Augustana Podcasts

Sermon Title: Blessed Are We, Who Mourn. Preacher: Deacon Stephanie Anderson. Preaching Text: Matthew 5:1-12 & Revelation 7:9-17. On All Saints Sunday, we remember those who have gone before us, give thanks for the saints whose lives have shaped our own, and entrust to God those we love and those we miss. We gather in the midst of both grief and gratitude, held by the promise that the communion of saints stretches beyond what we can see or count. In Christ, we are bound together across generations, across the boundaries of life and death, and into the abundant life of God. Here, even in our mourning, we are blessed, for God holds us in love and promises that one day every tear will be wiped away.

Sermon Title: Practicing the Joy of Ridiculous Generosity. Preacher: Pastor Jason Bryan-Wegner. Preaching Text: Luke 19:1-10. We conclude the worship series, Where Joy Meets Generosity today and celebrate both Reformation and Commitment Sunday, as we trust in God’s reforming and renewing work through the Church. During the offering today, you are invited to make a commitment to support the mission and ministries of Augustana in the coming year. In addition to your regular Sunday offering, please place the Giving Plan you’ve completed in the offering plate, or use a Giving Plan provided in the pew to offer your commitment to generosity in the coming year. Every gift and every commitment of every size makes a difference and reflects a tangible way we trust in God’s abundance in our lives.

Sermon Title: Participating in God's Unfolding Story. Preacher: Bishop Justin Grimm. Preaching Text: Philippians 4:12-20. We welcome our Bishop Justin Grimm to preach this morning as we continue our series "Where Joy Meets Generosity". Bishop Justin was elected this spring and began his six-year term in August. He is passionate about the church being a force for good in the world, congregational vitalization, and baseball.

Sermon Title: Cultivating a God-Centered Relationship with Money. Preacher: Pastor Jason Bryan-Wegner. Preaching Text: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. The Bible addresses our relationship with money and materials more than just about any other topic. God does not condemn wealth, but God also repeatedly cautions us not to rely too heavily on it for security, or prioritize it over love for God and neighbor. As we explore Where Joy Meets Generosity this month, God invites us to experience the joy of a God-centered relationship with money, rather than a money-centered relationship with God.

Sermon Title: Assessing Our Priorities. Preacher: Deacon Stephanie Anderson. Preaching Text: Matthew 13:44-49a. Where Joy Meets Generosity is our stewardship season invitation to reflect on the connection between the gifts God has given us and the joyful lives we are called to live. Throughout this series, we will explore how gratitude, generosity, and discipleship shape our life together as followers of Christ. Today, we begin with Jesus' parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value. In these stories, people discover something so precious that everything else is reordered around it. As we consider what we value most, we are invited to ask: What treasures has God placed before us? What priorities shape our lives? And what risks might we be called to take as we joyfully follow Christ?

Sermon Title: Better Late Than Never. Preacher: Deaconess Claire Schoepp. Preaching Text: Matthew 21:23-32. As we wrap up our series, "Imperfect: How God's People Change the World," we explore a story that is only found in Matthew's gospel. As we'll see, for Matthew, belief is shown in action and hypocrisy should be challenged. Far too often, our words and deeds don't match who we want to be or who we claim to be. It can be uncomfortable to admit when we're not showing our beliefs in our actions -- we risk rejection, shame, and loss of status. In our text, however, Jesus doesn't reject anyone. Even the chief priest and the elders simply enter the kingdom of God later than those tax collectors and prostitutes they think are so beneath them. Sometimes it takes awhile to do as Jesus laid out in the Sermon on the Mount. But better late than never.

Sermon Title: Grumbling Because of Grace. Preacher: Pastor Jason Bryan-Wegner. Preaching Text: Jonah 3:10-4:11 & Matthew 20:1-16. It’s great to worship with you today! We’re continuing our series: Imperfect: How God's People Change the World. We often put unrealistic expectations on ourselves and others. And when those expectations drive us, it can lead to feeling left out or thinking someone else should be left out. God offers another way that says, whether you are best or first, or least or last, you still have an equal place in the community.

Sermon Title: Putting Faith into Practice. Preacher: Pastor Jason Bryan-Wegner. Preaching Text: Matthew 14:22-33. We’re kicking off the fall with a worship series called, Imperfect: How God's People Change the World. This series will help us see the many ways followers of Jesus have always been imperfect, and how God used them (and us) any way. Throughout the Gospels, the disciples misunderstood Jesus, they argued about power and position, they doubted, feared, and failed. Yet Jesus used their imperfections, and he uses us today, to bring God’s good news to a hurting and imperfect world.

Sermon Title: The Crowd. Preacher: Deacon Stephanie Anderson (spoken by Pastor Jason Bryan-Wegner). Preaching Text: John 19:4-16. In this final week of our Villains of the Bible series, we shift away from villains whose wrongdoing is easy to recognize and confront a more troubling reality: the destructive power of the crowd. evil often advances not because of a few powerful people, but because many ordinary people look away, stay silent, or assume someone else will act. in worship, we come before god to confess our own participation in that reality and to hear again Christ's call to a more courageous way of life.

Sermon Title: The Devil. Preacher: Intern Pastor Nathan Adu-Gyamfi. Preaching Text: Matthew 4:1-17. As we near the end of our series, Villains of the Bible, today we meet a villain whose voice has echoed from generation to generation: the Devil. In Matthew 4, Jesus enters the wilderness immediately after hearing the Father declare, “This is my Son, the Beloved.” Then comes another voice: “If you are the Son of God…” One voice declares who Jesus is. Another asks him to prove it. We know something about those voices. Voices that make us question whether we are enough. Voices that tempt us to measure ourselves by what we possess, accomplish, control, or prove. But today we gather around a stronger Word—the Word of the God who calls us beloved, claims us in baptism, and meets us with grace. Whatever wilderness you have walked through this week, you are welcome here. Come as you are. Come and remember whose you are.