God is listening

Hebrews 9:11-14

11But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

 

            I went to a pastor’s appreciation dinner on Tuesday, and I decided to wear my navy blazer, which most of you have never seen before because I so rarely wear it.  I was looking classy that evening with my starched-white shirt, navy blazer, and khaki pants.  I was, that is, until the lady next to me asked me to pass the sweet and low and I reached a little too low for it and dragged my sleeve through the chocolate cake on the table.  But of course I did not know immediately what I had done.  So I rested my arm at my side, I sat it on the table in front of me, I put it on the back of my chair.  And by the time I noticed what I had done, I had spread chocolate all across the right side of my fancy blazer, the chair, and the white table cloth.  By this time I was not looking as classy as I had when I left the house.

            So what did I do to clean it all up?  I rubbed some blood and ashes from a burnt heifer on the chocolate stains.  No, of course not!  I’m still looking for a good dry cleaner in the Staunton area.  Blood, ashes, what are these things going to clean?  I’ve cut myself enough times and cleaned enough fire pits to know that these things do not clean, they do not purify.  They stain.  I saw a joke on the internet this week saying that the best thing to do when you get a blood stain on a t-shirt is to spill more blood around the stain so that it doesn’t stand out as much.

            So there is something counterintuitive about God’s cleaning agent, because it is by the blood of Christ that we are made clean.  It doesn’t make sense, and perhaps that is one that we can chalk up to the humor of God.  I did not choose today’s scripture because it is an easy one to preach on or because it makes sense, but I hope that we can all be challenged to grow by looking at God’s cleaning agent.  Today I want to look at two different things that have come about because of the actions of Jesus: the atonement and purification.

            Today’s scripture is full of references to Judaism, which we might expect by the name of this particular book of the Bible: Hebrews.  The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish people and is attempting to show them how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish messianic expectations.  So in order to understand today’s scripture, we need to understand Judaism a little better.  Actually, I would say that in order to understand scripture at all, we need a pretty good background in Judaism.  So it might seem like today’s sermon is a little heavy on the Jewish teachings and practices, but I believe that this is essential for us to understand what scripture is intended to teach us.

Verse 11 begins by telling us that Jesus came to the greater and more perfect tabernacle or tent.  This is a reference to the old, portable tabernacle that the Israelites took with them as they wandered from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land over a period of 40 years.  Then, as they set up in the Promised Land, they continued to worship in the tent style tabernacle up until Solomon built the temple just after the year 1000 BC.  So we have a couple hundred years where the Israelites worshiped God in a moveable tent, or more precisely a series of tents.

            When Solomon built his temple, it in many ways was structured the same way that the tabernacle made out of the series of tents was to be assembled.  Both had a holy place inside where the priests would perform the religious practices and then there was the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place where only the high priest could enter one time each year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifices to God to atone for the sins of the people.  To atone for something means to compensate for something done wrong, ie the forgiveness of sins.  These two rooms, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place were separated by a curtain, or perhaps two curtains.  God was believed to dwell within the Holy of Holies and if anyone other than the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies they would die.  If the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies without first going through the correct rituals to purify himself, he would die.  I’ve even heard it said that the High Priest would tie a bell around his neck and a rope to his leg that way if they were struck down dead by God when they entered into the Holy of Holies the other priests would hear that the bell stopped ringing and they could pull the priest out with the rope.

            Before the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement they were to get two goats and a bull and bring them into the temple.  The High Priest would then take the bull and slaughter it as a sin offering to atone for his own sin and the sin of his household.  If he didn’t do this, he didn’t live through the whole process.  A sinful person could not enter the Holy of Holies and have direct contact with God. 

So this now-atoned-for priest takes the goats and one of them will be sent out into the wilderness as a scapegoat, a symbolic carrier of the sins of the people away from the camp, and the other one is slaughtered for the sins of the people.  The High Priest then takes the blood of the goat and blood of the bull and smears it on various things within the Holy of Holies and within the tent of meeting.  The bodies of these animals are then burned as an offering, and the remains are taken out of the camp and disposed of.  Then they did it again the next year, and the year after that, and so on.  Every year, on the Day of Atonement, they went through this process.

But the author of Hebrews says that Jesus came as High Priest in a perfect tabernacle.  And in verse 12, “he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

That, my friends, is what we call the Good News.  No longer do we need to slaughter a goat and cast our sins upon another goat and send it out into the wilderness to atone for our sins.  But Jesus came and acted as both the High Priest and as the sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all those that would know him as Lord.

