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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
February 16, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We have just celebrated another Valentine’s Day, so let’s explore the practices that help us create healthy, successful romantic relationships and how many of those same practices might also enhance our love for family, friends, and others – and might even lead us to Agape – selfless, unconditional, divine love.

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

Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,
“You owe me.”
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky.

– Hafiz

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

DIRAIT-0N (translated as “AS THEY SAY”)
Morten Lauridsen
The first UU Adult Choir; Brent Baldwin, Conductor; Valerie Diaz, Piano

Translation of the lyrics that captures the poetic intent:

Wildness surrounding wildness,
Tenderness touching tenderness,
It is your own core that you ceaselessly caress, …. as they say.

It is your own center that you caress,
Your own reflection gives you light.
And in this way, you show us how Narcissus is redeemed.

The words in French are from a collection of poems about roses by Rilke, a European poet who wrote in the early 1900’s. Rilke often wrote lyrical, mysterious poetry, and often wrote about roses. In this poem, on one level, Rilke is describing a rose. In this interpretation, Rilke sees a rose and its petals as “wildness surrounding wildness,” and yet “tenderness touching tenderness.”

He marvels that the wild and delicate rose petals are caressing the core, the center, of the rose.

Rilke then refers to the sad story of Narcissus, the vain youth from Greek and Roman mythology. When Narcissus saw his own reflection in the water of a river for the first time, Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection, not realizing it was himself. He was so in love with himself, that he refused to eat, and soon wasted away and died. To help remember him, the narcissus flower grew where he had been.

In some versions of the story, Narcissus’s soul descends to hell, where he is doomed to look at his reflection forever, and may never see another person. In Rilke’s poem (and in this song), the wildness, tenderness, and self-awareness of the rose is contrasted with Narcissus, and perhaps Rilke is suggesting that the rose can show us how Narcissus can be redeemed – that is, freed from his fate of eternally gazing only on himself and not being aware of the world or people around him.

On another level, Rilke could also be describing a lover – a lover who is “wildness surrounding wildness,” and “tenderness touching tenderness.” Again, on this level, perhaps Rilke is suggesting that a wild and tender lover can show us, how to be freed from our own narcissistic self-absorption.

Reading

From STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER
by Tim Robbins

Love is the ultimate outlaw.
It just won’t adhere to any rules.
The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice.
Instead of vowing to honor and obey,
maybe we should swear to aid and abet.
That would mean that security is out of the question.
The words “make” and “stay” become inappropriate.
My love for you has no strings attached.
I love you for free.

Sermon

Happy Valentine’s a couple of days after the actual date.

Gretchen shared with us the four types of love earlier, and, of course, Valentines is all about love, particularly the type of love we call Eros or romantic love.

This was my first Valentines without my longtime romantic love, Wayne, so I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about what makes romantic relationships healthy – what makes them work – what made 33 years with Wayne work.

And, unexpectedly, to my surprise and grateful wonder, I have also had a valentine come into my life recently.

So I thought it might be fun, and, actually, soul nourishing, to think together a little bit today on what we know about how we might create and sustain healthy, mutually satisfying and beneficial eros love.

By far, the most common thread I found in the psychological research on the subject, is that the partners in a mutually life-enhancing romantic relationship establish as their shared goal for the relationship that each person in it fully thrive, fully flourish – they strive to support one another’s reaching for their greatest creative potential.

That rings true to me. I don’t think I would have ever become a minister, what I now know is my calling in life, if it it weren’t for Wayne.

That is a true gift he supported me in discovering.

And for each partner to thrive requires a sense of equity within the relationship.

Decision making is shared and communication is open and honest, even when it is hard.

Now, equality and being the same are not, well, the same.

So you might be better at cooking, and I might be better at organizing the kitchen, and that’s OK – we talk up front about who leads what, and we celebrate and learn from our differences, each of us becoming more creative and capable because of the other.

And by keeping communication open and discussing things up front, no one has to keep a ledger – equity is built into the ongoing interaction within the relationship.

Now, of course, there will still be disagreements.

What successful romantic partners do that help them navigate conflict though, is that they fight fair.

No personal attacks. No avoidance. No shutting down. No storming out of the room. No refusal to forgive.

Instead, the focus is on honest communication to identify where the true area of disagreement lies, make it explicit, and then find solutions that each of them can live with – or discover even better, more creative ways of addressing the issue than what either of them had come in with.

Here are some other ways that successful romantic partners support one another’s life-fulfillment:

• They infuse a sense of joy, fun, and playfulness into the relationship.

For example, they have fun, endearing “pet names” for one another. They approach their time together with humor. They schedule time to do things they both enjoy together – to play together. They reward each other with compliments and endearments freely and frequently.

• They recognize that each of us and each situation may be different as regards what might best support the other. So, they make this explicit. Instead of asking, “how can I help?”, one New York Times article suggests asking, “Would helping, hugging, or hearing you feel most supportive?”

The three “Hs”.

Recently, we’ve added a fourth “H” – Halo Top ice cream.

• Thriving romantic partners are creative about how they structure their life together – Marriage and family therapist Stephanie Yates-Anyabwile says that they throw out the relationship rule book.

