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Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 23, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Join us for a restful service full of stories and music about finding Holy Ground. Rev. Michelle LaGrave weaves together a tapestry of stories accompanied by the atmospheric/symphonic stylings of music guests Thor & Friends. Take some time for rest and reflection in the midst of an increasingly chaotic world.

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 that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

by Macrina Wiederkehr (adapted)

My bare feet walk the earth reverently for everything keeps crying.
Take off your shoes.
The ground you stand on is holy.
The ground of your being is holy.

When the wind sings through the pines like a breath of God, awakening you to the sacred present, take off your shoes.

When the sun rises, coloring your world with dawn, put on your garment of adoration, take off your shoes.

When the red maple drops its last leaf of summer, wearing its burning bush robes no longer, read between its barren bushes and take off your shoes.

When a new person comes into your life like a mystery about to unfold, and you find yourself marveling over the frailty and splendor of every human being, take off your shoes.

When, during the wee hours of the night, You drive slowly into the new day and the morning’s fog, like angel wings, hovers mysteriously above you, take off your shoes.

Take off your shoes of distraction.
Take off your shoes of ignorance and blindness.
Take off your shoes of hurry and worry.
Take off anything that prevents you from being a child of wonder.
Take off your shoes.

The ground you stand or sit or walk or roll-on is holy.

Affirming Our Mission

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

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

Story for all ages

“MOSES”

So, I’m going to tell you a story today that is really, really old. People have been telling this story for more than 2 ,000 years, and eventually it got written down in both the Jewish Bible, also known as the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Torah, and the Christian Bible in what is called the Old Testament. It’s a story about someone called Moses.

So Moses was living with his wife and his father-in-law in an area near Mount Horab, and he was taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep. His father-in-law was the priest of Midian, and he was taking care of the sheep, which means that he was sort of following them around and making sure that nothing bad happened to the sheep. He was acting as a shepherd. So he was wandering around in the wilderness with his father-in-law’s sheep, and Then, for whatever reason, he decided to take a little detour and head up on Mount Horab with all the sheep, and that was a mountain that was known as the mountain of God.

And while he was walking on the mountain, all of a sudden he saw a bush that looked like it was on fire. But, Even though it looked like it was on fire, the bush wasn’t burning up. All the leaves were still green. Pretty weird, huh? So Moses said to himself, “I must turn aside and go over and look at this bush that is burning but not burning up.” And you know what he saw when he looked at the bush? It wasn’t really on fire. There was an angel in the bush, and it wasn’t one of those angels that we think of today with a white gown and white wings and a golden halo. It was an angel that looked like it was on fire. It was so bright, it was hard to look at the angel.

And then, as if that weren’t enough, all of a sudden, Moses heard the voice of God. And God said, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses said, “Here I am.” And then God said, “Come no closer. Remove the sandals from your feet because the place you are standing on is holy ground.” So Moses took off his sandals.

And God said, “I am God, the God of your father, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he had to tell him which God he was because back then they believed that different people had different gods so he had to identify himself and Moses got afraid and hid his face because back then people thought that if you looked at God you might die. So God was, so Moses was really afraid. God is talking to him. This bush is not really on fire. He’s hiding his face. He’s got his sandals off.

So, God then said, “I have seen the misery of my people who are slaves in Egypt, and I am going to send you, Moses, to free them from slavery.”

And Moses said, “What if they don’t believe me? “What if they don’t Think that I’m really coming from you. I don’t I don’t even know who you are, What do I tell them? What is your name? and God said “I am who I am.” which it sounds a little interesting in English. In Hebrew what they wrote down is the four letters, the four consonants of God’s name, which are Yodhe, Vavhe, and which looks kind of like, sounds kind of like YVHV in English.

But you know what, they didn’t write down the vowels. So nobody really knows how to say it anyway. So now we just call God “God”.

But he said, “I am who I am. Tell them, tell those people, my people down in Egypt who are in slavery, I am has sent me to you.” This is my name forever and my title for all generations.

