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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

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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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
May 3, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

If…Then…
If we hold values such as equity, interdependence, and justice, what are we obligated to do when we encounter situations that violate those beliefs? And what do we do when we feel overwhelmed by the number of situations that violate our beliefs? Can we do anything? Rev. Carrie explores these questions through the lens of May Day using our UU values.

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

NOT NICE
M Jade Kaiser of Enfleshed

No more nice.
Nor excusing.
Not passive nor placating nor patronizing.
No more of what makes tomorrow more of the same
when it could all be different.
Not nice.
But still, tender.
Tender like “in touch with pain.”
One’s own. Others’. Ours. Everyone’s. (but particularly and differently.)
Tender like knowing from experience.
Tender like there’s too much at stake not to be.
Tender like fiercely fighting for
the soft parts of us trying to make it,
the possibilities of right relationships,
the justice that changes everything.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“One More Day” (Wood Brothers) – Russell Holley-Hurt, voice and mandolin

Reading

“But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”

– Liberation Theologian Gustavo Gutierrez

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Thais Meditation” (Massenet) – Valeria Diaz, piano

Sermon

As the daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter of people who did lots of hard manual labor so that I could be here in front of you today.

Happy two days after International Workers’ Day! Happy May Day, y’all!

I love a day to commemorate the efforts of the people that did and continue to work for workers’ rights.

Like Lucy Parsons, Deloris Huerta, and Chris Smalls.

The people who fought for 8-hour workdays at a time when working 100 hours a week was normal!

For safety standards that addressed problems that were literally maiming and killing people.

The Family and Medical Leave Act… Is it perfect? No…is it better than having to decide to work within hours of delivering a child or losing your job.. yes. And so much thanks to those who continue for real leave protections!!!!

Speaking of children, labor organizers helped end child labor. The practice of putting children as young as 4 year olds to work in mines and dangerous factories.

So happy May Day with so much deep gratitude and appreciation for all those who sacrificed.

To all those and their families who faced intimidation, violence and even death for the humanity of others.

And those who keep working to protect the humanity of others.

Because that is what we are talking about.
Humanity.

The labor movement, past and present are prime example of what it means to allow our values to compel us to action. The IF and THEN of it all.

For example, IF we have respect for all people’s humanity, THEN we have to work to protect people from those in power that would see them only as tools for their wealth.

IF we see their humanity, THEN we have to ensure that they can not be taken advantage of or dehumanized.

Humanity is at the core of Unitarian Universalism. It was all throughout our 8 principles and now in our values or what I think of our principles put into action.

We center love, we center people’s humanity.

The whole person… seen through a lens of love, justice, equity, interdependence.

It is humanity that I think of most when I heard the story of the 46 year old man who died in an amazon warehouse outside of Portland, just last month. According to news reports, his job was to run shipping containers up and down the massive warehouse for hours.

On April 6th, He collapsed on the warehouse floor. MSN reported that

“his coworkers were instructed to keep working and “not look,” while his body lay on the floor for more than an hour.”

Turn around. Just ignore it. Pretend it isn’t happening because we have orders to fulfill.

No one’s humanity was being honored at that moment.

Not the humanity of the person who just took his last breath. Not the humanity of his co-workers who had to suppress their natural response to a tragedy. And not the management that was giving those orders.

No one’s humanity was being honored…

Amazons employee training video teaches their new hires that they don t allow unions because Unions go against their business model which is quote “speed, innovation, and customer obsession.” Apparently, they are obsessed with us as consumers not people but as the consumers who bring in unimaginable wealth.

The training video goes on to say that if they didn’t focus on those three things (i.e. if we allowed unions) then everyone’s job would be at risk.

“No pressure! But it you unionize, you will make yourself and all of us starve.”

This isn’t a new tactic by any means. There have long been messages saying that organizing is bad for the economy and for consumers.

It’s an old and effective strategy to prevent people from organizing. A strategy that builds walls that separate us. Making it more likely that we will participate in dehumanizing systems that keep us looking away… and getting back to work.

Howard Zinn wrote in his book “A People’s History of the United States” that during the 17th and 18th centuries, the small group of powerful elites who had settled on this land were terrified that the free and enslaved black people, indigenous people, and poor white servants would organize and overthrow them. And so they purposely made laws that restricted movement, prohibited interracial marriage and then finally figured out that the white middle class would be what could break any attempts at solidarity.

