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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
October 5, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

One of the religious values our church community vows to uphold is compassion, which we define as “to treat ourselves and others with love.” How does treating ourselves with love open us to acting with compassion toward others?

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

Our Call to Worship this morning is based upon First UU Church of Austin’s religious values.

NOW LET US WORSHIP TOGETHER.
Now let us celebrate our highest values.

TRANSCENDENCE
To connect with wonder and awe of the unity of life

COMMUNITY
To connect with joy, sorrow, and service with those whose lives we touch

COMPASSION
To treat ourselves and others with love

COURAGE
To live lives of honesty, vulnerability, and beauty

TRANSFORMATION
To pursue the growth that changes our lives and heals our world

NOW WE RAISE UP THAT WHICH WE HOLD AS ULTIMATE AND LARGER THAN OURSELVES.

Now, we worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another. What makes life livable despite the cruelties of chance – the accident, the wildfire, the random intracellular mutation – are these little acts of mercy, of tenderness, the small clear voice rising over the cacophony of the quarrelsome, over the complaint choir of the cynics, to insist again and again that the world is beautiful and full of kindness.

– Maria Popova

Sermon

During what turned out to be the last time my late spouse Wayne was in the hospital, I left work at the church here one day and went up to visit with him in his room.

I got there only to encounter him chastising a nurse over the fact that he was in one of those hospital beds with the rails, and an alarm that would go off rather loudly if he tried to get out of the bed by himself to go to the bathroom or something like that.

He was feeling terrible so understandably was not exactly being being very nice, expressing himself in no uncertain terms, some of which I cannot use here in the sacred space of our sanctuary.

His nurse kept a little smile on her face, listening to him until he seemed to have finished, then said, “I understand. I’ve been in one of those beds myself, and I still can’t let you get up on your own because you’re at a high risk for falling, and I would be at high risk for losing my license.”

So then, Wayne tried pulling rank, informing her that he was a doctor, and that he would be speaking with his hospital physicians and telling them that he didn’t think that bed alarm was really necessary.

Still smiling slightly, she informed him that he could go right ahead, that in her experience she knew more about bedside care then the doctors did, and that she was pretty sure they wouldn’t remove the order unless she thought it was OK. She didn’t because she didn’t want him to hurt himself and make himself feel even worse.

So then he said he was going to demand a different nurse, to which she said that he could go right ahead, that all of the nurses would tell him the same thing and that by the way she supervised the other nurses.

Finally, he threatened to intentionally set the bed alarm off all day and all night until it drove them crazy and they let him get up on his own. She again replied, “Go right ahead. There are more of us, and we will outlast you, and if we have to, we’ll get out the bed restraints.”

Wayne couldn’t help himself; he giggled a little at the fact that she wasn’t backing down and that she knew it was never going to get to that point.

She saw that, giggled too, and said, “so don’t make me spank you.”

Well, the next time I was there when that same nurse was on duty, they had become the biggest of buddies.

On the day that he was released from the hospital so I could take him home, she insisted on being the one to take him down to our car. They hugged and wished each other well as she helped him out of a wheelchair and into the car.

The spiritual theme were exploring this month in our religious education, classes and small group ministries is “cultivating compassion”. We’re putting a link in each Friday newsletter to a terrific packet of information on our monthly theme, in case you would like to delve into it even further.

As you may have noted in our call to worship we read together earlier, Compassion is one of our church’s religious values.

We describe compassion as “to treat ourselves and others with love”

I love that, because it turns our value of compassion into an action – something we must do.

Compassion then is really about living love — that sounds familiar – the agape love, the fierce love, the divine love for humanity and all that is we have been talking about so much here at the church.

Now, today, I’ll concentrate mostly on that part about self compassion – treating ourselves with love.

I focus on self compassion not because our compassion for others in our world is not vital – indeed it is needed now more than ever – I focus on it because until we learn to love ourselves fully, we cannot love our world fully.

Self compassion is how we sustain our passion for social justice.

We have to put on our own oxygen mask first.

Acting with compassion toward ourselves is spiritual practice for offering compassion to others, even those whom we find difficult or with whom we disagree.

I began with that story about Wayne’s nurse, because she so beautifully demonstrated an essential way we practice self compassion – treat ourselves with love.

She set a clear boundary.

She said “no” to him getting out of that bed on his own. She said “yes” to to protecting her own license and “yes” to providing the best care to him that she possibly could with some limits around approaching things with a sense of equality, equanimity, and even humor between them.

Having such a clear boundary, let her empathize with how having been sick for so long he couldn’t be at his best or sweetest and to understand how he might feeling angry over such a loss of personal agency.

By setting a boundary that was compassionate for herself, it allowed her to treat him with love rather than resentment over his words.

And in doing so, she opened up this sense of spaciousness within which a beautiful new relationship between them could emerge.

Researcher and author Dr. Brene Bown says, “Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”

Practicing self-compassion begins with setting firm, clear boundaries: knowing what is important to us and what really is not; claiming our own needs and desires while knowing the difference between them and releasing all else; being aware of that to which we must say, “no”, and, just as importantly, that to which we can joyfully say “yes”. Once our boundaries are clear, it leaves open a remaining spaciousness within which our compassion for others can be boundless.

Now, in addition to setting boundaries, here are a few other self compassion practices.

The first of them is to speak to ourselves as we would to a close friend. Most of us would not say to a friend or loved one who was experiencing a challenging life situation, “Well that’s because you’re a screw up and it’s all your fault. You should be ashamed.”

Why do we so often say something much like this to ourselves! Can we instead offer ourselves the comfort and support we would to a good friend?

Next – embrace and offer compassion to our whole selves, including the parts of ourselves that we may not be so proud of or like so much, even if that’s a past self. After all we are each an ever evolving process, so we never really leave behind who we used to be entirely.

Here’s an example of how I had to do this during my formation as a Unitarian Universalist minister.

I was raised in a fundamentalist southern Baptist Church as a young child. Later, I rejected that religious belief system into which I’d even been baptized!

I rejected it because it’s tenants seemed, well, untenable to me.

The problem was, for many years I also rejected all spirituality along with it because I had felt hurt by that religion.

So, for hot minute after I became a Unitarian Universalist, when someone would ask me about my faith, it would go something like this.

“So, Unitarian Universalist. Never heard of that. Is that a real religion?”