So, for instance, if two people have very different traveling styles and habits, is it really necessary that their recreational travel be done together?

If they have very different sleeping habits, is sleeping under the same roof, just fine, even if they don’t always sleep in the same bed?

Several years after my stepdad, Ty died, my mom met Paul, who has become a wonderful and loving companion with her.

They decided not to move in together. They spend part of each week at her home and part at his, sometime even apart as their lives demand.

And they love it, and they love each other. Throw out the rule book and get creative!

• Here’s one more thing. Psychologist and relationship researcher John Gottman has found that relationships flourish when we pay attention to what he calls “emotional bids.”

Bids are “Fundamental units of emotional communication’ when we reach out to a partner with a request to connect. They can be big or small, verbal or nonverbal. We can be aware that we are making them or completely unaware.

An example of such a bid for connection might be if an avid birdwatcher, excitedly says to her husband, “Wow, I was just out watering the plants, and the most beautiful hummingbird I have ever seen flew right up to me and just hovered there staring at me!”

Now, her husband may not have much interest in birding himself, but if he recognizes this bid for connection and turns towards it by saying something like, “Really, honey, that’s amazing, what did it look like?”, he enhances their sense of connection.

However, if he turns away – “That’s great, honey, I need to finish this report for work” or turns against – “Why do you always interrupt me when I’m trying to work from home”, the connection is thwarted and the relationship may be damaged.

Successful romantic partners make these bids often, learn to recognize each others bids, and turn toward them the vast majority of the time.

And that requires us to risk vulnerability with each other.

One way Wayne used to make such a bid was to join me if I was on the couch watching TV or in bed reading and lay his head on my shoulder or upper arm.

I came to realize that this often meant he needed to talk about something that was difficult for him, so I learned to say something like, “It’s OK. Tell me.”

And he would.

And so we learn to turn toward each other. And so love goes. And so love grows.

Well, these are just a few examples I have found out there in the “literature on love”.

And it occurs to me that these practices that lead to flourishing eros love, are really spiritual practices that could also aide us in love for our friends and family, as well as that divine, pure, unselfish, and unconditional love for all called Agape love.

Supporting others in coming fully alive.

Equity.

Open communication, creative disagreement, valuing our differences. Joy, fun, and playfulness.

Hug. Hear. Help. Halo Top.

Getting creative about the ways we are in relationship. Making and turning toward bids for connection. Mutual flourishing as the goal.

All of these, it seems to me, are spiritual disciplines that can move us toward greater love in our lives AND living out our core Unitarian Universalist value – that Agape love.

Maybe Eros love is just how soulmates help each other practice Agape love.

Happy Valentines, my Beloveds!

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

Our benediction today is from words by writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin:

The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love-whether we call it friendship or family or romance- is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.

May the congregation say, “Amen”, and “Blessed Be.” Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
February 9, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught inclusion so rooted in love that it would become liberatory for all. Perhaps reclaiming the collective love and liberation that is at the heart of our UU Christian heritage is how we best counter an ideology of exclusion that has arisen in our state and our country.

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

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

– Audrey Lorde

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

A BLESSING CALLED SANCTUARY
by Jan Richardson

You hardly knew
how hungry you were to be gathered in,
to receive the welcome that invited you to enter entirely
nothing of you found foreign or strange,
nothing of your life that you were asked
to leave behind or to carry in silence or in shame.

Tentative steps became settling in,
leaning into the blessing
that enfolded you, taking your place in the circle that stunned you
with its unimagined grace.

You began to breathe again,
to move without fear, to speak with abandon
the words you carried in your bones, that echoed in your being.
You learned to sing.

But the deal with this blessing is that it will not leave you alone,
will not let you linger in safety, in stasis.

The time will come when this blessing
will ask you to leave,
not because it has tired of you,
but because it desires for you to become the sanctuary that you have found-
to speak your word into the world, to tell what you have heard
with your own ears, seen with your own eyes, known in your own heart:

Sermon

• • Blessed are we when we seek spiritual truths; questions more profound than answers; revelation that is continuous rather than stagnate; mystery over certitude; a sense of our vast and sacred interconnectedness, eschewing the false and shallow reassurances of privilege through the exclusion of difference; the false idol of power through division.

• • Blessed are we when we love beyond our own group – that which is familiar. For though the cost of such boundless love is greater loss, even as we mourn such greater loss, we know a love that sustains and comforts even against injustice, despair, even against death.

• • Blessed are we when we are humble; when we embrace and share our vulnerabilities. This is how we find the courage to truly know others; we live wholeheartedly; we sense our place in the great web of all existence.

• Blessed are we when we hunger and thirst for justice, not just for ourselves and our closest kindred, but for all. For this is how we know the fullness of love and the flourishing of our own spirits. It is how we become tributaries of the divine river of love that flows through our universe and washes away the sorrow of our world.

These are the waters that carry us toward liberation for us all. 

• • Blessed are we when we show mercy with no expectation of reward or return, for this is how we seed showers of compassion and empathy for one another and for all.

• • Blessed are we when we allow that divine river of love to flow through and occupy our hearts because this is how we experience the divine within ourselves.

