ten different people … I might get ten different answers.
Let’s face it the church is one of the most diverse and complex organizations in the world. The church deals with people at every stage of life from babies who are baptized, to young people in Sunday school, to teenagers, those who want to get married, parents, middle aged and retired people, and the very elderly and those who are dying. As the saying goes, it’s from the cradle to the grave and everything in between.
8. What a tremendous responsibility we have … to try to do a good job in so many ways and for such a diverse group of people.
And who is more important in the church?
Well, we can’t even ask that question, can we? Because we know that everyone is important – right? Babies, children, parents and older adults - all of us, really.
Somehow, then, as a church we have to prioritize our resources, our commitment of time and talent, gifts, and finances to accomplish the goals of being a successful, functioning, working, friendly, caring, worshipful, generous church that relates to persons of all ages.
Man, that’s a lot. And now you know what it is like when I go to one of these workshops ona how you can make your church successful and they lay on you all these adjectives … until you are thinking, this is great, but how can we ever do it.
And then somebody gets up and says … to all the pastors … now in the midst of all this you need to take care of yourself, take time off … and don’t get burned out. Well, Great!
9. When I worked for the Red Cross I once went to a workshop for people in non-profit management. The speaker was a former United Way Director. He was pretty good. It was a long time ago but I always remember one thing he said: “All non profits consist of a whole lot of really great ideas chasing too little money!”
And, I think the same thing is true of the church – which is also a non-profit organization. “Two many great ideas chasing too little money.” Again, it is all about priorities.
Maybe it’s true in our own lives. We get into playing the “if only game…” You know, if only we had more money we could … do this, and this, and that … etc. You know how it goes. And this can get us into thinking about the need for more members and “if only” we had more members … we could do this or that. Instead of asking the correct question which is “what do we have to offer that would make people want to join our church because it will help them grow spiritually?”
10. So, we have to be realistic. We need to have goals that will help us achieve and maintain a successful, functioning, caring spiritual community. Yet, we must use our resources wisely.
Which leads me to Hucke’s rule. Now, You have heard, perhaps yaof the 80 – 20 rule?
The 80 -20 rule is credited to a sociologist in Italy about a century ago named Vilfredo Pareto. He discovered a very revealing statistic about the peas growing in his garden. He found that 80 percent of his peas came from 20 percent of the pea pods he harvested. Since he was a sociologist, after further study he discovered 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by about 20 percent of the population, and so the rule was born.
Since then, the 80 – 20 rule can be applied to many things. For instance:
• 80 percent of a worker's productivity comes from 20 percent of the tasks
* 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of salespeople
* 80 percent of absenteeism from work is caused by 20 percent of the employees
* 80 percent of a managers headaches come from 20 percent of workers
* 80 percent of decisions come from 20 percent of meeting time
Finally, a business author named Brian Tracy applies the 80-20 rules to time management. He suggests that people identify which 20 percent of their tasks are most important to the company, and then focus on getting them done promptly and effectively by spending 80 percent of their time and effort on them. Something to think about …
11. Well, Hucke’s rule is a little different. It goes like this:
a. if you give 100% -- you will get 80% results
The is because no matter how hard you plan, nothing ever
Works perfectly. No matter how hard we try, we make
A certain number of mistakes. No matter how hard we
Work, there are always factors we cannot control.
b. Now there is perhaps another way to get to 100%
And that is to do 120%! Then, even if things don’t
Go right, you will still make it.
Only there is a problem …
First of all, nobody can do 120% - its mathematically
Impossible to do more than 100% - Right?
Or, supposing you could do 120% - on one
Particular project … the downside would
Be that you would burn out before long.
Or, you would have to give up something else in you life
12. It is kind of like trying to give 120% to get an “A” on one course in school, but ending up getting a “C” on another course
Because you could study more than 100% on ALL the courses,
Priorities, priorities …
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book called “How Good Do We Have to Be?” It’s about learning to accept ourselves and others even when we and they are less than perfect.
For, unfortunately, as the book points out, too many people insist on demanding perfection of themselves, their husbands and wives, their children, and others in their lives. The result: anger, depression, and disappointment. That is why Hucke’s rule is important because if you “do the best you can you will get
80 %. Which is “pretty good” as we say in Minnesota. And 80% is “well above average (which is 50%).
