Sunday worship is the centerpiece of our ministry at Triumphat Love. If you couldn’t be present for a service and missed the sermon or if you just want to hear one again, this podcast is for you. We want you to experience God’s grace on the go and wherever you are so that you can celebrate and share this grace with others!
Crossroads at the Empty Tomb
Service is viewable at:
I never really thought about Easter or the empty tomb being a crossroads moment until this year. Maybe it’s because of our Lenten theme or maybe it’s because of the difficult year we’ve all faced in light of the pandemic or maybe because Mark saw it this way. There is something vastly different about the way Mark tells the resurrection story, and you can tell that it was viewed as odd by others from pretty early on. If you look in your Bible, you will see what is considered the original ending of Mark (16:8a) followed by “the shorter ending” (16:8b) and “the longer ending” (16:9-20). Mark’s original ending is abrupt and awkward, and to me, these additions seem an attempt to sanitize that. If Mark’s ending is a bit messy, I assume there’s a reason for that… and the reason might be you! So join us on Easter Sunday (whether online or in person) to hear the Resurrection according to Mark and see why!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM or for our in-person SONrise Services at 9AM & 11AM (sign up details below). The scriptures for this Easter Sunday are 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 and Mark 16:1-8. Bring an empty cross, butterfly, egg or Easter lily to your home altar as a symbol of the resurrection and the crossroads presented by the empty tomb.
We give thanks to WWYA Worship Leaders, Ralph & Ellie Erchinger. As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to make or buy bread and wine/juice.
The Ultimate Crossroad - Palm/Passion Sunday Service can be seen at YouTube link: This week Jesus finds himself at the ultimate crossroads – the cross itself. We begin the day with palms and conclude with the passion. We move from shouting “Hosanna!” to crying “Crucify Him!” It is a day when our expectations of the Messiah we want and the Messiah we most desperately need collide at this crossroads. We may wonder which way to follow, but Jesus does not.
Join us as we hear a dramatic telling of Mark’s Gospel – how Jesus stayed true to God’s mission all the way to the cross and through it showed the world that “truly this man was God’s son!” The scriptures for this Palm/Passion Sunday are Mark 11:1-11, Psalm 31:6-16, and Mark 14:1-15:47. Bring a cross to your home altar to remind you of Jesus’ willingness to follow the way of God at the ultimate crossroad. As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, you may pick up palms as well as consecrated elements for Maundy Thursday & Easter Sunday at the church this Saturday 10:00-11:30.
We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders, Mike and Cheryl Wendling; Davis and Ed Perron; Dan, Henrik and Caleb Koellhofer; Deb Reswik-Hilton; Sujan Sirivella; Kevin McClure; Sara Burden-McClure; Robert Gonzalez; and Jeff Buchle (who played roles and helped behnd the scenes), Production Crew, and Musicians.
Grace at the Crossroads
Service can be seen at YouTube link:
In this week’s Worship Where You Are sermon, guest preacher Pastor Dave Seddelmeyer asks us to get in touch with our feelings. What feelings have you had throughout Lent? Are there certain feelings we are “supposed to have?” Do we have different feelings or heightened feelings this Lent in particular? Our scripture for this Sunday is well known and gives us a hint at one feeling we experience that just might surprise us. Join us this Sunday to see what it is!
Covenant at the Temple
Service can be seen at YouTube link:
Throughout Lent we have been hearing the covenant stories from the Old Testament – Noah and the rainbow, Abraham & Sarah and numerous-as-the –stars descendants. This week we hear the story of the Ten Commandments. The word commandment is pretty off-putting for most of us I imagine, but when we remember these Ten Commandments are really the Third Covenant, perhaps that might shift how we view them - as relational rather than legal, as affirmations rather than demands, as a promise rather than simply a list of prohibitions.
I really struggle with the commandment to honor the Sabbath. I know – I’m a pastor… I should have that one covered, but I don’t. Honestly, I have a lot of guilt about that… so shifting my focus from commandment to covenant helps! It helps me remember that God gave us the Sabbath as a gift not an obligation so that we could be in deeper relationship with our Creator not check some spiritual box. If you haven’t taken time to rest in God for a few weeks because of COVID chaos or snow-magedon side effects or superfluous screen time, join us for a little R&R with Worship Where You Are or take a little time to do a walking meditation or hum a hymn on your back porch. Rest in God and God’s promise: I am your God and you are my people!
Crossroads Confession
Service can be seen at YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/y1dSyvkveNw
After Peter correctly confesses Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus tells his disciples what this means and what lies ahead for him in Jerusalem - that he will be rejected and killed and after three days rise again. Peter's initial response demonstrates the crossroads at which we as people of faith often find ourselves: the Jesus we want is at a crossroads with the Jesus we get, the kingdoms of the world are at cross purposes with the kingdom of God, and our way often collides with the Lord's Way. Yet, Jesus meets us in these moments of tension, continuing the invitation to follow as His disciples, and on the cross he shows us the only way to salvation.
Crossroads of the Kingdom
Sundays Video can be seen on youtube link:
https://youtu.be/tG0JN0gRwdU
Wow! What a week! As a native Austinite I must say, “We just aren’t made for this stuff!” Sometimes I feel like that as a Christian too. How about you? Discipleship is hard, especially when it comes to the disciplines of Lent, even more so in the midst of a pandemic. It feels a bit like we are at a crossroads – wondering which way to go, certain that we will fail, yet desperate to be faithful followers. And perhaps that is the key to remember not just this Lent but every Lent. We are followers, not leaders. We follow Christ, who himself has faced these very crossroads, shows us the way, and saves us each time we fail, falter, or fumble.
Covenant at the Crossroads
Video of this podcast can be seen on Youtube at:
https://youtu.be/rJ0nmwVDu9c
The reading for today is Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
the Gospel is: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Transfiguration Sunday:
You are able to watch the service on Youtube at Link:
https://youtu.be/NcLWLvGR8xc
As church festivals go, Transfiguration Sunday does not get as much clout as Christmas or Easter, yet it is an important day in the church as we turn from the light of Epiphany to the wilderness of Lent (which begins with Ash Wednesday, February 17th). It sits at an intersection of these two larger church seasons taking on (poignantly) a cruciform shape. Still, sometimes it is difficult to discern the purpose of Transfiguration. Christmas is about the birth of Christ as one of us. Easter is about the resurrection of Christ to save us. What is Transfiguration for? Maybe Transfiguration is about seeing Christ and seeing ourselves through his light.
Souper Service
Video Service can be viewed on You Tube at:
https://youtu.be/MCQU1dnIjRg
Yes, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I imagine the festivities will not look exactly like they usually do. Yet, if you’re house is like ours, food will still be part of the fun! Did you know that on an average Super Bowl Sunday Americans consume 30,000,000 pounds of pretzels, chips, popcorn, and nuts? Meanwhile, Texas is ranked 2nd in the U.S. for food insecurity. This is undoubtedly more problematic in this pandemic year. Years ago a church youth group started the Souper Bowl of Caring in response to this disparity, and it stuck!
As we listen to the Gospel text about the healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law this Sunday, perhaps we will be inspired by her response of service, leading to our own Souper Service! Throughout February we will be collecting items for Austin City Lutherans (ACL) Bread for All Food Pantry (see below for requested items). As you are snacking this weekend or throughout the week remember those who are going without and do some Souper Service like Peter’s mother-in-law!
Forming Faith From Roots to Fruit.
