We finished our journey, our pathway as we called it, to Christmas, to Advent.  That was finished on Christmas Eve when we looked at the message and the step of “peace”.  But today we might well look at what we see chronologically the next step where Jesus is no longer a child but is taken as an infant to the Temple for dedication.  But the Scripture in the Lectionary jumps significantly and goes to when Jesus is an adult, actually closer to the end of His ministry.  In a moment you will hear that passage and it is when Jesus visits the Temple.  But not when He was twelve and He showed the scholars how much He knew, but when He had a message to give about what the purpose of the Temple is.  And I want you to keep in mind through the message for today that when we talk about the Temple we could equal that to the church.  But more importantly, we equal it to each of us.  For Paul says, “We are a temple in which we worship the Lord.”  And we should respect and treat and use our bodies, physical and spiritual, as temples for the Lord.   

            This is also the last Sunday of the calendar year.  A month ago we were looking at the last Sunday of the church year; and beginning with Advent is the Liturgical Year.  But now this is the Sunday where in the comics this morning there were the resolution kinds of comics.  And you’ll see those in other ways.  And people will make pledges and commitments to make a difference, to not do this or to do that for the year 2008.  And those are fine.  But I want you to listen today to three steps, three opportunities; three open doors for you to take that will make great resolutions.  If you want to hear what Jesus has to say to us in a very simple and straight forward manner about what we are to be about when we are about the father’s business in the temple, (remember, the temple of our lives), then we turn to Matthew, Chapter 21.  Jesus has just come in to Jerusalem in His triumphant entry which the Sunday before Easter we will remember again as Psalm Sunday.  Jesus is in the temple.  And I want you to listen for three things—prayer, healing, and praise.  Jesus is very clear about that in His response.  The temple He is referring to is the temple also referred to in Jeremiah.  Jesus was a great scholar of Scripture.  And, for example, Jeremiah, Chapter 7 says, according to the Lord’s word through Je3remiah, “We are to reform our ways and our actions and then God will let us live in this place.”  And I would take that place to be the sacred ground of Israel but more importantly beyond the temple to be living within our own temple.  Later on in that same chapter Jeremiah says, “If you really change your ways and actions and deal with each other justly; if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless, or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place; and if you do not follow other god’s to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever.” 

            But now Jesus is entering the temple and in Verse 12 of Chapter 21 of Matthew the account says, “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘”My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”’  The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.  But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.  ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him.  ‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read, “From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise?”’  And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.” 

            You see when he said, “Have you not heard?” he was referring to the later part of that same chapter of Jeremiah where it said that, “Has this house that bears my name become a den of robbers?”  Jesus was clearly saying to us that prayer is to be central in our lives.  Roger mentioned earlier about the “Walk to Jerusalem” which will be officially starting on January 13.  For ten weeks ending on Easter, we will be walking together—physically walking for exercise.  But a part of that will be the opportunity to, if you are not in a regular prayer pattern, a time of prayer each day, to give you an opportunity to develop that habit, to start the year off with prayer as an individual, as a family.  We need to be an example to our children. If adults are not praying, how can we tell them to pray?  And, yes, we will earn miles on this trip to Jerusalem.  But more importantly, we’ll develop a habit.   

            I came across a story.  This could be a mother or a father in this setting, but this mother in particular was remembered by her children when they grew up, that they could remember the “5-minute rule” in their house.  They were told, “Whenever we get ready to go someplace, we will be ready five minutes early before we need to leave, whether school or church or going shopping.”  Five-minute rule—and she expected everyone to be finished in the morning as they were getting ready for school and to gather wherever mother or father, it could be both—in fact I hope it can be both and should be, at whatever place they are in the house.  It might be the kitchen, living room, front porch—it didn’t matter.  But they took at least five minutes where she led them in prayer naming each one personally, asking for God’s blessing upon them to guide them through the day.  They also finished the day with a five-minute time that that they would pray and thanks for the day and a good night of rest.  It became important that even neighborhood children dropped in over there.  It became a part of that prayer time.  You see, when parents take that time of a model and live it out—now five minutes is just a rounded piece, it can be for a minute.  If you are not use to it, start off by saying the Lord’s Prayer together, but take that mother’s guidance and model in that way. 

            Well, prayer is also something that you can pray for any need, any where, and in any style.  Listen to these examples out of Scripture.  You can pray for any need.  For example, Hezekiah prayed for a lengthened life; Daniel prayed for health; Bartimaeus, who was blind, prayed for sight and light in his life.  For mercy, David prayed; for rain, Elijah prayed; for a son, Hannah prayed; Paul prayed for grace in his life and the life of others.  Now that’s the need, and you can go on and on with those needs.  You can also pray any where.  For example, in Scripture, Jonah prayed in the deep; on the housetop, Peter prayed; on your bed, like Hezekiah, you can pray; or on a mountain as Jesus did pray.  In the wilderness, Hagar prayed; in the street, Jairus prayed; in the cave, David prayed; on the cross, the dying thief prayed. 