The reason this is important today is Two things. We’re talking about holy ground through the whole rest of the service. But also, do you remember a couple of weeks ago we had a child dedication. And, in a couple of weeks, Easter and Passover are coming up. And so we’re going to have the baby parade that we always have on Easter. But before that, we’re going to have another child dedication for, I don’t know, at least three more kids. I’m not sure how many yet.

Do you remember what we did at the beginning of the child dedication, those of you who are here? before we made the promises to the children, before we told them that we would look out for them and take care of them and help them learn and grow. The first thing we did, We said the child’s name. We asked the parents what is the name of your child and they gave us the child’s full name.

So naming is very important. When Moses learned the name of God, God told him he was standing on holy ground. And when we learn your names, when you are dedicated and then we make promises to you, we are also on holy ground. It’s a really special and sacred moment in the time of your life and we’re gonna promise to take care of you all the way until you’re grown up and then you’re gonna help take care of the kids who come next.

Story

BY Stephen Huyle

A damp chill pervades the air as Amita wends her way down the dark street to the river. For warmth, she pulls her sari about her head and adjusts her light wool shawl more tightly around her shoulders. Then she reaches down with both hands to pull her two young children along with her. They stumble sleepily as she guides them through the narrow passageways. Just above the river, she stops quickly to buy a small lamp made of a curled dry leaf. In its center, a dob of clarified butter holds a wick.

The three sidle through the huddled bodies of unidentifiable figures and down the ancient stone steps that run as far as they can see along the river’s edge. Steps grooved through centuries of use, and then the black expanse of the river fills their gaze and they slip off their sandals and walk down the last steps into the icy cold water.

The children are reluctant, their teeth chattering, their mother is determined, intent on fulfilling this ritual which begins each day of her life. They wash their bodies and their clothes with soap. All the while the sky has been lightening.

Across the river, the promise of sunrise turns the water from deep purple to rich blues tinged with orange, the shivering three steps again into the water, which now seems warm compared to the biting air. Amita is immersed to her knees, Minu and Bablu to their waists. Together they sing prayers to the goddess Ganga, who is also the river.

They visualize her magnificence, her nurturing presence as the purifier and mother of all existence. With a match, Minu lights the small leaf lamp and gently floats it out before them. At that moment, the sun’s first rays peek above the sandy horizon. And they begin singing to the sun god Sarya, the source of all energy, the great provider.

Story

“EMILY”

There once was a cow named Emily, a very frightened cow, who found herself in a slaughterhouse. She was next in line when all of a sudden, the lunch whistle blew and the workers took a break.

Well, Emily saw her chance and made her own break for it, leaping in a very uncow-like manner, right over a five foot high fence and heading for the woods. When she got to the woods, she ran with a herd of deer, all the while eluding capture by both Slaughterhouse workers and the local police.

Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to Emily, Emily’s escape made headlines. People everywhere heard Emily’s story and fell in love with the cow who had rescued herself from imminent death. In the midst of all this hubbub, a group of people came together to try to rescue Emily and after some negotiation, she was purchased for a dollar. Later, when Emily’s saviors pulled up to the edge of the woods with their truck and after having wandered in the wilderness for 40 days. Emily was ready for her ordeal to end. Encouraged with some buckets of grain, Emily walked up the ramp and was brought to her new home on the grounds of the Peace Abbey in a town called Sherborn in Massachusetts.

Emily lived for several more years and was credited by many as a teacher of love and compassion and a source of inspiration for change and growth. When Emily eventually died, she was buried on the grounds of the Peace Abbey, not far from a statue of Gandhi. Her grave is now marked by a bronze life-sized statue and clippings from her hair and a sacred thread from her ear have been released in the Ganges River. People still make pilgrimages to visit her grave.

Story

“FERRY BEACH”

It is summer, and I am spending the week at Ferry Beach, one of our UU camp and conference centers located on the coast of Maine. I awake to a beautiful, bright, sunny, and warm day and head to the beach as soon as I am dressed. I cross the boardwalk, slip out of my flip-flops, and quickly head down to the water’s edge.

