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Rev. Erin Walter
November 3, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
On the Sunday between Dia de los Muertos and Election Day, Rev. Erin Walter reflects with us on the call of our ancestors and our power, as Patti Smith sings, “to dream, to rule, to wrestle the earth from fools.” However hopeful or scared, energized or exhausted, you may be feeling in this changing season, come sing, dream, and exhale in 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
by Orlanda Brugnola
Flame, friend of our most ancient ancestors,
we kindle you now to make you visible in this time.
Yet, in truth, you burn always,
in the unique worth of each person,
in the imagination,
in the turning of the heart to sorrow or joy,
in the call to hope and
in the call to justice.
Burn bright before us.
Burn bright within us.
May we enter into this space,
nourished by the love and warmth of community.
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Reading
by Rev. Ashley Horan, UUA
(written just before 2016 election)“You are loved beyond belief. You are enough, you are precious, your work and your life matter, and you are not alone. You are part of a “we,” a great cloud of witnesses living and dead who have insisted that this beautiful, broken world of ours is a blessing worthy of both deep gratitude and fierce protection. Whatever happens tomorrow, our ancestors and our descendants are beckoning us, compelling us onward toward greater connection, greater compassion, greater commitment to one another and to the earth. Together, we are resilient and resourceful enough to say “yes” to that call, to make it our life’s work in a thousand different ways, knowing that we can do no other than bind ourselves more tightly together, and throw ourselves into the holy work of showing up, again and again, to be part of building that world of which we dream but which we have not yet seen.”
Prayer and Meditation
An excerpt by Rev. Kristin Grassel Schmidt
“We have gathered this morning with gratitude for all that has brought us to this day, this moment, this breath.
Let us never forget that we serve our neighbors, our values, our free faith in the spirit of the many who have gone before us,
who made ways where there was no way,
who left legacies for us to remember, to follow, to emulate
As we prepare for the week ahead,
Let us pray that the fire of commitment, the Spirit of truth, love, and justice that was in those ancestors goes with us.
God of many names and beyond all naming, Spirit of Love,
Breath of Life,
In this time when so many stakes feel so high, help us remember that no season lasts forever,
that the days of the greedy and powerful are numbered,
that there is a force at work in our world and among us that lifts up the oppressed and fills the hungry … ”
Sermon
(Sings)
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part
-Tom Petty
I love that song but I actually disagree with the patron saint musician Tom Petty. The waiting is hard but it’s not the hardest part. The hardest part is women dying without abortion care. The hardest part is our trans families who aren’t here anymore because they had to leave the state. The hardest part is the militarization of our beautiful border communities, war, voter suppression and intimidation, mass shootings. That’s the hardest part.
And still we sing. And i want to talk about what we can do in the next couple days. Because I know we are tired. The work we do over the next two days is what we can do to stave off the hardest part. We’re going to gather our spirits this morning for the next couple days.
So on Friday I got on Zoom, in between dropping my daughter at theater practice and joining my band in the studio, and I got on the Zoom call with our UU state action network siblings in North Carolina. I am honored to lead our Texas UU Justice Ministry, and we do our work in relationship with UU the Vote, our 40 congregations, and partners around the country.
The story that my colleague Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson told that brought so much joy to my heart.
.. UUs from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland came down to help get out the vote in North Carolina, where Asian Americans have been experiencing harassment and intimidation at a senior center polling place. All these UUs asked themselves what was needed, what kind of resistance could they bring in the spirit that they claim. So they put together a choir of musicians, a lot like the bluegrass we heard today. And they sang and created a spirit of love and welcome at their polling place for voters.
You might need to sing at your polling place. This is not theoretical. If it gets ugly out there on Tuesday, I want to hear that our people sang!
I voted at the South Austin Community Center this week. I remember my first time voting when I was 18, and still this time, I have never felt so emotional about voting in my entire life. I teared up. ! wanted to hug every single volunteer in that rec center.
A friend also voted there Friday night and waited in line for more than an hour, on the last night of early voting. She said someone referred to her as a procrastinator. My friend is a social worker who works with people who are homeless, addicted to drugs, and HIV positive. She is not a procrastinator. She got to the polls as soon as she could.
