In Death and Democracy, Look for Beauty

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Sermons

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Rev. Erin Walter
November 6, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

What do grief and elections have in common? They are unusual places to look for beauty. In the season of All Souls and with election day looming, Rev. Erin Walter will reflect with us on our spiritual commitment to democracy and on finding beauty in challenging times.

 

 

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

Put up an alter for your beloved dead
Put out food and drink
flowers
The delights of the living.

Gather at the table
tell their stories
the ones they couldn’t stop repeating
and their jokes the same.

Look for awhile into the darkness
say their names
listen and be still
but do not expect an answer.

If anything
in the hush whisper of blowing leaves
just this
it’s your world now, we did what we could
the living are the only architects
of the world to come.

– Lynn Unger

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

Freedom is not a state. It is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all take and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair more just society.

– John Lewis

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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 Masks We Wear

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
October 30, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

At Halloween, we assume other identities by putting on costumes and masks. Metaphically though, we may sometimes wear masks throughout our lives. How do these masks protect us? How might they be holding us back? Might they even be a part of our personal and spiritual development sometimes?

 

 

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.

Meditation Reading

The word persona is the Greek term for “stage mask.” Masks and armor are perfect metaphors for how we protect ourselves from the discomfort of vulnerability. Masks make us feel safer even when they become suffocating. Armor makes us feel stronger even when we grow weary from dragging the extra weight around.

The irony is that when we’re standing across from someone who is hidden or shielded by masks and armor, we feel frustrated and disconnected. That’s the paradox here: Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me, but the first thing I look for in you.

– Brene Brown

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

Courage for In-Between Times

by Posted in Audio available, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

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Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
October 23, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We are living in In-between, or liminal, times – in this church and in the world. In between pandemic and virus eradication, in the midst of changing climate, in between senior ministers. We need courage because in liminal times, we are uncertain. Unpredictability can bring danger, confusion, pain and general messiness. In short, crisis. Facing these times with courage, though, can also bring new insights and a new way of being in the world. How will we face in-between times together?

 

 

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

IN BETWEEN
Kate R. Walker

In between, liminal, that space where we wait.
Between moments; events, results, action, no action.
To stand on the threshold, waiting for something to end,
And something new to arrive, a pause in the rumble of time.
Awareness claims us, alert, a shadow of something different.

In between invitation and acceptance.
In between symptom and diagnosis.
In between send and receipt of inquiry and question.
In between love given and love received.

Liminality, a letting go, entering into confusion,
ambiguity and disorientation.
A ritual begun, pause … look back at what once was,
Look forward into what becomes.
Identity sheds a layer, reaches into something uncomfortable to wear.

In between lighting of the match and the kindling of oil.
In between choosing of text and the reading of words.
In between voices and notes carried through the air into ears to hear.
In between — creation thrusts ever forward.

Social hierarchies may disassemble and structures may fall.
Communities may revolt or tempt trust.
Tradition may falter or creativity crashes forward.
Leaders may step down or take charge.
The people may choose or refuse.

In between, storm predicted, the horizon beacons.
In between, theology of process reminds us to step back.
In between, where minutia and galaxies intermingle with microbes and mysteries.
In between, liminal, that space where we wait: Look, listen, feel, breathe.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

Look well to the growing edge” All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge” It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child – life’s most dramatic answer to death – this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge”

– Civil Rights theologian Howard Thurman

Sermon

I learned a lot about insects in the last congregation I served. With both an ag school and a USDA Agricultural Research Center in Manhattan, Kansas, we had more entomologists – insect scientists – in that congregation than I had ever met before. So I learned something about insects.

The caterpillar inside the chrysalis is literally digesting itself, actually using its own digestive juices to break down its own body into undifferentiated cells, cells that can become anything. Well, not all of its body. There are pieces that remain intact like the tracheal tubes, for example. Plus, there’s some stuff in there already, imaginal discs, that are prepared under the right circumstances to turn into butterfly parts – eyes, antennae, legs, mouthparts, genitals, and of course, wings. Wings that allow the butterfly to take off and soar, leaving behind its old life limited to a small patch of earth to be able to travel anywhere – or at least on its instinctual migration track. But before the wings, there’s the cocoon. No wonder the caterpillar is impatient. Before we get to the glorious wings, we have to soak in the goo. Not a fun place.

Of course, metaphors like caterpillars turning into butterflies cannot fully represent human experience. I simply want to introduce the idea that the in-between time required for transformation is not always easy or pleasant. Any of you ever been through labor to birth a child?

French Reform rabbi Delphine Horvileur talks about a Hebrew word, mashber, which means crisis, yes, and it carries a deeper meaning. It comes from the name of a tool used in birthing, and relates to a place of breach, the mouth of the womb. She says, “It’s a time of anger and hope, death and life. It’s the birthing of something new and no one knows what that’s going to be.

Or maybe you’ve moved? You’re not in one place or another place; you’re in between. In between can feel really crappy. Messy. Unpredictable. Controversial. No wonder we so often want to rush through transitions to get out the other side. It does not always feel good to be in the middle of it.

Another aspect where I draw on the caterpillar metaphor.

The caterpillar has no idea what’s going on, or what it will look like when it’s done. Yes, I know, insects have no self-awareness, despite Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and Jiminy Cricket and all the cute little animated bugs that have appeared onscreen since. The point is that transformation happens to the caterpillar based on stuff going on inside it, hormones and such, but outside the poor little caterpillar’s voluntary control.

So, have I got you excited about transition yet? It’s a messy, horrible process outside your control and you don’t know what you’ll have at the end of it. Nobody’d sign up for that voluntarily.

Or would we? Have we? In Unitarian Universalism, we do not commit ourselves to a savior, a creed, or a book. We commit ourselves to one another, to a covenant that we share, to a mission that we embrace. We commit ourselves to an approach to religion and spirituality, indeed to a way of life. And a way, that if it is followed, will change us.

I came into Unitarian Universalism from Southern Baptist churches where I had learned about personal salvation and had rejected much of the theology I had learned, though not all of it, and not all of the forms, some of which I still loved. As a young UU, I discovered feminist theology and paganism and embraced a whole new worldview, though not in a well integrated way. I like to say I went to seminary as a Southern Baptist Pagan Unitarian Universalist. My theological- and even my geographical- journey has meandered in ways unexpected and even unguessable by a younger me. I swore I would never live in Oklahoma, and I’ve lived there longer than anywhere in my adult life. I left Christianity for good, only to rediscover the words of Jesus through new lights. As the cantankerous White Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry has written: “You do not know the road; you have committed your life to a way.”

