James 5: 19,20
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
I waited to finish our reading through James until graduation Sunday because I wanted to hit the grads and all listening with James’ last big lesson: don’t give up on wandering sinners.
Yes, that’s James’ last mediation, which prominent place suggests that it must be a significant enough message to become a theme for grads as they transition into the next thing. Let me repeat that theme again: don’t give up on wandering sinners.
And let me expand that a little more widely: throughout your life in the Church, make it a priority to love struggling brothers and sisters.
The big assumptions here are that the life in Christ is a life in community, and that the trunk of that community is the local church. If anyone among you implies that you are counted among a Christian community. It also implies that there’s enough structure in place so that the phrase “among you” means something specific and enduring. Those among you aren’t people you happen to have bumped up against, but a people that you’ve decided to be among for the long term and to whom you’re accountable, and for whom you bear some responsibility for the health of their souls. To use a big word, you’re in covenant with them.
OK, here’s the first point: The Spirit through James encourages you to bring back a church member who wanders from Christ.
Grads, you’re likely already aware of this: during your life some of your fellow church members will wander from the truth. That James uses the word wander twice suggests that a lot of leaving behind Christ and his covenant isn’t an all-at-once thing but a gradual slipping away.
Normally slipping away isn’t triggered by an intellectual crisis. Rather, a Christian starts dating an unbeliever. Or, his career crowds out attending to God. Or, a succession of trials dispirits him and he starts to drift.
Here’s what to do: bring him back as soon as the straying begins. Don’t let weeks…months go by of him signaling that his head has been turned to the world before you notice and attempt to intervene. Rather, everyone should be in close enough relationships with at least a few other church members so that he’s able to discern slippage when it starts.
Before this his last sentence, James had just finished a meditation on the effectiveness of prayer. Or was he finished? Because one of the best ways you can bring back a sinner…save his soul from death…cut off wandering before it starts… is by having prayer-full relationships with church members. Continue in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving is what Paul says elsewhere. As we pray for our brothers and sisters we express gratitude for God’s grace in their lives and…we watch. In prayer we’re considering them, thinking through their lives. Often, in prayer God will give us insights into the spirits of our brothers and sisters.
With prayer always in the background, occasionally you’ll see that these people you’ve been praying for are missing more and more gatherings…they’re obviously detached from the life of the community…when they do come they’re glum and quiet…perhaps even uncomfortable. When you speak with them you learn that they’re getting close with an unbeliever or a group of unbelievers…hmm, perhaps too close?
Don’t just sit back and wait for the trainwreck. You’ve prayed for them. Pray some more. Then…how about some coffee?
Once out to coffee with Joe the Drifter, don’t be preachy. Ask what he’s thinking. Warmly express your loyalty to him…and especially who he is in Jesus. Express your anxiety about his trajectory. Affirm that the gospel is true – The once dead and Risen Jesus Christ is, in fact, the future. The Judge by which every person will be judged. And then review Mark 4 – the parables of the soil – how peer pressure, persecution, falling in love, wealth opportunities can and do take people’s eyes off the truth of Jesus Christ. Advise him not to be impatient and impulsive but trust and obey Jesus Christ.
At the end of that conversation – and hopefully, it was indeed a conversation and not a lecture – ask to meet again in a week starting a four-week journey through ____________.
If after your watchful prayers and despite your interventions that person leaves the Christian community, don’t write him off. He is still an image bearer of God and thus a big-timer within the creation. God has given you both those memories together of sitting in worship, singing next to each other etc. Your memories with him aren’t erased, even if they’re tinged with sadness. Remember he’s a recipient of common grace…you are not in every way better than he…there’s a possibility that he’s your superior in most everything. You might still owe him respect and gratitude.
He has turned away from Christ and His Church…and your first loyalties are to Christ and his Church– but that doesn’t mean you write him out of your life. You can’t join him at the Lord’s Table but you can and should keep praying for him. Don’t burn bridges but settle in for ministering grace to him over the long term. If you’re clear that your first loyalties to Christ, if you’re careful not to be caught up in his unbelief, if you don’t forget that he’s a human being worthy of respect, if you keep praying for him and asking the church to join you in praying that your speech over the months and years will be seasoned with salt…in the spirit I’m confident that there’s still hope for his soul and that your involvement in his life is improving his situation, covering a multitude of sins.
