Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
August 16, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

One of our new ends challenges us to see ourselves as a congregation made up of ALL the people who attend the church and to prioritize the spiritual nourishment of that diverse congregation. Join Rev. Carrie as she explores this good, holy, and timely work and how we might both do it and benefit from it.

Welcome

Prelude: “Barcarolle” (Chopin) – Maurício Starosta, piano

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

FREEDOM FROM DOUBT
Paul Stephan Dodenhoff

The freedom to doubt, to question, to be content to live in Mystery is central to the liberal religious tradition. Like the process of evolution itself, the path that we follow – our practice, if you will – is not easy or simple. It isn’t without its dead ends or its disappointments. It doesn’t guarantee that all our conclusions will be final or that we will ever find an answer to all of our questions. But also like the process of evolution, it is filled with great expressions of beauty and awe that are sometimes born of great struggle and at other times come as unexpected Grace.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“Carry On” (Stephen Stills) – Brent Baldwin, voice & guitar

One morning I woke up and I knew
You were really gone
A new day, a new way, and new
eyes to see the dawn
Go your way,
I’ll go mine and
Carry on

The sky is clearing and the night
Has gone out
The sun, he come, the world
is all full of light
Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but
To carry on

The fortunes of fables are able
To sing the song
Now witness the quickness with which
We get along
To sing the blues you’ve got to live the tunes and
Carry on

Carry on
Love is coming
Love is coming to us all

Stewardship Testimonial

Toni Kennedy

Hello everyone, I am Tony Kennedy I have been going to this church for about a little over a year now and I would just like to tell you some words about why I’ve chosen this beloved community to be my home

I will start this testimony with a quote my dad often says: “Where science ends, religion begins.” I never truly understood what that meant when he first told me that at 11 years old.

All I knew was that life had many questions, from why is the grass green to how do memories get created, the ones everyone asks, like why are we here or what is the meaning of life?

Asking these questions in a traditional church made you feel like you were a heretic or they would simply get ignored. You would be told to just go read the bible and pray and I did but to no avail these questions still remained and I felt no closer to enlightenment after years of my religious journey going from denomination to denomination from religion to religion like a spiritual nomad trying to find a home.

I found a friend L.B, and they introduced me to Universalist Unitarianism a place where we don’t paint our faith with one color we create a rainbow of faith from every walk of life and every faith community, where questions are explored, not ignored, or minimized. They say, that question’s interesting, let’s dig deeper. Or, I don’t know, but let’s find out together.

Universalist Unitarianism is where the divine is in everything, not just a god. And our Bible is each other that we get to read every day, whether in these walls or miles away.

And with that, I am proud to be a UU and glad to call this place home, where I can learn how different people interpret where their religion begins when science ends. Now with this community around me, I understand my dad’s words more than ever.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Reading

A FAITH OF HOLY CARTOGRAPHERS
Teresa Youngblood

I don’t want a smoothed-out, disproportionately aggrandized faith that attempts to draw all comers to its one self-righteous place at the top of the map of humanity, leaving the messiness of their upbringings and lived realities behind them. Instead, I want an imaginative and wandering faith of holy cartographers, eager encounterers who pay exquisite attention to the terrain and the systemic forces that shape it. Leaders who meet people where they are, approach them with curiosity, hold lightly to their own individual stories, and are willing to be surprised and delighted and moved by what they discover in the treasure trove of another.

This cannot happen with assimilation; it has to be transformation. We all have to be aiming for transformation, and to be willing to be guided not by positions and placeholders but by principles held in covenant, and to which anyone of loving intention can guide us back. The old, top-heavy map simply cannot get us there….

Could we teach one another how to do this! Could we make the foundation of our faith development learning how to inhabit an open and curious presence, by rooting firmly in our own mutual belovedness as it is so beautifully articulated in the Universalist half of our heritage? I want us to heal one another through our fiercely compassionate presence so that we can chart a different path as a matter of lived theology. So that we can caringly release the old one-directional paths that aren’t broad enough for all of us to accompany one another.

I think this degree of spiritual security and resiliency could be what gets us there, what frees our souls to encounter the sacred terrain of one another’s experiences. What we discover and share could be our new map, more complete and truer than the one we were handed and that we didn’t know we could leave behind. This could be how we grow our new way together.

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Prelude in C” (Bach) – Maurício Starosta, piano

Sermon

THE WORK OF OUR TIMES
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

About a year..ish ago the stewardship committee had people write what they love about the church on multi-colored hearts and then they put them up in Howson Hall. It was beautiful…a good portion of the east wall was covered in these hearts. They said things like I love “community”, seeing my friends, my small group, learning, chalice circles, wellspring, OWL, Kids RE, the music!, social justice, bagels! Over and over people expressed these sentiments.

There were two that said “sermons”
Now, at the time that was a bit of a humbling experience but now its actually become a calming tool…. when I’m stressing about a sermon and start to spiral I think “only three people care about this and one of them is me.” Humility is a grounding practice.

Church is so many different things to different people. Some people come because they have found a community and want to catch up with friends. Some come because they like to have a quiet start to their week or they want to hear amazing music.
Others want a place to go where they can join up with social justice efforts. Or have a place for their children to get a foundation in a values based religion of love!

People engage with this space in many different ways but I think ultimately it’s all with one purpose

Its all for the purpose of being nourished.

And because we are a church …
and more importantly a religion of shared responsibility… that task is ours to do. All of ours to do.

Yes, its Rev. Chris, Brent’s, mine, Shannon’s job to do but that mission, of transforming lives, nourishing souls and doing justice to build the beloved community….

That mission…if you have chosen to accept it ….

That mission is yours as much as it is mine.

Which means we have to make that mission actionable. Now Both Rev. Chris and I have been talking a lot about our new ends. Or rather the goals that were created through all that work the board and y’all did last year. These four goals y’all came up with, are how we make our mission actionable. They will help us to know where to put our focus, our energy, and our resources.

Our second end, the end I am talking about today says “We are an intergenerational church that invests in and priorities spiritual nourishment for all.

For all.

For those seeking community
For those who want to see their friends
For those needing a bit of quiet contemplation before the week begins
For those wanting to dive into their spirituality
For those who want to form and reform their faith and values to meet
the moment.
For those who are looking at the precious kids in their lives and seeing the encroachment of christian nationalism into their schools and wanting to give them a strong foundation that is based in love to counter all that they will be exposed to.
And for those that are in those class rooms having to face that fascism
and wanting a foundation that as our reading by Teresa Youngblood said

“is without attempting to draw all comers to its one self-righteous place at the top of the map of humanity”

Spiritual nourishment for all 

Its so beautiful

And…..Its so big
Such a big task.

But instead of getting overwhelmed with the enormity of it
I focus on the “We”

We are an intergenerational church – whether you are on the playground right now or the nursery or in this space… we are an intergenerational church

We invest in the spiritual nourishment of all
We prioritize the spiritual nourishment for all

Because ….

People come to church to get nourished

Because
life is hard
Lets face It is hard to be a person…even on a good day its hard

Its hard to live in a world that feeds you into an algorithm and then sells all your insecurities back to you.
All Your fears

And when you are an informed compassionate person
Its hard to live in a world where so many people are being harmed
Where the powerful operate only in their own interest
Causing harm
Enacting violence
Its hard to live in a world where there is no accountability or recourse for all of the harm
And its hard to be a target of all that harm and violence

Its all so hard

Because it is hard we need a place that will nourish our spirits

And WE are that place because WE invests in and prioritizes exactly that.

In their book Another Way, Stephen Lewis, Matthew Williams and Dori Baker remind us that the word religion comes from the latin re-ligare which means to reconnect. They write

“religious leaders are called to reconnect us to the profound, the inescapable mutuality of life that is deep within us and between us.”

Sounds like Spiritual Nourishment doesn’t it

They go on to say

“That which transcends and guides with us to work on behalf of shaping a more hopeful future. A future [that] assumes that all of us, not just religious leaders, have a calling and that we are all called to participate in shaping the world beyond ourselves.”

In this end we have called ourselves
To hold one another so that we are not defeated by all that is hard
To help one another so that together we can dream big, we can have the resilience to show up
To be brave
To be in solidarity.
To do justice to build the beloved community.

Heck just to thrive in this one precious life we got.

But what does that look like practically speaking
How can we do this profound and good work…?

We make sure that opportunities for spiritual nourishment can happen.

I am over adult religious education and I manage Sol who is the religious education manager for pre-k through 12th grade.

We have spent a lot of time this past year talking about what people in the church needs and we have come up with so much.

But mostly we come back to the fact that we need each other. Often in this building we have the kids back there, often with their parents volunteering and all us older folks in here.

And all too often never the two shall meet.

But we need each other. I want my own kids to know that there are adults that are interesting and wise that they can rely on that aren’t their parents.

And y’all we need the younger folks because they are as Issac said in his sermon a few weeks ago, usually on the right side of history. They are pushing us to live more into our values. I hope you were able to see the youth service a few weeks back but if you haven’t you really ought to check it out. The kids and youth of this church have so much to teach us.

