1. The needs of the people remain the same, but now the people are you and me. We still sin, and that sin causes so many challenges in our lives.
  2. It’s scary to share my struggle and to show that I have cracks because once I’ve shown my cards, I open myself up for judgment.
  3. Human history, our history, is the story of two Adams with two very different encounters with the devil.
  4. 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.
  5. Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.
  6. This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
  7. As disciples of Jesus, our righteousness cannot be performed before others, because our righteousness was already performed by Jesus.
  8. Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
  9. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  10. God gives us the power and authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to burdened sinners who entrust us with their pain, guilt, and defeat.
  11. Repentance is meaningless unless we are willing to acknowledge who we are: sinners needing mercy.
  12. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.