No One Is Getting Left Behind

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
July 26,2026
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Whether we are talking about an authoritarian crisis or a physical crisis, all of us need each other to survive and thrive. This Sunday Rev. Carrie explores this topic and prepares us for an emergency response. As part of the service, we will all participate in a fire drill, which will be rewarded with great music from Parker Woodland, popsicles, and (possibly) firefighters.

Welcome

Prelude: “Last Song on Earth” (Parker Woodland)

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

Call to Worship

A PERSON IS A PERSON THROUGH OTHER PERSONS
Bishop Desmon Tutu

A person is a person through other persons. None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think or walk or speak or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are.

Hymn

“No One is Getting Left Behind” (Joshua Blaine)

Affirming Our Mission

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

Moment for Beloved Community

Good morning. I am David Overton, and Wendy Erisman and I are the co-chairs of our first UU Democracy Pillar. We’ve restarted the Democracy Pillar because, as we all know too well, in 2026, our democracy is under severe threat.

In fact, a fire drill is a great analogy for what we’re experiencing. So we plan several actions leading up to the November elections, all of them nonpartisan. And you are invited and encouraged to participate in all of these.

First is voter registration. If you’re not registered, you can register at the table in the gallery. It’ll be there every week until the election. And if you are or if you think you’re registered, you can check to be sure at that table.

Second, we’ll be writing postcards. And those are to registered voters who didn’t vote in the last… to encourage them to vote this time. Bob and Victoria Hendricks are coordinating this and their goal, this is incredible, but the goal is to complete and mail 40,000 postcards.

Third is poll monitoring. This is to keep an eye on the polls during the November election and to help ensure, to help answer questions from voters. We’ll be providing poll monitoring training in advance of the election.

And then fourth is we’ll be holding a Congregational Solidarity Summit focused on voting rights. Wendy, can you explain more about what the Solidarity Summit is?

Yes, I can. So we very much hope that you will mark your calendar for Ballots and Beyond, which is our Congregational Solidarity Summit. It will be Saturday, August 29th, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. here at First UU.

Now, the goal of these summits, from the perspective of UU the Vote, is to connect like-minded people around what we can do to protect democracy, which starts with voting rights but doesn’t stop there. So we’ll be inviting the other Central Texas UU churches, and we encourage everyone to come and learn about the various things you can do to help protect democracy.

Anthem

“The World’s On Fire” (And We Still Fall In Love) – Parker Woodland w/the First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble: Erin Walter (vocals & bass); Andrew Solin (guitar & vocals); Keri Cinquina (drums & vocals)

Reading

TAKE THIS AS AN INVITATION
Rev. Birch Cue

Take this as an invitation to imagine how wide this world can be, to face the closing doors before us and move toward the opening windows in our lives.

Take this as an invitation to remember a critical truth that none of us have it all figured out, that we help one another grow and change.

Take this as an invitation to cross thresholds of challenge, not on our own, not for ourselves alone, but side-by-side, spirits rising and expanding together.

Let us go now to share our gifts and truth with each other and this world.

Centering

Sermon

NO ONE IS GETTING LEFT BEHIND
Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

NOTE: This is a AI generated (edited) transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

So I titled the sermon, “No One’s Getting Left Behind”. And it did not occur to me until this morning talking to Luther that that might be a little triggering for my ex-fundies and ex-evangelicals who are familiar with the Kirk Cameron version of No One’s Getting Left Behind, which is about the rapture. Sorry about that. This is not what this sermon is about.

A few weeks ago, because of the amazing support of this community and because of the wonderful connective tissue of the Texas UU Justice Ministry, I was able to go to Newark, New Jersey, to learn from and be in solidarity with Faith in New Jersey, who are working to shut down the Delaney Detention Center. And it was then, during the rituals that they taught us, that we sang that song. And I love it. No one’s getting left behind. We will get there together. We’re not going to get there at all.

Now that’s purely aspirational, as we know, because that’s not really how things work, right? Not particularly. There are a lot of people who are getting there kind of all the time. Billionaires, for example. And tons and tons of people who get left behind all the time. Which is kind of how it works when you live in what Bell Hooks calls an Imperialist White Supremacy Hetero-Patriarchy.

If you grew up here or lived the majority of your life here, you probably heard this idea at some point that the most important thing is to look out for you and yours. And yours being defined as a pretty small group of people who usually you’re related to. I’d like to think that that is called rugged individualism. Taking care of only ourselves because we’ve been sold the lie that we are pitted in competition or conflict with those who are not like us. Take care of only yourself because you don’t need anyone else to survive.

I do not know how many times growing up I heard, just wait till you grow up and have a family. You’ll be conservative. Jokes on them. I am way more unsufferable now.

The story of competition for resources is a lie. Bootstrap individualism is a lie. But it’s a strong lie. And that strong lie has led to drastic inequalities and all manner of violence. It’s powerful and it’s harmful.