There I stand with my feet buried in the sand and the waves lapping at my legs. This is my favorite place to meditate and pray, while standing and gazing out over the vast expanse of the ocean.

This morning, though, the sun is exceptionally bright and since it is early, low on the water. The sun and the sun’s reflection on the water are so bright that I cannot see the ocean before me. When I try, my eyes hurt and water and I am forced to lower my head so that I see only my toes and the water surrounding me. In this posture I remain for a long time, recognizing the humility inherent in the pose, sensing its foreignness to both myself and my culture.

And I wonder, here I am, standing before the sun and the ocean, feeling the immense power of both, forced into an attitude of deference and humility, which I cannot choose to overcome, sure of turning and walking way. And I wonder, is this how Moses would have felt barefoot and face hidden standing before God? And I wonder, is this how Amida feels every morning of her life as she stands in the sacred waters of the river, bending to light and release her lamp. And I feel connected to those who have gone before me and will come after me, to those who also experience awe and wonder and humility. Eventually I turn and slowly climb up the beach, replace my sandals, wash my feet, and return to my daily study of routine and learning.

I return to the beach often. For me, these visits are a reenactment of my own sacred creation story. As I take off my shoes and move lightly and quickly down to the water’s edge, I return to the primordial waters, to the murky origins of myself and my species. As I play and swim, I remember my origins, back when my kind were still fish in the sea.

When I finally emerge from the water and climb back up the beach, I wonder, at this struggle it always is to leave the water behind. And I imagine how difficult those first evolutionary transitions, those first climbs up onto the beach must have been. And I feel awe at those first changes from fish to amphibian. I think, then, that I understand the dolphin, a mammal who once on land chose to return to the sea. I understand for I too feel these urges, for I too feel the call of the deep, and I know. I know the power of this holy ground.

Message

In all of these stories, there is a common experience of standing or walking on holy ground. For Moses it is at Mount Horrib, for Amida in the River Ganges, for Emily and later her pilgrims on the grounds of the Peace Abby, for myself at the ocean’s edge.

At various times and in various ways we all visit holy ground. In doing so, some of us take off our shoes. Some of us come face-to-face with God. Some of us commune with the cosmos. Some of us come face-to-face with our own salvation.

I imagine there are many, many other stories about holy ground which I could tell. People of many faiths walk labyrinths, pagans cast circles, Hindus draw sacred diagrams called kolams near the entryways of their homes. Surgeons place special covers over their shoes before entering operating rooms. Walking, standing, rolling, or simply being on holy ground is a common human experience, one that many of us share.

When we visit holy ground, we experience awe and wonder. We ponder the great mysteries of life. We feel the force of evolution. We sense the power which emerges from our collective humanity, the power of change and growth, of inspiration and creativity and of love. We need not embark on a pilgrimage to far off lands to visit Holy Ground. Holy Ground is available to us at all times and in all places.

Holy Ground is here in this sanctuary; out there in the art gallery; around the corner at Howson Hall where we visit with each other after the service; down that hallway there where the children meet for classes and staff work to fulfill the mission of this congregation; out on the playgrounds and in the youth room; in your homes, and in so many, many places.

It is we who must set an intention to understand the ground we happen upon is holy. It is we who must pay attention. An experience of the sacred of the Holy is available to us at any time, anywhere. When I received my call to ministry, I was not at a pilgrimage to a sacred site or standing at the ocean’s edge. I was sitting at my dining room table reading a magazine. Moving to an Understanding of the ground we find ourselves upon as sacred or holy grounds can feel risky. And it’s not a journey to be undertaken lightly.

When we visit holy grounds, we confront the nature of life and death. We gain insight. We become self-aware. We come face-to-face with those parts of ourselves and others we had not previously known. We realize our human nature. We may even come to know God.

Where is your holy ground? Where do you take off your shoes? When do you bow your head?