So here we are on a way, a path, a journey. And we discover ourselves in what I like to call liminal times – in-between times. Not only in this church, in the larger world, too. We are living in between the Industrial Age and the culmination of climate change. We are living in between the pandemic and whatever it is that comes next. Politically, we are living in between — I don’t even know how to describe that mess.

And in this church, you are in between called senior ministers. One era is over, and another hasn’t yet started. Yet here we find ourselves – in between, in the goo in the cocoon, in liminal space.

Franciscan ecumenical spiritual and social activist Richard Rohr writes:

 

The edge of things is a liminal space-a holy place or, as the Celts called it, “a thin place.” Most of us have to be taught how to live there. To function on the spiritual edge of things is to learn how to move safely in and out, back and forth, across and return …. When we are at the center of something, we easily confuse essentials with nonessentials, getting tied down by trivia, loyalty tests, and job security. Not much truth can happen there. When we live on the edge of anything, with respect and honor (and this is crucial!) we are in an auspicious and advantageous position.

 

And … I remind you that it does not always feel auspicious and advantageous.

The in-between place does not always feel auspicious and advantageous, but has more potential for truth and learning than the center does. We need courage to be here where we are because it is dangerous and unpredictable. Like crossing a street. Potential danger. And potential for truth and learning, if we have the courage for it.

I wonder whether that gooey in-between pupa inside the cocoon, the chrysalis that is neither caterpillar nor butterfly recognizes that it still has tracheal tubes or that the imaginal discs will become butterfly pieces. I wonder if it misses its legs or its eating. I’m sure it can’t imagine what it is to fly.

So, the in-between times are confusing and dangerous and unpredictable. Yet, they are ripe for religious transformation.

And as my UU colleague at Church of the Larger Fellowship Michael Tino has said, “Being comfortable is not the point of religious transformation.”

What, then, is the point of religious transformation? Why would we even want it?

Other religions certainly have staked their claims on transformation. The individual salvation – turning your life over to Christ – of evangelical Christianity; the enlightenment or satori of Buddhism. Other kinds of in-between times that lead to transformation may also have a religious underpinning or tone. The day you decide you have to quit drinking. The moment you receive the cancer diagnosis. The process of grief you endure as you mourn the death of your spouse or sibling or child. Life-changing events, crises, often soaked in pain, take us to an in-between place in our lives that can stimulate transformation. Crises, of course, can be positive, too – coming out, experiencing the birth of a child, awakening to a new career path. And none of it is limited to one part of our lives, but touches multiple parts of our life. Though there is continuity between who we were and who we become, so much has changed that we could say we’re a new person.

Unitarian Universalism is more modest in its aims than many religious traditions, but has an element that points towards transformation. Our third principle includes the encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. Spiritual growth may seem less ambitious and flashy than enlightenment or salvation, more gradual and ongoing. It’s about the same thing, though – change. We may see one as a steady measured march and the other as a rapid sprint, but they both boil down to change.

As I said a moment ago, transformation often comes in response to crisis, when one cannot go on living as one has, and has to turn some other direction. Some years back, I learned something about learning from UU minister Gary Blaine. Even though my original career was as a teacher, I had never fully realized this, but as soon as I heard it, I knew it was true. The first stage of really significant learning, of truly taking in a new way of organizing your view of the world, is a place of utter confusion, of living in the goo inside the cocoon. Confusion is the sign that your current way of organizing knowledge and making sense of the world no longer works. You have been introduced to a fact that does not fit. You can cram it and force it, or you can deny the fact that doesn’t fit. Or you can reconstruct your worldview. When you are in that place in between world views, you are readying yourself for change.

Oh, you can resist change by denying the reality of things you see in front of you, whether your own mortality, climate change, or persistence of white privilege, male privilege, class privilege, and so on. Denial is a really effective strategy; it can stave off transformation for years.

Besides denial, another resistance tactic is to accept the truth of facts, but refuse to allow them to change anything else in your worldview. So, you might accept that climate change is real and that humans are the instigators, but continue to embrace the idea that the bottom line economic benefits are the only factor to consider in decision-making, essentially not allowing the facts to matter in how you proceed, staving off the crisis for another day. Or, accept the reality of white privilege without accepting that resisting it means you have to change profoundly.

Here’s a secret I’ve learned over and over. Most people do not have a coherent worldview. Rather, we humans have different philosophies we apply in different parts of their lives. Someone might say, “God is Love/’ but only apply the love of God narrowly to people like them. Someone may have one set of eyes for their business life and another for the way they relate to their children. Usually, it’s not as conscious as Machiavellian scheming or as pretentious as hypocrisy. Mostly, it’s poor self-awareness and lack of reflection about the fit between our values, beliefs and actions. As individuals and as a community.

If we want to live an integrated, whole, honest life, though, if we want our community to reflect the values we espouse — and some of us seem driven to try to do that, when we encounter the ways that our behavior does not match our values, we are forced to change. And that’s what in-between times can push us into, if we have the courage to face what we can learn, if we allow ourselves to really notice.

But we have to start in confusion, in between, in the messy goo. Uncomfortable, maybe painful, and full of potential. That’s why we need courage in these times.

I leave you with the full meditative poem by UU Rev. Kate R. Walker

IN BETWEEN
Kate R. Walker

In between, liminal, that space where we wait.
Between moments; events, results, action, no action.
To stand on the threshold, waiting for something to end,
And something new to arrive, a pause in the rumble of time.
Awareness claims us, alert, a shadow of something different.

In between invitation and acceptance.
In between symptom and diagnosis.
In between send and receipt of inquiry and question.
In between love given and love received.

Liminality, a letting go, entering into confusion,
ambiguity and disorientation.
A ritual begun, pause … look back at what once was,
Look forward into what becomes.
Identity sheds a layer, reaches into something uncomfortable to wear.

In between lighting of the match and the kindling of oil.
In between choosing of text and the reading of words.
In between voices and notes carried through the air into ears to hear.
In between — creation thrusts ever forward.

Social hierarchies may disassemble and structures may fall.
Communities may revolt or tempt trust.
Tradition may falter or creativity crashes forward.
Leaders may step down or take charge.
The people may choose or refuse.

