From the very beginning, the community that God was forming was going to be much more inclusive than anyone could have imagined.
There are important historical reasons for making a distinction between ministry and vocation.
It appeared everything would work out perfectly when Ivan the Great married Sophia Palaiologos. But when inheritance was discussed the problems arrived.

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The Lion of Judah, Christ the King, Jesus of Nazareth, will not be away from us for one night.
This great victory, the true defeat of death, I receive not by my thinking, willing, or working, but simply by believing.
This is an edited excerpt from Addendum A, “The Church Year,” On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service, written by Michael Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023), pgs. 113-120.
In Christ, this world’s never-children are his always-children, because he isn’t a God of death, after all.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
For you who are struggling to navigate grief, to cope with pain, or breathe through anxiety, the gospel announces that there is a person whose heart throbs for you.
Jesus continues to do the same for me and for you as he did for his disciples. He still shows up for us. He still speaks his peace to us.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
What if the dissonance in this calendrical coincidence can be harmonized into a deeper melody?
My goal here isn’t to selfishly reflect on all the reasons I will miss Rod because I know that if you are reading this, you may miss this man, too.
A “good death” and “good life” are not accomplished through personal striving but are grasped by faith in the promises of God.