1. This is an excerpt from the introduction of “Common Places in Christian Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly,” edited by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  2. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  3. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  4. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  5. 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.
  6. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  7. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  8. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
  9. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
  10. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
  11. Take courage, you who were lost: Jesus comes to seek and save that which is lost. Ye sick, return to health: Christ comes to heal the contrite of heart with the balm of his mercy. Rejoice, all you who desire great things: the Son of God comes down to you that he may make you the co-heirs of his kingdom.