In between, storm predicted, the horizon beacons.
In between, theology of process reminds us to step back.
In between, where minutia and galaxies intermingle with microbes and mysteries.
In between, liminal, that space where we wait: Look, listen, feel, breathe.

Benediction

 

Prayer for Living in Tension
By Joseph M. Cherry

 

If we have any hope of transforming the world and changing ourselves,
we must be
bold enough to step into our discomfort,
brave enough to be clumsy there,
loving enough to forgive ourselves and others.
May we, as a people of faith, be granted the strength to be so bold,
so brave,
and so loving.

 

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

What are we doing here?

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Erin Walter, Jonalu Johnstone

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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
Rev. Erin Walter
Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
October 16, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Revs. Chris, Erin and Jonalu come together in person for the first time to explore how we do church at First UU of Austin and as Unitarian Universalists.

 

 

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

from “The History, Philosophy and Impact of Interim Ministry”
by Margaret Keip

Let’s step back a moment for a broader picture of our faith endeavor. Consider religions as offering frameworks that render life coherent and assure us that we belong to the human family, to the earth, to All That Is, however we name it. A religion that fits us helps us know we are at home in the universe. Religion seeks a cosmic view; it’s a whole-picture enterprise.

Thus a religious community touches every aspect of our lives. It invites us to come together to grow more wholly, more fully, human; to become more truly who we are; to encounter the meaning of being alive. Religious leadership promotes this wholeness of being. Knowing that whole, holy, heal, and healthy are part of the same word family sheds warm light on our shared endeavors.

Historically, [Jewish and Christian] clergy were sometimes the only learned and literate people in their town. They preached and taught Scripture as the ultimate source of truth… They kept official records of births and deaths and presided over these vital events. It was both a lofty and solitary role.

And life continued to happen… [C]uriosity and yearning… is inherently human, and irrepressible. Questions sought answers and yielded more questions, and the meteoric expansion of knowledge rendered singular authority obsolete. The more there was to know, the less of it could be mastered by one individual. Knowledge and skills diversified. Specialization became essential. Human community grew encyclopedic. Echoes of archaic authority linger when “Reverend” is attached to our names, but the role of ordained clergy is to share and shepherd this diversity. Ministry cannot be an individual responsibility when understood as nurturing and caring for the spirit, in partnership with Creation.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

Return to Love

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Rev. Anthony Jenkins
October 9, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In this season of atonement – reuniting darkness and light (Fall Equinox) and souls with their wholeness (Yom Kippur) – Anthony Jenkins will invite us to contemplate the concept of tough love. Together we’ll consider how doing love’s shadow-work can help shine the light of balance into our families, friendships, and relationships.

 

 

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

In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

– Maya Angelou

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13 4-8

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

Celebration Sunday 2022

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Sermons

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Rev. Erin Walter
October 2, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We celebrate the differences we make in our world together, and the joy that comes from being a part of this religious 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

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

– Howard Thurman

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

It was my conviction and determination that the church would be a resource for activists – a mission fundamentally perceived. To me it was important that the individual who was in the thick of the struggle for social change would be able to find renewal and fresh courage in the spiritual resources of the church.

– Howard Thurman

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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 Hole in the Soul of America

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Rev. John Buehrens
September 25, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

G.K. Chesterton once called America “the nation with the soul of a church.” Sadly, there is now a gaping in hole in our national soul. Our Consulting Minister for Leadership Transitions returns to our pulpit, to suggest both the depth of the problem and to suggest how a congregation like ours can be part of the remedy.

 

 

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

LITANY OF ATONEMENT

For remaining silent when a single voice would have made a difference.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For each time that our fears have made us rigid and inaccessible.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For each time that we have struck out in anger without just cause.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For each time that our greed has blinded us to the needs of others.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For the selfishness which sets us apart and alone.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For forgetting that we are all part of one family.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

For those and for so many things big and small that make it seem we are separate.

We forgive ourselves and each other; we begin again in love.

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 22 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

Building Belonging

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 18, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We know that a sense of belonging is a basic human need – vital to our well-being. As humans, we seek belonging in life. Perhaps though, we may find our greatest sense of belonging by creating more of it for everyone.

 

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

When it feels like lament
is the only sound and need,
the only way of being.
Here is that one warm room
where you know that you belong.

You know this waiting, open, ready
Here is that place you remember
where you are remembered
in this too cold world,
this place called now.

Softly come into the circle
where you know you belong.

– Rev. Dr. David Breeden

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

There was a headline in a newspaper several years ago, saying, “We’re entering a state where, for the first time in over 350 years, the world will be led by a non-Christian, non-white country.” And what it was saying is, we should be afraid. So the early debates around integrating schools – the white segregationists were, “We can’t have integrated schools, because black and white children might get to know each other and might marry each other and have babies.”

The white segregationists were right. You bring people together, they will actually learn to love each other. Some of them will marry and have children. And so it will, actually, change the fabric of society. When people worry that having gays in our community will change what marriage really means, actually, they’re right. When people worry that having a lot of Latinos in the United States will change the United States, they are right. We’re constantly making each other. And so, we can’t hold onto a notion that “This is what America is. So, Latinos, don’t affect us.” So part of it is that, our fear; that we are holding onto something, and the other is going to change it. The other is going to change it, but we’re going to change the other. And if we do it right, we’re going to create a bigger “we,” a different “we.”

– John A Powell

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this the Light or the Tunnel?

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
September 11, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Erin Walters reflects with us on spiritual and artistic resources for getting through hard times (or any time!).

 

 

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 ATHEIST PRAYS
By Barbara J Pescan

I am praying again
and how does one pray
when unsure if anything hears?
In the world I know as reliable and finite
when time and matter cycle back and forth
and I understand the answers to so many puzzles
there are moments when knowing is nothing
and I
this accumulation of systems, histories
repetitions falls from me-
how does one who is sure there is nothing
pray?
I
dark gathered around my eyes
sit in this room cluttered with my certainties
asking
my one unanswered question
holding myself perfectly still to listen
fixing my gaze
just here
wondering.

Source: “Becoming: A Spiritual Guide for Navigating Adulthood”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

GO TO THE LIMITS OF YOUR LONGING
by Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.

 

 

GONE FROM MY SIGHT
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me — not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,”
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”

And that is dying…

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

Ingathering: Water Communion 2022

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 and Kelly Stokes
September 4, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This Sunday is our annual Water Communion service, a special day when we all come back together after the summer, bringing with us water from a place or time that is special to us. We will share with each other why the water we bring is meaningful, and then pour the water into a common bowl where it will mingle and blend, a symbolic act that reminds us of our shared faith coming from many different sources.