To which I would reply something like, “Well, yes. But we’re based heavily in reason and science and don’t believe in a lot of hocus-pocus, supernatural stuff. Hell, we don’t even believe in hell.”

And then they would usually say, “Really? Then how do you get people to give money?”

Our religious self can’t be only about what we’re not anymore.

To fully become a UU minister, I had to forgive and direct compassion toward that little boy who had gotten baptized in the Baptist Church because he wanted to belong so much and who then had to process having felt hurt by religion, once he finally found one where he did belong.

I had to reclaim that little guy and his baptism within holiness for myself.

Next – the science shows that engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer or meditation, especially the Metta meditation we did together earlier, grounds us in the present moment and gives us a sense of our vast interconnectedness with one another and all that is, which is so necessary for compassion and forgiveness toward both ourselves and others.

Buddhist activist, scholar and author, JoAnna Macy says, “You need that wisdom, that insight into the mutual belonging of everything that is interwoven as it is in the web of life.

And when you have that, you see, you know that this is not a war between the good guys and the bad guys, but that the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart.

And we are so interwoven in the web of life that even the smallest act with clear intention has repercussions through that web that we can barely see.”

Finally, maintaining an awareness that there is this really cool synergy between self compassion and practicing compassion more generally can help keep us focused.

Self-compassion generates compassion for others, as we’ve been discussing.

Acting compassionately toward others benefits us in multiple ways and nourishes our own love of self.

As our reading earlier said, “There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another.”

Research indicates that the benefits of practicing compassion include:

Psychological and Relational benefits such as reduced stressed and anxiety, emotional resilience, increased life satisfaction, greater feelings of self- worth, less depression, deeper and more authentic relationships.

Physical benefits have also been found like lower blood pressure, reductions in chronic disease, improved immune function, quicker recovery from illness, AND increased longevity”

In the realm of psychological benefits, a recent New York Times article detailed how setting a self-compassionate boundary around our busyness, which we can so easily think is a sign of our worth, saying no to some of the demands on our time, can allow for the rest, relaxation, and contemplation that can free up space for vastly increased creativity and innovation.

We’re taught to feel selfish and guilty about saying “no”, and yet, sometimes, we do more creative good through saying “no.”

Other research has found that this one self-compassionate boundary, setting limits on our own time, has myriad mental and physical health benefits AND it opens up this spaciousness within us in which we are far more able to notice the needs and suffering of others and ourselves and are thus far more likely to act with compassion.

In that same vein, there is even research that says that when we act on compassion often enough, it actually rewires our brains, creates this neuroplasticity through which we become more empathetic and even more prone to being compassionate.

Since I am reclaiming with self-compassion that little religious guy who got baptized all those years ago, I’m going to think of that as a “God-given compassion feedback loop.”

• Setting boundaries.
• Speaking to ourselves as we would a close friend.
• Embracing our whole selves with love.
• Engaging in spiritual practices
• Remaining mindful of the interdependent nature of self compassion and compassion for all.

My Beloveds, if you hear nothing else today, hear this: 

Self-compassion is a sacred act. We cannot truly treat others with love until we treat ourselves with love.

When we treat ourselves with love, we find we must treat others with love. If God is an ocean of fierce love that flows through our universe, then this sacred act is how we manifest God within us, among us, and beyond us.

Hallelujah.

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

For our benediction today, I invite you to find a comfortable position, take a deep breath, and then repeat after me:

May I be well; may all be well.

May I experience loving kindness

May all experience loving kindness.

May I dwell in peace and beauty.

May all dwell in peace and beauty.

Amen. 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
August 17, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

On this very special music Sunday, we’ll pay tribute to some of the musical greats and examine the spiritual messages and legacies they have given us.

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

From DEEP IS THE HUNGER
by Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

“So you do not expect to live to see the trees reach sufficient maturity to bear fruit?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “But is that important? All my life I have eaten fruit from trees that I did not plant, why should I not plant trees to bear fruit for those who may enjoy them long after I am gone? Besides, the man who only plants because he will reap the harvest has no faith in life.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

adapted from A HOUSE CALLED TOMORROW
by Alberto Rios

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen – You are a hundred wild centuries… bringing with you In every breath and in every step Everyone who has come before you, All the yous that you have been… Look back only for as long as you must, Then go forward into the history you will make. Be good, then better. Write books. Cure disease… And those who came before you? When you hear thunder, Hear it as their applause.

Sermon

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the ancestors for those who will follow. We are the hope of dreams made manifest for those who came before. We are legacies in the making – inheritances emerging- imaginings unfurling. We are the messengers of a world yet becoming – the priesthood of a spiritual awakening still dawning.

Today, we’re paying tribute to some of the musical greats that we have recently lost: David Lynch, Brian Wilson, Ozzy Osbourne, Marianne Faithful, Sly Stone.

When our director music, Brent, told me he wanted to do this tribute, it got me thinking about, as I would argue that each of these musical artists did during their lives, what enduring messages to the future, what spiritual legacies I, and we, might want to create with our own lives. What examples of how to do so have they left us?

As I researched their lives and careers, I was struck by their musical differences and the gifts such differences created, and yet how each of them, despite working in such disparate genres, had in common that they brought great innovation to the musical genres within which they worked. Sly Stone with funk and Ozzy Osbourne with heavy metal, just for example.

Likewise, they shared many musical themes in common, left us many very similar messages of great value through their music. One of the biggest ones being our unity, our interconnectedness – that we are all in this together and that there is both great value in our differences and at the same time that we hold so much in common with one another.

Others important and extremely useful themes they shared within their work included:

• The need for love. It’s power. That love is worth it even though loving means we will also experience loss.
• The multifaceted nature of being human – that we all have the capacity for good and for doing harm and must work toward the good.
• The juxtaposition between simplicity and the complex within our world, and how we must see the interplay between them to better understand that world.
• That change is possible. We’ll come back to that.

Yet once again, I also found great value in the fact that they each explored different themes and have left their own unique messages for us also, such as Marianne Faithful’s and Sly Stone’s social critiques or Osborne’s reflections on dealing with existential dread and mortality.

And despite, or perhaps because of the personal struggles that each of them dealt with at times during their lives, from drug, alcohol and other addictions, to other mental health issues, to marital and relationship difficulties, to physical health problems, to encountering discrimination, each of them expressed a desire for their music to make a difference.

