Healing in the Epistle of James

The Rev Lindsay Johnstone, Chaplain Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney

In preparation for the Return of Christ, James 5: 7-18 gives encouragement to anyone who is in trouble, anyone who is happy and anyone who is sick. It speaks of patience, relationships, and the power of prayer. The passage exhorts those who are ill to seek healing prayer from the elders of the church (5:13-14). With regard to chaplaincy, this paper is not necessarily about what happens in the process of a visit[i], but rather about the underlying expectations, reflections and beliefs that the chaplain may have.

Healing Ministry depends on two strong and connected promises: The prayer of faith will heal the sick; and The Lord will raise him up.  They focus on what God will do, and what faith can accomplish. Christ and James used a Greek word which is translatable both as “heal” and “save”, e.g. “Your faith has saved you”. “Your faith has healed you”.[ii]

Prayer for Healing and for Forgiveness should go together.

Pastoral sensitivity is needed in dealing with these issues with patients. James 5: 16 reads: “confess your sins to one another and pray that you may be healed”. Some sickness is caused by sin, some by Satanic attack and mostly by living in the fallen world.

Pray with Affiance.

There is an exhortation to trust and to be patient. Job and Elijah are presented as examples of people like us – to indicate the importance of faith, of patience and empowerment in prayer. The Prayer of Faith cannot be inconsistent with Faith as Fruit of the Spirit[iii]. So the “prayer of faith” cannot be interpreted as the prayer of emotional intensity, or as a human effort to put increasing pressure upon the Almighty. It is produced by the Holy Spirit. It is characterised by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. James 4:3 emphasises the need to ask to receive. The faith being applied is supernatural faith given by grace by God – the same faith by which we were saved.[iv]. This faith is like a positive form of defiance. In fact there is an archaic English word for it. It is affiance[v]. It is a commitment to stand firm with persevering faith regardless of what is observable.[vi] 

Healing is a delegated activity of Christ through church elders.

Anoint with oil and pray with the authority of the promise – “the prayer of faith will heal the sick” and bring also assurance of forgiveness where this is needed. Mark 6: 13 (ESV) reads: And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. This is the only reference in the Gospels to anointing with oil. The context is Jesus sending out the Twelve with authority (Mark 6: 7). James sees this delegated authority from Christ being devolved onto the elders of the local church(es).[vii] The rite of anointing with oil should not be seen as obligatory. Christ never instituted it in the way in which he instituted Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There is only one place in the New Testament where we are told that the apostles did it, but they often exercised the authority which anointing would symbolise. The holy anointing oil formed an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood, and of prophets and kings. In Hebrew and Greek the words for anointing with oil are cognate with the title Messiah or Christ.  Christ is the Anointed One, and James is saying that just as the apostles exercised this delegated authority from Christ to heal, so should the church elders. Healing is not merely prayed for but is also declared!

Along with the elders having authority from Christ to heal, verse 16 encourages group intercessions and petitions to God for healing and forgiveness.

Healing is presented as the will of God (in contrast to over-confident assertions about future life style activities which James 4: 13-17 says are contingent on the unknown will of God). “The prayer of faith will heal the sick and the Lord will raise him up. Because of the nature of the promise and because of the nature of faith, we should adhere to the instruction, live with paradoxes, and not change our prayer to conform to earthly visibility. Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God[viii], we shall die before Christ returns, but that death is within the process of overarching eternal healing. By faith we defy the limits of the present order. Because with Christ as head over the church God is currently in process of using the church within his plan to recapitulate all things[ix], we should expect in-breakings of the coming Kingdom, even in miraculous ways.

 

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[i] The ministry activity of James 5 depends upon it being asked for. No attempt should be made anywhere to manipulate it

or impose it. As with any other ministry by a chaplain, it is connected with the level of “contract” provided by the patient or

other client, and their response to any discussion which may arise; and to whatever level of instruction or preparation may

appropriately be provided by the chaplain.

[ii] Mark 10: 52; Luke 7: 52; Luke 17: 19.