 

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 RETURN OF THE RIVERS
Richard Brautigan

All the rivers run into the sea;
yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
It is raining today
in the mountains.
It is a warm green rain
with love
in its pockets
for spring is here,
and does not dream
of death.
Birds happen music
like clocks ticking heaves
in a land
where children love spiders,
and let them sleep
in their hair.
A slow rain sizzles
on the river
like a pan
full of frying flowers,
and with each drop
of rain
the ocean
begins again.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

You are not a drop in the ocean,
You are the entire ocean in drops.

– Rumi

Sermon

Water Communion brings together three things I love: water, ritual, and this church community.! Now, I’m more accustomed to the classroom than the pulpit, so my first inclination is to say, “okay, who can raise their hands and tell me about the water cycle?”

I thought I understood the water cycle: the rivers flow into the sea, the water evaporates to become clouds, the clouds rain down and turn into rivers . . . wash, rinse, repeat. Right? If I thought about my place in the water cycle it was turning on my faucet and trying not to put pollutants down the drain.

And then along came …. respiratory droplets. I mean, sure, they were always there, but I didn’t think about them. And I know we’d rather not think too much about them right now, so let’s imagine we’re outside. It’s a sunny day, we sip some water, we sweat just a little. We breathe in peace, we breathe out love … and respiratory droplets . . and all those little droplets of water from our skin and our breath go up, up, up into the sky and gather together with their other little water droplet friends to become . . . . Clouds” Water from our bodies turns into clouds”

And not just from our bodies, right, but from dogs, and cats, and armadillos, and those foxes that were living on our church playground, and from live oaks and mountain laurels and from Town Lake and Shoal Creek and Barton Springs.

The water cycle doesn’t exist outside of ourselves. It moves through our physical bodies, connecting us to every other thing that holds water on our planet.

In our seventh UU principle we agree to affirm and promote “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” Nowhere is this interdependence more tangible to me than in our connection to water, and through it, to everything else.

The water that moves through our bodies connects us to glaciers, wetlands, snowpeople, koalas, narwhals, pandas, orchids, ancient redwoods, coral reefs, and, whether I like it or not, fire ants and poison ivy and white supremacists. We are all connected by the water we carry.

Now, all these things carry water, but not like a plastic water pitcher, or even the big pot that Gie Gie carried on her head in our story, containers that you fill up and when you pour it out the water is the same. Instead, we act as a filter, taking what we need from the water, and leaving what we don’t, changing it in the process. Everything in nature does this too.! As the water passes through underground rock, it picks up minerals, which it takes to the river. If the river is polluted, it picks up chemicals, which it carries downstream.

There are other streams passing through us besides water, streams of information and ideas. We act as a filter for this stream too, taking in certain ideas, discarding some, releasing others back into the stream. The ideas we hold onto inform what we believe about ourselves and our world, they impact how we feel and how we speak and how we act. And in this flow of ideas we are just as interconnected as in the water cycle. That means that what we believe and what we share with others doesn’t only impact us, but enriches or pollutes everyone downstream.

So what makes up this filter? Where does the thought filter come from?! I think it might come from our experiences and the way we were taught to interpret those experiences, from the cultures we live in, and from our chosen values.

As a religious educator, I’d love to think that our values make up the biggest part of this mental filter, but unless we are purposefully reflective and conscious about our thinking, it’s really easy to be influenced by our Twitter stream, by old family patterns, by the people at work or school, even the ones we don’t particularly like or agree with, by what we see on TikTok, and, whether I like it or not, by white supremacy culture, which flows through and around all of us.

So how do we cultivate a values-influenced filter? How can we make a conscious choice to be a filter for good, taking in whatever polluted waters of thought and ideas are given to us, filtering them through our sense of justice, our belief in the power of community, and our faith in our ability to be resilient, to make change?

There are lots of ways, right? I’m going to focus on two today.

I believe the first step to tending our mental filter is self care and spiritual care. When we are tired, burned out, traumatized, feeling empty, depleted, alone, anxious, or purposeless it is so hard to tend our filters, or even to care about them, and all too easy to be influenced by whatever feels easiest, to return to default mode. This is normal, and if you’re feeling this way, you are not alone. Don’t be hard on yourself.

But, whether we like it or not, the default systems in our culture are systems of oppression. So, if you’re feeling up to it, tend your filter by taking care of yourself. Tend your spirit. Find your own black muddy river to walk by and find a song of your own to sing.

Another way I think we make sure our filter is serving us, allowing us to hold onto and release into the world thoughts and ideas in line with our values, is to be clear about what our values are.

!Here at First UU, we have a self-guided, video-based curriculum called Parents of Preschoolers that helps families begin the process of faith development at home. In the first session it asks parents and caregivers to identify their personal values and determine the most important values for their family.

I don’t think we should do this only when we’re raising children; it’s a valuable exercise for all of us. Which values are most important to you?

Now, I may not be able to ask you to raise your hands and give me your answers while I’m up here, but hey I’m still a teacher,! so I’m sending you home with a worksheet. I made some copies for you and left them on the table right outside the sanctuary. There’s also a link to the worksheet and the curriculum on the worship page on our website, if you’re interested.

We can’t know if we’re speaking and acting from our values if we don’t know what they are. And not only does this impact those downstream, but how we see ourselves. I might be feeling guilty for not doing a particular thing well, but then I realize that doing that thing well isn’t actually something I value, it’s just an expectation I’ve picked up from white supremacy culture. Identifying our values helps us live our most authentic lives.

So today we’re going to try another way to identify our values, by examining what’s important to us and looking for the values that support it.

Every year we bring our own sacred water, and share it with our church community. This year, we’re going to ask ourselves, What does my sacred water have to teach me about my own values?

    •  Maybe you have brought water from your beach vacation. Why is it sacred to you? Is it because when you’re at the beach you feel a connection to nature, perhaps a connection to the divine? Is it because you always meet up with your family at the beach, and that water represents the love you build and rebuild together every year?
    •  Maybe you brought water from your kitchen sink, representing your value of expressing gratitude for the gifts of every day life, or your value of staying aware of what you have that others don’t, like access to clean, drinkable water.
  • Maybe you brought water in the bottle you carry to the Capitol when you protest the harmful laws being passed in our state, representing your commitment to justice.