Each of them overcame their individual life challenges and, in fact, wove their struggles into their musical and life legacies. And given that we all also experiences struggles in our lives, I wonder if we might learn from their examples.

In an interview near the end of his life, Sly Stone expressed a desire for his music to be a force for unity and celebrating diversity. He said, “I know music can make a difference.”

Marianne Faithful believed that music has the power to transform people – to connect people, to heal, and to allow the expression of the deepest human emotions.

Brian Wilson stated of his music, “I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can…” He also said, “I believe that music is God’s voice.”

Ozzy Osbourne expressed hopes for his music to center the voices of those who felt unheard or marginalized.

David Lynch stated that his art expressed his desire for people to know that, quote, “This world is supposed to be beautiful. We’re supposed to love each other as a family.”

Goodness gracious” They all sound like Unitarian Universalists”

And I think that desire to believe that we might leave the world a better place, that our lives might have some legacy beyond our physical time here on earth may be universal or at the very least extremely common.

An anonymous poet writes,

I have tried to leave my mark-
Pressed my name into the trees,
only for the bark to scar
and swallow my touch.

Spoken into open air,
only for the words to fade
and sink into wind.

Let ink bleed into paper,
only for the page to thin
and crumble to dust.

The world is good at forgetting-
The rivers scatter my reflection,
the mountains shed my step in landslides,
even stars do not pause to mark my loss.

And yet-
Somewhere, the laughter I gave
finds its way back in memory.

Somewhere, the kindness I gave
lives in the hands of another.

And somewhere, the love I gave
spreads unseen beneath the surface-
Like a stone slipping through water,
its ripples never truly gone.

Not all of us can be musicians and songwriters, poets, playwrights, great artists, powerful politicians, wealthy enough to leave a legacy gift that results in a building with our name on it.

So Federowski’s words ring so true to me. Our lives can be the legacy we leave, the inheritance we bestow. The laughter, fun, and joy we bring to and share with others, radiates outward through space and time in ways we will likely never comprehend.

The kindness we show to some stranger whom we have never met may in some small way we cannot know, change them, and they in turn interact with others, whom they then change for the better in some small way, and so the manner in which we choose to live our life might very well leave an inheritance of a world slowly evolving for the better the more creative, the more kind and loving.

The love we share and express helps divine love become manifest in our world and creates even more love. That river of fierce love that flows through our universe becomes a torrent of love that surges and flows creating oceans of love emergent.

We will to the future whatever wealth we may have, both material wealth, whether small or expansive, but more vitally, the spiritual wealth we create through the ways in which we live our lives and touch the lives of others.

In his final days in hospice care, my spouse Wayne thought and talked a lot about the legacy his life would leave. And after his death, part of my work became helping to make sure that inheritance he wanted to leave became reality.

And I am so proud of all that he left this world, materially yes, and through how he lived his life and the amazing ways in which he gave and did so much for others.

I am a part of that legacy because I am different and better because he was in my life.

He also wanted to leave an inheritance to the church, and I have arranged for most of that. Well, except for the multi-door, doorbell system he wanted to fund for when most of the doors at the church must be kept locked. You see, he said that he wanted it to make the Adam’s Family doorbell sound (make sound) and then to have a recording when we opened the door of Lurch saying “You rang”.

He really did tell me he wanted this, though there may have been a sly grin behind it when he expressed this wish. We’re still working upon how to fulfill the general spirit of that one.

Anyway, my point is, as our poet describes, and Wayne demonstrated, we can make the humor, the kindness, the love we live out our gift to our current world and the world we will leave behind.

I think that is especially important now, in this dangerous time in which we find ourselves. The humor, the kindness, the love are an even greater part of the wealth we so desire to bestow upon the future than any material or financial wealth.

Because you see, the President who wants to be king has seized and taken over a major US city. And make no mistake, though it is easier for him to do that with Washington DC, this is only the beginning – a test run on the highway to autocracy of which he dreams.

It is no accident that this, and the other cities he has threatened are largely progressive and governed in almost every case by folks who are not Cis, heterosexual, white males.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

His words seem if anything even more relevant now.

Will we stand up? Will we fight? Will we engage in that vigorous and positive action and confront the fierce urgency of now?

Will we like Brian and Marianne and David and Ozzy and Sly continue to believe that change is is still possible.

Will we leave to those whose ancestors we are becoming the democracy, freedom, and justice we cherish? Though we may not all be poets or songwriters, we can think of our spiritual legacy as a song that has been handed down to us from those who came before.

And we, we get to write and sing the next verse, keeping the good from what we have inherited and creating the change that is needed to set the next movement of the music for those who follow us to pick up and continue it in their own verse and their own direction. Like the musicians to whom we pay tribute today, we can treat that music as the voice of God.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We are the ancestors for those who will follow.

We are the hope of dreams made manifest for those who came before.

We are legacies in the making – inheritances emerging- imaginings unfurling.

We are the messengers of a world yet becoming – the priesthood of a spiritual awakening still dawning.

May we sing it forward. May the voice of God play on.

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

As we go out into our world today, may the music of our lives play on. May the verse we sing move us and our world toward compassion, justice and the realization of the Beloved Community.

May love be our song and our legacy

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
August 10, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our world can feel challenging, if not downright scary, these days. Add to that the challenges and losses in life we will all encounter, and it can feel as if renewal, hope, and change for the better are no longer possible. And yet history and human resilience have shown us over and over again that there is a wellspring of love that makes hope, peace, and joy always still available to us.

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

– Reverend Dr. Howard Thurman
A prominent American theologian of the early 20th century grandson of slaves.

“It was my conviction and determination that the church would be a resource for activists, a mission mentally perceived. To me, it was important that individuals who were in the thick of the struggle for social change would be able to find renewal and fresh courage in the spiritual resources of the Church.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

– Ellen Bass
A contemporary American poet and author

“The thing is to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it. And Everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it…Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, Yes, I will take you. I will love you again.”

Sermon

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

To begin this morning, I invite you to remain seated as we sing together verse 1 of hymn number 95 from the gray hymnal. That’s verse 1 only. There is more love.

♪ There is more love somewhere
There is more love somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more love somewhere

There is more love somewhere. There is more love everywhere. There is a fierce love that surrounds us and dwells within us. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that God is love. For many of us, fierce love is God.

