Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
December 14, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
It’s the season of peace or so they say. What does peace mean when there is so little of it in the world? Where do we find our peace? Rev. Carrie explores peace and how we might think about it in times of chaos.
Prelude
“Cantata 140: Wenn Kommst Du, Mein Heil & Zion Hort Die Wachter Singen” (J.S. Bach) – Jihee Han (soprano), Robert Harlan (bass & Beth Blackerby (violin); The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble & Orchestra; Brent Baldwin, conductor
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
RIVER CALL
by Rev. Manish K. Mishra-MarzettiBetween 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,
Many different 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.
Music
“Cantata 140: Mein Freund ist Mein” (J.S. Bach) – Jihee Han (soprano), Kelan Latimer (bass) & Julianne Webner (oboe)
Reading
THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
by Rev. Addae A. KrabaLet this holiday season be a time for engaging heart to heart.
For those who, like the innkeeper, turned us away;
For holidays that didn’t live up to our expectations.
For ghosts of Christmas past that haunt us;
For those who gave us gifts, but never their presence.
For gifts we yearned for, but did not receive;
For things we received, but never wanted.
For those who offered us cheer when we needed comfort;
For those who offered us love that we could not accept.
For those we rejected, offering no room in our homes or hearts;
For ourselves, who could not give through fear.
For the times we saw a star in the East. but failed to follow it;
For times we followed the star, but it did not lead where we hoped.
For miracles gone unnoticed,
For wise men and women, whose gifts we rejected.
All these we remember, we forgive, we love.
In doing so, may we be granted an abiding peace.
Meditation Music
“Sunrise on the Hills” (Brent Baldwin) – The First UU Orchestra & Brent Baldwin (pedal steel)
Sermon
Peace, peace; when there is no peace. We are in the season of advent, which invites us to spend time thinking about hope, faith. joy, and PEACE.
Which is why back in September I picked peace to preach on today. Honestly, at the time it seemed like an easy lift.
“But, NO!” the universe said.
You see every time I’ve thought about this sermon my brain went right to this scripture from the Hebrew Bible:
“Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”
This is from the book of Jeremiah. You see Poor Jeremiah has the misfortune of being the prophet who has to tell Judah “Change your ways, or the Babylonians are coming for ya”…Which does end up happening.. For 70 years there is an exile, The temple is destroyed.
Of course because Jeremiah is a prophet no one is listening to him which makes him cranky. Or maybe he is cranky so no one is listening to him. I love prophets but they do have a reputation.
But, of course, we can’t really blame him for his crankiness. A prophet is just someone who is standing around observing the world, Putting two and two together and speaking the uncomfortable truths.
So I totally get cranky.
I think a lot of us are watching Project 2025 roll out when they said it never would… are feeling pretty cranky. So, here I am cranky and having to preach about peace!
My cranky is heightened by the holiday, because of the whiplash of the season. One minute I’m reading and seeing images of violence and destruction, of people being stolen off our streets by the government and the next moment Mariah Carey is crooning her Christmas list at me.
She wants you, by the way.
There is tinsel and holiday ads and the state is kidnapping people and separating families, at such a rate that they have had to create three “tender age” detention centers in South Texas alone. Those are detention centers for babies and children under 13.
Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Now I do have a part of me that has gladly taken on my annual, seasonal, part-time job of creating Christmas magic for my children. The same part that is getting giddy about our no-reversal christmas pageant next week.
And There is a part of me that wants to have a full on melt down and scream back at Mariah “stop gaslighting me.”
“All is not holy and jolly, in fact.”
It’s the disconnect between the reality of what is happening to people and the yearly pressure to perform the trappings of the holidays.
It is whiplash and it makes me cranky.
And maybe I think that must nave been now Henry Wadsworth Longfellow felt when he wrote this poem we sang- “I heard the belis on Christmas day.” He wrote that poem on Christmas day 1863. He was grieving his wife who died horribly. He was worried about his son who had been horribly wounded in battle. And he was living in a country that was two years into a brutal and bloody civil war.
