Commitment Sunday

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
October 1, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our commitment to supporting this church and its mission are making real differences in our lives and in our world. We will look back on some of those differences this religious community has made and re-commit our time, treasure, and talent toward nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice to build the Beloved Community.

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

Stewardship is this crazy idea that we should treat other people’s stuff better than our own. To me, stewardship is the act of taking care of something you were given whether or not you could acquire it for yourself in the first place. It’s less of an environmental idea and more of a common courtesy, which is exactly what stewardship should be, common.

– Eli Sowry

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Every act of kindness, generosity, or love overflows its original bounds. Our acts of kindness, generosity, and love multiply. Stewardship is a call to transformation.

Stewardship is an invitation to do new things in relationship with people in this community and beyond our walls. Generously giving of our time, talents, and treasure to this church community is a radical act of hope that has ripple effects that continue to multiply in people’s lives and in the world. We give because we are invested in the creation of a truly Beloved Community for all.

– Tina DeYoe
Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration
Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, NM

Sermon

Research shows that two of the things people dislike talking about the very most are money and commitment.

Welcome to Commitment Sunday – when we talk about church members committing to how much money they will pledge to support this church and its mission next year!

So let’s just start by getting THAT out there.

People most often dislike talking about commitment because we’re afraid that something might happen that will make us unable to live up to our commitments.

That’s OK, we know such things can happen, and we adjust if needed.

We often dislike talking about money out of fear of transgressing cultural taboos -like for those of us who grew up oh-so-white protestant, where talking about money was considered gauche.

Like talking about politics at the dinner table. Or religion.

We will probably talk about both of those this morning too though.

So, let’s try to set these fears aside and engage in the spiritual practice of embracing commitment to our religious values and mission.

So, how about we get the money part out of the way first? Unitarian Universalist Churches are mainly funded by the pledges of our members. We do not receive support from a larger denominational body or the like.

For our stewardship campaign this time, we will need to secure $825,000 in pledges to support a 2024 budget of just under 1.3 million dollars.

That’s not an extravagant budget. It does not add anything to our church operational infrastructure. It keeps everything, including staffing levels the same.

That $825,000 is about the same as was pledged last time.

The good news is some wonderful folks in the church have already pledged about $175,000 toward 2024 already.

So, that’s enough about the money part, let’s talk about commitment, because I want you to know- what your commitment has already made possible for this religious community and the lives it touches.

During the previous stewardship campaign, the members of this church committed the greatest amount of support in the church’s history.

Your pledges to support the church, especially given all that we had recently been through – the church closure because of the pandemic; the retirement of a much loved minister; the loss of a longterm, also greatly loved staff member to cancer – your commitment and resilience after all of that and more was and is simply amazing.

Our stewardship theme is “Rebuild, Renew, Rise Up”, and we truly have done that – and continue to do so!

I remember that around this time last year, we were talking about how coming out of the pandemic, there was this real hunger for spirituality and greater meaning out there.

After so much isolation, people were also feeling a real need for community.

And in Austin, TX, because of your commitment, this church was there for over 75 folks who have found community and a spiritual home here since then.

And that is unusual. Very few churches are growing and thriving coming out of those pandemic isolation times.

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is growing and thriving.

Because of your commitment and that of our wonderful religious education (RE) staff, our RE program is also one of the only such programs across the country that is growing and vibrant.

We have added numerous adult RE offerings. Kelly, our Director ofRE, has reimagined the program in ways that have kept it robust.

We trained facilitators from across this country on how to offer Our Whole Lives, the age appropriate sexuality education program that enhances and perhaps even saves lives.

We offered a summer camp for children, steeped in Unitarian Universalist history and theology to help deepen their growing spirituality and faith.

This religious community exudes an energy, a vitality that is rare these days and worth celebrating.

If you are one of the folks who have joined us relatively recently, thank you for your commitment. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for belonging within this community of faithful vitality. Because this church committed to its stewardship needs, we have also been able to offer so many ministries to all who cross our threshold either physically or virtually.

Ministries that provide ways to find and explore that hunger for spirituality – that longing for community.

We offer so many that I cannot possibly mention them all here, but I do want to mention a few that we either newly began or that we revitalized over the past several months.

A recently revitalized First UU Pagan Alliance group is going strong.

A wonderful bunch of folks, several of them Unitarian Universalist seminarians, offered an alternative, Vespers, worship service one Tuesday evening per month. The group is looking at possibly expanding these in this church year.

We have a wealth of spiritual direction, spirituality, and spiritual practices groups that are going strong, some of them also newly formed.

Some great folks have rekindled our healthy relations team to support us in fulfilling our covenantal promises that bind us together in the ways of love.

Our wonderful First UU Cares team has done so much to expand a culture of caring within the church – to make sure we are there to support one another and feel comfortable reaching out for support.

Our memorial services team has expanded their support for folks going through one of life’s most difficult times – the loss of a loved one.

At one point this year, this team and our staff provided four memorial services in one week.

I cannot tell you how many people have told me that this team and this church have helped them make it through when they were afraid they might not.

We also began a peer grief support group in the church.

Fun, fellowship and the arts are also key to our sense of spirituality and community, and your commitment has allowed our terrific fellowship team to thrive, our Sharon and Brian Moore Gallery to provide some truly outstanding exhibitions, and our amazing director of music, Brent Baldwin, to launch a new concert series.

And speaking of music, our music program and choir are just beyond first rate. They truly do nourish our souls.

Your commitment also allowed us to bring in a diverse group of guest worship leaders so that we could benefit from experiencing a wide range of life-perspectives and styles.

I can’t tell you how complimentary our guests were of this church’s staff- how the staff’s professionalism made appearing at our church such a pleasure for these guests.

We have what has to be one of the finest church staffs anywhere, made possible by the financial support of the religious community.

Well, I could go on and on about the wonderful things this church is doing, and I have not even come close to covering all of them.

I’ll wrap up though by talking about how your commitment to this community has allowed us to live out our values.

Folks have formed a new Vegan group.

The Earthkeepers group is helping us be in right relationship with our land.

Our social action council now has well over 100 members and a brilliant group of social justice pillars doing great work to bring our mission into the world – Reproductive Justice, Racial Justice, Environmental Justice, LGBTQ+ Rights, Democracy, Immigrant Rights – we continue to play an active role with Austin Sanctuary Network, which we helped found.

Our fantastic reproductive rights group just issued an impressive report on their much needed work.

Did you know we are partnering with a non-profit organization to be a distribution site for reproductive health kits?

Our environmental action folks were a part of efforts that stopped radioactive waste from being brought to West Texas by rail and dumped there.

We’ve engaged in trans inclusion work and are hosting support workshops for trans and other gender diverse folks and their loved ones.

This church brought a huge presence to the recent session of the Texas Legislature, speaking out on a number of issues, especially some involving the rights and dignity of LGBTQ folks.

We were there to show we care. We were there to follow the lead of those most affected. We showed up to proclaim our religious values in the public arena.

We put the denizens of our Texas State Capital on notice that the struggle for human rights, dignity and justice is far from over.