• • Blessed are we when we work for peace, as peace for all is the only way through which each of us will know peace.

• Blessed are we when we risk persecution by the forces of division and exclusion, oppression and injustice, because the Beloved Community we build together is more than worth such risk.

Because we shall overcome. 

We must shine the light of justice out into our world and among all beings, allow the love that is God and the God that is love to find physical expression through us.

The words I just spoke are a modernization of “The Beatitudes” from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5 though 7 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivers a message of love, compassion, and selflessness. He encourages us to love our enemies, to forgive others. He urges care and justice for the poor and marginalized.

Jesus delivers a message of inclusion and a warning against exclusion and division.

The kind of exclusion and division we are witnessing in the halls of government in Washington, DC and the capitol building right here in Austin, TX.

At the federal level, we are seeing the implementation of Project 2025, a white, Christian Nationalist manifesto and plan created by the extremist right wing organization called the Heritage Foundation – a plan that aims to entirely restructure the levers and systems of our federal government to vest immense power in a cadre of ultra-wealthy, mostly white, mostly cis-gendered heterosexual males who call themselves Christians or at least stake claim to what they falsely call Christian tenets.

They are bent on exclusion – making women second class citizens once more, erasing the rights and existence of LGBTQ+ folks, particularly our trans siblings, destroying all of the rights and protections that had been put in place to try to break apart systems of white supremacy and racism embedded within governmental and societal institutions.

Make no mistake, in our current societal political context, “Make America Great Again”, means take America back to an era when BIPOC folks, LTBTQ folks, women, non-Christians, and so many more suffered even greater inequity, exclusions and oppression than now.

And even though we have yet to see true equity in America, even the gains that have been made are too much, too inclusive, too threatening to an ideology of white supremacy culture, hetero-cis-patriarchy, radical-capitalistic, caste-structured, fundamentalist Christian nationalism.

All in the name of Jesus, praise God!

I don’t need to go through the havoc they have been reeking upon our governmental systems intended to help and protect people, particularly those now targeted for exclusion – the mechanisms being put into place to concentrate wealth and power within a small plutocracy and its enablers, the only folks intended for inclusion.

You all have been watching, and I refuse to add to sense of overwhelm being intentionally created.

I know so many of you are doing what you can think of to try to stop the assault.

Here is something more I think we might do if we are to overcome though. What if we reclaim Jesus’ message of love, justice and inclusion that has so effectively been co-opted?

We embrace the true message of Christianity, out of which, after all, our own Unitarian and Universalist faiths arose – redefine its images and language for ourselves, knowing that we do not have to believe in superstition and irrationality to do so.

We have get over allergies to God and Christian language so many of us carry, often because of having been hurt by the misuse and desecration of that religion and its language in our pasts. Me included.

We have to be able to counter forces that are redefining the Beatitudes for themselves like this:

• Blessed are we who know with certitude that God favors us.
• Blessed is our own small circle of rich white dudes.
• Blessed is our hubris.
• Blessed is false righteousness at the expense of justice – that calls mercy the folly of fools.
• Blessed are we who exclude from our hearts others who are different, even if we must use force, war, genocide and persecution to do so.

These are not the words and teachings of Jesus, and we have to be able to stand in the public square and say so. 

Because right now, right now, this is the ground upon which the struggle for the soul of America is being fought.

Now, I know that I am using strong language today, both to embrace the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and to forthrightly condemn the ideology and actions of a government that defiles those teachings.

I am using strong language because the stakes are that high – the soul of America and by extension much of the rest of our world is at stake.

Now I am not saying we have to embrace a particular theology, accept a creed, or give up a perspective based in humanism, naturalism, science or other theology or philosophy.

I am simply suggesting that we need that comfort level with the language and concepts of Christianity, adapted to our own perspectives, so they we do not exclude folks who otherwise share our values and could be allies.

So that Christianity, our heritage, cannot be co-opted by an ideology that is in direct opposition to our values of love and inclusion, and, in fact the values that Jesus himself spoke.

I wonder how it might be if we were to testify at the state legislature and say something like,

“this bill will cause great harm to trans folks and those who love them, but Jesus said that we are to keep love in our hearts and show mercy to all
– Matthew 5, verses 7 and 8.”

What if we were to call our Senators and say, 

“Elon Musk was not elected by anyone and you have to stop what he is doing because he’s lying about why he is doing it.
Matthew 6: 15, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”

OK, I am being a bit angry flippant now, but I do think learning to be more open to the same values we embrace being expressed through other religious perspectives can help us be more inclusive, again including in the public square where we need lots more of those allies I mentioned. 

We can turn our anger and rage at what Elon Musk and others are doing doing, not at any person, but at how we can respond in ways that refocus us and help us work with others toward healing, love, justice.

And we can begin right here, in our own religious community.

Are we inclusive enough that people with a wide variety of progressive religious perspectives feel welcomed here?

It starts with us. It starts here.

To express how what we do in our organizations can radiate out into our larger world, adrienne marie brown, in their book, Emergent Strategy; Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, uses fractals, patterns in nature that repeat at differing scales – think of ferns that stay much the same from tiny to large or the spiral patterns we see all the way from the prints of our fingertips to shapes of galaxies in our universe.