And so when he heard those bells, ringing like they always rang before he had his own melt down. “There is no peace on earth, hate is strong and mocks the notion of peace.” He calls it out. He was lamenting. He is pointing out that things are not okay and pretending otherwise is wild.
Yes, Longfellow and I am with you! I feel that lament. I feel the urge to call it all out. And am thankful my faith and my religion supports me in that.
One of the most beautiful and humanizing aspect of Unitarian Universalism is our ability to be human and the encouragement to do so with eyes wide open. Our religion encourages us, to look past the illusion and delusion of the times we live in look past our own limited experience of the world so that we can understand what is happening. So that we can fully embody what it means to be interdependent. So that we can embody transformative justice. So that we can lament the pain, the violence, and the hurt. And by doing that we might build our hope on the vision of the world we are working towards. Not the one we are being sold.
i love that about us. I can’t imagine being more aligned to stay awake to all the world, to have empathy for those suffering, and then to allow our values to flow into action in response.
But lets be honest, that’s hard.
To open ourselves up to the pain of the world. To open ourselves up to caring about others. It’s hard.
And in a society so tailored to individualism it can be isolating.
For some of us, we feel attacked by pop stars.
But I think it is in this struggle, this struggle to stay aware that inevitably leads to lament, which allows us to move more deeply into our own spirituality, and to the peace it brings.
In Longfellow’s poem, we see a condensed version of this moving from lament to peace. First, he allows himself the lament. To say, “No, christmas you will not gaslight me I know things are bad. The world is on fire and your bells are ringing.”
But then, as the 19th Century Unitarian that he was, he finds peace in his faith. He asserts his belief that the “wrong shall fail, the right prevail. That peace will come.” For him this hope is that God is acting in this world.
Some of you might really resonate with that sentiment. Its the perfect time of year for it.
When I put my UU translator on, I resonate with it.
Part of the connective tissue that ties our pluralist community together, is that there is something. And that something holds us, guides us and is a source of our peace.
For Christians this peace in the salvation that Jesus brings. For me it is the message that is told over and over again and contained in this story of Jesus that gives me this peace. That love cannot be killed, and that when we act out of love, that when we are in solidarity, we can move mountains.
It is the peace that the beloved community is something that we work, because it is the way forward and when we work for it we bring it into the lives of each other in the here and the now.
Maybe that’s orchestrated by a God or Goddess, The Universe Spirit Or maybe it just us. Maybe its the assurance that comes because of the prayers we make with our own hands and our own feet. The prayers we make with our action.
The beautiful and sometimes baffling thing about our religion is that we don’t have to agree on the force behind it, but it is a part of our DNA to believe that there is something. And that something will enable us to bend that arch towards justice. Something that tells us that evil will not long endure. It is something that gives us this knowing and that is what helps to bring us peace. A peace that can and does exist, even in the chaos, even when “there is no peace.” It is the peace in the center of us. So deep that the storms can’t touch it. But close enough to our heart to guide us and move us to action. To make us brave enough to keep our eyes open to the suffering.
What is that something for you? And how does it hold you to both be awaken to the world And have the peaceful assurance, the hope that we do not work or hold our values in vain? What gives you peace, even when “there is no peace”?
For me there is peace in living in alignment with my values. There is peace in staying aware of what is happening. There is even peace in the lament because it means I am connected. And my peace comes from an assurance that the arch will bend. And It will bend towards justice.
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
– Rev. Abhi Jamamanchi:
May all beings be safe and free from harm.
May all live in peace and in wholeness of body, mind, and spirit.
May courage arise where there is fear,
and compassion where there is pain,
May those behind walls know they are not forgotten,
and may the work of justice be guided by love.
Peace within, peace among us, peace for all,
Peace within, peace among us, peace for all,Go in peace
Postlude
“Cantata 140: Gloria sei dir Gesungen” (J.S. Bach) – The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble & Orchestra; Brent Baldwin, conductor; Orchestra: Julianne Webner, oboe; Suzanne Segredo, oboe; Jennifer Bernard, English Horn; Beth Blackerby, violin; Christabel Lin, violin; Ames Asbell. viola: Anna Park, cello: Andrew Potter, bass: Valeria Diaz. organ & harpsichord
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 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