The second point is shorter: extend yourself to struggling Christians.
2 Timothy 1:15- 18: 15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— 18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.
So many observations could be made e.g., check out the mercy on the household of Onesiphorus, not just Onesiphorus.
Onesiphorus wasn’t ashamed of [Paul’s] chains, that is, that helping Paul in prison wouldn’t accrue to him any social credit didn’t prevent him from diligently searching for Paul’s exact location in the Roman prison complex and then helping him. Actually, settling in to help him over the long term. And this while everyone else had turned away from Paul – probably out of sloth or fear or apathy.
Grads, in your lifetime you’ll come across Christians who are down on their luck, who are being blackballed by some community, who are evidently struggling or stuck or confused. And a lot of Christians don’t want to go near them.
Don’t draw back. Don’t think to yourself, I don’t want to catch their losing ways. Or, I don’t want to commit myself to them since I don’t know how long they’ll need my encouragement. Certainly don’t think: I don’t want to be seen hanging around with a loser.
But rather, walking in step with the refreshing, renewing Spirit of Jesus Christ, refresh them…often…over and again.
Searched for me earnestly and found me – when your brother or sister is undergoing hardship, sometimes it’s not enough to be wishing them well or, from a distance, rooting for them. No, sometimes warm thoughts or even prayers isn’t good enough. Pick up the phone. Make them a meal. Back to the coffee shop.
Along these lines, people sometimes decide – for good and mistaken reasons – to move on from the congregation with whom they’ve been worshiping God. Sometimes when people move on the folks that remain treat them frigidly, remember out loud their bad traits, say things like “I never really trusted them…” or “I always thought they would flake out…” Some of this is human nature and won’t ever go away. However, if that is the prevailing mood of your church as folks depart from it, and especially if the church’s leadership doesn’t counteract it, then you should start to wonder if your church is walking in step with Christ’s Spirit.
Anyway, when people leave your church there will almost inevitably be a little degrading in your relationship for practical reasons. You’re just not going to see them as often. But as much as is possible, you should make overtures to them: when you have open houses, when you’re sending out holiday texts, treat them as brothers and sisters. And you should probably get out to coffee with them at least once within a few weeks of their leaving.
When your brother or sister loses his job, faces some major embarrassment in himself or his family, goes through a divorce, gets seriously ill, has someone close to them die – it’s time for you to put a 1-2 month pause on your TV series or postpone your house project and be assiduous – not once or twice – to often refresh that person. Andy Broadworth is here: when we went through our hard time in public a few years ago, I’ve memories of his daughter and him taking Liesel and I to Brazilian steak. Also, we’d meet weekly at a coffee shop in the early morning. Another family – Tim and Carla Peters – would often have us in their home.
At the judgment day some will respond to Christ: when did we visit you?
Grads, ambition is a good thing and in your careers I encourage you to exercise ambition, to climb as high as you think you can do good work. However, among the church is not where you exercise ambition for social credit, for applause, for influence. Among church is where you are learning to be human, where you’re told to associate with the humble – those by whom you won’t get any standing – where you are for the sake of the body helping the suffering body part.
Grads, go after the wandering sinner. Refresh the wounded Christian. Remember you’re a reflector of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The One we reflect is a one who is eternally in relationship, who values relationship, who is love. Reflect that One by focusing on being a relater, a bridge-builder.
And remember that when the Son became flesh and lived among us that it was for a mission that is captured in the word “reconciliation.” In the Holy Trinity, God draws near to God. In the incarnation God draws near to us. In the crucifixion God has made provision for us to draw near to him. In the resurrection God has said an eternal yes to us. The takeaway, grads, throughout your life is: draw near to the wandering sinner. Draw near to the wounded Christian.
AMEN.
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