We all can benefit from each other.

But getting us all together can be a challenge. Its a challenge to bring us all together. And while we as staff have made lots of small changes over the last year to make kids feel more comfortable in the sanctuary there is still division.

We will continue to address that so that kids know that belong here just as much as anywhere else in the church and more importantly that they want to belong here.

And of course some of that division is good.
As I said earlier we all come to church for different reasons and because of that we will need different ways in which to be nourished

Our needs may often physically and programmatically divide us but our mission isn’t divided.

We need each other.
But we can’t do it alone and parents shouldn’t always have to volunteer to make sure we have a pre-k through 12 religious education program.

We need those of you who don’t have kids or whose kids are older and out of the house to invest and prioritize the spiritual nourishment of our youth. Meaning I need you to volunteer. Not always but sometimes.

And you know what, you need them too. Listen, there is something deeply spiritually nourishing about being around kids. And because of that It is not a sacrifice to spend a Sunday morning with them, it can be a symbiotic relationship.

Kids are interesting, they are often weird,
their frame of reference and understanding of the world is so different than ours.
Often much less jaded.
Its so refreshing. And who doesn’t need some of that for the ol’ spirit?

Besides, how can we dream up a future together if we don’t know one another?

So do yourself a favor and invest in and prioritize our kids. Their spiritual nourishment. Volunteer volunteer volunteer!

And as the person over adult religious education. Invest in and prioritize adults too….

We all need nourishment
And
We have different needs.

This is why we try our best to provide so many different avenues of religious education.

From one-off class on “what does the bible say about” to monthly vespers to short series on specific topics – to small group ministries

And all of those things are made possible because people like you offered to lead and in some cases like the, health relations team, to create and lead.

Y’all we have a big task we have set for ourselves and to do it WE need facilitators

Specifically we need facilitators for small groups. Small groups are some of the most profound experiences people can have in a church.

Small groups allow you to connect deeply with a group of people with whom you are learning from and growing with.

And there is something very powerful about small group that exist in a pluralistic tradition because we are not asked to grow the same but we asked to support one another as we are developing our own faith identity. Its such a beautiful thing and one that makes life and our beliefs so much richer.

We are meant to be with one another after all.

We have two small group opportunities coming up.

Our new intern will hold a Wellspring Sources group this church year. Sources is a way to explore various aspects of theology and belief while you refine your own. Sign ups as always are in church center or the newsletter.

You can also sign up through your friendly neighborhood assistant minister who never wants technology be a barrier to entry. Just let me know and we will figure it out.

We also have several Chalice Circles open right now. These are small groups that meet once a month throughout the church year to practice deep listening. The purpose of the groups are to be a place where we can discern for ourselves what our inner guide, inner voice, intuition, or inner wisdom might have for us.

It is also about being introduced to and trying on new spiritual practices. The people who have been involved in these chalice circles can tell you about how profoundly the groups have impacted their lives.

And if you aren’t sure its for you, come by room 15 today at 12:30 for a taste of soul. We will have pizza and lead you through an abbreviated chalice circle together.

There are many ways to engage in spiritual nourishment and there are many ways we could engage in nourishment.

So many ways we do and could do the work of religion
To do the work of reconnecting
To do the work of saying centered and grounded in these times
Of being spiritually nourished

It only takes those of us who are called to lead to do so. To raise your hand …or rather send me an email.

And it’s takes you doing, what Rev. Erin Walter calls, the spiritual practice of reading your newsletter.

The Sunday newsletter is the one that will let you know what offerings are available and how you can sign up.

So volunteer
Read your newsletter
Sign up for things
Or ask me or other for help signing up for things

Invest and prioritize the spiritual nourishment of yourselves
And your neighbor

Because things are hard
And we need a place to connect and reconnect
We need a place that gives us the tools to grow and thrive
We need to place that helps us build resilience and community so that we can face whatever it is that will come our way

And I know this because this is what y’all created. This is what you said, as a body through hours and hours of small group session, surveys, and one-on-ones.

Y’all have said that
We as a church of shared responsibility want to invest in

Want to prioritize

The spiritual nourishment of all
as we live out our mission in the world.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

As we leave the sacred time of being together, I hope you feel nourished. I hope you feel loved. And I hope when things get hard throughout the week, you can return to that place because you are so deeply loved.
Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
August 2, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This Sunday we are going to worship a little bit differently, this intergenerational service will start out in the sanctuary for some worship, and then members have the choice of one of six activities to do throughout the church. The audio of this service features “Songs of Resistance” lead by singer/songwriter Sarah Bentley.

Welcome

Prelude: “Minuet from Sonata Op 49” (Beethoven) – Valeria Diaz, piano

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Stewardship Testimonial

Choose Your Adventure

Intergenerational activities

• Sing Songs of Resistance with Sarah Bentley
• Build Community Care Bags for Austin Street Medics
• Create values-based art
• Immigration Solidarity
• Intergenerational Democracy Work
• Grounding Meditation Practice

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

I do my justice work and I chase joy so I hope today that the joy that you feel the love that you feel the whatever warm glowing feelings that you feel you will take throughout the week with you and mostly I hope that you always always remember that you are held in love.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
July 26,2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Whether we are talking about an authoritarian crisis or a physical crisis, all of us need each other to survive and thrive. This Sunday Rev. Carrie explores this topic and prepares us for an emergency response. As part of the service, we will all participate in a fire drill, which will be rewarded with great music from Parker Woodland, popsicles, and (possibly) firefighters.

Welcome

Prelude: “Last Song on Earth” (Parker Woodland)

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

A PERSON IS A PERSON THROUGH OTHER PERSONS
Bishop Desmon Tutu

A person is a person through other persons. None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think or walk or speak or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are.

Hymn

“No One is Getting Left Behind” (Joshua Blaine)

Affirming Our Mission

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

Moment for Beloved Community

Good morning. I am David Overton, and Wendy Erisman and I are the co-chairs of our first UU Democracy Pillar. We’ve restarted the Democracy Pillar because, as we all know too well, in 2026, our democracy is under severe threat.

In fact, a fire drill is a great analogy for what we’re experiencing. So we plan several actions leading up to the November elections, all of them nonpartisan. And you are invited and encouraged to participate in all of these.

First is voter registration. If you’re not registered, you can register at the table in the gallery. It’ll be there every week until the election. And if you are or if you think you’re registered, you can check to be sure at that table.

Second, we’ll be writing postcards. And those are to registered voters who didn’t vote in the last… to encourage them to vote this time. Bob and Victoria Hendricks are coordinating this and their goal, this is incredible, but the goal is to complete and mail 40,000 postcards.

Third is poll monitoring. This is to keep an eye on the polls during the November election and to help ensure, to help answer questions from voters. We’ll be providing poll monitoring training in advance of the election.

And then fourth is we’ll be holding a Congregational Solidarity Summit focused on voting rights. Wendy, can you explain more about what the Solidarity Summit is?

Yes, I can. So we very much hope that you will mark your calendar for Ballots and Beyond, which is our Congregational Solidarity Summit. It will be Saturday, August 29th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. here at First UU.

Now, the goal of these summits, from the perspective of UU the Vote, is to connect like-minded people around what we can do to protect democracy, which starts with voting rights but doesn’t stop there. So we’ll be inviting the other Central Texas UU churches, and we encourage everyone to come and learn about the various things you can do to help protect democracy.

Anthem

“The World’s On Fire” (And We Still Fall In Love) – Parker Woodland w/the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble: Erin Walter (vocals & bass); Andrew Solin (guitar & vocals); Keri Cinquina (drums & vocals)

Reading

TAKE THIS AS AN INVITATION
Rev. Birch Cue

Take this as an invitation to imagine how wide this world can be, to face the closing doors before us and move toward the opening windows in our lives.

Take this as an invitation to remember a critical truth that none of us have it all figured out, that we help one another grow and change.

Take this as an invitation to cross thresholds of challenge, not on our own, not for ourselves alone, but side-by-side, spirits rising and expanding together.

Let us go now to share our gifts and truth with each other and this world.

Centering

Sermon

NO ONE IS GETTING LEFT BEHIND
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

NOTE: This is a AI generated (edited) transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

So I titled the sermon, “No One’s Getting Left Behind”. And it did not occur to me until this morning talking to Luther that that might be a little triggering for my ex-fundies and ex-evangelicals who are familiar with the Kirk Cameron version of No One’s Getting Left Behind, which is about the rapture. Sorry about that. This is not what this sermon is about.

A few weeks ago, because of the amazing support of this community and because of the wonderful connective tissue of the Texas UU Justice Ministry, I was able to go to Newark, New Jersey, to learn from and be in solidarity with Faith in New Jersey, who are working to shut down the Delaney Detention Center. And it was then, during the rituals that they taught us, that we sang that song. And I love it. No one’s getting left behind. We will get there together. We’re not going to get there at all.