We will show up for love and justice over and over and over again. OK, I made it most of the way without talking about politics!

A church member recently told me that given the meanness of spirit in our state politics, not to mention our ever hotter Austin summers, this church is what makes it possible for them to keep living here.

I think that is true for me too.

So, though the research says we don’t like talking about money and commitment, research has also found that committing to generosity can benefit our mental and physical well-being.

It can even lower our blood pressure.

So this Commitment Sunday, let’s all lower our blood pressure and commit or recommit to this church.

 

  • Commit to nourishing souls.
  • Commit to transforming lives.
  • Commit to justice.
  • Commit to the Beloved Community.
  • Commit to building new ways that within our midst and in our world, bring that Beloved Community alive.

 

Amen.

I invite you to reflect upon the commitment you may wish to make to the values, mission, and ministries of this church.

Please consider what might be meaningful and spiritually nourishing for you.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Belonging

by Posted in Audio available, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
September 24, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong – somewhere, somehow, sometime in your life? Probably, if you’re like most people. What makes the difference in feeling like you do or do not belong? How can we help ourselves, each other, and people we haven’t even met yet cultivate that oh-so-important sense of belonging? And how does all of this relate to our Unitarian Universalist Principles?

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

Lifting Our Voices #36

We are all longing to go home to some place
we have never been – a place, half- remembered, and haIf-envisioned
we can only catch glimpses of from time to time.
Community.
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion
without having the words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands
will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power.
Community means strength
that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done.
Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing.
A circle of friends.
Someplace where we can be free.

– Starhawk

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

YOU BELONG: A CALL FOR CONNECTION
by Sebene Selassie

“When you don’t like the joke, you belong. When you’re the “only one” of your race, disability, or sexuality, you belong. When you’re terrified to speak in public, you belong. When you feel hurt or when you have hurt someone else you belong. When you are down to your last dollars and the rent is due, you belong. When you feel overwhelmed by the horrors of human beings, you belong. When you have a debilitating illness, you belong. When everyone else is getting married, you belong. When you don’t know what you’re doing with your life, you belong. When the world feels like it’s falling apart, you belong. When you feel you don’t belong, you belong.”

Sermon

I remember well the moment I knew that I belonged in a UU congregation. I was in the meetinghouse, standing at the kitchen sink to wash my hands, when I saw this … a bottle of Seventh Generation dish soap. And then I saw that the paper towels were unbleached, brown, recycled paper towels.

This was many years ago, long before you could go to the regular grocery store and buy all sorts of cruelty-free, environmentally friendly, vegan much of anything. Instead, you had to go to a natural foods store or order what you wanted online. That meant that in many areas of my life, like at work, I felt different from most other people. I was a vegetarian, with vegan tendencies, and had been for many years. And most folk, even in the liberal areas, just … weren’t.

So, back to the sink. There I stood, looking at dish soap and paper towels, and a feeling overcame me that here were a people who would understand me, all of me. Here, I could be free. Here, I wouldn’t feel so different, so separate. I felt my body relax, as if I had been holding my breath and could finally breathe. A missing piece of the puzzle, that thing I had been longing for, without even knowing it, had been found. Here, I was at home. Here, I belonged.

If Sebene Selassie, the author of this morning’s reading, were here, I think she would tell me, tell all of us, that this experience of mine wasn’t really about finding a place I belonged, so much as it was about experiencing a feeling of belonging. Because I already belonged. I belong. And so do you. Selassie would say, and has said, that the key to belonging comes from within. We all already belong to everything – to ourselves, to each other, to the cosmos. That the feeling of not belonging comes from a “delusion of separation” – a false belief that we are separate. That if we don’t feel like we belong, we can learn to feel it, because belonging is wired within us. Feelings of belonging come from within.

Let’s sit with that for a moment. Everyone of you, whether you are here in person, or watching online, or watching on television, belongs. You already belong. Whether you feel it or not, and I hope you can, you belong.

Selassie, among other things, is a meditation teacher and a student of Buddhism. She explains it this way: There is a paradox in Buddhism called the Doctrine of Two Truths

“the absolute or ultimate truth of interconnection and the relative or conventional truth of difference. The absolute and the relative seem to contradict each other … but they describe only one reality. Belonging flourishes within this paradox: everything is connected, yet everything is experienced as separate.”

Within our own Unitarian Universalist tradition, we know this as “the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part”. We are interconnected. Interdependent. We cannot separate ourselves from the web of existence, from all of life here on earth, or from the cosmos itself.

Let me say more about this interdependent web of all existence and where it comes from. As a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association of congregations, we have covenanted to affirm and promote several Principles. These are found within Article II of our UUA’s bylaws and, because of their importance, are printed many other places, including in the front of our gray hymnals.

The interdependent web is the 7th Principle. All Unitarian Universalists, all UU congregations, have covenanted to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence. This is not a belief statement, but an action statement. Though it may be helpful to understand that many of us have incorporated the Principles into our personal belief systems.

Now, bear with me for a moment, because here comes the part where we need to catch everybody up all together. As we are a non-creedal faith, we rely on covenant and because we are a living tradition, we require of ourselves to review our covenant and, therefore, our Principles, every so many years. We are currently in one of those review periods and so we are living, for a year, with a new format, based on shared values, which will then come up for a final vote in the General Assembly in June of 2024.

These are our (proposed) shared values. Love is at the center, along with a flaming chalice. The remaining six values are pictured in a circle around the chalice. Starting at 12:00, there is:

  • Interdependence, in a swirl of orange;
  • Equity, in a swirl of red;
  • Transformation, in a swirl of purple;
  • Pluralism, in a swirl of blue;
  • Generosity, in a swirl of teal.
  • Justice, in a swirl of yellow;
(The image and discussion of the proposed change can be found HERE.)

If you listen or read carefully, you will find the familiar language of all of our Principles reincorporated into these shared values. The proposed language, which goes with the value of Interdependence, is this:

 

“Interdependence. We honor the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. With humility and reverence, we covenant to protect Earth and all beings from exploitation, creating and nurturing sustainable relationships of repair, mutuality, and justice.”

 

We are interconnected, interdependent with all of existence. We cannot remove ourselves from it, therefore, we belong. By the very nature of our existence, we belong. We belong to the interdependent web, we belong to the earth, the rocks, the trees, the oceans, the mountains, the creeks and rivers, the forests, the deserts, the animals, the birds, the volcanos, the lands where we have never been. The parts we like and the parts we don’t. We belong to all of it. And we belong to each other. Whether we want to belong or not, whether we try to belong or not. We belong because we are. Whether we see it, or hear it, or feel it, or sense it, or experience it, or not – we belong because we are.

(Story about cafeteria table in seminary)

My friend belonged, but did not experience feelings of belonging, did not experience feeling welcomed at the table. No matter our intentions of radical welcome, no matter our efforts at radical welcome, no matter whether we were the cool kids or not. My friend perceived us as separate, as disconnected. Sometimes, the best laid plans simply go awry. And that’s okay. We learn something from it and then we try again.