In these times though, when it can seem that the forces of anti-love have gained the control of the levers of power in so many places around the world, I know it can feel as if love is hard to access sometimes, hard to find.

It can especially feel hard to find that fierce love for those with whom we disagree, who seem to be doing their damn level best to work against the very tenets of love and beloved community.

Here’s a little hint from someone with beloved family members with whom he often adamantly disagrees. It’s entirely possible to love someone even during times when we may not be liking them very much at all.

Anyway, given the challenges we face in our world right now, as well as the challenges, losses, and sorrows we all face just as a part of life, we need that fierce divine love because it is our wellspring of joy.

It’s what sustains us and keeps us working for a better world even during times when peace and hope and joy can seem so far away.

Perhaps it was prescient then that last year our denomination as a whole centered our faith in love – made that fierce divine love, the very core of what it means for us to be Unitarian Universalist.

As Reverend Dr. Howard Thurman said in our call to worship, our Unitarian Universalist churches can then become the wellsprings of our spirituality, the sustaining resources for our efforts to bring more of that fierce love into our world to realize the dream of beloved community.

My beloveds, that fierce love is there and we can always find it.

Last year around this time when Wayne my spouse of 33 years died I wondered if I would ever know love again.

As I moved through the grief though I discovered that his love for me and my love for him were still there, all around me, that my love for doing ministry, for this church, for this faith, for hiking in nature, for reading, for writing, for music, for theater, for arts, and so, so much more for life was still there somewhere, and I could find it again.

Eventually, I even found romantic love again with someone incredibly loving and extraordinarily lovable.

And the amazing thing is, in all of those loves, my love with Wayne lives on.

There is more love somewhere. There is more love everywhere. We’re going to keep on, keep on finding it.

Now let’s remain seated as we sing together verse number two of hymn number 95 There is more Hope.

♪ There is more hope somewhere
There is more hope somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more hope somewhere

Prior to a losing bid to become vice president of the United States, a certain ex-governor of Alaska and precursor to the current aspiring dictator in the Oval Office once asked about the Obama administration, “How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?”

How’s that short-lived, dead-end political career working out for you?

I can love her and not like her.

One of the things that wannabe authoritarians do and that we’re seeing so vividly from our current administration is they try to take our hope away to make us feel that resistance is hopeless.

And one of the ways that they do that is to try to make it seem that change against what they are doing is impossible. They do that because they know. They know that as human beings in order to have hope we have to believe that change is possible.

And yet, yet, here is where they fail. From within the wellspring of fierce love for one another and for life itself, human history has seen us rise up in hope again and again to seek and create change, even when it seemed impossibly difficult, even up against totalitarianism, famine, oppression, disease, enslavement, and so many other forces that would subvert hope.

We must always remember that change, renewal, rebirth, are always possible. And even when we in our lifetime aren’t able to bring about all of the change of which we dream, there is still hope to be found simply in the struggling for it – in our love for life, for freedom, for one another, and this beautiful world we have been given.

The chiché “Hope springs eternal” is true, and it it bubbles forth from that wellspring of fierce love that is the center of our faith and that some of us call God.

Now the thing is Authoritarians also know that fear is like kryptonite for hope, so they try to keep us in fear.

And sometimes when that’s happening, we can unintentionally direct our attention away from the larger things that we really, really want to change and instead direct it in ways that may not be so effective or appropriate that could even cause unnecessary fighting with one another. We do that because, because the larger fight for the change we really want can seem so big, so scary.

So sometimes, much like the little tree in our story, we have to let go of our littler fears so that larger hope can grow.

It can even happen in churches.

On a recent Sunday here at this church, stickers suddenly appeared on some of our toilets, expressing someone’s thoughts on proper etiquette for flushing conservation.

Now, water conservation is an issue and is a part of an even larger issue of the global climate crisis of which we cannot lose sight. And there are so many big issues right now, fighting a police state from being established in our country, protecting basic human rights, saving democracy.

So, having around 500 church members post whatever concerns them wherever they might like in the church at any time, that could prove to be a bit of a distraction from pursuing our larger mission.

So one of the ways that we as a religious community can help keep hope alive is to channel our very legitimate fears toward the actual sources of those fears, to work together in the spirit of love to bring about the change that is still possible in our lives and in our world, even given our current admittedly scary social and political environment.

There is more hope somewhere. It is out of fierce divine love that hope springs eternal.

Now let us sing number 95, verse 3, “There is more Peace.”

♪ There is more peace somewhere
There is more peace somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more peace somewhere

On-going war in Ukraine. What can now only be called ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. So many more conflicts we don’t hear about as much, almost 100 countries involved in warfare and state-sanctioned violence across the world according to the nonprofit vision for humanity.

It can seem as if peace in our world is so far away that We may never find it somewhere.

The stressors of daily life, economic uncertainty and turmoil, conflict and rancor across our society, racism, bigotry, injustice, oppression, still omnipresent and currently endorsed, supported, and institutionalized by far too many folks in the halls of our government at all levels.

It can seem as if personal inner peace is so far away that we may never find it somewhere.

And yet there are literally hundreds of organizations throughout the world dedicated to the firm belief that peace is still possible, working toward finding that peace.

There are multitudes of movements alive and well within these United States, heaven bent on justice, equality, restitution, and reconciliation.

And we can be a part of those movements. We can immerse ourselves in the struggle for peace and justice in our world and thereby find peace in our own lives.

And there is this synchronicity in the fact that to work for peace in our world to sustain that work on an ongoing basis We have to find peace within ourselves. As Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others have noted, we will never end violence with more violence, whether physical, emotional, or verbal.

And so our work for peace in our world must begin from a place of calm and peace within.

So how do we find that personal peace amidst all that chaos?

Well, it turns out there is a multitude of research on this. Here are just a few of the ways for us to keep on until we find peace:

To start, since we’re here at a church, we’ll begin with spiritual practices. Meditation, mindfulness, prayer, and poetry, writing, music, art, walking in nature.

Going to church. Any practice that gives you a sense of being a part of something larger than yourself, that sense of our vast interconnectedness.

Practicing gratitude, that’s another spiritual practice yet one so powerful that it deserves to be listed on its own.

And finally, we come back to that wellspring of fierce divine love.

