Are you contagious?

           Are you contagious?  If so, then please come to worship this Sunday to spread your contagion and to catch the contagion brought by your friends here at FUBC.  All of us will benefit from being contagious with the love of God as revealed in Jesus.  Unlike other contagions, the love of God revealed in Jesus is not a disease.  It does not make people sick.  It makes people better.
            Do you have a fever, a passion, for joy and sharing it?  Are you warmed by a vision of the way the world could be if only everyone cared as deeply for others as for themselves?  I hope so.  A fever, a passion, for joy and sharing it, is a good thing, especially when it is rooted in and motivated by a love for God and a desire to love creation as God does.
            I think that every person I know fairly well has known or is now knowing pain and sorrow; has battled through internal conflicts, has experienced loss and suffering.  One of the lessons our faith teaches us is that joy can be found and felt and shared and given away even in heartache.  It is a joy found through divine love and its human expressions.
            Are you contagious with the love of God as revealed in Jesus?  I hope so.  Whether you are or not, I hope you will join us this Sunday.