1. For Luther, those who refuse Christ as a curse want their sin removed not in Christ but in themselves.
  2. God is mercy. He was mercy then. He’s mercy now. God showed them His glory, if only a reflection, in the face of Moses.
  3. The firestorm of the Reformation which turned Europe upside-down was not Luther’s doing. It was the Word, and the Spirit working through it.
  4. The world we inhabit is wrong in so many ways, and a holistic approach to this “wrongness” traces its cause both to sin itself and to the effects of sin.
  5. Our only claim to fame is that we have been claimed by a God who is consistently drawn to losers!
  6. Christ has received the mark of law that we might be marked with the gospel, with the sign of his holy cross on our heads and hearts as redeemed children of God.
  7. Moses was sent to keep the house in order, but this Child is sent to bring the house home, and you are part of that house, the household of God.
  8. Getting ready for Christ’s coming is a practice in humility.
  9. The Word of Yahweh is not a trifling thing that can be visited only when it’s convenient. It’s a book of life, for all of life, that imparts life to those who believe in it and the God of it.
  10. The youths that mock Elisha are representative of Israel’s collective contempt and disregard for all things relating to their One True God.
  11. The Reformation was yet another era of history when God’s people were faced with the question that Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”