Remembering to actively express love for others and importantly to allow ourselves to receive their expressions of love openly gives us that sense of inner peace. When we make love a verb in our lives not just something we feel but something We do.

Some interesting research found that if two people love one another and one is at peace but the other is experiencing stress, if the one at peace simply places their hand on the other person with consent and appropriately, if they do that, their own brainwaves, their own heart rate and the like begin to sink with and to help regulate and calm the same physiology in their loved one, bringing their loved one greater internal peace.

Now though it feels like a Unitarian Universalist sacrilege to quote Huey Lewis and the news from the pulpit. “That’s the power of love.”

Now let us sing together verse 4 of hymn 95, “There is more joy.”

♪ There is more joy somewhere
There is more joy somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more joy somewhere

Experiencing joy is a part of how we find meaning and purpose in life.

And there’s this paradox that during the really challenging and really difficult times that’s when it can be the hardest for us to find joy, and yet those are the times when we need the most joy. We need more joy to maintain our sense of meaning and purpose.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage examined the writings of Viktor Frankl, as well as others who wrote about how they found joy and meaning even while enduring the concentration camps of the Holocaust.

They identified the following sources of joy, even in such harsh realities.

• engaging in acts of resistance, no matter how small.
• finding beauty wherever you may experience it, even if it is again in small ways, such as just the sight of something out of nature like a bird that flutters past your window.
• finding humor, even in the difficult, even in the absurd, or perhaps especially in the absurd.
• engaging in small acts of kindness and building friendships and community.
• which brings us finally, once again, back to love, to relationships, fiercely holding on to love even for those whom we have lost or from whom we are separated.

The sum of their experiences was that we already know what brings us joy and we can summon it. We can find it And we can engage in it within almost any environment.

Well, I’d like to wrap all of this up by letting you hear from someone who can most certainly preach perseverance better than I can.

[VIDEO]

 

My husband asked for a divorce after 46 years of marriage. I thought I was done. I was completely broken. And I thought there’s nothing more to live for because we had done so much together, had six kids and all this stuff. And then he asked for a divorce. And I felt like I was just in limbo.

How do you move forward?

Oh, I was totally broken and I didn’t want to be broken. About a year later. I was able to write my ex-husband a letter and say “Thank you for giving me my freedom.” Because all of a sudden I was not Bill and Gladys, like I had always been during our marriage. I was Dr. Gladys. So all of a sudden I had a new identity and I could use it. The hard times come, but they go too.

Why do we laugh so little when we get older?

We forget. We start carrying the baggage, it’s better to let it go. But if you take it in and you say, “Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.” and you let it go. It’s gone. You don’t even remember it. I’m really content with where I am. I don’t have much you know here, but I’ve got the whole world.

We’ve got the whole world We’ve got this whole still beautiful world that fierce love gives us – a fierce divine love that surrounds us and dwells within us.

There is more love.

Now let’s rise in body or spirit and sing that through one last time. Hymn number 95 verse 1

♪ There is more love somewhere
There is more love somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more love somewhere

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

– Reverend Dr Howard Thurman

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

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
and Small Group Ministry Participants
July 27, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

One of our church’s most transformative ways of deeply connecting with fellow church members and experiencing profound spiritual growth is by participating in a Chalice Circle or Wellspring ministry group. Join us and hear four participants share their experiences and the real differences they make possible.

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

May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity. May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected in a mystery and miracle to the universe, to this community and to each other.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

from THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA
by Maladoma Somé

Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave. The full realization of their innate gifts and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged and confirmed. There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius. In the psyches of such people, there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them cannot perceive it.

Sermon

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

Chris:
There are two things that people crave the full realization of their innate gifts and to have these gifts approved acknowledged and confirmed.

I love that statement from our reading earlier and given our current societal and political situation. I don’t know about you all but for me it can feel like as the author pointed out those innate gifts are being stifled.

Anyone besides me feel like living under the threat of rising fascism can be challenging to our psychological well-being and spiritual development? Well today we have some terrific folks who are going to testify about how participating in or even leading one of the small group ministries our church offers can provide a sense of connection and belonging. These groups provide a space where folks can talk honestly and vulnerably about some of the most vital and meaningful aspects of life, where folks can perceive, and then approve, acknowledge, and confirm one another’s unique inner power and authority.

I am delighted to invite these folks to share with you their experiences with our Chalice Circle and Wellspring small group ministries.

Hi, I’m Signe. Wellspring was my first introduction to small group ministry in 2021 as a participant. After that, I signed up for Chalice Circle and recently co-led a group, and I see some of my members out here, so that’s kind of fun.

Some of you may have seen me sitting over there near the candles in natural light. I’ve smiled and waved and shook the hands of many fellow UUers during the beginning of the service. Thus my smaller UU community started, the ones that like to sit in the same place.

Yes, we sat, sang, and stood together, but that was not the deeper connection I desired. It was during a homily someone else spoke about being in a chalice circle and how that impacted them and their UU faith. That sounded like something I needed to hear at the time, thus starting my UU spiritual journey.

So I signed up for Wellspring. This group explores in depth UU’s spirituality practices within safe structured group format as designed by Parker Palmer. Learning by doing, deep listening, and spiritual reflection within the group process requires dedication. Practices shared were drafting a group covenant, learning to craft a personal prayer, and how art, music, and movement are essential to a spiritual practice.

My inner Catholic contemplative mystic found this type of soul work familiar, now fueled with UU spiritual practices and like-minded people.

My journey of self-transcendence continues with a spiritual director, also called companion, from resources provided by Wellspring. Well, Wellspring requires a commitment of self-discipline and time for deep reflection and spiritual practice. The following year, I needed something lighter and signed up for Chalice Circle, which directly relates to the monthly topics of the church.

Chalice Circle continues to use safe group practices while reflecting and sharing about the church’s monthly themes. Each year, the themes change based on practices of our faith, values, and principles, like practicing resistance and cultivating compassion. Complete materials are provided via packets that are 10 to 15 pages long. The contents are carefully curated spiritual questions, exercises, poems, videos, playlists to expand on the Church’s theme. I found them worth saving for self-reflection, thus building my online spiritual library.

One of the past spiritual questions from the Path of Belonging Packet in 2022 was, “When was the first time you thought to yourself, Now I belong?” And because of Wellspring and Chalice Circle, I believe now I belong here. Thank you.

