Happy Reformation Sunday! The week we celebrate Martin Luther's work to reform the Church and Society, pointing us toward God's grace through faith and not our own actions. Today we get a text of Jesus promising freedom by the truth of love and not anything we are able to accomplish on our own. Grace is a release from the spiral of sin and perfectionism we often find ourselves in if only we are able to admit that perfection is impossible.

In today's sermon we hear the story of the 10 people cured of their skin disease who are made well while still on the way to show their cured state to the priests. It is a great act of hope... and points to showing up in faith even when we don't have everything figured out. Their healing happens while on their journey, and the one who returns in thanksgiving shows us what wholeness could look like for us.

This week we celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi and think about our relationship to creation, including our non-human companions on this earth. So often we find ourselves removed from our connection to creation, but this is not God's intent. Our beginning story in Genesis shows an intimate and interdependent relationship with creation, with God, and with each other. When we live with these symbiotic connections in mind, we live into the Kingdom of God, and God's original hope for us.