You can watch the full video service on YouTube Here: https://youtu.be/zyXPrZOlajk
On the surface of things 2020 would not seem a year where there would be much excitement in our ministry, but as I flip through the pages of our Annual Report I am blown away by the way God’s work is flourishing even in the midst of a pandemic! I hope you will join us for the Annual Meeting on January 31stat 12PM. While we can’t serve you BBQ like we did last year for our first annual “meat”ing, you are welcome to BYOB (Bring Your Own BBQ)! While we can’t gather together physically, we can gather together virtually to give thanks for all that God is doing in our midst and through our congregation. Come and See how God is Growing a Generous Faith right before our very eyes!
Crisis Discipleship
Watch the service on Youtube : https://youtu.be/HNKABFbm-BM
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that we have been in a crisis moment in our country lately. The pandemic has put us all in crisis mode as we learned new ways to work, worship, go to the grocery store, and educate our children. The racial unrest in our country reignited a crisis moment as we reevaluated “things we have done and things we have left undone” when it comes to systemic and individual changes. The political divide at our Capitol revealed a crisis of conscience as we realized our democracy is simultaneously frail and resilient. In all of these instances crisis might seem to have a negative connotation. Certainly the characters that make up the word in Chinese would believe that because the first is translated as “danger.” The second, however, is best translated as “turning point.”
As we turn the page on a new year, as we turn the pages of history, Jesus also calls us to turn. He calls us to turn away from fear and toward him in hope. He calls us to turn away from sin and toward him in repentance. He calls us to turn away from idols and bad news and toward him and the good news of the kin-dom of God. For in our moments of deepest crisis, God-with-us calls us to be his disciples and to catch others with God’s reign of justice, peace, resurrection, and love!
Title: Come and See
You can watch the Youtube video of this service at: https://youtu.be/YljYjxGsfeA
The reading This week is: 1 Samual 3:1-6, The Gospel Is: John 1:43-51
It is perhaps the best invitation you could give or receive – come and see! It is simple, non-threatening, open-ended, and intriguing. In John’s Gospel Jesus uses these words to invite his first disciples to follow him and then some of those disciples repeat it as an invitation to others. We hear part of this contagion in our scriptures for this Sunday. Later in John the phrase is used by the Samaritan woman at the well and at the raising of Lazarus. With these simple words, we too have been invited to come and see the amazing things God is doing! We, in turn, are called to invite others: Come and See our Worship Where You Are this week, Come and See our Women’s Prayer & Devotion, Come and See our amazing CDC program!
On the surface of things 2020 would not seem a year where there would be much to “come and see,” but as I flip through the pages of our Annual Report I am blown away by the way God’s work is flourishing even in the midst of a pandemic! I hope you will join us for the Annual Meeting on January 31st at 12PM and for our pre-meeting workshops on the 17th & 24th at 10AM. While we can’t serve you BBQ like we did last year for our first annual “meat”ing, you are welcome to BYOB (Bring Your Own BBQ)! While we can’t gather together physically, we can gather together virtually to give thanks for all that God is doing in our midst and through our congregation. Come and See how God is Growing a Generous Faith right before our very eyes!
Title: Torn Apart, Brought Together
You can find the video version of this service at Youtube link: https://youtu.be/uST0iLDAcgQ
Wednesday morning I was in the TLLC Sanctuary preparing for Worship Where You Are. Since this Sunday is Baptism of Our Lord Sunday, my thoughts were focused on baptism and in particular of Mark’s description that Jesus saw the “heavens torn apart” during his baptism by John. I did not expect the flow of news that would come in the hours that followed as we saw the fabric of our nation straining; some might even say “torn apart”. To me though, it differed greatly from the tearing apart done by God in baptism, which is done out of love rather than anger and out of a desire to bring us together rather than separate. The tearing apart at the Capitol differed from the tearing apart done by Jesus in his ministry, which was done peacefully and non-violently.
And so we pray for our country and its leaders: Gracious God, in this time when anxiety is infectious and anger runs rampant. Help us to tear apart the barriers of mistrust that divide us, end violent protests, and open doors of conversation between disparate groups. Grant us all peace and reassurance, healing and hope, strength and wisdom in the days ahead. We ask this through Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. The scriptures for this Baptism of Our Lord Sunday are Isaiah 64:1-5a, Acts 19:1-7, and Mark 1:4-11. As you gather at your home altar bring a bowl of water to represent baptism or a piece of fabric that you can tear to represent God tearing apart the heavens to reach us. As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to bring your own bread and wine/juice to your home altar or you may pick up consecrated elements at the church on Saturday 10:00-11:30.
We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders, Kelly Condon, Evan Kephart, and Beth Gonzalez, Production Crew, and Musicians.
First Sunday of Christmas
This Sunday we sing perhaps the oddest of Christmas carols, Simeon’s “Lord, Now Let Your Servant Go in Peace” (the Nunc Dimittis). Luke’s account of Simeon’s troubling song hauntingly hints at the specter of his own death, not to mention his piercingly prophetic aside to Mary about her child’s future. Alongside the other Christmas carols we still sing this first Sunday of Christmas, this one sounds odd, even dissonant. But just as the specter of the cross cast a shadow over the manger, the specter of death still casts a pall over this pandemic Christmas. Perhaps then it is not so out of place, not so dissonant after all. So yes, we sing of death just a few days after our Christmas celebration of life so that by naming death, it may no longer control, terrify, or diminish us and the life this birth intended for us. For in the birth of the Christ-child so long ago, and each time we gather around word and meal, we too have seen and heard, tasted and touched, God’s steadfast and tenacious commitment to be both with us and for us…forever!
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this First Sunday of Christmas. The scriptures for December 27th are Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3, Galatians 4:4-7, and Luke 2:22-40. As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to bring your own bread and wine/juice to your home altar.
ADVENTageous Magnifying in the Wilderness
Youtube video link of this Service: https://youtu.be/WwzOjTM6Lno
On the fourth week of Advent, we celebrate our annual Lessons & Carols service. Among the lessons, anthems, hymns, and carols, we will hear the song of Mary’s Magnificat. She must have felt a sense of wilderness wandering as the angel proclaimed the holiness about to be birthed inside her, and yet she sings to her cousin Elizabeth about how her soul magnifies the Lord. On this Sunday, we sing along with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices to God my Savior.” Our worship magnifies the Lord, and this is a great week to further magnify the Lord by sharing our worship links with family, friends, and neighbors! Our serving magnifies the Lord. Our Advent preparations magnify the Lord as we share hope, joy, peace, and love in our community. Each year we join Mary in song, but this year in particular we can perhaps sense the wilderness in which she sang. Yet when we join in magnifying the Lord, it is ADVENTageous to us and the world.
Title: ADVENTageous Reflecting in the Wilderness,
Readings:
Gospel Reading:
Discription:
On the third week of Advent, John the Baptizer renews his call to us from the wilderness (perhaps because it is one we are so reluctant to heed. Most of us would prefer to stay in the comforts we are accustomed too, but each year John appears to beckon us again into the wilderness. It is a place that requires us to rely more on God than on ourselves. So each time we dare to journey into the wilderness it is ADVENTageous to our spirits as the stripping away of our comforts make us palpably aware of God’s abiding love through the Lord’s coming.
ADVENTageous Journey in the Wilderness
The Youtube Link for the video of this service: https://youtu.be/_L4EFtY9U3Y
What do you think of when you hear the word wilderness? Perhaps you think of a desert or wide wasteland. Perhaps you imagine a barren tundra or an arid expanse. I doubt you think advantageous, but every year John reminds us that the wilderness is indeed ADVENTageous.
On the second week of Advent, John the Baptizer appears in the wilderness. Most of us would prefer to stay in the comforts we are accustomed too, but each year John appears to beckon us into the wilderness. It is the place where Israel wandered for 40 years. It is the place where we wait for 4 weeks of Advent. It is not the place we would volunteer to go especially in a year that has been wild with wilderness already. Yet each time we dare to journey into the wilderness, it is ADVENTageous to our spirits as John calls us to repent – or turn around – as we prepare for the Lord’s coming. It is ADVENTageous to our faith because the wilderness places – where we are stripped of our comforts, provisions, and facades – is where God always shows up.
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. As we gather together, on this Second Sunday of Advent, bring an Advent wreath or two candles to your worship space to light as we illuminate the sanctuary Advent wreath. We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders: Davis Perron, Kay Mueller, Janis Coltin, Dave Seddelmeyer, Tim Holck, Sara Burden-McClure, Deb Hilton, Laura Gonzalez, Courtney Petiprin, Mike Wendling, Mark Funderburk, Garry Durante, and Eric Dauband our tireless Production Crew: Sara Burden-McClure, Ian McClure, Reed Rinn, Jeff Buchle, and Matthew Wagner! The scriptures this week are Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 and Mark 1:1-8.
ADVENTageous Journey to Christmas
If you’ve never made or bought an Advent wreath, this might be the year to do so! If you want to make one, here are a few ideas and notes:
Whatever shape or color your wreath takes, the important thing is that as the light grows successively each week, we remember John’s words, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” As The Christ Candle is lit at Christmas, we remember the best gift of Christmas – Christ, The Light of the World! So make an Advent wreath for your home altar as you continue to Worship Where You Are. Having followed this tradition in every phase of my life, I can promise you that it will be ADVENTageous to your spirit!
Christ the King!
This Sundaywe celebrate the last Sunday of the church year – Christ the King Sunday. You can view the service on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/m2LF_I3aY6w
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. As we gather together, on this Christ the King Sunday, bring something that represents Christ as King to your worship space. We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders, Pastor Armin, Bennie Engelke, and Gale Pattison, our WWYA Musicians,and our WWYA Production Crew! Scriptures this weekare Ephesians 1:15-23 and Matthew 25:31-46.
As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to make or buy your own bread and wine/juice
What do Toilet Paper, Talents, and Trees Have in Common
Presented by Triumphant Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas.
with:
Pastor Danielle Moore Casey
Video Link to this service can be found on youtube at link:
https://youtu.be/y-qtSmI7x-M
You’ll have to tune in to this Sunday’s Worship Where You Are to find out! But here’s a hint: it has something to do with Stewardship. Hopefully by now you have received your 2021 Stewardship Letter and Commitment Card in your mail box.
As our weekly Temple Talks from Jonas Ellwanger, Mary Halaney, and Bennie Engelke attest, at Triumphant Love Lutheran Church we are transforming lives by Forming Faith from Roots to Fruit in each person to whom we minister. Every day, whether you are an infant in the beginning of your life journey or an octogenarian with all the wisdom of your years, we offer you the opportunity to be more deeply rooted in Christ, branch out through new learning, and bear good fruit in the world by planting the seed of faith in others. So take some time to pray about your commitment to our ministry for 2021, complete your commitment card (on paper or online), and return it to the church. Through your generosity we are able to adapt our ministry to the ever-evolving circumstances of the pandemic and continue sharing the good news of Christ wherever we are!
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin’
Video Service Link: https://youtu.be/zhfLCmFLahw
I have been humming this gospel song throughout the week as I, like many of you, stayed up late awaiting election results and what they would mean for our country in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Many of us burned the midnight oil and still we kept waiting. As I write these words, we are still waiting.
Perhaps serendipitously, our Gospel text for Sunday is about waiting and watching and being ready for whatever might come… or be delayed in coming. This Sunday we hear the Parable of the 10 Bridesmaids. 5 bring enough oil for a long night of waiting, but the other 5 do not. It is a bit of a foreshadowing to our Advent season just around the corner. Yes, as Americans, we wait, but as Christians we wait hopefully rather than anxiously. We wait alertly rather than lacadaisically. We wait actively rather than passively. Most certainly we wait not expecting a president to save us but rather for a Messiah, who has already saved us. So keep your lamps trimmed and burnin’ …
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. This week as we gather together, bring a candle or better yet, an oil lamp to your worship space. We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders, our WWYA Musicians, and our WWYA Production Crew! Scriptures this week are Amos 5:18-24 and Matthew 25:1-13.
All Saints Join Us in Thin Places & Thin Moments
Video Service at: https://youtu.be/NLYDxf8gy8E
All Saints Day is Sunday. On this special day we honor the saints of the past and present. During our Worship Where You Are, we will honor the TLLC members who have joined the Saints Triumphant in heaven throughout the year, but I also invite and encourage you to gather items to make your own home ofrenda to remember the special saints in your life. An ofrenda is a traditional part of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration. Home ofrendas include pictures and mementos of loved ones as well as saints of the church along with flowers, food, drink, and candles.
Here I Stand... You Stand Over There!
Video Version On Youtube link: https://youtu.be/YabP_EmbFKM
***Yes, it’s Reformation Sunday, albeit in a way supremely appropriate… which is to say reformed. As Lutherans, we are rooted in the Reformation, but it should also mean that we are rooted in ongoing reformation. For us, the Reformation can’t simply be a celebration but also must be a transformation. It can’t simply be our past but must also be our future. And Luther will be with us on Sunday to make sure!
Most scholars presume that Luther’s Reformation wouldn’t have stuck were it not for the media of the time – Gutenberg’s printing press – that allowed his ideas to be shared and his fame to keep him safe. Today our worship is being shared literally around the world thanks to the media of our time – the internet (not to mention a rarely-resting tech crew!). I know WWYA isn’t the same as our usual in-person worship, but I have heard from so many of you about how it is the one thing keeping you going at times. Because of the pandemic our worship, connections, and faith are being re-formed. May we trust in the transformation God is leading in us! Worship is essential, but how exactly we worship is adiaphora. On this, here I stand… you stand over there… at least for now!***
Lession and Gospel: Romans 3:19-28, John 8:31-36
God's work. Our hands. Let's serve today.
Video of today's service can be found on the youtube link:
https://youtu.be/W9o5zTXMdZE
Scriptures this week are Psalm 104:24-30, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, and Mark 2:1-12.
On the 25th anniversary of the ELCA in 2013, church leaders decided (and I would say rightly so) that the best way to celebrate was not to simply give ourselves a party or a pat on the back but rather to serve our neighbor. That year, “God’s Work. Our Hands.” Sunday began, and it has become a yearly tradition for the thousands of congregations across the ELCA, including Triumphant Love. Despite needing to be physically distanced God still needs our hands at work in the world so Let’s Serve Today!
Join us toWorship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. This week God’s work is done through hands – those of Jesus and of four friends. For your worship space, bring something that symbolizes how you do God’s work with YOUR hands.
Join us toWorship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. This week God’s work is done through hands – those of Jesus and of four friends. For your worship space, bring something that symbolizes how you do God’s work with YOUR hands.
This Sundays Video of this service can be found on youtube using this link.
https://youtu.be/_FnuR338tl4
Setting the Table Where We Are
This Sunday’s texts will have your mouth watering because they are all about feasting! In Isaiah we are given a vision of the great feast to come. In Jesus’ parable about a great banquet, those invited do not come, so the invitation is extended to others. In Psalm 23 and in our communion liturgy God prepares a table before us. With great joy we feast at the table of the Lord, and we go forth to share the wonderful invitation with others hungering and thirsting for the abundant life of God.
Worship Where You Are!
Join us to Worship Where You Are this Sunday at 9AM & 11AM. This week Jesus tells the parable about a great banquet and invites us to the table where we feast together. As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to make or buy your own bread and wine/juice.
We give thanks to this week’s WWYA Worship Leaders, Deb Hilton, Robert Gonzalez, and Tim Holck, our WWYA Musicians, and our WWYA Production Crew! Scriptures this week are Isaiah 25:1-9, Psalm 23, and Matthew 22:1-14.