Zinn wrote

“for [t]hose upper classes, to rule, [they] needed to make concessions to the middle class, without damage to their own wealth or power, at the expense of [enslaved people], [indigenous people], and poor whites. This bought loyalty. And to bind that loyalty with something more powerful even than material advantage, the ruling group found, in the 1760s and 1770s, a wonderfully useful device. That device was the language of liberty and equality, which could unite just enough whites to fight a Revolution against England, without ending either slavery or inequality.”

This wall between the ruling class and those who keep them in power and wealth was created by the white middle class. A wall propped up by the lie that they had more in common with the ruling class than the oppressed class, that they were free because others were not…. which we know as a people who believe in the independent web of all existence just isn’t true at all.

As Fannie Lou Hamer taught us,

“nobody’s free until everyone’s free.”

Moving forward in time by 300 or so years, I have seen this same situation play out. In the late 1990s, as I was preparing to move out of my hometown of Odessa, Texas, a huge black cloud coming from the south side parked itself over parts of the city. It turns out the new company in town, called Huntsman was burning off 10s of thousands pounds of chemicals like ethylene, propylene and hundreds of pounds of benzine and butadiene. The people started getting sick. Numerous symptoms from respiratory issues to nausea. It was coined “Odessa syndrome.” Then there were reports of higher-than-average cases of kidney cancer.

Eventually, the company was made to pay money to those who were harmed, or at least those who were able to report being harmed.

But through all of that…
– When people were complaining about becoming sick
– As a black cloud hung over parts of the city that were populated by mostly
brown and black people,
– while fellow citizens were becoming ill
– Mostly white business owners started putting up stickers that said “We Support Huntsman.”

The amount of loyalty that those business owners and others were paying to a multi-million-dollar corporation that, through neglect, incompetence, or hubris, poisoned their fellow citizens was and is astounding…

And it makes perfect sense when you think of all the work, the policies, the propaganda, the messaging you from birth about who is deserving and who is not. Who you should be loyal to and who you should not.

And I can’t help but think, Are we… we in this church doing that now?

What are the things that we learned subconsciously from white supremacist hetero-patriarchal system we were born in that we haven’t examined yet? Haven’t been able to dismantle yet?

What are we being loyal to at the expense of solidarity with those who are being most oppressed?

Because if we are people who believe in the humanity of all people. If we are a people who see the inherent dignity and worthiness of all people and if we are a people who cry justice…then we have to remove ourselves from what is blocking us from being in true solidarity.

Solidarity with those who are being exploited.
Solidarity with those being marginalized, targeted, imprisoned, and murdered.

Because no matter what we have been sold, no matter how much privilege we have, the powers that be do not protect us.

As we have seen with the ways laws are applied unequally. With high numbers or black men serving long prison sentences for non-violent crimes, while those in the Epstein list have faced no consequences.

The numerous Supreme Court cases that have strip civil liberties – Especially the latest, in which they rolled back the voting protection under the Voting Rights Act.

It will only protect itself.

We do not owe them an ounce of loyalty.
but we sure do owe it to one another.

That’s what I see when I study the labor movements.

That a commitment to being with and for one another is how we protect one each other.

Because they need us way more than we need them. Maybe that’s why they are so obsessed with us.

Because they know that, even though the narrative is otherwise, we have power.

Gene Sharpe, an American political scientist wrote,

“By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler through a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule.”

Without us doing what we do, the systems fall to pieces. And y’all know it’s so much bigger than just labor right.

Labor is the intersection of racist, classist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, and xenophobic systems.

Systems that require our help in running.

So how are we going to move towards our values Towards solidarity in a way that we make a break from those systems?

How are we going to get so spiritually grounded that we take the risk we need to disrupt systems?

How do we break down false walls of separation so that we can work in solidarity?

Labor movements of the past and the present are full of inspiration for us.

Like being intentional about building, or better yet, joining in solidarty movements. Movements led by those most impacted. Building relationships of service to one another.

How about intentionally making ourselves uncomfortable? If they are so obsessed with our consumption, we should use that to our advantage.

We know general strikes work.
We know that boycotts work.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott challenged violent segregationist bus policies and won.
The global anti-apartheid boycott put pressure on South Africa and was key in ending the violent apartheid system.