Welcoming is the Soul Matters theme for this month for some of the small groups (chalice circles). So, I’ve been thinking a lot about welcoming and belonging, how they are similar and how they are different and where they overlap. To my mind, belonging is something that just is, whether we want it or not, and whether we can feel it or not. This is new thinking for me, to which I greatly credit Sebene Selassie after reading and reflecting deeply upon her work and how it converges with my own life and experiences.

Welcoming, on the other hand, is about actions we can take. We can practice welcoming. We can even practice Radical Welcoming. And these practices can, potentially, increase feelings of belonging in those we are welcoming. Here, this congregation practices welcoming in a lot of ways: there is a welcome table, there are name tags, cough drops, and Kleenex, there are gender neutral single stall bathrooms, there is a membership coordinator, there are classes about membership, there is a group that helps people connect to the various church ministry teams, there is a BIPOC group, there is an LGBTQ group, there are classes on antiracism and trans inclusion, and so, so much more.

I see welcoming, or radical welcoming, as actions we can choose to take, and which highlight the strands of the interdependent web of all existence. It is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we are separate, disconnected, or don’t belong. It is easy to get busy with our lives and not notice the connections. the strands of the web, which are there all the time. Welcoming practices help ourselves and each other to see, or hear, or sense, or otherwise experience the strands of connection inherent in our interdependent web. It’s kind of like in one of those action movies where someone is trying to break into a high security area crisscrossed by invisible lasers. The would-be intruder, who is also often the heroic figure, pulls out a can of something, sprays it all around, and the laser beams suddenly become visible. I like to imagine engaging in welcoming practices as something like spraying that can. We can make the strands of the interdependent web, which connects all of us, and to which we all belong, visible by spraying that can. Just like spraying a room to find all the hidden laser beams, we welcome people to highlight the strands of belonging.

While speaking of belonging, and of welcoming, I want to highlight another important aspect of our living tradition. We are not a faith where anything goes, where you can believe anything you want, or do anything you want. Our beliefs and actions are all meant to be oriented toward the good, for the building of a better world, for the creation of beloved community. While people of all identities, or combination of identities, marginalized or privileged, are welcome here, not all behaviors are. This is why covenanting is so critical to our faith.

When we are at our best, we have good, strong, healthy boundaries. In this congregation, that means being a people of goodwill. And, by the way, the Healthy Relations Team is currently working on some proposed changes to the church covenant to make it more inclusive. If you’d like to participate in this process, go see them at their table at social hour.

All people of goodwill – Whoever you are, wherever you come from, wherever you find yourself on your life’s journey, whichever your pronouns, whether you’ve walked in or rolled in or dialed in, whomever you love, you are welcome here. You belong here.

May it be so evermore. Amen and Blessed Be.

Benediction

All know, that you are welcome here.
Know that you belong.
Know this deep down in the center of your soul:
Each and everyone of you belongs,
All the time, everywhere, to everyone, to everything. May the interdependent web shimmer and shine, hum and thrum,
for all your days and for all of your nights.

Amen, Amen, and Blessed Be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

The Promises We Make

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 17, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

As a religion without creed, without a set of beliefs to which we must all adhere, our UU spirituality is rooted in relationship. We create religious community though sacred promises we make with one another about how we will be together in the ways of love. We will examine the ancient tradition of covenant making and how we practice it today at First UU Church of Austin.

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

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST PRINCIPLES

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

  • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  • Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
  • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
  • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
  • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
  • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
  • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
  • journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

FIRST UU CHURCH OF AUSTIN COVENANT OF HEALTHY RELATIONS

As a religious community, we promise:

To Welcome and Serve

  • By being intentionally hospitable to all people of good will
  • By being present with one another through life’s transitions
  • By encouraging the spiritual growth of people of all ages

To Nurture and Protect

  • By communicating with one another directly in a spirit of compassion and good will
  • By speaking when silence would inhibit progress
  • By disagreeing from a place of curiosity and respect
  • By interrupting hurtful interactions when we witness them
  • By expressing our appreciation to each other

To Sustain and Build

  • By affirming our gratitude with generous gifts of time, talent and money for our beloved community
  • By honoring our commitments to ourselves and one another for the sake of our own integrity and that of our congregation
  • By forgiving ourselves and others when we fall short of expectations, showing good humor and the optimism required for moving forward

Thus do we covenant with one another.

Sermon

In May of 2009, same sex marriage was only legal in a hand full of states in the US.

My now spouse Wayne and I had already been together for 18 years. We were already spouses in all but the legal sense.

Still, we really wanted to make that commitment to one another. We wanted to speak our promises to one another about making a life together. We’ve been together 32 years now, so I guess that’s going to happen.

But, we wanted to make it legal, even if that had to be in some place other than this, our home state of Texas.

At that time, gay marriage was only legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa. Iowa?

We decided it would be more fun to get married in Vancouver, Canada instead, where it would also be legal.

We boarded a plane, flew to Denver International Airport, where we then board our connecting flight to Vancouver. A short time later, our plane caught on fire. Just a little electrical fire with smoke coming out of the passenger air vents.

After an emergency landing in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where our plane was larger than the terminal, they put us on buses back to Denver, where we would board a new plane to Vancouver very early the next morning, this time minus the onboard smoke and burning smell we hoped.

Now, this was early on a Saturday morning, and our wedding in Vancouver was scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

BUT, to make it legal, we had to fill out a wedding certificate application, which for some reason in Canada at the time you could only do at this drug store chain which closed for the weekend at noon on Saturday. So, we were in a bit of a hurry when our flight finally arrived at the Vancouver airport.

We rushed to customs, only to find ourselves in line behind a large group of heavy set men and women with grey hair, the men with full beards, many of them wearing Harley tee-shirts and one with a shirt that asked, “Have you been naughty or nice?”

They were there to attend a convention for people who play Santa Claus and were in no hurry to move through customs.

We finally made it through, rushed to pick up our luggage and the rental car and screeched our way to the closest drug store we could find. For some reason, the marriage application process was located in the photo department, where we finally arrived at 11 :45 a.m.

The man behind the counter was an elderly immigrant and did not speak English very well, and he was lovely determined to get us legal. He even made another store employee help him get it done. We signed the certificate at 11 :59 a.m.

That would become only the first time we both cried on our trip to Vancouver to get married.

The next day we were married in a beautiful old Victorian home just across from Vancouver Bay by a wonderful woman, who had to have been a Unitarian Universalist, whether she consciously knew it or not.

It was a glorious, sunny cool spring day. Flowers were in bloom everywhere.

Since we had been together 18 years at that point, so we had thought this would be simple – fly into Vancouver, say our vows, spend an afternoon in the mountains outside the city afterwards, and then fly back home all legally wed.

So we were stunned when we got to the part where we would say our vows to one another, and we both got so choked up that neither of us could speak.

Fortunately, our wedding officiant had been dog sitting a full-size Schnauzer named Marley, who she thought she had locked away in another room.

Just at that moment, Marley broke free and came bounding into the wedding, a squeaky toy between his jaws, which he was loudly engagIng.

She apologized profusely, but we urged her to let him stay. OK, we practically begged for Marley to stay. He did.