13. So, as we think about our church and the coming stewardship campaign … I want you to think … how can we do our best … to order our priorities … in our church and in our own lives … so that we will achieve what is best for all of us … in the years ahead.
And would like you to pray … for our church and for each other … that we might be united … in worship, fellowship, and spiritual communion.
For that is one of the other things that prayer does … aside from setting priorities …
Prayer unites us in a common purpose which takes us away from merely focusing on our own selves and helps to realize we are not alone … and, moreover, there are others who need us … and in ministering to them … we grow deeper and richer and closer to God through Jesus Christ. Isn’t that true?
14. The other day we were talking in our bible study this past week about why it is good to sing and pray in church (as James calls us to do). And we decided that when we all sing together it is easier to stay in tune.
Everyone liked that idea because during the week, we all go our separate ways … we sing our own song … so to speak … but once a week we get together to get in tune with one another … and the singing lifts us up …and maybe that is where the phrase “getting a tune up” came from.
And while during the week we all say our prayers … all week … but on Sunday we come to be reminded -- as we all pray together -- that we are not alone … and it is uplifting to hear everyone pray together, too …
Maybe it’s not just a good idea … IT’S A PRIORITY!
Let us pray …
James 5:13-20
“Pray for One Another”
1. The message for today in the book of James is very straightforward.
What are the three priorities of the church?
A. To pray for those who are ill and suffering
B. To sing and be cheerful and give thanks to God for our life.
C. To confess our sins that we might be forgiven
And, so, what I want to talk about this morning is
The part about prayers. Prayers for ourselves, prayers for the church, and prayers for one another.
Bearing in mind, that singing and other forms of inspiration are also very important in the life of the church. For we come here not only to pray … but also to be inspired and to be forgiven.
But, as I mentioned last week, as we prepare for Stewardship month in October, I want to address each of the four things we pledge as a members … as we seek to uphold the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.
Last week, I talked about our presence and participation in worship and how we are going to start a new Wednesday night meal and worship service in order to bring more people in the church (especially families) together. So, this Sunday is about prayer.
2. And what I want to say, right up front, is something that maybe you don’t immediately think about when you think about prayer. And that is that prayer is about priorities. Prayer is about priorities.
You know the old saying, “better be careful about what you pray for because you just might get it.”
And, for this reason, prayer is so important for it often reveals what we desire, what direction we want to go, and what is most important in life.
Which is why one of the most important aspects of prayer is discernment. What is discernment? Discernment is knowing what it is that we really want and need in life. And so we sometimes pray to God for the ability to know what is most important in our lives … and what we must do to achieve it.
For the truth is … sometimes we could be praying for the wrong things. We could have the wrong priorities. Isn’t that true?
3. This past summer I took some classes on prayer and meditation. One of the presenters was a Jewish man, but instead of practicing Judaism he was a practicing Zen Buddhist. That’s pretty interesting and Jewish Zen Buddhist. And in the course of our class I learned that one can practice Zen meditation and still be a Jew or even a Christian. Zen meditation is not so much a religion as are other forms of Buddhism, as it is a method for centering ones life. In this respect, it is not that different from other forms of centering prayer practiced in Christian monasteries and retreat centers like the Episcopal House of Prayer near St. Cloud where I go twice a year for prayer and meditation.
Well, in the course of the discussion the speaker revealed that he was also interested in sports. So, I asked him what he thought of Phil Jackson the very successful professional basketball coach of the Los Angelus Lakers and Chicago Bulls. (For those of you who don’t follow pro basketball, I should point out that Jackson is widely known for his unorthodox coaching style and his use of meditation to prepare players before games. For all this, Jackson has the nickname of the Zen Master.)
Well, I wasn’t sure what his response would be … but he surprised me by saying, “Jackson may be a great coach and into Zen and all that, but there is a big difference between what he is doing and Zen Meditation. And that is – that Zen is NOT ABOUT WINNING!
4. Zen meditation is not about winning. Well, well.
In brief, then, Zen is a sect of Japanese and Chinese Buddhism, and is based on the practice of MEDITATION rather than on adherence to a particular religious belief or scriptural doctrine. The purpose of Zen meditation is to let go or detach from the world of objects and desires in order to get in touch or become conscious of ones inner self or Buddha nature.
