What if you can’t?

by Posted in Audio available, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

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Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
March 12, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We human beings have real limits that can make us vulnerable. Accepting what we can’t do allows us to ask for help and connect more deeply in community. Difficult idea, but let’s have fun with it.

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

BOOK OF LIFE
roddy bell-shelton biggs (they/them)

Open the book of life what do you see as you flip through the pages soaking it all up Where is the joy, the pain, the hope, the loss, the love? Now close it tight, place your hand over your heart, and Pause … Then open the book of life again …. Pause once more …. remember beloved be vulnerable and Begin Again In Love. Come let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation

A LITANY OF WHOLEHEARTEDNESS
By Dawn Skjei Cooley

Because there have been times when shame has crushed our ability to be wholehearted
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Because we have not always had the courage to be imperfect
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Because we have struggled to have compassion for ourselves or others.
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Because we have been afraid of our own vulnerability
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Because we are sometimes too scared to live authentically
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Because we want to be whole-hearted people, confident in our worthiness and our belonging
We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are.

Reading

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF LIMITATIONS
By Burton D. Carley

I wonder if the river ever despairs of its downward destiny,
and harbors a secret desire to flow uphill.

I wonder if winter yearns to be summer,
or if a flower wishes it could bloom out of season.

I wonder if silence would like to shout,
or if the sky wants to fall down and become the earth.

I wonder if the bird longs to become a rabbit,
or if the fish ever dreams of walking on the land.

I wonder if the mountains envy the valleys,
or if snow secretly covets the warmth of June.

I wonder if the moon complains that is it not the sun,
or if the stars envy the earth.

I wonder if rain prefers a cloudless sky,
or if grass tires of green and hopes for blue.

I wonder if spring really likes growing,
or if fall rages against its colorful dying.

I wonder if the world ever sighs after more than it is like you and I,
like you and I.

o Spirit of life, we struggle against our limitations. Teach us to accept them.

Amen.

Sermon

WHAT IF YOU CAN’T?

In our optimistic UU way, we like to say you can do anything you set your mind to. It’s not always true. There are some things you can’t do.

Let’s watch a short video about what our bodies can’t do. [VIDEO]

All this is kind of fun – to see what we can do, to see how our bodies are limited. Other stuff we can’t do is not so much fun. And admitting some of those falls into that category of vulnerability – our theme for the month.

Confession time. In my freshman year of college, I failed four classes. Calculus, Philosophy, Organic Chemistry, and I think some kind of history — I can’t even remember. Probably because I didn’t go to the class often enough. This is going to be a bit of an interaction sermon. I’m going to ask for your confessions, as well. Totally voluntary, of course. I’m going to ask you to stand up or wave your arm overhead if you can agree with this statement:

I tried something and failed.

Look around. It helps not to feel alone in that, doesn’t it?

What would it be like to own up to what you have failed at? You don’t have to do it; I’m just asking.

Does it make you feel uneasy? A little queasiness in the pit of your stomach? Do you want to present it as funny so that it doesn’t hurt so much? I do. It’s hard to acknowledge our failures.

I could give you a whole list of ways I’ve fallen short-I didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until I was 10, because I gave up when I was 6 or 7, and so did my parents. I got a D in Driver’s Ed. I have such a poor sense of direction that pre-GPS, I got lost going to many important occasions – a wedding rehearsal, a funeral, the airport. Not to mention being lost in the wilderness, which I have also done. I have fallen down a rock face while rock climbing – not fun. I have fallen and broken bones. I have failed tests, job interviews, event organizing. I have had manuscripts rejected, missed deadlines, lost money on stupid decisions. I have failed to reach goals I set. So many bad memories …

Yet, I am also glad I have had failure as part of my life. It has made me less afraid to try things, because I know that if I fail, if I can’t do it, I’ll live through it, probably. Failure has made me vulnerable, which I really needed to learn because I prefer to present myself as perfect. Failure has taught me what works by teaching me what doesn’t work — and introduced me to my limitations. Failure has helped me learn to ask for help.

It is true that for some people asking for help or being vulnerable may have a higher cost. You may need to be more cautious about who you ask for help, or when you open yourself vulnerably. That’s all real, based in part on the identities we carry in this world and in how we process feelings. So, I’m not saying everyone needs to confess all their failings. There are certainly some I will keep to myself.

But I want to challenge you – if you’re willing – to a little bit of vulnerability around what you can and cannot do.