And if you have been following the current boycott against Target, for capitulating to the administration and disrespecting nearly their entire customer base by rolling back DEL… well they are feeling it. With some estimates putting the loss at $20 BILLION in shareholder value.

Boycotts work but to do it well you are going to have to get a little uncomfortable… Especially those of us who have gotten so used to the conveniences of modern life and same-day delivery.

And finally, we have to stay centered in what is right, just and equitable and then be unrelenting in our work.

We have to stay centered in our values. Grounded in our faith.

Because if we really, truly, and faithfully hold our values, then we must allow them to shape how we navigate through this world. Who we side with and who we give our loyalty to. So that they will carry us towards actions of systems-changing solidarity.

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

Our benediction today is a Beltain Blessing,
– Author unknown

Blessing on you and those you love
May your imagination serve you, not scare you
May what you create flourish and recreate you in return
May your joy lead to prosperity and your prosperity to joy.

Go in peace
Another world is possible

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
April 19, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave.
Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

A Volunteer Appreciation Service
Our theology teaches us about the inherent worthiness of all and the beauty of our interdependence. In this church, when we put those beliefs to work, we generate beautiful things both inside the church and outside the church. Together we nourish each other, we journey with each other through transformation, and we do the work of building the beloved community. This Sunday we celebrate all our volunteers who keep our church alive in a million different ways and make it possible for us to live into our mission!

Welcome

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

Prelude

“Running Up That Hill” (Kate Bush) – The First UU Youth Singers; Chantel Mead, Director

It doesn’t hurt me (yeah, yeah, yo)
Do you wanna feel how it feels! (Yeah, yeah, yo)
Do you wanna know, know that it doesn’t hurt me! (Yeah, yeah, yo)
Do you wanna hear about the deal that I’m making! (Yeah, yeah, yo)
You
It’s you and me
And if I only could I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get Him to swap our places
Be runnin’ up that road
Be runnin’ up that hill
Be runnin’ up that building
Say, if I only could, oh
You don’t wanna hurt me (yeah, yeah, yo)
But see how deep the bullet lies (yeah, yeah, yo)
Unaware I’m tearin’ you asunder (yeah, yeah, yo)
Oh, there is thunder in our hearts (yeah, yeah, yo)
Is there so much hate for the ones we love! (Yeah, yeah, yo)
Oh, tell me, we both matter, don’t we! (Yeah, yeah, yo)
You
It’s you and me
It’s you and me
Won’t be unhappy
And if I only could I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get Him to swap our places
Be runnin’ up that road
Be runnin’ up that hill
Be runnin’ up that building (yo)
Say, if I only could, oh
You (yeah, yeah, yo)
It’s you and me
It’s you and me
Won’t be unhappy (yeah, yeah, yo)
Oh, come on, baby (yeah)
Oh, come on, darlin’ (yo)
Let me steal this moment from you now
Oh, come on, angel
Come on, come on, darlin’
Let’s exchange the experience (yo), oh, ooh, ooh
And if I only could
I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get Him to swap our places
I’d be runnin’ up that road
Be runnin’ up that hill
With no problems
Say, if I only could I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get Him to swap our places
I’d be runnin’ up that road
Be runnin’ up that hill
With no problems
Say, if I only could I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get Him to swap our places
I’d be runnin’ up that road
Be runnin’ up that hill
With no problems
Say, if I only could I’d be runnin’ up that hill
With no problems

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

RIVER CALL
Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti

Between rocking the boat
And sitting down
Between stirring things up,
And peaceably going along,
We find ourselves here, in community
Each called from many different journeys,
Life paths, onto this river road
Some are here because the rocking of the boat has been too much:
too much tumult, too much uncertainty, too much pain
Some are here with questions about where the boat is going, how best to steer it,
where this journey ends.
Others are here
as lovers of the journey, lovers of life itself
Here in front beside behind
each a passenger, each a captain;
doing the best we can.
“Rest here, in your boat, with me,” the river calls;
Listen to how I flow,
the sound of life coursing all around you”
Let the current hold you,
let the current guide you;
the river that gently flows through your soul, whispers:
“Come, let us worship.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“Another Day of Sun” (May J.) – The First UU Youth Singers; Chantel Mead, Director