 

Next, please find someone nearby that you didn’t come with and briefly share the story of your water with them and, most importantly, the values this water represents. If you didn’t bring physical water with you, share your story anyway.

We know this may be difficult for people with social anxiety or trouble hearing, especially when people are wearing masks. Feel free to opt out or, if you do share, just do your best, trusting in the process of sharing.

If you’re watching on the livestream, we invite you to share in the comments.

We’re going to give you 6 minutes and will let you know when half the time is up so you can switch. So, where does your water come from and what value does that represent to you?

 

 

From the
PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS HANDOUT

What do we value?

Our church is made up of values we hold and rituals we practice. Consider the values listed below. Which ones most resonate with you? Are there values that don’t appear here? If so make a note of them.

 

  • Kindness
  • Gratitude
  • Curiosity
  • Humility
  • Joy
  • Creativity
  • Justice-making
  • Honesty
  • Loyalty
  • Openness
  • Fun
  • Perseverance
  • Compassion
  • Understanding
  • Balance
  • Authenticity
  • Wisdom
  • UU Identity
  • Conservation
  • Adventure
  • Courage

Write down the values that hold the most significance to you. Spend time noticing how they tend to show up in your daily life. When do you find yourself practicing or modeling them?

Links to resources on this topic:

Values Worksheet

Parents of Preschoolers Curriculum Password: YouGotThis2020

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

 

Dance in the Desert, Bring a Tambourine

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
August 28, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In her first service as part of our interim ministry team, Rev. Erin Walter will share two cherished texts — one from scripture and one from our hymnal — and reflect on the relationship between joy, justice, and interim 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

I can feel the change coming
Like growing pains
I feel the change in my bones
Pulling me
Stretching me
Forming me
Into the true I am
Can you feel it?
The change in our bodies
As we adapt
Grow
Change
The weight shifting and molding to fit
This evolving body that we are in
Guided by faith that this too will pass
We can survive this because our ancestors survived
Can you feel them in your DNA?
You, a mixture of their particles that was molded to
fit your spirit
Change and shift
Mold and grow
Yet in some ways
we stay the same

– Matthew P Taylor

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

MIRIAM’S DAUGHTER
By Mandie McGlynn

I am the daughter of Miriam
she taught me how to dance
over my freedom
without stepping on the bodies
of my would-be captors.
She taught me to walk headlong
into impossible waters,
to lead the crowd through the narrow place
with utter faith that it will hold
long enough for us to get free.
She taught me how to tie my sandals
for a long, unknown journey.
And most of all, she taught me
-by doing, more than telling-
how to quietly pack tambourines
in the terrifying dark of night
when we barely have space to carry
sufficient food, water, and blankets
to last us through the miles ahead.
She taught me that it’s not enough
to scrape by and survive-
we must also be willing and prepared
to dance with joy when liberation arrives.
We must believe so deeply in our souls
in the arrival of that time
that we place those timbrels in our packs
and pray to the Holy One to send us food.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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 Sermon 2022

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 21, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Members of the church submit their questions about the church, our UU faith, spirituality and the like and Rev. Chris answers as many of them as time allows.

 

 

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 are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.

– Annie Dillard

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

– Maya Angelou

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

On Trusting the Process

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. John Buehrens, Former UUA President
August 14, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Former UUA President John Buehrens is serving us as Consulting Minister for Leadership Transitions. His sermon will be dedicated to the late Prof. Charles Harshorne, the distinguished process philosopher who was a member of our congregation.

 

 

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

Now let us worship together.

Now let us celebrate the sacred miracle of each other.

Now let us open our hearts, our souls, our lives to blessings both mysterious and transcendent.

Now, let us be thankful for the healing power of love, the gift of fellowship, the renewal of faith.

Not let us accept with gratitude the traditions handed down to us from those that came before and open ourselves to begin anew for those that will follow.

Now let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

– Rev. John Buehrens

Everything is in process. Even the seemingly solid bedrock of earth has gone through enormous changes since it was star-stuff, then magma. Nor is reality quite as the ancients saw it: changing combinations of earth, fire, water and air (or spirit). Nor is it made up chiefly of mass and space as in Newtonian physics. What seems to us to be “things” are just packets of energy, related for a time. They are events, actual occasions. So are we. Darwin, Einstein, and quantum mechanics all confirm this view of a universe in constantly process. The philosophy needed for our time is a process philosophy. If we dare to address or name Ultimate Reality, the theology we need is a process theology.

Second Reading

– Howard Zinn

Everything in history, once it has happened, looks as if it had to happen exactly that way. We can’t imagine any other. But I am convinced of the uncertainty of history, of the possibility of surprise, of the importance of human action in changing what looks unchangeable …

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.

If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Sermon

ON TRUSTING THE PROCESS
A Sermon Delivered at
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Texas
Sunday, August 14, 2022
The Rev. Dr. John A. Buehrens, Past President of the UUA;
Consulting Minister on Leadership Transitions

It’s good to be here! I’ve known this congregation longer than many of you may realize. First when I was minister in Dallas in the 1980s. Then as UUA President. I remember preaching here some 25 years ago. In the front row sat your illustrious member Prof. Charles Hartshorne, then in his mid-90s. I felt honored by his presence. I knew him as America’s leading interpreter of process philosophy and theology. That afternoon, I called on him at his home. Charles had recently lost his dear wife, Dorothy. But when I raised the issue of grief, Hartshorne began to talk about being a hospital corpsman, during World War 1. About learning to accept what he could not change and trying to change what he could still effect. What a mensch! He died at 103.

He also spoke about what he had read while in Flanders, amid the carnage around him. Wordsworth. Shelley. English poets who anchored their hope in reverence for Nature and in that long arc of human history that we must try to bend toward justice. Hartshorne’s process thought, in books like Reality as Social Process, and Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes, influenced my own theology. Yet he was as much a scientist as a philosopher and felt that his very best book, was Born to Sing, grounded in scientific ornithology, and showing show that not all birdsong can be accounted for as simply establishing feeding territory or as mating behavior. Some of it, especially the dawn chorus greeting the new day, simply has to do with the joy of being alive. Which itself may help in survival. George Santayana – another philosopher with Unitarian ties – said as much in his book, Skepticism and Animal Faith.

Which reminds me of a story my friend and colleague Ken McLean tells. A congregant once asked him what he thought Unitarian Universalists had most in common. Ken answered, “Well, we’re inclined to be skeptical.” The man snapped, “I don’t believe that for a minute!”