As Unitarian Universalists, it is our religious duty to follow the paths each of us finds sacred to ourselves. These paths are incredibly diverse, take many forms and lead in many directions. They are all holy. As together we navigate the triumphs and tribulations of this great mystery we call human life. We are blessed to be able to join together in this community of faith, which honors such divergent understandings of the human, of the divine, of the holy. May we be so blessed evermore.

Amen and blessed be.

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

Open your eyes, your ears, your hearts, your minds, your spirits. The ground you sit, stand, walk, roll, dance, crawl upon is holy. As you remember, as you leave this place, remember you are blessed. The holy, the sacred, is available to you at all times and in all places. Go forth, blessing all others as you yourselves are now blessed. Amen and blessed be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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. Michelle LaGrave
March 16, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rest has long been a spiritual practice or even a religious mandate of many people. Yet, life can feel so busy that we imagine there is no time to rest. How might we come to a better sense of balance in our lives that honors the need to rest?

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 that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

YOU ARE NEVER ALONE
by Sharon Wylie

It is okay to be tired of change
It is okay to be tired of everything different
Okay to feel weary of resiliency and wholeness and learning and growth
And okay to yearn simply for rest
It’s okay to be grouchy and unsatisfied
And all the ordinary human ways of being that we are
Let this morning be a reminder that you are loved
Let our time together soothe what is restless in you
May you be comforted in knowing that whatever you are
feeling today and other days
You are not alone. You are never alone.

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

REST IS RESISTANCE: A MANIFESTO (Excerpted)
by Tricia Hersey

Tricia Hersey, also known as The Nap Bishop, is the founder of The Nap Ministry. Hersey makes a historical connection between slavery and contemporary grind culture and views rest as one form of reparations for Black people. She holds a Master of Divinity degree as well as a bachelor’s degree in Public Health.

Everything we know about rest has been tainted by the brainwashing from a white supremacist, capitalist system. As a culture, we don’t know how to rest, and our understanding of rest has been influenced by the toxicity of grind culture. We believe rest is a luxury, privilege, and an extra treat we can give to ourselves after suffering from exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Rest isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we’re going to survive and thrive. Rest isn’t an afterthought, but a basic part of being human. Rest is a divine right. Rest is a human right. We come into the world prepared to love, care, and rest. The systems kill us slowly via capitalism and white supremacy. Rest must interrupt. Like hope, rest is disruptive, it allows space for us to envision new possibilities. We must reimagine rest within a capitalist system.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

The Torah, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, whatever it is you call these most ancient of the Jewish and Christian texts, they all begin, as most stories do, bear a sheet and The first story that is told about the creation of the world of our world and How after six days of work? God rested on the seventh God rested. God who some theologians later came to describe as omnipotent, got tired and had to rest.

So I ask if God, Godself, can get tired and need to rest, who are we not to? Who are we to say that we don’t need to rest, that there’s too much to be done that we can rest later. After X, Y, and Z things have been done, of course. Who are we to tie our self -worth, our sense of value, into how much and how quickly we get things done?

Notice the words I’ve used here, self-worth, and value. These are also monetary terms, which is no accident. Our Western Judeo and Christian history of laboring for people other than ourselves or our own communities is long and fraught and goes back to ancient times. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, God took some extra time to specify exactly what God meant by saying, “On the seventh day, you should rest.” Not just you should rest, but your sons and your daughters, your male and your female slaves, your livestock and alien residents in your community. Everyone must refrain from work. Everyone must rest. No exceptions.

We know why, right? Because people are people, even ancient times, and because we know that somebody was going to try to get away with resting themselves while requiring other people to work.

In more recent history, our track record is no better and likely worse. With the rise of capitalism as it moves through its various stages, much of this nation’s wealth was created by people who were oppressed in many ways, especially blacks who were enslaved, but also indigenous people who were enslaved, white indentured servants, and white people who did not own property and could not vote, which included all women and all children for centuries.

The dominant culture of our nation has valued production, the more, the better, the faster, in terms of creating wealth. And it has done so for centuries, regardless of the cost, the cost, or the toll, the toll, more monetary terms. It has taken on human bodies and human souls. The more wealth, the better. The faster we acquire the wealth, the better.

