Austin Agape Roundtable

A Celtic Blessing

2010-11-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and those who see and hear your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration, and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in bland absence.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.
May your soul calm, console, and renew you.

Eid tradition unites community

2010-09-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Article by our very own Audrey White, published in today's Daily Texan!

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/eid-tradition-unites-community

Austin Agape's upcoming events and activities!

2010-09-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, all!

I hope everyones' week is off to a great start.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Food for Thought last night! We had a great turn out and the meal was delectable! Our next gathering of this kind will probably be sometime around the holidays, so look forward to that.

Also, I am pleased to announce that we have a date and venue for the Fall Retreat! Our retreat will be held Oct. 16-17 at the Stark's Sports Ranch in Dripping Springs! I know that some of you had planned to travel to Nebraska (Godspeed) that weekend for the UT/Nebraska game :( I wish we could have had our retreat during the by week (Oct. 11-12) but neither John Knox nor the Starks' Ranch was available that weekend. I can't wait for the opportunity to really spend some time with everyone! Please EMAIL me if you're interested in attending!

We have a lot going on this week! Here's a look at some of our events and opportunities for fellowship:

Monday - Bible Study at 7 pm in the youth room upstairs at UPC. Last night I told you that we'd be watching "The Apostle" but I was unable to get my hands on it, so we're watching "Up in the Air" instead. Come, even if you've seen it. We'll be discussing the ways in which time is meaningful to our lives. (Fear not, popcorn will be on hand!)

Wednesday - Wednesday at Wendy's from 11 - 1 on the patio (weather permitting) outside the UT Commons.

Also on Wednesdays, look for us at the Plucker's on Rio Grande for trivia night! We'll try to beat last week's score of 16 correct answers (out of 50)! We need all the brainpower we can muster, so join us if you can!

Friday - Lunch at Kirby Lane at 1 pm. We had an excellent turn out last week! And I think meeting at 1 helps us get seated faster.

**This is very important** If you were at Evening Worship last night then you heard Beth Vivio speak about how our students can contribute to our church's capital campaign. We need volunteers to help set up, serve, and clean up our Fiesta Lunch on Sunday, September 19. That's this Sunday! PLEASE come if you are able! We need 5 - 10 volunteers to help with our lunch. Email me and let me know if you can be there.

I will be out of town this weekend. I'm leaving Thursday afternoon and won't be back until Sunday afternoon, so I'll miss lunch at Kirby and the Fiesta Lunch :( Fortunately, Shane and Sarah Webb have stepped up and agreed to be point persons for our Student Volunteer Operation on Sunday!

I will be keynoting at the East Texas Youth Connection this weekend; a conference for Presbyterian youth who are forced to live in East Texas ;) Just kidding. But hopefully some of them will want to join us next year if they come to UT!!

In other news, Taize is coming! Our first Taize service of the year is September 26th at 7 pm. We need musicians and an opportunity to practice before our first service. Judy, unfortunately, is not able to play the piano for us this month :( If you are interested in singing, playing the piano, or another instrument, please let me know!

I know that was a lot of information! Thanks for bearing with me! Please join us this week for some fun (even if you can only stop by for a moment or two); we can't wait to see you!

Grace and peace,

kaci

ORANGE you coming to Campus Dinner this Sunday?!

2010-08-24T12:52:00.001-07:00

Well folks, this is it… School is (almost) in session!!! The Drag has been completely overrun with students and their parents; needless to say, it’s been a bustling place around west campus these last few days!

If you’re wondering how to spend your last night of freedom, then wonder no further and wander over to Spider House this evening (8/24) at 8 pm! We’d love to see you there!!!

If you can’t make it to Spider House tonight then join us for lunch tomorrow between 11 am and 1 pm in the food court. Meet us on the patio (unless it’s WAY too hot, then we’ll move inside).

Thank you to everyone who joined us for dinner and worship on Sunday night. We had a nice crowd for our first week and we’re hoping for even more new and familiar faces to join us this Sunday! I’m not sure what Barbara’s cookin’ up, but one thing’s a given: it will be hot, tasty, and delicious!!! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE come, welcome our newcomers, and catch up with friends you haven’t seen in a while!!!

AND… This is important… WEAR ORANGE ON SUNDAY EVENING!!!! Let’s kick off the school year in style and spirit! Wear your UT gear. All of it. A PRIZE WILL BE AWARDED TO THE PERSON SPORTING THE MOST BURNT ORANGE!!!! I can’t wait to see what all of you come up with!

Remember: dinner starts at 6 pm; followed by worship at 7 pm.

ALSO, our campus bible study - which, I am pleased to announce!, will be facilitated by Josh Gahr - will begin Monday, August 30^th at 7 pm in the youth room upstairs at UPC. We are so grateful to Josh for his leadership and for the gifts and graces he will share with us this semester. Josh is a graduate of Austin Seminary where he was President of the Student Body his senior year; he’s currently an English teacher and the editor of a wonderful publication called “The Common Voice.” Come, join the conversation, and allow your faith to be deepened with new ventures and challenges! Our study will begin Monday, August 30, 7 – 8:30 pm.

Have a fabulous week, everyone! I can’t wait to hear about the blunders and unexpected surprises (that’s kinda redundant, forgive me) that the week will hold J

See you soon!

Grace & peace,

kaci

Google Calendar Link - UPC Campus Ministry

2010-08-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=upccampus%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago

FIRST CAMPUS DINNER & EVENING WORSHIP OF THE FALL SEMESTER!!!!!

2010-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hello, Barcodes and friends of campus ministry!

Good news! Our first campus dinner and evening worship service is almost upon us!

This Sunday, August 22, we will meet in the Fellowship Hall at 6 pm (if you are able to come earlier to help set up, that would be wonderful!) to enjoy a delicious meal prepared by Barbara (rumor has it she’s making spaghetti with meatballs!) and to worship together as a community.

After dinner, we’ll spend time getting to know a little more about each other and welcome new guests! We’ll also talk a bit about some of the exciting opportunities on the campus ministry horizon for the coming semester! Plus, we’ll be giving away a dorm-size refrigerator!!! (fine print: You must be present to win, of course!)

I am SO excited about meeting all of you!!! Please join us this week if you are able!!!

Other upcoming events and dates to keep in mind…

Sunday, August 22:
- Morning Worship, 11 am, UPC Sanctuary.
- Overnight @ IHN. 8:30 pm – 6:30 am at the United Methodist Church.

Tuesday, August 24:
- Possible ‘Mystery Science Theatre 3000’ Watch Party at Marco’s (TBD)

Wednesday, August 25:
- First day of school! University of Texas.
- Wednesdays @ Wendy’s, campus food court and patio.

Saturday, August 28:
- FREE Becker Concert featuring Sarah Hickman!!! 7 pm. (Please arrive early to grab a seat.)

**Also, don’t forget to check out our new Google calendar!!!**

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=upccampus%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago

See you this Sunday evening!!!!

Blessings on the beginning of what I hope will be a tremendous semester,

kaci

--

Kaci M. Porter

Director of Campus & Young Adult Ministries
University Presbyterian Church
Austin, Texas

upccampus@upcaustin.org

Sermon: Too Small!

2010-08-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 49:1-7

'It is too light a thing that you should by my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'

Too small. If there’s anything that the people of Judah felt – the people of Judah from the Southern Kingdom of Israel – I’m sure it involved a day-to-day reality of feeling ‘too small. We’re distanced in time from the people who are addressed in this passage, distant in culture, distant in experience, so it’s hard to wrap our minds around the suffering these people were enduring. Too small: It would have been easy for the people of Judah to feel like the nobodies of their world.

And it’s all connected to 587 BC. To us, that’s just a number, but to the people of Judah, that year was the watershed moment. It wasn’t the beginning of their conflict with the Babylonians, but 587 was the year that solidified Judah’s defeat. The Kingdom of Babylon was a force to be reckoned with, not only in Judah but in the entire region of the near-east. With Babylon on the prowl as an ever-expanding empire, the other kingdoms of that region were terrified, fearing that their own destruction was imminent.

So that brings us to a quick history lesson: In 597, ten years before the final defeat of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar II, the King of Babylon, led an army to Jerusalem and put the city under siege, cutting the people off from food and safe access in and outside the city. The Babylonians weakened the city to the point that they eventually broke through the walls, and when they did, they wreaked havoc on Jerusalem. They plundered the city and the temple, the most sacred place of worship and self-identity for the people of Judah, and they deported the King of Judah along with 10,000 others, prominent leaders in the government and the religious establishment. The people of Judah were left with a sweeping void of leadership. And as difficult as that was, it was only a taste, only the beginning of the end concerning the life that the people knew in Judah.

And then ten years later, in 587 BC – the watershed moment – Babylon left nothing untouched. For two years – Two years! Can you imagine it?– the Babylonians put Jerusalem under another siege, cutting the people off from the outside world, and in 587, they broke through the walls, destroyed the city for a second round – homes, fields, lives - and made captives of nearly all the survivors. But before they moved the captives of Judah into the foreign land of Babylon, the Babylonians gave them a searing, final, ghastly image to take with them. The Babylonian army burned the temple to the ground – made dust of it, destroying the most sacred place of these people – destroying the house where they believed their God dwelt with them. Can you imagine the sorrow of that moment? Can you imagine the fear? The confusion?

And so the people of Judah were taken to live in a foreign land – a place they had never lived with foreign customs, a different language, a worldview not their own, and ways of worshipping gods that weren’t their own. They were a disenfranchised, defeated, second-class group of captive exiles. And they were put into theological confusion too: Where was their God? Had God abandoned them? Is it any wonder that the people of Judah believed they were too small in their world? They had lost almost everything. Too small. Too small for this world to care. And perhaps, they wondered, too small for their God to care.

But God had something to say about that. In the Book of Isaiah, a prophet arrives with a Word for the people, a Word of Hope from their God, a Word of Identity. In effect, these prophetic words are flying in the face of all the heartache that the Judeans are witnessing in their lives. The words seem to say, “Don’t you know Whose you are? And since you belong to a God who loves, a God who saves, and a God who claims, don’t you know who you are called to be? Don’t you know Whose you are?” The words from our passage today seem to rise up out of the ashes, creating an alternative vision for the future of Judah, for the future of the Jewish people, and the future of all those who put their faith, trust, and hope in God.

Too small for this world? Nope. Through the words of the prophet, God has something to say about that self-understanding. In these words, God turns that self-understanding on its head. “Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. . . And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’

Too small an identity? No! Here’s what’s too small: And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him. . . he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” It is too light a thing – too small a thing – for you Judah, people of Israel, to gather up your own tribes and restore your survivors. That’s huge, but it’s too small. You are a light to the nations, that salvation may reach everywhere! Do you know Whose you are?

What a message. The prophet’s message seems to rise out of the ashes. Babylonian dust will not be the last word. And it wasn’t. Without God’s pledge of love toward the people of Judah, we wouldn’t even have a Hebrew Bible to hear these words this morning – to know about the heartache of exile and the eventual return to the homeland. Nearly 70 years later, people or Judah did leave Babylon and return to their homeland, and our identity is connected to theirs. Our faith is sustained upon the convictions of faithful Jewish people. Apart from their testimony, we would not be who we are. A disenfranchised, defeated, second-class group of captive exiles articulated a faith that sustains people in every corner in our world. It was too small a thing to restore the tribes of Israel. Too light a thing. The people of Judah spoke salvation to the entire world.

Sometimes it takes going to a different place to see home with new eyes. Some of you know that two weeks ago Ian and I came home from ten-day trip to Germany. It was an incredible trip, filled with gorgeous views, and interesting history. And while we were on our journey, we took an impromptu day- trip to France. We crossed the border between Germany and France and stayed one night in Strasbourg. There were many points of interest in Strasbourg – including a church where John Calvin was pastor for three years, and we just unexpectedly stumbled upon it when we turned a corner on a Sunday morning. Wow. There was much to see, but without a doubt, the most awe-inspiring place we visited was the Strasbourg Cathedral. And I’m just curious: Have any of you ever been to that cathedral? Okay, a few of you know what I mean when I say awe-inspiring. It’s really an understatement. The Strasbourg Cathedral is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. Construction for the building began in the 1100s. The 1100s! Now that’s old! And it was completed in the 1400s. For three hundred years, eight generations of people created a monument to God’s holiness which is more intricate than anything I’ve ever seen. Everywhere you look, there’s a carving here, a statue there, stained-glass windows towering everywhere. It’s as if everything has significance in this cathedral – all the details -- and as I stood in awe of it, all the intricate parts seemed to point in a unified direction toward what’s ultimate – toward God, who is holy beyond comprehension.

And I’m enough of a realist to know that when a city spends three hundred years building a cathedral, part of the reasoning behind it is to flex a muscle toward other cities. Yes, I’m a realist. But that being said, the vision for this cathedral seemed to be large, and I would even say cosmic. The structure is built in the shape of a huge cross, and signs in the cathedral said that it was created to represent a ship to bring all of humanity to God. All humanity. There’s nothing ‘too small’ about that.

But even if this cathedral was built in part to flex a very large muscle, I have to say that as I looked around, I found myself in complete awe, reflecting upon how much faith it must have taken to build this structure, this cathedral for all of humanity. After all, only a strong faith in God’s holiness would be worth this much time, and this much effort, and this much money. They must have believed God was infinitely worth this display of holiness. Perhaps the builders of the Strasbourg Cathedral felt connected to Whose they are.

And it must have taken so much faith in one another as well. It would have been difficult to put that much wealth, and time, and talent, and sweat into such an endeavor, only to know that you wouldn’t see it completed in your lifetime. That’s amazing. Eight generations of lives, of individuals and communities, created this beautiful church. I wonder, did the innumerable people who contributed to this work feel that their part – no matter how small – was infinitely larger than themselves? I wonder, were they in any way aware that they were not too small for this world, that they were part of something larger than they could imagine? Today that Cathedral speaks to innumerable tourists who visit the city of Strasbourg. Nine hundred years later, a structure which was begun in a very different time period, acts as a witness, pointing toward God’s holiness for the benefit of the entire world. Anything less would be too small.

And here we are together on an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Sunday morning, but if our vision for this moment is mundane, we’re playing our faith too small. Much too small. University Presbyterian Church hasn’t experienced a Babylonian exile – though I’m sure if we reflected deeply enough, we might all discover that we’ve felt exiled in one form or another throughout our lives. And though we’re grateful for this structure where we worship, University Presbyterian Church isn’t housed in a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. But we would be missing something on this ordinary Sunday morning if we forgot to remind ourselves in this moment Whose we are. And we would be missing something if we forgot who we are, who we are in light of the amazing pledge and claim of God in our lives.

And so I turn the question to this church today– this holy, beloved community of God. Do you know Whose you are? Do you know how you’ve been claimed? Do you know who you’re called to be? Do you know that it would be too small a thing if we viewed ourselves as simple pew dwellers this morning? No, it would be too small a thing for us to sit in a pew and miss the mystery of God’s Spirit in this place. You are surrounded by a holy community – brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends. And they contain worlds – yes, actual worlds within themselves! Have you ever thought about how every person is a community of worlds – how they represent people, and places, and memories, and experiences? Do you know that you represent people, and places, and memories, and experiences? Because of Whose you are, bring all of that to this place. Bring all the worlds you carry within you – yes, to this moment!

And as we do it, we too are creating a monument pointing to God’s holiness. We bring our worlds – our people, and places, and memories, and experiences – and we share them with one another. It would be too small a thing for them to serve our own salvation and healing. Friends, let University Presbyterian Church be a place, a monument, and a holy community created for the salvation of all! May all our worlds serve this unified world of ours.

I have seen the world in this place. I moved to Austin, Texas five years ago this very day. And my world is infinitely larger and richer because of it. Today I depart in an official capacity, but we’re not going to be unconnected in the days ahead. Not at all. It would be too small a thing for me to leave the worlds I’ve gained behind here in Austin and too small a thing for them to serve me only. I take all of you – your people, your places, your memories, and your experiences – into new worlds. Even before I know so many of the details of what our experience will be like in Pasadena, I know that your world will enrich other worlds. I am sure of it! I am different as I leave this place. I know a deeper love, I know a deeper service, I know a deeper commission. That’s because of you. University Presbyterian Church is a place for the whole world! Thank you.

Nothing you do is insignificant because of Whose you are! Nothing is insignificant!

Belong.

Serve.

Envision.

Dream.

Be Whose you are.

Amen.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Community at University Presbyterian Church

Renee Says Thanks to UPC!

2010-08-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

To the UPC Congregation,

As many of you know, Sunday, August 8^th will be my last day on staff at University Presbyterian Church, and Ian and I will be moving to Pasadena, California three days later. I am experiencing a whirlwind of emotions these days, as you might imagine. Ian and I have hope and excitement as we enter new realms of possibilities, and we have heavy hearts as we leave UPC and Austin. I want to thank you deeply for the love and community we have experienced here. You can be certain that those gifts of love and community are not ending; instead, they are nourishing us into new experiences. We cannot foresee all the gifts that California will bring, but you can be assured that the relationships we experience there will be deeply connected to who you are. We have been formed here, and our identities have been shaped by you. We will enter new relationships as the people we have been formed to be. Thank you.

Ian will soon begin a research position in astronomy at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena. We are sure to experience a lot of laughter, knowledge, and friendship among the other astronomers there. I am seeking a call in the greater Los Angeles area, and I would appreciate your prayers in my search. I have been searching for seven months, and partly because of the current economic climate, there have not been many opportunities. I am very hopeful, however, and I plan to make myself of use in many different ways. I do expect to find joy, friendship, and meaningful opportunities for service.

In our time together, we have made many memories. I appreciate the ways you support our pastors and staff, and I am grateful for the love and availability you have shown our students. Thank you for giving them a space to be loved and providing a home away from home. Thank you for allowing our students to challenge the status quo. Thank you for imparting wisdom to them and showing them the beauty of tradition. You have been mentors, parents, and friends to them. Thank you.

As we leave here, I am grateful that Kaci Porter will be stepping into the role of Campus Minister for UPC. I am very thankful for her leadership, and I have confidence that this ministry is being left in wonderful hands. She is smart, thoughtful, funny, considerate, talented, and most of all, ready and gifted to make meaningful, loving relationships with you. You will receive much from her leadership. She will join us on August 1^st.

Again, thank you for you who are and who you are always becoming. You will certainly be in our thoughts and prayers in the upcoming months.

With much love,

Renee

Marco Shares About His Summer

2010-07-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well I've been doing a lot of thinking about "how my summer was" :) It's been hard to describe in words, but here's my attempt.

I guess I should start as the Spring semester came to an end. I had some big decisions to make, but some even harder problems to solve. My first big decision was whether or not to even attempt to finish the semester. As most of you know I was injured and not being able to use my leg made finishing my classes very difficult. However, I decided to finish hoping and praying I would not do any more damage to my leg. I remember my friend Merrit telling me I need to stay off my leg and let it heal. Along with some of classmates who were also concerned I decided to finish the semester after all. It turned out to be the best decision I've made in a long time. Not only did I finish, but I actually won 3 first prizes for my work including "best of fashion photography", "best of portrait photography", and "best of restoration". To say the least I would have been happy if my photos even made it in, I've never won anything before! In addition I made a 4.0 this semester which made my jaw drop! I think that's only happened once before!

However the most memorable and certainly most humbling moment was about to happen. I've heard, like so many, about God's love and grace. However, I can't say I've ever really felt it. I've always felt like an outsider trying to fit in or find my place. In addition I was struggling financially because I do not have health insurance and I knew how important healing my leg would be for what I hope my career as a photographer will be. As I made plans and a lot of negotiating with my health care providers little did I know what my friends were planning. I finally figured out how to pay for my surgery, and although it would mean going deeper in debt, my family and I made it happen. About a week before surgery I spoke to Renee and she mentioned something that brought me my knees. Apparently, the group had raised money for me, to help with my expenses.

Never in my life have I ever been so blessed by so much kindness and love. I honestly believed that I didn't really matter to anyone other than my parents. I thought I was just another member at UPC. I honestly believed I had to do everything on my own. Thank you is does not even begin to describe how deeply and emotionally I had been touched. Doubt and anxiety was replaced by calmness and confidence. I don't know who exactly did this for me, but I am so very thankful. I had a glimpse into what God's love is truly is. I am very very grateful and I hope someday I may do the same for others.

After surgery I found myself at the mercy and aid of others. I could not walk, feed myself or even get out of bed. Growing up I did not have an opportunity to spend much time with my parents, so this was a time when that changed a lot. I was blessed to have my parents come and care for me. Some close friends came to visit and helped cure me of being immobile and feeling isolated. Others kindly wrote to me via facebook.

It's a summer that touched my heart. A summer that taught me so much about how important it is to part of a community. I know I can't say this enough but Thank You. This truly was the summer of Thanksgiving.

