Imagination

Listen to the service by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Patrice (PK) Curtis and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
October 6, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Patrice Curtis is helping us prepare for this year’s ministerial search and the possibilities a new co-minister might bring. In their role as the UUA’s Transformational Interim Ministries Director they amplify belonging, diversity, equity, and inclusion within congregations and in querying unhealthy patterns that make Beloved Community difficult to realize. At their request Rev. Curtis’ homily is not included.

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

– Sobonfu Some

Community is the spirit, the guiding light of the tribe, whereby people come together in order to fulfill a specific purpose, to help others fulfill their purpose, and to take care of one another.

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WHAT YOU RISK TELLING YOUR STORY
by Laura Ann Hershey

Ms Hershey (August 11, 1962 – November 26, 2010) was a white poet, journalist, feminist, and a disability rights activist and consultant known to have parked her wheelchair in front of buses. Hershey was one of the leaders of a protest against the paternalistic attitudes and images of people with disabilities inherent in Jerry Lewis’s MDA Telethon. She had spinal muscular atrophy.

What you risk telling your story:
You will bore them.
Your voice will break, your ink spill and stain your coat.
No one will understand,
their eyes become fences.

You will park yourself forever on the outside, your differentness once
and for all revealed, dangerous.
The names you give to yourself will become epithets.
Your happiness will be called
bravery, denial.

Your sadness will justify their pity.
Your fear will magnify their fears.
Everything you say will prove something about their god,
or their economic system.

Your feelings, that change day-to-day, kaleidoscopic,
will freeze in place,
brand you forever,
justify anything they decide to do with you.

Those with power can afford to tell their story
or not.
Those without power risk everything to tell their story
and must.

Someone, somewhere will hear your story
and decide to fight,
to live and refuse compromise.
Someone else will tell her own story,
risking everything.

Sermon

At Rev. Curtis’ request the audio and text of the homily is not available.

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

“We receive fragments of holiness, glimpses of eternity, brief moments of insight. Let us gather them up for the precious gifts that they are, and renewed by their grace, move boldly into the unknown.”

– Sarah York

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 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