            So any need, any where, and any style of prayer.  Going back to Scripture, Peter prayed a short prayer as well as a Publican.  Moses prayed a long one at the dedication of the Temple.  You can pray in silence like Hannah did in the Temple or your secret thoughts as Nehemiah did before Darius.  Or you can pray out loud as the Phoenician woman, or with tears as Magdalene did.  Groans and songs are the style of David’s prayer that we find in the Psalms.  You can pray at anytime—in the morning as David did, at noon as Daniel, midnight as Paul and Silas prayed, in your childhood as Samuel did, in your youth as Timothy, in your manhood or adulthood as the Centurion, even in your old age as Simian did, in sickness Job prayed, or even in death like Jacob and the dying Christ.  So you are not limited in this time of prayer and the commitment to pray in a way that will make a great difference in your life and in the model of the life for your children.   

Now, healing was the second part.  Remember when Jesus cleared the Temple of money changers and those who were of need came to Him and He healed many that day?  Let me keep you apprised of what healing is though.  Most of the cases, but not all, are a physical healing.  And God can heal physical abnormalities and problems and difficulties.  Someone was telling me last night.  Elton believes prayer; Elton Thompson believes prayer healed a stone he had in his kidney duct.  They were ready to remove it; they went back and did an x-ray. He said, “We’ve been praying for it and it was gone.”  I question not those kinds of healings.  But remember, those are only momentary.  Any physical healing only lasts for the rest of our life.  We eventually die, all of us.  But spiritual healing, emotional healing, in the Scripture today Jesus lived out a ministry about healing in the sanctuary, in the temple where we live.  That’s where our hearts are, and our emotions, and our memories.  Miraculous healing of physical is an outward sign but the much more important one is the spiritual healing.  Dr. David Seamonds dedicates a whole book to the healing of memories because he believes that until we are able to heal that which we are carrying around as baggage and hurt from our past, we may well be stuck in the present and not be able to live towards the future. 

I found a prayer I want to use for you to merge these two together about healing, about praying.  And it focuses on past events in our lives.  So will you enter an attitude of prayer, remember you can keep your eyes open or bow your heads, fold your hands, look up to the ceiling.  In any attitude and in any way, but let us be in prayer together as I share this for you and with you. 

“Lord, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, go back into my past memory today.  There have been a number of events that have hurt me.  They have troubled my heart and my soul.  Every hurt that has ever been done to me and my body or my emotions, please heal those hurts.  Every hurt that I have knowingly or unknowingly caused to another person, bring healing to that hurt too.  Help me to remember them so that I may ask for healing to take place.  Please, Lord, give me strength to look at those memories with courage.  Lord, if there is anything that I need to do show me.  If I need to go to another person because they are still suffering from my part, let me become aware of that person in my memory.  As I do remember, help me to be humble and ask for forgiveness.  I choose to forgive the hurts that are done to me.  My tongue will say that I forgive and make my mind and my heart come in to line with your Word that I have spoken.  I also ask to forgive the sins and wrongs that have been done to me.  Please remove whatever bitterness and unforgiveness may still be in my heart, Lord.  I don’t need to walk around with that in my life.  Fill me with your love, your peace.  Let me see my brothers and sisters through your eyes, Jesus, not mine.  Let me look at everyone with all of the love that I can.  Help me to put a guard over my mouth every day so that I may also glorify you.  Let me be a Christian witness of your love to me.  Please help me to bring about healing in the hearts of all that I see throughout my days.  I love you Lord so much.  I’m grateful to you because you love me.  You make me feel special and at peace.  Thank you, Lord, and in the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.” 

Prayer, healing, and then the children broke forth into praise.  The leaders were indignant, but Jesus said, “Let them speak.  Let them praise in a way that will help them to know that truly my spirit is present.”  There is a story of a pastor who, when he gave a sermon, it was a very determined sermon.  He had to focus very clearly on the notes and his writings and any interruption was a bother to him.  Well, there was a lady named Betty at his church who liked to give words of praise and when she heard something that really touched her soul she might say “Praise the Lord!” in the middle of the sermon.  This really irritated the pastor, irritated him so much that he held it for a while and finally said, “I’ve got to do something about it.”  So he went to visit Betty at the beginning of the year just like we are.  He said to Betty, “I can not tolerate your breaking out in words of expression like that during my sermon.  It gets me out of my thought and it just ruins my train of thought and I can’t deliver my sermon, Betty.  So I want to propose something to you.  I know you don’t have much in your life and if you would just be quiet during my sermons for this next year, I will give you two wool blankets at the end of the year.”  Now Betty was very poor and she thought that might be worthwhile.  She said, “Alright, pastor, I will be quiet.”  That lasted for about six or seven weeks.  That is, Betty was quiet during the sermons and the pastor was appreciative.  But then a guest speaker came and the guest speaker started to talk about forgiveness and the blessings that will come through forgiveness and it just touched Betty’s heart and soul and she couldn’t sit there quiet any longer.  So finally she said, “Blankets or no blankets, hallelujah!”   