With two days to go until the election, I come today to celebrate all the ways we as UUs are working for democracy, to hold space for the absolute Halloween caldron of emotions we are feeling right now, and to remind us that, frankly, though I know we are weary – I am weary – we must take heart, take a breath, and keep working. The work we do in the next two days can decide whether our values show up to the polls, our Supreme Court, our laws of bodily autonomy, who feels safe enough to stay in Texas or this country, whether we have a department of education or not a few months or years from now.
And I don’t know what the results will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, or any day. Last weekend, I spoke on a panel for the NY State Convention of Universalists, alongside my colleagues Rev. Julian Soto and Rev. Chris Long, about allyship across state lines, and Rev. Soto talked about Fannie Lou Hamer and how hard she worked for voting and economic rights for Black Americans and therefore all Americans. If you are struggling in your spirit about voting, please go seek out the history of Fannie Lou Hamer. She is the one who famously said, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Hamer also said, “I feel sorry for anybody that could let hate wrap them up. Ain’t no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face.” Rev. Soto told the NY Universalists to remember Hamer’s work and to remember that, as people with privilege, many us, some fights are not ours to win. They are only ours to fight.
So whatever happens this week, please take heart, we can’t know which fights we’re going to win and when, and we know what our commitment as people of faith in be in the fight for democracy. And I urge you to remember the words of Fannie Lou Hamer and not let hate wrap you up. There is a spark of the divine in all of us.
(Sings)
The only thing that we did was right
Was the day we started to fight
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on
The prize of collective liberation.
So I implore you to let this time together in church bolster your spirit to spend as much of the next two days calling, texting, knocking on doors, and having hard conversations as you can.
Yesterday I walked my dog with a close friend. As we visited, she told me she probably wasn’t going to vote. She doesn’t believe the claims of either of the major parties. It’s all just too much. I listened and told her I understand the frustration. And then we talked about Project 2025 and extremists’ desires to get rid of the Department of Education. Our kids are in public school. I mentioned control of our own bodies. We both have daughters. I told about how a big city like Houston has still had races decided by a small number of votes. I lament that I didn’t have this conversation with her during the early voting period, but better late than never. I said, I’m sorry, I know this is not fun. I know we are sick of this. And she said, no, thank you for reminding me to do my duty as an American.
I will text her on Tuesday to check in and encourage her one more time to vote. I will check with all my friends on Tuesday.
This is the work we have to do in these last days before Election Day, and really, as people with faith in democracy and a vision for a true multiracial democracy, this is our work to do always. To talk with our neighbors with empathy. To take no vote or voter for granted. To acknowledge where we still have much work to do, and must hold our leaders accountable, and that voting is but a first step in that direction, not the last.
We can call and text strangers. We can protect the polls. And we still need to check in with our friends, family, church members, and neighbors,
Sarah Serel-Harrop in mid-October: “I was blockwalking with some fellow UU’s today, and we knocked on 57 doors … But the most impactful part was when one of my colleagues asked a person on the street if he was ready for the upcoming election. He said he wasn’t eligible. I asked, are you sure? And in talking with him, he was actually off paper [completed his term of incarceration or probation and any related paperwork] and thus was eligible to register. So I registered him, explaining that he couldn’t vote in November, but could vote after that. And, I gave him a few mail-in forms. This just goes to show how impactful it is to be out and visible in the community. It was also so meaningful to me to be able to help someone regain his citizenship rights.”
We don’t know exactly what’s to come. But we do know that every conversation you have in your community matters, how you live your faith in the public square matters every day.
(Sings)
This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
The world didn’t give it,
the world can’t take it away
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 Andrew Pakula
As you prepare to leave this sacred space
As you prepare to leave this sacred space
Pack away a piece of this church in your heart.
Wrap it carefully like a precious gem.
Carry it with you through the joys and sorrows of your days –
Let its gentle glow strengthen you, warm you,
remind you of all that is good and true
Until you gather here again in this place of love.
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