And this has spilled over into our other aspects of our lives as well. Not just the creation of wealth, but also the arts. Think of ballet, the ballerinas with bleeding feet for our entertainment. Sports, think of any of them, but especially football, even our learning. The more difficult, the better, the higher numerical grade, the better, the faster we move ahead, the better, and our academia. The more journal articles and books published, the better, the more the better. It is all over the place.

So what do we do about all of this?

• The first thing is to acknowledge that this idea, this value, the more the better, is one aspect of the dominant culture in our country.
• Next thing is to acknowledge that this aspect, the more the better, is a problem. It exists and it’s a problem.
• And finally, the work is to dismantle this aspect of our culture. Stop putting such a high value on the more the better.

After all, look at where it’s gotten us. to right here, exactly where we are with billionaires running our country, some of them not even elected.

And for those of you who haven’t picked up on it yet or aren’t familiar with the work of Tima Okun and others, I am talking about dismantling one of the toxins of white supremacy culture. I know that phrase white supremacy culture is really hard. It’s really challenging and difficult. So I talk about dominant culture instead a lot. But it’s the same thing. To do this, it is helpful to look to the leadership of those who have been most adversely impacted by this culture, by toxins like the more, the better, the faster, the better. Enter Trisha Hersey, author of the reading you shared with us earlier today from her book, This is resistance, a manifesto.

Slowing down our grind culture, turning away from the focus on production, dismantling the constant push of the more, the better. It’s not only good for our bodies and our souls, it is also an act of resistance. A bill of reparations owed, an act of allyship, and a deeply theological imperative.

One of the places we have begun this work is right here in our church, because the more the better has been true here, right? We count the number of programs the church offers. we count the number of people who show up to a program at the church. We count the number of minutes there are in a sermon or a worship service. And we make judgments on those. The sermon’s probably the only one which the longer the better might not hold true. (audience laughing) The exception to prove the rule. And by the way, this morning will be shorter than my usual so that you have a little more time to rest on your Sunday.

I know. I know how much there is to be done in all of our lives and in this country and in this world and from so many, many perspectives, I know how easy it is to feel a sense of overwhelm. I feel it, too. I struggle with finding enough rest, too. Sometimes that’s why we preach these sermons, is because we need to preach to ourselves. This is one of those cases.

We all feel the overwhelm, and we should know that we aren’t the first to feel this way. When the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt the weight of the struggle for change and justice, and its attendant exhaustion, and the fear for his own life that he lived under. He turned to a particular hymn, his favorite, “Precious Lord, Take My Hands,” which we will sing together shortly.

And as you go forth a little bit later today, after eating some pie, I encourage you to continue to explore. We began with our kids earlier today, the many, many ways of resting. Sleep, yeah. Sure, get plenty of that, but not just sleep. Find other ways to rest, too. And as you do, remember that in your resting and in your insistence upon rest, you are doing the work of the resistance. You are not taking a break from doing the work of the resistance; by resting, you are resisting.

May it be so. Amen and Blessed be.

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

by Tricia Hersey

You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out … Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us. The more we think of rest as a luxury, the more we buy into the systematic lies of grind culture. Our bodies and Spirits do not belong to capitalism, no matter how it is theorized and presented. Our divinity secures this, and it is our right to claim this boldly

Whether you are a resistor, or an ally, or a little bit of both, … Go, boldly claiming your divine right to rest and in doing so, bless all others as you yourselves are blessed.

Amen and Blessed Be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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. Michelle LaGrave
March 9 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Trust is an important component of beloved community. How are communities of trust built? kept? restored? What does it look like when a community leads with trust in each other and the greater community?