Now that’s purely aspirational, as we know, because that’s not really how things work, right? Not particularly. There are a lot of people who are getting there kind of all the time. Billionaires, for example. And tons and tons of people who get left behind all the time. Which is kind of how it works when you live in what Bell Hooks calls an Imperialist White Supremacy Hetero-Patriarchy.

If you grew up here or lived the majority of your life here, you probably heard this idea at some point that the most important thing is to look out for you and yours. And yours being defined as a pretty small group of people who usually you’re related to. I’d like to think that that is called rugged individualism. Taking care of only ourselves because we’ve been sold the lie that we are pitted in competition or conflict with those who are not like us. Take care of only yourself because you don’t need anyone else to survive.

I do not know how many times growing up I heard, just wait till you grow up and have a family. You’ll be conservative. Jokes on them. I am way more unsufferable now.

The story of competition for resources is a lie. Bootstrap individualism is a lie. But it’s a strong lie. And that strong lie has led to drastic inequalities and all manner of violence. It’s powerful and it’s harmful.

But I truly believe that the tide is shifting. That the story of rugged individualism is being revealed to be the lie that it always was. That more and more people are realizing that they have been pitted in competition and conflict as a means of control. That people are awakening to the idea that we need each other. That mutual aid is how we thrive. That solidarity work is the work of salvation.

A deep knowing that we are going to get there together or we’re not going to get there at all. And so we practice what that looks like. We practice community care. We practice solidarity in our community so we can branch out. And today we’re going to do that practice by doing something that we’ve probably all done a hundred times when we were children, which is a fire drill.

So that is going to be moving together as a unit so that we all can get outside safely. But fire drills are not the only way we protect each other in our community. We have a lot of people who are constantly working to make sure that we are safe and taken care of. But they need our help.

So for example, if someone has a medical emergency, we have two AEDs in this building, automated external defibrillators. If someone passes out and they are not breathing, so we’re going to all stop what we’re doing, right? And we are going to tend to them. We’re going to go out here to the south entrance. In the cabinet, there’s an AED. Or we’re going to go down to the hall by the gallery where the water fountain is and there is an AED. We’re going to grab that and we’re going to do the work of taking care of one another. Because that’s what we do.

We put our energy and attention on our neighbors that need it. Both of those AEDs also have first aid kits and stop the bleed kits.

Now we have several people who are trained in CPR and first aid and stop the bleed, but no one can do that alone. You might be called on to call 911 or to go stand outside until the EMTs get here or to comfort a loved one.

We pay attention. We provide help. That’s what we’re doing here. And all of it is practice.

We also have many fire extinguishers in the building, which is super great when you have a minister who almost caught herself on fire a couple of months ago.

And also a candle, beautiful, beautiful candle wall. But when not done correctly, it has caught some people on fire. And unfortunately, if the sticks are not put out all the way, they can actually catch fire in the glass jar, which guess what glass does when it gets real, real hot?

So first, we all practice fire safety. And when that fails, we have so many fire extinguishers. We have one right back there by the exit. We have one in Howson Hall. We have one that I was told is called the mega in the kitchen. And then one in each of the halls, okay? Which are great for little contained fires.

But y’all, when things get bigger, we’re going to have to work together to get out of harm’s way, right?

Now, Shannon has created this beautiful slide. She has outdone herself, so let’s give it a round as well. So you might have noticed that there are colors in front of you, okay? She’s created this beautiful color-coded system for all of us. So if you’re in this sanctuary, all the evacuation routes are color-coded. The pews, so what you can see in front of you, that’s your color. The doors are marked with your color. Learn your color, know your color, follow your color.

So for instance, I’m in the red section. My red friends. Make some noise. Who are my red friends? All right. Awesome.

Okay. Section captains are going to make sure that we all exit. So we’re going to look to them, and we’re going to follow them using our color.

I love it’s all so beautifully organized. It’s so great.

Now, if this wasn’t a test, if it was, say, an authoritarian crisis or something we would want to look to our leaders and those are the people that are most impacted because they know what to do the best right. So we’re going to look to our section captains always and we are going to follow their lead. Amen, Amen. Now for this test, this practice, we are going to follow our section captains. Would you all stand up for me. We’ve got some, got a yellow, we got a blue, we got a green, we got a red, We got an orange.

Wonderful. Okay, thank you all so much for what you’re doing.

Now, if you need some assistance, please ask for assistance. If your neighbor needs some assistance, please give them assistance because we are going to get there together or… That’s right. So no rushing over anyone to get out of the way. We are going to go at everyone’s pace. We are not billionaires. after all.

Now caveat, if you are a billionaire, please come talk to me because I have some ideas about the religious education program and ending poverty. Let’s talk.

If you’re in Howson Hall, you can leave out through the gallery doors or you can leave out of the north exit. If you’re leaving out of the north exit, you can meet up with a group that are going to be in the credit union. And if you are leaving out of the gallery doors, you can meet all of the people who are going to be past the rainbow. This will all make sense once you follow your section leaders.

Now, the people who are in charge of the children, they have their own orders. They’re going to get the children out safely. And what will happen is once we’re given the all clear, they will bring the kids to the courtyard. We will go to the courtyard.

There will be popsicles. But most importantly, if you are a person with a child, check your child out using the checkout protocol. This Sunday and every Sunday, y’all, don’t cause me to have a panic attack, please. I want to know where the children are, and I want to know they’re with you.

And then that’s it. Like I said, we’ll have popsicles. You can go shop at the merch booth for Parker Woodland, which has some really cool t-shirts, and grab coffee like we always do in Howson Hall.

And if the loudspeaker is working, I’m going to do a benediction over the loudspeaker because Shannon said I could. So I’m very excited about that.

Now, are there any questions that I hopefully can field?

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
June 28, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

What do Care Bears, Pride, spirituality, and UU theology have in common? According to Rev. Carrie, a lot. Join her to see how she makes that argument.

Welcome

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

ONE LOVE
By the Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson

We are one
A diverse group
Of proudly kindred spirits
Here not by coincidence–
But because we choose to journey-together

We are active and proactive
We care deeply
We live our love, as best we can

We ARE one
Working, Eating, Laughing
Playing, Singing, Storytelling,
Sharing and Rejoicing
Getting to know each other,
Taking risks
Opening up
Questioning, Seeking. Searching…
Trying to understand
Struggling…
Making Mistakes
Paying Attention…
Asking Questions
Listening
Living our Answers
Learning to love our neighbors
Learning to love ourselves

Apologizing and forgiving with humility
Being forgiven through Grace

Creating the Beloved Community — Together
We are ONE

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“Breaking Boundaries” (Pauline Oliveros) – Brent Baldwin, guitar

Reading

WE WHO ARE ALIVE
by Rev. Dr. Anna Blaedel, a queer, non-binary chaplain, writer and public theologian. They are also the co-founder of Enfleshed, a resource for spiritual nourishment for collective liberation.

Life is a gorgeous experiment.
Or, at least, life is an experiment.
Wild and precious and over too soon, Mary Oliver reminds us. Experiments are messy, indeterminate, unpredictable by their very nature. Wrought with failure, too.
And so is life.
Aren’t we lucky, then, that some of us – queers, I mean – are practiced in transforming failure into an art form.
We – we, who are alive –
we who are messy and exhausted
we who are overwhelmed, wrung out, terrified – as everything and everyone we love comes under assault –
we are part of this gorgeous experiment of life.
And here I want to insist on the gorgeousness
because we are gorgeous.
We are heartbroken, and heartbreak healing.
We are hardened, and hardness cracking open, softening.
We are invitations into life lived otherwise.
We are magic, being kindled.
We are dreams, unwilling to be contained.
We are entire prayers, whispered, sung, wailed, received, answered.
We are holy, whole, and wholly deserving of love.
We are hallelujah, amen.
We are divinity, enfleshed.
We are possibilities, emerging.
We are making life livable – everywhere we are making love, making art, making poetry, making song, making shelter, making home – with and for each other.
We are making each other possible.
With and for each other, we become possible.
With and for each other, life becomes possible.

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Prelude for Meditation” (John Cage) – Brent Baldwin, prepared piano

Sermon

THE CARE BEAR STARE
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

Before finding Unitarian Universalism I was socially engaged. I was often at the capitol or blocking walking for a candidate or doing justice work in my community. And that was really great, I felt in alignment with my values.

But when I found this religion that work took on greater significance because I started to view it through the lens of spirituality and theology.

My spirituality and theology were things I thought I lost when I walked away from the church I grew up in.

But finding Unitarian Universalism gave them back to me in a healthy way.

Because I could explore my spirituality without the fear that was instilled in me by the high control christian sect of my youth.

Because it was a religion that said “we don’t know what happens after this life but we see the pain and violence that so many are facing and our justice compels us to act. Compels us, as Rev. Joanna Fountain Crawford says to “Love the Hell out of the World.”

Because we are all connected.

Connecting to people and a faith who held that as a foundation allowed me to grow in beautiful ways. And it allowed me to have a deep knowing in my bones that I wasn’t alone.

In short, finding Unitarian Universalism made me feel alive in a way that I haven’t ever felt alive.

And that is because the foundation of the faith is life.