I think about that day
I left him at a Greyhound station, west of Santa Fe
We were 17, but he was sweet and it was true
Still I did what I had to do
‘Cause I just knew
Summer Sunday nights
We’d sink into our seats
Right as they dimmed out all the lights
A Technicolor world made out of music and machine
It called me to be on that screen
And live inside each scene
Without a nickel to my name
Hopped a bus, here I came
Could be brave or just insane
We’ll have to see
‘Cause maybe in that sleepy town
He’ll sit one day, the lights are down
He’ll see my face and think of how he used to know me
Behind these hills I’m reaching for the heights
And chasing all the lights that shine
And when they let you down (it’s another day)
You’ll get up off the ground (it’s another day)
‘Cause morning rolls around and it’s another day of sun
I hear ’em everyday
The rhythms in the canyons that’ll never fade away
The ballads in the barrooms left by those who came before
They say, “You gotta want it more”
So I bang on every door
And even when the answer’s “No”
Or when my money’s running low
The dusty mic and neon glow
Are all I need
And someday as I sing a song
A small-town kid’ll come along
That’ll be the thing to push him on and go go
Behind these hills I’m reaching for the heights
And chasing all the lights that shine
And when they let you down (it’s another day)
You’ll get up off the ground (it’s another day)
‘Cause morning rolls around and it’s another day of sun
And when they let you down
The morning rolls around
It’s another day of sun
It’s another day of sun
It’s another day of sun (sun, sun, sun)
It’s another day of sun
Just another day of sun
It’s another day of sun
The day has just begun
It’s another day of sun
It’s another day of sun

Blessing of Volunteers

Reading

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Rev. Soto

I wish the knowledge were easier to come by, that individualism is just a scam, that you are always the butterfly wings. You are always the storm. Edward Lorenz, a weather scientist from MIT, Is sometimes misquoted on this, as the premise that the flap of a butterfly wing can cause a hurricane in a different part of the world. Shorthand that isn’t all that close to a representation of the math-turned-weather scientist’s work.

He proposed that, Should we make even a tiny alteration to nature, we will never know what would have happened if we had not disturbed it, since subsequent changes are too complex and entangled to restore a previous state. Which is to say that you have an immeasurable effect on the system, It will change and you will shape its DNA

You must not believe the lying lie that you do not matter, that whatever change you can organize is so insufficient as to not be worth your time, your energy, your life force. You must be willing to dream a dream that carries forward your community. This is how we rise.

This day is polluted with a mistrust of truth, fertile and warm medium for unchecked cruelty and power. You must choose to scream the truth until every leaf and stone bears unrepentant witness to what happens when you try to cage and smash, to pin and frame a butterfly and their thousands and thousands of fabulous, flamboyant friends.

Centering

Music for Meditation: “Rises the Moon” (Liana Flores) – The First UU Youth Singers; Chantel Mead, Director

Days seem sometimes as if they’ll never end
Sun digs its heels to taunt you
But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same
Rises the moon
Days fade into a watercolour blur
Memories swim and haunt you
But look into the lake, shimmering like smoke
Rises the moon
Oh-oh, close your weary eyes
I promise you that soon the autumn comes
To darken fading summer skies
Breathe, breathe, breathe
Days pull you down just like a sinking ship
Floating is getting harder
But tread the water, child, and know that meanwhile
Rises the moon
Days pull you up just like a daffodil
Uprooted from its garden
They’ll tell you what you owe, but know even so
Rises the moon
You’ll be visited by sleep
I promise you that soon the autumn comes
To steal away each dream you keep
Breathe, breathe, breathe

Sermon

How many of you have ever found yourself in a position of explaining Unitarian Universalism to the uninitiated?

Its so hard, isn’t it.

I’m much better now that I have a whole master about it but it can still be hard to fully explain to people why we all come together week after week.

My biggest fear is that people will somehow get the idea that there is no there.. there.

That we are religion were any and everything goes.

Unfortunately, too many people have the idea of us. Which I get.

I mean

We don’t have a creed.

You will not find the Nicene Creed at this church. In fact, the Council of Nicea did not go well for us.

No creed for us.

No common deity or one way in which we come into our own search for truth, meaning, and beauty.

We are proper pluralist
a church made up of theists and atheists
Of pagans and humanists,
We are a hyphenated people – UU and Muslim, and Jewish,
and Buddhist

We come from different places, generations, and different world views.

And somehow we all keep showing up.
No deity
No creed
AND No promise of eternal reward or threat of eternal punishment.

We keep coming back, as have generations before us.