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 that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

THE LONGING FOR SOMETHING MORE
by Gretchen Haley

Every little thing that breaks your heart
is welcome here
We’ll make a space for it
Give it its due time
and praise
for the wanting it represents
the longing for something more,
some healing hope that remains
not
yet

We promise no magic
no making it all better
But offer only this circle of trust
This human community
that remembers
Though imperfectly
that sings and prays
though sometimes
awkwardly

This gathering that loves,
though not yet enough
We’re still practicing
After all,
still learning,
still in need of help
and partners
Still becoming
able
to receive
all this beauty
and all these gifts
we each bring

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

First Reading

LIFT OUR VOICES #120
by Erica Hewitt

I don’t have anything to say.

Well, I do, but it might not be interesting to anyone.

I have secrets inside of me and struggles, and I don’t know if I’m ready to share them.

I want to hear what you have to say.

I want to speak of the deepest things together.

I want to hear what you dream about, what you hope for.

I want to know how you have come to arrive at this resting point along your journey.

What if I speak and you don’t understand me?

I will listen and listen again until my hearing becomes understanding.

What if I can’t find the words to share the world inside of me?

I believe that wise words will emerge from you.

How can I trust you to hold my life’s stories? You, who I may not even know.

By knowing that as I receive part of your story, I will give you part of mine.

How will this work? What will happen? What awaits us?

We can find out anything by beginning.

Let us begin to listen and trust and to deeply know one another.

May it be so.

Second Reading

by adrienne maree brown

trust the people who move towards you and already feel like home.
trust the people to let you rest.
trust the people to do everything better than you could have imagined.
trust the people and they become trustworthy.
trust that the people are doing their work to trust themselves.
trust that each breach of trust can deepen trust or clarify boundaries.
trust the people who revel in pleasure after hard work.
trust the people who let children teach, remind us how to emote,
be still, and laugh.
trust the people who see and hold your heart.
trust the people who listen to the whales.
trust the people and you will become trustworthy.
trust the people and show them your love.
trust the people.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

This morning I Will begin with an assertion Followed by many many questions Which in turn are sprinkled with a few stories and Almost no answers Our topic today is trust, specifically building communities of trust. And it is one that is particularly tender during this time, I think. And we are going to sort of preach this sermon together. So are you ready for something a little different, a little more participatory? We’ve got things for the introverts and for the extroverts today.

My assertion is this. Trust is an essential component of beloved community. If trust is not present, beloved community is not possible. Beloved community or communities are communities of trust, trust like beloved community must be built, created, and when broken restored. The higher the level of trust, the closer we come to true beloved community.

So I’ll repeat my assertion because this is the foundation of what we are going to do together this morning and it was kind of a lot packed into a few sentences. Trust is an essential component of beloved community. If trust is not present, beloved community is not possible. Beloved community, or communities, while we’re working on the greater community, are communities of trust. And trust, like beloved community, must be built, created, and when broken, restored. The higher the level of trust, the closer we come to true beloved community.

So my first questions, these are for the introverts because I’ll say them a couple of times and then I’ll pause for a few moments of quiet reflection. We have ideas about what beloved community might mean that come from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and it has been many decades since we lost Dr. King and so ideas about beloved community have evolved since then.

So what does beloved community mean to you? And what is the role of trust in building Beloved Community? What does Beloved Community mean to you? Now, today. And what is the role of trust?

Next questions. How do we build trust? How do we create it? This is the participatory part where we get some ideas flowing. Reverend Aaron will call on a few people, let’s say maybe three, to share their ideas and then repeat what they’ve said into the microphone so we can all hear both in this room and online.

For those of you who are online, you can type your thoughts into the chat if that’s available to you and your method and begin a parallel discussion to ours here in the sanctuary. So here are the questions again. How do we build trust? In other words, where trust is already present, how do we increase or build our level of trust with each other? And how do we create trust? In other words, when we meet people for the first time or they are new to us, how do we begin the process of trusting each other? How do we build? How do we create trust? Some ideas.

So I think you can create trust with new people by using the platinum rule to treat others the way they want to be treated. And if people see that you treat them the way that they like to be treated, they might trust you more. Awesome.

Okay, Nick said that with new people in particular, but with anyone, right, we can create trust with the platinum rule. And if you haven’t heard of the platinum rule, that’s treat others the way they would like to be treated, right? So that requires us to invite them to tell us and to notice how they’d like to be treated. Thank you, Nick.