He sat right between us, our little “best guy”, periodically punctuating our promises to one another with a squeak. That helped us make it through the rest of the ceremony with great humor and joy.

I am still wearing the ring from when we bought each other wedding rings in those mountains outside of Vancouver.

This morning, we are exploring the concept of covenant, sacred promises we make with one another about how we will dwell together in right relationship – in the ways of love.

Covenant making is an ancient tradition within the Abrahamic religions, and, in fact, a concept of sacred promise making is present within most world religions.

So even in a modern, more secular world, this long history of promise making may help explain why covenanting can hold such a powerful place within our psyches.

Like when Wayne and I got so emotional over making our wedding vows to one another. After all, marriage vows are covenants.

Apparently, these sacred vows or so vital to me and Wayne that we have gotten married again twice since that fateful trip to Vancouver.

Once at the Travis County Clerk’s office after the Supreme Court legalized it across the country and again here at this church when we renewed our vows for our 25th anniversary.

Hey, at least if Wayne and I are going to keep getting married over and over again, we’re doing it with each other!

And covenant is a vital part of our Unitarian Universalist tradition also.

We are a religion without a prescribed set of beliefs, so relationship that call us all toward collective liberation through a set of loving promises we make with one another and our world is what binds together our varied theological perspectives.

We can share loving promises even if we do not always share the exact same beliefs.

If you are new to Unitarian Universalism and/or this church, our call to worship earlier was a set of principles that our UU congregations covenant to affirm and promote together.

The covenant that we all read together is the current version of the promises that participants in this religious community make to one another.

So, this ancient tradition of covenant is what instills it so deeply within our collective unconscious and makes the idea of promise making so holy to us.

And yet, I also think that tradition may contain warnings for us about how we construct our covenants and live them out.

For instance, the Hebrew scriptures are filled with covenants made between God and God’s people.

One of them is a covenant God makes with Noah, after deciding the people of the world had been very wicked and therefore the only choice was to flood the entire planet, drowning all life except for those that Noah had brought aboard a huge floating ark.

After the flood though, God sends a giant rainbow as a symbol of God’s promise never to flood the entire planet again, though God does go on to do a lot of other terrible things to humans.

All of which raises the question: is covenant possible when one side is all powerful and a tad bit temperamental?

This may be best illustrated by the story of Job, a pious and goodfearing man. God makes a bet with one of the angels that Job will remain faithful no matter what happens to him. So, they send many plagues upon Job, killing his entire family and destroying everything he has.

Eventually, Job accuses God of a serious breach of covenant, to which God essentially replies, “Yeah, well, I’m God, so too bad.”

Now God does eventually restore Job to his prior status, and I am having a bit of fun with an overly literal interpretation of these biblical stories, but still, there is a warning here for us about approaching covenant making within relationships of unequal power.

So, for instance, when white culture is dominant, we must be exceedingly careful that our covenants do not just enshrine the mores of that white culture.

In the Movie, History of the World Part 1, Mel Brooks retells the biblical story of when Moses went up to the mountain top and heard the voice of God.

God burned onto stone tablets commandments that the Israelites were to obey as their part of their covenant with God. In Mel Brooks telling, Moses comes down from the mountain top with three such stone tablets of five commandments each.

“My people”, Moses declares, “Hear me. The Lord has given unto you these 15 …” At which point he drops one of the tablets and it shatters into pieces. “Ten. Ten commandments for all to obey.”

Now, that is a humorous take on it, yet I think it also contains a kernel of truth about our promises we make with one another. They must be sacred. They cannot be frivolous to us. They cannot be just words on paper – or stone tablets.

And, again, they are more likely to seem that way if dictated by one person or group to another.

Our promises must be mutually held and encompass that which is most vital to us for living out love together.

They must inspire us to hold ourselves to these promises, and when we inevitably fall short of them because we are human, provide us guideposts for how to come back into covenant, get back into right relationship – like in our Pinkalicious story earlier.

I’ll close with one more story.

When my grandmother was in the last days of her life, she went to my mom’s house after she left the hospital for the last time. My grandmother had end stage congestive heart failure and had decided to go on hospice care. They could only come by my mom’s house periodically though, so the vast majority of caring for grandma fell to my mom.

And that became more and more difficult as my grandmother grew closer and closer to death. She became unable to dress herself, bathe herself or go to the restroom alone.

If you have ever been with someone who is in the final stages of life, they can sometimes seem to be existing between this reality and some other.

My grandmother began speaking the language of her childhood Czech – even though she had not spoken it for many years before that.

She became disoriented and confused and begin crying out of what seemed like frustration. She would sometimes show up in my mom’s living room only partially dressed. She at times became non-responsive and would not eat.

Not knowing how difficult things had become, I called my mom one day during this time just to check on them. As soon as she answered, I could tell things were not good. I asked her how she was. She told me all of the things that were going on with trying to care. After a long silence, she told me that she had been lying on her bed cryIng for my grandmother.

She didn’t know how to keep going. She didn’t know how to keep doing it. I hesitated and then asked, “Do you have to be the one to do it?” After another silence she said, “I promised her I would take care of her.”

My beloveds, that’s a powerful promise made out of the deepest sense of love. Taking care of each other is profoundly bound up within the very heart and soul of our covenants. And so we had to find a way for my mom to both fulfill that promise and reimagine it in a way that was humanly possible. She got help. She came to realize that she did not have to take care of my grandmother alone.

We moved my grandmother back into her own home, where she was immediately more comfortable and less confused. We hired people to stay with her overnight so that my mother could go home to her own house sometimes.

I truly believe reimagining and renewing that promise both saved my mom and brought my grandmother much greater peace during her final days.

And we renew our religious covenants like this too. They are living promises.

We learn. We change. We evolve. And so too then must our covenants.

That covenant among our churches is currently undergoing a review, which our faith does periodically to make sure we are still living into love in the best ways we know how.

Our healthy relations team here at the church is reviewing the church covenant, based upon feedback they have received from some of you and at least in part to address some of the potential issues discussed today. We want you to participate.

It is your covenant and has helped this church remain healthy through so many challenging times.

Tomas Medina from the healthy relations team will be at a table in Howson Hall after the service today.

Please feel free to visit with him and discuss how to keep this set of promises we share alive – how together we can continue to bring the ways of love into full and magnificent being.

Our great Unitarian Universalist Theologian, James Luther Adams wrote, “Human beings, individually and collectively, become human by making commitment, by making promise. The human being as such … is the promise-making, promise- keeping, promise-breaking, promise renewing creature.”

And so our religious vocation as Unitarian Universalists becomes continually renewing the promise of unity and universal love.

What a glorious promise we keep. Amen.

Benediction

Now, as we go out into our world;

May the mission that we share inspire your thoughts and light your way,

May the covenant that binds us together dwell in your heart and nourish your days,

May the spirit of this beloved community go with you until next we are gathered again.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Covenantal Beginnings

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
September 10, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

New ministry, new church year, new programming, new members – with so many new beginnings it is time to call ourselves into covenant with each other and with the community as a whole. Rev. Michelle and Rev. Chris will explore with each other and with all of us their perspectives on the covenantal foundations of shared ministry.