Let me give you an example,

It’s late March 2023, the Texas Legislature is in full force passing mostly awful bills out of committee. On this day the equality coalition – thats Equality Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Trans Education Network of Texas, Texas Impact, and my favorite the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry-

All of those wonderful groups came together and called on the community to respond to the House public health committee hearing House Bill 1686 a bill that would ban life affirming life-saving gender affirming care for youth.

My fellow seminarians set up an all day prayer vigil and in the middle of the day the coalition was going to rally. We were stationed in the outdoor rotunda. This is a beautiful spot in the extension of the capital. The bottom is two levels underground and the top is the capital lawn.

People started to come in for the rally but of course the legislature never keeps to it schedule so everything was delayed. My friend Bis was responsible for organizing the space at that time – She said, I need you to go hold silent prayer or find someone to do it now!

I said yes, and I walked out to the middle of the rotunda and sat on that hot hot floor. I closed my eyes, “what the heck did I just agree too?”…okay, what do I want to do. I got quiet and then I knew, I wanted to pray that those in the committee would have compassion and wisdom and that their hearts and their ears would be open. Once set I looked up and saw my friends/seminarians/faith leaders smiling at me with expectant smiles. I told them what I was going to pray for and asked them to join me in silent prayers.

What happened in those moments were transcendent. It’s been over 3 years and I still don’t understand what happened in that time but I felt deeply held. Deeply loved.

It was beautiful

And then I opened my eyes to find myself in a very different situation. Two guys from info wars – Alex Jones’s violent, conspiracy spreading now-defunct “media outlet” broken into this sacred space with a camera hoping to antagonize us, hoping to get footage they could bend to their twisted narrative. About trans people and their allies.

They broke in trying to get us going so they could capture it all.

Talk about whiplash

As I’m trying to understand what’s going on and Rev. Joanna Fountain Crawford, and Rev. Jami Yandle come up to me and somehow we decide to sing this little light of mine. And all of the sudden there is a wall of us – ministers, seminarians, community members singing this little light of mine y’all it will never ever sound the same.

And then Rev. Erin Walter comes from somewhere and she is leading us in This Joy. At this point there are three rows of people and it felt like they were all singing.

I have no idea when the info wars guys left but at some point they realized they weren’t cute and they weren’t going to get what they want.

It was a powerful experience And afterwards I realized that it was something I had wanted to do my whole life…

Y’all I had just participated in a Care Bear Stare.

For those of you who know what I’m talking about….I’m right, right?

For those of you who weren’t children glued to a TV in 1980s America… the care bears were cartoon bears, all different colors – like pink, purple, yellow… and they had their personalities on their bellies! Like grumpy or Funshine or tender hearted. They were all different but they were a community and when something bad was happening they came together in a big line – like we did – and they shine their unique personalities at the problem

and it fixes it!

We did a Care Bear Stare at the Texas State Capital.

I felt alive!

Feeling the warmth of that transcendent experience,
Being in community working together
Using love as a tool to fight against hate

I felt alive

And I think more than anything that is what we are being invited into. Rev. Stephen Lingwood a Unitarian minister in England wrote a book in which he is answering the question – What does our religion have to offer people or the world?

Since we don’t offer salvation. Heck we don’t even offer a solid idea on our final destination, only to say that we believe we all will end up there.

We don’t claim to have the capital T truth.. And we have a lot more questions than answers

So what could Unitarian Universalism possibly have that would attract others? Why would people need this?

His answer is that our theology/ our values has created a place where people can experience… “a real encounter between humans where people come alive and encounter the divine”

That our churches, That this church can be a place of real encounters with one another.

I’ve seen many tender moments between people. Not trying to mask. Not trying to be all grossly and inappropriately optimistic but just being with one another, often through the really hard times.

And yes sometimes our attempts to have real encounters with one another leads to conflict but honestly that can be so good for us.

Conflict – healthly healthy conflict – where everyone is taking accountability means we are engaging with each other in real ways. And when we put in the work often both parties leave those encounters having grown.

If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to sign up for our Healthy Relations Committee’s Health Conflict Skills class this Fall. In fact, even if you do believe me, you should sign up.

Here we are encouraged to be with one another, authentically – be with one another in the silent prayer but also when scary things are happening.

Our theology is the backbone of this. When we see the divine spark in everyone, when we recognize our interconnectedness, and when we believe in the power of many paths through pluralism we can have those real encounters with one another.

And certainly, that’s what I was having that day. A real encounter with my friends and absolute strangers…. Joining together in our fear, hope, frustration, faith and working together to hold our sacred space.

A care bear stare after all is just pluralism at its best.

Our theology. Our values also invites us to enjoy wonder and freedom

Every Sunday we say that we are dedicated to free and responsible search for truth, meaning, and beauty.

When I sat down to do that silent prayer, I sat down with my whole self. Someone who was hot, not sure what was happening, and feeling the intense weight of the moment.

But I also sat down believing, as the kids here say, “What we know about god is a piece of the truth.”

Because I believe in that free and responsible search and know that in the vastness that is all things, I don’t know much. And with that uncertainty, with that freedom, I was able to close my eyes and let my heart speak.

And then something happened.
I don’t know what it was…. and honestly I don’t care
Was it a capital G god? Maybe.
Was it source?
Was it spirit?
Was it Love?
Was it something that was created by all those that prayed that day –
Was it the Unitarians, Universalists, the christians of all flavors, the
Nahauti traditional dancers who came and left their prayers hanging in that air” Did they make the possible?…

I don’t know.

but I do know what I felt was beautiful and made me feel love powerfully

In our tradition we don’t have to know. We don’t have to have the answers.

Questions are good. The mystery is beautiful and we are invited to bask in it

We can touch the divine in a million different ways without having to name or label them.

Finally, our faith is about life. Our faith is about honoring and working to protect life. It is about coming alive.

What could be more antithetical to the death cult that is being so disparity forced on us than a faith that is about life?

Our long tradition of seeing the divine spark in one another is deeply connected to our long tradition of seeing the pain and harm being caused and feeling the call to do our part to address that pain and harm.

Like the religious ancestors that have worked for a better world That fought for people who are being marginalized That created paths for us So they we could answer a deep pull of solidarity

Our social justice work comes from our faith and theology Because our faith and theology is the pursuit of life!

Of coming alive by leaning into one another and our interconnectedness.

By resting in the mystery.

Are we perfect at that? – no!
But we try
And we have strong foundation in our faith

And that is needed right now. We live in a culture of death and destruction

We can see it in environmental protections being rolled back even as the climate crisis harms more and more people.

We see it in the litany of legislation, executive orders and rulings that target anyone that doesn’t confine to a particular set of characteristics. Especially the cruel dehumanization of trans people and immigrants.

We see it in the way that over and over again guns are prioritized over the sacredness of human life

And we see it as we learned that the children of Gaza are being deliberately targeted and shot by Israeli soldiers

We can see in in the way that the UN has finally started calling what is happening in Palestine a genocide….. and still there is so much silence. Too much silence

We live in culture of death

And because of that we need to harness our life giving theology to breath live into ourself

Into our community

And into the lives of all of those that are being targeted

Ours is a religion of rainbow pluralism And Authentic connections

Ours is a religion where we can come alive.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

As we leave this sacred time of being together, breathe life where you can. Be blessed. Be a blessing. And please know you are always loved.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
June 21, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

You can’t throw a rock without learning about the harm that patriarchy plays in the lives of women and children, but what we don’t often think about is how patriarchy impacts men and boys and the many obstacles it places between them and their full humanity. Join Rev. Carrie as she uses Father’s Day to explore the impact of patriarchy on men and how we might use our understanding to help us do the work of liberation.

Welcome

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

A BLESSING FOR YOUR UNARMORED MASCULINITY
Rev. Jami Yandle

May the weight you carry not become your cage.
May your silence never cost you your soul.
May the calluses on your hands still remember how to hold something gently.
May the fire in your chest warm more than it destroys.
May your grief not rot underground..
May the armor you wear never fuse itself to your skin.
May you stop mistaking numbness for peace.
May you stop confusing dominance for power.
And when the world demands that you become harder to survive,
may you have the courage to remain soft instead.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“FATHER & SON” (Yusuf / Cat Stevens) – Brent Baldwin, vocal & guitar; Valeria Diaz, piano; Efrain Davila, bass guitar; Rachel Fuhrer, drums

It’s not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You’re still young, that’s your fault
There’s so much you have to know
Find a one, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old but I’m happy

I was once like you are now and I know that it’s not easy
To be calm when you’ve found something going on
But take your time, think a lot
Think of everything you’ve got
For you will still be here tomorrow but your dreams may not

Oh, how can I try to explain?
‘Cause when I do he turns away again
It’s always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen
Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

It’s not time to make a change
Just sit down, take it slowly
You’re still young, that’s your fault
There’s so much you have to go through
Find a one, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old but I am happy

All the times that I’ve cried
Keepin’ all the things I knew inside
It’s hard but it’s harder to ignore it
If they were right I’d agree
But it’s them they know, not me
Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

Reading

INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE VISITING EARTH
James McCrae

In the event that you wake up
and find your soul separated from source
and manifest into material form, don’t panic.
Your condition is only temporary.

