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. 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.
  3. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  4. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.
  8. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. When and how did the church start this season of anticipation?
  12. Help comes for those who cannot help themselves. When we bottom-out and come to the end of ourselves, that is where hope springs.