So when I stand here, daring to preach to you “on trusting the process,” I don’t expect you to suspend all your skepticism. I think that the Creative Mystery and Process behind our shared existence deserves a certain awe, reverence and even trust. Yet not every process we human beings come up with is a creative process. Some, in fact, seem almost designed to stand in the way of progress. Just think of the many undemocratic processes built into our democracy. The privileging of small states over large in the Senate, the filibuster, gerrymandering, and laws aimed at voter suppression.

Every group or tribe, anthropologists tell us develops its own peculiar faith and fetishes.

For Americans, liberals especially, and therefore especially UUs, process becomes a bit of both. As UUA President, I sometimes impatiently quipped, as we voted to tweak our bylaws for the enth time, “Ah, how process threatens to become our most important product!” Amid debating resolutions about matters over which we had precious little real control, but on which we wanted to make our collective conscience heard.

One year, around the time I was last here in Austin – I think it was 1995, when our General Assembly was in Indianapolis, I even deliberately interrupt a deliberative process in the interest of really making a difference. The debate was over which three of many “resolutions of immediate witness” would come to floor of the Assembly. One was an issue on which I saw we were almost uniquely qualified to lead. It involved opening civil marriage to same-sex couples. For decades, we had been openly blessing such unions in our own communities. This involved advocating for a new civil right, out in the political world. It was not yet a popular cause.

“Madam Moderator,” I said to my dear colleague in leadership, the late Denny Davidoff, “May I rise to a point of personal privilege?” When she recognized me, I then invited everyone present involved in a same-sex union to join me on the platform, whether their partner was there or not. I was not among them. My wife Gwen and I have now been married for over fifty years. Yet I wanted others to see the faces of the one hundred plus UU delegates who then joined me, as their ally. That resolution then not only went on the agenda, but also passed overwhelmingly.

Predictably, some said that I had abused the process as set out in Robert’s Rules of Order. That was true. “Yet without a vision, the people perish,” as it also sayeth in scripture.

At a later General Assembly, I even said this: “I know, I know, some of you are unhappy that we aren’t growing faster. You think, like Thomas Jefferson, that every intelligent person in America should become a Uu. But think of it this way: in this age of the therapeutic, we have become the oldest, longest-lasting, most widely dispersed therapy program for people with authority hang-ups that America has ever seen!” The crowd laughed in self-recognition.

Once I even interrupted myself, during my President’s Report, to have delegates watch an ad from the Super Bowl that year. It showed a group of cowboys herding cats across a river, then gathered around an evening campfire. The leader then pulled out a lint roller, to get the cat hair off his clothes. “Yep,” he says, “it ain’t easy work, herding cats. But there ain’t no other work Ah’d rather do!” When the lights then came back up, I held up the lint roller, which I promised to hand to my successors, along with a tin cup, as symbols of the role of being UUA President. Bear that in mind. We elect a new one next year. May we and be merciful to him, her, or they.

While I’m here, I want some credit for encouraging your last senior minister, my friend Meg Barnhouse, to come here to Austin. As said to the voice of Radio Free Bubba, “Meg, honey, Austin! That place has your name on it!” She later said she had to choose between a bunch of New York banker types and a slightly drunk cowboy bunch. She chose you, friends! Be grateful! I hold her in my heart today, as I’m sure you do, wishing for her both good health and her self-deprecating good humor and creativity. God knows we all need them both.

Over the last two years, as the Covid pandemic has hit our congregations, and caused many of my colleagues to retire early, so that the “great resignation” has hit the ministry almost as hard as it has hit the restaurant industry. (With which we clergy have a great deal in common, BTW. Meg said as much in her famous piece about how working in a diner is a good preparation for ministry, saying, “Sorry: not my table, hon.”

It has made me recall what Darwin once said, “In evolution, it is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the ones most responsive to change.” Those who trust the process.

Tomorrow morning, or this coming week, some of you will trust the educational process enough send your children off to school. That’s a good thing! You have already trusted your Board of Trustees to bring together a team of ministers to serve – not only you, but also your transformative mission this city, this state, this nation, but in the world at large. Oddly, it all has to do with better democratic process! They are all committed to that mission. You are as well.

So this is the wisdom I would leave you with. During the year ahead, please, please do not try to micro-manage them. If you have concerns, voice them directly. I am their consultant on process of leadership transition. It is not one a rigid one, yet it does require trust, patience and direct address.

You will be working with a team of interim ministers, all dedicated to bringing out the best in your own souls and the best in the influence of this congregation and its core values on the surrounding culture, and on its regrettable and reactionary politics of oppression and exclusion.

You are free to question or even disrupt the process, if it too feels truly misguided, or missing some important point. I only ask that you have a VERY good reason for doing so. Recently I’ve been interacting with Nesan Lawrence, your President, your board, your staff. There is an openness there to hearing concerns that I hope you will trust. I know! Some of you may be saying, “Let’s just cut short all this interim process.

Believe me, the experience of the congregations throughout our larger family of faith suggests that you would be better served by taking the time to do some serious self-reflection. That’s what we don’t often do enough these days. We fire off an instant tweet, an email. Reactive, rather than thinking how best to influence the covenantal process we pledged to trust. Which is what we do when we covenant together in religious community.

At the end of this service, you will meet the three devoted UU ministers who will serve as your interim team in the months ahead. I have pledged to be their consultant on difficult issues, simply as a matter of collegial courtesy and concern. In an era when so many seem to have succumbed to the siren song of trust no one, don’t trust democracy, I ask you to give these, my reliable colleagues, at least the benefit of your skepticism. They have theirs as well, I’m sure!

Trust does have its limits. I think of many stores here in Texas that posted this warning: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.” Or Winston Churchill saying, “Democracy is the worst of all systems of government; except for all the others that have been tried.” Yet there is a greater, ever-changing Creative Process, of which we are the often critical, even whining, beneficiaries.

I say, let us give thanks that we ourselves are still in process. For if we are honest, we are not as yet the people we hope to be, nor have we yet contributed to the world around us what we might yet do. Supported by fallible, imperfect people just like ourselves – in the ongoing struggle, also imperfect, we now try to realize what Dr. King called “the Beloved Community.”