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

LIFTING OUR VOICES #108

Do more than simply keep the promises made in your vow.
Do something more: keep promising.
As time passes, keep promising new things,
deeper things, vaster things, yet unimagined things.
Promises that will be needed to fill the expanses of time and of love.
Keep promising.

– David Blanchard

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

LIFTING OUR VOICES #112

Our church exists to proclaim the gospel
that each human being is infinitely precious,
that the meaning of our lives lies hidden in our interactions with each other.

We wish to be a church
where we encounter each other with wonder, appreciation, and expectation,
where we call out of each other strengths, wisdom, and compassion
that we never knew we had.

– Beverly and David Bumbaugh

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

2023 Water Communion Service

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 3, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We come together to begin our new church year with the Annual Water Communion Ritual. We share with one another water that symbolizes something meaningful to us as we blend and mingle the waters that remind us of our shared faith.

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

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop”.

– Rumi

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS
by Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Getting to know you

by Posted in Audio available, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
August 27, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Michelle LaGrave will share her theology of interim ministry, some of her hopes for this coming year, and a little bit about herself too.

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

WE GATHER HERE TO WORSHIP
By Gary Kowalski

We gather here to worship:
to seek the truth, to grow in love, to join in service;
to celebrate life’s beauty and find healing for its pain;
to honor our kinship with each other and with the earth;
to create a more compassionate world,
beginning with ourselves;
to wonder at the mystery that gave us birth;
to find courage for the journey’s end;
and to listen for the wisdom that guides us
in the quietness of this moment.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

READING # 120 FROM “LIFTING OUR VOICES”
By Erika Hewitt

READER 1: I don’t have anything to say.

READER 2: Well, I do – but it might not be interesting to anyone.

READER 1: I have secrets inside of me, and struggles, and I don’t know if I’m ready to share them.

READER 2: I want to hear what you have to say.

READER 1: I want to speak of the deepest things together.

READER 2: I want to hear what you dream about, what you hope for.

READER 1: I want to know how you have come to arrive at this resting point along your journey.

READER 2: What if I speak and you don’t understand me?

READER 1: I will listen, and listen again, until my hearing becomes understanding.

READER 2: What if can’t find the words to share the world inside of me?

READER 1: I believe that wise words will emerge from you.

READER 2: How can I trust you to hold my life’s stories? You, who I may not even know?

Reader 2: How will this work? What will happen? What awaits us?

Reader 1: We can find out anything by beginning.

Sermon

“Let us begin to listen, and trust, and to know one another more deeply.” (from the reading)

Let us begin to listen, to know one another more deeply, and to trust. Let us begin by sharing our stories. Mine begins like this …

I was born under a cross. This might seem like an odd beginning for a Unitarian Universalist minister, but it is true, both literally and figuratively. Not only was there a lighted cross on the hospital itself, there was a giant lighted cross that sat upon the top of a hill and loomed over the city, beneath which, on the side of the hill, in large white letters, were the words “Holy Land”.

I was born a liberal Protestant into a world dominated by Catholicism, a world that, upon later reflection, seemed to be re-living the Protestant Reformation. As a Congregationalist, I was part of a numerical minority and experienced my small world as such. I was taught everything we believed in contrast to what Catholics believed. We kept things simple. Crosses instead of crucifixes. No idols. That was a big one. Not a single painting or drawing or image of Jesus anywhere. Which was fine, when I was in my home church, but quickly became a moral dilemma every time I was in a Catholic Church, and there were many times – for weddings or funerals or Girl Scout events or while sleeping over a friend’s house. The problem was I didn’t know where to rest my eyes there were statues everywhere, so I mostly wound up looking at the floor. It was safe there. I didn’t want to get in trouble with G_d for accidentally committing idolatry.

I was, in some ways, a serious child, at least when it came to my faith. While I didn’t always love Sunday School, I did love being in church. I loved the joyful entrance songs and the long processional of robed choir members and ministers. Sometimes I daydreamed about what it might like to be a minister, though I thought it wouldn’t be a good match for me – too much writing, which I didn’t like, plus people were always telling me I was shy.

Well, as you can see, I eventually did become a minister, a transformational process which began when I was in my 30s. I sat down at the dining room table one day and began to read an inspirational article about Ghandi. In it, they talked about how someone had once asked Ghandi if he had a mission or a motto in life. His answer was: “My life is my message.” In less than an instant, I knew that I needed to become a minister. By then, I was a Unitarian Universalist. I knew that I wanted my life to be my message and in order for that to be true, I needed to become a UU minister. This was a deeply spiritual experience.

One I didn’t completely trust at first. So, I went through a process of logically confirming that becoming a minister would be a good match for me. I found out it was. I had received my call.

Years later, and early in my ministry, I candidated for a position as a settled minister in a church. It turned out to be one of life’s most heartbreaking, and best, experiences. The vote to call did not pass, and when people talked about it with me afterwards, they explained that the discussion was all about my identities, that I was queer, and disabled, and had a service dog, and was married to a person who was transgender, and was … large. My heart broke. These people, my people, had broken faith with me, with all of us. That these discussions had happened, so openly and explicitly, was exactly what we UUs were not supposed to be. I was shocked.

And I, rather quickly, become determined. I had already done one transitional ministry, so I turned right around and applied for another. My mission became clear. I would travel around the country, teaching congregations, through my presence, that it was okay to have a minister like me. My initial call was affirmed. My life would continue to be my message.

And so, here I am, your Interim Co-Lead Minister. Over my time as a minister, I have served congregations in Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. I know, that’s a lot of moving around! Some of it has been hard, much of it has been rewarding. I have met many wonderful people along the way and done some good, I think.

On the micro level, my mission is to support congregations in becoming stronger and healthier.

On the macro level, my mission is to build a better world.

We will begin, or continue, as you have already done some interim ministry, with a practice of self-reflection. My role is to, symbolically, hold up a mirror, reflecting what I see, so that you might better see yourselves, who you are as a congregation, how you function, so that, together, we might discern some patterns in who you are now as a congregation and how you have been. This is all done so that you might thoughtfully and intentionally choose which patterns you would like to continue and which patterns you are ready to let go. I will support and guide you through this process, and I won’t let you fall off any cliffs I see coming. But I want to be clear, and I want you to be clear, that this is your congregation. It is not your ministers’ congregation. It is not Rev. Meg’s congregation, though she will remain your honored emerita. It is your congregation. Who you are and how you are in this world, is up to you.

You are a strong, vital, healthy, growing congregation and you have much to be proud of. That will not change. And, this interim time can be a rich and rewarding time in the life of your congregation, a time when you become even stronger, even healthier, even more vital. The way this happens is by engaging in the hard work of cultural change, maybe even, of transformation. I will be here to guide you and support you on the way through, even as it is your congregation and your work.