So, I invite you to stand or wave your arms if you can agree to some statements:

I can’t reach the top shelf without standing on something. I can’t walk as far or run as fast as I used to.

I can’t drive.

I can’t stay organized.

I can’t get up early in the morning.

I can’t dance.

I can’t get along with some people in my family. I can’t always tell what I’m feeling.

I can’t always handle everything.

Some things we can’t do are easy to admit, and others are a lot harder. Almost all of them, though, are things that other people have struggled with, too.

That’s why people gather around their failures and frailties. Reasons that there are l2-Step groups to help people cope with the challenges of alcoholism and other addictions. Reasons for grief groups. Reasons for parent support groups.

We need one another at a deep and profound level. We need to see others dealing with what is confronting us and see the successes and failures so we have some idea what we might be able to do.

Here’s another statement that I invite you to stand or wave your arm if you agree:

It’s hard for me to ask for help.

So you’re not alone. Here’s another one. I try to help when someone asks.

There’s a little disconnect here. Most of us are fine with helping out, and a lot of us find it hard to ask. Some of the fault lies in lies we have been told, well-meaning lies, but lies nonetheless.

Our culture is individualistic. Many people expect themselves and others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps – whatever that means. The phrase originally meant that what was asked for was impossible. No one can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Their bootstraps are near the ground, not up. It was sarcasm, folks, not wisdom. You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps. No one else can, either.

The individualism of our culture has hurt us more than helped us. And our religion – Unitarian Universalism – has fed into it. The picturesque cabin Thoreau built at Walden Pond. Emerson’s essay on “Self-Reliance.” The long lists of individual Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists who have achieved so much. The lie is that they did it alone. In every case they had help. Thoreau was close to town and had plenty of support. Emerson had whole crowds of admirers and coconspirators. Even if someone’s work has been done alone, they built on ideas, education, resources that they have gained from somewhere. As John Dunne told us, “No man is an island.” Neither is any woman or transgender person. No one is an island.

Maybe, then, we need some help in asking for help. Here are some useful phrases. Repeat after me:

“Could you please help me?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Here’s what I need.”

A lot of times it can be useful to tell someone why we need help and exactly what we need. And sometimes, all we can do is to say, “Help!” And here’s the amazing thing! We don’t have to wait until we are desperate to ask for help. Maybe, you could ask someone to come with you when you go shopping for clothes to help pick out something that looks good on you. Or you could ask for someone to help you walk the dog. Or to study together. Practicing in those small situations might even help us ask for help in those harder situations, where we are a little more desperate. And maybe can’t even name what we need.

Take a moment and think of who you could ask for help.

You might think of a particular situation where you might need help – if you broke something, if you were sick, if you were sad and needed someone to talk to, if you didn’t understand what something meant. Try to come up with 5 people you could ask for help, maybe different people for different situations. [Pause, at least 30 seconds.] Now, find someone else near you and share with them your 5 people (their name or their roleteacher or boss, for example) who you could ask for help.

You’ve heard of the “The Little Engine that Could” that train engine that huffed and puffed its way up the hill. A pastor named Julian DeShazier wrote an article about church and ministers called, “The Little Engine that Needed Collaborators.” His point was about overfunctioning clergy, and the need for everyone in the church to share the load. The point has a broader application, though.

Similarly, as a volunteer working with a woman’s group many years ago, I had a supervisor who always sent a pair of us to do any task – some pretty hard tasks, pounding in stakes, clearing fields, greasing wheelchair lifts. She used to say, “One woman can’t do anything. Two women can do anything.” And while it might be possible for one woman to do something, I’ve learned that often it’s a lot more fun and a heck of a lot easier if there are two – or more – working on it.

We need one another, especially when we can’t do it alone.

Benediction

Go in peace, knowing that every imperfection, every failure, every vulnerability is part of you. Love every bit of yourself so that you can be loved completely by others. And when you need others, please ask for their help. Because we are only whole as a community when our interactions and relationships make us so.

Amen. Ase. 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

Lamenting the Winter of our Lives

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Jonalu Johnstone and Rev. Erin Walter
March 5, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Spring has almost sprung, but first we take time for the spiritual practice of lamentation. Interim ministers Rev. Jonalu Johnstone and Rev. Erin Walter will co-lead this service on grief and healing.