Brown writes,

“A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale

Brown continues, 

“The patterns of the universe repeat at scale. There is a structural echo that suggests two things:

• one, that there are shapes and patterns fundamental to our universe,
• and two, that what we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale.”

What we do here at this church and then carry beyond these walls reverberates on the larger scale. 

It starts with us.

If we build a community of inclusive, love and justice, the church we create reverberates into the state, nation and world we hope to create.

The Church-For-All models for us a society for all.

May we bless the soul of America with our modern Beatitudes:

• a sense of our vast and sacred interconnectedness,
• a boundless love that sustains and comforts
• the courage required for humbleness and vulnerability
• a hunger and thirst for justice and a commitment to mercy, compassion and empathy.
• hearts so large the divine river of love floods through them, washing away persecution, oppression, and injustice.

In the words of our poet earlier, beatitudes that become the genesis of a soul of America that says to each and everyone, “You are beloved, a precious child of God, beautiful to behold, and you are welcome and more than welcome here.” 

Amen.

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

MARGINAL WISDOM (adapted)
by Leslie Takahashi

They teach us to read in black and white.
Truth is this-the rest false.
You are whole-or broken.
Who you love is acceptable-or not.

Life tells its truth in many hues … embraces multiple truths,
speaks of both, and ….

We are taught to see in absolutes.
Good versus evil.
Male versus female,
Old versus young,
Gay versus straight.

Let us see the fractions, the spectrum, the margins.
Let us open our hearts to the complexity of our worlds.
Let us make our lives sanctuaries, to nurture our many identities.

The day is coming when all will know

That the rainbow world is more gorgeous than monochrome,
That a river of identities can ebb and flow over the static,
stubborn rocks in its course,

That the margins hold the center

SERMON INDEX

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
February 2, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Join us for an all-ages service to bless the beloved animal companions in your lives. All friendly, well-behaved creatures, young, old, great and small, furry and scaly, are invited to this cherished annual tradition. In these challenging times, let us honor our animal companions, who are such a vital source of our joy and resilience.

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

DOGSOLOGY
Rev. LoraKim Joyner

From all that dwell below the skies
Let songs of hope and faith arise
Let peace, goodwill on earth be sung
Or barked or howled by every tongue!

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

JOB 12, 7-10

Ask the animals and they will teach you. Or the birds in the sky and they will tell you. Or speak to the Earth and it will teach you. Or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know the breath of the divine has done this. In whose care is the life of every creature and the breath of all humankind.

Sermon

Well, it’s been a challenging couple of weeks, hasn’t it?

How many of us are feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the meanness, incompetence, pettiness, and authoritarianism emanating from our federal government? Raise you hand if you are comfortable doing so. I think I even saw a few paws go up.

How many of us are wondering how in the world we are going to find the resilience, non-anxious presence, not to mention joy and comfort, to make it through the next few months and years?

The cats are like, “yeah, yeah, just don’t forget to feed me.” Now, look around at the beings gathered here for worship today. When we think about the community of love and support we will need to weather the hard times, sometimes we don’t remember to turn to our animal companions.

And yet, they can be such sources of love, joy and support.

I was so moved by Sol’s description of how their Kittan is “a living reminder of love, a promise that no one is ever fully lost.”

All of my current animal companions, all Basenji dogs, are named after well-known Unitarian Universalist ancestors.

Slide

Meet Louisa May Alcott and Benjamin Franklin.

Last year, after my spouse, Wayne, went on hospice care, I can tell you that Ben and Louisa somehow absolutely knew what was happening, or at least that something difficult for us was happening. And they were such a comfort to us.

They were glued to one of our sides almost constantly, except, when, you know, occasionally a squirrel needed running off or something, they are dogs after all – they read the situation and were so loving and affectionate and cuddly.

During the day when I had to be gone, they took care of Wayne for me.

In fact, near the end, when Wayne got really sick and was pretty much confined to one room, I had to put in a gate to keep them out and bring them for supervised visits because they tried to be a little too “cuddly” after he became too fragile for them to do so.

Years, prior, when it had come time to let our older dog, Virgil, go, the hospice vet that came to our house told us it was important for us to let Ben and Louisa be present as Virgil’s life ended.

She said that they would be upset and confused if Virgil just disappeared without them ever knowing why, and that they would know what had happened if they witnessed Virgil’s death. And so we did let them be there, and they did know.

Because of that, Wayne had told me that he wanted me to bring them in after he died, so they would know. And the morning that it happened, I did. And they did know.

Back when Wayne had still been mobile enough to move around the house, I had trained them so that I could say, “Where’s the Wayne?”, and they would go running off to find him and check on him for me.

A few days after Wayne died, and I was still in overwhelming grief, I suddenly found myself crying out, “Where’s Wayne?” They didn’t run off to try to find him.

Louisa came over and sat beside me, laid her head on my shoulder, and looked up at me. Ben came and laid against my leg. They knew, and they helped me through, and they wanted me to help them through.

Slide

And this is the newest member of our pack, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who I am convinced Wayne arranged for him coming into our lives, but that’s a longer story.