Why do I do this work, this ministry? Why should you do this work? This is the crux of the issue, isn’t it? Underlying all of this cultural change work, underlying all of this potential transformation, is the work of antiracism and antioppression, or, if you prefer newer language, the work of belonging and inclusion. As our congregations work, as this congregation works, to dismantle oppression, to widen the circle of concern, to become even more inclusive, to build on feelings of belonging, we, you, are building a better world, we, you are creating beloved community. This is our, yours and mine, thea/ological work. This is the way we move our thea/ology from our minds, our intellect, from our hearts, our compassion, into action.

May it be so. Amen and Blessed Be.

Benediction

Go now in Peace, with Love in your hearts, kindness on your lips, and compassion at your fingertips, blessing all others as you yourselves are now blessed. Our worship has ended, now our service begins.

Please join me in saying: Amen and Blessed Be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Question Box Service 2023

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

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Rev. Michelle LaGrave
and Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 20, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Michelle and Rev. Chris will answer your submitted questions about the church, life, the universe, and everything else (time permitting.)

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

Understand that the task is to shift the demand from the right answer to search for the right question.

– Peter Block

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

– Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Post-Pandemic Ponderings

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 13, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The pandemic and the necessary isolation that accompanied it changed us and our world in ways we are still trying to understand. As we move through this time, when we hope that Covid may be becoming endemic, it is important that we appreciate all that we have experienced together, as we assess how we approach life, the life of our church, and what we hope to manifest in this new world in which we find ourselves.

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

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

– Alfred North Whitehead

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY
Sonya Renee Taylor

The body is not an apology.
Let it not be forget-me-not fixed to mattress when night threatens
to leave the room empty as the belly of a crow.
The body is not an apology. Do not present it as a disassembled rifle
when he has yet to prove himself more than common intruder.
The body is not an apology. Let it not be common as oil, ash or toilet.
Let it not be small as gravel, stain or teeth.
Let it not be mountain when it is sand.
Let it not be ocean when it is grass.
Let it not be shaken, flattened or razed in contrition.
The body is not an apology. Do not give the body as confession,
communion. Do not ask for it to be pardoned as criminal.
The body is not a crime, is not a gun.
The body is not a spill to be contained. It is not
a lost set of keys or wrong number dialled. It is not
the orange burst of blood to shame white dresses.
The body is not an apology. It is not the unintended granules
of bone beneath will. The body is not kill.
It is not unkempt car.
It is not a forgotten appointment.
Do not speak it vulgar.
The body is not soiled, it is not filth to be forgiven.
The body is not an apology. It is not a father’s backhand,
is not mother’s dinner late again, wrecked jaw, howl.
It is not the drunken sorcery of contorting steel round tree.

The body is not calamity.
The body is not a math test.
The body is not a wrong answer.
The body is not a failed class.
You are not failing.
The body is not a cavity, is not hole to be filled, to be yanked out.
It is not a broken thing to be mended, be tossed.
The body is not prison, is not sentence to be served.
It is not pavement, is not prayer.
The body is not an apology.
Do not give the body as gift. Only receive it as such.
The body is not to be prayed for, is to be prayed to.
So, for the evermore tortile tenth grade nose,
Hallelujah.
For the shower song throat that crackles like a grandfather’s Victrola, Hallelujah.
For the spine that never healed, for the lambent heart that didn’t either, Hallelujah.
For the sloping pulp of back, hip, belly,
Hosanna.
For the errant hairs that rove the face like a pack of Acheronian wolves.

Hosanna,
for the parts we have endeavored to excise.
Blessed be
the cancer, the palsy, the womb that opens like a trap door.
Praise the body in its blackjack magic, even in this.
For the razor wire mouth.
For the sweet god ribbon within it.
Praise.
For the mistake that never was.
Praise.
For the bend, twist, fall, and rise again,
fall and rise again. For the raising like an obstinate Christ.
For the salvation of a body that bends like a baptismal bowl.
For those who will worship at the lip of this sanctuary.
Praise the body, for the body is not an apology.
The body is deity. The body is God. The body is God:
the only righteous love that never need repent.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Faithful and Proud

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
E. Ciszek and Christina Raymond
Art Carter and Tom Shindell
Evan Mahony and Bis Thornton
August 6, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

As this year’s LGBTQI+ Pride week begins in Austin, we will continue our annual tradition of inviting members of our church community to share their experiences with the intersectionality of identity and faith.

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

JESUS AT THE GAY BAR
by Jay Hulme

He’s here in the midst of it —
right at the centre of the dance floor,
robes hitched up to His knees
to make it easy to spin.
At some point in the evening
a boy will touch the hem of His robe
and beg to be healed, beg to be
anything other than this;
and He will reach His arms out,
sweat-damp, and weary from dance.
He’ll cup the boy’s face in His hand
and say,
my beautiful child
there is nothing in this heart of yours
that ever needs to be healed.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

RUMINATIONS ON THE DEATH OF PAT ROBERTSON
by KC

I don’t like to think
About Pat Robertson going to hell.
That lets him off too easy.
I like to think about Pat Robertson finding himself
In a heaven he never believed
Would exist.
Where Divine is reading in drag
To the children murdered at
Sandy Hook and Ulvalde.
While Edie Windsor
And Gertrude Stein drink coffee
In the breakfast nook
talking politics with Harvey Milk.
Where Matthew Shepard relaxes by
A stream, reading poetry to
A nameless young man whose family
Never claimed his body
when he died Of AIDS.
Where the music plays loudly
Welcoming dancers from the Pulse
And Club Q to the floor where they
Twirl and vogue with
All the murdered trans women of color
Whose names we never knew.
Where Jesus puts his arm around
Pat Robertson’s shoulders and
Drapes them with a rainbow feather boa.
And, gesturing around him says
Come, meet my disciples.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

The speakers are:

E. Ciszek and Christina Raymond
Art Carter and Tom Shindell
Evan Mahony and Bis Thornton

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Blessings for the next chapter

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
July 30, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In her last service as our interim Minister for Joy and Justice, Rev. Erin Walter will reflect on the congregation’s learning and spiritual growth in the past year, and offer blessings for the church’s future. Rev. Jonalu Johnstone will also join the service by video.

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

WE ARRIVE TOGETHER HERE
By Andrew Pakula

We arrive together here
Travellers on life’s journey
Seekers of meaning, of love, of healing, of justice, of truth
The journey is long, and joy and woe accompany us at every step
None is born that does not die
None feels pleasure that does not also feel pain.
The tear has not yet dried on the cheek but the lips curve sweetly in a smile
Numerous are our origins, our paths, and our destinations
And yet, happily, our ways have joined together here today
Spirit of life. Source of love.
May our joining be a blessing
May it bring comfort to those who are in pain
May it bring hope to those who despair
May it bring peace to those who tremble in fear
May it bring wisdom and guidance for our journeys
And though this joining may be for just a moment in time
The moment is all we can ever be certain of
May we embrace this and every instant of our lives.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Nurturing Spiritual Wholeness

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
July 23, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Did you know that the church offers several small group ministries where people gather in groups of around 10 to share deeply, explore personal and collective spiritual growth, and develop sustaining, nurturing practices? Join us to hear from fellow congregants who have helped lead such groups and, in doing so, discovered new spiritual horizons that already existed within themselves.