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

AFTER THE GOOD NEWS
Nancy McDonald Ladd What if worship was just the public expression of the deep relational intimacy that has already busted us wide open with love for one another. What would it feel like if liberal religion acknowledged the broken hearts of it’s own people such that every sanctuary and every celebration of life could also authentically honor the liminal spaces of our own inadequacy and the tightrope we all walk between death and life. In the spirit of those questions, these invitations to our own fullness and authenticity, come let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

ALL SOULS
by May Sarton

Did someone say that there would be an end,
An end, Oh, an end, to love and mourning?
Such voices speak when sleep and waking blend,
The cold bleak voices of the early morning
When all the birds are dumb in dark November –

Remember and forget, forget, remember.
After the false night, warm true voices, wake!
Voice of the dead that touches the cold living,
Through the pale sunlight once more gravely speak.
Tell me again, while the last leaves are falling:
“Dear child, what has been once so interwoven
Cannot be raveled, nor the gift ungiven.”

Now the dead move through all of us still glowing,
Mother and child, lover and lover mated,
Are wound and bound together and enflowing.
What has been plaited cannot be unplaited –
Only the strands grow richer with each loss
And memory makes kings and queens of us.

Dark into light, light into darkness, spin.
When all the birds have flown to some real haven,
We who find shelter in the warmth within,
Listen, and feel new-cherished, new-forgiven,
As the lost human voices speak through us and blend
Our complex love, our mourning without end.

Sermon

HOMILY: “GRIEF” – Jonalu Johnstone

We humans have a need to grieve. It’s part of our bigger need to note and commemorate the changes of our lives, so we can make meaning of them. As Unitarian minister Max Coots, of beloved memory, put it:

When seasons come, as seasons do, old and known, but somehow new,
When lives are born or people die,
When something sacred’s sensed in soil or sky,
Mark the time.
Respond with thought or prayer or smile or grief,
Let nothing living slip between the fingers of the mind,
For all of these are holy things we will not, cannot, find again.

Here’s the thing, though. We have been through a time for the last three years, when our rhythms of marking occasions have been sidetracked. Weddings and memorial services, if done at all were small, or virtual. Graduations, birthdays, holidays slipped by barely acknowledged. We have been separated from people and activities. Stuff abruptly ended, maybe to return and maybe not. Seasons have come and gone, and we have been unable to mark them in the ways we are used to. In missing all of this, our losses have piled up, heaping higher and higher, weighing on our hearts and stirring up grief we don’t even know the source of.

And many of us have the even deeper burden of deaths of loved ones – whether by COVID, or other causes – that have felt more complicated, or maybe less real than they might have. And we have felt acute pain with continued revelations of the on-going racism and other forms of oppression that resist eradication in our American culture. Plus, this congregation has had some special losses – saying goodbye to a beloved senior minister and mourning the death of a cherished staff member.

Our initial reaction to the idea of loss is often to push it aside and refuse to acknowledge its truth. We’ve coped pretty well through all this, we think. Then, the other day someone asked if I knew people who had died from COVIO. And, I do. I do. I don’t like to look at that. I know people who have died. I know people who have long-haul COVIO. I did not have a chance to walk the stage at General Assembly to acknowledge my retirement. I missed ritual occasions with family. So much that has happened that never got the full attention or processing it needs.

How do we deal with what we have already experienced so that we can move into the future – whatever it may be, whenever it comes – more seamlessly, more enthusiastically, more confidently, more hopefully, more whole?

Nothing lasts forever. Every loss brings up the same emotions as death does – denial, anger, sadness, guilt, fear. Every leaving is really a small death that gives us practice for mortality.

Those stages of death aren’t really stages at all. They’re more like waves, waves that come crashing over us. Sometimes, we can see them coming, and other times, they arrive unbidden when we hear a particular song or smell pine or cinnamon, a scent carrying us off to another time, another dimension. The wave crashes over our head and slowly ebbs away.

Most of us don’t like to deal with the reality of mortality, to take the time to say goodbye, to cry and rage against the dying of the light. We’d rather deny that things will really change.

Problem is, that’s not so easy for our bodies, where we live. They know we have experienced loss. They know we need healing, healing we can only achieve through grief, through mourning.

HOMILY ON HEALING AND LAMENT – Rev. Erin J. Walter

“It’s not so easy for our bodies.” I’ll never forget, when I served as a hospital chaplain in Oakland, California, in 2015, a colleague fainted while on patient rounds. Her knees locked and she fell right over.

