Sunday

This Sunday from Trinity Church, NYC

Diocese of South Dakota

October 10, 2025

Our Friday newsletters share a passage from Sunday’s Scriptures and offer a few questions to get you thinking about what we’ll read together in church. They include links to resources that give context, inspire new ideas, and more.

A Look Ahead to the Readings: Luke 17:11–19

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” 

Step Into the Story : 3 Ways to Go Deeper

 Commentary The setting for this week’s story is significant: It takes place at the border. It’s between Samaria and Galilee that Jesus meets 10 people suffering from leprosy, a chronic — and isolating — skin infection. Yet “Jesus seems to be all about crossing boundaries, both physical and theoretical,” writes pastor Dennis Sanders, so he crosses another to heal them. Notably, it’s the foreigner who turns back to give thanks. “As a Samaritan, he . . . knows what it means to be on the other side of a border, and now he knows that things have dramatically changed.” 

 Poetry “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus says to the Samaritan. It’s easy for us to think of faith as buoyant, pristine optimism, but what if sometimes it’s more like down-in-the-dirt persistence — a human instinct for survival? In “The Thing Is,” poet Emma Bass describes the latter. 

 Mindfulness How might we build bridges to healing in our own lives? “No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding,” writes Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. “If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.” 

Reflection Questions: Take a Moment to Wonder

  • What societal boundaries might you cross as an agent of healing?

  • Where in your life might you trade placing blame for practicing understanding? 

  • What does faith feel like for you today?