Now there is a clear division between verses 12 and 13.  Verse 12 is comparing the Day of Atonement in the Jewish tradition and the way that Jesus has served as both priest and sacrifice in his death on the cross atoning for the sins of his followers.  There is a stipulation here.  If you are a follower of Jesus, then this atonement is for you.  It’s not just for Jews, it’s not just for Mennonites, but it is for those that know Jesus as Lord.  However, I would say that verse 13 changes gears a bit and goes from the atonement and transitions to purification. 

The Israelites had a fair number of purity laws concerning what they could and could not touch, what they could or could not eat, with whom they could or could not eat it with.  You cannot touch dead people or you will be ceremonially unclean for a week and you can’t enter into the temple for worship, you can’t be in contact with other people.  You can’t eat shellfish, pork, and other animals, or else you will be unclean and you cannot enter into the temple and you can’t be in contact with other people.  Don’t eat with a Gentile, or…you get the idea.

In Numbers 19 we find an interesting ritual that was used for the purification of the people when they became unclean.  The priest was to slaughter and burn a red heifer, and the ashes of the burned heifer were to be mixed with water and dumped on the unclean person.  Then, after the prescribed time had passed, that person could enter into the Jewish community and into worship, into the presence of God once again.  This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to when he says, “13For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”

I would say that atonement is contingent on making Jesus your Lord, but this purification is universal.  These are separate acts that took place through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We often focus in the church on the atonement aspect of Jesus death and resurrection, but we should not take lightly this purification that took place.

It is because Jesus has purified all people that we can approach God without going through the High Priest.  At Jesus’ death, the Gospel of Luke says that the curtain that separated the common people from the Holy of Holies was torn in two.  God does not reside in the Holy of Holies.  Now God lives with us, among us, and within us in the form of the Holy Spirit.  And again, there is nothing that we have to do to acquire this.  Jesus already took care of it.  So whether you are the finest, clean cut, church-going Christian, or a drug-dealing, thieving, lowlife, God will hear your prayers.  Jesus bridged the gap that once divided God and humanity, the gap that once could only be bridged by a High Priest who had gone through the purification rituals.  And I believe that Jesus bridged that gap because Jesus, as God incarnate, came and dwelled among us, among the sinners, the tax collectors and prostitutes.  Now all can come directly to God.

Would you not agree that all people can come to God in prayer?  Or does God only hear the prayers of those who are righteous and upright?  If God does not hear the prayers of sinners, then when I prayed to God and asked him to be Lord in my life, that prayer was not heard.  I was not a Christian when I dedicated my life to following Jesus.  If I had already been a Christian, then I would have already made that decision.

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable about two men that went up to the temple to pray; one a Pharisee and one a tax collector.  First the Pharisee stands up to pray, makes a big show about things, and prays out loud, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

But then we hear from the tax collector, the un-holy one, the one that the Pharisee used as an example of what he was glad to not be like.  And the tax collector beats his breast and says, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  And who does Jesus say is heard by God?  Trick question!  They are both heard by God.  But the tax collector is the one that goes home on God’s good side.

Yes, I believe that God hears all prayers.  If we truly believe that God is all-knowing, then God must hear all prayers, regardless of our outward piety.  Righteousness is not a criteria in the New Testament for being heard by God and righteousness in not a criteria in the New Testament for God answering your prayer.  The criteria in the New Testament that we are given for God answering prayers is when we ask for things according to God’s will in Jesus’ name.  And it was God’s will to forgive the tax collector in Jesus’ parable.

This was not the case in the Jewish way of thinking.  If we look at John chapter 9, the story of the man born blind and healed by Jesus, we find that the Pharisees were questioning this now-healed man about Jesus to see if he sinned by healing on the Sabbath.  And this man born blind says that Jesus could not have sinned by healing him because God does not hear the prayers of sinners.  Chapter 9:31, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.”  He is saying, Jesus couldn’t have been a sinner because God answered his prayer.  We find scripture in the Old Testament that confirms this in Proverbs and Psalms.  But because Jesus has come to this earth in the form of a human being, spent time with the sinners, and torn the curtain separating the Holy of Holies, now all can come to God in prayer.

            This is hard for some of us to understand today.  We want to believe that we are the ones that God hears and nobody else.  We want to be like the man born blind and say, “God does not hear the prayers of sinners.”  We feel like we are entitled to God hearing our prayers and not the prayers of the sinners, not the prayers of riff-raff and vagabonds.  We have dedicated our lives to serving God!  We have sacrificed money, fame, power, prestige.  We have given to the poor, loved our enemy, forgiven people that did not deserve to be forgiven.  God must hear our prayers; God must hear my prayers.  It just doesn’t seem fair to think that God would hear the prayers of all people.