LP, who has an amazing bow, said that one way that we can build communal trust is through shared cooking and that sacred process of breaking bread together. Thank you.

Inconveniencing yourself for others so that people know when they really do need to ask that you’ve demonstrated that they won’t be a burden and you’re willing to do things. So did I kind of get that close? Awesome, thank you.

Russell said, “To really sincerely be open when you meet someone to demonstrate that sincerity and openness in your listening.” And I felt that in your responsiveness as well, a quality of presence and openness. Thank you all, thank you.

Thank you. Those are some wonderful ideas to get started.

• So yes, we can allow ourselves to be known. We can share our stories, we can open ourselves to those more vulnerable places inside that go even deeper, help us move even deeper into relationship.
• We can listen deeply without judging, without interrupting, without spending our time while listening, actually planning to say what we’re going to, how we’re going to respond.
• We can hold confidences when they are shared with us.
• We can act with integrity, which is one of our UU values.

And I think we can see, without my saying too much about it, why if my assertion about trust is true, our chalice circles and wellspring groups, which for those of you who are new, are small group ministries where people share deeply about monthly themes like trust, which is this month’s theme, are so important. They’re not just important for our spiritual growth, but also for building trust and building the health of our community.

So, I have a story. Long ago, just before I headed out to seminary, I was a preschool teacher. And one day I was presented with an opportunity to get to know one of the teachers better. I shared with her, confidentially, that I had felt called to ministry and would be going to seminary in the fall. Not long after that conversation, I got called to the office and asked about my future plans. The other teacher had betrayed my trust and shared with the director that I would be leaving.

An uncomfortable conversation ensued and I shared my plans with the director in a way and with a timing that I had not chosen. I was hurt and what I thought of as a newly developing friendship was damaged. I later came to understand that she was operating out of what she thought of as the best interests of the students and the school. She did not want me to wait too long to share my news and risk my position going unfilled. Of course, I would have preferred she come to me with her concern and share that and encourage me to share my news instead of doing it for me.

But I need to honor within myself that she did have good intentions. And what she did not know was that I was considering two options, one that would have required me to move away and live on campus and leave my position as a teacher and the other which was nearby and would have allowed me to take classes in the evening and maintain my job teaching during the day for the next few years. I had not shared my plans with the director because I had not yet decided which path I would take to becoming a minister. And then I felt rushed in making that decision because the director then wanted to know.

At the time, I did not have the skills to address this break in relationship with the other teacher. If I had I would have asked her to share with me why she made the decision she did and listen to what she had to say and then I would have shared my perspective including my feelings of hurt and betrayal and also the missing information she did not have and then to ask if there was a way we could restore our relationship.

So I’m not naive. I think few of us are. We know that every time we choose to trust, we are choosing risk. There is always the possibility that confidences will be broken, that our trust will be betrayed. Trust is broken in ways little and big all the time. We are imperfect humans. The key is to trust each other enough to work to restore trust, to do the work of repair, and to know that sometimes this doesn’t happen, that the work of repair doesn’t happen, that people can and do decline our overtures to restore relationship. And still we must find a way to be at peace with their decision, a decision which is outside of our control. And yet still all remain in beloved community together.

We also want to acknowledge that sometimes in certain very extreme circumstances we really need to shift how we understand trust for our own spiritual and mental health. There are, after all, people who are sociopaths and psychopaths out there in this world. Yes, I’m using the lay terms here.

In these circumstances, when someone is incapable of being trustworthy in the way we usually think of trustworthiness, we can still trust them to be who they actually are. I learned this from speaking with someone recently about the challenge of finding hope within our current political climate. She shared with me that she trusts a particular leader to mess up so badly at some point that he will actually wind up creating an opening for change. She trusts him to be who he actually is instead of who she wishes he would be, and she does it in a way that creates hope. She trusts him to mess up, to create the opening, and therein lies the hope.