~Marco

Alyssa Sends Greetings!

2010-07-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Alyssa, what are you doing this summer?

This summer I've been taking summer school to finish my psychology degree since I can only student teach now during the year and working, both of which consumes my time. In addition to that, I've been having some fun on the weekends consisting of time on the lake, swimming, and just plain relaxing!

However, my new favorite thing I've picked up has been regularly practicing yoga. I'm trying to establish a regular habit of going and setting it before the school year, and it's paying off immensely. I've become more flexible, more relaxed, and a happier individual! Yay yoga!

-Alyssa Nipp, Senior

Continuing Our Summer Reading Series. . .

2010-07-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Tonight we are continuing our Tuesday study nights. From 6-8pm, we'll be watching episodes of Firefly, and we'll discuss them together.

And then at 8pm, we'll head over to the Spiderhouse to discuss what we're reading together. Last week, we finished The Shack, and this week, we'll begin Same Kind of Different As Me. This book is a true story told by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, two men who have lived very different lives, yet who share a common bond of friendship. Both men have deep wisdom to share, and they were brought together by Debbie Hall, Ron's wife. This story of friendship will touch you and perhaps call you to ask deeper questions about homelessness, poverty, spirituality, and relationships.

Looking forward to the discussions we'll have!

Celebrating Rebecca!

2010-07-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

We celebrate Rebecca Chancellor!

Yesterday was Rebecca's last Sunday with us at University Presbyterian. She has served faithfully for six years as our Director of Youth and Children's Ministries, and now she is on her way to be Associate Pastor of a very lucky church in Portland, Oregon. Congratulations, Rebecca!

But yesterday was a special occasion beyond Morning Worship. In the afternoon, we held the Ordination Service for Rebecca. She is now a Minister of Word and Sacrament within the PC(USA), and we are thrilled for her.

Of course, our youth and children will miss her very much. But we will be thinking of you, Rebecca, and sending prayers! Peace to you as you enter this new adventure of ministry!

Praying For General Assembly

2010-07-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

This week, the General Assembly of the PC(USA) will be meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Commissioners from various presbyteries will travel to Minneapolis to consider how the PC(USA) might be called to greater faithfulness in all areas of our ministry together.

Have you ever wondered what the General Assembly is, and have you ever been curious about what it does? I am linking a description that comes directly from the PC(USA) website. You can visit that description here.

Let's be praying for the commissioners this week, that they would make helpful decisions and be strengthened in their faith.

Bats? Where Are You?

2010-06-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

This summer, Austin Agape is doing something very fun on Thursday nights. We're having THRILLING THURSDAYS!

What are Thrilling Thursdays?

Every Thursday, a person from our group is choosing a surprise activity for us. The person tells us where to meet, if there's a particular way we should dress, and how much money to bring. And then we have a surprise!

This week's surprise involved going down to the Congress Street Bridge to watch the bats fly. Did you know that every year 750,000 Mexican freetail bats come to Austin to make their home under one bridge? That's right, and they live here for six months. All of the bats are female, and they're pregnant. So by the end of the summer, there are 1.5 million bats living under one bridge! Every night they come out to fly, and they save us from an even larger population of mosquitoes and other bugs. Thanks bats!

The bats usually fly just a bit after sunset which was 8:30pm this Thrilling Thursday. But guess what? The bats decided to sleep in a little, and they didn't start coming out until 9:30 when it was already dark! So we didn't get as nice of a view as we hoped to see. But it was still fun, and we laughed a lot while we waited on the bridge.

Gotta love Thrilling Thursdays!

Kentuckiana-a'ganza!

2010-06-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

We've just returned from an incredible trip to Indiana and Kentucky. That's right: We traveled to the border of both states - hence Kentuckiana! We stayed and worked in New Albany, Indiana, a quaint city along the Ohio River. Right across the river, is Louisville, Kentucky. We spent some time in Louisville doing some fun activities - seeing the waterfront, a science museum, and the Mothership! Yes, we visited the headquarters of the PC(USA).

We stayed the week at St. John United Presbyterian Church in New Albany. The members were incredible hosts! Renee grew up in this church, and when she met Ian in high school, he began to join her there. It was wonderful to see so many people and places that Renee has mentioned!

We did wonderful work all week. On Tuesday, we cleared some limbs from the yard belonging Renee's Dad. This is work he really needed done, but he couldn't do it all by himself. The UPC Barcodes can move things quickly when they work together!

On Wednesday, we hosted an event at the church for neighborhood children. St. John is located in a neighborhood where there is a great deal of children living in poverty. The church has a ministry on Wednesday nights called Wednesday Night Live. We cooked dinner for the children and played games with them in the gym. It was a lot of fun.

On Thursday, we worked for the Interfaith Community Council food pantry. The Interfaith Community Council serves many needs for people who live in New Albany. We sorted food donations, assisted clients, cleaned, and called churches to confirm schedules for Vacation Bible Schools throughout the city.

On Friday, we did a great deal of yard work for St. John. We also pained a garage door!

On Saturday, we worked for the New Albany Housing Authority. We planted flowers with youth who live in the Housing Authority Apartments. We also played basketball with the kids. Everyone enjoyed our time together!

And on Sunday, we led worship at St. John. What an amazing week we had together, serving and laughing a lot!

Sermon: Make Waves

2010-05-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Matthew 28:16-20

It was a time of wonder. And it was a time of fear. The eleven disciples had just heard what was most difficult to believe. Some of the women among them, also disciples, had gone to Jesus’ tomb and had found it empty. And those women came back to the eleven with a message: Go ahead to Galilee. He will meet you there. Jesus will meet you there.

It’s like they had gone full circle, isn’t it? Galilee is right where their ministry started. It was right where they had seen their lives transformed, where they had seen other lives transformed. Healings, prayers, meals where everyone was included, and life-altering parables, they had seen it, traveling around Galilee with Jesus.

And now, after their experience of grief, pain, and confusion in Jerusalem, they return to Galilee, uncertain of so many things. They doubted. Could it be? Could he be? But even in their doubt, they risked the journey. They went to that mountain in Galilee. And there was Jesus – the Risen Christ – standing right in front of them, sending them out to be who they were called to be from the beginning, people who are commissioned, sent in love to disciple others, called to baptize others into the Name of God which is a Communion of Love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and to send these new disciples out as well, living as the ones they were created to be. This was full circle, this arrival in Galilee. And these disciples were being commissioned to participate in a circle that was becoming deeper and more widespread all the time. A full and progressively fuller circle.

I’m grateful that the text says they doubted. I’m not grateful that they had an experience of doubt – that’s never a pleasant experience - but I am grateful that they were like us. Sometimes we doubt. We doubt God. We doubt possibilities. We doubt ourselves. We doubt one another. We doubt too.

The translation we heard tonight says that “some” doubted when they worshiped Jesus on the mountain. So do a few other English translations. “Some.” But I was stunned and oddly heartened when I discovered the Greek text of this passage doesn’t say the word ‘some’. It just isn’t there. It says, “But they doubted.” Not ‘some’. ‘They’. That sounds like all to me. The word “some” is in a few variant manuscripts of Greek that were copied later, but the word isn’t there in the majority of Greek manuscripts. Who knows? Maybe English translators wanted to be comforted that doubt was there. . . but it was only some of those people, you know. . . those people, those doubter people. Not us. No, the disciples all doubted. We’re all doubters at least at one time or another.

And so Jesus – the Risen Christ - looks at the bunch of them - rag-tag people, really. They were fishermen and tax-collectors. Nothing really special, at least not in any extraordinary sense. Jesus knows they’re a bunch of doubters and a rag-tag group of people who aren’t too extraordinary in the world’s eyes. He sees them for who they are, and he loves them. And he trusts them. In fact, he entrusts them with an ever-enlarging mission. He entrusts them with a Great Commission. He entrusts a rag-tag group of doubters because he sees them, not through the lens of their doubt or their lackluster. He sees them through love and knows them as transformed human beings who will transform the world – not through their own authority and power, but through his. He has chosen to entrust himself to them and through them.

And, you know – that’s what faith is really about, trust. It’s not ultimately about belief, at least in the ways we define that word today. Isn’t that strange? We hear the word ‘believe’ a lot when we talk about faith. We read it in our scriptures. And perhaps one of the saddest things is that when we see the word, especially in our scriptures, we often super-impose our cultural understanding of what that word means onto the text. In our culture, when someone believes, that person intellectually assents to something. “Yep, I believe that. Check yes!”

But the word ‘believe’ in our scriptures says something much deeper than that. Often in the gospels, in the original language, the word ‘believe’ is often followed by the word ‘into.’ Isn’t that interesting? Believing doesn’t mean to intellectually assent to some idea. It means to believe into – to trust – someone, in this case, Jesus Christ. Believe into Jesus Christ. Entrust yourself – your entire being – into Jesus Christ. Trust and risk that you can put your weight on the foundation of Who He Is. Believe into him. Lean yourself – your convictions, your doubts, your gifts, your weaknesses, your questions, your pain, your joy – lean all of it – all of yourself – into who this one is. That’s much deeper than intellectual assent, isn’t it? That’s much deeper and more profound than a ‘check yes’ mentality to this theological proposition or that theological proposition. It’s also much harder.

It’s much harder! And here is the Risen Christ standing before a bunch of rag-tag doubters, and he puts this type of belief into action. He believes in his disciples – not because of their specialness or extraordinary-ness, not because of their ‘check yes’ intellectual assent (they’re doubters!) – he believes in his disciples by entrusting himself to them. Yes, entrusting himself to them! In his name and in his authority, these disciples will make disciples and baptize them into Love, sending out even more disciples. They are participating and reverberating a circle of love, mission, and service – sending it wider and wider all the time.

And Jesus isn’t leaving them. No, the Risen Christ entrusts himself, pledging to be with them every moment along the way. Not just here and there. Every moment! Not just at the end. Every moment! He says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Always. To and through the end. Always. Always, Christ is present with his disciples. Always, Christ is present with us.

We come to the close of a year – at least, a close as far as the academic calendar goes. And we’ve discerned Christ’s risen presence among us. We’ve worshiped. We’ve had doubts. We’ve asked questions. We’ve traveled. We’ve laughed. We’ve played. We’ve cried. We’ve gotten injured on ski slopes for crying out loud! We’ve confided. We’ve loved. We’ve prayed. We’ve invited others. And through it all, we’ve witnessed Christ’s presence among us. We’ve made disciples. We’ve taught. We’ve sent one another forth. And we’ve done all these things – not because we’re more special than others, or because we’re extraordinary – we’ve done them because we’ve had the opportunity – the incredible opportunity! – to participate in a circle larger than ourselves, a circle that grows wider and wider all the time. We don’t do it in our name. We do it in Christ’s Name. What a gift.

Have you ever dropped a rock into a pond of some kind and watched the ripples go out? When we drop a pebble, we can see those ripples for a while, but as they spread out wider, it’s hard for us to see how and where they’re continuing. But they are. And have you ever participated in something that led to something else which led to something else, onward and onward with a constant ripple effect? Maybe those ripples have been initiated by us, but after a while, they take a life of their own and move outward from us in ways that are beyond our control. I think that’s what we’re doing here in this community. I think that’s what God is doing in and through us. In our lives together, in our actions together and out in our larger spheres of life, we’re working (failing sometimes, but working) to entrust ourselves to Jesus Christ, who has entrusted himself to us, and that process of entrusting ourselves is like dropping a rock into the pond of God’s grace, and we too are being commissioned for service. We’re called to make waves. We’re called to set waves of God’s love into motion. We do this as individuals, but maybe even more importantly, we do it as a community.

You, Austin Agape, are a community that makes waves. And you are called to make more waves all the time. Swim deep. Splash and play with all your gusto! Jesus Christ has entrusted himself – he has leaned all of Who He Is into you – and he commissions you to fully live, making disciples, doing works of justice and kindness in this world. Make waves, Austin Agape. Make waves, University Presbyterian Church. Splash like crazy! Splash and make waves because you have experienced the Risen Christ and you are witnesses in this world.

I want you to know that you have made waves so deep and so rich in my world. Those waves reverberate with me, everywhere I go. I want you to know that I would not be who I am or where I am had I not met you.

Five years ago, I stood in a field in Germany, and prayed like crazy because I was terrified that I was about to move to Texas. I had been singing in some choral competitions with my choir, and I was really struggling with this whole Austin move. I had been terrified and frustrated with that decision for weeks, but I knew it was right. And finally, when I stood in that field, five years ago to this week, I can’t explain it, I was overcome with a powerful sense of love, transcendence, peace, and vision that I can only attribute to God. I knew that I had to move to Austin because there were people there who would make me. . .me.

In that moment, those people were general and vague. Today, five years later, they have names. And so many of them are in this room right now.

Up and to the day, I graduated seminary and even a bit longer, I never thought I would be a pastor. Oh, I would probably get another degree eventually and be a professor. And that would have been nice. Yes, a theology professor. That sounded wonderful. And that was my track up until the day I found out surprisingly that I was being called into this position, that I was being called to be your pastor. I was scared then too. More scared than you know. And yet, I took the risk. And it was the greatest blessing I could have ever imagined.

Did that decision to say yes make waves here? I would say yes. But the waves haven’t been mine. You’ve made waves too. And ultimately, the waves of healing, prayer, meals where everyone is included, and life-altering parables – those belong to Jesus Christ. Those belong to the Triune God.

Thank you. I want you to know that you are the love of my life. The waves of love you sent into me will go on beyond this place and beyond me toward others who I’ll meet along the way. You’ll be with me all the time.

And soon, our relationship will change. I won’t be your pastor anymore. But the love will still go on in ways deeper and broader than we know now. You can be assured of this. You can put your weight on it: There will be no day – ever! – that I will not love you. That’s not changing. I hope that when we’re 50, we’ll be connected and in each others’ lives. I’ll be human, and I won’t love perfectly. But you can trust – you can believe, entrust – that my love for you continues. Always. And you can know that whoever I continue to love, whoever I continue to meet, your life, your love will ripple through me to them. Always.

And there is One who goes with us. Jesus Christ goes with you. Jesus Christ goes with me. He leads you. He leads me. He loves fully, not imperfectly. He’s the True Human, the One Whose love is complete and all-encompassing. He is the One who is with us to and through the end. When Jesus says he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he literally says that he is the Road, the Truth, and the Life. You and I might be in two different states soon. Actually, some day, we’ll all be in different places. But we’ll never be on a different road. Never.

Thanks be to God for the gift of entrusting, for the gift of becoming, for the gift of belonging. Make waves. It’s who you are. Amen.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Sermon: Someday You Will Be the Love of My Life

2010-05-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

John 17:1-26

As we begin our time together to explore this text tonight, I'd like to start by inviting you to do something simple - something you do all the time, but rarely think about. In a moment, I'd like to invite you to take a deep breath. We'll do it all together. You can close your eyes if you want to, but we'll all take a deep breath, inhale and exhale. Ready? One, two, three, breathe.

Libby told me something this week that intrigued me. She said to me, "Hey Renee, did you know that every time you take a breath of air, at least one air molecule was also breathed by Socrates in his lifetime?" Well that is intriguing! As crazy as it sounds, probability is such that each time you take a breath, approximately every six seconds, the air in your lungs contains at least one molecule that was in Socrates' lungs during his lifetime. Wow. A lot of people have lived on this earth, but we also breathe in an unbelievable amount of air molecules every time we take a breath. The same molecules of air as Socrates! Every breath! Crazy!

But, or course, this isn't just true for famous Greek philosophers. This is true about everyone who was ever lived, everyone who has ever shared our air! Every breath you take, contains at least one air molecule that someone else breathed - your best friend, the person you can't stand, Kevin Bacon, Nelson Mandela, Amanda Nelson Mandela! You name it! You’re breathing the same molecules of air of others who have been human with you. Think about it! Cavemen, Sojourner Truth, Isaac Newton, George Washington, and the Trololo guy. The Trololo Guy! I find that to be absolutely remarkable.

We’re more connected than we know. We’re much more connected than we know.

And our text tonight, is a beautiful prayer recorded in the Gospel of John. Jesus prays this prayer in the upper room, the night of his arrest, the night before his death. In chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel, Jesus is depicted in the upper room, washing the disciples’ feet, encouraging them, testifying to the Holy Spirit who will be their Comforter and Advocate, and finally, before his arrest, this beautiful prayer is spoken on their behalf.

Love is spoken all over the place, and several thematic words seem to emerge throughout the text. A crucial word in the text is the word “one,” and it’s associated with a union of love. Jesus is one with the Father, the disciples are called to be one with Jesus, and Jesus prays for those who will believe in him through the testimony of the disciples – people like us – and asks that they may also be one. That word seems to be all over the place in the prayer. Listen to these words again: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Wow. As the Son and the Father are one, we are called to be one. . . like that! Wow.

And another important word is “in.” It’s all over the place too. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Jesus is in the Father. The Father is in Jesus. Jesus is in his disciples, and they are in him. And Jesus is in those who will believe in him through the disciples’ testimony. And did you catch that? “May they also be in us.” We are in God!

Love invites us to be in one another and even in the life of God. And actually, we are in one another because we are in the love and life of God, a love and life deeply given to us. Jesus says, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Quite remarkable, isn’t it? We are in one another; we share the same air. And we are in one another; we share the same love of God that is bestowed upon us. It’s unfathomably beautiful, and we can hardly wrap our minds around it.

And I believe that much of the Christian faith is like that: unfathomably beautiful, and we can hardly wrap our minds around it. Here’s a question. When you think about the Trinity, what comes to mind? On one hand, we could say something Sunday-School-Answer-ish. “The Trinity is a word to describe God, that God is one God, and that God exists in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” I suppose that’s one way we could describe God, and we would be saying something true. But this truth isn’t just Sunday-School-Answer-ish, and it’s not some weird math equation for us to figure out – How can one equal three, and three equal one? No, if we stayed there in that frame of mind, we’d be missing the depth of this love. The truth of Who God Is is much more beautiful, mysterious, and life-altering than a math equation. God can’t be diagrammed or mapped. Thank God for that!

No, God is a communion of love. God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are One. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in. We are invited into oneness – into the communion of God. We are invited into the in-ness – into the life of God’s loving communion. God exists as a community – a communion of love, and that love spills over to include us and to include the entire creation. We’re not God, but in love, we truly are swept up into the life of God! That’s remarkable too!

The reason we have language about the Trinity is because of the experience of Love. No one sat down one day in front of a bunch of other Christians and said, “Hey! I’ve got this great idea about God. I’ve thought it all out. In fact, I’ve got it all figured out! Here, let me show you my blueprint.” No. Instead, what happened is that the early Christian community believed that they had experienced the embodiment of God in the human being, Jesus of Nazareth, and they saw the communion of love between Jesus and God, who he called Father. And they had an experience of love expressed in the Holy Spirit, who they also witnessed the Holy Spirit to be in communion with the God the Creator and God the Son. Without trying to create a math equation, they came to express language that gave praise to their experience and to the experiences they witnessed in the Scriptures.

And so, I don’t have a way to map this out. I don’t have a flow chart or a blueprint. I also can’t say everything definitive about what Jesus voices in this prayer. This prayer isn’t high, ivory-tower-theological discourse of definition. This is a prayer of love, praise, and petition. God is Love. God isn’t a Definition. But that being said, I do believe that this prayer speaks beautiful language about who God is – who God is in communion – and that has something to say about who we are and who we’re called to be.

One thing that’s beautiful about the life of faith is that the questions are just as important as the answers. And faith is beautiful in the way that it invites us to be imaginative. So disclaimer: What follows is speculative and imaginative, but I believe, ultimately true. Very true.

God is a communion of love beyond anything we can imagine or define. And in that communion of love – that three-ness – God’s love spills over to include us. What if we – mere human beings – are called to lives that kind of communion? What if our lives – unaware as we often are – are moving in that kind of direction? Again, we’re not God, and we’re not becoming God, but what if God is moving us into an experience that is somehow Trinitized, that is, moving us to be the unique, particular persons we are, who love so fully that we are one with those we love? We can’t do this on our own – we are absolutely fallen – but what if God is constantly recreating us to love in this direction?

In one of our Bible Studies this semester, we began to ask some questions about the Kingdom of God. I’d like to talk to you about 3057, a completely arbitrary number that has come to symbolize something meaningful to those of us in the Bible this semester. We talked about the Kingdom of God and tried to imagine what that looks like. Again, we can’t wrap our minds around it. We have glimpses of it now, but we asked questions, wondering what the Kingdom of God might look like in its fullness. And we began to talk about something speculative. And for the record, I don’t know fully what happens when we die, but I think this is a beautiful thought. And this is where our arbitrary number came in. We asked, “What if the Kingdom of God came in all its fullness in the year 3057?” And then we asked this question. “If God isn’t bound within space and time in the way we are – that is, if God isn’t confined by space and time in the way we are – I wonder if we enter something of that when we die. I mean, what if when we die, we enter the fullness of all things? What enter if we the fullness of the Kingdom of God? What if we enter 3057?”

Now that may all sound like speculative gobbily gook, but again, imagination can be powerful and is a gift from God. If all that were true, we came to this conclusion: That would mean that if I died tonight, I wouldn’t simply be reunited with people who had died before me. I would enter something not confined by time and space. That means from my experience, you would all be there! I mean, it would kind of stink to just be waiting on everyone else, just being separated. But whatever happens upon death, I have a feeling that we enter something very full, a mystical communion of love deeper and more rich than we can imagine, something somewhat Trinitarian. God is sweeping us up into the communion of Love. Unfathomable, and we can hardly wrap our minds around it.

I’ll tell you another interesting story based on some of these speculations. What if by the grace of God, we are on our way toward living in that kind of communion? Oh, we mess it up royally now. But what if that’s the direction we’re moving in? What if God has created us for that? What if, in the fullness of the Kingdom of God – whether in this life, or in a life to come – we learn to truly be one and to love in a way we can’t fathom? Oh, I’m not talking about holding hands and singing kum-bah-yah. I’m talking about something deeper and richer than that. What if that’s where we’re headed?

If it is, it means that we’re being fashioned to learn how to be one – that is, to be unified in love in community, and can you imagine this? When we enter that kind of love in God more deeply, what if we begin to love others in such a way that every single person feels like the unique love of our life? After all, that’s how God loves us. What if God is creating and molding us – purely by God’s grace - to love like that? Here’s the story.

I know someone who was taking a walk around West Campus a few weeks ago, and she was feeling anxious about some decisions she would have to be making soon. And in her anxiety, she felt like she should stop focusing about her worries, and simply notice what was around her. What did she see? She told me that first thing she noticed was that she saw students walking around in every direction, and she was intrigued at one observation. All of these students seemed to be entirely in their own world. It wasn’t that they seemed selfish. It was just that they truly seemed to be in their own world – their own awareness without the awareness of those who were also walking around them. Some were listening to ipods, some were just staring, thinking through their own thoughts. She said to herself, “Wow. These students don’t know they’re connected.”

She began to think about some of the questions I just asked, and then, she thought this. I love it! She thought about who God was constantly creating her to be, and how she was ultimately called to love, and as she passed each person, she said this in her mind: “Someday, you will be the love of my life.” Isn’t that interesting?

“Someday, you will be the love of my life.” That is, “If I am being swept up in the life of God, to love all people with a love I can’t begin to fathom, I will one day, view each person has the unique love of my life.” I love it. And if that’s where we’re ultimately headed, that means, we can try by God’s grace, to love people more fully now! I mean, can you imagine how different this world would be if we all believed that someday, every person would be the unique love of our life! We’d probably start treating them better right now. We’d probably start loving them right now.

Thanks be to God that we are created to be one. Thanks be to God that we are created to be in. Thanks be to God who is Love for us and for all. Amen.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Sermon: Turn-Around

2010-04-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

Acts 9:1-20

Well, it certainly was dramatic. Can you imagine what happened on that Damascus Road? Saul had been breathing threats and murder against the people of the Way, those who were following Jesus of Nazareth, those who were proclaiming that Jesus had been resurrected from the grave. “Breathing threats and murder”. . . isn’t that an interesting phrase? Saul was so set on terror and destruction that it was as if he was inhaling them. And he was also exhaling them. Saul believed that the people of the Way were an affront to God and to the people of God. He was set out to quench their movement, and he didn’t seem to care who he harmed in the process.

I wonder what Saul and his companions were talking about on that road. . . I imagine that the men who came with him were inhaling and exhaling all kinds of anger on that day as well. Maybe they were talking about that rage they felt within them. Maybe they were silent, each with determination. Or maybe they were having casual conversation, talking about daily life or family. Then suddenly, everything changed.

Suddenly, everything changed. And it certainly was dramatic, wasn’t it? Saul experienced light, flashing and dancing all about him. Threats and murder within him must have melted into fear and confusion for himself and the others who were with him. And then, a voice – a voice that would change everything. A question becomes personal: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Even before he is aware of the identity behind the voice, Saul recognizes holiness. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Jesus, the Lord, is so with us, so with humanity, that when we are persecuted, and when we are persecuting others, Jesus is being persecuted. Saul didn’t have a chance to justify himself, or even to plead for forgiveness. Already Saul was elected, chosen, set apart for the work of Christ. Jesus tells him to go into the city where he will be told what to do. He temporarily loses his vision, but he is about to gain a new way of seeing God, the world, and himself. Wow, a dramatic turn around.

And this conversion was a game changer. Saul was on his way toward becoming Paul, one beloved and called by God. We’re never told in scripture why, when, or how Saul’s name is changed to Paul, but we can certainly see that Saul’s character, heart, and sense of mission are wildly changed. Saul becomes Paul, sent to bear Christ’s name before Gentiles – outsiders -kings, and the people of Israel. Saul was certainly called to do a radical 180. He will now proclaim the one he has persecuted.

And it really was quite a game changer, wasn’t it? Paul became a missionary, organizing and nurturing churches in far regions of the world, places vastly far away from where he grew up, especially in the first century, when people couldn’t simply learn about Greece, Macedonia, Rome, or other places by pulling up a Wikipedia page. He couldn’t travel by plane or train. He used ships. He walked on foot. And apart from his witness, the church – our church, other churches – would not be what it is today. The ripple effect from this experience on a Damascus road has spread far and broad. It continues to wash over us today, as we read and contemplate Paul’s pastoral letters to communities like the Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and the Thessalonians. Yes, in this turn-around moment, God changed the world. God molded communities. God is molding us right now. So certainly, this mysterious, miraculous moment on a simple road to Damascus, affected history and shaped lives in a broad and sweeping way.

But beyond the dramatic and broad sweeping aspects of this story, what about some of the more subtle effects? God works inbetween the lines too, inbetween the major milestones, inbetween the major turn-arounds of our lives.

Poor Ananias. Can you imagine? Ananias hears the call of Christ to do something absolutely illogical. And it wasn’t just illogical. It was potentially dangerous. Saul had a reputation. Ananias realized what the consequences of his actions might be. Going to Saul, he was risking his future, his freedom, his safety. And he was risking the future, freedom, and safety of his Christian community as well.

And yes, in addition to being dangerous, this action was illogical. “Saul? Wait a minute. Saul? You want me to go and seek the man who has been seeking to kill us?!? And then you want me to identify myself as your follower and heal him? You want me to trust him? You want me to trust his words and intentions? You want me set him free, and simply trust that he is who you’ve named him to be?”

This call was dangerous and illogical enough for Ananias to question Jesus. But Jesus tells Ananias that he has visions larger and more incredible than Ananias can possibly wrap his mind around. He follows the call. He seeks out his enemy to heal him and send him in the right direction.

You know, it appears that sometimes, our conversions are connected. What I mean by that is that sometimes when others have had a ‘turn-around’ moment, we too are sent in another direction. We live in relationship. Our healing is bound up in the healing of others. Our conversions – our directions, our turn-around moments – are bound up in the conversions of others.

So Ananias is converted too. He seeks out Saul in the house of Judas, and he obeys. And I wonder if he too had a change of heart on that road. Did you notice the first thing Ananias says to the man who has been his enemy? Did you notice the first words out of his mouth?

“Brother Saul.” He addresses his former enemy as his brother. Saul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus was dramatic and beyond anything that you and I have experienced. But conversions aren’t always dramatic. Sometimes they are subtle. Sometimes God is working on the inside as much as God is working on the outside. Saul had a turn-around moment. So did Ananias.

And that leads to a question for us. We don’t see flashing light and audibly hear the voice of God on a regular basis. But because we believe in a Triune God who works intimately and immanently within our lives, we can believe that God is turning us around, sending us in new directions all the time. Here’s the question: How is God turning you around these days, and what directions are being envisioned for you to follow? And how is God turning us around as a community these days, and what directions are being envisioned for us to follow?

Sometimes, seemingly insignificant moments can send us in profoundly significant directions. Has that ever happened for you?

When I was 14 years old, I sat in a bright orange chair at a table I frequented five days a week. It was a pretty mundane place for me. I was sitting in the Floyd Central Junior/Senior High School cafeteria. And I was there with Angela Cherrie, one of my best friends from that time in my life. I wonder what got us on the subject of handbells of all things, but that’s where our conversation went. And she told me something kind of funny, “I’m in this handbell choir at my church, and it’s so hard. I have too many handbells to play!” For those of you who have ever played handbells – and by the way, handbells are San’s favorite instrument – she was specifically having trouble playing Dflat 5, D5, Eflat 5, and E5. She must have been playing a piece with lots of key changes. And so, I came up with an idea that seemed somewhat random, “Well, can I help you? Could I maybe join your handbell choir?” She told me she would ask, and one week later, the answer was yes!

And so, through a seemingly insignificant conversation about handbells of all things, my life was about to move in an entirely different direction. Angela Cherrie had introduced me to St. John United Presbyterian Church in New Albany, Indiana. (And yes, that’s the church where we’re headed in May for Kentuckiana-a’ganza, our mission and service trip). That church would change my life.

I went to the handbell choir, and because youth group met downstairs after our rehearsal, I just joined that too. And the youth group was going on a mission trip to Atlanta three weeks later, and right away, they asked me if I would like to go too. I was thrilled.

But as I grew up in that congregation, I learned a deep sense of faith. I learned the challenges of faith. And I met a congregation of people who would become my family. That may not be biologically true, but it was functionally very true. I met David Roth there, the pastor of the congregation, and David intentionally parented me in that church. In so many ways, he raised me, and I would not be the person I am today had I not experienced the depth of the love he had for me.

But I also found family-love in so many other places within the life of that congregation. I’ve mentioned this to a few of you already, but the congregation at St. John threw our wedding. We had asked some of the ladies of the church if we could pay them to make the food for our reception, which was also at the church in the afternoon. They agreed with even more enthusiasm that I would have imagined. And the day before the wedding, when they were downstairs in the kitchen, cooking this and assembling that, David went downstairs to check and see how they were doing. He and ten women ended up having a conversation about how each one of them had somehow come to consider me to be their other child.

I suppose that in some ways, my experience of love at that church was the flashing light and holy voice I needed, because my experience there has sent me in more positive directions than I could have anticipated. It taught me how to be in community, it taught me how to be vulnerable, it sent me in the direction of music school, and the direction of seminary, and the direction to this church and this community, which has been another flashing light and holy voice of itself. And all of this came because of a goofy, insignificant conversation about handbells in a junior high cafeteria of all places!

So what about you? What insignificant things have led to significant directions in your life? Where have you had a turn-around moment? And where do you sense God is calling you now?

As we close tonight, I think it might be helpful for us to hear that from each other. How would you answer those questions? Let’s have a time of sharing.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Sermon: You Can't Seal the Deal

2010-04-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Psalm 118

Well perhaps you know the experience. You're walking on campus - maybe you've just left a familiar Austin Agape lunch at Wednesday at Wendy's - and you're heading over to the West Mall to cross Guadalupe. But before you can get to the crosswalk, you know what you're headed for because you can hear all the yelling. There's a man standing on the edge of the street, yelling to you (or at you. . . sometimes it's hard to tell) and there are several men and women handing out leaflets of paper. You know what to expect. This happens often on the West Mall. These are gospel tracts.

The experience may not be a pleasant one. No one likes to be yelled at. Maybe you feel frustrated or angry. Or maybe you feel sad. You're a Christian too, but you don't want to treat people this way as you share the good news of what your faith means to you. All this fire and brimstone talk sounds like bad news. However you feel when you hear it, no one can deny this: It's a very visual and vocal experience.

But on the other hand, to be fair, these people on the West Mall may indeed believe that this is ultimately a loving thing to do, even if the experience isn't a pleasant one. If salvation is truly up to your decision (and by the way, I realize that salvation can mean a lot of things, including what your experience of God is after death; often in these tracts, it is only about this experience, where you go when you die -) if salvation is truly up to a simple decision that you make, it really is imperative that they show you how to make the right one. I mean, if you could end up in hell, outside of God's love for you, but you could avoid this by accepting faith in Jesus, it would be cruel of them to not share this information with you. Since they hold this theological belief to be true, they want to love you by convincing you to make the right decision.

One of the tracts I was given on the West Mall started with an interesting couple of sentences. I wish I could remember them verbatim, but I’ve got it pretty close. Basically, it really put it all out there. It says, "Please do not be angry with us for giving you this tract. We do this because God loves you, and we love your soul. So we need to tell you that if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will burn for all eternity in hell."

Whoa! That was a quick turn-around there! That was a stark, immediate turn-around from love language to hell and damnation language. And I'll be honest. When I first read it, it was so stark, that I immediately laughed out loud. But again, to be fair, if they really hold these theological beliefs to be true, they are actually doing the loving thing.

And here are a few sentences from another tract I found online. I think these sentences tend to sum up what many tracts say: “Many people stumble at the simplicity of salvation. They often feel they must do something to earn or deserve such an offer. Yes, something had to be done so that salvation could be offered to us freely, but Jesus did it all. All you must do is--” Wait a minute? I thought we didn’t have to do anything. . . It continues. “All you must do is believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again. You then must receive him into your heart.”

So according to this way of thinking, God has made salvation possible. It’s an offer. But it’s up to us to make it actual. But are these theological beliefs true the way some articulate them? Are these beliefs ultimately what’s true about God's love and vision for us? It's up to us? It's really, really, really simple, but simply up to us? Really?

God loves us, yes. The people on the West Mall tell us the truth in saying that. Yes, even if the most articulate person on the face of the planet could put that love into the deepest, richest words we have, to convey how broad and comprehensive that love is, the witness of scripture is clear that we – in our limited understanding - could hardly even scratch the surface of articulating the reality of that love. God’s love is real. But is it real with a gigantic ‘if’ attached? Did God only make love and salvation possible for us? That is, is God’s stance toward us something like this: “I’ll love you, and I’ll have loving, eternal plans for you, but only if you acknowledge that I do?” And if we don’t, does that mean that God will cast that love away, or just as frightening, cast us away, sending us into everlasting damnation? So. . . we could know an eternity of God’s love if we seal the deal on it. . .? And if we don’t seal the deal in the right way – if we don’t do all the good things we should, if we don’t say the right words about God, if we don’t have the right beliefs about God – if we don’t seal the deal, God’s love and God’s good wishes for us are thrown out? Really, it’s up to us? We’re the linchpin? Let me see if I have this right: We’re so small that we can only scratch the surface of articulating God’s love? – We’re so sinful that we sometimes don’t even realize we need saving? – And we’re so finite that we can’t begin to comprehend the infinite desires and benevolence of a loving God? – and yet we’re the linchpin on this? It’s all up to us? Really?

The Psalm we heard this evening says something different. God’s love is real whether we know it or not. It is truly, objectively, actually, not-just-possibly-real. “O Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; His steadfast love endures forever!” Forever! These words both begin and end our text tonight. God’s deep, enduring love bookends this entire passage.

And there are more beautiful words: “²¹I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation” . . . “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” . . . “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Do you hear how active God is in those words? A ‘we ultimately seal the deal’ type of theology might agree with these words as they are, but at the end of the day, it kind of says something like this: “I thank you that you answered me – after all, I had to seal the deal by asking for it – I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.” “This is the Lord’s doing – God’s way of making salvation possible – and it is marvelous in our eyes.” “This is the day that the Lord has made possible; let us accept it that we may rejoice and be glad in it.”

No, God’s love is steadfast, and it endures forever. There is nothing we can do to seal the deal on God’s love. And if God loves us, God has good visions and dreams for our lives – in this life and in the next. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do that can throw God’s love out. We can’t nullify God’s love. We’re not big enough to do that! We’re not the linchpin. Thanks be to God that we’re not the linchpin!

I want to affirm that Christians with a ‘seal the deal’ message like this are loving people who seek to give a loving message. And many people give a ‘we seal the deal’ type message without yelling at people on the West Mall. In fact, some of the people who teach this are some of the most loving people I know.

Let me tell you a story. When Ian and I were in college, we were connected to a campus ministry at Indiana University, and the leaders of that ministry are some of the most loving people. They built and continue to build some of the most amazing relationships, teaching people about God and building them together in community. But one of the leaders would regularly give an analogy to faith that I think misses the mark. It ultimately makes us the linchpin.

Often he would describe salvation in a certain way, and he would use a pen to bring home his point. He would say that salvation is a gift from God – a loving, beautiful gift – but in order to experience it, we must accept it. He would hold the pen and say, “Here. I’m giving you the gift of this pen. It’s completely a gift. You don’t have to do anything at all to earn it, because I want to give it to you.” He would hold it out to you. And he would say, “But you still have to accept it, don’t you? You still have to reach out and take it.” He would then go on to say that God’s salvation toward us is like that. It’s completely a gift of love. We don’t have to earn it. But it is up to us to accept it, to receive it. And if we don’t do that, we won’t experience salvation. It is ultimately up to us.

But we can testify to a deeper kind of love and a salvation that is real whether we accept it or not. It’s not up to us. But these questions are important too, and I bet they’ve been swirling around the room in our heads so far: So where do we come into this? Don’t we have free will? And if it’s not up to us, why does it matter? Why does it matter what we do? Why does it matter what we say? What does it matter what we believe? If God is giving us sheer grace, sheer gift, and we don’t have to seal the deal, why should it matter?

Oh, it completely matters! Our words, our deeds, and our beliefs can’t ultimately nullify God’s love, and we do have a will that can choose to act like God’s love is true. But if we’re not living, speaking, and believing God’s love, we are truly missing something! If we don’t know God’s love for us, there is something non-salvation-like about that. If salvation is our gift, it is ours to live! Not just in the life that is to come! But also, right now! We don’t make salvation real by sealing the deal – it’s not up to us – but in our receiving and in our living of that gift, we are made alive in love, in salvation, in fullness.

Let’s turn that pen analogy on its head. God doesn’t hold out salvation for us to seal the deal. It’s not as though God gives a pen and reaches halfway, waiting for us to reach halfway. No, that pen is sheer gift – for you and for the world! It’s as if God puts the pen fully in our hand. We didn’t do anything to earn it. We didn’t do anything to receive it really. We certainly didn’t seal the deal. But here’s the thing: If we don’t write with the pen, we might as well not have a pen! I mean, why just hold a pen? A pen is for writing! Writing in this life, and if we want to continue our analogy, writing in the life to come.

God loves us endlessly and boundlessly. We can hardly scratch the surface of understanding it! So let’s live it. Let’s live it as the real thing it is. And let’s hear that love for what it is – a real thing that we can’t seal the deal on, a real thing that we can’t sever. Let’s close with these beautiful words from Romans: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Write with the pen.

Live in God’s love.

Amen.

Invitation to the Table

And tonight we are invited to come to a place where we experience God’s love tangibly. At this table, we receive Bread and Cup. We receive Christ’s life. It’s sheer gift. We don’t need to seal the deal on that. There’s no reason to even try. Just experience it. This is Christ’s table, and all are invited. You don’t need to be Presbyterian. You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to understand completely. You don’t need to meet any condition. You are accepted at this table. You are invited to this feast.

Tonight during communion, we’re going to do something a little different. When you come forward for communion, you will receive the bread and the cup. But someone will also be there to put a pen in your hand. Yes, it’s just a pen, and it certainly isn’t salvation itself! But it can be a sign of what is true. And over in that part of the room, there are sheets of paper. They include untruths of this world. We invite each of you to take the pen placed in your hand and actually write with it! You are invited to go over there and write one word over those sentences. And the word is Love. You can write it all over the place. And remember that you are called to live out God’s unconditional love.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Sermon: Run!

2010-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Luke 24:1-12

As I think about what had happened before our story begins, the truth is, I can hardly fathom the deep devastation that the disciples were feeling. I can hardly imagine their sense of loss. All of them - the eleven who had been twelve before Judas’ betrayal and recent suicide, droves of other disciples, the women who traveled with him - all of them had followed him for three years of their lives. They left their work, their homes, some of them left their families, and it looked as though it had all been for nothing.

I can hardly imagine how their hopes must have seemed truly dashed. They had lived in awe, knowing that life was changing as they followed this Jesus. He was ushering in the Kingdom of God right before their eyes. He was loving boundlessly and healing those who were suffering. They knew they were witnessing something - Someone - beyond anything they could have imagined, but now, their Savior, their loving One, their healing One, was lying dead in a tomb. After he was interrogated, tortured, and disfigured beyond their recognition, Jesus was crucified. He died with criminals, humiliated, and his death was painful and long. Their hopes must have felt truly dashed.

And I can hardly imagine the fear they must have had. The last 48 hours were terrifying as they watched Jesus’ arrest and death, and surely they knew that they could be next. The gospels give us a picture of the disciples together after Jesus' death, waiting and watching. The Gospel of John tells us that they hid behind locked doors. Of course, it made sense to do such a thing: They didn't know what would be next for them. They must have been living in complete terror. I can hardly wrap my mind around that kind of fear.

And so you can imagine how brave and dedicated those women were when they ventured out to Jesus’ tomb very early on Sunday morning. . . They addressed their loss, faced their crushed hopes, and boldly conquered their personal fears as they brought spices to anoint and care for Jesus’ broken and disfigured body.

But as they arrived, they had a new challenge before them. They had to face a new reality that was beyond their imagination. When they arrived at the tomb, the stone was rolled away. They didn’t expect this. Who could be inside? Is everything okay? I wonder if they immediately felt panic within themselves. Perhaps their fearful imaginations anticipated the scene before reality confirmed it. Perhaps they immediately panicked and pictured that tomb empty without Jesus’ body. They had woken early to anoint Jesus’ body, but had somebody already been there? Could the authorities have stolen him away from them? They went inside the tomb, and the picture certainly would have confirmed their suspicions if they were thinking them. Jesus wasn’t inside the tomb. The tomb was empty. Abandoned.

But then, a new, stunning revelation. As the women are standing there perplexed, they realize that two men are standing there in front of them. And they have a pointed question for the women. And though it was a pointed question, I imagine that it was spoken with gentleness. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the two men asked this simple and yet pointed question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Why do you look for the living among the dead? Why are you looking for Jesus in a tomb of all places? Your sense of loss is great, it may feel as though your hopes are crushed, and you may be living in fear, but this One you seek isn’t among the dead at all! He’s among the living!

The men remind the women about Jesus’ words to them, and in excitement, they rush back to tell the other disciples.. Can you imagine their joy? Can you imagine the hope that came flooding back into them? And yet the disciples are still living in their loss, dashed hopes, and fear. They can’t imagine it either, and can we really blame them? The scripture tells us that they believed these words to be an idle tale. Perhaps it was too difficult to even try to hope. Maybe it didn’t feel worth it, if they might be disappointed again.

But Peter won’t sit idly by. He won’t simply brush the story away like an idle tale. He needs to allow himself to hope. He needs to see for himself. He leaves those fearful disciples and travels to the tomb. And he doesn’t walk hesitantly. He doesn’t keep looking over his shoulder, fearing the authorities. That wasn’t Peter’s means of traveling to the tomb. Peter ran! Peter ran with passion! He got to the tomb, stooped in, and saw what his eyes could hardly take in. Jesus was not in that tomb – only the linen cloths were there. The scripture says that Peter went home amazed at what had happened.

He went home amazed at what had happened.

And so here we are. We are here on Easter Sunday. And here we are hearing the story again. Where are we? Where are we – not just, where is our location? But where are we in our hearts and minds? It’s true that it may be hard to imagine what the disciples were feeling, but maybe we know loss, and disappointed hopes, and fear. We haven’t experienced what these disciples experienced directly more than 2000 years ago, but here we are, all in a room, all gathered together, and we’re disciples too. We’re hearing the story of resurrection. We’re hearing that question: Why do look for the living among the dead? We’re hearing the testimony of those women. Where are we?

David Johnson, one of my professors from Austin Seminary, had an interesting Facebook status this weekend: He said this, “There are only two Easter sermons: 1. This is extraordinary and hard to believe, but it changes everything. 2. This is a crock, and we have to figure out some symbolic way of making it believable. I'm going with #1.” I have a feeling that most of us would prefer to go that way too.

The Resurrection does change everything. As I look around this room, I know that it has changed you. The resurrection may seem like a thing, in the ways that we have questions – perhaps excited questions, and perhaps critical questions, and those are all good and worthy of being asked – but ultimately the resurrection isn’t a thing. It isn’t a thing that we can plop down on a stainless steel counter for analysis or a thing we can put under a microscope. We can’t do DNA tests or an autopsy. The resurrection isn’t a thing. The resurrection is a Person. You worship and serve – we worship and serve – Jesus Christ, the Resurrected One.

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Jesus is the Resurrected One, the Alive One, the Living-With-And-For-Us-One. Resurrection is a Person. And ours is a Resurrected Faith. On Easter Sunday – and for that matter, every Sunday because our faith is a resurrected faith – we remember that the Resurrection is an event that changes everything. And yet the Resurrection infinitely more than some event that mysteriously and miraculously happened more than 2000 years ago. The Resurrection tells us something true about Who God always is toward us. Jesus is our Resurrection. In his resurrected life, he shows us who God is toward us, toward this creation.

Like Peter we can run to the all tombs of this world and discover who Christ is. Because as Christ goes to the cross, loving even to the end, even to death on a cross, he reveals Who God Is toward us, “When you suffer, I suffer. I will always suffer with and alongside you.” And as Christ is miraculously raised from death itself, it reveals Who God IS toward us, “I will rise with and for you. As I rise, you will rise. I am resurrection for you and for all creation.”

So on this Easter Sunday, let’s commit ourselves as a community and as a family of faith to run to that tomb. Run to it! Run to that tomb 2000 years ago! Run to the tombs of this world: War-torn nations, poverty, children abandoned and neglected, illness, pain, homelessness and so many more tombs. Discover Jesus as the Resurrected One – the One who lives for those in the tombs, raising them to new life - he himself, the Resurrection for you and for this world. See him alive there. And you – servants of the Resurrected One – be his life there. Take this life changing message always and proclaim it. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Thanks be to God.

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Sermon - Controversy: He Who Receives

2010-03-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

Philippians 2:1-11
John 12:1-8

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.

As tonight’s story from the Gospel of John opens, a controversy has been brewing. Jesus and his disciples are staying under a roof with people who have deep, meaningful relationships with him. They’re staying in the home of Lazarus, and Lazarus’s sisters Mary and Martha are there too. These relationships are deep and meaningful, but they are also part of an ongoing controversy. Our passage from tonight follows the dramatic story found only in the Gospel of John: Jesus travels to Bethany and encounters these sisters grieving the death of their brother Lazarus. Jesus has arrived later than they expected. Lazarus has died, and he has already been buried. Jesus demonstrates deep love, weeping with Mary and Martha, and then, deeply disturbed in his spirit, he boldly walks to the tomb where Lazarus has been laid for four days. After calling for the stone to be rolled away, he prays, and Jesus resurrects Lazarus, restoring him to life, restoring him to his family.

And this controversy is not without consequences. The chief priests and the Pharisees are fearful and furious. They’re concerned that people will continue to believe in Jesus and join his enlarging movement of disciples, and the Gospel of John tells us that because they feared this, they begin to plot his death from that day onward.

And so controversy goes ahead of Jesus. As he nears Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover, a group of powerful leaders are plotting his death. And because we know how the story continues in Jerusalem, we’re aware that Jesus is heading into the city, where he will experience anxiety, betrayal, interrogation, torture, and excruciating death. He’s walking into controversy larger than anything we might be able to imagine.

Controversy is behind him, and controversy is before him.

But in the midst of controversial difficulty on every side, Jesus demonstrates grace in our passage tonight. He himself is a Controversy, breaking social norms and transcending our own expectations of Who he is and what he came to do. As our epistle lesson from Philippians tells us, Jesus, who did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, entered human experience with us. Fully human – Jesus, the True Human who shows us what Humanity was created to be- teaches us how to give and receive love.

As Jesus sits at the table with his friends, he’s aware that controversy surrounds him. He knows where he has been, and he knows what he’s walking into. Like any of us, he was fearful and anxious, as we will soon see when we hear the story of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane in a couple of weeks. But even in the midst of controversy and fear, Jesus realizes the intrinsic value of being present with those he loves. He eats with them. He speaks to them. He looks into their eyes and listens. He’s present. And in the midst of the difficulties around him, perhaps this loving, attentive presence is a controversy in itself, as far as norms and expectations might be concerned.

But that’s not all. Jesus is present, but perhaps even more controversial to our own societal understandings which promote individualism and isolating, “hold-it-all-together” self-sufficiency, Jesus receives the loving presence of others. Mary takes a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard – which comes from a plant found in the Himalayas of China, India, and Nepal, far away from Israel – and she lovingly pours that perfume over Jesus’ feet, anointing him and wiping his feet with her own hair, filling the house with perfume. Jesus is honored by her actions, and he is moved with gratitude. Jesus has given in love, restoring Lazarus to life, health, and fellowship, and yet he is a Savior that often surprises us by overturning our expectations. He enters relationship so deeply with those he saves, that he also receives their love. Jesus demonstrates true humanity. It’s not less human to receive from others and live in gratitude for their companionship. It is truly human to receive as well as to give.

And Mary’s deed was controversial. The disciples were immediately uncomfortable. Jesus didn’t receive a small thing in this act of love. It was a huge thing. The text says that the perfume cost 300 denarii. A denarius was a typical day’s wage, so this perfume cost approximately 300 days of wages. To put it in modern terms, that’s 82% of a person’s salary. Mary poured herself out in love, and she gave abundantly and extravagantly.

The disciples expressed their discomfort, especially Judas. John adds that Judas had some ulterior motives for this, but nonetheless, an extravagant gift such as this one was not to go unnoticed. In fact, it couldn’t avoid noticing it. They were witnessing Mary’s gift of love before their eyes, and the smell was flooding the house. It was everywhere. And when they react with language of controversy, Jesus defends Mary. Jesus receives her love. He models the human need for love. And he goes beyond that. He tells the disciples that Mary has done this to prepare for his burial. It’s true that Jesus is above us and beyond us when it comes to compassion, justice, and continuous communion with God, and yet, this Divine One is human with us – so human with us, that he enters into relationship with us and receives from us. This is what he desires, communion with us. In this situation, he didn’t shun Mary’s act of love, but he invited her into his vulnerability, even into the ultimate vulnerability – the experience of death. Jesus is truly God in the flesh, fully human with us.

Now our culture doesn’t value this type of with-ness. We sense that we need community, that we need relationships and the care of others, but our culture doesn’t ultimately value or affirm this way of living. Instead, our culture tends to value and affirm people who appear entirely self-sufficient, people who don’t need anything. And this often leads us to hide our needs and vulnerability, to put forth an image that is successful – and by our cultural designations, a successful person doesn’t need anything or anyone. That Simon and Garfunkel song comes to mind:

I am a Rock.

I am an Island. . .

And a rock feels no pain.

And an island never cries.

Or listen to these slogans and jingles that send us a message of rugged, un-vulnerable, “it’s all about you and only you” individualism: Sprite’s “Obey your thirst,” McDonalds, “You deserve a break,” Burger King’s, “Have it your way,” and two from the United States’ Army: “Be all you can be,” and “An Army of One.” (Seriously, how can you have an Army of One!) We hear these messages all the time. And we see corporate executives and employees who are taught to rise to the top by looking out for their own interests. Success and strength are defined by obtaining “wants”: fast and flashy cars, the latest designer handbags, and vast material wealth to throw at exotic vacations. We value wants, but it’s culturally viewed as weak to have “needs,” especially to need other people – their time, their attention, their love, and their gifts. And it’s especially obscene to be viewed as vulnerable – to be sad, confused, afraid, or grieved. We’re taught to be strong, and that means isolating our difficulties from others, and at times, we even try to isolate them from ourselves. We try to isolate them from our own awareness.

But this cultural message doesn’t square up with what the gospel teaches. Sometimes, our ideas about individualism and power get projected on to our understanding of God, and God becomes a solitary monad in space out there – alone, distant, and powerful. The problem is that God’s power doesn’t look like our understanding of power. We tend to look at people who have the most power in our experience – solitary kings, military leaders, and dictators - and then, we multiply that understanding of power times a million-billion and paste it onto God. But that’s not how God’s power works at all.

In our faith, we have a beautiful way of saying that God’s power works differently. God isn’t some solitary monad floating out there in space - distant, isolated, and individualistic. God’s power is revealed in vulnerability, weakness, and a together-ness expressed in vulnerability and weakness. As the scripture from Philippians says tonight, God’s power is revealed in this way: Jesus, who had equality with God, emptied himself and was born in human likeness. And God has been revealed to us as a community. There is one God who is a communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And this communion – this community – spills over to include us. We aren’t God, but we are swept up, brought fully into the life of God. That’s amazing.

And so Jesus, God with us, shows us what it means to receive love. I suppose Jesus could have said, “Stand back, Mary! There’s no need here! Don’t you know that I’m the Savior?” Maybe with flexed arms he could have said, “I’m an Army of One!”

But no, Jesus received Mary’s love because he himself was vulnerable. And when he received Mary’s gift, he gave her a gift too: He invited her to be an abundant and extravagant and giver, someone she was always created to be.

Last week, fourteen of us embarked on an annual adventure. We traveled to Salida, Colorado for the annual ski trip. We had a wonderful time. I wish I could say that this was the year we sustained no injuries. (We will wait and hope for that to happen eventually. . .) But we did have injuries. We had two. We’ve never had more than one before! On the first day, Lauron took a spill on her second run and broke her collarbone. And on the last run of the first day, Marco fell and hurt a muscle in his leg. After that, he couldn’t walk on it. Two injuries on the first day! We were concerned for Lauron and Marco, and it was hard to watch them be in so much pain.

But with so much difficulty around us, all fourteen of us experienced such a deep sense of love and grace. We were staying at First Presbyterian Church in Salida, Colorado. And I can say emphatically, that I’ve rarely seen a more hospitable church. The congregation surrounded us and tried to do all they could to help. Two separate people brought crutches for Marco to use. And Bill and Lois Scace opened their home for Lauron. Lauron couldn’t sleep flat, so she needed to sleep in a recliner. Bill and Lois graciously offered their home to Lauron, and they also took in Libby and me as we stayed with Lauron and helped her deal with her pain. We were overwhelmed by their love and hospitality. They got to know us and allowed us to get to know them. They provided a recliner and a bed. They made us meals. Lois shared her birthday with us, and we celebrated her with a delicious chocolate cake.

Again and again, they gave abundantly and extravagantly. We felt like we belonged with them in their home. At the end of our week together, Bill said to us, “We just wish we could adopt all three of us.” And the truth is, we felt as though they had. They gave beyond what we needed, and yet, we had the sense that we too had given them a gift. We had allowed them to be the givers they are.

What a gift it is to receive love! As we close tonight, I would invite each one of us to consider how Jesus invites us into deep relational giving and receiving. Is there a form of love that you resist receiving? Do you feel guilty when people give to you? Are you afraid of seeming weak or too dependent? What holds you back?

This week as we encounter love all around us, how can you be a gracious receiver of love, and how can you spread it beyond you so that others can receive too? How can you extend the circle of love by receiving it, letting it flow through you?

May God continue to encounter us with love in and through these questions this week. Amen.

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Ski Trip 2010!

2010-03-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

We have just returned from our annual ski trip to Salida, Colorado!

Every year on Spring Break, Austin Agape travels to Salida, Colorado for some fun, some service, and some community building. We stay at First Presbyterian Church in

Salida, where we lead worship and work with youth and children. And during the week, we ski and snowshoe at Monarch Mountain. It's a blast every year.

We always begin and end with a 18-19 hour road trip. Thanks to all our drivers who got us safely to and from Salida! The road trip is always filled with great music, conversation, and laughter. Lots of fun!

We always see snow on Monarch Mountain, but this year, we had an added bonus. It snowed in town! That led to lots of snowball fights and sledding! Several of our students had never gone sledding or seen accumulated snow!

We enjoyed spending time with the middle school and high school youth from First Presbyterian Church. . .

We also enjoyed the elementary school children from Kidz Club.

We had three beautiful days for skiing and snowshoeing. . .

And unfortunately. . .yes. . .two injuries! Hang in there, Lauron and Marco!

What did you enjoy about the ski trip this year?

"What did I enjoy about the ski trip? The Texans, the Coloradans, Colorado, the snow, the car rides (yes, the car rides). . . and oh yeah, Ian fainted."

-Patrick Garvin

"I enjoyed everything about the ski trip! From the children's sermon of awesome to skiing to Kidz Club to the Hot Springs to "Halt. . .MUSH!" and the drives there and back, every moment was a blast and fun of fun and laughter! I absolutely cannot wait for next year already, and am pumped to share this awesome trip with the people who are new to it next year."

-Alyssa Nipp

"Most meaningful was the fellowship of our group with the members of the First Pres Church of Salida, their youth, the soup kitchen and helping to lead their worship services. I went to Colorado, snow-shoed, had a snowball fight and sled down a hill for the first time. But my favorite part was getting to know everyone."

-Walter Idol

"There is a lot that I enjoyed about the ski trip. The weather was almost perfectly planned for us. It snowed the day we arrived which led to hours of snow ball fights and sledding using various means, including bean bag chairs! After that it was clear skies and beautiful weather!

However, the best part for me was experiencing how the group came together for each other when they needed it. It is a bond and friendship that is unique and special to this group. I would like to sincerely thank everyone in the group for helping me when I was injured. I can't think of any other time in my life when I was surrounded by such wonderful and caring people. It made the ski trip one of the best trips I've ever taken."

-Marco Gutierrez

Sermon: You Are Included

2010-03-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

He did a very, very offensive thing. . . The younger son in our scripture lesson today certainly offended all the customs and conventions of his day. He stepped outside of the norms, crossed over the lines, and acted in ways that were shocking and shameful – shocking and shameful to himself, his family, and his neighbors.

Perhaps he had considered his plans for a while. Maybe he practiced how he might ask the question, how he might make the demand. “How should I word this exactly. . .?” he may have asked. Or perhaps his plans were simply made on the spur of the moment. Perhaps the desire for immediate gratification overcame him, and he didn’t really consider how his words might hurt or wound those around him.

“Father, give me the share of the land that will belong to me.” That wasn’t really a question at all. It seemed to be a demand, an expectation, and entitlement. And did you catch that? That word ‘will?’ “Father, give me the share of the land that will belong to me.” He’s asking to translate ‘will’ into now.

He did a very, very offensive thing. . . Because under all conventional standards of the day, the younger son would not have gained this inheritance now. The ‘will’ of it all – “Father, give me the share of the land that will belong to me” – hinged on one thing: the death of his father. In other words, as we translate this demand into the cultural language of the day, the younger son is in effect saying, “Father, be dead to me. I can’t wait for your death. I want my share of the inheritance now.” That was a very, very offensive request to make.

And he receives that inheritance. But he doesn’t use it to care for himself and his father. He doesn’t use it for the good of others, or again, even for the good of himself. Instead, he runs off to a distant country and squanders the entire inheritance on dissolute living. He asked for his father to be dead to himself. And then, he became dead to himself – dead to the person he was called to be.

And yet, thank God, there is grace. Yes, thank God that grace can come even in the rock bottom moment. A famine comes, and though the younger son may have assumed that his inheritance was abundant enough to last forever, like all things that are perishable – money, food, and worldly sustenance – his monetary inheritance hit rock bottom. And so did he. He was so poor and so in need, that he did something else that would have seemed wildly offensive to anyone he grew up with back at home. He hired himself out to be a swineherd, to tend to pigs which were unclean under Jewish law and certainly considered dirty under any cultural designation. And his rock bottom moment comes when he is so hungry that he envies those pigs. They have sustenance even in that slop, and that’s more than he can say for himself. The scripture says that there was grace even in this filthy moment of needy destitution. The text says that, “He came to himself.”

Isn’t that an interesting phrase? He came to himself? His monetary inheritance had run out, but he was on the verge of discovering there's an inheritance that is not perishable, an inheritance that cannot be squandered under any circumstances, an inheritance that has to do with identity through love.

There was grace in a glimmer of understanding. And yet, he underestimated it for what it really was. He began to dream of return – return to his father, return to himself – but he underestimated it. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” He set off to return, to be less than the one he was called to be.

He did a very, very offensive thing. . . He stepped outside the norms, crossed over lines, and acted in ways that were culturally shocking and shameful. Yes, the father did a very offensive thing, culturally speaking. Though shamed by his son and treated as though he were dead, the father continually sought after he son. He did not avert his eyes, constantly looking in love, dreaming for the wellbeing of his treasured son. He broke every standard, every expectation, and looked like a fool to his neighbors. In love, perhaps beyond what we can imagine, he did an offensive thing. . . Like a fool, he ran with open arms to greet the one who had disowned him and wronged him. He kissed his son. He did not let his son finish this speech, this tainted version of who he was in his father’s eyes. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He had spoken the truth, yet there would be no talk of acting as a hired hand. This was his beloved child, and he had returned. He had come to live as the one he is. “Bring the robe – the best one! Oh, bring the best sandals and a ring to place on his finger. My child! My child! My child has come home! My child! Kill the fatted calf! We will eat and celebrate, for this child of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost, and he was found!”

The younger son may have treated his father as though he were dead. But there is nothing he could do – no distance that he could travel – that could render his father’s love dead. This love was alive, and for that reason, he named his son as the one he had always been, who he would always be: This fully alive, beloved child. The father welcomed him in love and threw a lavish party to celebrate that deep, rich, love – love which was wildly offensive in the world’s eyes – deep, rich, unconditional love toward this child who had returned.

And. . . he too, did a very, very offensive thing. . . The older brother was hurt by this lavishness. Perhaps he felt as though this feast – this abundance – was being squandered too. His younger brother had not only shamed himself. He had shamed everyone! He had left more work, more labor for his older brother, because he was not here to do it himself. He had literally demanded his share of the land, and then he squandered the proceeds it provided him. And because his father was still alive – and thank God he was still alive! (He didn’t want his father dead like somebody else. . .!) – the older brother had to take care of his father with a smaller pool of resources than they had before. His younger brother had tarnished his family’s name, and for what? For a lavish party! Since when had his father done anything like this for him? He had stayed here. He had toiled. He had been faithful. Where was his party? There was no fatted calf! There wasn’t even a goat. And he did an offensive thing. He refused to enter the party. He chose to be alone. Self-righteous, yes, but also alone. Somehow, self-righteousness can make hermits out of us. . . And he stood there, scowling, sulking, he himself distant from his father.

And again, unconditional love can look so downright foolish. It’s offensive really. The father’s deep, rich, unconditional love was offensive in the way that it was willing to enter even the most offensive of places. Again, the father stepped outside the norms, crossed the lines, and acted in ways that were culturally shocking and shameful. He did what no host would do it his culture: He left his guests, and he went out to meet his older son. The older son made his complaints. He expressed his frustrations. It’s easy to empathize with him, but it’s also easy to forget the same thing the older son had forgotten about himself. His father listens, but he also lavishes his son with abundant love, “Son, you are always with me. You cannot truly be distant from my love for you. All that is mine, is yours.” And then the challenge: “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found.” Yes, the challenge. “He is mine. Will you let him be yours? Will you come in, where my love is big enough for the both of you?”

What a story. How offensive. How challenging. How profound.

Do you know who you are? Do you know it? Do you know Whose you are? Do you know who and Whose you were created to be?

The first epistle of John says it so well: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” Beautiful words. True words. And then, these words which are true and rich with challenge, “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. . . if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Hear the good news of God’s love for you. You are included in God’s love. Wake up to it! Live like it’s actually real and true! And hear the good news of God’s love for the world. The world is included in God’s love. God’s love for you is so big, that it can include the world – those you love, those known unto you, those unknown to you, those you can’t stand. . . – without ever diminishing God’s deep, rich, unconditional for you. God’s love for the world is so big that it can really and truly include you – yes, even you! - without diminishing any of that love for the world. This love is endless and boundless.

So what are you waiting for? Won’t you go into that party and celebrate?

You may feel as though you have wandered so far away from God, that God has stopped waiting for your return. You may feel as though God would never run after you with open arms. It may seem as though you’ve squandered it all, and you might as well indulge in pig slop. Well, the good news for you today is that you are not pig slop, and you were never made for pig slop. God is looking. God is watching. God is loving with open arms. There is nothing you can do to nullify that love. You can’t un-beloved child yourself. And because that’s true, here’s the challenge. If you don’t know that love, or you’re not living as if that love is real, you are missing something. Turn around. Come to yourself – your true self, you true beloved self. Leave that distant country – whatever it is; addiction, rage, pettiness, pride, self-loathing, isolation, greed, hoarding, competition, gossip; whatever it is – and come home. Come home. There is a Love so deep that it’s offensively running after you. It’s on the offensive! Run in the direction toward the One who runs after you.

Or you may feel as though you’re standing outside these days. Perhaps you’re resentful. Perhaps there are people you’d rather God not love. Perhaps you define them as outsiders, and yet, you are the one refusing to enter God’s deep love. Or perhaps you feel ostracized yourself. Remember that God’s love for them cannot nullify God’s love for you. And God’s love for you cannot nullify God’s love for them. If all that is God’s is lovingly yours, your neighbors and your enemies are yours to love. Embrace them. Run after them as God runs after them. Or allow yourself to be loved by them. Enter that lavish party. You are included. There is a Love so deep that it’s offensively coming into your isolation. Enter that celebration. You were born to be included and to include others.

Know that God’s love this day – and this moment! – is here, for you, and for the world. Won’t you come in?

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

This sermon was preached at a service First Presbyterian Church in Salida, Colorado, where the students from Austin Agape led the worship service.

Faith and Labor. . .

2010-03-08T12:10:00.001-08:00

This semester our Monday Evening Bible Study is focusing on this question: How can we put our faith into action?

We've talked about issues of racism and food justice, we've explored how we can be mindful of the people of Haiti, and we've asked deliberate questions about our giftedness and calling toward vocation. And tonight we will begin exploring the intersection of faith and labor in our world.

More specifically, we will talk about the many sweatshops that continue to undermine workers around our world. What does our faith have to say about these injustices? How can we put our faith into action, right here in Austin?

Please join us at 7pm upstairs in Room 212. We'll have meaningful conversation!

Sermon: Cultivating. . .

2010-03-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Luke 13:1-9

Perhaps some people in the crowd wanted to get a political reaction from Jesus. In the scripture lesson for today, some people came to share news with him. Perhaps they wanted to see him full to the brim with anger, fists clenched, his face scowling with rage and indignation. Perhaps they wanted him to point his finger, leading in the direction toward revolution, so they could finally throw their enemies - their Roman occupiers - off of their soldiers. “Jesus, did you hear how Pilate killed those Galileans and then mixed their blood with sacrifices?” Maybe they wanted to get a political reaction from Jesus, but fortunately for us, and for them, Jesus refuses to define himself by who his enemies are.

Or perhaps they wanted simple answers, a simple theological reaction from Jesus. “Jesus, did you hear? Those Galileans went down to Jerusalem, and do you know what Pilate did? He killed them and mixed their blood with sacrifices. God must have had it out for them, huh? What do you think, Jesus?” Maybe they wanted a theological reaction from Jesus, but fortunately for us, and for them, Jesus refuses to define others by simple theological answers.

Or perhaps they wanted a pastoral reaction from Jesus. “Jesus, did you hear the news? Pilate killed some Galileans – some people just like us. . . – and then mixed their blood with sacrifices. . .” Perhaps they wanted him to understand their fear, to help them make sense of senseless suffering. Maybe they wanted a pastoral reaction from Jesus.

And Jesus does what Jesus so often does. He meets our needs but is not confined by our expectations. He makes the moment a teaching moment. He addresses the crowd of disciples with a question of his own: “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” He says, “No, I tell you.” They are not worse sinners. They did not commit something so heinous that they brought this upon themselves. But then he adds something else: “But unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

He goes on. “Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?” The crowd must have known about this tragedy too. What about those people? What could they have possibly done to cause a tower to fall upon them? Jesus answers his own question again: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

The questions that the people in the crowd were carrying are not unfamiliar to us. Everyone asks about suffering. Why did this happen? Why is this happening now? Why me? Why her? Why him? Why us? God, where are you? God, will you save us from this suffering?

And it’s encouraging to us that our spiritual forebears – our ancestors in the faith – have asked these questions alongside us. The writers of the Bible find so many ways to ask questions about suffering, and they add their voices – differently and uniquely – to form a cacophony of answers as well.

There’s the Deuteronomistic way of thought. (Now try saying that word three times fast. . . I can hardly say it once!) Basically, the Deuteronomistic way of thought is a theology that comes out of the book Deuteronomy but is filtered through many books of the Hebrew Bible. If you obey God through the law of the Torah, you will be blessed. And if you are disobedient to God by not following the law of the Torah, you will be cursed. Of course, there is something profoundly true and inspired about this: Following God, living in love, justice, kindness, and deep-rooted community are blessings in and of themselves. But turning our backs on God, living in hatred, injustice, inhospitality, and isolation are truly part of a cursed existence we create for ourselves. But what about other types of blessings and curses? When good things happen – wealth, health, happy circumstances - are they because we’ve obeyed? When bad things happen – poverty, sickness, unhappy circumstances – are they because we’ve disobeyed?

The Deuteronomistic strand of theological thought isn’t the only one in our Bible. The Book of Job seems to offer another theologically inspired voice. Job – a righteous man – is struck down with disaster beyond anything we can wrap our minds around. All of his children die, and all of his livestock die, and he himself loses his health and is covered with blistering sores. His friends come and join him to sit with him in his suffering, but he would have been better off if they would have just stayed away. The Book of Job is clear that Job has done nothing to cause or deserve his current sufferings, but his friends have all kinds of hurtful things to say: “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same,” one says. In other words, “If you weren’t guilty, Job, these things wouldn’t have happened to you!” Another friend says that this present level of suffering is really God’s way of being gracious to Job: He says, “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” But the end of the book, God speaks to Job from the whirlwind, and God vindicates Job, saying that his friends have spoken falsely. Sin is real. And suffering is real. But particular sin and particular suffering do not always have a one-to-one correspondence.

And there are theologically inspired voices from the prophets too. In times of great suffering – when the people of Judah were in exile in Babylon, away from their land living as captives, prophets often spoke words of hope. Isaiah speaks these words of God: “Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. ¹⁶See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” And Jeremiah speaks these words of God: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.¹².”

Clearly, suffering is no new question and there’s no new, easy answer. Fortunately for us and for them, Jesus doesn’t wrap suffering in a pretty, easy-to-explain bow. But rather, he speaks to our hearts and calls us to repentance.

Repentance. . .now let’s be honest. . . That’s not a word we really like. It certainly isn’t fun. . . You don’t call up your friends on a Friday night to plan a fun, evening outing of repentance! (I’m just trying to imagine Repentance Event up on Facebook. . .) But there are other reasons we might resist this word too. Perhaps we’ve had difficulty with people who tend to preach a fire and brimstone God, a God who doesn’t seem to have great plans for us, plans of welfare or a good future. The theological thought behind a God like that seems to say that God is waiting for one misstep, and BAM! At best, a Tower of Siloam falls on us. At worst, we are cast into everlasting torment in a fiery hell.

I can see why we would want to throw out ideas about a God like that, but we don’t need to throw out repentance with them. The word for repentance literally means to change direction. It means to turn around – to do a 180 – for the sake of the life we will find in the other direction, for the sake of the Person who is the Life in the other direction. A God who calls us to repentance is gracious, because this God calls us for the sake of the fullness of life and service we will find in that process. This God loves us. This God calls us to life, life in the midst of suffering, life in spite of suffering.

And so, Jesus tells a parable. It isn’t found in another of the other Gospels. It’s just here in Luke. It’s kind of quirky - maybe even a bit weird to our ears. The owner of a vineyard comes and wants fruit from his fig tree, but lo and behold, there is none! And from the way it sounds, there’s never been any fruit on this particular tree. The owner of the vineyard is enraged about this. “Why should a tree like that even waste soil?” He goes to his gardener. “I’ve been coming for fruit from this tree for three years now, and it hasn’t produced one fig! Cut it down!”

But the gardener is an advocate. The gardener is bold to see possibility where the owner doesn’t. “Oh no, sir. Please. Let me do some work on this tree. Let me dig around it. Let me put some fertilizer on it. Let me cultivate it. Who knows? Perhaps that fruit will come after all.”

Now if we’re fire and brimstone people, we probably think that the owner of the vineyard is God. God is ready for one misstep, and BAM! We’re a fig tree cut down to the ground. But if we remember that God is our loving Creator – our Nurturer, our Sustainer – we may see God’s presence in the figure of the gardener. God is cultivating us. God is leading us, digging around us, and if you will allow me to be very frank – God is even using the manure that sometimes comes our way, transforming even that for our good - that we might be grafted into the very reign of God – where God is honored and we are rooted in love, for God’s sake and for ours.

I’ll close by sharing some words about some friends of mine who seem to illustrate the beauty of this. Last night, Ian and I went to the home of Mary Smith and Walter Stewart. Some of you know them. They sing in UPC’s Chancel Choir. They live on a property outside of the city, where they grow wildflowers and build houses for purple martins, little birds that migrate here from Brazil every year. If you know Mary and Walter, you know that they have to be the most enthusiastic people you’ve ever met. When they love something, they love it! They’ve recently made a nursery to grow wildflowers, and they have this large list of friends who come to work in the nursery just for fun. They nurse the plants to health so that they can spread then them all over their property. It’s like they’re building a reigning kingdom of wildflowers.

What I love about Mary and Walter is that they are firm believers in possibilities, and they celebrate growth. They become wildly enthusiastic when they make a smallest discovery in their fields. They see the possibility for life – for fruit, if you will – even in the small things. They are advocates for little plants making their way in this world.

A couple of years ago, we were out at their home, and we had a wonderful opportunity to get a tour of their land and watch this enthusiasm unfold. From the second we arrived, that enthusiasm for life began:

"Oh look! And this is a such and such!"

"Oh Mary! Look! Did you see this?"
"Recently, we pulled off so many seeds from this plant! You can spread them anywhere!"
"Oh! And do you see this? This is a long blue stalk! That's pretty much ice cream to cows. They always go for them first!"

In this excited speech, Walter began to envision possibility upon possibility. It had been a cloudy and rainy day. The wildflower season had been over for a good while, the sky was a firm shade of gray, and most of the vegetation was golden brown. But Walter continued to see colors that were not presently there. "In the spring, this entire hill will look like this!" "In a couple of years, this side will be filled with these!" "Oh, it's just going to be spectacular!" He continued to talk at a fast pace. Only one thing would stop him from time to time. "Wowwwww. . ." He would marvel and his voice would lower. "Oh, look at that. . ." Walter would occasionally spot a colorful wildflower. "It's completely out of season," he would say. "Isn't it just wonderful? Just think, in the spring, this place will be filled with them!"

Tonight in this season of Lent, know that God cultivating you and yes, calling you – calling us – to repent. Turn around. Open your eyes. Really live. Bear the fruit you were born to create. How can you grow into the places where Christ is calling you to follow?

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Thinking Intentionally About Food. . .

2010-02-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

This semester our Campus Bible Study is asking the question: How can we put our faith into action?

For the last few weeks, we've been thinking intentionally about Food Justice. How do people have access to food in our nation and in our city? What is it like to live on Food Stamps? What is it like to be a farmer, and how can we support food that is grown locally? How does the production of food affect our environment? Workers? Animals?

Join us every Monday night at 7:00pm in the Youth Room to study scripture and think through relevant questions!

What have you enjoyed about our Bible Study this semester? And have you learned anything interesting about food?

"I've really enjoyed exploring real, concrete ways to live out my faith in the world. And having time to discuss these issues with smart, spiritually hungry people!

I've also learned about 'veggie libel laws,' which can evidently be used in a lot of ways that protect food companies but tend to restrict some people's freedom of speech."

-Merrit Martin

"I've learned that corn is everywhere and in almost everything. It's kinda scary!"

-Catherine Faig

"Our Bible Study has certainly become more proactive than any other time I can remember. I think it's great that not only are we learning, but are called to action.

It's complicated to truly know where food is coming from, but our 'vote' to buy foods that we believe in helps change the habits of food producers and distributors. Also healthy food changes the way we feel and perform."

-Marco Gutierrez

"I enjoy Bible Study because everybody can talk about deep, spiritual, and sometimes controversial issues without having to feel judged or ignored or disrespected, and I like how the things we talk about are always applicable to our lives.

I learned that nearly everything in some way or another involves corn in its production!"

-Lauren Thomas

Please join us on Monday, March 1st for our final week devoted to Food Justice!

Sermon: The Hard Way Through

2010-02-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hebrews 4:14-16

Luke 4:1-13

It’s been a hard week in many ways for many reasons. For those of you who are students, many of you have mentioned that this has been the most stressful week you’ve had this semester. You’ve mentioned paper after paper, and some of you have had as many as three or four tests just this week! It’s been a hard week, and I’ve found myself feeling for you as you talk about how much sleep you’ve lost.

But beyond the routines of school and work-life, this has been a hard week for other reasons too. Two people in our community have close friends who each experienced tragedies in their families this week. Both of these friends – young women at UT - suddenly lost their fathers, two men who died entirely too young. One father was 52, and the other was 46. It’s been a hard week. . . We’ve been praying for these families and grieving alongside them.

And on top of these personal tragedies, there is, of course, a national tragedy that happened right here in Austin this week. Joseph Stack, a software engineer, husband, and father and step-father of two children, released his anger at the I-R-S this week in a horrendous act. On Thursday, he set fire to his house with his wife and step-daughter inside (Thankfully, they made it to safety) and he deliberately rammed his personal plane into the Eschalon building, a building that contains offices for the I-R-S, blowing out windows and filling the place with fire and smoke. The Eschalon building is only three streets away from where Ian and I live, and we pass it twice a day when we take the bus to campus. I’ve personally seen that building this week, and it truly looks like hell. It’s amazing that apart from Joseph Stack, only one person died in that building. Even that number is senseless and too large, but after personally seeing the damage to the building, it’s hard to believe that the others survived. The ongoing damage for those survivors will largely be psychological as they relive that trauma in their memories and come to grips with how someone could make a choice to act in that way.

All of these difficulties have been before us concretely this week. For all of these, and others that go unmentioned, we pray for God’s grace. And we tell the honest truth to ourselves: It’s been a hard week in many ways for many reasons.

And we have this text before us tonight. The Gospel writers tell us in their narratives that Jesus had just experienced a profoundly meaningful affirmation of call – not simply a call of what he would do, but a call about who he is. He was baptized by John in the River Jordan. And in that moment of that baptism, God’s presence was tangible with an experience of holiness and awe. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, filling him, and the affirmation was made, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you, I am well-pleased.” Certainly that moment was full of love, awe, and mystery. Certainly that moment was filled with a confirmation of his identity. Certainly that moment was filled with affirmation that who he is will be intimately tied together with what he will do. He will live out this identity. He will act as the one he is.

And then the wilderness. Jesus’ moment of call is followed by the wilderness. For forty days and nights, Jesus lives in the wilderness, experiencing what is common to humanity – what is common to us all - temptation, testing, and yes, difficulty. The translation we read tonight speaks of one who was present with Jesus in that experience - the devil, challenging Jesus, and giving him options of what it means to be the one he is. “If you are the Son of God. . .” the devil says.

Now when we hear this text, we might picture all sorts of caricatures of the devil - caricatures from art, jokes, and Halloween costumes – pictures of a red figure with horns or a pitchfork. But perhaps there are theological caricatures too. . . ways that people talk about a figure called Satan or the devil that we might not be comfortable swallowing. These caricatures get in our way, and we ask, “Is this real?” But apart from the caricatures, the word for devil in this passage literally means an ‘accuser’ or ‘slanderer.’ And certainly, we know from our own experience that accusation and slander can be very real in a time of difficulty. And in this text, accusation and slander take personal form, and we can certainly relate to that apart from any of the caricatures that get in our way. Events and people often make accusations and slander when things get difficult. They often cause what’s difficult. And in our inner life – in our thoughts, emotions, and motivations – we often accuse and slander others. We often accuse and slander ourselves. Certainly in this way the devil – a destructive force of accusation and slander - is very real in our lives.

And this accuser and slanderer was real in Jesus’ experience. Jesus was in the wilderness. He had just come from a moment of affirmation. His identity was confirmed. And now, in the wilderness, the question is not, “Who is he?” but “How will he be the one he is?” Not, “Is he the Son of God?” but “What kind of Son will he be? How will he act upon this identity? How will he be the one he is?”

The devil – the accuser, the slanderer – puts these questions before him in the wilderness. He says, “If you are the Son of God. . .” On the surface, this does seem to be a question of, “Who is he?” “Are you really the Son of God?” But the same phrase in the original Greek text can also mean, “Since you’re the Son of God. . .”

“Since you’re the Son of God, Jesus, why don’t you turn this stone into bread? Why don’t you use your identity for your own purposes? And if you could do that. . . you could certainly feed the multitudes, couldn’t you. . .?

Jesus answers, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

“Since you’re the Son of God, Jesus, why don’t you worship me – the embodiment of accusation, slander, evil. After all, can’t I gain you access to the kingdoms of this world? Why don’t you follow the way I’m setting before you? Simply act in worship and allegiance to my way, and it will all be yours. After all, you’re the Son, the Savior. Simply worship me, and you can save all people of the world, for all their eyes will be upon you. . .”

Jesus answers, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

“Since you’re the Son of God, Jesus, throw yourself from this temple. After all, is it not written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you’, ¹¹and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone’? What a miracle that would be, Jesus! What a way to reveal your identity to those you have come to save!”

Jesus answers, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

And the text tells us that the accuser, the slanderer, left him until an opportune time.

Jesus was in the wilderness. He knows the wilderness. He knows difficulty. And though we have told ourselves the truth that it has been a hard week in many ways for many reasons, we also tell ourselves this truth tonight: We are accompanied by one who knows the wilderness – one who’s been there, one who knows hardship – one who walked through it not in spite of who he is but because of who he is, because he chose to enter the wilderness with us, to be one of us, to accompany us in every wilderness we face.

The Devil – the accuser, the slanderer – actually acknowledges Jesus’ identity: “Since you’re the Son of God. . .” but this accuser and slanderer tempts Jesus to act upon that identity by taking the easy road. But Jesus doesn’t do it. For our sake, for the love that was within him, Jesus chose to take a road that would hard instead of easy – he would suffer and struggle. He wouldn’t do this because suffering and hardship is good or even redemptive in and of itself. No. He would do it because he would love fully, heal boundlessly, forgive endlessly, live in joy abundantly, and associate himself indiscriminately. And when a person lives like that – when Jesus lived like that – it makes waves, and the powers of this world resist it. For our sakes, Jesus chose the way of freedom and life, and the world met it with a cross. And yet, even a cross couldn’t extinguish that life of love! We point to Jesus as the resurrected one.

Jesus did not take the easy way out.

Jesus took the hard way through.

And he took it to and for the purpose of life.

And that’s where God calls us too. Tonight is the first Sunday of Lent, and we’re in 40 days of Lent traveling through the wilderness toward Easter, toward life, toward resurrection. And so I ask us each to consider tonight, “In what wilderness to you find yourself these days? How does Jesus want to heal that wilderness? What words, questions, situations, memories accuse you or slander you?

Have I found the right way to do what I’m doing? Is this right?

Am I really good? Am I really worth loving? Actually, loveable?

Will I succeed, or will I fail?

What is it that feels missing?

How will I find out the answers?

Will I always be afraid?

Will life be as rich as I hope it will be?

Can I stay in control, or should I let go?

How can I make peace in the conflicts that surround me?

In what wilderness do you find yourselves?

How might Jesus seek to resurrect you by walking through it with you? How can you look to him? How can you follow him as your guide? Let him lead and form you in the wilderness so that you might go forth as one resurrected, choosing to love so deeply that you willingly enter the world’s wilderness, loving fully, healing boundlessly, forgiving endlessly, living in joy abundantly, and associating yourself indiscriminately.

How will that happen? Let’s travel these forty days together. Amen.

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Food For Thought! Thank You!

2010-02-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night, the Food For Thought Team cooked a delicious meal for Austin Agape. We are so appreciative! This semester, Food For Thought has a creative theme: God's Colorful Palette! They are creating meals based on colors.

For Valentine's Day, we had an incredible meal of red foods!

So who is the Food For Thought Team, and why do they do this for us? The Food For Thought Team is a group of UPC members who want to show us hospitality and teach us about the ministry of food. Twice a semester, they make us a feast! We enjoy the food, and most of all, we are grateful for their presence.

It means a lot to our students when our members take interest in personally knowing them. And they're college students! So they enjoy free food, especially when it's so delicious.

Food For Thought, Austin Agape thanks you for your gifts and for your dedication to this ministry. You are welcome with us any time!

Austin Agape Assists the Austin Marathon!

2010-02-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

Bright and early on Sunday morning, Austin hosted its annual marathon. Some runners conquered the 26.2 mile course, and others challenged themselves for the 13.1 half marathon. Quite amazing, really!

Many runners participated in the 26 Miles for 26 Charities Challenge. Each year, charitable organizations are chosen to receive support from the Austin Marathon. Runners collect donations for the charity of their choice.

This year the 26 sponsored charitable organizations were as follows:

ACTIVE Life
Austin Child Guidance Center
Austin Children's Center
Austin Sunshine Campus
Blue Dog Rescue
Capitol Area Food Bank of Texas
Colin's Hope
Communities in Schools of Central Texas
CureDuchenne
Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas
Gazelle Foundation
Girls on the Run of Austin
Goodwill Industries/Central Texas
Hill Country Conservancy
Lance Armstrong F oundation
Manos de Cristo
Marathon Kids Inc.
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
Rawson-Saunders School
Round Rock ISD Project 5K
RunTex Carrozza Foundation
St. Jude's Heroes
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Texas National Guard Family Support Foundation
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Some of our students from Austin Agape woke up bright and early and arrived at 5:30am to support Manos de Cristo. They handed out water to the runners!

Way to run!

And there was a lot of laughter too, of course.

And special congratulations are in order to Byron French who ran the half marathon, raising $930.00 and Shane Webb who ran the full marathon, raising $345.00. They are both donating their funds to the ministries of Manos de Cristo. Way to go, both of you!

Sermon: Crash Helmets

2010-02-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Luke 9:28-43

I’d like to start out our sermon tonight with a short discussion. This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday, and every year at this time, we read the story of the Transfiguration. In our three year lectionary cycle of scriptures, we read the Transfiguration account from Matthew, and then Mark, and then Luke. And this year, the text comes from Luke. Audrey and I are going to read the scripture lesson, and when we’re finished, I’m curious to know your thoughts on the passage. What are your first impressions? What do you notice? Do you associate anything with this passage? And what questions come to mind for you?

I invite us to open our awareness to this passage as we hear it.

A reading from Luke. Listen to God’s Word for us here and now tonight.

(Scripture and Discussion)

As I studied for our sermon this week, I ran across a commentary by a well-known theologian and preacher named Fred Craddock, and he made a really great point about this passage. He says that we may unintentionally cheapen this story if we automatically begin by making it a reference point to our own experience. In other words, what he seems to mean is that if we jump in right away and say, “Oh! This Transfiguration event is just like our experience of x, y, and z!” we might miss the awe and holiness that are a part of this passage. After all, a holy event is one in which something very different occurs, something that’s very set apart from our typical experience. And in your observations, you seemed to say something similar. It’s not every day that we see a vision of Jesus with Moses and Elijah on a mountaintop. It’s not every day that we see a majestic cloud coming down with a voice proclaiming Jesus as the one we’re called to follow. And it’s not every day that we come off of a mountain to find a father with his child, a child that the father presents as possessed by an unclean spirit. These references are most likely outside of our common experience, and if we were telling the story through modern words and a modern worldview, we’d probably tell it a bit differently.

But does that mean this scripture has little to say to us – nothing to say to us, we 21^st century people, people who haven’t experienced these visions or events in exactly the same way they’re described here? No, and I’m thankful the passage has much to say to us. So I’m grateful for your observations, and I’m curious about how the Holy Spirit is at work among us in our sacred moment right now, to teach us in and through this story so that we might be sent out to live it. So let’s get inside this story together. Let’s use our imaginations.

Peter, James, and John walk up a mountain together with Jesus to pray. Perhaps they were tired from all the traveling they had been doing around Galilee, on foot from town to town. Perhaps they were on an emotional high. They had seen some incredible events over the last few days - a hungry crowd with no obvious food source in sight, was fed by Jesus with such abundance that twelve baskets were full with leftover food after everyone was satisfied. Or perhaps they were confused. Peter had recently made this great declaration before Jesus and the disciples: “You, Jesus, are the Messiah of God.” But Jesus began to state the implications of what that would mean for him, and they definitely didn’t fit the disciples’ expectations: Jesus says, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Maybe they were very confused and conflicted as they walked up that mountain with Jesus. There was certainly a lot to ponder these days.

And maybe all of that pondering – all of that experiencing – had worn them to the bone. They were exhausted and in their fatigue, who knows? They may have been a bit zoned out, in their own world, as we say. They certainly weren’t expecting what they were about to experience on that mountaintop.

Jesus was praying. Perhaps he sought their prayers alongside him as well. But it seems they were just about to drift to sleep when they were suddenly moved with an experience that was radically beyond their comprehension. Perhaps the transcendence and holiness of the moment was so thick and intense, that it was hard to put it in to words. These are the words and images that the Gospel writers give us: As Jesus prayed, his appearance changed, and his clothes seemed as though they were dazzling white. And two men appeared as well, Moses and Elijah, speaking to Jesus about his departure; the word in the Greek text is exodus. In a moment of prayer, God’s presence was incredibly holy beyond description and yet immanent, right there with them – right there with these sleepy disciples who were probably expecting nothing more than a simple prayer and if we’re being honest, a nap.

And then Peter can’t stand it anymore. He has to say something. You gotta love Peter. . . It’s easy to smile or chuckle a bit when we hear how Luke frames what he has to say. In effect, the text says, “Peter had no idea what he was saying. . .” Can you imagine him? “Uh, hey Jesus! Hey, uh. . .I have a great idea! Uh. . .Let’s build three dwellings: You know, one for you. . . one for Moses. . one for Elijah! It’ll be GREAT!”

And then comes a moment so holy, that it produces awe, fear, and a profound sense of majesty. There is a cloud, like the presence of God from the exodus story itself, and a voice from cloud proclaims: “This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him!”

They listen. And they don’t stay on that mountain forever. They don’t stay, enshrined with holy tabernacles for dwelling. No, they come down and they reenter a world that is often wrought with suffering. They find a father in full desperation and anxiety there with his child. Jesus heals that child and gives him back to his father.

What a story. . . And yes, Fred Craddock is right. We would be missing something if we immediately tried to make the story of the Transfiguration fit into the confines of our modern experience, if we tried to reduce this story and put it on our terms. Is Luke telling us about a literal event? Is Luke giving us a grand metaphor? I don’t presume to know the answer to those questions but I do believe this story has much to say to us. And even though this story can’t be reduced to our questions and modern experiences, this passage does speak to our experiences. It does call us to think about our experiences differently.

When we come to worship, what do we expect? When we enter this holy place and this sacred moment, do we expect to encounter God? Are we tired? Are we on an emotional high? Are we confused? Are we mentally or emotionally asleep? Do we expect to experience something out of the ordinary here – something deep, holy, life-changing – right in the midst of our every-day-ness, right in the middle of what is ordinary?

The honest answer is sometimes, yes and sometimes, no. We bring all sorts of thoughts and experiences in this room with us. But what if we brought them with intention, with the intention of listening deeply, singing with meaning, speaking with conviction, and receiving communion as the gift that it truly is?

Some of you have read some of writings of Annie Dillard. She says something interesting about Christian worship that has stayed with me for many years, though I too, functionally forget it. Too often we come to worship with no expectation of how holy and sacred it truly is. Annie Dillard says that if we were to take worship seriously, we would all come wearing crash helmets! That’s right. Crash Helmets. We would expect God’s presence to be among us, calling us to amazing acts of ministry in this world – difficult acts, yes, but powerful acts of healing, justice, service, compassion, kindness, and love.

And so again, rather than imposing our experience on the Transfiguration story, we ought to let the Transfiguration story transform our experience. Like Jesus, Peter, James, and John, we leave this holy sacred hour of worship, to move into the world where more holy acts will meet us and require our care and attention. We are called to be transfigured people ourselves – to move into our week differently because we have been here together, because we have encountered the very presence of God, for Jesus has said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.” Christ calls us here for a holy moment of transfiguration so that we might go out into the world and meet him there too! Again, he has spoken to us: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,^* you did it to me.”

In worship, we are united with ancient witnesses of old – like our gospel writers – who tell us, “This is God’s Son, the Chosen; listen to him!” And we tell that one another. Here we are, invited to listen to him now. We have come to a Holy Moment of worship. And we are called to follow him into the world. Will this moment transfigure us along with him? And will we have the courage go down the mountain this week and meet his healing presence in a hurting world? Will we allow the Transfiguring presence of God to transform our modern experience?

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Kerby Lane - Fellowship Time!

2010-02-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! Who would like some Friday pancakes? Who would like some coffee? Who would like some great Mexican food?

Where can you find all three? That's right! Kerby Lane!

Patrick Garvin has created an event on Facebook for Pancake Friday - Today! If you can make it, just show up at noon. We'll have time to laugh, catch up, and hear how the week is going - all while eating incredible food. Enjoy!

Community Sermon

2010-02-11T15:05:00.001-08:00

This semester at Austin Agape, we are thinking intentionally about how we can all be a part of the weekly sermon. We believe that the sermon is not merely the words that are spoken, but the sermon is a moment in our community. In addition to the spoken words, the sermon includes the thoughts, emotions, and actions that come as a result of gathering around scripture. So before worship together this Sunday, we are thinking about this text:

Luke 9:26-38
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

1. What do you notice in this text? Does anything pique your interest?
2. What do you think it has to say to you these days?
3. What does it say to our community?
4. What might Luke be trying to convey about Jesus in this passage?
5. If you were to put yourself in the roles of the disciples, how might you imagine their experience?

Bible Study: Who Are You Called To Be?

2010-02-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

We began our Campus Bible Study last night with some fun, creative games of Ping Pong! We're grateful to be a community who finds so many wonderful ways to play.

And we also had a meaningful time of reading and discussing scripture. This semester we are thinking about concrete ways to put our faith into action. We're discussing the many ways we are all called to ministry, both as individuals and as a community of faith.

Last night Merrit lead us through a meaningful discussion of Jeremiah 31. And we asked ourselves and one another, "What gifts do we see in our community, and how might God use us to restore others to healing and wholeness?"

We passed around sheets of paper with our names on them. And we each wrote words of affirmation for one another. What gifts do we see in each other? Our time together was very meaningful.

Renee and Merrit are co-leaders of our Bible Study for the first part of this semester. Merrit is a junior at the University of Texas. She is studying Spanish and Religious Studies. She recently completed a semester of studying abroad in Argentina, and she has also been elected to serve as our Campus Deacon for the 2010-2011 academic year. We are so grateful for her leadership with us!

Our Campus Super Bowl Party!

2010-02-08T08:20:00.001-08:00

On Sunday night, Austin Agape gathered upstairs in the Youth Room for a night of Super Bowl watching! Colts fans and Saints fans collided! Actually none of us ran into each other, and we simply enjoyed the game!

Thanks to Marco for his technological skills, and thanks to Barbara for the delicious food!

And thanks to Kathleen for this stunning cake!

We enjoyed some ping pong. .

Some other games. . .

Some music. . .

And some general silliness. . .

We also gathered together to worship. We heard a reflection and had a meaningful discussion about living in the present moment and seeking God's presence and call for our lives. Thanks to everyone for your meaningful words!

Reflection: But What About Now?
Luke 5:1-11
Isaiah 6:1-8

The Future. Oh. . .the future. When you’re a college student – when you’re a young adult – it seems to be the air you breathe. The Future. Why? It’s constantly surrounding you – bombarding you -and even if you want a break from the future, it’s definitely hard to get one. People are constantly telling you, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways: “You’re the future! We’re counting on you! Future, Future, Future. . .”

But it’s not just that you embody the future in the eyes of other adults. It’s also that as far back as when you were “knee-high to a grasshopper” you’ve been prepped for the future. Kindergarten getting you ready for elementary school, elementary school getting you ready for middle school, middle school making sure you’re prepped for high school, high school getting you ready for college, and yes, college getting you ready for your future. Tests, tests, tests. Preparation for the future. The TAKS test (Ian and I had the ISTEP – Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Process) the SAT, perhaps the ACT. And now, some of you are thinking about other tests these days. There’s the LSAT and the MCAT. It all seems to be preparing you for the future – the day when your star will rise, the day when at last, you will be the future people who have come to present day, fully formed, fully ready, fully prepared to lead and make waves in this world.

But maybe we’ve missed something here. Aren’t you future people, well, alive now?

Oh yeah. . .maybe we’ve all forgotten that – not just the middle agers who make us out to be the “Future people” – but maybe we’ve forgotten too. We get wrapped up in the future, and maybe we forget that we are living, breathing people who are alive now, alive to discover the world right in front of us, just the way it is in this moment, alive to allow this moment to make us who we are so that we might go into the future shaped by the now.

The now is connected to the future, isn’t it? That is so ‘duh’, but I don’t we think about it as often as we should. Why? Because we’re rushing around trying to make our future a good one, and we’ll sacrifice anything in the present moment to get there. Maybe we’ll be workaholics, sacrificing the joy of our relationships. Maybe we’ll think so intensely about that upcoming test that we’ll forget to notice how gorgeous it is outside. Maybe we’ll sacrifice our sleep. Maybe we’ll forget to eat. And who knows what else? Maybe we’ll do this because we value our future, and we want it to be a good one.

And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with the future. I hope it doesn’t sound like picking on it too much. The future is a wonderful thing to plan for! A wonderful thing to dream about! It’s just that we have a problem in our planning. . . By the time, we get to that future, by the time the future we’ve been planning for becomes the present, we’re on to the next thing, planning for the future again. Do we lose the now, totally in service to the future?

What I mean, is that there was a period of time when many of you were planning and dreaming about college. Wouldn’t it be sad if you missed those glorious moments, the small things, the beautiful moments of right now?

Tonight we have two call stories before us – the story of Jesus calling his disciples by the Sea of Galilee and the story of the prophet Isaiah, encountering God’s holiness in the temple. Call stories. Hmm. . .our calling. Now that’s about the future too, isn’t it? Or wait. . .is it?

You would think so, and certainly the answer is at least partially, yes. As young people, you’re often asking, “What is it that I should do with my life? How can I make a difference? What can I add to the world? What’s my calling?” Yes. “What’s my calling, and how can I find out what it is?”

Good questions. We ask them all the time, and we shouldn’t tire of asking them. But here’s a thing to remember: Our calling – that thing we want to do in this world for this world – is not just about the future. It’s not simply this thing we’re waiting to get to. Our calling involves the present. The calling involves now.

The disciples were living a pretty run-of-the-mill day. Of course, they weren’t disciples yet. They were fishermen. They were doing what fishermen do: Fish. But this run-of-the-mill day wasn’t going so well, not yet. They hadn’t caught any fish. And this story of calling is obviously a miracle story, perhaps and odd one. Jesus tells Peter to go back into the deep water and throw the nets out again. And all of the sudden, their nets are full with more fish than they can count! More than they can imagine! And Jesus says to these fishermen who will be disciples, “From now on you will be catching people.” From now on you will be inviting others to move from a shallow life out into deep seas, seas that call human beings to love, peace, justice, healing, wholeness. That call is a miracle, isn’t it? It certainly involves their future, doesn’t it?

But you know what else is a miracle? It’s easy to miss it. Before Jesus tells Peter to cast his nets, he asks Peter to take him out in the boat so that he can speak to the people. The text says, “Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.” That language about sitting down is important. Sitting down? Pretty mundane, right? Not quite a miracle, right? Well, in this text, it’s significant. It’s a clue to us. Luke is telling us that Jesus was taking the stance of a rabbi. And all of the sudden, a pretty mundane, everyday scene becomes infinitely holy in the present moment. Jesus creates a synagogue, right there on the Lake of Gennesaret, speaking to people and teaching them what it means to live deeply. If those people were running around like crazy thinking about the future, they would have missed that present day miracle right in front of them.[1]

And then we have this very odd, intriguing story from Isaiah. Isaiah went into the temple on what may have been a mundane, run-of-the-mill day. Sure, the temple is a sacred, holy place. But was he expecting the deep sense of transcendence he would encounter there? I don’t know, but something so holy and transcendent happened that it must have been hard to put into words. And so he writes it in a holy vision. Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God, and God’s holiness is so profound that Isaiah is called to a confessional moment, “‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” (By the way, it’s interesting that Peter says something similar, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”) But God’s presence shows up in the mundane to say in effect: “I am calling you – you, the fullest you of this present moment, quirks and all – to use your gifts right now to follow me and act in this world.”

So that brings us back to the question of the hour (the question of so many hours as we live our young adult lives) – What is my calling, and how do I know what it is?

Wouldn’t it be convenient to have an obvious answer for that, a little formula to figure it out? I don’t, and none of us do. But instead of associating that calling solely with the future, let’s start associating it with the now. Isn’t it true that we’re called – not only to some future vocation but to this very day? Who are you called to be today? Tonight? In the next hour?

If we live fully in this moment and in all the present moments we have, who knows where we’ll find God? And so here are two questions for our discussion tonight: Where have you seen God recently? And how is God calling you through that? I’m going to sit down here too. Where have you seen God at work?

- Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

[1] Idea borrowed from a sermon given at UPC by Ben Johnston-Krase in 2007.

Souper Bowl Sunday!

2010-02-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, UPC gathered and shared meaningful worship together. And it was a special Sunday on our calendar. Super Bowl Sunday? Yes. But more importantly for Sunday morning, it was Souper Bowl Sunday!

Each year, the youth from UPC take a special offering. It's called the Souper Bowl of Caring. This offering has been taken annually across the country since 1990, and it all began with a simple prayer one day as the youth group from Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina met. The prayer was this: "Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat." And an idea came from that prayer! What if members of churches and individuals around the country gave a few dollars on Super Bowl Sunday to be used locally to fight hunger?

This year, our youth raised a record amount, and the money will be distributed to the Micah 6 Food Pantry and the Manos de Cristo Food Pantry. Byron is excited as he unveils the offering: $988.38!!!

Our church also enjoyed a lovely potluck lunch after worship as we met together for our Annual Congregational Meeting. The food was lovely. Thanks to everyone who brought dishes and desserts, and a special thank you to Peggy Budd who helped organize this event.

At our meeting, we elected church officers, elders and deacons who will serve us for the next few years. Guess who we elected to be our Campus Deacon? Our very own Merrit Martin! We are grateful for all the ways she will serve us and the wider church.

All in all, it was a GREAT Souper Bowl Sunday!

Scott McNulty Hits the Airwaves!

2010-02-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

Guess what?

On Sunday night, our very own organist, Scott McNulty will be featured on KMFA radio. At 8pm, Chris Teel, the host of Pipeworks, will play most of Scott's Master's Recital, which includes some newer works that are rarely heard.

If you enjoy what you hear or just want to support an 24 hour all classical station, would you send a note of thanks to Chris Teel or General Manager Joan Kobayashi? Chris will be playing other parts of the recital on future programs, including the improvisation, and Scott would like to encourage KMFA to keep supporting organ music.

Way to go, Scott! We are thankful for all the ways God has gifted you for music!

Interfaith Hospitality Network

2010-02-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, some of our students participated in an important opportunity for Mission. They worked with a family at through the Interfaith Hospitality Network. IHN provides shelter for families that are homeless or on the verge of experiencing homelessness. Members of local faith communities in Austin spend the night with them, providing hospitality and shelter.

The Mission of IHN can be found on the Foundation for the Homeless website. "Host churches, synagogues, and support congregations work in collaboration to provide year round shelter, meals, and support to families as they work toward achieving goals of permanent housing and self-sufficiency."

Our students spent the evening at University Methodist Church. IHN is one important ministry that UPC supports with time and resources. If you would like to learn more, visit this page.

Interfaith Dialogue - Tonight!

2010-02-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

The Islamic Student Dialogue Association is hosting an Interfaith Dialogue on Campus tonight. The speakers will be Dr. Steve Friesen and Dr. Yetkin Yilderim, each respectively presenting perspectives of Christianity and Islam on Interfaith Dialogue. The event sounds like it will be informational and thought provoking.

It begins at 6:30 in room 2.312 in Welch Hall. After Dr. Friesen and Dr. Yilderim address the gathering, there will be time for questions and further conversation. There will also be refreshments, wonderful Turkish treats donated by the Turkish American Women Association.

Come hear some interesting discussion and join together in fellowship and friendship!

Run, Austin Agape, Run!

2010-02-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Did you know. . .

that our very own Byron French is running a mini-marathon?

And that our very own Shane Webb is running a full marathon?

On February 14th, bright and early in the morning, Byron and Shane are running to raise money for Manos de Cristo. Manos is a ministry that does tremendous work in Austin. UPC has many connections there: Kate Norman, one of our elders, serves on the Board, and our church holds an annual Back to School drive every August, collecting school supplies for Manos to distribute to children who need them.

Manos de Cristo assists the Austin community with food and clothing services and ESL classes. The ministry also operates a dental clinic, assisting clients who cannot afford the expenses of dental care.

Did you know. . . that you can contribute to the marathon?

Support Byron with a Donation
Support Shane with a Donation

Midwinter Lectures at Austin Seminary!

2010-02-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

Part of our discipleship involves enriching our mind! We are grateful that our campus borders Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and this week we have an opportunity to attend some of the Midwinter Lectures. They will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Every year, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary hosts and event, inviting three lecturers to discuss intersections between current culture and Christian Faith. In addition the to the lecturers, the seminary also invites an extraordinary preacher to lead worship.

This week four incredible individuals will be addressing the seminary and the surrounding community:

Currie Lecturer: Thomas W. Currie

The Thomas White Currie Lectures were first held in 1952 and have been sponsored for many years by the Tom Currie Bible Class of Highland Park Presbyterian Church of Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Currie will focus on the nature of Christian ministry, and give an account of ministry which is rooted in an understanding of Jesus Christ and the church he has chosen to embody with his own presence and ministry.

Dancin' with The One Who Brung Us: Jesus Christ and the Embarassing Work of Ministry.

Lecture One: The Embarrassing Work of Ministry
Dancing with Jesus is inherently embarrassing, requiring that we ask for help, that we follow Another, and that we risk not knowing where we are going or what we are to do. All disciples encounter this embarrassment; ministry begins by embracing it.

Lecture Two: The Embarrassing Place of Ministry
Christian ministry is embarrassing in part because it is located, embedded in a congregation’s life in a particular place and time. Such ministry is embarrassingly particular because the love of God is embarrassingly particular, embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, who locates himself on the cross among thieves and sinners of all sorts.

Lecture Three: The Embarrassing Role of Theology in Ministry
Ministry is embarrassing because Jesus Christ is the great embarrassment with whom we all get to deal. This embarrassment is so severe that we are tempted to think that we can have Jesus without the theological baggage he brings, that we can do ministry without following, without the hindrance of other people, without the church even. Theology is essential for ministry not because it seeks to make believers ‘orthodox’ but because it seeks to be faithful to that One whose grace is relentlessly embarrassing even as it is unexpectedly joyful.

Dr. Currie is Professor of Theology and Dean of Union-PSCE at Charlotte. He received a BA from Haverford College,his MDiv from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the PhD from The University of Edinburgh.

An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Currie served as a pastor from 1976–2001. He has taught courses in theology and homiletics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and in extension programs in Houston and Midland, TX. He has a particular interest in the theology of Karl Barth and in the short stories of Flannery O’Connor. He is the author of several articles and four books, including The Joy of Ministry (2008).

Westervelt Lecturer: Barbara G. Wheeler

The E. C. Westervelt Lectures were established in 1949 by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Flato of Corpus Christi, Texas, in honor of the parents of Mrs. Flato.

Barbara Wheeler will address "Differing Deeply: Religious Tensions and the Future of Mainline Protestant Denominations."

Today differences within mainline religious denominations over theological doctrines, social issues, and religious practices are often greater than differences between denominations. Using the Presbyterian Church as an principal example, the first lecture will explore the ways that differences threaten the future of denominations; the second will propose ways that the same differences can become the basis of vitality and faithfulness in the years to come.

Lecture One: Made with Human Hands: Idols of the Left, the Right—and the Center.

Lecture Two: For This Reason: the Dignity of Denominational Differences

Barbara Wheeler is Director of Auburn’s Center for the Study of Theological Education, which she founded in 1991 while serving as Auburn’s president, a post that she held for thirty years. Ms. Wheeler writes and speaks on American religious life and theological education. She consults widely with seminaries, denominations, foundations and congregations concerned about the future of religious leadership and religious institutions. She is principal author of numerous research reports published by Auburn (www.auburnsem.org ) has contributed to and edited a dozen volumes on the future of mainline Protestantism, congregational studies, and theological education. She is the co-author of Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools (Oxford Press) and author of numerous published articles on theological education and religious life in North America.

Barbara Wheeler is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and an ordained elder in Bethel Peniel Presbyterian Church in Granville, NY. She has served the church at the national level as a member of the Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church, the Board of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, the Committee of 7 to Study Presbyterian Publishing, and the Special Committee on Theological Institutions. Currently she serves as a member of the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song, charged with producing a new hymnal for the denomination.

Jones Lecturer: Rodger Y. Nishioka

The Robert F. Jones Lectures were established in 1949 by the Women of the Church of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, Texas. The lectures are funded annually in memory of their pastor of thirty-five years.

Rodger Y. Nishioka holds the Benton Family chair in Christian education at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. While he teaches in the area of Christian education and practical theology, he specializes in ministry with youth and young adults and has completed a research project comparing the participation of young adults in mainline Protestant congregations and non-denominational independent Christian movements.

Prior to his joining the faculty at Columbia, Nishioka served for 12 years as denominational staff in youth & young adult ministry for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Rodger received his undergraduate degree from Seattle Pacific University, his master’s degree in theological studies from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, a Doctor of Divinity degree from Austin College and his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Nishioka has published several articles, chapters, and books largely focused on ministry with youth and young adults and the educational ministry of the church as spiritual formation.

Lecture One: Marked as the Imago Dei: Human beings and our capacity to imagine
This first lecture will discuss what imagination is and how we as human beings are both gifted by God and charged with the amazing ability to imagine.

Lecture Two: But it’s just a rock! Nurturing the religious imagination in a cynical age
This second lecture will examine the challenges to imagination in a cynical and skeptical age and how church leaders must nurture a religious imagination inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Preacher: Brian K. Blount

Brian K. Blount is President and Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. He was called to this position in 2007, after serving for 15 years as the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary.

An MDiv graduate of Princeton Seminary in 1981, he obtained his BA from the College of William and Mary in 1978. After graduating from Princeton Seminary, he went on to become the pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia from 1982-1988. William and Mary’s first African-American to receive membership in the Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society received his PhD in New Testament Studies from Emory University in 1992. He returned to teach at Princeton Seminary the same year.

In 1998, Professor Blount became the first African American to be tenured in the Department of Bible at Princeton Theological Seminary. His primary work has been in the Gospel of Mark and in the area of cultural studies and hermeneutics. He is the author of five books:

Cultural Interpretation: Reorienting New Testament Criticism (Fortress, 1995);
Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today (Orbis, 1998);
Then The Whisper Put on Flesh: New Testament Ethics in an African American Context (Abingdon 2001);
Can I Get A Witness? Reading Revelation Through an African American Lens (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005).
Revelation. A Commentary in the New Testament Library Series (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).

He has edited a volume of essays on worship with Leonora Tubbs Tisdale entitled Making Room at the Table: An Invitation to Multicultural Worship (WJK, 2000). He is also the coauthor of a book with Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann and theologian William C. Placher entitled Struggling With Scripture (WJK, 2001). He has also co-authored the book Preaching The Gospel of Mark in Two Voices (WJK, 2002) with Gary W. Charles, the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA. He is an editor of The Discipleship Study Bible, also by Westminster John Knox (2008). As a part of his work for the Bible, he has also written the introduction and notes for Mark and Matthew. He is an associate editor of the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible for Abingdon Press. He is also the General Editor for True To Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary by Fortress Press.

The author of numerous articles, he also preaches and directs adult education classes in local congregations. He is married, and he and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Joshua and Kaylin.

Hope that you will be able to join us!

Bible Study - Faith In Action!

2010-02-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

This semester, our weekly Bible Study Small Group is meeting on Monday nights - including tonight! We meet at 7pm upstairs in the Youth Room (Rm. 212). We always start with a rousing game of foursquare! And then we have a meaningful time of study and conversation.

This semester, we're thinking intentionally: What does it mean to put our faith in action? Faith and action. . . that's something we talk about often at Austin Agape. . .But this semester, we want to be very concrete. What are the implications of our Christian faith, and how can we put our faith into action - in our world and right here in the city of Austin.

At our first meeting, we talked about racism and some ways that it how it affects our city.

Last week we talked about Haiti and the challenges that country faces.

Tonight we will talk about debt relief. Debt is clearly an issue that affects our world. It affects many individuals in our country!

The scriptures have a lot to say about money and a lot to say about debt. In the Torah, there is talk about a special year that cancels debt - the Year of Jubilee.

How does debt affect nation states? That issue is certainly complex, but how could debt relief help developing countries? How could it reduce poverty and inequities?

Come tonight to think through these issues! How can you put your faith into action?

Thoughts and Prayers With Haiti

2010-01-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, UPC was filled with gratitude to have John and Suzi Parker among us. John and Suzi are longtime members of UPC, and in September, they traveled to Leogane, Haiti to assist others as they work to renovate a local hospital and get it running once again.

John and Suzi were working at a nearby Guesthouse, where groups were staying to help work on the hospital. Their apartment, the Guesthouse, and the hospital are all located in Leogane, which was only ten miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake. Their apartment collapsed, and John was trapped for four hours. Thankfully, people were able to get him out, and he had no injuries. The Guesthouse also had damage, but the Hospital remains standing.

John and Suzi addressed the Faith and Life Class on Sunday morning, telling their stories and sharing the difficulties of others. They plan to return to Haiti in a few weeks to continue their work. They have deep hopes of helping the region through the long-term use of the hospital.

UPC is currently raising money for disaster relief in Haiti. So far we have collected over $27,000. We are currently holding the money until John and Suzi can help us know the best place to send it. On Sunday morning, they mentioned that a foundation is being set up for the hospital. Once that is completed, we will send our disaster relief money there.

John and Suzi mentioned that they are particularly grateful for our prayers. We are profoundly grateful for their safety and their work. We do know that many did not fare well in the earthquake. We hope to partner with these people in prayer and support.

If you would like to contribute financially to work on the hospital in Leogane, please write a check to University Presbyterian Church and mark it for Disaster Relief. We will send that money to the most appropriate source, so that it helps the hospital work.

Additionally, Austin Agape organized and participated in a Taize Prayer Service for the congregation on Sunday night, focusing on concern for Haiti. We read four stories from survivors and watched a slide show of pictures.

We want to keep praying, and we aim to be a part of the prayers we make. Our hearts are with Haiti.

Sunday's Sermon: Unownable

2010-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

Genesis 28:10-17

Luke 4:14-30

As we hear this passage tonight and think through this story, it might be fair to say that Jesus is a P.R. Disaster. Seriously, doesn’t it seem that way? Yes, definitely a public relations nightmare. Here he is in his hometown, the place where he spent his young years, observing and questioning, learning and playing, working and growing into adulthood. It might be the perfect opportunity for Jesus to. . . you know, get his people behind him, right? - the perfect opportunity for him to use this beginning point in his ministry to get a boost of support at the right time. But what do we find? A genuine P.R. Disaster.

Let’s use our imagination to get into this story. Can you picture the scene? People from the small town of Nazareth are gathering together on a Sabbath, a Saturday morning. I imagine it was a pretty run-of-the-mill, routine day. When the people roll out of their beds on that morning, they probably aren’t expecting anything too out of the ordinary. The Sabbath is a special, holy day – no doubt. But they’ve experienced many Sabbaths before, and who knows? Maybe some of them are a bit on auto pilot.

But when they gather in the synagogue, they do have something to notice. Present among them is Jesus, - their Jesus – Joseph and Mary’s boy! They’ve heard all about what he did recently in the nearby town of Capernaum, and this is just the beginning! Who knows what will come of this young man – this boy who grew up here – yes! – one of our own! Certainly he will do great things for us! Certainly he will put Nazareth on the map!

And with pride in their chests and smiles on their faces, they’re thrilled when Jesus volunteers to read the scripture and deliver a message. They watch him ask for the Isaiah scroll, and he finds a particular passage. A beautiful choice, Jesus, a familiar hymn – one that sounds good to our ears! They listen intently, except perhaps to subtly (or not so subtly) lean over and whisper to one another: “Our boy up there, the carpenter’s son – he made my kitchen table!” “Yes,” someone else replies. “Isn’t he wonderful?”

They watch Jesus finish the passage and sit, the stance of a teacher. “That’s our very own Rabbi!” they think. “What will he have to say today?”

Today. Perhaps that word is a bit ironic: “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Okay. . .that’s different. What does that mean? Today these things are coming about? Today you are anointed to be the one who brings these things about? – Good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release to the captives, freedom for the oppressed, and the year of God’s favor? Yeah, that’s different. “What else do you have to say, Jesus?”

What else do you have to say? I suppose his first line was the beginning of the end, that is, the end of their awe-struck sense of pride. What follows next is a P.R. Disaster.

Jesus must have sensed their pride, their sense of ownership. He says, “Surely you will say to me, do the things here that you did in Capernaum. Do them here: in-your-home-town. Well, no prophet is truly welcome in his home town. I mean, think about it: The prophet Elijah was living in the Israel with no rain at all, with a famine more widespread than we can imagine. And where did God send him to receive help? There were many widows all over the land of Israel, but God sent Elijah to a widow at Zaraphath in Sidon. And think about this: When the prophet Elisha lived in the land of Israel, there were more lepers than we can count, but who was cleansed? Naaman. Naaman, the-Syrian.”

Yes, a genuine P.R. Disaster. If that person from Nazareth had that kitchen table in this synagogue, he would have overturned it right then and there. The synagogue was filled with a sense of rage. The air was thick with indignation. And the people acted on it too. They seized Jesus by his arms, escorted him outside the town – “We’ll show you what happens outside the town!” - and they try to hurl him off a cliff. A cliff!

Yes, a genuine P.R. Disaster.

Perhaps it’s hard for us for us to get at what Jesus was trying to do and say in Nazareth. But we can certainly take a challenging message away from this text – what seems to us like a P.R. Disaster. Here it is: Jesus is unownable. He’s unownable. He cannot and will not submit to being our possession. And that is good news! It allows Jesus to be Jesus toward us instead of forcing Jesus to be Jesus for us. It’s true that he came to serve us, but he did not come to be owned by us. He did not come to serve our agendas. Instead, he came as a human being – yes, truly, one of our own! – that we might become like him, truly human – humans who live humanity in service others, particularly the poor, the blind, the captives, the oppressed – all who are suffer. He’s unownable. Thanks be to God.

I read a story this week that seemed to provide an uncanny intersection of imagination with our passage today. It’s a brilliant short story called “The Visitor” written by Ray Bradbury in his book, The Illustrated Man. The story begins with a situation that sounds very bleak. Saul Williams has a disease – a terrible, terminal disease. Its slang term is “Blood Rust,” a disease that causes a great deal of bleeding in the lungs. And because this disease is so terrible and so contagious, Saul has been quarantined with others just like him, not on earth, but in a colony far away on Mars. Saul is sick with Blood Rust, but he’s not as bad off as the other men who live on the planet with him. That is, not yet. And he laments that these others are too weak, sick, and tired to have meaningful, intellectual discussions. He’s profoundly lonely. So he spends his days trying to imagine New York, his beloved city that he left behind in order to die a quarantined man. Oh, the sights, the sounds, the smells of New York! He longs for them, and he knows he’ll never experience them again.

But all that changes on the day that Leonard Mark lands on Mars in a rocket. Saul sees the rocket land. At last, someone new! Someone newly sick! Someone who can talk to me and spend time with me! Saul is excited, but he will discover someone beyond his imagining. After becoming acquainted, Saul says, “So, how’s New York?” hoping to hear greetings from his long-lost city. “It’s like this,” Leonard Mark replies. And immediately, Saul can see a vision of the city. It’s so real. He can hear real sounds, see real images, and smell the city air! He’s awestruck.

He asks Leonard Mark how he can do this. How long has he had this ability? Leonard Mark says that he’s had telepathic powers like this his whole life. He then produces another experience for Saul – one that delights Saul to the core! His powers put Saul swimming in a creek near Saul’s childhood home. Saul is moved and filled with gratitude. Here is his long, lost salvation – a person who can care for him and talk with him, a person who can give him the earth!

And immediately, another possibility dawns upon him. “C’mon, we’ve got to get out of here!” Saul realizes that he’s seen a miraculous thing. He’s in a miraculous presence. He wants nothing to separate him from it – especially the other, sick, Blood-Rust infected men. Saul looks over his shoulder and realizes it’s almost too late. The other men saw New York too, and now they’re hobbling over to meet Leonard Mark. “C’mon,” Saul yells, “We have to go, now!” But Leonard Mark makes it clear that he can meet everyone, that he can share his unique gift with the whole colony. He’s clear to say that he’s no one’s possession. But Saul will have none of it, and he immediately becomes very paranoid and possessive.

And so do the others. Once they discover that this gift is coming from Leonard Mark, they all want him for themselves. Here is their salvation, and they will have it at any cost! Eventually Saul steals Leonard Mark off to a solitary cave, and he ties him in place. But the others arrive too. They will have what is rightly theirs! Weapons are drawn. People are killed in the arguments. And lastly, before the men have a chance return to their senses, someone else has died. They’ve shot and killed Leonard Mark, their salvation. If they couldn’t have him, no one would.

And perhaps we could say, if the people from Nazareth couldn’t have Jesus entirely to themselves for their own purposes, no one would. Off the cliff he goes! But thank God, Jesus is unownable. He refuses to be reduced to a possession. He refuses to be owned. He refuses to be controlled or exploited. He will not follow others’ orders in slavery. He will be free – the True Human – who teaches us to follow him, to follow him in service with and for others. Jesus is unownable. He goes ahead of us, and we follow him.

It makes me wonder, if Jesus came in our midst tonight and sat among us in an obvious way, what would we want from him? Would we assume that he was here to serve our agendas? Would we fashion Jesus into a stereotype of a conservative Christian? Or would we assume that Jesus was a card carrying liberal? Would we allow ourselves to be challenged by him? Or would we simply box him in so that he can represent who we want him to represent? And yet, it is our conviction that he is among us now. His Spirit and his presence are here! Do we try to box him in now? We all need to ask ourselves that question again and again.

Jesus called the people from Nazareth into radical inclusion. They weren’t ultimately gathered together to be a social club, and neither are we. We love each other, and we have an amazing sense of community here. Those are the gifts of God, for us, the people of God. But tonight we remember that the people of God also exist outside this room, and it’s our call – our vocation – to include others beyond our comfort zone, to include them in our very lives, that we may serve them, that we may preach the gospel of good news to them, and that we would hear them, that we would listen to them, that we would allow people who are considered outcasts in this world to teach us, to preach the gospel to us. We are called to go to the Widows of Zaraphath and the Naamans from Syria. We are called to sit at their feet. We’re called to share good news with them – to live in the Name of Jesus, the True Human, who unites us together for purposes bigger than our imagining, purposes greatly exceeding our personal or collective agendas. If we do this – not sometime – but as Jesus says, “Today! Now!” perhaps we’ll be like Jacob. We’ll say with astonishment, “Surely, the Lord was in this place – and I didn’t know it!” Jesus moves beyond us in so many ways. He’s unownable. And yet he is ours. We don’t take from him. He gives himself. And he gives us new ways of following him.

And now, as God’s Spirit creates a sermon tonight among us and within us, tonight, where do you sense God calling you? Calling us? Let’s just take a minute of silence to think about what’s been on our mind and in our hearts tonight. How is God calling you tonight? How do you sense God calling us tonight?

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Marching To the Capitol

2010-01-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

Last week, we were fortunate to participate in a march to the Texas Capitol Building to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The atmosphere was celebratory but one of challenge as well. How can we help create the dream that Dr. King articulated so beautifully? How can we act in ways that promote respect and justice - in our city, in our world?

Merrit enjoyed capturing some pictures!

The rally at the Capitol included musicians, politicians, and many powerful speakers.

We are grateful to celebrate Dr. King's legacy and to participate in his visions for our nation and our world. Here is a beautiful quote from Dr. King: "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God's universe is made; this is the way it is structured."

At Austin Agape, we aim to realize more clearly that our personhood is tied together with the identity of others. We remember once again that we are called to work for peace and justice in our world, in our neighborhoods, and on our very campus.

We are grateful for Dr. King's leadership!

Updates on Leogane, Haiti

2010-01-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, John and Suzi Parker, missionaries from UPC, have been serving in Leogane since the summer. We are grateful for their safety, and we pray that they can provide assistance to those who live in Leogane and the surrounding regions. Leogane was only ten miles outside of the epicenter of the initial earthquake last week. We hold them in our prayers. As you'll read below, the guesthouse that they were operating was destroyed in the earthquake, but the hospital still stands.

The article that follows is copied from http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2010/10055.htm. Please read the updates.

PC(USA)-backed hospital in Haiti still standing

Hopital Sainte Croix in Leogane damaged but not destroyed

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service
and Pat Cole
Communications Associate

LOUISVILLE — Hôpital Sainte Croix (Holy Cross Hospital) in Leogane, Haiti, an (Episcopal) Diocesan ministry that for decades has been a major focus of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission in Haiti, received serious damage in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Earlier reports indicated that the hospital had collapsed, but more recent information indicates that the building is still standing. However, a guesthouse and an apartment owned by the hospital were destroyed. Hospital officials believe that all hospital staff survived the earthquake.

Less than a mile away, a nursing school owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti — the PC(USA)’s partner church in the island nation — is hosting thousands of survivors who are living in tents on the campus. The faculty and students are providing medical care, but they are lacking medicine.

Sky News, an international news broadcaster based in London, filed a video report about the situation in Leogane, which included an interview with Hilda Alcindor, the nursing school dean.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance reports that food and fuel supplies are limited and there is urgent need to bring in these most essential resources at this time. PDA’s Carlos Cardenas is on the ground in Haiti with the immediate response team of the Geneva-based ecumenical ACT Alliance, which includes the PC(USA). ACT has helped establish 15 sites for distribution of relief items. Food and clean water are a top priority.

It is estimated that 200,000 families, nearly one million people, are without homes and living out in the open air. Temporary shelter is a focus for this next week, PDA Coordinator Randy Ackley said. PDA and its partners are seeking to bring in 20,000 tents to Port-au-Prince in the next week. There are between 3,000 and 4,000 tents currently on site in Haiti.

The greatest need continues to be money. PDA has committee at least $500,000 to the short- and long-term response to the Haiti tragedy. More than $200,000 has already been sent from donations received since the quake and from the One Great Hour of Sharing offering receipts.

Contributions can be made in at least four ways:

Through local church channels
Online at the PDA Web site
By phone at (800) 872-3283, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST) weekdays
By mail to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.

Another way to help, PDA suggests, is by assembling “Gift of the Heart” kits for shipment and distribution to Haiti. Congregations and individuals can assembly hygiene kits and baby kits. Instructions are on the PDA Web site.

Methodists lose top disaster relief official and volunteer coordinator

The Rev. Sam Dixon

The Rev. Sam Dixon, 60, head of United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the humanitarian relief agency of The United Methodist Church, died before he could be rescued from the rubble of a hotel destroyed by the earthquake. Dixon was part of a group of mission and relief specialists trapped by the collapse of the Hotel Montana in Port au Prince.

The Rev. Clinton Rabb, 60, a leader in UMC's extensive mission volunteer program, died on Jan. 17 in a Florida hospital of injuries sustained when he, Dixon and the others was trapped for 55 hours in the ruins of Hotel Montana. Dixon was reportedly alive in the hotel ruins on the morning of January 15, but died before he could be rescued.

The Rev. Clinton Rabb

Dixon, Rabb and the Rev. James Gulley, a former missionary and now consultant to UMCOR, were at the hotel for meetings with representatives of other organizations, making plans to improve medical services in Haiti.

“Sam Dixon was a tireless servant of the church of Jesus Christ on behalf of all of us,” said Bishop Joel N. Martinez, interim general secretary of the UMC’s General Board of Global Ministries.”His death is an incalculable loss to Global Ministries, UMCOR and our worldwide ministry of relief to God's most vulnerable children.”

Of Rabb, Martinez said: “Clint Rabb was a tough and fearless advocate for the least and most vulnerable of God’s children. He traveled the world encouraging volunteer ministry in his service on behalf of Christ and the church. He gave his life for others and we celebrate his faithful witness.”

Sunday's Sermon: Not Yours But Yours

2010-01-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

Not Yours But Yours

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Well I think I’ve seen it all now. Yep. I’ve seen it all. I have now discovered that if you type the word “overachievers” into a Google search line, the second prompt to emerge from below is Overachievers Anonymous. That’s right – Overachievers Anonymous. The same prompt emerges as number two on Yahoo search engines. Overachievers Anonymous. Interesting, right?

Of course, a group with a name like Overachievers Anonymous must be patterned upon the many incredible, life-altering 12-step programs that have helped more people than can be counted: Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous – the list is a long one. But Overachievers Anonymous? Really? Second prompt? Really? Interesting, right?

You know what else is interesting? Though Overachievers Anonymous is the second prompt on Google and Yahoo, I couldn’t find a national group called Overachievers Anonymous. I tried searching many times with different words! Now granted, there may be one out there in existence somewhere. One article that emerged from my search stated that an author named Carol Orsborne is the founder of Overachievers Anonymous, but I realized quickly that the she founded such a group to be a bit humorous. There are no meetings, no classes, and no fundraisers. There’s no real national group or national 12-step program for Overachievers.

But you know, maybe there should be! There are probably a lot of overachievers in the world who need help these days. And clearly, there are enough people out there to search for Overachievers Anonymous – enough to make it the number two search prompt when you type the word “Overachievers” into a search engine. Maybe there’s a market for this. Maybe Carol Orsborne should have gotten serious!

Because isn’t that an issue these days – overachieving? After all, the majority of us in this room were born into the Millennial Generation, the generation of people born from 1980 to the present day. And if there’s ever been an overscheduled, overachieving generation, I think it would have to be this one. I just wonder. . . how many of us – and how many children today – are shuffled back and forth from this activity to that activity, from this opportunity to achieve to that opportunity to show our stuff? If there’s ever been a generation that was taught to go, go, go – push, push, push – fill up the calendars – and achieve, achieve, achieve, I think it’s the Millennial Generation. We’re all adults now, so we’re not quite shuffled off to piano lessons, soccer, dance, and basketball, but we probably do know very well what it means to face the pressures to achieve. It wasn’t long ago that many of you applied for college or graduate school. And some of you have applied for jobs. I’m sure you felt the pressures of being that well-rounded individual – the one who could achieve and do just about anything. Maybe sometimes you felt up to the challenge. And maybe at other times, you felt like you’d never be good enough - you’d never make the cut.

I wonder how all of this has affected our understanding of our abilities? And how does it determine what we think about our sense of worth? Do we determine our worth by grades or by what we can put on a resume? Do we feel confident – displaying our talents for everyone to see us and praise us? Or in the process, do we sometimes feel unconfident? I mean, even if we’re pressured to be overachievers, aren’t there always over-over-achievers? Can we measure up to those people? And if we’re afraid we can’t, do sweep our abilities under a rug because we don’t think they would be valued or important? And an important question emerges: If we think our abilities are about us - how good we are or how not-good-enough we are - do we recognize our gifts as well. . .gifts?

That is a good question, isn’t it? Do we recognize our gifts as the gifts they are? If we’re a generation of overachievers – if we’ve been taught that value comes in and through achievement, what we can do and how well we can do it – doesn’t that make our abilities about us? I mean, when we’re on top of our game – when our grades are stellar and our resumes polished – we might begin to see our abilities and talents as possessions, things that we own. We might begin to see them as tools for our own self-promotion. Or instead of using them outwardly, we might simply use them inwardly. We might begin to lean on them for ourselves to build an understanding of self-worth that’s based what we can do rather than who we are.

That might work for us for a while, until we fail. And we’ll all apt to fail at some time or another. When I was in college, on the verge of graduating in a matter of weeks, I failed at something – miserably failed at something - and it affected me for a good while. I went to music school at the University of Louisville. I was raised to be an overachiever. I had an impeccable transcript as far as grades were concerned. I was a leader among my classmates. Sounds pretty good, right? But when I went to sing in my last jury ever (By the way, A jury is a performance final for musicians. In my case it was singing in front of a bunch of vocal teachers) I had felt confident that day as I was rehearsing my music. But then I got a phone call ten minutes before I had to perform. It was someone calling from my restaurant job. “Do you know you’re supposed to be at work right now?” I panicked. Though I never, ever worked during the day (who knows how I got on the schedule?) I freaked out. It wasn’t my fault, but I’m an overachiever right? I have to be perfect, and I wasn’t at work!

So in my state of being freaked out, apparently I was just barely under the pitch for my whole jury. Ouch, right? I didn’t even know it! But I found out that I had failed my jury a few days later. Literally, completely failed it! Thankfully, instead of giving me an F on my transcript, they decided to give me an S for satisfactory. They didn’t want to ruin that impeccable grade average. But that experience really affected me!

Do you know how it affected me? I then convinced myself that I was a terrible singer. For a good while, I was terrified to sing solo in any situation. So you know what I did? I swept that gift under the rug for longer than a year. In the overachieving pressures that affected me, I probably did look at my gift for singing as a possession. I wouldn’t have thought about it that way at the time, but I used my ability to promote myself. And then, in moment I failed, I threw the gift away . . . as if it were mine to through away.

It wasn’t. It isn’t. That gift – and all of our gifts – are simply that, gifts! David Roth, my surrogate father, used to say something to me from time to time that always stuck with me (He was actually quoting the Apostle Paul). He would ask: What do you have that you have not received?

Wow. Good question. What do you have that you have not first received? This life – these abilities, these talents, these moments, they are all sheer gift to us. We don’t own them. We’re fortunate that they flow through us. But they don’t stop with us as if they were our possessions. They flow through us – through us and beyond us, because that’s the point. Your gifts don’t belong to you. But they do belong to you, or if you don’t mind me being a bit colloquial, they belong to ya’ll.

So what does this have to do with the Corinthians? A lot actually. The Corinthians weren’t Millennials, but they were caught up on overachieving, though perhaps in a different way. If you read Paul’s entire letter to the Corinthians, you can see that there was a lot of division, infighting, and one-up-ing within this 1st century community. Some of the Corinthians had come to see themselves as experts on spiritual matters, especially some who seemed to be spiritual overachievers. In several places in the letter, we read that certain members of the community were speaking in tongues, and this ability seemed to be so highly regarded, that the speaking-in-tongues-people seemed to move up in the hierarchy of respect and power. Now if a 1st century Corinthian walked in this door and started speaking in tongues, it would probably give us the willies, you know, freak us out a little bit. But in the Corinthian community, it was a sign of deep spirituality. They weren’t speaking human languages at all (not like the apostles and Christian leaders did on the day of Pentecost). It seems that they were speaking a language to God that was purely spiritual in some way. Paul called it “the tongues of angels.”

Paul had some things to say about this situation. First of all, he starts out this portion of the letter with a bit of irony. He says, “Now concerning spiritual things, I don’t want you to be ignorant. . .” These people who were speaking in tongues probably saw themselves as the Corinthian overachievers who knew all about spiritual matters. He goes on to tell them that all Christians are blessed with gifts that are needed – not just these super-visible overachievers. In fact, it’s a gift to even be able to say, “Jesus is Lord.” All Christians are gifted even in a simple confession that is really anything but simple. We can’t even take credit for what we believe. The Spirit is behind that too. We’re gifted more than we know.

And so Paul seems to be saying to the Corinthians, “These gifts aren’t possessions. They aren’t yours.” He writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” They come from God. They aren’t yours. But by the grace of God, they are yours. They belong to you collectively. Paul writes, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Hmm. . . common good. Stop worrying about being overachievers. Your community and your world need your gifts. Stop being overachievers. You need the gifts of your community and your world.

So in his letter, Paul tells these people who are gifted with the ability to speak in tongues that they shouldn’t speak this way in worship unless there is a person who is gifted to interpret what they’re saying. This gift is for the common good. What do you have that you have not received? And what do you have that should not be shared to build up everyone?

So let’s get back to us: What do you have that you have not received? And what do you have that must be shared to build up everyone? How can you use your gifts this semester in ministry at Austin Agape – for us, and for the world? How can you receive the gifts of others this semester – for us, and for the world?

Good questions. Let’s do something a bit ‘hands on’ tonight. We could probably sit around here tonight, and each one of us could say, “Hi. I’m So-in-So, and I strive to be an overachiever.” And in our meeting of Overachievers Anonymous, we’d probably respond, “Hi, So-in-So.” But instead of getting in that rut, let’s make a sermon together. Up here, we have a long sheet of paper. There are markers too. I’m going to invite all of us to come up here and write down the gifts you see in this community. You can write down your own gifts. You can write down the gifts you see in others. What does this community have that it has not first received? We has received a myriad of gifts. What does this community have that must be shared to build up everyone? Again, a myriad of gifts. How is the Spirit here? Let’s take about three minutes to write them down. . .

-Renee Roederer, Campus Minister, and the Austin Agape Community

Woo, Woo! Texas!!!!

2010-01-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

The University of Texas (Woo!) plays the University of Alabama tonight in the BCS Championship 2010. Our students, as you might imagine, are full of excitement as their team prepares to play in Pasadena in a few hours.

Go Longhorns!

Actually, two of our students were fortunate to travel to Pasadena for the game!

Drew Gerdes was fortunate to win the LOTTERY to go!

And Jared just simply couldn't miss it!

Have fun in Pasadena!

The Cold Approaches!

2010-01-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

Terry Cole, missionary for Street Youth Ministry, has contacted us because the street-dependent youth and young adults he works with are going to need items to keep warm as Austin enters a cold weather alert. Here is what he has to say:

Record cold weather is on its way to Austin! Street Youth Ministry (SYM) is activating our cold weather protocol Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights in Austin. The temperature is expected to drop rapidly Wednesday, and it will be bitterly cold Thursday and Friday. We need your help.

-- Those of you in Austin, please see below for items needed. Click this link to let me know what you'll be doing and to learn where to drop-off items.

-- No matter where you are, please pray for these days to pass easily-Austin doesn't do cold weather often or easily. Each year we lose some street-dependent folks to cold weather like this in Austin.

-- If you prefer to make a donation to support this effort, you can donate on-line and you can specify cold weather in the comment.

What is needed?

Warm clothing (adult sized, but pretty much anything works).
Hats and gloves will be in high demand.
Blankets and sleepings bags. Wet is expected (sleet/rain).
Sandwiches and snacks (rich in calories to keep their body temperature up)
Hot chocolate packages, teas, and hot beverage paper cups (you feel the warmth better through them). We'll keep piping hot water in an igloo to serve it with.
(We already have bottles of water. People need as much hydration in the extreme cold as the heat.)
(We already have a lot of Bibles to pass out. Reading helps pass the time.)
Bus passes (24 hours passes allow you to get on busses and ride all night)

Some extra helpers are needed, also:

One person each day to move donations each afternoon from Covenant Presbyterian Church to my house.
One or two person to go with me each night. Meet at my house to load up and so we can do training.

Click this link to let me know what you'll be doing and to learn where to drop-off items. We don't have a lot of storage, so anything left after this event will be donated to Lifeworks. We maintain a great relationship!

What will SYM do?

SYM will go down at dusk each night to the UT drag area. We will pass out whatever is available. Using our client web (MySpace), we are warning people to get ready and find a place to be inside for the next 3 or 4 days. On Wednesday night, we will tell everyone it's going to get worse and that they need to spend all day Thursday working on a night-time solution. We will inform anyone under 24 to go to Lifeworks. We will inform anyone over 24 that they can go to the ARCH to be bussed to a church overnight. We will make available whatever we have to support the young street-dependent people in the UT area.

Isn't there a shelter they can go to?

What will happen to the young street-dependent people? First, as many as possible will be encouraged Wednesday to call a friend and sleep on a floor or couch, if at all possible. Those under 24 have the option to spend the night at Lifeworks cold weather shelter. Those over 24, have only two remaining choices: brave it outdoors or go to the ARCH to be processed and bussed to an unknown cold weather shelter all over the city (usually in a church). We encourage them to go to the ARCH but there are so many unknowns that the young people often choose to brave it outdoors.

Please Pray for their safety.

Austin Agape Roundtable

A Celtic Blessing

Eid tradition unites community

Austin Agape's upcoming events and activities!

ORANGE you coming to Campus Dinner this Sunday?!

Google Calendar Link - UPC Campus Ministry

FIRST CAMPUS DINNER & EVENING WORSHIP OF THE FALL SEMESTER!!!!!

Sermon: Too Small!

Renee Says Thanks to UPC!

Marco Shares About His Summer

Alyssa Sends Greetings!

Continuing Our Summer Reading Series. . .

Celebrating Rebecca!

Praying For General Assembly

Bats? Where Are You?

Kentuckiana-a'ganza!

Sermon: Make Waves

Sermon: Someday You Will Be the Love of My Life

Sermon: Turn-Around

Sermon: You Can't Seal the Deal

Sermon: Run!

Sermon - Controversy: He Who Receives

Ski Trip 2010!

Sermon: You Are Included

Faith and Labor. . .

Sermon: Cultivating. . .

Thinking Intentionally About Food. . .

Sermon: The Hard Way Through

Food For Thought! Thank You!

Austin Agape Assists the Austin Marathon!

Sermon: Crash Helmets

Kerby Lane - Fellowship Time!

Community Sermon

Bible Study: Who Are You Called To Be?

Our Campus Super Bowl Party!

Souper Bowl Sunday!

Scott McNulty Hits the Airwaves!

Interfaith Hospitality Network

Interfaith Dialogue - Tonight!

Run, Austin Agape, Run!

Midwinter Lectures at Austin Seminary!

Bible Study - Faith In Action!

Thoughts and Prayers With Haiti

Sunday's Sermon: Unownable

Marching To the Capitol

Updates on Leogane, Haiti

PC(USA)-backed hospital in Haiti still standing

Hopital Sainte Croix in Leogane damaged but not destroyed

by Jerry L. Van MarterPresbyterian News Service and Pat Cole Communications Associate

Sunday's Sermon: Not Yours But Yours

Woo, Woo! Texas!!!!

The Cold Approaches!

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service
and Pat Cole
Communications Associate