Sermon for Trinity XIV, September 6th, 2026

Brothers and sisters, 

If we look at the Gospel lesson today, we see the following situation: We see 10 suffering humans who have been cut off from all community whatsoever. They bring the impossible situation to Christ. Christ tells them to go to the priests before they can see the healing. St Cyril of Alexandria beautifully says, “He sent them to the priests, and with them He sent also the healing.” Their healing meets them on the road of obedience. The lepers took the initiative to call out to the Lordn the midst of our afflictions, we must stop operating on a horizontal life and look vertically. 

What is the Horizontal life you ask? The horizontal life is life lived merely on the human plane, apart from God. The vertical life is the same human life opened upward to God, and once the vertical relationship is restored, God transforms the horizontal relationships too. 

The past few weeks, I’ve been speaking of some of the mysterious paradoxes of the faith. In repentance and humility, we are exalted and made whole; in obedience, we find freedom. Today, the mystery we ponder is the comfort and peace we get when we stop trying to fix our problems by ourselves without inviting God in, and actually invite him into our situations. 

St. John Chrysostom uses almost this exact image. Water left on level ground spreads outward, but when pressure comes upon it, it is driven upward. So too, he says, affliction can gather the scattered mind and send prayer upward to God……..

Healing of the Ten Lepers by Christ

Louis Surugue, after Girolamo Genga,  ca. 1729. Etching and engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain.