First English Lutheran Church | Austin, Texas
God Loves. We Love. Everyone!
On the second Sunday in Lent, we receive the story of Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born of water and Spirit. God made a covenant with Abraham, and in baptism, God promises to raise disciples of Jesus in all the world. We continue the Lenten journey with acts of love: prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor.
Join Repertory Chorus in concert on Monday, March 2, 8:00 pm at University Presbyterian Church, 2203 San Antonio St., Austin. The program includes the Missa Brevis (Little Organ Mass) by Franz Joseph Haydn and J.S. Bach’s Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4) after one of Martin Luther’s most famous chorales, Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds. Free admission. FELC partners with UT’s Butler School of Music to provide a laboratory, rehearsal, and venue experience for these professional, educational vocal leaders. We are grateful to our friends at University Presbyterian for hosting this concert.
On Ash Wednesday we began our journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. This Sunday’s gospel story tells of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. His forty-day fast becomes the basis of our Lenten pilgrimage. In the early church Lent was a time of intense preparation for those to be baptized at Easter. This focus on the meaning of faith is at the heart of Lent as we hunger for God’s mercy.
A small subset team of the First English Racial Justice Action Team was formed in January 2022 to do a focused evaluation of the whiteness of First English Lutheran Church and seek meaningful ways in which this church can strive for and embody both strategic and authentic diversity.
The FELC Diversity Development Taskforce shared its report with the Congregation Council at their August 15, 2022 meeting. Team members also offered report highlights in Sunday worship over the summer months. We share the report with the community now.
The report encompasses the call by the ELCA to exhibit authentic diversity–demographically matching the ethnic and racial composition of our context (Austin) and recognizes that First English Lutheran Church is overwhelmingly white. While we acknowledge that there isn’t a prescribed formula for achieving an authentically diverse community, we know there are direct actions to take, within our control, to relate to and live out the gospel message with a fuller expanse of God’s beloved community and creation. Our prayer is that this effort continues to unfold throughout the life of the whole church and in this church community of First English.
The Diversity Development Taskforce members are: Nancy Baden, Erin McCracken, Cantor Bryan Rust, and Barbara Wiederaenders. If you would like to join in this work or have more questions, please feel free to contact Erin McCracken at: erin922@gmail.com.
View the report at the link below:
The season of Lent begins with this solemn day of repentance and receiving ashes as a sign of mortality and humility. We are invited to begin the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, almsgiving – works of love. This year we will gather at 7:00 pm onsite and livestream on YouTube. The liturgy includes confession and absolution, imposition of ashes, holy communion, and special music. Returning to God’s mercy and grace, we make our way through Lent toward the joy of Easter.
The feast of the Transfiguration is a bridge between the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle that comes to a close as the Lent-Easter cycle begins on Ash Wednesday. On a high mountain Jesus is revealed as God’s beloved Son. This vision of glory sustains us as Jesus faces his impending death in Jerusalem. Throughout worship we offer “alleluia” which means “God be praised.” This word of joy is “buried” during the season of Lent and will be sung again at Easter. May we be “transformed into the same image” by God’s Spirit.
Light shines in the darkness, the psalmist sings. The biblical prophet Isaiah declares that when we loose the bonds of injustice and share our bread with the hungry, the light breaks forth like the dawn. In another passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, the light of the world, calls his followers to let the light of their good works shine before others. We are sent into the world to shine with the light of Christ.
Who are the blessed ones of God? For the biblical prophet Micah, they are those who do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. For Jesus, they are the poor, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who mourn, and those who hunger for relationship with God and neighbor. In baptism, disciples of Jesus find our blessed identity and calling for living and serving.
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, 606 W. 15th Street. Tickets are $40 and $10 for all students, available at stolaf.edu/tickets/choir or 800-363-5487. For more than a century, the St. Olaf Choir from Northfield, Minnesota, has set the gold standard for choral singing, performing for millions around the world. Composed of 75 mixed voices, the choir, from one of the ELCA colleges, is renowned for its artistry and beauty of sound.
On January 25 we remember the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor, renewer of society, and martyr, born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. An American prophet of justice among races and nations, Pastor King was an ordained minister in the Baptist tradition, a leader of the nonviolent resistance to race-segregated society, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. King was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis. In the Sunday liturgy, all the hymns and some of the music we offer Dr. King sang often. They are considered his “favorites” where he found the power and comfort of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The scripture texts we proclaim are appointed and amended for renewers of society. The primary color for this commemoration is red/scarlet, reminding us of the power of the Holy Spirit and the bloodshed of martyrs.