The Church is a Hospital to Heal Sin Sick Souls

Newsletter article for May 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

After further thought about last month’s article on crime, and discussions with people about it, I believe I made certain assumptions in the article which if you didn’t catch them would give you the wrong idea. Crime is not the problem. Crime is only a symptom of the problem.

Sin is the real problem. Sin is the cause of all crime. Sin is the cause of broken relationships and broken families. Sin is the cause of racism. Sin is what makes people distrust one another. Sin causes envy and obsessive jealousy which destroys people. If we want to get rid of the symptoms of crime, violence, and hatred, we need to address the cause, not just the symptoms.

In last month’s article I in no way meant to suggest that there are somehow two or more societies within American society. Nor did I intend to suggest that black society is somehow responsible for all the problems of crime. There is no such thing as a white society in our country which is removed from, and unaffected by, a separate black society. My assumption is that we are all in this together. What hurts (or helps) one part of our one society, hurts (or helps) all the other parts. White people cannot say, “It’s a black problem, it doesn’t affect me.” Black people cannot say, “It’s a white problem, it doesn’t affect me.” If there is a relaxed attitude about crime and violence in America, it certainly didn’t originate among the African American segments of society, but as the newspaper article I cited pointed out — the black segments of our society are suffering a disproportionate amount of the tragic consequences. My point is that this hurts us all.

The trouble with sin is that it is an incurable disease, and we are all infected. Sin is not limited to any national borders, or racial differences, or gender differences. Sin is much worse than AIDS or cancer, or any other disease, because the mortality rate is 100%. Every day of our lives is a battle against sin. The question is, how can we fight against sin?

Sin cannot be overcome by attacking the symptoms. We cannot become less sinful by sinning less. It sounds like a paradox, but only if we think of sin as only something we do, and not something that infects us. A person with AIDS cannot be cured by simply avoiding sickness. Even if we somehow could stop sinning (an impossible task) the disease would remain.

The danger with treating only the symptoms of sin is that if you are even a little bit successful in keeping yourself away from committing sins, you might convince yourself that you had overcome the disease. This is called “self righteousness.” If you convince yourself that you are healed from sin, or at least that you do not need the cure, then you won’t look for the cure, or you will reject it when it comes.

The only cure for sin is Jesus. He is the only way that we have any hope of surviving this disease called sin. Jesus cured our disease when He died on the cross. Unfortunately, we must wait to see the full benefits of the cure. The good news is that the cure (Jesus) gives us life that lasts forever. The bad news is that we must still struggle against sin and its consequences as long as we live. However, even this bad news is tempered by the fact that we are not alone in this struggle. Even in this life, Christ himself gives us the power to love one another and do the good works that God wants us to do.

The Church plays a strong role in helping us overcome the problems that sin causes. If sin is our disease then the Church is the hospital where we go for treatment. The “medicine” which God gives us for healing are called the “means of grace.” They are God’s Word, and the sacraments. Church is where we hear the good news about Jesus, and where our faith in Jesus is strengthened through personal contact with Him in the sacraments. Just like in the Old Testament where the people who were bitten by the snakes had to look up to the bronze snake on the pole in order to be healed, so we need to look to Jesus for the healing of our sin-sick souls. The focus of our worship at St. Timothy is always on what Jesus has done to save us. When we meet together to worship Jesus we are strengthened for our battle against sin. Those who do not attend worship regularly are at a disadvantage.

Where can a person find strength in Christ, if not at Church? Some may say that they can worship Jesus just as well at home or at the golf course, but do they? That’s like me saying that my car can get over 30 miles per gallon. It can, but I’ve only done it once in two years. If I drive on the assumption that I am currently getting 30 mpg then I will soon run out of gas.

My friends, if we wish to get rid of the problems which plague our society, then we must treat the cause, not the symptoms. Although we all contribute to the problem of sin in the world, Christ’s cure is much more powerful than all our diseases. Christ has rescued us from the deadly infection of sin. We should not be content to stand by and watch others be consumed by this disease when we know the cure, but we need to keep ourselves strong through faith in Christ. If you do not make it a habit to strengthen your faith through regular worship and prayer, then you are depriving yourself of a strong weapon to help you survive your battle against sin. We should also encourage one another to attend worship regularly so that we can help build them up too, as St. Paul gave encouragement to the church in Rome, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)

Since Sin is a spiritual problem and a spiritual disease, next month I intend to discuss what it means to have a spiritual life, and what Christian Spirituality is about.