Liberation Through Letting Go

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
April 19, 2020
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Sometimes when we hold on too tightly to expectations of ourselves and others, it can lead to added suffering. In these difficult times, what are some of the things for which it might be liberating to let go or at least hold less fixedly?

Chalice Lighting

We light this chalice so that its flame may signify the spiritual strands of light that bind our hearts and souls with one another. Even while we must be physically apart, we bask in its warmth together.

Call to Worship

EARTH TEACH ME STILLNESS
From War Cry on a Prayer Feather
by Nancy Wood

Earth teach me stillness
As the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
As old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
As blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring
As the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
As the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation
As the ant who crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
As the eagle who soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
As the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
As the seed which rises in spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
As melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
As dry fields weep with rain.

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Meditation Reading

PERHAPS IT WOULD EVENTUALLY ERODE, BUT…
by Rosemary Wahtole Trommer

That rock that we
have been pushing up
the hill-that one

that keeps rolling back down
and we keep pushing
back up-what if

we stopped? We are not
Sisyphus. This rock
is not a punishment.

It’s something we’ve chosen
to push. Who knows why.
I look at all the names

we once carved into
its sedimentary sides.
How important

I thought they were,
those names. How
I’ve clung to labels,

who’s right, who’s wrong,
how I’ve cared about
who’s pushed harder

and who’s been slack.
Now all I want
is to let the rock

roll back to where it belongs,
which is wherever it lands,
and you and I could,

imagine!, walk unencumbered,
all the way to the top and
walk and walk and never stop

except to discover what
our hands might do
if for once they were

receiving.

Sermon

This month, our spiritual theme at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is liberation.

I think many of us never imagined what a different perspective on that term, liberation, we might come to hold during this time of hunkering down and social distancing.

I don’t know about you all, but I am looking forward to the time when we will be liberated from having to practice this sheltering in place – social distancing!

This morning I’d like to talk about some of the ways we might avoid entrapping ourselves with unrealistic expectations during this strange and challenging time through which we’re living. What are some of the things which we might need to let go in order to liberate ourselves from self-imposed anxiety and judgement during this period, when we all have plenty enough stress in our world already?

For me, one of the big ones is letting go of expecting myself to handle moving through a pandemic in perfect fashion.

None of us can do that. None of us has ever had to handle this before. And, in fact, because we are under stress – trauma, all of us are likely a little ADHD about now.

We’re likely to make mistakes we would not normally make. We’re likely to be more forgetful than usual. We’re likely to have less stamina than we ordinarily do.

Last week, I had to don my face mask and protective gloves and head into a Randall’s grocery store, because none of the groceries in our area had any delivery or curbside pick up time slots available. I got my groceries, and a very nice woman bagged them and put them into my cart for me.

I got home, only to discover that several of my items were missing.

“That woman didn’t give me all of my groceries”, I thought to myself.

So off I went, back to Randall’s to march in and demand my missing groceries.

Luckily, I parked right by where I had left my cart, and there, in the bottom basket of the cart was the other bag of groceries right where I had left it when I loaded everything else into the car.

This week, I was back in Randall’s again, for the same reason – no curbside or delivery available.

A woman checking out in front of me, from 6 feet away, was placing her items in a bag with her right hand. The checkout clerk completed the transaction and told her the amount owed.

In a sudden panic, the woman exclaimed, “Oh my God, where’s my wallet?”

Then she turned and saw that she was holding her wallet in her left hand.

She looked at me with embarrassment. I smiled and said, “don’t worry, we have all been doing that sort of thing all of the time. We both laughed together, and it was a blessed relief.

When we are under stress, we are all more likely to make these sorts of absent-minded mistakes. Let’s forgive ourselves and be especially careful when driving – people are accidentally running red lights and stop signs and changing lanes without even looking.

Here is another thing to let go. If any of you are like me and have always strived to be an “A” student, we may need to let go of that for a while too. If we make it though this as a “C” student, we’ll be fine!

I know I’ve sent email messages to the wrong person and texts that were so full of typos they made no sense at all!

To our folks who are trying to work from home, while parenting and providing home schooling, I especially want to say you are doing it well enough. You have been given a nearly impossible challenge.

You get an “A” plus just for the Herculean effort.

Another thing I have been learning to let go is having to be strong all the time – keep that stiff upper lip, as I was taught most of my life in my white, Euro-scandinavian family.

We have to feel the grief, the fear, the anger the stir-craziness. We have to feel all of it in order to move through it.

That doesn’t mean we have to stay there forever, just that we can’t try to stuff it all down and numb it.

We’re all also having to let go of our ideas of separateness. We will only make it through this together, and we can be in it together even while we are physically apart.

And we’re all also having to let go of what was our daily routine. That may be an opportunity for longer-term change. I am trying to start the day with a nice walk instead of immediately looking at the news. Another thing I have had to let go is feeling like I should be doing more I’m trying to be careful with that word “should”. It can lead me into all manner of troubles.

So, those are some of the big ones for me. I invite you to consider what what it might help you to let go, or at least hold a little less tightly.

One final big one for me is learning to live with not being able to have physical contact with other people.

I love preaching and leading worship, but I have discovered during this time, that one of the things I have loved most about my ministry with this church, were the Sundays when Meg, our senior minister, was preaching, and I would be what I’ve called “the floor minister”.

You know how restaurants and retail stores have had a general manger, that would be Meg, and then a floor manager who would move about checking in with people?

That’s kind of what I got to do as a minister on those Sundays – and will get to do again someday.

Move about the church and listen to folks, ask how you’re doing, try to help with any issues you might be having.

I miss being able to shake hands, or hug, or put a hand on a shoulder.

But I am learning that love can radiate through a computer screen or a phone call or even an email or text message. Love can travel from six feet apart.

So, even though right now I am doing it through a computer video camera, I am sending you much love.

Even though I am recording this a few days before you will see it on Sunday, the love will still be there.

And I’ll be there too, chatting with you in the comments.

Because the one thing we can’t let go is love.

Not even a virus can quarantine love.

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