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 HIDDEN WHOLENESS
Parker Palmer

Philosophers haggle about what to call this core of our humanity, but I am no stickler for precision. Thomas Merton called it true self. Buddhists call it original nature or big self. Quakers call it the inner teacher or the inner light. Jews call it a spark of the devine. Humanists call it identity and integrity. In popular parlance, people often call it soul.

What we name it matters little to me, but that we name it matters a great deal….

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

From HIDDEN WHOLENESS
Parker Palmer

No fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting each other straight. The rule is simple…

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Lessons from Chalice Camp

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Rev. Chris Jimmerson, Kelly Stokes, and First UU Chalice Campers
July 16, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This week we hosted Chalice Camp, a full-day summer camp for UU kids from all around the Austin area. During worship this Sunday, they’ll be sharing some of the songs, stories, and UU history that they learned this week. We’ll also hear a Bridging Homily from a graduating senior about how their faith has informed their understanding. Join us for this youthful – and very joyful – worship.

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

GENERATION TO GENERATION
by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In a house which becomes a home,
one hands down and another takes up
the heritage of mind and heart,
laughter and tears, musings and deeds.
Love, like a carefully loaded ship,
crosses the gulf between the generations.
Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies
of our passage: when we wed, when we die,
and when we are blessed with a child;
When we depart and when we return;
When we plant and when we harvest.
Let us bring up our children. It is not
the place of some official to hand to them
their heritage.
If others impart to our children our knowledge
and ideals, they will lose all of us that is
wordless and full of wonder.
Let us build memories in our children,
lest they drag out joyless lives,
lest they allow treasures to be lost because
they have not been given the keys.
We live, not by things, but by the meanings
of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords
from generation to generation.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Culture of Caring

by Posted in Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson,
Susan Thomson, and Toni Wegner
July 9, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

As a faith without creed, Unitarian Universalism is deeply rooted in relationship. We are a people of shared values, mission, and covenant, and through these we make sacred promises to care for one another and our world. Join Rev. Chris and the leaders of our First UU Cares Team as we explore how we can create an ever-increasing culture of caring at First UU Church of Austin.

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

WE NEED ONE ANOTHER
by George Odell

We need one another when we mourn and want comfort.

We need one another when we are in trouble and are afraid.

We need one another when we are in despair, in temptation, and need to be recalled to our best selves again.

We need one another when we strive to accomplish some great purpose, and realize we cannot do it alone.

We need one another in the hour of success, when we look for someone to share triumphs.

We need one another in the hour of defeat, when with encouragement we try to endure, and stand again.

We need one another when we come to die and seek gentle hands to prepare us for the journey.

All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

BLESSING WHEN THE WORLD IS ENDING
by Jan Richardson

Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.

Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.

Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun
the knife
the fist.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door
the shattered hope.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone
the television
the hospital room.

Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
hat will break
your heart.

But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.

It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.

This blessing
will not fix you
will not mend
you will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.

It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.

Sermon

LIVING OUR MISSION
Susan Thomson

I had the privilege in 2010 to be on the church board that created our first mission. We led a worship service to introduce the mission, and as we walked out of the sanctuary someone said very excitedly, “We should write that mission on the wall above the sanctuary doors!”. This was very gratifying as we had no idea how it would be received. Well, it ended up on the wall inside the sanctuary and we of course recite it together every week. The mission you see was revised a few years ago to add the beloved community, and it will be reviewed periodically by future boards with your input.

At some point it occurred to me that as a member of this church I have a role to play in living our mission. This may be a direct result of my Methodist upbringing. One of my major takeaways from the Methodist church of my youth is this quote from John Wesley, a founder of the Methodist church.

Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can.

That’s a very tall order! I shared this quote with my spiritual companion who I have been meeting with regularly since my first year in Wellspring in 2016. The context was that I struggle with feeling that I’m never doing enough. She shared some wise insights as she usually does. When I later told her I wanted to give her credit in a homily I was preparing, being the very ethical person she is, she asked me not to use her name. So I am referring to her as “she who will not be named.”

She who will not be named pointed out to me that John Wesley did not say you have to do it all. He said, do what you can. Then she shared with me a quote often attributed to Rabbi Tarfon. He was commenting on Micah 6: verse 8. He said:

I keep this on a sticky note on my computer.

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now,

Love mercy, now.

Walk humbly, now.

You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

So how do we do what we can to live our mission? Our wonderful social justice leaders give us many ways and means to do what we can to do justice. We are not expected to do it all.

We have opportunities to transform lives as well. If we have gifts of music or art or helping with worship services, we can share those. The second verse from the hymn, “Love Will Guide Us”, is as follows,

If you cannot sing like angels,
If you cannot speak before thousands,
You can give from deep inside you,
You can change the world with your love.

My husband Tom and I always smile at each other when we sing that verse because neither of us sings like angels!

So how can we nourish souls? This part of our mission speaks to me of how we nourish souls by caring for one another. Two of our 5 values also speak directly of caring:

Community-to connect with joy, sorrow and service with those whose lives we touch

Compassion-to treat ourselves and others with love

Our service today is focused on creating a culture of caring within this congregation. First UU Cares is our formal caring ministry. We work alongside our ministers to provide care in a variety of ways. We now have a great group of volunteers who are literally able to nourish souls by bringing meals to congregants who are ill or who are welcoming newborns into their home. They bring food to memorial service receptions. They are also available to visit congregants who are hospitalized or ill at home. More volunteers are always welcomed.

But we can nourish souls as well by simply caring about each other and reaching out when we learn that someone in our community is facing the challenges life sometimes presents us, be that dealing with a serious illness, grieving the loss of a loved one, or even a happy event such as welcoming a newborn.

The announcements under “First UU Cares” in our Friday newsletter and the announcements from the pulpit before we light candles are a new means of informing our church community about these challenges. We can’t reach out to nourish souls if we are unaware of who might appreciate this. We encourage you as you feel comfortable to either let our ministers know of your own situations you wish to share or those of others in our church community. None of these announcements are made without the permission of the persons being referenced. But they give each of us the opportunity to do what we can to nourish souls.

CULTURE OF CARING
Toni Wegner

I want to talk a bit today about what a culture of caring might look like, because I was fortunate to experience this firsthand. My husband, two daughters and I moved in 2000 to Winchester, MA, a suburb of Boston, far away from any family. We both had jobs at Harvard and kept busy with work and child-related activities. We were not church goers. When 9/11 hit, we felt the lack of community in our lives and wandered into the UU church in our town. We loved the services and kept going back, but the only activity we did outside of Sunday service was a Circle Dinner Ð where 8 of us met 4 times for pot luck suppers. A year later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had major surgery and chemo. We were totally blown away when two different people from that group dropped by with dinner, and then a couple more that we didn’t even know. My husband did all of our cooking and would have never asked for help, but I can’t express how helpful it was not to have to think about a meal, and how touched we were that these people reached out. This is when I realized what it means to be part of a community. The interim minister also visited me in the hospital, apparently after one of my daughters mentioned something in youth group. Mind you, we weren’t even members of the church, but we were definitely embraced by the community.