I’m Peggy Morton and I’m honored to have time to talk to you a little bit about my wellspring experience, the wellspring love at the center experience.

So I’ve been a part of this First-UU community for 29 years and have attended two chalice circles over the years, organized several social justice activities, and I’m not sure why it took me so long to finally sign up last spring for a wellspring class, but I’m truly glad I did. And I must say, it’s been the most enlightening experience I’ve had in this community.

I need to admit, I was not excited when our national denomination decided to go with this Article two. Because I thought I was very grounded in UU theology from our eight principles. But embracing this wellspring Love at the Center class, where we met twice a month for six months, opened my eyes and heart more deeply to UU theology, both historically and into today, and I now understand Article two better, and I like it.

Both the Reverend Carrie Holly-Hurt and a relatively new UU Melanie Caulfield guided us through this work in a way that I learned more about myself, six other attendees, and our facilitators in community together.

After each meeting, the next day, we would be emailed the readings that we were supposed to read and journal about and prepare for our next meeting. Obviously, we had two weeks to do this, which gave me a lot of time to read and think.

But at the next gathering, I would always hear a variety of perspectives about the lessons. And I have to admit, sometimes I would think, Did I misunderstand what we were supposed to do? But in reality, what it was, I eventually realized that we as individuals were gathered in community and embracing pluralism, a new term to me from Article II. And we shared from all of our different experiences, our different backgrounds and perspectives, coexisting quite like that interdependent web of existence that we learned about long ago when my spouse Fred and I first came to this church together and we only had seven principles at that time.

So I had known personally that having taken a sabbatical from teaching to live in Ecuador for a have in return to continue teaching high school journalism and to eventually add or start specializing in teaching English as a second language for the last eight years of my teaching career that I had lived experiences working with people from different backgrounds.

After retirement I stepped into voluntarily teaching adults English as a second language and eventually into advocating for human rights first in solidarity with unhoused people, then immigrants, then formerly incarcerated people. And I knew that I had learned from them about coexisting and embracing the lessons they had taught me in our interdependent web.

Yet through our wellspring group I saw better that Even when so many of us in this sanctuary today may seem like we’re all the same, we too have equally different backgrounds as we seek understanding from each and every individual who we meet. We’re bringing to life that spark of the divine that you used to say we were all born with. And I’m grateful, the many lessons I’ve learned and those that I still have to learn. And I appreciate each of you for listening to me today. I hope several of you will find or be able to make happen the time to explore and join a wellspring class.

Hello, I’m Doug Gower. Thank you, Reverend Chris, for asking me to speak about chalice circles. They say Unitarian Universalism is a process theology, not a belief one. Thus a chalice circle emphasizes not inculcating religious beliefs, but discovering and practicing our own.

What is that focus? To me, it’s the beloved community in the form of getting to better to know a small subset of our church congregants. A chalice circle is an intentional gathering for spiritual reflection. It is covenanted. That means anything discussed in the group stays confidential in the group.

Each session starts with lighting the chalice. In our case, that was a 99 cent plastic battery candle that one of our two wonderful leaders would switch on with a laugh.

A chalice circle is not a debate club. Neither is it a therapy group. Although being human, we always make some time for bitching and complaining. It’s real human beings sitting across from each other. Above all, it’s personal. It’s not performance. It’s not social media. It’s often said that people underneath are surprisingly alike, But we’re also surprisingly, amazingly different.

I met someone in our group who had traveled the world for years. Every continent, with little money, often sleeping outside in fields or under orchard trees on cold ground. I found that amazing. The only way you’d get me to sleep on an air mattress is if it were inflated on top of a king-size bed in a nice hotel with a bar.

In a chalice circle, we discover that we are alike and unique. Everyone has good days and bad days. You are privileged over the monthly meetings to witness these human ebbs and flows.

In the chalice circle, after some deep breaths, we take refuge. On the good days, we laugh a lot, out loud, gales of it. We learn to better know some of our fellow UUers. As much to the point, we get to know ourselves.

There’s a chalice workbook. Its exercises change monthly. I’m 74 years old. The last time I did a workbook was the third grade. Was I ready for this?

Each month has a cover illustration. One was Joy. It pictured a guy in a wheat field wearing a hipster hat playing a saxophone. I had a little trouble with that one. For one thing, I don’t play a sax. For another, my beard really doesn’t grow a good soul patch. So maybe extravagant jubilation under exotic conditions isn’t the whole point.

Some workbook questions were subtle. Others, honestly, a bit simplistic. But the group’s discussions never were. Joy I learned could be many things, working in a garden. Or just stop stopping, taking a moment, in the middle of a hot parking lot, on a tough day with troubles of your own to look up and see sunlight shifting through trees.

In chalice circles, we are not alone with our thoughts. In our chalice circle, the closest thing to an electronic device is the 99 cent battery calendar candle. In those 90 minutes, its scrawny, flicker, makes for not just a safe space, but a sacred one.

Americans are quick to focus on individual desires rather than the needs of the community, says Scott Hayes, a clinical psychologist. Looking around, I see people from my chalice circle right now, especially if I wasn’t wearing my reading glasses. (audience laughs) When I spot you in the pews or in the hallways, we often say hello, or stop and chat. But seeing you, I always think, “There’s people I know. There’s my community.”

The Chalice Circle is a UU program that helps make more real the beloved community. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Nancy, and as many of you know, I am in the long process of preparing to go before the ministerial fellowshipping committee, a committee that will ultimately determine whether or not I’m fit to serve as a Unitarian Universalist Minister.

Now the majority of people who choose this route also choose to attend one of the two Unitarian Universalist Seminaries, Star King or Meadville Lombard, and most can anticipate leaving these seminaries with a strong sense of what it means to be a Unitarian.

But unfortunately, I did not have that luxury. As a mom of three, I am unwilling to relocate and my budget is tight. I know there are educational opportunities online, but trying to find privacy in a house of five is a near impossible task. So instead, I opted to attend Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which is a Christian Seminary here in town.

At Austin Seminary, I was constantly making note of the differences between their faith and ours, and so I left feeling like I had a pretty good grounding in UU theology.

But then I began to worry. As you can imagine, there is much speculation about what candidates will be asked by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. And my fellow seminarians and I soon began to suspect that we’d be expected to prove our grounding in UU theology, specifically because we had attended a Christian seminary.