You have been selected
for the opportunity of human incarnation.

This 3D simulation is designed
to break up the monotony of eternity
by giving you a fully immersive experience
as a distinct ego identity.

Your body will serve
as your physical avatar
as you navigate a dense and dramatic reality.
There will be many distractions
causing you to forget your true nature and origin.
You will experience a range of emotions
from joy to loneliness to despair.

But remember – no matter
what trials and traumas you encounter,
your soul remains perfectly safe.

At times you may feel lost or afraid.
This is totally normal.
If you ever need guidance,
simply slow down your busy mind
and bring your awareness
to the quiet place
inside yourself.

On this planet, nothing is permanent
People and things will come and go.
You will fall in love and form sentimental attachments
only to lose everything you hold dear.

So cling to nothing too tightly, even yourself,
and when it’s time to let go, let go with grace,
for nothing is owned, only borrowed.

As you walk among the people on the planet,
try to be a good guest.
Tread lightly, Remember
that you are only visiting.
Don’t make a mess.
Listen more than you speak.
Give more than you take.

Don’t keep your soft heart
locked inside a glass cage,
protected from wear and tear.

You’ll never make it out alive
and time passes quickly.
So come back with some battle scars
and good stories to tell.

Centering

Music for Meditation: “INDEPENDENCE DAY” (Bruce Springsteen) – Brent Baldwin, vocal & guitar; Valeria Diaz, piano; Efrain Davila, bass guitar; Rachel Fuhrer, drums

Well Papa go to bed now it’s getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I’ll be leaving in the morning from Saint Mary’s Gate
We wouldn’t change this thing even if we could somehow
‘Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There’s a darkness in this town that’s got us too
But they can’t touch me now
And you can’t touch me now
They ain’t gonna do to me
What I watched them do to you

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day
All down the line
Just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day this time

Now I don’t know what it always was with us
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day all boys must run away
So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Well Papa go to bed now it’s getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there’s just different people coming down here now
And they see things in different ways
And soon everything we’ve known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won’t you just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away

Sermon

FROM FATHER’S DAY TO LIBERATION
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

Around mother’s day, I was feeling a little cranky about the way we heap so much on moms and then refuse to provide any societal support but then get the equivalent to a pat on the head with one Sunday a year to be “celebrated.”

So I post a little rant about it on social media…. as one does. Lots of hearts and agreement and then Lisa Carrel responded

“I never hear people go on about Father’s Day the way they do about Mother’s Day. Why do you think that is! I feel like it might have something to do with patriarchy.”

Thank you for that, Lisa. And thank you for your permission to use your words. I didn’t know it at the time but it was such a gift of a response.

However, at the time my response was Yea, its Patrarchy! Fathers aren’t expected to do any of this or carry the burdens mothers do….

I was so cranky.

Look I know this doesn’t happen to anyone else, but I’m not always in my highest self when I’m on social media. I’m sure that’s just me though.

Once I get over my crankiness. I engaged in my most important spiritual discipline, which is asking the next question.

Okay, so why isn’t fathers day a big deal?

Maybe it’s because everyone is told they can do/be anything but for women that comes with the unspoken caveat…as long as doing everything means that you have children.

And men just don’t have that pressure, at least not in the same way women have historically felt it And if that’s the case fathers day isn’t quite the complicated thing that mothers day is….

And while I think that’s at least a part, it doesn’t really get us all the way there.

So I started digging in even deeper and after some really heart-expanding weeks I’ve come to the understanding that it’s not just that men aren’t necessarily expected to be fathers – which is totally fine – no one should be expected to be a parent – but the problem is that when people are fathers, society doesn’t take that role seriously because men aren’t seen as primary parents.

We see this in how our policies impacting families are written to be silent when it comes to fathers.

Back in 2016, when then presidential candidate, Donald Trump proposed a change to family leave act, fathers weren’t mentioned anywhere because in patriarchy the role of the father isn’t to parent, it’s to be outside the house bringing in that money. This not only completely neglects to account for gay fathers, fathers that work inside the home, but undermines the roles of all fathers in their children’s lives. Not to mention perpetuates the whole let’s just dump everything on women situation that makes me so cranky.

Our policies, formal and informal, are so entrenched in patriarchy that they defy the lived reality of so many people,

For example, It doesn’t matter how many times we put down that my children’s father is the one to call in case of emergency, the school ignores it, finds my number and just waits for me to respond. As if their father isn’t responsible enough to parent in a crisis. As if men are too busy to care for their children. The way that men are treated as other or lesser parents hurts everyone in the family and frankly seems to suggest that men aren’t capable.

It’s so infantilizing to view men as incompetent parents.

I would be so offended by that. In fact, I’m offended on your behalf.

Thinking about fathers day and all of this it really just struck me how significantly patriarchy harms men and boys.

Now I’m not a man. When I was born, a doctor or a nurse said “its a girl” and my heart and soul have agreed with that ever since.

Because of that I don’t have direct experience with how patriarchy harms men and boys but I do have a lifetime of observation as well as access to wise and intelligent teachers like bell hooks, Ross Gay, and Liz Plank. And I had a dad

My father was a real “man’s man.” Very tough and brave. After telling a would-be-customer that he (my father) didn’t work on his kinds of cars, the would-be costumer started threatening him. My dad said, if you don’t remove your car from my property I will remove it for you. As the customer continued to threaten him, my dad got his forklift and removed the man’s car from his property.

My father is also kind of a legend…… at least with EMTs. Turns out EMT workers across Texas tell the story of the man who after cutting his stomach open while working refused to be put on a gurney and instead walked to the ambulance while holding in his inners. That’s my dad!

My husband, Russell, first met him late one night after my dad had to return home after he got trapped under his heavy loaded trailer when trying to change a tire in the middle of nowhere Texas. When Russell offered to drive him to the hospital for his broken ribs his response was “this ain’t my first rodeo.”

He was wild and the only reason I don’t completely dismiss the notion of guardian angels. Its truly a miracle that he lived as long as he did… ….though often with bruises, broken ribs, and, by the end, a few less bits than what he started out with.

Maybe my dad would have been that tough and that brave had he not been subjected to the intense and violent formation of a man in patriarchy but I do believe with all my heart he would have been a lot freer if he could have been raised without the confines of it.

To be a man in our patriarchal world is about rejecting one’s authentic self. Bell Hooks wrote in her book A Will to Change, that

“Again and again a man would tell me about early childhood feelings of emotional exuberance, of unrepressed joy, of feeling connected to life and to other people, and then a rupture happened, a disconnect, and that feeling of being loved, of being embraced, was gone. Somehow the test of manhood… was the willingness to accept this loss, to not speak it even in private grief. Sadly, … these men… were remembering a primal moment of heartbreak and heartache: the moment that they were compelled to give up their right to feel….in order to take their place as patriarchal men.”

To be a man in a patriarchal society is to feel the pressure to violate your own humanity. To stuff down emotions and your nature in order to constantly prove your status. This is a term called “precarious manhood” which means that to be a patriarchal man, a person must constantly be proving himself because in patriarchy a man’s worth…his value…. is in how he presents and what he does. In patriarchy, a man’s worth is in what he does from moment to moment. I can’t think of anything that is more antithetical to our Unitarian Universalist belief in the inherent dignity and worthiness than all than that.

There is persistent messaging that to be a man means to be a provider and anything less is to fail. This causes so much harm. Across the world we have data showing that as men lose the ability to earn money or as much money as their partners they take their discomfort out on those close to them, often through physical violence.

Or take it out on themselves often through drugs, alcohol and/or suicide.

The day my oldest sibling was born my father became overcome with fear at not being able to be the provider he felt pressured to be.

Maybe his first thought was to marvel at the miracle that was a new human… but soon after fear took hold of him and propelled him to put all his energy into his work. And so he did… all the time… taking very little time to enjoy being a parent and even less time to enjoy his life. Ultimately in many ways he lived up to the patriarchal expectations of our society and because of that he had some power and authority….but at such a great cost.

Men under patriarchy face the pressure to repress all emotions but anger. A few months ago I gave a sermon on anger where I shared this and so many men came up and confirmed it for me.

That is heartbreaking.

And its where we can see some of the clearest examples of intersectionality, especially how race ones race impacts how they experience the patriarchy. Because while all men are pressured to repress everything but anger, men of the global majority, especially black men face intense consequences when they show anger in public. Whereas white men seem to be making a whole industry of anger in both the government and the manosphere.

Anger is the only emotion that patriarchy deems as “manly”

And any deviation from that is heavily policed in a million different ways, through a million different messages and not all of those come from other men.

Both Bell Hooks and Liz Plank found in their research that women, even those that identified as feminist, were often uncomfortable with men expressing emotions beyond anger. Brene Brown tells the story of a man who asked her why she never included men in her research about shame.

