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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
and Genie Martin
February 26, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote the web of all existence of which we are a part. Many cultures view not just the human world but that web of all existence as part of a sort of extended family. Certainly, we are called to build the Beloved Community with and among our fellow humans. Perhaps from this point of view though, we are also called to love all of creation itself.
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
In the true nature of things,
if we rightly consider,
every green tree is far more glorious
than if it were made of gold or silver.– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Meditation Reading
Nothing whatever is hidden;
From of old, all is clear as daylight.
The old pine-tree speaks divine wisdom;
The secret bird manifests eternal truth.
Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, grass grows by itself.
Falling mist flies together with the wild ducks;
The waters of autumn are of one colour with the sky.
Mountains and rivers
The whole earth all manifest forth
The essence of being.– Zen sacred text
Sermon
Chris Jimmerson
We have a wonderful new ministry team at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. The Earthkeepers ministry is dedicated to tending the sacred ground upon which we gather as a religious community.
And today’s service invites us into an extended moment for thinking about what we mean by “Beloved Community” in our mission.
Might we adopt a more expansive view of it? We begin with some reflections from long-term church member and active participant in Earthkeepers, Genie Martin.
Genie Martin
Good morning everyone. I’m Genie Martin and I’m here today as a member of the Earthkeepers (the new name of our church landscape committee) and also to talk about “Beloved Community”. The words on our wall mean a lot to me and I feel that we completed the original ideas when we added Dr King’s phrase “to build the Beloved Community” to our statement.
When I was a very young adult trying to make sense of how there could be so many sincerely religious people who had such different beliefs, it seemed like, if you looked past the differences, the core idea that people were calling “God” was simply a profound connectedness. I made the big mistake of saying that out loud to the minister of the little church I grew up in, and he told me I couldn’t think like that. I would be a heretic. It was meant to scare me, but I looked it up just to be sure. I found that the basic meaning of “heretic” is “a person who chooses what they believe”. I thought, “Well, okay.” It took a few years after that to discover that there is actually a church for “born again heretics”, and to find my way here where I belong.
These days I still let others argue the details, and I simply do what I can to nourish, transform and keep building that connectedness, that community. Of course, when we say those words, and when Dr. King said them, it’s with the assumption that we are talking about human community, a nurturing, just and beloved relationship between the people of the world. That’s a big enough challenge. Right?
About the same time that I started coming to church here, I, the artist, somehow ended up with a job teaching science in the city parks department. That was a big learning curve. Luckily, I was generously mentored by a group of wonderful people, including one woman, Margaret Campbell, who was a visionary environmentalist. She taught a different, but in essence, a similar idea of beloved community. She showed me a broader view of our place in this small corner of the big universe, and a different way of being profoundly connected.
We humans are not the rulers of this Earth that we like to think we are. We are one species of creatures in an intertwined, a profoundly connected web of life. We like to think we are so important, but we forget that we don’t exist independently of our home planet Earth, which is one planet in a solar system, one part of a big sky full of stars.
If this starts feeling like we’re insignificant, let’s remind ourselves that we have seen, again and again and again, the real power that is available to small but profoundly connected parts of a whole community.
So, the Earthkeepers here at the church have been trying to revitalize this little corner of the world, trying to get things to be a bit less scruffy, to look more welcoming. We hope it shows.
There’s a lot more to do. But we also want you to know that we are not working to create a manicured space that is only for the human community of First UU. Our church is a small part of Austin, but we are part of a larger community. In this expanded view of community, just as our congregation is bigger than those of us sitting here in this building, our church property is also a welcoming landscape that connects to other green spaces across the city, and to the whole ecosystem of central Texas. There are all sorts of birds, butterflies and bees, foxes, many kinds of wildlife who stop in for a visit. This is not a new thing. In years past the original landscapers of the church grounds worked hard to make a beautiful space, but made some dated choices that we now know could be done better. The next round of landscapers did some very good work to start updating what’s here and to take some important steps towards being more environmentally aware. Recently we’ve had a period of time when it just wasn’t possible to fully maintain all of our grounds here. Which brings us to now. We want to introduce our Earthkeepers group, and we want to let you know that we’ve been working hard to build a space that welcomes a Beloved Community, one that it is a bigger community than only the people.
Chris Jimmerson
Thank you, Genie. When I first read Genie’s beautiful words, I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness, what I am ever going to say after that!” So, I downloaded one of those artificial intelligence chatbot apps to my smart phone and asked it for advice on my part of this sermon. It sent me the entire history of its sermon writing and expressed interest in becoming the next minister here at the church. I deleted the app.
Anyway, I love Genie’s thoughts, and I love her invitation to expand how we think about beloved community to include the web of all existence, which we affirm and promote as Unitarian Universalists and of, which, we are a part, as Genie said.
I love how Genie emphasizes that our goal is not to create an entirely manicured landscape because we are a part of and must welcome a much, much larger ecosystem.
I think our spirituality and our faith are like that. Our faith can never be completely manicured because we are a part of a spiritual landscape that is vast and mysterious and unendingly complicated. We are a living tradition. Unitarian Universalism is a faith for which revelation is not sealed.