And so, to cover my bases, I decided that I’d better take as many adult R .E. classes as possible. And soon, I found myself co-facilitating the Wellspring Sources Group with another one of my fellow UU Seminarians, Zach Havenwood.

Now, I thought I had a good understanding of my UU identity, but sources made me realize the depth and breadth of our theology. The Wellspring Sources Group explores each source in detail, complete with readings, essays, music, and of course, small group discussions. The class significantly deepened my appreciation of this faith, and it actually strengthened my commitment to this congregation, which is truly a statement I never anticipated saying.

I’ve always been very suspicious of organized religion in general, And I’ve always bristled about being told what to do and what to believe. Indeed, for as long as I can remember, I’ve always believed in the subjectivity of truth, which in most religious traditions is problematic. But our sources support this belief and celebrates the many different ways that people make sense of the universe.

For me, our sources go far in explaining who we are as a religious body. In fact, I often rely on our sources when I give people my elevator pitch for being a UU. I guess it makes sense then that sources is the foundational wellspring group. It is a prerequisite for most of the other courses.

In addition to exploring each source, I learned so much about myself and about my fellow group members throughout the entire class. It made me realize and appreciate the diversity of beliefs within this congregation. And it allowed me to form friendships with fellow congregants, something that can be challenging when you’re in a church as big as ours.

I enjoy the Wellspring Sources group so much that I went on to co-facilitate spiritual practices with fellow church member John Scott in the newest wellspring offering Love at the Center with Zach once again as my co-facilitator. And I’ve left each of these experiences with new friends a better understanding of my biases and a deep understanding of just how rich our faith really is.

As an added bonus, I started seeing a spiritual director, namely the Reverend Kathleen Ellis who is also a member of this church. The Wellspring groups encourage participants to take part in spiritual direction and I can honestly say that spiritual direction has been life changing for me. It has taught me much about the importance of presence and deep listening. I can’t say enough about the great experiences that the groups offer.

So instead, I’ll simply invite you to experience it yourself first-hand. This fall, I invite you to deepen your UU identity, to make new self-discoveries, and to get to know the members of this church a little bit better. All this and more awaits you. Thanks.

Chris:
Thank you so much to each of you for sharing those moving and informative experiences this morning. And if after hearing these folks you might be interested in getting involved in a small group ministry a special email announcement will be coming out later this afternoon or you can go to www.austinuu.org and get more information on how to get involved in a chalice circle or wellspring small group.

From our universalist heritage, we draw that sense that a river of divine love flows through our universe and through each of us. Small group ministries are one way in which we can help each other find channels for the expression of that divine love in our world, not in the abstract, but in the here and now, in this world as we find it.

Our small groups are a way that together we can combine those rivers into oceans of fierce love for our times.

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

As we go back out into our world today, may we carry with us the love of this, our beloved religious community. May we center our lives in love just as we center our faith in love. May the melody flowing through our souls be a river of love that carries us forward. Until next we gather our spirits again.

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
July 13, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Over the past decade, First UU Church of Austin has twice offered immigration sanctuary to immigrants fearing unjust detention and deportation. What might being a sanctuary church look like, given the racist, police state tactics we are currently witnessing under the intentionally deceptive guise of national security and immigration enforcement?

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

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

– Hebrews 13:2

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WHAT DO RELIGIONS TEACH ABOUT IMMIGRANTS
by Alonzo Gaskill

The majority of religious traditions teach their adherents the importance of respecting life. Many, such as the dharmic faiths, have a central teaching, the need to practice ahimsa, or non-violence in actions, but also in words and thoughts. Thus, most major faith traditions will take the position that if someone from another country or community visits your own, you have a duty to treat them with love, respect, dignity, and honor.

…the command to embrace love and even help those who immigrate or visit is consistent. Indeed, most religions teach that there are spiritual or salvific consequences for negating this sacred commandment.

Sermon

Valerie Kaur’s Movie Clip:

She clung to a jacaranda tree. When I was little, my father said to me, “If you ever get lost in the woods, hug a tree.” That’s what they teach us when we are children, that the trees will calm us, protect us, love us when we are scared and alone.

She clung to a jacaranda tree. They took her anyway, pried her fingers from the silver trunk, dragged her into an unmarked van. Bystanders shouted and cursed and cried for them to stop, but they did not stop. Masked men threw tear gas canisters behind them as they drove away, disappearing into a cloud of gas like villains in a poorly written movie script.

I can’t get the images out of my head. The masked men, the bystanders, the cloud of gas, the young woman, and the tree.

Who do I want to be in the story? Who do you want to be in the story? I want to be the jacaranda. I want to make myself so strong, so steady, so rooted that my neighbors can hold on to me, the neighbors I know, and the ones I do not know. I want to find the courage inside of me to transfigure myself, to be braver with my love than I ever have before.

You might say, “What’s the use? They took her anyway.” Here’s what I see. One jacaranda is not enough. We need hundreds of jacarandas, millions of jacarandas, so that no matter how hard they pry her away, another one of us is right there ready for her to take hold. We must all become jacarandas.

This is not pretty poetry. This is a life-and-death call to risk ourselves for others, to become that strong, that rooted, that powerful, that beautiful, to become jacarandas.

In May of 2015, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin offered immigration sanctuary to Sulma Franco, whose life would be endangered if Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE were to deport her to her home country of Guatemala.

If you don’t know Sulma or her story, we will be celebrating her here at the church on this coming Saturday evening, July 19.

In the summer of 2017, we again offered immigration sanctuary to a young man named Alirio, whose life would also be at threat if ICE were to deport him to El Salvador.

Back then, providing church immigration sanctuary involved setting up a private, apartment-like area of the church in which Sulma and then later Alirio could live.

At the time, ICE had an internal memorandum dictating that their agents would not enter a church building to detain an immigrant and place them into the deportation process.

Because Sulma and then Alirio might have been at risk if they left the church grounds, church members also provided for meals, groceries, laundry and the like.

Along with a number of other churches and organizations, some of which have joined together to become the Austin Sanctuary Network, we also worked with Sulma and, again, then Alirio, to conduct a public advocacy campaign.

The campaign was designed to gain their freedom from the threat of detainment and deportation, as well as to shed light on a broken immigration system.

Sulma’s status is now such that she no longer requires church sanctuary.