We cannot be present to so much grief – or healing – if we lock it inside.

After the fainting, I made a choice to think of my body as a channel. I imagine a river of starlight, carrying the grief and pain I encounter in ministry and justice work – up and out, to the Awe..,inspiring All that will not buckle under the weight of the world. This practice that serves me in grief also serves me in joy. When I dance or sing, I also imagine sending love and good energy out through that channel, to wherever it is needed.

“Loosen, loosen, baby You don’t have to carry, the weight of the world in your muscles and bones, let go, let go, let go.”

“Loosen, loosen, baby You don’t have to carry, the weight of the world in your muscles and bones, let go, let go, let go.”

Jonalu and I sang this Aly Halpert song with our colleagues at the SW UU Ministers Retreat this week, hoping to release some of what we’ve all been carrying, like a collective channel.

This week it hit me hard – realizing we’re marking three years since COVID hit and so much changed. I have been listening to the playlists my friends and I started making in March 2020 and letting myself feel it. I may never get over knowing that when my aunt died of COVIO, her daughter, my cousin -just three days apart in age from me- could only sit in her car in the hospital parking lot and weep, not allowed to be by her mother’s side. It was this way for millions of grieving people.

In the memoir “What My Bones Know,” by Malaysian-born New Yorker Stephanie Foo writes of her decades-long quest to heal from complex trauma – an abusive childhood, racism and more. Even as she finds healing, she writes, “It’s ok to have some things you never get over.”

Is there something you fear you might never get over? What do we do with pain like that?

We can loosen. We can name it together, let it go to The All. We can lament.

Today, Rev. Jonalu and I want to spend time on lamentation, one of many spiritual practices handed down over centuries – a written way of channeling grief to the divine, dating back to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem, 589 to 587 BCE, after which people used lament-writing to grapple with the emotional and spiritual devastation. The long aftermath, like where we are now, three years after the first COVIO isolation. You’ll find laments not just in the biblical chapter of Lamentations but in the Psalms as well.

The practice of lament writing is regaining popularity, including among Black leaders in Unitarian Universalism. The late beloved Mathew P. Taylor wrote a piece called Lamentations in the book BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation.

An excerpt from Taylor:

Lamentations
Are a way to be seen
And held
And heard
For once
So that the weeping
The stories behind the tears
Are not silenced

UU Rev. Darrick Jackson often preaches about the lamentation practice. When he taught it to me and to other seminarians at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, it felt like a lifeline.

This form of prayer has simple, specific parts.

 

    1. You address your complaint, to someone, something, and name the complaint. You might try on a new of different name for the divine, especially to express your frustration at them – God, Goddess, or like Rev. Theresa Nina Soto has said, Our friend. God, my heart is sick over loved ones I may never see again.

 

 

    1. You confess your trust — your faith, even though it be uncertain – and petition for a solution. Hold nothing back. Do not minimize your complaints or beg for small favors, as Rev. Jackson taught. Go big as you cry out and drop to your knees. The universe can handle it. Spirit of life and love, I am trusting you to take the cancer, the depression, the violence. Take it. Not one more neighbor or friend.

 

 

  1. Then, and this is important, express confidence that your prayer has been heard and end your lament with gratitude. Thank you for hearing this plea and for the truth that we are not alone. Amen.

 

That’s it. No promise to fix it. Beware those who promise to fix it. Just the sacred power of naming, trusting the universe to be what Buddhist teacher Thict Nhat Hahn described as the compassionate listener.

The beauty of lamentations is that they create space for both uncensored wailing – and the act of fidelity. Those who lament only do so because, underneath it all, we have a faith that a God of mercy, a universal love, will hear our prayers. And lamentation is counter to white supremacy culture, because it requires humility – not to pretend we have the answers.

TRANSITION TO SPIRITUAL PRACTICES:

So, today, in acknowledgment of the many griefs, both individual and collective, that are known to this congregation – before we move on to things like a new search committee, a new minister, a new chapter – as your interim ministers, we want to offer us all spiritual practices of release. We invite you to think about any pain you may be holding and lift it up to the Spirit of Life, or out to this community, so you don’t have to hold it alone. So your knees don’t buckle. Yes, there are some things we may not get over, but healing is possible. Together, we can loosen.