And not only do we keep coming back – so many of you make sure that we have something to come back to.

That is because we do have some really strong common beliefs.

Like that, we all matter, That it is right and good to have a voice in how we function, – (quick plug for the pre-congregational meeting today at 1pm)

We share a common belief that growth, spiritually or personally, is good.

That connection is good.

That we have a responsibility to one another and to this church.

Unitarian Universalism is set up on the premise that all of that is true.

We are a congregationalist polity…. This simply means the way we are organized is that the members of this church are responsible for it. There is no equivalent of the Vatican or an assembly of elders… no one to direct us, put a minister here… no one bail us out.

The members of this church, direct the culture and the focus They work together to create the mission, our values, and prioritize what we focus on. And Rev Chris and I help guide that process and make sure systems are in place for the work to happen.

Now a cynical person might look at what I have laid out and say…so you have nothing that holds you together, no eternal reward, and you are super responsible to hold yourself together. What is the upside?

Well, I’ll tell you… fictional cynical person. Its because of what we get from this church and from one another.

Some of us were lucky enough to have been raised UUs. You all were born straight into a tradition that already saw the spark of the divine inside of you.

Some of us came here because we wanted a church home but not one that hurt or reject us like our old.

Some of you had a perfectly fine time in the religious tradition of our youth but it just didn’t align any more.

And some of you came here knowing little to nothing about church life but just felt a pull to seek shelter with like hearted people.

Or maybe you just wanted your kids to get a solid progressive religious education.

And some of you have stories that I haven’t heard yet, but i would love to.

I think most, if not all of us, came here because we wanted something bigger than ourselves.

Somewhere we could have a free and responsible search for truth, meaning, and beauty.

A community.

And that is what, at least I hope is what, you have found.

If you have found it, its because of the engagement and the work of the people in this church that give not just of their treasure, but their time AND their talent.

Who volunteer in religious education. Who facilitates small groups or monthly large groups.

Who sit on committees and look at excel sheets until they just can’t any more.

Board members and members of the stewardship committee that keep us solid.

Its the people who clean off tables in Howson Hall so our space is inviting.

It is the counting and depositing of the offering.. year after year.

It’s our greeters, ushers, and choir members….

All of those who make beautiful music for us to enjoy.

Its the people who show up and paint our sidewalks. Direct traffic.

Its the caring companions and creators of caring bridges.

Its the person who hangs back after service and straightens the backs of the pews.

It is so many people so many things… too many things for me to try to name them all.

But all of it…all of it is in the effort of keeping us alive so that this congregation can minister to all of us.

So that this church can be a shelter and a launching pad.

Thank you to all of you who have said yes to the work of this church.

we are so deeply grateful.

But, as someone who has been known to volunteer from time to time I know that this is not without reward.

I reached out to a random sampling of our volunteers to get their feedback on what they have gotten out of volunteering.

I heard about connection, living into values, transformation, spiritual growth…

Karen Neeley, Wendy Erisman, and Toni Wegner told me about the deep connections and long-lasting friendships that have come from their volunteer work.

E Cisnek said “I volunteer at First UU because it gives me a greater sense of purpose and connection during times where I have felt alone in this world.”

A few told me about how volunteering helps them to live into their values, like David Nuhn, who sees his work as an extension of his spiritual beliefs. Or Suzie Riddle who volunteers because she feels “its important to make a contribution” to her community.

Volunteering is also a way to explore not just other parts of church life but also other parts of who we are. Tomas Medina told me that volunteering was transformative for him. He changed the way he saw himself and how he engages with the world.

And almost everyone to a tee, said that volunteering has deepened them spiritually. Ernest and Mariko Baumann told me that volunteering gave them the spiritual boost they needed to get through these times.

Ann Edwards said, “volunteering is nourishment for my soul.”

I received so many beautiful messages over the last two days, I wish I could read them all to you.

But the take-away is that volunteering, even though it is giving of your time also has so many transformational gifts for us all.

The work of the church is the work of our spiritual growth.

And there is so much to be done. If you haven’t volunteered here before, please know there is always room for you to enter into this good work. And please know its not intimidating…. Leo Collas told me that not only does it see his volunteering as selfish in a spiritual sense. But also that he has taught him that he doesn’t have to know exactly what to do, just doing the thing is a gift to other. “That’s something I can do even when I’m not 100% sure what i’m doing.”

