Welcome from Pastor Patrick Curley

“Modern Leprosy”

H1N1.  It’s kind of like H2O or E=MC2.  We all know what it means.  You don’t have to be a surgeon or a physics genius to recognize those encrypted formulas.  They have been integrated into society’s lingo.  H1N1 is, of course, the virus that causes “swine flu”.  Doctors and health officials have been warning since last spring really of a potential pandemic.  The mutated form of this virus could potentially be devastating.  So wash your hands a lot and don’t go out if you’re sick and spread the illness to others.

Many can’t believe that we still have such worries in our modern age.  I mean, hasn’t medical science all but cancelled out disease?  Who fears polio, tuberculosis or whooping cough anymore?  (Yet these are making a comeback, too).  Influenza was devastating a century ago, but now?  Sure we have AIDS and cancer to contend with but gone are the days of the Black Plague that was the scourge of humanity.  There are no modern plagues; at least, in America. Right?  Apparently not.  There are still a lot of bad bugs out there and increasingly unfazed by our antibiotics and other medical wizardry.

In Jesus’ day it was leprosy.  It was one of the most horrific diseases known to man, eating away literally at the flesh like some necrotizing fasciitis (I was on a jury panel once for medical malpractice).  But there is another disease that is far worse that eats away at our flesh, heart and very soul.  It is sin.  Sin separates us from God eternally if not for the medicine offered in the blood of Jesus received in faith.

Jesus not only healed leprosy.  He forgives sin and thus rescues us from death and hell.  In one recorded incident in Luke 17:11-19, Jesus healed ten lepers; however, only one returned to thank Him and was commended for his faith.  Ingratitude.  That’s a disease, too.  It is a spoiled selfishness that wears at the heart and spirit.  It weighs us down.  And ingratitude is an epidemic that is spreading across America.  It robs us of our joy.  It causes us to fight with one another and destroy the common good.

I pray that this year we will truly pause as a nation and count our many blessings.  I pray we will be thankful.  We have been redeemed from sin and death through Christ’s cross.  Certainly that is reason enough to return and give thanks to the Lord.  He is good; His mercy endures forever. And in His grace, with joyful hearts and minds, we find a healing from any problem or modern disease this sin sick world can throw our way.  See ya’ Sunday!