We were fully engaged members of the Winchester UU church community seven years later when my husband was diagnosed with ALS, which our most recent minister had just died of. The disease progression was gradual, mostly predictable. Being quite capable and independent people, it would never have occurred to us to ask for or accept help from others – we could manage it. But offers of help poured in, or sometimes people just showed up. People really wanted to do something to help. One fall morning we heard a bit of commotion outside as we were getting dressed to find 8 church members armed with leaf blowers, rakes and bags cleaning up the fall leaves. That was great! My husband was a big man and feared that I wouldn’t be able to get him up off the ground if he fell. His physical therapist offered to teach a class on how to get someone off the ground, no matter how big they are (but it took 2 people). We invited interested church members to attend and had over 20 participants. He fell twice after that, and both times I called people from the class; they came right over to help. It was a challenging time for sure, but the love and support of members of the church really held us up and carried us through. The type of help ranged from meals to rides to dog walks to cards, flowers, visits and check-in emails. It was comforting to know we were not doing this alone.

When my husband died, the memorial services team walked me through everything to help create a perfect celebration of his life. As with most people who do this for the first time, I had no idea where to begin, and it really meant a lot to have someone guide me through that. That’s the reason I signed up for the memorial services reception team after I joined this church.

Based on my experience, here’s what I think are key elements of a culture of caring:

1. Let the ministers and First UU Cares know when you are in need or experiencing a life event – and let them spread the word. Sharing your news helps us to connect as a community, and no matter how minor it may seem to you, it’s helpful to know that others care.

2. Say yes to help, even if you think you don’t need it. People want to help, and there is very likely something they can do to be helpful (even if it’s not a casserole). Having one less thing to do can make a big difference, even if it’s something you can do.

3. Keep in mind that you don’t have to know someone to offer to help. We are all part of this community.

First UU Cares gives us an opportunity to engage in a culture of caring, which we need now more than ever.

Through a culture of caring, we can continue to grow and develop our shared values, mission, and covenant.

Benediction

In the night, I dreamt of a world made better by our togetherness.

Of reaching toward never before imagined horizons, Made knowable and possible only by living in mutuality.

I saw distant lands made out like visions of paradise, Replenished and remade through a courage that embraced interdependence.

We dwelt in fields of green together, Fertile valleys nurtured by trust.

We built visions of love and beauty and justice, Nourished by partnership, cultivated through solidarity.

I dreamt of lush forests thriving with life, Oceans teaming with vitality,

Mountains stretching toward majesty,

Our world made whole again.

These things we had done together.

These things we had brought to pass with each other.

These dream world imaginings seemed possible in the boundless potential we create by caring for one another.

I awoke,

And still, the dream continues.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Joy and Justice, Amen

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Julicia Hermann de la Fuente
July 2, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

There are so many things vying for our attention and energy. How do we manage it all? How do we find joy and satisfaction? How do we fit our commitment to justice among the many other things that need doing? Let’s explore the possibility of sustainable and joyful liberation and transformation, in our lives and our communities.

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

By no means are we Unitarian Universalists perfect. We often fail as much as we succeed. Yet even when we have broken our vows a thousand times we return to this essential work of justice and liberation for all. We do the work best when we remember what the church is and what it is not.

Church is not a place to hide. It is not the place to get away from the world. It is not place shere we get to pretend that the lives we live and our particular situations are not terribly complex, often confusing, and sometimes depressing.

Church is the place where we stand with one another, look the world in the eye, attempt to see clearly, and gather strength to face what we see with courage and yes, with joy. Come, let us worship together.

– Rosemary McKnight

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

V’AHAVTA
by Aurora Levins Morales

Say these words
when you lie down and
when you rise up,
when you go out and
when you return,
in times of mourning and
times of joy.

Inscribe them on your doorposts,
embroider them on your garments,
tattoo them on your shoulder,
teach them to your children,
your neighbors,
your enemies.

Recite them in your streets.
Here, in the cruel shadow of empire.

Another world is possible.

Thus spoke the prophet Roque Dalton:
All together they have more death than we,
but all together, we have more life than they.
There is more bloody death in their hands
than we could ever wield, unless
we lay down our souls to become them,
and then we will lose everything.
So instead,

imagine winning. This is your
sacred task.
This is your power. Imagine
every detail of winning, the exact smell
of the summer streets
in which no one has been shot, the
muscles you have never
unclenched from worry, gone soft as
newborn skin,
the sparkling taste of food when we know
that no one on earth is hungry, that the
beggars are fed,
that the old man under the bridge and
the woman wrapping herself in thin sheets in the
back seat of a car,
and the children who suck on stones,
nest under a flock of roofs that keep
multiplying their shelter.
Lean with all your being towards that day
when the poor of the world shake down a
rain of good fortune out of the heavy clouds, and justice
rolls down like waters.

Defend the world in which we win as if
it were your child.
It is your child.
Defend it as if it were your lover.
It is your lover.

When you inhale and when you exhale
breathe the possibility of another world
into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.

Imagine rape is unimaginable. Imagine
war is a scarcely credible rumor
That the crimes of our age, the
grotesque inhumanities of greed,
the sheer and astounding shamelessness
of it, the vast fortunes
made by stealing lives, the horrible
normalcy it came to have,
is unimaginable to our heirs, the
generations of the free.

Don’t waver. Don’t let despair sink its
sharp teeth
Into the throat with which you
sing. Escalate your dreams.
Make them burn
so fiercely that you can
follow them down
any dark alleyway of history and not
lose your way.
Make them burn clear as a starry
drinking gourd
Over the grim fog of exhaustion, and
keep walking.

Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining.
So that we, and the children of our
children’s children may live

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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

Toward our Metamorphosis into Who Knows What

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Buice
June 25, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We bring a very special worship service from our annual Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, where UUs from from far and wide have gathered in Pittsburgh this week. Our Director of Religious Education, Kelly Stokes, leads our service as we join our larger faith in worship. Rev Buice is minister of the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville, Tenn.

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.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

PUSHING FORWARD
By Elandria Williams

If we believe in the promise of our faith, we must continue pushing forward, even if the reality makes us want to give up. There is no one-size-fits-all solution or model, but there are many paths forward based on context, relationships, and place.

Ideology sparks movements, but relationships are what changes organizations and sustain movements. It takes one relationship at a time. In the end changes to the leadership of the institution happen because of relationships, people pushing. We must place value on the relationships and the need to not leave folks behind in our quest for transformation.

I live in a small city, and living in that small city helps me understand what community means. Community doesn’t only include the people who agree with you or those with whom you want to be friends. Our Unitarian Universalist faith is similar in the sense that we are a small religious community of people who are not bound by creed but instead are bound by principles, values, and a covenant with a need for intellectual rigor combined with spiritual depth or humanist love. Everything comes back to our congregations and covenanted communities. That is where the faith starts and ends. We must embody the changes we wish to see and not just say that we believe in the changes. We must actually live the changes with every fabric of our being. If we believe in the promise of our faith, we must continue pushing forward.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 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