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

A Welcoming Congregation

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
& four church members
August 7, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

LGBTQI Pride Week in Austin is happening in the next few days. Several church members and Rev. Chris will share what it has meant to us to become a part of an LGBTQI welcoming reigious 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

WE ANSWER THE CALL OF LOVE
By Julia Corbett-Hemeyer

In the face of hate,
We answer the call of love.

In the face of exclusion,
We answer the call of inclusion.

In the face of homophobia,
We answer the call of LGBTQ rights.

In the face of racism,
We answer of justice for all races.

In the face of xenophobia,
We answer the call of pluralism.

In the face of misogyny,
We answer the call of women’s rights.

In the face of demagoguery,
We answer the call of reason.

In the face of religious intolerance,
We answer the call of diversity.

In the face of narrow nationalism,
We answer the call of global community.

In the face of bigotry,
We answer the call of open-mindedness.

In the face of despair,
We answer the call of hope.

As Unitarian Universalists,
we answer the call of love – now more than ever.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

LET US MAKE THIS EARTH A HEAVEN
By Tess Baumberger

Let us make this earth a heaven, right here, right now.
Who knows what existences death will bring?
Let us create a heaven here on earth
where love and truth and justice reign.
Let us welcome all at our Pearly Gates, our Freedom Table,
amid singing and great rejoicing,
black, white, yellow, red, and all our lovely colors,
straight, gay, transgendered, bisexual, and all the ways
of loving each other’s bodies.
Blind, deaf, mute, healthy, sick, variously-abled,
Young, old, fat, thin, gentle, cranky, joyous, sorrowing.
Let no one feel excluded, let no one feel alone.
May the rich let loose their wealth to rain upon the poor.
May the poor share their riches with those too used to money.
May we come to venerate the Earth, our mother,
and tend her with wisdom and compassion.
May we make our earth an Eden, a paradise.
May no one wish to leave her.
May hate and warfare cease to clash in causes
too old and tired to name; religion, nationalism,
the false false god of gold, deep-rooted ethnic hatreds.
May these all disperse and wane, may we see each others’ true selves.
May we all dwell together in peace and joy and understanding.
Let us make a heaven here on earth, before it is too late.
Let us make this earth a heaven, for each others’ sake.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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

To What Ends

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
July 31, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The mission we say together every Sunday is our ultimate end (or purpose). We have other ends that help us move toward that mission though.

 

 

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

Say Yes. Whatever it is, say yes with your whole heart, and, simple as it sounds, that’s all the excuse life needs to grab you by the hands and start to dance.

– Brian Andreas

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

DREAMING
Chris Jimmerson

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 creativity we only know through our unity.

I awoke, And still, the dream continues.

Our Values

    • Transcendence – To connect with wonder and awe of the unity of life
    • Community – To connect with joy, sorrow, and service with those whose lives we touch
    • Compassion – To treat ourselves and others with love
    • Courage – To live lives of honesty, vulnerability, and beauty
  • Transformation – To pursue the growth that changes our lives and heals our world

 

Ends:

    • We live our Unitarian Universalist faith and values, teach them to our children, and act on them in the world
    • We support and challenge one another in worship, spiritual growth and lifelong learning to practice a rich spiritual life
    • We engage with one another to care for the Earth and the interdependent web
    • We care for one another in intergenerational community and connect in fun and fellowship
    • We embody the principles of Unitarian Universalism and invite people of goodwill to find a spiritual home with us
    • We partner with other organizations and faith communities to dismantle a culture of white supremacy and other systems of oppression, within ourselves, within our church community, and beyond our walls
    • We provide leadership to and collaborate with the greater Unitarian Universalist community to expand the reach of our movement
  • We are generous with time, talent, and treasure to realize our mission

 

Sermon

The year was 2017. The month – November. The leading cast of characters – our Board Trustees at the time. Their objective, should they decide to accept it, was to begin a process within the church to review our values, mission and ends. That’s how our story today begins.

Last week, I talked about how our values, mission and ends first came to be articulated back in 2010.

If you missed that service, our current values, mission, and ends are listed on the handouts we have placed around the sanctuary, within your digital order of service, and on a poster in the fellowship hall, as well as on our website and Facebook page.

One might suspect we want it to be easy for you to know about these things. To quickly review, values are the broadest, deepest aspect of our vision as a religious community.

Our values are the core of how we want to be in the world. Our mission then arises out of those values. The mission is our common purpose as a religious community – the overarching differences we are here to make.

The mission then gets further defined by that we call “ends”. It might help to think of ends as more detailed descriptions and goals for how we will live out our mission.

Ends embody what specific, measurable differences we hope to make. Well, seven years later after 2010, acting in accordance with commonly held best practices, the board engaged the church in a review of the values, mission and ends at they existed at that time. The board recruited volunteers to facilitate sessions with congregants, naming those sessions “Courage and Wonder: Visioning Our Future Together.”

Notice that Courage and Wonder” are directly drawn from among our values Statements In the sessions, congregants gathered into small groups of about four and were invited to share with each other based upon the following prompts: The first was,

    • Tell me a story about an experience at First UU:
    • a time particularly grounded in courage and wonder;
    • a time when you and others were living lives of honesty, vulnerability, and beauty, open to and curious about the unknown;
  • a time when you felt especially alive, involved, and engaged with this religious community.

Then, folks were asked to share as second time:

“As you think about courage and wonder shaping our future at First UU, imagine there are no obstacles, that all you hear is “yes, we can do that together!” What 3 wishes would you make for what courage and wonder help our congregation create in the future?”

That was before the pandemic.

I wonder how we might answer those inquiries now?

Finally, the groups were given art supplies and pictures taken from magazines. They were asked to imagine that 10 years later the wishes they had come up with earlier had come true. Based on that, the groups each created a magazine cover using the art supplies they had been given that addressed the question:

“How is First UU changing lives now that your wishes have come true?” The board then took the magazine covers and summaries of the answers to the two inquiries and re-examined the values, mission and ends.

They found that the five values listed in your handouts still held true for the congregation. However, they slightly changed the mission from what it had been:

“We gather in community to nourish souls, transform lives and do justice” to our current mission, which is on our wall and that we said together earlier. They did so to reflect a bolder commitment within the church to anti-racism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism that had come out during the sessions. The term “build the Beloved Community” captured that bolder commitment and gave a desired outcome to the mission. But the ends were where the real action happened.

The board created an entirely new set of ends to more fully express that new boldness and desired outcome. It’s those ends that I want to talk about more today, because they still inform all of our ministries and programs.