            But then we realize, Christianity isn’t about what I have done.  Christianity is about what God has done through Jesus Christ.  And to be honest, sometimes that scares me.  That scares me because I like to be in control.  If I just do this, and if I just do that, then God will love me more, then God will hear my prayers, then God will answer my prayers.  But no, it is not about what I do.  It is about what God has done.

One thing that I get from time to time when people find out that I am a pastor or a church-going man is that they will ask me to pray for them.  And it is not that they are asking me to pray with them as they pray, but to pray for them because they think that they are not good enough to pray to God.  They believe that they are sinners and that there is this separation between them and God and that God can not hear them across that gulf.  I try to assure them that my prayers are no better than their prayers.  God will hear you whether you are the pope or a prostitute, a reverend or society’s reject.  Perhaps the best thing that I could do for people in that situation is to say, Yes, I will pray for you.  Will you pray for me?

Today is All Saints Day.  We in the Mennonite Church don’t often make a big deal about All Saints Day because we don’t like to venerate individuals.  Perhaps that is a good thing, because as I have said, it isn’t about what we do, but about what God has already done that deserves veneration.

But yet we do have a decision to make.  We are faced with the decision to accept the gift of grace and follow Christ, or not.  And to be honest, accepting grace is the easy part, following Christ, what we call discipleship, is not.

In his letters to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul addresses his recipients as “saints”.  To the saints in Corinth, to the saints in Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae.  Paul doesn’t call them saints because they are perfect, but because they have made the decision to follow Jesus, accepting the atonement brought about by his blood, and not the blood of goats and bulls, and dedicating themselves to a life of service.

As I look out upon the faces of the saints of Staunton, we know that we are not perfect, but we are here today because we seek to serve the living God.  Maybe you wouldn’t think of yourself as a saint.  Maybe you can think of a grandparent or a neighbor that was truly a saint.  But me, a saint?  Come on!

If that is where you are today, praise God, because we serve a God that came to this earth in the form of Jesus Christ to bridge the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God.  Now sinners like you and sinners like me can come to God to ask for healing, to ask for guidance, to ask for forgiveness so that we can work toward becoming the saints that we are called to be.

Blood and ashes leave stains.  I’ve got the shirts to prove it.  But the blood of Christ has cleansed us.  Is this counterintuitive?  Yes indeed.  Is it effective?  I’m counting on it.  And I am thankful that everyone, sinners and saints, can come to our Lord.  Praise God.

God of Compassion, Hear Our Prayers

James 5:13-20

13Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14Are 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. 15The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16Therefore 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. 17Elijah 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. 18Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. 19My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, 20you 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.

 

There were these two boys who lived with their Grandma. They were about to go to bed but before they slept they prayed. The older grandson started to pray. He prayed about the day he had and about everything he had done. The younger grandson then started to pray, he prayed much louder than his elder brother, he prayed for bikes and toys, and when he finished the older brother asked him “Why are you praying so loud? God is not deaf.” The younger son responded and said “Yea but Grandma is.”

I am not advocating that we pray to God as if he were a genie in a bottle, existing to grant our three wishes.  But today I would like to search the scriptures to see that God is a God of compassion who cares deeply about us and therefore is a God that hears and answers our prayers.  So we will start today by looking at some background stories leading up to our scripture for today.

They say that God never changes, that God is immutable, which is not to say that you can’t mute God, but that God does not mutate.  Not only do “they” say this, but God says this.  In Malachi 3:6 we read, “I the Lord do not change.”  It doesn’t get any clearer than that, my friends.

We also believe that Jesus is the manifestation of God on earth; Jesus is God incarnate, in the flesh.  Jesus says “If you have seen me, you have seen the father.”  So if Jesus is God and God does not change, Jesus does not change.  Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

What does that mean?  What does it mean that God does not change?  It means that God does not stop being like God.  There are characteristics about God that do not falter or fail.  One of the most challenging thoughts that was given to me in seminary is that there is one thing that God cannot do: God cannot act outside of his character.  God cannot stop being righteous, just, and loving.  These are things that describe the God that we serve and because God does not change we can always count on God to be righteous, just, and loving.  And I want to add one more item to the list of God’s characteristics: God is compassionate.  Now prepare yourself for this, I’m now going to throw a little confusion into the equation.  Because God is compassionate, God does change.

Now you’re probably thinking, “What in the world are you talking about?  You just got done telling me that God does not change and now you are telling me that God does change?”  And if that is what you are thinking then you are hearing me correctly.  You see, I believe that the characteristics of God do not change, but that does not mean that God does not change his plans, his will, and his mind.  In fact, I would say that because God has the unchanging characteristic of being compassionate, God will change his plans, his will, and his mind.