But I truly believe that the tide is shifting. That the story of rugged individualism is being revealed to be the lie that it always was. That more and more people are realizing that they have been pitted in competition and conflict as a means of control. That people are awakening to the idea that we need each other. That mutual aid is how we thrive. That solidarity work is the work of salvation.

A deep knowing that we are going to get there together or we’re not going to get there at all. And so we practice what that looks like. We practice community care. We practice solidarity in our community so we can branch out. And today we’re going to do that practice by doing something that we’ve probably all done a hundred times when we were children, which is a fire drill.

So that is going to be moving together as a unit so that we all can get outside safely. But fire drills are not the only way we protect each other in our community. We have a lot of people who are constantly working to make sure that we are safe and taken care of. But they need our help.

So for example, if someone has a medical emergency, we have two AEDs in this building, automated external defibrillators. If someone passes out and they are not breathing, so we’re going to all stop what we’re doing, right? And we are going to tend to them. We’re going to go out here to the south entrance. In the cabinet, there’s an AED. Or we’re going to go down to the hall by the gallery where the water fountain is and there is an AED. We’re going to grab that and we’re going to do the work of taking care of one another. Because that’s what we do.

We put our energy and attention on our neighbors that need it. Both of those AEDs also have first aid kits and stop the bleed kits.

Now we have several people who are trained in CPR and first aid and stop the bleed, but no one can do that alone. You might be called on to call 911 or to go stand outside until the EMTs get here or to comfort a loved one.

We pay attention. We provide help. That’s what we’re doing here. And all of it is practice.

We also have many fire extinguishers in the building, which is super great when you have a minister who almost caught herself on fire a couple of months ago.

And also a candle, beautiful, beautiful candle wall. But when not done correctly, it has caught some people on fire. And unfortunately, if the sticks are not put out all the way, they can actually catch fire in the glass jar, which guess what glass does when it gets real, real hot?

So first, we all practice fire safety. And when that fails, we have so many fire extinguishers. We have one right back there by the exit. We have one in Howson Hall. We have one that I was told is called the mega in the kitchen. And then one in each of the halls, okay? Which are great for little contained fires.

But y’all, when things get bigger, we’re going to have to work together to get out of harm’s way, right?

Now, Shannon has created this beautiful slide. She has outdone herself, so let’s give it a round as well. So you might have noticed that there are colors in front of you, okay? She’s created this beautiful color-coded system for all of us. So if you’re in this sanctuary, all the evacuation routes are color-coded. The pews, so what you can see in front of you, that’s your color. The doors are marked with your color. Learn your color, know your color, follow your color.

So for instance, I’m in the red section. My red friends. Make some noise. Who are my red friends? All right. Awesome.

Okay. Section captains are going to make sure that we all exit. So we’re going to look to them, and we’re going to follow them using our color.

I love it’s all so beautifully organized. It’s so great.

Now, if this wasn’t a test, if it was, say, an authoritarian crisis or something we would want to look to our leaders and those are the people that are most impacted because they know what to do the best right. So we’re going to look to our section captains always and we are going to follow their lead. Amen, Amen. Now for this test, this practice, we are going to follow our section captains. Would you all stand up for me. We’ve got some, got a yellow, we got a blue, we got a green, we got a red, We got an orange.

Wonderful. Okay, thank you all so much for what you’re doing.

Now, if you need some assistance, please ask for assistance. If your neighbor needs some assistance, please give them assistance because we are going to get there together or… That’s right. So no rushing over anyone to get out of the way. We are going to go at everyone’s pace. We are not billionaires. after all.

Now caveat, if you are a billionaire, please come talk to me because I have some ideas about the religious education program and ending poverty. Let’s talk.

If you’re in Howson Hall, you can leave out through the gallery doors or you can leave out of the north exit. If you’re leaving out of the north exit, you can meet up with a group that are going to be in the credit union. And if you are leaving out of the gallery doors, you can meet all of the people who are going to be past the rainbow. This will all make sense once you follow your section leaders.

Now, the people who are in charge of the children, they have their own orders. They’re going to get the children out safely. And what will happen is once we’re given the all clear, they will bring the kids to the courtyard. We will go to the courtyard.

There will be popsicles. But most importantly, if you are a person with a child, check your child out using the checkout protocol. This Sunday and every Sunday, y’all, don’t cause me to have a panic attack, please. I want to know where the children are, and I want to know they’re with you.

And then that’s it. Like I said, we’ll have popsicles. You can go shop at the merch booth for Parker Woodland, which has some really cool t-shirts, and grab coffee like we always do in Howson Hall.

And if the loudspeaker is working, I’m going to do a benediction over the loudspeaker because Shannon said I could. So I’m very excited about that.

Now, are there any questions that I hopefully can field?

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