Volunteering is powerful and its important

Because We keep our church alive.

We are an unusual group of people. We have no creed, no common deity. We come from a variety of backgrounds

We have no eternal promises…

No We have so much more

We have a religion that provides us the space to responsibly explore truth, beauty and meaning.

We have a community where we can learn, grow, and heal and be held We have a faith that motivates us towards justice and holds us even in the ambiguity and uncertainty of life.

We have one another.

We benefit from those who came before us We continue to build a shelter for those who will come next Sunday and years from now And all of it is made possible because so many of you have said yes

If you will would you please stand up or raise your hand if you are a volunteer.

Thank you, thank you!

Now, if you haven’t gotten engaged in this good work yet, that’s totally fine. That just means there is an opportunity to engage and many ways to grow. Many ways to say yes.

Yes to the work of nourishing souls, yes to the work of transforming lives, and yes to the work of doing justice to build the beloved community.

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

Before we go and spend a different kind of sacred time with one another Be blessed
In all that you do
May you feel a lightness even in heavy times
May you held even when you are alone
And may you know that who you are and what you do matters

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
March 8, 2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

What do you do when the onslaught of bad news floods our nervous system and causes us to feel shaky in our faith? Rev. Carrie explores that question and leads us through a practice of lament.

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

GOOD GRIEF
– by Andrea Gibson from You Better Be Lightning

Let your
heart break
so your spirit doesn’t

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

YOU ARE NOT WRONG
by Rev. Julián Jamaica Soto

I need you to know
that there is nothing wrong with you.
if you find the world congealed and unwieldy.
You were never meant to serve money.
to give loyalty to unprincipled power,
to spend your joy
frantically soothing yourself
in order to tend wounds of being
constantly dehumanized.

I need you to know
that your sense of injury and anger is not overdeveloped
You are meant for love and beauty
You belong where you are known
and where your future is not just a resource,
but a promise,
which you begin to fulfill
by being unmistakably,
irrevocably yourself.

Sermon

Whew… Well, I’ll just be honest I am missing hell something fierce these days.

For those of you that don’t know, I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian – a religious perspective that over-indexed on the eternal lake of fire. I have been deconstructing and reconstructing for decades.

It has taken so long to finally let go of the trauma of hell.

But now, that as I am waking up to daily heartbreak, I find myself missing hell. And that doesn’t feel great.

It makes my faith, my values feel a little shaky.

Any one else? Anyone else finding its a bit hard to center love?

Am I losing my religion?…..I mean do we really believe in the inherent dignity and worth of everyone?

Of everyone?

Those who violently dehumanize and try to erase trans people.

Those who are terrorizing and brutalizing immigrants or any one that “looks like they could be an immigrant.”

Those who perpetuate Genocide in
Gaza
Sudan
Congo

Those on the Epstein list

Those in power whose silence is deafening on it.

And then Iran!

Iran! We are in another unjust war propped up by lies.

It’s the worst kind of de jeja vu

The anger, rage… and frankly loss of control I feel has got me missing the certainty of hell.

Which goes against all of my values and beliefs. Everything that I have deconstructed.

Hell is the antithesis of my Unitarian Universalist values and faith.

But it sure is enticing to think that people who might never get their comeuppance on this side of the dirt will on the other…..

Ugh, Universalism is hard!

All that we are experiencing and seeing has our nervous systems Swinging from fight to freeze.

Making it hard for us to stay grounded in our values.

But as a people who believe in justice, in a better world for everyone That truly do believe in the power of centering love To be ground in our values. To regulate ourselves as best we can is important.

Its important for our health and wellbeing For our relationships Its important for what we are called to do in this world.

In their poem, Wellness Check, Andrea Gibson writes

In any moment
on any given day,
I can measure
my wellness
by this question:

 

Is my attention on loving,
or is my attention on
who isn’t loving me?

Where is my attention?
…is loving 
or is my attention on all that is in direct opposition to love.

What a refocusing

It’s not a pollyanna statement. It’s not a dismissing of the harm, the violence the injustice.

But rather helps us to put our heart and our minds on those who are being harmed and on the type of world we work for – the beloved community.

But to do this kind of wellness check we need to tend to our heart. To our spirits. And the only way I know to do that is to get grounded in our spiritual practices.