We find a number of examples of God’s compassion causing God to change his mind in the Bible.  The first one that comes to my mind is the story of Abraham pleading for God to spare the city of Sodom from destruction.  It was announced to Abraham by his three visitors that God was going to wipe out this city because of the sinfulness of the people.  Abraham didn’t like this, so he began to plead with God to spare the city because it wouldn’t be right to wipe out the righteous with the wicked.  Abraham began pleading with God saying, If there are fifty righteous, will you spare the city?  And this bargaining went on until Abraham got God to agree to spare the city if there were only 10 righteous men to be found in the city. 

Some have minimized this story by saying that God knew that there were not 10 righteous in Sodom and therefore he already had his mind made up that he was going to destroy the city.  But this wasn’t the first time that God changed his mind, and it won’t be the last either.

Beginning in Genesis chapter 6 we find that humanity had strayed far away from their creator.  There was a huge division between God and people, which was not the purpose for which God made humanity.  No, God made humanity so that they might be in fellowship, in communion with God.  So God decides to wipe out all of humanity.

Some people have said that God wanted to wipe out humanity and start again, but Genesis 6:7 says, “So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  There is nothing in that verse about starting over again.  This is about God scrapping the entire plan and giving up on humanity.

But there was a guy named Noah that found favor in the sight of the Lord, and God decided to spare him.  And not only did God change his mind and not eradicate all of humanity, God also chose not to scrap all of creation.  That seems like a pretty big change in plans to me.  We may not be sitting here today if God had not changed his mind.

            Jesus as God incarnate even shows us how God changes his mind when given the opportunity to be compassionate.  We find in Mark’s Gospel the story of Jesus walking on water.  If you remember the story, Jesus had sent the disciples on ahead of him to cross the sea.  Then when evening came, Jesus looks out on the sea and sees the disciples struggling at the oars, fighting against the wind.  So he walks toward them on the water.  Then verse 48 tells us that Jesus intended to pass them by.  But the disciples were scared and they were tired and Jesus had compassion on them.  So Jesus changed his plans and joined them on the boat, calming the sea.

            We also read about how Jesus was ministering to the Jewish people when a foreign woman of Syrophoenician decent approaches him and asks him to heal her daughter of an unclean spirit.  Jesus responds to her by saying that he came to feed the children, that is the Jews, and that it would not be appropriate to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs.  The woman responds that even the dogs eat from the scraps of the master’s table.  Jesus’ heart was moved by this woman’s faith and he did as she requested.

            Contrast these examples to a different understanding of God.  There is a school of philosophy known as Deism that claims that God created the world and all that is in it.  But then God stepped away from the world and allowed the world to function on its own.  The view of God within Deism is often referred to as “God the clockmaker” where a clockmaker would make a time piece and then not have to mess with it again.

            Deists do not believe that God has ever intervened for the people that he has created.  Deists deny miracles, deists deny the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus Christ.  They believe that God created the world and then turned us loose on our own.

I believe that the examples from the Bible reveal that God does change because there is a part of God that does not change.  God is compassionate.  That does not change.  And because God is compassionate, God sometimes intervenes and changes things up a bit.

            So what does any of this have to do with the passage that we started with from James chapter five?  I think this answers the question of why we pray.  We pray because we serve a compassionate God that does hear our prayers and does change his mind and his plans.  We serve a God that does break into this world and intervene on behalf of those that he has created and loved.  If God did not care about us and if God did not care about what was important to us, then prayer would be nothing but a waste of time.  But no, our God is a compassionate God.

            James 5 tells us when to pray and how to pray.  In verse 13 we find that if any are suffering, they should pray.  James is encouraging us to pray for ourselves.  Now he doesn’t go into detail as to how these people are suffering that should lead them to pray for themselves.  But I would assume that he is not talking about being sick, because he gives instructions for how to pray when you are sick separately in the next verse.  So these sufferers are suffering from more than a flu bug.  They are suffering physically from oppression, slavery, life situations, and very likely persecution.

            I’ll be honest with you all, this is when prayer is the most difficult for me.  When life is tough, when things are not going the way that I want them to go, I am supposed to pray?  Prayer is the last thing that I want to do when times are tough, and I really don’t know what suffering is.  I hear some of your stories and all of the things that you have been through, the sicknesses, the loss of loved ones, and I know that I do not know what it truly means to suffer.