There are eight of them, so I’ll just touch briefly on each one for now.

Our first end is “We live our Unitarian Universalist faith and values, teach them to our children, and act on them in the world.”

We do this through our worship services, music, Religious Education (or RE), and our social justice activities, which include our children and youth. For instance, a group of us is attending a reproductive justice resource fair and rally this evening at 6:30 You can find out more at the social justice table in the fellowship hall after the service. In recent prior months, our terrific social justice chair, Carrie Holly-Hurt, led several of our folks in publicly decrying horrible legislation that harms trans people, as well as in working on the “UU the Vote” voter turn-out efforts. We’ve lived our faith and values by becoming an immigrant sanctuary church, a reproductive freedom congregation, an LGBTQ welcoming congregation, a green sanctuary church, and by adopting the UU 8th principle, which calls us to dismantle racism and oppression in ourselves and our institutions.

Whew, I’m out of breath.

That’s a lot, and it is only a few examples of how this church is living out that first end.

The second one is, “We support and challenge one another in worship, spiritual growth and lifelong learning to practice a rich spiritual life.”

Because of this end, we have learned that to grow spiritually, we must challenge ourselves. Sometimes we can’t be in a space that feels entirely comfortable and safe – we have to be in a brave space. For instance, our moment for beloved community can be challenging sometimes. Once again, we also fulfill this end through worship, music and RE.

Our “chalice circle” small group ministries, Wellspring spiritual reflection groups, our meditation group, book groups fellowship and fun activities and other ministries also contribute towards folks practicing a rich spiritual life.

AND, one of my favorite reflections on spiritual growth came from something one of your fellow congregants shared with me a while back. They said something like, “I experience the spiritual when I am out working with others to struggle for greater justice in our world.”

Third End – “We engage with one another to care for the Earth and the interdependent web.”

As I mentioned, we are a UU Association accredited green sanctuary church.

We have a strong green sanctuary team, led by the dynamic duo of Beki and Richard Halpern, who have spearheaded our participation in so many environmental and climate justice efforts I can’t possibly name them all now. They and their team have truly made this church a leader in such efforts in our area.

I encourage you to talk with them and get involved. We also teach our children about and involve them in caring for the interdependent web.

Our fourth end states, “We care for one another in intergenerational community and connect in fun and fellowship.”

Celeste Padilla and her merry band of folks with our fun and fellowship team have organized a number of great, intergenerational events, including the best online variety show of all time, during the pandemic! My spouse, Wayne and I were thrilled to provide some off the worst jokes ever for that show.

We have at least one intergenerational service each month. We have an active care team for folks who are facing life challenges. Our RE programs promote intergenerational interaction, including our awesome summer camp that we just held.

The fifth end is, “We embody the principles of Unitarian Universalism and invite people of goodwill to find a spiritual home with us.”

Our wonderful congregational administrator Shannon and a group of terrific volunteers provide several “Path to Membership” classes each year to orient potential new members. Our excellent transformation through connection and service team helps folks find ways to get involved, which also helps folks get to know other church members. Since we’ve returned to in person services, we’ve engaged in several ways to try and invite people of goodwill to find that spiritual home with us.

Here are a few examples: We’re upgrading our playground and classrooms to make them more inviting. We’ve changed the church website to more directly feature worship services and ways to get connected. We’ve placed signs in the building, inviting visitors to speak with me after the service. And, we recently ran a targeted promotion on Facebook, promoting our values, principles and mission. Last week, we ran a sponsorship on our local NPR radio station, KUT, to do the same and inviting folks to visit the church website, as well as the church itself!

End number 6 is, “We partner with other organizations and faith communities to dismantle a culture of white supremacy and other systems of oppression, within ourselves, within our church community, and beyond our walls.”

This one is so rich and complex that I cannot even come close to covering it all this morning. We’ll address it more in the weeks to come though. We work with a large number of other organizations to carry out this end.

And, one of the vital things we’ve learned from this end is that it’s often most effective for those of us from a majority white, majority privileged congregation to follow the lead of those other organizations – for instance anti-racism groups led by people of color. Many of our sermons and the moment for beloved community encourage us to dismantle systems of racism and other oppressions.

Each year, your board of trustees reads and discusses an anti-racism book, and we’ve recently formed a new book group within the church that will be studying such a book together.

Our RE programs contain anti- racism/anti-oppression subject matter and activities. And of course, again, many if not most of our social justice efforts address this end. Both your board president, Nesan and I have noted how similar this end is to the UU 8th principle we recently approved. This end, then, is in close alliance with the priorities of our larger UU faith.

Our 7th end is, “We provide leadership to and collaborate with the greater Unitarian Universalist community to expand the reach of our movement.”

We serve as the “hub” congregation in our area, often coordinating local social justice efforts, working with other churches to provide Our Whole Lives, age appropriate sexual education classes and the like. Many of our sermon videos have been picked up and used by other UU churches, as has our music, and we’ve developed an online following with UUs across the nation and even overseas on our livestream. Our ministers, staff and some church members have served in various national leadership positions within our faith. I continue to serve as a mentor for other ministers, and our minister emerita, Meg, now provides counseling for other ministers. Our Inside Amigos immigration justice program and our immigration sanctuary efforts have served as models throughout our faith.

Well, last but certainly not least, “We are generous with time, talent, and treasure to realize our mission.”

What more can I really say on this one except, you certainly do, thank you!”

All of our ministries from RE to Worship to music to social justice to fun and fellowship to our governance – every aspect of this church is only possible because of our generous, talented and good-looking volunteers.

During the pandemic, like most other churches, we saw a decline in membership. Yet, we did not see a corresponding decline in pledging because those of you here today, online or in person, rose to the challenge and kept us going. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your time, talent and treasure. Wow, I know that was a lot and fairly didactic by its very nature. I think it’s important for us to be aware though, of what our ends are; why they matter.

Please know that the handful of examples I’ve had time to give you today of what we are doing to make progress toward them is just a small sampling. We’re doing and will do even more. Progress toward our ends is a large part of the way in which we gauge how well we are living our mission and values. Our ends proclaim who we are through what we do.

They require that we join together and strive toward them as a community. They call us to work in solidarity with others. They move us toward mutuality, unity and celebration of our interdependence.

Our ends our how we say “yes” to our mission and the vision that radiates forth from our values. So let us say, “yes” so that life can take us by the hands and start the dance.

 

 

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 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