Ralph has come in and decided the rest of us all need more fun, joy and play in our lives, whether we like it or not!

And, you know, I joked about cats earlier, but as Sol’s story illustrated, they too are incredibly aware of our needs and will bring us comfort, even if they do it in a different way than dogs do.

So, my beloveds, as we face the challenges ahead, remember and respect our animal companions.

They can bring us such great comfort and joy, no matter their species – fur, feathers, scales, shells or otherwise!

If you for whatever reason do not have animal companions in your life, you can still enjoy them vicariously though other’s people’s pets or the millions and millions of online videos you can find.

And even our animal friends who have left us to go over the rainbow bridge are always still in our hearts.

Our Basenji Dog, Virgil, who I mentioned earlier was so regal and imperious that we called him, “Sir Virgil”.

And I plan to bring some of that Vigil attitude with me as I confront the forces of division and harm at our state capital in the days to come.

Bless the animals my Beloveds and accept the ways in which they bless us.

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

BENEDICTION FOR A PET BLESSING:
SOME WISDOM FROM OUR CAT AND DOG FRIENDS
by Rev. Chris Jimmerson

Show exuberant joy when you first see your loved ones after being apart.
Delight in simple joys.
Play a lot.
Except in the most dire of situations, retract your claws (unless it is all in good, playful fun).
Knock something off the shelf every once in a while, it’s fun
AND it can open up new possibilities.
Never try to persuade humans to be reasonable.
Purr loudly or wag your whole body when you’re happy.
Sometimes a good howl or some hissing can help a lot, just avoid biting, which can get you in lots of trouble.
Nap just for the pleasure of it.
Comfort others: accept comfort when you are able.
Love freely, but never lose yourself in doing so.

May the congregation say, Amen and Blessed Be.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

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

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
January 19, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously laid out a dream of justice and Beloved Community. January 20 will be both MLK Day and inauguration day. We’ll examine how we might develop the spiritual resilience to keep the dream alive through a time when it seems so threatened.

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

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to humankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some circles today and I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love.

I’m talking about a strong demanding love for I’ve seen too much hate and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love.

And the beautiful thing is that we aren’t moving wrong when we do it. Because John was right. God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

(Opening film-clip of 1963 MLK’s March on Washington)

That was footage from the 1963 march on Washington. The marchers were singing a spiritual which has become iconic. “We shall overcome,” sung throughout the world for years since by human rights movements of many kinds. The march culminated with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s now also more than iconic speech. “I have a dream,” he called it, a speech. I have to tell you that if I ever give a sermon that magnificent, I think I’ll just retire while ahead right then.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. It is Also the inauguration to a second term of office for a man and an ideology so hostile to and threatening toward Dr. King’s dream of beloved community, that it has many of us holding our heads like this for fear that the dissonance will otherwise cause them to explode. Go ahead, try it. I find it helps.

I know a lot of you are afraid because you’ve told me that. I am too. Afraid for our democracy and whether it will withstand the coming assault. Afraid for the people we love who are being targeted by the onslaught. Some of us are afraid because we’re among those who have already been singled out for the assault. We don’t know what will happen starting tomorrow. We do know that the incoming president, his supporters, and proposed administration are promising what they themselves call a shock and awe campaign. A campaign designed to keep us frightened and feeling powerless.

So today I want to talk a bit about how we might soothe our fears, Claim our power, and resist even turn the assault against the very ideology of separation, division, and scapegoating from which it springs. And that power, our power, is contained in the very words that Dr. King himself spoke,

“Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality, a strong, demanding love, the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.”

As Unitarian Universalists, we have recently centered our faith in that strong demanding love, perhaps starting to catch up with Dr. King after all these years.

Ten years ago, in 2015, I stood in this pulpit on the Sunday before Martin Luther King Day and told the story of how in March 1965, over 500 Unitarian Universalists lay people and 250 of our ministers responded to a call from Dr. King nationally for people of faith to join him in a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

The call was in response to what is now sometimes called “Bloody Sunday,” when law enforcement in Selma had brutally attacked peaceful protesters with billy clubs and tear gas. I want to share with you a couple of those Unitarian Universalist folks’ stories today because it’s been long enough that many of you may not have heard them and because I believe that they can inform us of the challenges or about the challenges we face ahead of us.

Reverend Dr. James Reeb was among the first of our ministers to arrive in Selma. His first evening there, Reeb and two other white Unitarian Universalist ministers dined at an African-American restaurant called Walker’s Cafe because they had been told they wouldn’t be safe at a whites-only restaurant.

But as they left Walker’s Cafe, they were attacked by a group of four or five white locals, at least one of whom was carrying a large club of some kind. He struck James Reeb on the head with it, knocking him to the ground. They beat and kicked the other two ministers to the ground also. Soon afterward, James Reeb fell into an unconscious state from which he never awoke. Two days later, Marie Reeb, his wife, made the painful and difficult decision to turn off the artificial support that was the only thing that was keeping his body alive.

Reeb became a national martyr. He was even paid homage to by then president Lyndon B. Johnson and his murder galvanized white Americans, and particularly Unitarian Universalists, to join the effort in Selma even more.