            Last night Sonya and I went to a benefit auction for a couple of our friends, Dawn and Paul, that have been trying to get pregnant for about 2.5 years.  They are trying to raise money to adopt a child from Russia.  They both come from a very family-oriented background and they both want children very much.  So when things didn’t happen naturally they underwent numerous fertility treatments; they have gone to numerous doctors.  They have been poked, probed, stuck with needles, and questioned. 

Dawn shared with me one day that every month they go through a time of mourning, mourning the loss of opportunity, mourning the loss of another child not born.  They have suffered, they have prayed, and I know that they have struggled to pray as they know that they should.

            One of the hardest things that I have had to do in a long time was to tell Dawn and Paul that we are expecting a child in January.  Having known their struggles and knowing Dawn’s role at her church as the pastor of youth and family ministry, I realized that our news would be tough for Dawn to hear, even though I also knew that she would support us full heartedly.

            Prayer is tough when you are in the middle of suffering.  And people mean well, telling you things like, “God will see you through this.  God will help you.  God will (fill in the blank).”  But when you are in the middle of suffering, it can be hard to believe in God at all.  But I believe that God can and often does intercede.  We serve a God of compassion.  That is why we pray. 

But prayer is not just something that you do on your own behalf.  Look at verse 16, which says, “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.”  I don’t want to focus so much on the confessing your sins to one another now (though I do believe this to be a good practice), but the praying for one another.

            There are times when we just cannot bring ourselves to pray.  When we are hanging on to our lives by a thread, when our faith is dwindling, that is when we need prayer the most.  James instructs us that when we are sick to invite the elders of the church to pray for you.  I don’t believe that James instructs us to do this because our own prayers are not effective, but because our prayers might not be happening.

            I think that verse 13 lifts out another important aspect of prayer that we find on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and that is how to pray when things are going well.  James says, “Are any of you cheerful?  They should sing songs of praise.”

            We have a lot to be happy about.  Each one of us.  I am thankful for the rain we got this weekend.  I am thankful for an abundant harvest from the fields and gardens in the area.  I am thankful for a roof over my head, clothes on my back, a loving wife that is carrying a healthy child in her womb.  I have much to be happy about.  And that…is…dangerous.

            We might think that James is simply stating the obvious here when he tells us to sing songs of praise when things are going well, but he says it for a reason.  I know that when things are going well that I tend to take God for granted.  God becomes a distant deity that I know is there if I need him, but I don’t take the time to thank God for what I have.

            I think part of this is because we live in a capitalist society where we have self-made men and self-made women.  We see the rich and the powerful and we hear stories about how Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, went from a college drop-out to one of the richest people in the world. 

So I end today by asking the question, does prayer work?  I say yes, prayer works.  And you don’t need to be a pastor and you sure don’t need to be perfect in order to have your prayer answered.  James lifts out the prophet Elijah as an example, saying that Elijah was just a plain human being, like you and me.  Flesh and blood, bone and hair.  He put on his tunic one leg at a time, just like anyone else.  But Elijah prayed, and he prayed fervently.  And because of his prayers, God made the rain stop and start again.

We all posses that kind of power with our prayers.  We can control the rain and the sun, the wind and cold.  Jesus told us his disciples that if they have faith the size of a mustard seed that they can move a mountain.  So if our prayers have that much power, then why do we so often not see any results?  Why can we pray and pray and pray some more, and a loved one still dies?  Why have Paul and Dawn prayed and been prayed for for years, and still not find themselves pregnant? 

Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, “You prayed for my husband. He had cancer.” Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, “He died.” Campolo felt terrible.
But she continued, “Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.

But the lady told Campolo, “After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.”

And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, “He wasn’t cured, but he was healed.” (Tony Campolo, “Year of Jubilee,” Preaching Today Tape #212)

            The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  God never promises to answer our prayers in the way we want him to, but God has promised to hear and answer our prayers.  As Paul and Dawn prepare to adopt a child from Russia, I know that they would say that there have been times when they have become frustrated, angry, and questioned God’s motives.  But yesterday as we sat at the benefit auction for them, we could see the love of God poured out through their many friends and family members.  Sometimes, even in moments of sorrow, God surprises us with blessings too great for us to even anticipate.

 

 

God you are unchanging, and for this we give you praise.

God of compassion, hear our prayers.

You have given sight to the blind and hope to the hopeless.

God of compassion, hear our prayers.

You are the great healer of physical, mental, and spiritual ailments.

God of compassion, hear our prayers.

You have loved us, redeemed us, and called us to follow you.

God of compassion, hear our prayers.

Help us, Lord, for you alone are holy.

God of compassion, hear our prayers.—Amen