chapel101310

Chapel 101310
Vicar Darren Harbaugh
Can anybody tell me what this is? That’s right. It’s a thank you card. What are these cards used for? Right. We use them to show our appreciation when someone has done something special for us or given us something.

Sometimes people forget to say thank you. You may even think its rude if someone doesn’t thank you when you do something nice for them or when you give them a gift. But we often forget to thank God, who is the giver of all good gifts.

In our reading for today, Jesus gave a great gift to 10 lepers. Not leopards, like the big cats with spots on them, but lepers. These are people that had leprosy, one of the worst diseases in Jesus’ time. People who had leprosy were forced to leave their homes and their families and go to places all by where only other people with leprosy lived. They usually stayed there until they died. They hardly ever got better because there was no medicine to heal leprosy. When the 10 lepers in our story saw Jesus, they called out for help, “Jesus, have mercy on us!” We will sing these words later in chapel this morning. We are confessing that we are helpless like those lepers when we cry out “Lord, have mercy!” We have a disease worse than leprosy. We have the disease of sin.

Well, Jesus healed the lepers. It was a miracle. The lepers could finally go back to their families. Jesus also heals us, from our disease of sin by his death on the cross. We are able to join the family of God.

All 10 of the lepers in the story were healed but only one went back to thank Jesus. What are some reasons why we don’t say thank you? Yeah, we forget, don’t appreciate the gift, get distracted

Why did the one leper return? Jesus tells him, “Your faith has made you well.” The leper that returned was healed from his sickness and from his sins because of his faith in Jesus.

There are lots of things we can thank God for, but the most important is the gift of salvation and faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t need to write God a thank-you note, but we can say thank you to him when we pray to Him and sing to Him and when we continue to call out Lord, have mercy! Let’s thank God for the gifts He has given us.

Father in Heaven, thank you for giving us life, for taking care of us, and most of all for giving your Son Jesus to save us. Thank you for the most precious gift of faith and eternal life in heaven. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.