Did you ever have to do a “tick check?”  I remember doing many a tick check with our kids after hiking in the woods.  I love camping but I hate those little blood sucking ticks that latch on and dig into our bodies – yuck!  They are little parasites that thrive off us and interestingly enough, they have more than a few similarities to sin.

 But, sin is not alive!  But it looks alive.  It has certain characteristics which make it look like a being of sorts, but it is neither a person nor is it really alive.  In fact, it’s a life drainer.  Paul says in Romans chapter 7, that sin is like a living “evil” entity that is attacking his body. He even says, that “sin killed me.”  It seems that sin is something that attacks us from within, like a virus or parasite.  It need us, lives off us, and just like the yucky tick, drains life from us.  And the kicker is, once dug in, it never wants to leave. 

 

This Sunday we continue in our Lenten Sermon Series, “If God is so good, why do I feel so bad.”  In part II, we discuss sin as “a parasite with a failure to launch – ever.”  One answer to the “why do we feel so bad” question, is that the “parasitic nature” of sin accounts for the fruitfulness of sin.  In short, as funny and strange as it might sound, sin needs our good so it can do bad!  This may help offer at least one answer to another age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

 

But, we don’t have to beat ourselves up thinking we are just worthless human beings.  We are not bad; we’ve just got the bug.  And, the reason we are so attractive to the parasitic bug of sin is because we were created good. 

 

So, it makes no sense to blame the doctor (God) for us having a parasite; the doctor is the one who can offer the cure.  And even though it may not always show, and we may not always feel it, there is a glimmer of good in us and a great physician who want to nurture us to fullness. 

 

You can hear the rest of the story this Sunday March 16 during our worship services.