One such Unitarian Universalists who joined the effort and who also did not come back from Selma alive was Viola Luizzo, but she wasn’t lionied in the way that James Reeve was. For many years, her story was rarely, if ever, told because (A) she was a woman. And (B) she was a woman and not a minister. At a time, not a minister because (A) she was a woman. Viola Luizzo was a member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit and worked for the NAACP. She was married, had five children. She answered the call to Selma by getting in her car and driving there despite the objections of her family.

She helped out by giving marchers a ride back to Selma from Montgomery after the march. On one of her return trips, a car full of KKK men pulled up beside her and fired shots directly at her, hitting her twice in the head, killing her instantly. Her car careened into a ditch and came to a stop when it struck a fence. After her death, one of her sons described his father’s dark hair turning gray overnight. Her family endured crosses being burnt in their front yard. Her children were beat up at school. They were told their mother deserved what she got because as a white woman, she had no business being there in the first place.

I tell you these stories because I believe that like Viola Luizzo and James Reeb were in their time, we are being called to live our faith even if the cost may be high. And if they could show up despite the environment and risk of their times, despite paying the ultimate price for it, we can answer that call in our times.

We are being called by a divine, strong and demanding river of love that moves us to offer shelter, support, and safe haven to those most targeted by the coming assault against human rights and dignity. Called to speak love and justice to a state government that threatens to defile the very concept of beloved community. Called by a strong demanding river of divine love to resist, revolt against and ultimately repel the ideology of hate and division that has captured our federal government. Called back to love and justice over and over again until the end. We shall indeed overcome.

Back in 2015, I joined some Unitarian Universalists and other folks from across the country in Selma for the 50th anniversary commemoration of those events back in 1965. At one point while we were there, they gathered us in a large fellowship hall and we sang, “We shall overcome” together. And there was so much love and hope and solidarity generated through singing that together that I don’t think a single one of us left that fellowship hall afterwards with eyes that were dry.

Now there are several different stories of the origins of that song, but ultimately they all conclude with what a gift the African-American community has given the world through it. Or better yet, perhaps a loan. A loan with a promissory note that we will join in solidarity to overcome racism and bigotry wherever we find it.

Let us remember that when we sing it together today, later in our service. And speaking of together, we can in the days to come, further develop and talk about the specifics of our social justice efforts as we face this daunting challenge. For now though, before we can answer that call from love in the public square, we are going to need one another right here in the days to come.

We will need to build the beloved community within these church walls more than ever before so that we can then bring even more of it into our world, join in solidarity with others and follow the lead of those most affected by that ideology of division so counter to Dr. King’s dream of beloved community and that means being careful that we don’t turn our fears and anxieties toward one another. Through unnecessary fighting or unkind words and deeds It means loving each other through this. Being even more attentive to offering words and acts of caring, kindness, and support to one another.

Please include your church staff and ministers in all of the above.

And it means getting more creative than ever about finding new ways to offer love, support, and a shelter of as much safety as possible for beloveds who are being targeted.

My beautiful people, do not despair, I love you. We will get through this together, and with the many others with whom we’ll join in solidarity to answer that call from such a strong and demanding love. When we think back to all that has changed since Viola Luizzo and James Reeve answered that call and met their fate all those years ago, we must know that the arc of the universe we are trying to bend toward justice has never really been a smooth and perfect arc. At Yes, it is a jagged and only slowly climbing line, and we dream. We dream of drawing the arc that goes through the center of it. My beloveds, We can keep that dream alive. Hold on to it. Hold on to it together in the ways of love tomorrow and in the days to follow.

I will be with you answering that call from a strong demanding love that Dr. King said is God. I want to close by offering you some of Dr. King’s word about that dream of his all those years ago spoken by Dr. King himself. A bit of it is laced with the male-centeredness of his time, so let us remember the arc we are upon has that jagged trajectory. I offer his voice with his text overlaid so that you can both hear and see their great beauty at the same time. I offer his dreams and his words as the last word today.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friend, So, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama with its vicious racist, With its governor, having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification. One day, right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope.

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. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Power without love is reckless and abusive. And love without power is sentimental and anemic, power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

May the congregations say amen and blessed be.

Go in peace.

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SERMON INDEX

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

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

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
January 12, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

As humans, we make sense of our world by creating stories. Essentially, both as individuals and as groups, we construct ourselves through constructing narratives about ourselves. And those stories not only determine how we feel about ourselves and our world, but they also drive who we are, what we do, and who we are becoming. In effect, they are self-perpetuating. But what if the story we are telling ourselves is harmful and untrue? Can we rewrite or at least reinterpret it in order to create a more life-fulfilling, whole-hearted narrative?

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

EVERYTHING THAT WAS BROKEN
by Mary Oliver Everything that was broken
has forgotten its brokenness. I live
now in a sky-house, through every
window, the sun. Also your presence.
Our touching, our stories. Earthy
and holy both. How can this be, but
it is. Every day has something in
it whose name is forever.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

HOW INVISIBLE STORIES HOLD YOU BACK
by Ozan Virol

We all have stories that we live by that aren’t fixed truths. They’re just old scripts we’ve been following without realizing it. If you tell yourself travel is exhausting, you’ll only notice the hassles, the delayed flights, the cramped seats, and you’ll miss the little joys along the way. If you tell yourself you’re awkward in social settings, you’ll tense up before conversations even begin, missing moments that could have been easy and fun.