He told her that his wife and daughters would “rather me die on top of my white horse than watch me fall down. When we reach out and are vulnerable, we get the s#%t beat out of us. And don’t tell me it’s from the guys and the coaches and the dads. Because the women in my life are harder on me than anyone else.”

Patriarchy is perpetuated by all of us, often through small and every day actions. Because in systems of supremacy we all play a role in keeping these dehumanizing messages going. We are the ones keeping fear of failure and the fear of vulnerability stoked.

And its so heartbreaking because that means that we are actively participating in creating our own and other people’s cages when we could be working towards liberation. When we could be freeing ourselves.

What would it look like for fathers? For men… For all masculine people if they got to live outside the suffocating boxes of the patriarchy?

If they could maintain that emotional exuberance… unrepressed joy..those feelings of connected to life and to other people…. not just as children but throughout their whole lives.

Where they could be loved and valued without having to pretzel into the narrow confines of a patriarchal society?

Liberation, the beloved community, is about the beautiful tapestry that is all of us getting to be ourselves on this planet in a way that is held and nurtured.

Because who we are is holy and sacred.

Rev. Jami Yandle, the non-binary UU minister who wrote our beautiful call to worship, sees their masculinity as holy and sacred.

My friend (and probably yours) Bis Thorton sees his androgeny as holy and sacred.

I see my femininity as holy and sacred.

It is not our gender that is the problem, it is the way that patriarchy takes what is holy and sacred and twists it to confine and control us.

It’s not masculinity that is the problem, it is the lies that patriarchy insists on.

Liz Plank wrote

“The biggest lie is that the fight to address male suffering is separate or at odds with the battle to liberate women. We all experience gender. We are all limited by oppressive gender stereotypes.”

But as UUs we know that because we know and hold as a value interdependence. We know that we are all interconnected. that our freedoms are interlocked.

And we know what Fannie Lou Hammer taught us, “That no one is free until everyone is free”

Our work for liberation can feel daunting at times

But I feel motivated to do that work. Don’t you?

The work that would allow people to live freely
To live authentically
To live in a community in a spirit of reciprocal care.

Where all people of all genders are valued without having to perform.

I leave you with these wise words from Bell Hooks.

“To create loving men, we must love males. Loving maleness is different from praising and rewarding males for living up to sexist-defined notions of male identity. Caring about men because of what they do for us is not the same as loving males for simply being. When we love maleness, we extend our love whether males are performing or not. Performance is different from simply being. In patriarchal culture males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do.

 

In an anti-patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth. They know from birth that simply being gives them value, the right to be cherished and loved.”

Amen
Amen
And Amen
may it be so

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

On this, the longest day of the year
May you remember that you a piece of the earth experiencing its self
May you remember that there will be many things that distract you from that
May you remember that we are made to be with and for one another
And may you always remember that you are held by love

Go in peace

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
May 31, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

There is what we aspire to be….the utopian vision of how we can be, and then there is the often harsh and painful reality of people’s lived experiences. Inspired by José Martínez’s powerful work “Voces Olvidadas,” Rev. Carrie will explore what it means to expand our capacity to hold what we are working for while also holding reality, especially the realities that are living in so much suffering.

Welcome

Carrie
I want to welcome a very special guest today. We have the composer of this amazing piece that’s going to be performed throughout our worship service today, and he wants to come up and tell a little bit about this. So please welcome José Martínez

José Martínez
The piece is called Voces Olvidadas, Forgotten Voices. And the piece is about a piece of history in my country that is painful. And so you might have heard throughout the years that Colombia had a very intense internal conflict starting in the 1950s. And there was a peace treaty that was signed in 2017. So things are much better now, for sure.

If you have been to Colombia recently, and you were before, you would know that the… the country has changed a lot. There is a specific piece of history in this large range of time that I mentioned, in the 90s, after 1995 to almost 2000.

There was a moment in history in which the two parties that were in this conflict, which were mainly the government and the leftist guerrillas, they were getting into this into this dynamic in which the guerrillas were kidnapping military men and policemen to, in a way, blackmail the government to put some pressure on the government. And so, unfortunately, there were men who were kidnapped for many, many, many years. The person who was longest was José Martínez, not related to me. He was kidnapped for 14 years.

And so the piece is about the humanity that is left for these people who were kidnapped. So the piece is about, in general, Within these horrific events and the middle of this internal conflict.

Usually when composers write music for choir, they choose beautiful poems that have beautiful musicality in them. They have, you know, they like that. I don’t.

I prefer using texts that are not supposed to be musical, that are not supposed to be beautiful. So in this case, this piece is using text from three sources.

One is the Colombian constitution itself. And so a constitution for any country is very utopian text that we read and we read what we’re supposed to be, but most of the times we’re not that because many factors. So the Colombian constitution is one source.

The other source is journalistic reports about these events. Just a journalist writing or narrating what’s happening and interviewing people.

And the last one is the most complicated source, is that these prisoners, they sent videos to share with the families. And these videos had communications directly to the government, but also had communications to their families.

So they were talking to the president, talking to the governors, to the ministers. But then they were talking also to their families. They were also personal saying, “hey, Martha, please take care of mom, please pay the rent, please.”

So there’s a mix of very, very impersonal accounts and communications versus the president, “please sign the peace treaty, please help us, we’re in a dire situation.”

So I watched many of those videos and I took some excerpts of that and that is the last movement, it is called Messages.

Prelude

“Voces Olvidadas” (excerpt) (José Martínez) – Unwound Sound & the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

The text in this piece is slight modifications of excerpts extracted from the Constitution of Columbia, proof of survival videos on Youtube by some of the army and police members kidnapped by FARC, and accounts of the guerrilla attacks by civilians published by Columbian newpapers. Text have been slightly modified to fit the project.

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

MEDITATION AFTER READING THE NEWS
by m jade kaiser of Enfleshed

I breathe in each story with honest breath
I let grief tremble in my throat
I let compassion quicken my spirit
I let anger simmer, unthwarted
The usual questions gently raise their voice
and call me to alignment and account –
a regular examination of heart, practice, commitments.
Feeling into connection with all my neighbors and kin
burdened by lineages of cruelty and apathy.
I resolve again to live my portion of life
loyal to only that which serves
the freedom of the earth itself
the freedom of every captive being
the freedom that reaches toward futures
where all of our children are
fed, supported, and at ease in their play.
Taking my small place in the whole of things,
I ground my hope in the less obvious –
in the communities of the bothered and grieving,
the organizing, the creating, the truth-telling,
the tapped-in to the sacred thing tugging on every corner of life
relentlessly, ruthlessly, loving us a way home.

Anthem

“Voces Olvidadas” (excerpt) (José Martínez) – Unwound Sound & the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble; Brent Baldwin, conductor

Affirming Our Mission

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

Offertory Music

“Voces Olvidadas” (excerpt) (José Martínez) – Unwound Sound & the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

Reading

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Voces Olvidadas” (excerpt) (José Martínez) – Unwound Sound & the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

Sermon

HOLDING IT ALL
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

Voces Olvidadas… the forgotten voices. Isn’t this music so powerful?

We are getting to hear just a bit of this wonderful work by Jose Martinez but you can hear the entire work this afternoon at 3pm. And not only that you will also get to support the Austin Sanctuary Network.

Through this piece of art, Jose tells the story of contrast The utopia that exists in the Columbian constitution VS The lived experiences of humans taken hostage. Humans whose constitutional rights were violated by groups using them as leverage.

He has used art to bring humanity into a situation that can be so easily stripped of its humanity.

That so easily could be turned into statistics.

A situation where so many people’s voices and lives have already been forgotten.

The genesis of this work for Jose, was learning about Private Libio Jose Martinez who was captured, like many others, by FARC in 1997.

Libio’s life was cut short. His girlfriend was pregnant with their child Steven when he was taken. His son would only see his father once in his casket because he was killed 14 years into being a hostage.

Even though Steven grew up without the physical presence of this father he did have a sort of relationship with him. Like many hostages and their families they communicated through tapes. The hostage takers would put out proof of life tapes so that the government and the population would know that the hostages were still alive… still collateral. And probably, incidentally, gave the families hope.

Radio stations set up opportunities for families to send in tapes talking directly to their loved ones. For years Steven, like many other children, told his dad about his life through the tapes that were broadcast.

Voices going back and forth between loved ones, building relationships and providing one another comfort even as they were caught between power and power.

This work we are hearing is a beautiful example of how art can humanize us. Humanize all of us. Those that are harmed and those that harm. How it can bring to us what we have forgotten.

It is also profoundly powerful because in away it gives a voice to so many who have been forgotten.

While this work is about what was happening in Columbia, especially in the 1990s, it is also about how humanity exists even within the violence. Even in conflict, and oppression, and marginalization.

Even in these horrible things that we can do to one another, there is still the human need to connect,…to be heard.

I see that in the videos coming out of Gaza, Sudan, Congo.

I see it in the way the children imprisoned in the Dilley detention center gathered in the prison yard and yelled “libertad, liberated!”

The way that people, even those living under constant threat of violence send their voice out hoping that someone will hear them.