Because our spiritual practices

• Give our nervous system a rest
• They helps us to connect to our core self, where the spark of the divine resides
• They give us resilience that we need to do the work of justice and the beloved community. To keep from having our spirits broken

And ultimately they help us to connect to others, to see others. even those who do great harm… as the beloved children of the universe that they are.

Now if that last bit seems like a bridge too far…I think it’s good to have aspirations and to know when you haven’t gotten there just yet.

A helpful phrase for me is “I know God or their mama loves them.. I’m still working on it.”

Spiritual practices are so nourishing because they help us to see our own and others humanity in a way that is more loving.

They help us to see those feelings and call them love as Andrea Gibson taught us.

Gibson told their friend

“Open your heart to love. Everything that you are feeling right now, if its fear or sadness…everything that you are feeling… name it love.”

What I am feeling… what many of us are feeling… is love, even my misdirected desire for the certainty of eternal damnation comes from love. My deep grief, pain, and anger I feel at all the violence, violation, and pain is love. Is there because of love.

I just wasn’t putting my attention on love but rather on those that are acting without love.

But just because I name it love, doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Earlier this week I was seriously considering just sitting on these steps and saying

“I don’t even know. I’m so sad, mad, and exhausted.”

Thankfully, I realized, as uncomfortable as those feelings are, sad, mad, and exhausted are the expressions of love. But I can’t just know it, I need to give voice to it. I need to lament.

TO LAMENT. Means to weep, to wail, to moan.

And the way its used in the Hebrew bible, especially in the book of Psalms is moan to God. To cry out and say dang it, this is wrong and I’m angry and I am going to need you to fix this.

The laments in Psalms are so powerful because these people living in a complete different context and time from us are also saying… what is happening isn’t right and I demand change. And my faith is strong enough that I can yell about it. That I can do some holy complaining about it.

Lament has been and is a powerful spiritual practice for the kind of pain we are all facing today.

So let’s, in this sacred space with this holy community, lament.

So that we can take our values, our faith.. our religion that might feel a little shaky and remember that it is hearty.

That to pull love into the center of our lives is to be aligned with who we are and the impact we want to make in this world.

SO LET’S WRITE OUR LAMENT.
We are going to go through 6 steps.

1) Address
Think about who or what we are going to address.
Some of us might just use God… its a good shorthand for the mystery or the divine. Spirit of life, God of many names… Goddess.
Or something else entirely.

If god language doesn’t resonate with you, speak directly to the systems or ideas that are letting you down… like democracy.

2) Your Complaint.
Name the grief, the anger, and how you are feeling about it..
Lay it all out.
Name all your emotions. You may want to just focus on one aspect or one issue.. goodness knows we have a lot to contend with.
You can always do this again later… as many times as you need.

3) Confession of Trust.
This is where we reground in our faith and values. It’s saying what should be while also acknowledging that it isn’t.
Rev. Diana Smith wrote:

“This doesn’t mean giving a too-soon declaration that you have hope or optimism. Rather, it’s about noticing and writing down what inspires you to keep going or what helps you imagine something better.”

4) Petition:
What are you seeking?
What do you want to happen?
It doesn’t have to be something that is realistic, allow the beautiful liberatory part of your imagination free.

For example, I want everyone to have access to safe shelter, healthy food, and abundant love.

5) Hope
What would happen if your petition is met?
What would the world or people’s lives look like if that petition was met?

6) Gratitude.
Rev. Diana Smith writes:

“Sometimes you might not be feeling gratitude in the midst of your pain, and that’s okay and normal. This [part is] about remembering the deep sources of gratitude that we hope to connect with again.”

And now you have your lament.

You can turn it into a booklet and place it on your alter or meditation area if that is part of your spiritual practice. Or maybe in your journal or besides your bed. I will put mine in my god box.

Or you may want to give it back to the elements by burning or burying it. Just be careful.

The pain, the anger, the grief we are experiencing… are completely valid responses to the horrors that we are seeing. That we are learning about and that some of us are facing.

It is normal to feel those thing… and we can name it love.

We can let our religion, our faith, our values hold us in that love.

Hold us so it can make us resilient.

Resilient enough to live in this world… that so often crushes our heart

Resilient so that we can allow our hearts to break so that our spirit remains unbroken.

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 be held
May you be held in your joy
May you be held in your heartbreak
May you name it all love
So that when your heart breaks
You can let it mend and mend again.

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