1. This is an excerpt from the prologue of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  2. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  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. 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.
  5. The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
  6. I think the problem with the idea of eternity is that we do not have any direct experience of it, but we encounter enough of its possibility to be unsettling.
  7. 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.
  8. Psalm 98, with its promise of a sea and mountains singing, takes these imposing natural features and turns them into a praise choir.
  9. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  10. Rejoice with Mary as she would rejoice with you. Be blessed, like her, with humility from God, so that you may serve joyfully and willingly wherever and in whatever role God has placed you.
  11. By his first Advent in the flesh, through his second Advent with bread and wine and water and Word, we await his third Advent at the end.
  12. When and how did the church start this season of anticipation?