And it should be us that hears them right?

It should be a people grounded in universalism, in the inherent worthiness of all people

In interdependence

People who see the divine spark in all people

People who believe in building the beloved community

It’s us that should hear, right?

I feel that responsibility. To hear.

And because I feel it I know that’s both a heavy and often impossible feeling.

Impossible because my capacity feels lacking, even if my soul is willing.

There is a wise story that we tell each other. We say “We were never meant to live in a way that we knew so much about people outside of our small Village.”

There is a lot of wisdom there. There is an acknowledgement of yes, its hard to have so much information about so much pain and suffering and to be thousands of miles away or powerless to stop it.

Ultimately, It’s a message of comfort… I hear you, this hurts.

This story also says, your work is here. Your work is in your little sphere of influence.

And I think that is true. I think that is right in a lot of ways.

I think we should put our energy into the tangible things we can do, here.

But…. what about our broken hearts?

Maybe we were never meant to know what was happening outside our little piece of the world but….

We still have these broken hearts about all that is going out everywhere.

And those broken hearts are a sign that the reality is that we will be concerned about people outside our sphere of influence.

And maybe we actually lost that right to be so narrowly focused when our actions started to impact others?

When what we put in the water hurt the animals downstream.

When our desire to expand our territory meant people had to leave their home or die?

When we build our wealth because others were… and are… exploited…. enslaved….

When our tax dollars pay for guns, prisons, the missiles that tear peoples’ homes and lives apart?

Didn’t our species long ago lose the right to only care about what is in front of us?

I think so

And I think, oh god but how?

There is so much pain and suffering.

From the oppression by the Chinese government of the Uyghurs to the oppression of our own government of trans people, people of the global majority. people without citizenship privilege.

So many people are being harmed.

So many voices are crying out.

Hoping that someone will hear them That they will connect That they will see their humanity.

How do we expand and /or evolve these primitive minds of ours to catch up with the ways that we are all connected? The ways that our actions impact people all over the world?

Maybe we need to tell ourselves a different story about who our neighbors are… who we should include in our sphere of care and concern.

Which means we need to look to an ancient text.

In the Christian Bible, Rabbi Jesus teaches in the story of the good samaritan

that the question isn’t so much who is my neighbor but rather who am I being a neighbor to. It’s a really interesting way of changing how we see ourselves in relation to others by tying our identity to how we regard the other person. In the case of the Samaritan it is a man who sees another man beaten and dying and takes it upon himself to take care of him. In this story it is the Samaritan’s mercy that makes him a neighbor to the injured man. It is also his willingness to see the person in his path.
– Luke 10: 25-37

I think we often have a hard time seeing all the people in our path. Especially as people living in the wealthiest nation in the world. Those that impact us or that we impact are often obscured by all the layers wealth places between humans.

But even if they are obscured they are there.

If we think about our neighbors as those we impact, our neighborhood becomes the whole world. Our neighbors become all.

Because as people in this country… our economy, our lifestyle, most certainly our government… and not just this one… impacts people all over the world.

So what is our responsibility as a neighbor?

Is it to show mercy like the good samaritan?

Maybe, maybe there are times when we have the opportunity to show mercy and act compassionately towards the human in front of us…. if they need it … and maybe it is about receiving mercy and compassion when we need it.

but mostly, I think our responsibility is to be in solidarity. Which means we must build the capacity to be in true solidarity.

Solidarity is not charity – it is joining together as if our lives depend on it. Because they do.

It is about those of us who are impacted the most taking the lead.

It is about those of us who are not impacted following.

Pope Leo wrote in the hottest piece out there Magnifica Humanitas that

“Solidarity arises precisely when we decide not to remain indifferent to what happens to our neighbor but instead to transform unavoidable bonds.”

Solidarity starts by expanding our idea of who we are connected to which is part of our theology and values. Especially our value of interdependence. It reads

We covenant to honor the interdependent web of all existence
with reverence for the great web of life and with humility
to work to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation.
to create and nurture sustainable relationships of care and respect, mutuality and justice.

Solidarity is recognizing our interdependence

And as a people committed to equity, justice, and transformation, we work to be with and for one another

To be with one another can look like many different things.

There is solidarity in actions like joining a flotilla to try to get aid to Gaza, or using our bodies to protect one another like we have seen in New Jersey. LA, and Minneapolis. Those are amazing acts of solidarity.

But not all of us have the means or circumstances to do those types of direct actions.

But there is still good work to do to be in solidarity that we can all do… like seeing someone and letting them know they aren’t alone.

I love this story that Sol read today because it reminds us that how powerful it is to be seen. To be accompanied.

A few months ago I went, along with many other clergy, to Minneapolis to be in solidarity with Minnesotans standing against the state violence unleashed with the invasion of ICE. I came back from that trip feeling like a learned a lot and helped maybe a bit…. But earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet with three clergy from Minneapolis that had come down to Texas to be in solidarity with us…. both those detained in Dilley and Hutto and those just trying to function in the negative peace that is current state of things.

They told me that what I did mattered. That all the clergy coming into the state to see, to be with, to witness was powerful beyond what they could express….

I didn’t really buy it.

But by the time I left our meeting, I got it. In that short time I spent with them. In hearing their stories of visiting the detention center in Dilley and in Hutto… I started seeing the power of showing up. Of being seen. As they asked me about what it’s like to live here and what we were facing, I felt held and seen by them. I felt heard.

They were saying we care about what is happening in Texas and you aren’t alone.

To the people they visited in the detention center, to the other people they worked with on their trip they were saying you aren’t alone.

People states away are with us. They see us. They hear us….

We are not alone.

It felt good. It renewed my very weary soul.

And while i know what I am facing is miles away from what Libios and so many others have and are facing… I wonder if that is how those people living as hostages felt when they heard the precious voices of their families being broadcast through a radio.

I wonder if knowing that radio stations set up opportunities to hear their loved ones was a balm to their soul.

Did it make them feel less alone and feel less abandoned? Less forgotten?

I hope so. I know to hear you aren’t alone is humanizing. is comforting.

And so I think the work for us is to figure out how, within the sphere of influence, can we live in such a way that our lives communicate this to all those that our lives touch.

How can we stop “remaining indifferent to what happens to our neighbor … and start instead to transform unavoidable bonds.” – Pope Leo

What transformation will come for us all when we work to hear one another.

I don’t have all the answers and mostly I think the answers are specific to you and to your situation and ability. But we must ask ourselves this question as we make decisions. As we engage with the world.

How will we, a people that believe in the beloved community Believe in the inherent worthiness of all people Whose hearts are breaking

How will we make sure that people are not forgotten? How will we hear them? How will we communicate that they are not alone?

And most importantly Most importantly…. how can we be a part of seeing and raising up the humanity of all?

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

As we leave this really special and sacred time of holding, you are loved. You are loved, you are loved, you are loved, you are loved, and you are not alone.
Go in peace.

Postlude

“Voces Olvidadas (excerpt) (José Martínez) – Unwound Sound & the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
May 10, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The origin stories of Mother’s Day were a cry for peace and an attempt to acknowledge the work of nurturing that goes unrewarded in a patriarchal society. While the day has become about the physical act of bearing and/or rearing children, the origins speak to something more radical, the transforming power of nourishing and providing care. Rev. Carrie unpacks this holiday and any gifts it might have for us.

Welcome

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

OY VEH, MOTHER’S DAY
by Anne Lamott

The illusion is that mothers are automatically more fulfilled and complete. But the craziest, grimmest people this Sunday will be many mothers themselves, stuck herding their own mothers and weeping or sullen children and husbands mothers into seats at restaurants.

I hate the way the holiday makes all non-mothers, and the daughters of dead mothers, and the mothers of dead or lost children, feel the deepest kind of grief and failure. The non-mothers must sit in their churches, temples, mosques, recovery rooms and pretend to feel good about the day while they are excluded from a holiday that benefits no one but Hallmark. There is no refuge – not at the horse races, movies, malls, museums.

You could always hide in a nice seedy bar, I suppose.

Don’t get me wrong: There were a million times I could have literally died of love for my son, and I’ve felt stoned on his rich, desperate love for me. I felt it yesterday when I was in despair. But I bristle at the whispered lie that you can know this level of love and self-sacrifice only if you are a parent. What a crock!

But my main gripe about Mother’s Day is that it feels incomplete and imprecise. The main thing that ever helped mothers was other people mothering them, including aunties and brothers; a chain of mothering that keeps the whole shebang afloat. I am the woman I grew to be partly in spite of my mother, who unconsciously raised me to self-destruct; and partly because of the extraordinary love of her best friends, my own best friends’ mothers, and from surrogates, many of whom were not women at all but gay men. I have loved them my entire life.

The point is, have a beautiful, wonderful Mother’s Day if it is a holiday that brings you joy, but just be conscious that for many, many people, it isn’t. Proceed accordingly. Deal?

