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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Jesus curses our cultural expectations. He says "woe" to those who are rich, satisfied, joyful, and praised. The good life of our world is not good for discipleship.
Because Jesus has set us free, we enjoy a freedom of movement in His world, under His grace, that loosens our tongues to sing His praise.
Isaiah finds himself in the presence of the living God—the Holy One. This is a terrifying situation because Isaiah knows full well that the unholy cannot endure the presence of the Holy.
The miraculous catch of fish happens not just once in the ministry of Jesus but twice. And, interestingly this miracle happens twice to the same person. Simon Peter.
Paul imagines a time when we are no longer immature children, seeking to show off spiritually, but instead demonstrating the maturity that comes from edifying others.
If we think God’s power, love and beauty are reserved merely for the glories of Transfiguration, then we have not understood the Father; we have not understood divine revelation.
The LORD cleanses, prepares, and fills the mouths of His prophets, so they might be able to proclaim the holy Word of the LORD.
The same Christ we proclaim to the people in our pews is the same Christ who is for those not in our pews.
Paul has no interest in a love which does not find real traction in our daily lives.
Here, robed in Word and Sacrament, is your King, infant though He be, come out of eternity into time to bring you out of time and into eternity.
Jesus' cross is for dull shepherds and bright magi. It is for the whole world. It is for you.
The gift is God’s and not ours, and the fact that any of us have any role to play at all in the Body of Christ is an amazing grace.