Sometimes, no matter what the cost is, you just have to praise God.  I felt that way when Sarai sang the piece we heard earlier.  Even more importantly for those who were at the 11:00 p.m. Candlelight service when Debbie, Roger and Sarai sang “O Holy Night”.  I’ve asked them to sing that again, hopefully next week, and they said, “Oh, oh, we sort of just did it on the spot and we didn’t write down notes.”  But I said, “Well, the spirit led you once, the spirit could lead you twice.”  I really felt a sense of praise and I said so in that service.  Praising, recognizing blessings, it’s something that we need to, as we say at this end of this calendar year, take stock of what you have experienced.  Not just necessarily to remember the hurts and the wrongs, but also to take a blessing count.  Count your many blessings as they say. 

There was a man who had lived in his home four decades.  And it had become sort of this old comfortable home to him and he thought maybe in his older age he’d like to have a new place.  So he called a realtor and said, “Sir, I’d like to sell my house, would you please list it?”  He said, “Yes, I’ll take care of the paperwork and I’ll be back and check everything out.”  And so in about a couple of days he came back and he said, “This is the ad that we want to put in to the paper.”  And he read the ad to the old gentleman.  At the end of the reading he said, “Would you read that again to me?”  He read it again.  The agent read the description of this house in which he had lived for four decades.  After the end of the second reading, the gentleman said, “I don’t think I want to sell it after all.  That sounds like the place I’ve been looking for.  I think I stay here.  I didn’t know what I already owned.”   

Isn’t that the way it should be?  To be appreciative of what we have?  Not so much wishing what we don’t have yet, looking forward to that, thinking it will make our lives better when we have so much to be counting as blessings, particularly the people around us.  Maybe we could start this year by asking God to open our eyes to the possessions we have in Christ above all.  Begin by recognizing all that you have first in Christ and then in your loved ones and your family even if they are gone from you now.  Count them as blessings for the time you had with them. 

Another way to praise is to consider that whatever season that you may be in, and it may be a difficult moment, maybe you can take the way of a pastor who said on a very cold and miserable January morning, he turned to the people in his praying and he said, “Thank you, O Lord, that it is not always like this.”  Bishop Michael Coyner tells a story about his mother particularly when they were living in North Dakota.  When you repair roads in North Dakota you repair the whole road at once.  You don’t just block a lane; you make a new path out into a field.  And so the orange barrels, the signs, the detour and all of that (you’re use to that around here, you’ve experienced it).  But her response whenever she comes across that barrier in her life, she’ll say, “It will be so nice when it is finished.” What an attitude!  It will be so nice when you get through the hard experienced that you are having in your life.  It will be so nice to know that this only lasts for a season even if the season is this physical life when we count the blessings of what God gives to us.  Hopefully you can find some level of praise in that looking of your world and your life. 

So I want you to remember those three words—prayer, healing, and praise.  It’s clear it is what Jesus wanted us to hear.  It is very evident in that passage of Scripture. It’s a great model for us individually and as a church. Let not just end the year by saying, “Thank God it’s over.”  But, indeed, look forward to what the Lord will provide.  And may we as a whole church take an attitude of keeping prayer central to who we are and what we are about. As Nancy mentioned in her prayer about leadership, we are going to have a time of training and dedication in two weeks.  Next week we will look at the visit of the magi, in two weeks about baptism and the installation and dedication of leaders.  It is an important time for us to see the value of communion and baptism and dedication and leadership.  And they will be challenged to keep prayer central to their lives.  And may you understand to be healed for past hurts and pains that have been caused to you or that you have caused and may your whole life, you live a life of praise.  That will make it a great year at least to start with.  And then, as we journey together, in this year.  

Let’s us join together for prayer, “I admit, Lord, it is difficult at times to keep you central, to keep my heart and my mind on you.  But that’s what you ask for us to do.  That’s what prayer is about--to keep in touch with you daily if only for a few minutes at the beginning of the day or at the end with our children or our grandchildren.  If only to recognize that we have something in the past that needs healing.  If we will but praise you for these two gifts it will be a new day, a new year, a renewed life in you.  Thank you, Lord.  In the name of Christ, we pray.  Amen.

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