What we mean by that is that our faith is always seeking expanded truth, always asking deeper questions, always in relationship with other systems of belief.
Ours is a spirituality that accepts that life’s joys and sorrows are intertwined; that multiple potentialities may exist at once; that what we do not yet know is an incomprehensibly vast ocean upon which floats our tiny island of unmanicured uncertainty.
And we Unitarian Universalists think that’s great, because it means that almost limitless possibilities still lie before us!
One system of belief that expands the concept of Beloved Community is that expressed by Carol Lee Sanchez and many other Native American writers.
Sanchez, a poet, author and artist, writes of a wisdom tradition that views the rocks, the stones, the birds, the trees, the waters and the wind, the mountains and the fields, all of life and creation, the very soil upon which we rest, as our siblings, ancestors and relatives. They are sacred just as we are.
The web of all existence is a part of what we commit to loving when we struggle to build the Beloved Community. I will talk more about this when we Spring into Action this April to engage even more regarding the climate crisis.
For now though, I invite us all to think about how from this point of view, our relationship with the land and with all of life and creation is a holy relationship. The web of all existence is a family, of which we are only one small part, not a commodity for us to exploit.
And this perspective actually has a long history at this church. II Our current Earthkeepers group builds upon great work that has been done before now, such as putting in the all ages playground and populating our land with native plants. Did you know that we have for many years been a certified wildlife habitat?
Here’s the plaque that proves it.
SLIDE
That’s likely a big part of why, as Genie mentioned, we often share our land with a variety of birds, squirrels, butterflies, bees, as well as other insects and creatures, including hawks, foxes and, at least once, a skunk (though not lately and which proved to be harmless if left alone).
I also have not seen our flock of parakeets lately. They often come to hang out with us though, and they come and go, so I am hoping they visit again sometime soon. We have had recent fox sightings though! And speaking of which, would you like to see some of the foxes that have visited us in the past? Here is a short clip from one of our our security monitoring cameras.
VIDEO
That was from when the building was closed because of the pandemic, so there were not people around the courtyard at the time. Some folks also may not know that we also are generating part of our own electricity because church participants in the years before now had the wisdom to install solar panels.
SLIDE
And of course there were folks who came well before those of us here today, including our First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin ancestors.
We do not yet have a complete history of the land before it became the church’s, but we must acknowledge that there were those before us who were in relationship with what is now our church land, and that this land was likely once held sacred by Native American peoples. We do know that the Tonkawa lived in central Texas. The Comanche and Apache, as well as others also moved through this area.
And so our Earthkeepers build upon the efforts of many others in stewarding our small part of the ecosystem. In their doing so, I have sensed that they have already enhanced their own spirituality and their sense of connection with this place we have chosen as our spiritual home.
There is something about being in direct, physical, hands on relationship with the earth that brings us as a sense of its holiness that we might otherwise move right past. And my beloveds, we do rest upon sacred ground. I have never felt this more strongly than I did early last year.
In January of 2022, our senior minister at the time, Meg, let me know that she was facing a serious health condition and would have to retire at the end of the church year. I was so heartbroken for Meg. My soul ached for our religious community that would have to bear this loss. Over the eight years that Meg and I had done ministry together at the time, we had not only become close colleagues but also good friends. We had supported one another through so many challenges, both here at the church and in each of our personal lives. We had also shared many, many joys.
I knew that, though our relationship would continue (and has, by the way – I spoke with Meg recently and she seems to be doing well) – though our relationship would continue, it would also change. In just a few months, we would no longer get to do ministry together. And that saddened me so greatly.
Even though it was cold out, and our church building was still shut down due to the pandemic, I had this overwhelming urge to come here – to immerse myself in this holy place. And I did.
I drove over, and for a while, I sat on one of the benches outside, allowing the surrounding nature and spiritual warmth I felt emanating from our building to envelope me in their hallowed embrace. After a while, it started to rain lightly, so I came inside, and sat here in the sanctuary, where Meg and I and so many of you had created so many holy moments together. And a sense of the divine entered and comforted my heart – the sacred held my soul until it was able to rise up and go on.
In a moment, I am going to invite us to rise up in body or spirt and sing together “Come and Go with Me to that Land.” This song likely originated as an African American spiritual, during the times slavery, so we must recognize the pain and suffering from which it arose, as well as the hope, resilience and human spirit it expresses.
I recently read that African American singer, scholar and activist Bernice Johnson Reagan has said that perhaps the song cries out a yearning to journey toward a set of better conditions – a land of freedom, justice, and singing.
A land that holds and is a part of the Beloved Community. We forge sacred ground when we create those conditions upon it.
Freedom. Justice. Beloved Community.
In these, we already rest upon sacred ground, no matter where we may be.
Benediction
As we go back out into our world now, go knowing that you are immersed in the holy. Go with the understanding that you already rest upon sacred ground. Until next we gather in this hallowed place: Go in peace.
May the congregations say, “Amen” and “blessed Be”. I send you much love.
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