What this means, he said, is that there is no ulterior motive or worldly goal to Zen and therefore it cannot be directed toward winning a basketball game or anything of that sort. Which is not to say, that prayer or meditation before a game might not help a player to play better. But to use Zen to win games is contrary to its basic nature. So, much for that. And while I do not practice Zen, it sort of makes sense.
Which raises the important question for me, since I do practice Christian meditation or what we commonly call prayer, what am I praying about? Am I praying to get in touch with my inner self or my soul? Am I praying to get in touch with God? Or what?
And in this regard I started to wonder about so-called Christian athletes who pray before the game or make gestures to thank God when they score a touchdown. Well, I wonder, how much of a sports fan – is God anyway?
And how important is winning? Or losing?
5. Now, in terms of priorities, let us return to the book of James for a moment and be reminded that we are to prayer for one another. We are to pray for those who suffer and those who are ill. This, according to the scriptures, is a legitimate goal in prayer.
And so we do, but maybe not enough… Recently, I visited a friend who is pastor of a Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. She told me how they have started a healing service once a month or every other month. Now, it turns out that they are located right next to the University of Minnesota Hospital, and have many visitors who are coming down to see people in the hospital. And healing is very much on their minds.
This healing service is well attended. During the service one person is selected to share their own personal experience with God’s grace in their life. There is a liturgy of prayers but no sermon. It is very meaningful, the pastor told me, for people really seem to appreciate hearing how someone has struggled or struggles with illness or suffering in their life and how they believe God is helping them.
Pretty amazing! And this is exactly what the book of James advises us to do … “Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord.” And we forget that in those days there was no modern medicine and the only healing available was spiritual healing.
6. Problem is, nowadays, we all live longer and while modern medicine has cured many life threatening diseases, nowadays many people face the reality of chronic conditions and pain for which there is no quick cure. And so, even today, spiritual healing is sometimes the only course of action.
Now, of course, we do pray for people on Sunday. Those who are in nursing homes and hospitalized during the week are noted in the bulletin. But, we also come to sing and do other things during worship and we cannot devote the whole hour on Sunday to prayers for healing.
So, I am wondering about what it would be like to have a healing service every once in a while here at our church where those with special concerns could come and find strength and courage and hope in the midst of life’s struggles. This is something to think about. And I would like to hear from some of you what you think. Would this be of help to you or others you know?
7. Now, as you know, our Stewardship time will begin in October.
Most people, of course, immediately think about Stewardship as about money. But, as we know, it is more than money. Stewardship is also about prayers for one another, it is about our presence in worship and involvement in other aspects of the church, and it is about our use of our time and talent as well as our gifts. In short, it is about how we manage our resources. Which is another way of asking the question “How shall we set our priorities?”
So, let us suppose for a moment, that we should decide to pray for our church - which we should all do, of course. In fact, we would all agree that we should to that, right?
But what would the most important thing be to pray for? What would be at the top of the list? This is a little harder, don’t you think? Because if I asked ten different people … I might get ten different answers.
Let’s face it the church is one of the most diverse and complex organizations in the world. The church deals with people at every stage of life from babies who are baptized, to young people in Sunday school, to teenagers, those who want to get married, parents, middle aged and retired people, and the very elderly and those who are dying. As the saying goes, it’s from the cradle to the grave and everything in between.
8. What a tremendous responsibility we have … to try to do a good job in so many ways and for such a diverse group of people.
And who is more important in the church?
Well, we can’t even ask that question, can we? Because we know that everyone is important – right? Babies, children, parents and older adults - all of us, really.
Somehow, then, as a church we have to prioritize our resources, our commitment of time and talent, gifts, and finances to accomplish the goals of being a successful, functioning, working, friendly, caring, worshipful, generous church that relates to persons of all ages.
Man, that’s a lot. And now you know what it is like when I go to one of these workshops ona how you can make your church successful and they lay on you all these adjectives … until you are thinking, this is great, but how can we ever do it.
And then somebody gets up and says … to all the pastors … now in the midst of all this you need to take care of yourself, take time off … and don’t get burned out. Well, Great!
