This is an excerpt from the introduction of Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Christopher Richmann (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.

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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.
Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
A Christian is a man who desires to enter heaven not through his own goodness and works, but through the righteousness and works of Christ.
Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus stands before the disciples as the bridge between heaven and earth, and between Old Testament and New Testament.
His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
“So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
This week we will take a closer look at God's love in Scripture.
The earliest followers of God sang their faith, which is no different today as we sing of the hope we have in Jesus.
This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.