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“Angry Anymore” (Ani DiFranco) – Bethany Ammon, voice; Brent Baldwin, guitar; Valeria Diaz, piano; The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

Growing up it was just me and my mom
Against the world
And all my sympathies were with her
When I was a little girl
But now I’ve seen both my parents
Play out the hands they were dealt
And as each year goes by
I know more about how my father must have felt

I just want you to understand
That I know what all the fighting was for
And I just want you to understand
That I’m not angry anymore
I’m not angry anymore

She taught me how to wage a cold war
With quiet charm
But I just want to walk
Through my life unarmed
To accept and just get by
Like my father learned to do
But without all the acceptance and getting by
That got my father through

Night falls like people into love
We generate our own light
To compensate
For the lack of light from above
Every time we fight
A cold wind blows our way

But we learn like the trees
How to bend
How to sway and say

I, I think I understand
What all this fighting is for
And baby, I just want you to understand
That I’m not angry anymore
No, I’m not angry anymore

Reading

MOTHERS’ DAY PROCLAMATION
Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Arise, then… women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and eamest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen” (Heinrich Isaac,
arr. Baldwin) – The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble

Sermon

THE EVERYDAY RADICALIZATION OF NURTURING

On Social media you will often see the question, what radicalized you? For me, that’s simple, it was having children… and Mr. Rodgers… of course.

I was radicalized by coming into contact with our systems and institutions in a new and enlightening…. if not rage inducing way.

Now I don’t think you have to be a mother or have children to know and understand these things, but I can only preach from my experience and for me this is how it worked.

I knew that birthing wasn’t as easy and natural as everyone made it to be, but I really got it when I found myself in a medical crisis.

I knew that teachers were given way too much responsibility but not the resources, recognition, or compensation they deserved but really really got it the day I went through a lockdown drill in an elementary school.

I intellectually understood that we had a child care crisis, but when I had to hustle to find care, that I could barely afford, just so I could keep working at a job that I trained so hard for… well I got it!

I knew that being a woman who had children was seen as a liability in the workforce but my co-worker really brought it home for me the day they shamed me in an end-of-day-last-minute meeting by saying “l forgot moms always have to leave early.” after I had just excused myself so I could make it to daycare in the next 10 minutes before it closed at 6:00.

And this is to say nothing of what I have learned because of the ten thousands of ways the State has inserted its narrow christian nationalist world view on my kids bodies and education.

Having my kids made me RADICAL!

After seeing all the harm, the inequity, the fear, and the pain….

I was radicalized.

Mothering can be radicalizing.

And I want you to hear me when I say mothering. Not mother but motheringÑ meaning to care for, nurture, to protection.

Not all mothers are mothering and not everyone that is mothering are mothers.

Mothering then is the deep care and commitment to nurturing, to nourishing life.

The work of mothering is radicalizing.

The first attempt at mother’s day in the US had that same radicalizing energy. Unitarian Julie Ward Howe who wrote both the Battle Hymn of the Republic and our reading was a mother to six children….and an abolitionist, a suffragist, and a peace and anti-war activist. In her piece we now call the Mother’s Day Proclamation she expressed her anger towards the “irrelevant agencies” that risk the life of children all over the world. She wanted to put an end to the carnage, she wanted to recognize the grief of all loss – regardless of nation – and she proposed that a group of women from all over the world come together and talk about how we could figure things out without having to send our children off to kill each other.

She lobbied to create a Mothers Day to be celebrated on June 2nd.

That went nowhere.

Then she suggested we celebrate it on July 4th, JULY 4th!

I don’t know about you but I just love that energy! I love a woman who when told no really just triples down!

She didn’t get that…..She died before Mother’s Day was a thing.

But Around the same time she was active in the late 19th century a young Anna Jarvis heard her mother, Ann Jarvis, end sunday school with an important prayer.

Now lets just stop for a moment. Ann is the mother and Anna is the daughter… its going to get confusing so lets buckle up…..

Anna is a little girl in sunday school where her mom, Ann is the teacher. One day Ann wraps up up class with this prayer.

“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life,”….. “She is entitled to it.”

Ann Jarvis, felt deeply moved by her experiences of mothering in a way that connected her to others. The loss of her children to childhood disease inspired her to work to reduce infant mortality to prevent others from losing their children.

After the civil war she saw the deep suffering of those who had lost children in battle and found ways for mothers to come together and grieve.

She was a woman that allowed the everyday experience of mothering to motivate her to action on behalf of others.

But – because none of us are one dimensional – I like to imagine that when Ann said that prayer she was just very tired and feeling very much under appreciated. Maybe she was saying these words not to G-d but somebody in that room.

And sure enough when her daughter Anna was older she lobbied for Mother’s day to be a holiday. And eventually President Woodrow Wilson made it one.

….and it’s been a monetary feast for candy, card, and flower companies ever since.

Anna Jarvis HATED that. She hated what it became and lost all her money and really, in some ways, her life by working to try to stop what it had become. Trying to stop the commercialization of what she saw as something much more meaningful. I think she wanted people to understand how much her mother did for the world that went completely unappreciated.

Mother’s day was supposed to be something different than it is now.

But the sentiment of those original efforts are still needed.

We still live in a world where people’s children are being sent away to other lands to kill other people’s children. Where childbirth is still dangerous, especially if you are black birthing person.

Children are being imprisoned in detention centers here. Killed in genocides across the sea.

Children are still the most oppressed class.

And it is mostly women are still expected to stand between the world and them with no assistance from the powers that be.

We still live in a world where women are held to impossibly high standards, mother or not, with their work deeply undervalued and unappreciated.

Patriarchy says that nurturing is specifically related to women and we know that under patriarchy anything related to women isn’t valued….

or at least isn’t valued outside of the narrow context that it will allow.

Like telling women that to be a mother is the highest call, that it is “Their biological destiny” ….has there ever been a more stomach churning phrase.

Pushing motherhood on women and then but then leaving them without any support or protection.

Even if women don’t have kids they are often cast in the nurturing role. Often encouraged to take jobs that are seen as more nurturing or to become the unofficial “mothers” of the office, making sure the food is ordered and the cake makes it in.

So women, mothers or not, are caught in an endless loop of being the nurturers without any support or acknowledgement.

Often feeling the pressure to perform those roles even when they don’t want to.

Thank goodness we are living in a time when so many have been able to extract themselves from this. Where modern medicine has allowed us some bodily autonomy.

But the pressure still exists and patriarchy still insists that women fulfill this role in society.

But in order for that pressure to work, they have to reinforce gender essentialism – the belief that there are only two genders and that each gender has inherent traits and never the two shall meet.

And maybe that would be okay, if that’s how people worked but in order to make it work they police gender in a million different ways. Its policed in society, through religions, and policies.

You don’t have to police things that come naturally.

Even outside the vastness of the gender spectrum we all know cis people who defy all gender norms.

Most of us, probably defy most of them.

But the pressure persists because the role nurturers play is vital to our society. It is necessary to keep people, plants, and animals alive and healthy. Nurturing is how life thrives.

But patriarchy – a system that requires domination – of people, of animals, of plants….of the earth – can only tolerate it to an extent. Can only tolerate it at the rate in which it benefits the systems… but not a inch more.

Patriarchy requires children to be born and nurtured but, just as Julie Ward Howe wrote, when it needs them, requires an unlearning of that nurturing in order to…harm and exploit others, to harm and exploit the earth …

to do the work of domination.

– Just so we are clear, patriarchy is about men being inherently better than everyone else but it harms men just as it harms everyone and everything else.

We need nurturing. We all need nurturing. And everyone, regardless of gender, may be nurturers.

Nurturers of children, relationships, communities, plants, animals. A million different things that require someone tending to and caring for in order to thrive.

So what would our world look like if we allowed this.
If we rejected gender essentialism
If we stopped putting pressure on people to perform certain roles
Stopped policing people existing

What If all nurturers, regardless of gender, were given the acknowledgement for the work they do to care for life so that it might thrive.

What if they were given the support and the respect they deserved?

Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if caring for children, the elderly. and all life was seen as the most valued thing?

– I don’t think we would have the caregiver burnout crisis that we have If we valued nurturing, if we valued the act of mothering. We could acknowledge that the work of nurturing is also the work of opening our hearts.

That it helps us to understand our place in the interdependent web of all existence and connect us to others with empathy.

What if nurturing was acknowledged to be the radicalizing and transforming act, that it is.

Mother’s day exists as it does only because patriarchy requires nurturing from women but only in the way that it benefits the systems.

Patriarchy would rather give a small token of acknowledgement than actually provide the support, systems, and value that we are entitled to.

Mother’s day exists that way it does to flatten the call of Julie Ward Howe and Ann Jarvis so that it could pacify and commodify, all while maintaining the status quo.

Maybe we should turn that on its head. Maybe we should take this opportunity to demand better.

Demand acknowledgment of the beautiful and often heartbreaking work of loving this world, children, creatures, and the planet.

And then man we here allow ourselves to be transformed by the radical everyday acts of nurturing, caring for, and loving one another.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

May you feel nourished as you leave this place
May you feel held
May you feel loved
May the warmth of all that is created here carry you throughout the week.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 26 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776