By the way, since this is a sermon after all, faith is actually trust, plus an element of the transcendent. Whether that is God or some universal force bigger than ourselves. So it would also be appropriate if you’d like to think of all of this in the terms of the word faith.

So returning to relationships here in this congregation, in this community, with people being people, with people being imperfect, with people being prone to messing up unintentionally or otherwise. Can we trust that when trust is broken, as it will be, that we have a covenant and a team and processes that can help us find a way through to restoring relationships?

Can we trust that when we do the work of restoration, Sometimes we don’t do it as well or as smoothly as we’d like, and yet there still is integrity to engaging that process. Can we trust that this congregation or whatever other setting you may find yourself in is healthy enough to allow for places of discomfort, such as when apologies or olive branches are not immediately accepted. Can we trust this congregation, this community, to still hold and love us all, to know and accept that we all belong even in our imperfection.

There’s a lot to think about and I don’t have all of the answers. I am looking to all of you to help with finding the answers within. Especially since I will be leaving soon and this will remain your community, but not mine. I will say that I do believe you can do this, that I have faith in all of you.

One last story, and then a final challenge. I once worked at a church as an interim. You know that I’ve moved from church to church to church traveling around the country doing this interim work specialized work. And as usual I began with a startup workshop where a consultant from the UUA’s regional office came in and worked with all of us about roles and responsibility and making sure we had clarity about who had the authority and expectation to do what between the minister and the board and the congregation and the RE teacher. So in this case, the consultant asked the assembled group, the congregation, if it was okay for the ministers to speak up on their have. This was meant to be a provocative question that would open a great deal of discussion. Instead, the response was, “Yeah, of course. We trust our ministers to speak up for us.” The consultant was a bit flabbergasted because most of our congregations do not allow for this.

And this is where the challenge comes in. First UU is one of those congregations that prohibits its ministers from speaking up in public on their behalf. Ministers are free only to speak for themselves. It’s a little bit of splitting hairs when you’re out there in public to say I speak only for myself, but I am the minister of this congregation. People don’t really hear it that way anyway. This has been how it has been in most UU congregations. But I wonder, I wonder if it’s time for a change. We are living in a world and in a nation which is rapidly changing. We are living in a time of rising fascism.

The prohibition of ministers speaking up on behalf of their congregations may have served its purpose and its time, and there may have been reasons for it, good, valid reasons. But is it still helpful now? Does this time call for something different? For a new way of being in the world? What would it be like to trust your ministers to speak up with the full weight of the congregation behind them? Out there in the public square while we are fighting authoritarianism and fascism.

What would it be like to trust your ministers to be able to speak up immediately about the wrongs they see in the world and in this nation without having to go through a many months long process of congregational discernment and resolution making. What would it be like to trust your ministers to be able to judge for themselves when a particular issue is too sensitive to speak out about immediately and to trust that the ministers will take you through that process of congregational discernment when necessary. What would it be like to be able to trust on this level?

There are stories in this congregation and in all of our congregations about ministers being human, that’s a rumor, from making relatively minor mistakes to doing serious harm to outright misconduct. What would it look like for a congregation, for this congregation, to fully heal from the past, to accept that mistakes were made, that problems arose, and then to trust that a new way can be made.

This, by the way, especially for those of you visiting with us today, applies just as well to our families and our workplaces as it does our congregation. What would you as a congregation or some other group of people be able to do in this world if your leaders were well and fully trusted? What would you be able to do in this world if you well and fully trusted each other?

I don’t have all the answers for you. Just a few ideas and a lot of questions. What I do know, though, is that whatever you would be able to do with this level of trust would be nothing short of absolutely transformative, just like it says right up there in your mission. Transform lives. And I have faith that this community can find a way.

Amen and blessed be.

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 we remember that trust, like love, grows in small moments:
In promises kept and confidences held,
In boundaries respected and amends made,
In showing up again and again.
May we be brave enough to risk trust,
Patient enough to build it slowly,
And gentle with ourselves and others when it breaks.
Amen.

by the Rev. Angeline C. Jackson

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