[iii] Galatians 5: 2-23

[iv] “faith from the Son of God” Galatians 2: 20

[v] archaic “trust”, “confidence” Middle English, from Anglo-French, from affier to pledge, trust, from Medieval Latin affidare to pledge, from Latin ad- + Vulgar Latin *fidare to trust. (Merriam Webster);

 14th century - Piers Ploughman "Mine affiance and my feith is firm in his belive";

Litany in The Book of Common Prayer 1662 - prayer that the monarch "may ever more have affiance in thee and seek thy honour and glory".

[vi] Hebrews 11: 1-2. Faith is the title deed of property not yet in possession. The promise is the only evidence of the expected results still invisible.

[vii] Calling of the elders to pray over the sick is presented by James in such a way that it should be seen as part of universal church order, not just as an optional extra for healing services or for churches or groups that go for it.

[viii] 1 Corinthians 15: 50

[ix] (Ephesians 1 : 10-23)

Chaplaincy and Scripture

Kate Bradford

What is the relationship between Chaplaincy in the public space and scripture? At the very centre of Christian Chaplaincy is the word. The word orientates the chaplain in the world; the word directs the chaplain’s internal life and the word informs the chaplain’s ministry. Chaplaincy involves engagement with the world, fellowship with the church and communication with others beyond the reach of the local church.

Chaplains minister in a world created by the Word – chaplains are people who have been remade by the Word having accepted the offer a hope found in Jesus. A hope encapsulated in the message of scripture conveyed by a range of differing literary and narrative styles. 

1. It is the task of chaplaincy to engage with the world around, and to understand the relationship between word and world. The understanding draws on both the relationship between the people of God and the Nations in the Old Testament, and the followers of Jesus and the different societies surrounding them. Clarity is needed around the nature of the engagement, of what it is and what it is not. For example chaplaincy is neither evangelism nor structured teaching; it not advocacy, welfare or counselling but it is rather faithful engagement with the wider world, and exercise of civility and seeking the common good and an offer of radical hospitality and sharing of transforming hope in Jesus.

2. Chaplaincy ministry is an extension of the ministry of the local church. Chaplains are members of covenantal fellowships where the word of God is taught, believed and lived. Chaplains are in deep connection with their heavenly Father, in fellowship with other members of the community and have an honest assessment of their own spiritual life. All chaplaincies are firstly a ministry of prayer. Chaplains share out of an abundance of their transformed Christian lives not out of scarcity or absence; chaplains have accepted the hope of Jesus and live lives that respond to this hope and grace. There is no chaplaincy that is separate from Jesus and his fellowship of believers.

3. Chaplaincy ministry is cross-cultural communication. Crossing culture occurs at two levels, firstly the chaplain is crossing over into another person’s world and experience. Secondly chaplaincy is offered at times of change, dislocation and trauma, and the recipients themselves are often away from home and familiar circumstances struggling with a form of culture-shock. Chaplaincy is offered to people experiencing some form of loss due to internment, hospitalisation, aging, failing health, deployment, relocation and displacement. The combination of cultural change and loss means most people being contacted are also vulnerable people.    

The chaplains form connections and communities within this space of loss of cultural dislocation. Listening to another is vital to forming connections and communication requiring great sensitivity to the needs and concerns of the other.  To be able to prayerfully share the hope of Jesus in the midst of loss and disorientation requires that the chaplain have a solid grasp of the diversity of biblical genres and styles. Spiritual communication requires the ability to work with both the the narrative of scripture and with people who have little or no familiarity with scripture or conversely those who know God but feel that he has abandoned them.     

Chaplaincy is an interdisciplinary ministry that overlaps with the humanities and social sciences. As such the study of chaplaincy requires acceptance of and familiarity with requirements and regulations of the public space.  Self-awareness and personal development are critical keys to safe ministry. Communication in chaplaincy borrows from the fields of linguistics, narrative studies, grief and loss models and learning styles in addition to mission studies, spiritual formation, biblical studies and theology.

In any system of chaplaincy training there must be rigour and wisdom around the use of social and psychological models used and continuing evaluation of these models against scripture with reference to chaplaincy engagement in the public space, chaplaincy as an activity and extension of the fellowship of the local church and chaplaincy as communication of the transforming hope that only Jesus brings.