Berkeley United Methodist Church: Austin, TX

08/29/2026

From the Berkeley Choir Loft:

🎶 In Matthew 16:21–28, Jesus tells the disciples that following him means denying themselves, taking up their cross, and walking a path shaped by sacrificial love. Anthony Giamanco’s setting of “Take Up Your Cross” reminds us that discipleship is not carried by our strength alone: “Christ’s strength shall bear your spirit up and brace your heart and nerve your arm.”

Romans 12:9–21 shows us what taking up the cross can look like in daily life: loving genuinely, honoring others, serving with hope, practicing hospitality, standing alongside those who suffer, and refusing to repay evil with evil. The cross is a call to resist the ways of hatred and violence by choosing courageous, Christ-shaped love.

“Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength,” the hymn invites, trusting that this difficult path leads toward abundant life. ✝️❤️ Come worship with us as we consider what it means to follow Jesus with willing hearts and to “overcome evil with good.”

08/28/2026

What does courageous love look like when following Jesus becomes costly? Join us as Romans 12:9–21 and Matthew 16:21–28 invite us to take up the cross, choose compassion over retaliation, and overcome evil with good. ❤️✝️🌿

This Sunday, Pastor Cynthia will be preaching and we’d love for you to join us!



Image: “Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me" by anonymous, in the Orthodox tradition

08/22/2026

🎼 From the Berkeley Choir Loft:

🎶 In Matthew 16:13–20, Peter boldly declares that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds with a vision of a church built on this courageous confession: a living community called not only to name who Jesus is, but also to reveal Christ through its life together. Mark Miller’s “Creation of Peace” helps us imagine that calling: “We’ll build a love where we bind up the broken,” where “the captives go free,” the hungry are fed, and “all will belong.”

This is the church Jesus calls us to build, a people gathered and anointed to create peace. As Miller's music sings, it is a community “where justice shall flow down like the water, and peace like an ever-flowing stream.” 🕊️🌊 Come worship with us as we ask not only, “Who do we say Jesus is?” but also, “What kind of love are we building in Jesus’ name?”

08/21/2026

🪨 “Look to the rock from which you were hewn.” This Sunday, Isaiah’s ancient promise meets Jesus’ words to Peter as we explore images of the disciple called “the Rock” and consider what God can build through imperfect people like us. 🗝️🎨 Come look, listen, and discover where you might find yourself in Peter’s story.

This Sunday, Pastor Vikki will be preaching and we’d love for you to join us!



Image: The Holy Apostle Peter, icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, 6th C.

08/20/2026

BUMC Weekly Buzz: Thursday, August 20, 2026 -

We have spent eleven weeks paying attention to the various parts of the worship service, the candles and the carols, the bread and the prayers, the children and the choir and the quiet. Now we arrive at the end of the service, and the end of our series, with a question: what is all of this for?

08/17/2026

Week 12: Gathered to Be Sent
Element of Worship: The Gathered Body: Doxology, Benediction & Sending

We have spent eleven weeks paying attention to the various parts of the worship service, the candles and the carols, the bread and the prayers, the children and the choir and the quiet. Now we arrive at the end of the service, and the end of our series, with a question: what is all of this for?

The Doxology is one clue. In a single breath, we praise the Trinity, God, Son, and Holy Spirit, with words the church has sung for centuries. It is a short, but complete song, naming God who is the source of everything we have been doing, and it reminds us that worship is ultimately not about us. It is an offering.

The Benediction is another clue. The word benediction means "good word", a blessing spoken over people as they are sent. In Numbers 6, God instructs Aaron to bless the people of Israel with words that still echo in our sanctuaries: "The Lord bless you and keep you..." Jesus himself blessed his disciples before the Ascension (Luke 24:50).

When we receive the Benediction we receive a commissioning. We are being sent.
And then we hold hands and sing a sending song making the moment physical and communal. We do not go alone. We go as a body, connected to one another and to Christ, into a world that needs what we have been given.

This is the shape of Christian worship, week after week: we are gathered from our scattered lives, formed together by Word and Table and song and prayer, and then sent back into the world, yoked together with Christ and with one another in humble service. John Wesley's people went from their meetings into their neighborhoods and workplaces and the lives of the poor. We are invited into the same movement. The service has ended. The ministry begins. Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.

08/14/2026

Jesus reminds us that God’s grace is bigger than our boundaries and wider than we can imagine. 💛🌎 The faith of the Canaanite woman shows us the power of persistence, courage, and trusting that there is always room at Christ’s table. 🙏✨

This Sunday, Pastor Cynthia will be preaching and we’d love for you to join us!



Image: Woman of Canaan
by Sadao Watanabe, Japan, 1965 [Japan]

08/10/2026

Week 11: The Gospel You Can See
Element of Worship: Paraments, Vestments & the Visual Language of Worship

Not everything in worship is spoken or sung. Some of it is simply seen: the color of the cloth on the Communion table, the stoles worn by those leading worship, the banners, the candles, even the arrangement of the space itself. These are a visual language the church has spoken for centuries, and they are worth learning to read.
The Incarnation is Christianity's great argument that physical, material reality can carry divine meaning. John 1:14 says the Word became flesh. God took on a body, entered the visible world, and made the invisible God known through what could be seen and touched. If God trusted physical matter that much, we should not be too quick to dismiss the visual dimensions of worship.

The liturgical colors of the Christian year tell the whole Gospel story without a word: blue for Advent's waiting and purple for Lent's penitence, white for Christmas and Easter's joy, red for Pentecost's fire, green for the long season of everyday growth. The paraments on our table and pulpit change with the seasons, quietly marking the story we are living inside.

Vestments are the stoles and robes worn in worship by clergy and other leaders, symbols of the role of each one. A stole is a symbol of the yoke of Christ, worn by those set apart for particular forms of service. But as we have said before in this series: the yoke belongs to everyone. The whole congregation is yoked to Christ, each in their own way.

Wesley was more modest in visual ceremony than the high-church tradition he came from, but he never dismissed the power of embodied practice. He understood that we are bodies inhabiting a story. What we see shapes what we believe. Look around on Sunday. The room and the vestments are telling you something.

08/07/2026

Life's storms can feel overwhelming, but Jesus doesn't wait for the waters to calm before coming to us—he meets us right in the middle of them. 🌊⛵💙 When fear rises, may we remember his words: "Take heart... do not be afraid," and trust that his hand is always reaching out to steady us. 🙌✨

This Sunday, Pastor Cynthia will be preaching and we’d love for you to join us!



Image: Jesus Walking on Water
By Daniel of Uranc, 1433 [Armenia]

08/06/2026

Come be renewed in God’s ever-flowing stream.

BUMC Weekly Buzz: Thursday, July 28, 2026 - https://mailchi.mp/6b8d82784786/o7e9mmu5q4-18244855