The point isn’t to force yourself to love every rainy day or magically turn into an extrovert. It’s about creating space. Space to question the stories you’ve been living by and experiment with something new. You’re not committing to anything forever, you’re just saying, “What if?” When you play with the stories you’ve been telling yourself, you realize they’re just that. They’re stories. And if you don’t like the story, you can change the story.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

There’s at least one story you tell yourself about yourself that isn’t helpful. May even be harmful and probably isn’t even true.” At least if you’re like the vast majority of folks, that’s the case, that’s how the story goes.

• What title would you give your not helpful, maybe even harmful, probably fictional story?
• If you could change or reinterpret the story, what would you like the new title to be?

I’ll let you ponder all that as we explore the power that the stories we tell ourselves have over our lives, our emotions, behaviors, even our futures.

A field called narrative psychology has found that we humans make meaning of our lives and our world. In essence, we construct ourselves, our very personalities and our perspectives on the world through creating these narratives. And what’s fascinating is that we construct these self-stories with the structure of a novel. We give them chapters, birth, school, first love, et cetera. And we give them a beginning, middle, and end. This helps explain their power to affect not only our present, but also our future. If we’re always trying to give our stories an end even while we’re still in the middle of them, we’re likely to work toward an end that fits with the current story, even if that story is inaccurate, limiting, or harmful.

And the research has shown that our stories even affect the very neurochemistry of our brains. So if, for instance, I read about someone kicking a soccer ball. I don’t just create an image of that in my mind. It actually activates the motor cortex area of my brain as if I were actually kicking the soccer ball myself. The same is true for stories we tell ourselves involving our emotions, values, self-worth, capacity in life and on and on and on. Our stories are actually molding our brains to fit the very stories our brains are telling us. That’s why they can be so hard to change sometimes. So in a way we live as stories. They have this huge power in our lives.

Even religion and spiritual practices are filled with ways of creating narrative metaphor that allows us to explore ultimate understandings that are sometimes inaccessible through everyday language and the current limits of scientific inquiry.

Here is how one narrative psychologist puts it. Our lives and their pathways are not fixed in stone. Instead, they’re shaped by story. The ways in which we understand and share the stories of our lives therefore make all the difference. If we tell stories that emphasize only desolation, then we become weaker. If we tell our stories in ways that make us stronger, we can soothe our losses and ease our sorrows.

Learning how to re-envision the stories we tell ourselves can make an enormous difference in the way that we live our lives. And I would submit that this is not just psychological, it is also what spirituality is all about.

As I mentioned earlier in the service I’ll share how this has played out very powerfully in my life recently. Again what I share may be may bring up difficult circumstances and feelings. Tony and I are available after the service should you need to process something.

I’ve written the story out in case I need the words to hang onto emotionally while I tell it. Many of you know that my spouse of over 30 years, Wayne, died last year after an extended period of time on home hospice. In his final days, Wayne’s disease process resulted in some cognitive decline, he would get confused. And out of that confusion, the panic attacks that had plagued him when he was much younger, but that he had worked to resolve, began to come back sometimes. I ended up needing to manage his medical and hospice appointments, as well as his pain and other necessary medication, of which there were many on a large variety of different schedules, I would sit with him through the panic until it subsided.

Eventually his disease progressed to where he weakened and began to fall a lot. He was no longer strong enough to make it to the bathroom or to shower by himself So I had to learn to lift them without injuring myself. I would help them with these basic necessities of life. And though we brought in some home care help so that I could continue to perform a few church function and take care of household needs like getting groceries, most afternoons and evenings they would leave as soon as I returned. and it would be just the two of us and our pups for the rest of the day and evening. I’d set alarms each night so that I could get up and give him his medications on schedule and put on his mask for the breathing treatment that opened his airways and helped him to respirate more easily.

Eventually, Wayne declined to the point where he began to think about going into an institutional hospice setting called Christopher House, where he would receive the trained nursing care I couldn’t provide and which couldn’t be provided around the clock through home hospice.

We set up an appointment with this hospice doctor for Tuesday, September 3 to discuss that On the Friday before that, while I was making a run to the grocery store, he had a bad fall and couldn’t get back up. I returned to find him that way. I got him back into bed and called for help from the hospice nurses who came right away. They helped me clean up everything where he had fallen and they bandaged the wounds that I didn’t have the knowledge to know how to tend. They told us though that there might be internal bleeding.

Wayne opted to continue only pain management and palliative care. Soon though, He discovered he was no longer able to swallow anything solid, so another hospice nurse came over and showed me how to grind up his medications, dissolve them in water, and then give them to him slowly by flowing the medicated water into his mouth from a syringe. She also had me increase his pain medication and his treatments for anxiety and panic attacks. The nurses offered to go ahead and move him to Christopher House, but Wayne panicked at the idea of not having me and his pups, and so he never went.