Alirio remains in a kind of extended sanctuary, wherein he is able to spend more time with family and loved ones, while still accessing whatever safe haven the church can still provide, which I will talk more about shortly.

We have remained a part of the Austin Sanctuary Network and still consider ourselves a sanctuary church.

But then came the second Trump administration, and they rescinded that ICE memorandum about not entering, not desecrating, church spaces.

Then came the second Trump administration and the implementation of the extremist, White Christian Nationalist plan called Project 2025, and suddenly – suddenly, we find ourselves in a new and far more threatening environment in which our government is using immigrants and other vulnerable folks as targets to test how far we will allow them go toward establishing an authoritarian police state.

And if we are tempted think this is an exaggeration, we need only study the history of authoritarian states to understand that this is the playbook aspiring despots have so often used.

We need only look out how the administration co-opted the California national guard and sent them along with marines into the streets of Los Angeles on trumped up claims of riots that were in fact mostly peaceful protests in reaction to ICE raids destroying so many lives in that city.

We need only look at these photos posted by my friend, Lawrence Ingalls in Santa Ana, CA, several miles from where the supposed riots in Los Angeles were supposedly occurring.

Lawrence and his husband, my friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Jason Cook, live just one mile from where these military personnel were deployed, fingers on the triggers of their automatic weapons, no explanation provided for their presence on the streets of an American city.

Under the false guise of national security and law enforcement, they are denying due process, violating humanitarian norms, separating families, including children from their parents, kidnapping people and flying them off to countries where they have never been and that are known internationally as the most egregious violators of human rights and dignity.

In those countries and now here in the U.S. in facilities such as the recently opened, so called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, the Trump administration is placing people into what can only truthfully be called concentration camps.

Trump and his supporters, including some in our government, have even made jokes literally celebrating alligators eating people who might try to escape that facility in Florida, one of them posting “Alligator Lives Matter”.

And this language is no accident. This is a racist throwback to the early 1900s when black people, especially black babies were often referred to as “alligator bait.”

The language is on purpose. It is a blatant racist appeal.

And because our government and ICE are doing all of this under the cover of lies and secrecy, behind the cowardice of wearing facial masks like the KKK of old, racists vigilantes across the country are adding to the terrorism and victimization by posing as ICE agents themselves.

Here is just one extremely disturbing example, though this fool didn’t even bother with a mask.

ICE impersonator video

So, given this racist, government sanctioned environment, what do we do?

How do we as a church continue to provide faithful sanctuary?

And make no mistake, we must continue to do this.

At the very least, we must continue to do it to halt the authoritarians from expanding their reign of terror upon even more folks.

More vitally though, we continue to do it because our values centering us in love demand this of us – because that mission we say together every Sunday demands this of us – because our humanity – the preservation of our very own souls demand this of us.

We cannot know and be a part of the divine love that flows through our universe and allow this to go on.

So, how do we continue to do it?

What does faithful church sanctuary look like in this age in which we find ourselves?

Well, I’m not sure we know all for the answers to that yet. I know I don’t. We’re still learning even as we resist the new evils being perpetrated. I began with the video from Valarie Kaur though because I think that metaphor of us all becoming jacaranda trees is so powerful and so useful.

We must all become those trees, and, as a church, we will also be called to provide more branches for more folks to hang onto.

So, for instance, there may be circumstance in which we are still called to provide a literal, physical place for someone to stay within the church.

But even when physical sanctuary is not a viable solution, we will be called to try to metaphorically shelter those whose legal and human rights, indeed their very life and wellbeing are at risk by joining in pubic advocacy campaigns – we are called to let our rogue government know we are watching and resisting – called to protest – called to demand information on the whereabouts of folks taken into ICE custody and due process for them, such as the 49 people in our community that ICE “disappeared” recently – and, yes, some of us may be called to civil disobedience and personal risk.

We are called to demand local law enforcement disengage with ICE and provide proper due process, access to legal representation, including for immigrants.

We will be called to accompany folks to court and immigration visits – leveraging our own privilege to take sanctuary into the places where ICE abuses are regularly happening.

Faithful church sanctuary may also involve detention visits when and if possible, supporting legal expenses, assisting with day to day errands of life so that folks have less exposure risk, supporting know your rights and legal presentations, and helping to set up safe havens and care for children separated from parents.

And I believe, because these gross violations of human rights are being committed within a grotesque ideology of White Christian Nationalism, we must be willing to publicly counter this by loudly proclaiming this is not religious – this is not Christian.

We have to be willing to know and use scripture from the world’s religions, especially the Christian bible, that demands the just and compassionate treatment of immigrants.

These are just a few examples. We will learn more as we go. We are fortunate to have Peggy from our Inside Amigos church immigration justice group and Austin Sanctuary Network.

Please talk with Peggy to find out how you can get involved and what you can do to help your church be that faithful sanctuary to which we are called.

My Beloveds, for me, this is personal, and it is spiritual. It is a religious calling from the very core of our Unitarian Universalist faith.

I return to where I started this sermon.

Over the years, I have gotten to know Sulma and Alirio and have come to love them both.

I love Sulma’s fieriness and her humor and compassion – her willingness to be that jacaranda tree for others even as she herself was at great personal risk.

I love Alirio’s gentle kindness and the steely strength he harbors within – his willingness to be that jacaranda tree for others even as he himself was at great personal risk.

I cannot truthfully and faithfully live out my own story without recognizing that it is inextricably interwoven with their stories and those of so many others.

And so I must try to live their example and do my best to become that jacaranda tree too – to declare in the name of that fierce love that I call God – “I will not remain silent. I will not hide away within my own privilege. I will do whatever I can to join with my beloveds and replace the injury to God that is being perpetrated by an ideology of spiritual and religious deceit with a faithful sanctuary within which all are loved, welcomed, and supported in their fullest flourishing.

That is the true fulfillment of the divine in our world.

We will close with Valarie Kaur’s closing words:

“We must all become jacarandas.
This is not pretty poetry.
This is a life and death call to risk ourselves for others.
To become that strong.
That rooted.
That powerful.
That beautiful.
To become jacarandas.”

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

Leviticus 19:33-34

“If a foreigner stays with you in your land, do not do them wrong. Rather, treat the foreigner staying with you like the native born among you. You are to love them as yourself.”

May the congregation say amen and blessed be. Go in peace.

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