The women at the tomb were surprised by Easter. Amazed and filled with wonder at Jesus' Easter eucatastrophe. And so are we.
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.

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God preaches a concrete word to us in the present tense. We hear the Good News that Jesus is God’s mercy for us.
The following is an excerpt from Martin Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (1535), translated by Haroldo Camacho (1517 Publishing, 2018).
Hus held that Christ alone grants salvation and that popes do not.
The miracle of Pentecost is not obvious; it is the miracle of faith created through the preaching of the word of the cross.
In Martin Luther's Small Catechism he borrows a line from St. Augustine about what defines a "god."
I’ve always been more at home in the Old Testament than in the New Testament.
Only Jesus’ absolute absolution can satisfy a troubled conscience.
This reflection was adapted from Sexy: The Quest for Erotic Virtue in Perplexing Times (1517 Publishing, 2017).
The pastor declares it. We receive it. The forgiveness of sins. It’s a simple thing.
You say: Since forgiveness depends on faith alone, why must one nonetheless do good works? Answer: If faith is of the true sort, it cannot be without good works, just as no good work can be where unbelief dwells.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that simple boy. An orange sky warms the deserted streets with the final glow of safe light.
Faith does not distinguish between worthy and unworthy, saint and sinner, great faith and anemic faith, it only focuses on Christ Jesus.