The rest of that weekend is still kind of a blur in my memory. I remember having to pick him up and carry him several times. I remember getting up throughout the night to dissolve the medications and administer them to him and give him his breathing treatments. I remember home care workers coming a couple of times so I could take care of some duties here at the church or some household needs and wondering whether I should leave it all, even though they were there. I can remember bringing him the phone several times because he wanted to talk to the hospice folks himself about his own care needs. That Sunday evening he had another panic attack and they increased his meds even more. I remember getting up throughout the night in the early morning hours to check on him and give him his meds.

Early Labor Day morning, Monday, September 2, I got up and put on the mask to start his breathing treatment and went upstairs to make a cup of coffee. When I came back to check on the breathing treatment, he had died.

At first, the story I told myself about those final days was one of difficulty and trauma and self-doubt. I wasn’t trained to provide that level and kind of care, I told myself. Should I have been more insistent that he go to Christopher house, did not going, mean he went through more pain or discomfort. Should I have stayed with him, even when home care was there? The moments of administering his drugs with that syringe or lifting him to go to the bathroom played over and over through my mind as a story of trauma, caught in that story of trauma at first there was no way I could process my grief.

With time and work though, a lot of therapy, help from some wonderful, wonderful professionals and friends, the God of my understanding. I was eventually able to recast the story to one that I think is not only more healthy, I think it is more true.

Here’s how I understand our story of those times now. What a blessing that it was me who picked him up when he fell or needed to go to the restroom that I was the last one who held him that way, that I was the one who loved him through the moments of panic and fear. What a holy act I got to engage in with him, giving him his medications through the syringe, that most intimate of acts of holding it to his lips. It was me who came back to check on his breathing treatment only to discover that he no longer needed it because he had drawn his last breath. I didn’t get a phone call telling me he was gone. I was there for that hallowed moment, and I am so grateful. Wayne didn’t want to die at Christopher House. He wanted to die in the house that he shared with Christopher, and he did.

And so the story has moved from one of trauma and doubt to a story about sacred love that endures all and that is with me always and everywhere. My beloveds, we can rewrite, recast, reinterpret our self-stories.

Now, I wanted to share some tips from narrative psychology about how we might go about doing all that, but my sermon got so long that I had to give you those handouts that you have on the pews.

To summarize very briefly, though, when reviewing yourself’s story, unlike I just did, Get on with it. Be willing to question it and test it with others. Journal about it. See if you can recast it as a story of ongoing redemption. Seeking counseling and treatment when the story is just too strong and won’t let go is more than okay.

I’ll close with inviting you two during the postlude or after the service. Right down on the index cards, we’ve given you the answers to the two questions with which we began. What title would you give an unhelpful, maybe even harmful, probably fictional self-story? If you could change or reinterpret that self -story, what would you like the new title to be? Then I encourage you to spend some time in the days to come on how you might rewrite the story from one of trauma to one that is holy. Or at least from drama to something wholly more heart-centered and life-fulfilling. Rewrite it, then – Go tell it on the mountain.

Amen.

CHANGING OUR STORY HANDOUT

• Ask, is it true? Is it the whole truth or only part of it? Is it a story that helps you live a fulfilled life or does it hold you back? Might it even be harmful?
• What is your emotional state? For instance, depression can strongly influence the stories we tell ourselves, most often turning them toward the negative and self-criticizing. This of course, can further deepen the depression! Studies have found Un!: simply asking ourselves, “is this the depression talking”, can help us halt our negative stories. Therapies for the depression or other negative emotions can help also. Treatments such as ketamine, may help us ‘rewire” our brains with more affirming stories.
• Daily Journaling as a practice can help us uncover self-stories about which we may not have been fully aware. Then, writing down, journaling a story we think is more accurate and/or more helpful can help us activate it within the neurobiology of our minds.
• Rewrite it as story of Redemption. Research has shown that folks who call formulate their stories in ways that are redemptive tend to lead more generative, self-fulfilled lives – for instance, someone who was bullied as child and comes to view the story as about how they learned to set boundaries and protect themselves.
• Cast the self-negative aspects as the villains of the story. The person who was told they were clumsy and unathletic as a child might cast the “clumsy and unathletic” label as the “Clumsy Monster” – “I am going to capture the Clumsy Monster and make it go to the gym with me, where I’ll show that monster exactly what I’m made of!”
• Venting isn’t helpful. Studies have shown that venting about our story with a friend or loved one may actually amp up our nervous system, which in turn may only “further neurologically harden whatever story we are telling ourselves. Asking our loved one to help us process our story instead may be more helpful. Processing involves, rather than retelling the content of our story over and over again (venting), expressing our feelings and judgments about it. Processing also means asking others to help us question our assumptions about our stories.
• Test self-stories only with those whom you know you can trust. This is tricky because it means we need loved ones who we can trust to both be honest and have our best interests at heart. They cannot be invested in our continuing a self-story in some way themselves. With such folks and/or professionals though, testing the accuracy of the stories we are telling ourselves by seeking another perspective can be very helpful and powerful.

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

Fairytales are true not because they tell us monsters exist, But because they tell us monsters can be vanquished.
Amen.

SERMON INDEX

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

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