9. When I worked for the Red Cross I once went to a workshop for people in non-profit management. The speaker was a former United Way Director. He was pretty good. It was a long time ago but I always remember one thing he said: “All non profits consist of a whole lot of really great ideas chasing too little money!”
And, I think the same thing is true of the church – which is also a non-profit organization. “Two many great ideas chasing too little money.” Again, it is all about priorities.
Maybe it’s true in our own lives. We get into playing the “if only game…” You know, if only we had more money we could … do this, and this, and that … etc. You know how it goes. And this can get us into thinking about the need for more members and “if only” we had more members … we could do this or that. Instead of asking the correct question which is “what do we have to offer that would make people want to join our church because it will help them grow spiritually?”
10. So, we have to be realistic. We need to have goals that will help us achieve and maintain a successful, functioning, caring spiritual community. Yet, we must use our resources wisely.
Which leads me to Hucke’s rule. Now, You have heard, perhaps yaof the 80 – 20 rule?
The 80 -20 rule is credited to a sociologist in Italy about a century ago named Vilfredo Pareto. He discovered a very revealing statistic about the peas growing in his garden. He found that 80 percent of his peas came from 20 percent of the pea pods he harvested. Since he was a sociologist, after further study he discovered 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by about 20 percent of the population, and so the rule was born.
Since then, the 80 – 20 rule can be applied to many things. For instance:
• 80 percent of a worker's productivity comes from 20 percent of the tasks
* 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of salespeople
* 80 percent of absenteeism from work is caused by 20 percent of the employees
* 80 percent of a managers headaches come from 20 percent of workers
* 80 percent of decisions come from 20 percent of meeting time
Finally, a business author named Brian Tracy applies the 80-20 rules to time management. He suggests that people identify which 20 percent of their tasks are most important to the company, and then focus on getting them done promptly and effectively by spending 80 percent of their time and effort on them. Something to think about …
11. Well, Hucke’s rule is a little different. It goes like this:
a. if you give 100% -- you will get 80% results
The is because no matter how hard you plan, nothing ever
Works perfectly. No matter how hard we try, we make
A certain number of mistakes. No matter how hard we
Work, there are always factors we cannot control.
b. Now there is perhaps another way to get to 100%
And that is to do 120%! Then, even if things don’t
Go right, you will still make it.
Only there is a problem …
First of all, nobody can do 120% - its mathematically
Impossible to do more than 100% - Right?
Or, supposing you could do 120% - on one
Particular project … the downside would
Be that you would burn out before long.
Or, you would have to give up something else in you life
12. It is kind of like trying to give 120% to get an “A” on one course in school, but ending up getting a “C” on another course
Because you could study more than 100% on ALL the courses,
Priorities, priorities …
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book called “How Good Do We Have to Be?” It’s about learning to accept ourselves and others even when we and they are less than perfect.
For, unfortunately, as the book points out, too many people insist on demanding perfection of themselves, their husbands and wives, their children, and others in their lives. The result: anger, depression, and disappointment. That is why Hucke’s rule is important because if you “do the best you can you will get
80 %. Which is “pretty good” as we say in Minnesota. And 80% is “well above average (which is 50%).
13. So, as we think about our church and the coming stewardship campaign … I want you to think … how can we do our best … to order our priorities … in our church and in our own lives … so that we will achieve what is best for all of us … in the years ahead.
And would like you to pray … for our church and for each other … that we might be united … in worship, fellowship, and spiritual communion.
For that is one of the other things that prayer does … aside from setting priorities …
Prayer unites us in a common purpose which takes us away from merely focusing on our own selves and helps to realize we are not alone … and, moreover, there are others who need us … and in ministering to them … we grow deeper and richer and closer to God through Jesus Christ. Isn’t that true?
14. The other day we were talking in our bible study this past week about why it is good to sing and pray in church (as James calls us to do). And we decided that when we all sing together it is easier to stay in tune.
Everyone liked that idea because during the week, we all go our separate ways … we sing our own song … so to speak … but once a week we get together to get in tune with one another … and the singing lifts us up …and maybe that is where the phrase “getting a tune up” came from.
And while during the week we all say our prayers … all week … but on Sunday we come to be reminded -- as we all pray together -- that we are not alone … and it is uplifting to hear everyone pray together, too …
Maybe it’s not just a good idea … IT’S A PRIORITY!
Let us pray …
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