Sermon for The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2024

Once, you were like these lepers at the beginning of this Gospel: your sins excluded you from heaven. Now, however, because Jesus went to Jerusalem to suffer and die in your stead, you have total access to God’s mercy. In recognizing this, join the one returning once-leper who with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks; join him in lifting up your voice, and with the Psalmist, saying, “How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.” For here, this place becomes heaven on earth, as the Lord, Christ Jesus Himself dwells with you in Word and Blessed Sacrament, bestowing upon you that which your soul longs for and faints with joy in receiving, namely, the forgiveness of sins, life, and everlasting salvation. 

Readings:

• Old Testament: Proverbs 4:10-23

• Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24

• Holy Gospel: Luke 17:11-19

Sermon: