University Presbyterian Church Austin

In water from a rock, tablets on the ground, tearing apart the sea, ripping the heavens open, in the temple curtain making way for new people to enter God's Kingdom: God has never stopped breaking Godself open, breaking open new meaning - breaking us open.   The Reverend Krystal Leedy preaches from Hebrews Sunday, November 18, 2018.

The real challenge of stewardship is that some of your support will go to things you may never see. The widow gives everything she has to the church that should be, and could be, and will be, for God’s promises that unfold in their own stubborn time. The Reverend Matt Gaventa preaches from Mark 12:38 through 13:1-2, Sunday, November 11, 2018

Matt, Krystal, and John share what's coming up this weekend in this 5 minute minicast.

Job's story doesn't end the way we'd like it. And yet Job has faith, despite all of it. Faith doesn't repair the cracks, provide the answers, or put the world back together. At best, it’s a patch job. But maybe it’s exactly what we need.

Matt, Krystal, and John share what's coming up this weekend in this 5 minutes minicast.

What can we learn from the storm? This country is in the grip of a hatred that can absolutely consume us. At some point we must move in a different direction. Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2018, the Reverend Matt Gaventa continues sermons from the Book of Job.

Matt, Krystal, and John share what's coming up this weekend in this 5 minute minicast. Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Job wants to be angry with God. But what he’s really scared of is being known. Once he starts to think about it, he realizes that maybe he’s not ready for that kind of intimacy. It’s not wrong to be angry with God. God is big enough to take it. But if you go looking for God in anger, you might find God. In fact, you might find God looking for you. The Reverend Matt Gaventa continues the sermon series on Job, Sunday, October 21, 2018.

Matt, Krystal, and John share what's coming up this weekend in this 5-minute minicast.

The question embedded in the introduction to Job is not just “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The question is, "What happens when the universe itself doesn’t play by the rules? What is this capricious mystery wherein we can do everything right and still the recipe doesn’t work?" The Reverend Matt Gaventa begins a 4-part series on the Book of Job, Sunday, October 14, 2018.

Matt, Krystal, and John tell you what's coming up at University Presbyterian Church Austin this weekend.

All are welcome at Christ's table, without exception. It fills us to bursting with the joy of celebrating all that is good, just, beautiful, and hopeful. But don’t think for a moment that all this abundance comes cheap. When we extend our hands to receive a piece of bread, we hear the server say, “The body of Christ.” The Reverend John Leedy preaches from I Corinthians on World Communion Sunday, October 7, 2018.

Forgiveness isn’t a virtue in and of itself, but goes hand in hand with grace and truth. It’s a God-given tool that we use for the building-up of God’s kingdom. It flows from people with power to those without it. When power demands forgiveness from the powerless, forgiveness is weaponized, in opposition to the Gospel. The Reverend Matt Gaventa preaches from Matthew 18:21-35, Sunday, September 30, 2018.

As the disciples argue over who is the greatest, Jesus makes the disciples - and us - pay attention to a child, perhaps a servant or slave serving the meal, who no one noticed until Jesus pointed them out. Do we pay attention to the ones that could just as easily be written out of the story? Austin Seminary Intern Caroline Barnett preaches from Mark 9:30-37 Sunday, September 23, 2018.

The truth is I’m not sure the church has figured Jesus out at all. And if the church is truly supposed to be the body of Jesus Christ in the world then the question, "Who do you say that I am?" is an indicting one for us today in 2018. So, what is the Good News? The Reverend Matt Gaventa preaches from Mark 8:27-38 Sunday, September 16, 2018.

The unnamed woman is passionately doing the hard work of advocacy. When Jesus snaps, she responds with empathy; seeing this situation from Jesus’ perspective. She picks up the rubber band of Jesus' humanity, ties a knot in it, and hands it back with a smile and a witty retort. And Jesus' whole world expands. The Reverend Krystal Leedy preaches from Mark 7:24-37, Sunday, September 9, 2018.

In John’s Gospel, the crowd has been bingeing on bread and fish, as far as the eye can see. Jesus sees them stuffing themselves with food that perishes. Jesus knows they are hungry for something else, for something more satisfying, hungry instead for God's presence, for God's promises, for God's deliverance. The Reverend Matt Gaventa preaches from John 6:24-35, Sunday, September 2, 2018

When Jesus tells the lakeside crowd to gather up the pieces, they understand the reference to manna in the wilderness But Jesus isn't just talking about daily rations, or God’s abundance. Jesus insists on gathering the fragments: fragments of bread, fragments of fish, fragments of people - all the broken pieces. The Reverend Matt Gaventa preaches from John 6:1-15, Sunday, August 26, 2018

Mark says “they fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid,” full stop. All of a sudden, Mark doesn’t have any more words, like the sentences aren’t sufficient to carry their own weight, like the story itself bursts its own boundaries. The Reverend Matt Gaventa concludes the series "God's Promises Unfolding: Sermons from the Easter Vigil Texts" with an Easter sermon from Mark 16:1-8. Sunday, August 19, 2018

Staring at these holy words in this holy book, we ask the question the church has been asking itself for 2,000 years,"How is this story saving us?" It’s a great question, but perhaps it’s not the first question. First, we have to ask, "What do we need saving from?" Pastor John Leedy preaches from the Easter Vigil text Isaiah 55:1-11 August 12, 2018