1. This is an excerpt from part two of “On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service” by Mike Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023).
  2. By mandating the promise, Christ states something stronger than just an invitation.
  3. Maundy Thursday is your big night. For the Passover Lamb is given for you, given to you.
  4. You are not alone if you find it difficult to wrap your mind around the auspices of the Old Testament sacrificial system.
  5. 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).
  6. My fear of this coming darkness only lasts a moment.
  7. What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
  8. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  9. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  10. Some explanations are better than others, but they remain our explanations—except if we had some perspective from outside, above, and behind nature.
  11. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  12. 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.