This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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Past, present, and future are tied together in Christ.
My fear of this coming darkness only lasts a moment.
We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
“So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.