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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Not only does God reveal the identity of Jesus in this season through what we see and hear Jesus doing and saying, but God also reveals His gracious will through Jesus despite what we see and hear.
The angel was very specific when he told Mary and Joseph to name the boy, Jesus. Why? What is the Hebrew background and meaning of his name? And how does knowing his name give us the key to his ear?
While the world and other religions might be fine with considering him everything but, the foremost thing our Jesus came to be and still remains is Jesus, Savior.
Buried deep in our human psyche, there seems to be more than a need—almost a necessity—to celebrate the arrival of a new year. It’s like an unspoken, unlegislated cultural demand, as instinctual as moving to music or smiling at a newborn. Why? What deep human need is at work here?
Love turns out to be not simply a thing or action, but a characteristic of God himself.
The shepherds are the most unlikely people to play the role the angels cast them in.
The episode of the boy Jesus in the Temple raises questions. It raised questions for Mary (and Joseph) and it raises questions for us.
What we are asked to believe as we ponder the birth of this child is that in his coming, a new creation has dawned.
The best we would have to look forward to, without Jesus, is a society dedicated to addressing problems and working through them.
Let us ponder the Son, the precious Son of God, given as a ransom and sacrifice for us, that we too might be called children of God.
Isaiah speaks to our time. He speaks to our rejoicing now and an anticipated joy-filled future. Christ’s coming, Christmas, brings them both.
Luke does not say much else about Anna, especially in comparison to Simeon. But the fact that he mentions her suggests she has something to teach your hearers today.