During a time of contemplative music, we invite you to move about the sanctuary, choosing if you will to light a candle, burn a paper, drop a stone in water. Let something go. We also have a station for lament writing. You may take a paper, with fill-in-the-blanks to make it simpler, and write your own lamentation.

If you need more time, take the paper home with you and pray or meditate on it. Keep it for yourself, or share what you write with a friend, a group, your ministers. In our shared grieving, may we find some loosening, some healing.

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

A Return to Center, A Return to Love

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. Addae Kraba
February 19, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Since time immemorial love has been the topic of conversations. We are endowed with a boundless capacity to love, but when we are filled with emotions like fear and anger we shield love’s pulsating rays. – Addae Kraba

 

 

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 ONE
By Hope Johnson

We are one, a diverse group of proudly kindred spirits, here not by coincidence but because we choose to journey together. We are active and proactive. We care deeply. We live our love as best we can.

We are one, working, eating, laughing, playing, singing, storytelling, sharing, and rejoicing, getting to know each other, taking risks, opening up, questioning, seeking, searching, trying to understand, struggling, making mistakes, paying attention, asking questions, listening, living our answers, learning to love our neighbors, learning to love ourselves, apologizing and forgiving with humility, and being forgiven through grace, creating the beloved community together. We are one.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

NO ONE IS OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE OF LOVE
By Susan Frederick-Gray, Erika Hewitt

We know that hurt moves through the world, perpetrated by action, inaction, and indifference. Our values call us to live in the reality of the heartbreak of our world, remembering that:

“No one is outside the circle of love.”

We who are Unitarian Universalist not only affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person; we also affirm the inherent wholeness of every beingÑdespite apparent brokenness.

“No one is outside the circle of love.”

We know that things break, or break down: promises, friendship, sobriety, hope, communication. This breaking happens because our human hearts and our very institutions are frail and imperfect. We make mistakes. Life is messy.

“No one is outside the circle of love.”

With compassion as our guide, we seek the well-being of all people. We seek to dismantle systems of oppression that undermine our collective humanity. We believe that weÕre here to guide one another toward Love.

“No one is outside the circle of love.”

No matter how fractured we are or once were, we can make whole people of ourselves. We are whole at our core, because of the great, unnameable, sometimes inconceivable Love in which we live.

“No one is outside the circle of love.”

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

The Greatest Force in the Universe

by Posted in Audio available, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
February 12, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

“The Greatest Force in the Universe” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called love the greatest force. But is love really a force? Is it really that strong? We’ll see what a few religious traditions have to say about it, and share some love.

 

 

Welcome

“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. [One] who loves is a participant in the being of God.” So reads a handwritten note from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

THIS IS THE HOME THAT LOVE MADE
Amanda Poppei

This is the home that love made.

It is full of the love that the founders felt, when they planned out these walls and raised these beams above us.

This is the home that love made.

It is full of the love of all who have worshipped here; those who have celebrated and grieved here; the babies dedicated, couples married, and family members mourned here.

This is the home that love made.

It is full of the love of our children, as they learn and laugh together, and our youth, as they grow into their own sense of purpose and meaning.

This is the home that love made.

It is full of the love of the staff who have served it, full of their hopes for this congregation, their hard work and their acts of dedication.

This is the home that love made.

It is full of the love of the choir, the love made so clear in the voices lifted here on Sunday morning.

This is the home that love made.

It is full of our love: the love of this community, despite our differences and our disagreements; the love that holds us together as a people.

This is the home that love made.

Can you feel it! May the love be with us always.

Amen

Affirming Our Mission

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

Lesson

Ancient Greeks had different words for different kinds of love:

 

    • Sweetheart love – the Greeks called it eros. The kind of love that your parents might have for each other. Eros was the Greek god of love.

 

 

    • Friendship love – Do you have a best friend you love? When you love someone like a sibling, even if you’re not related. The Greeks called it philia.

 

 

    • Storge – Love your parents have for you and that you have back. By instinct. Unconditional and like no other kind of love. So, even when you do things they don’t like, or that make them angry, they still love you. Deep. Storge was Eros’s brother in Greek mythology .

 

 

  • Agape – Biggest kind of love – love for everyone world.

 

Prayer

from the Rev. Lyn Cox
Sabbatical Pastoral Minister at the UU Congregation of Rockville, MD.

Spirit of Life and Love, known by many names and yet fully known by none, we give thanks for this time and this place of renewal. We give thanks for the ability to begin again: after the disaster, after the tragedy, after the loss, after meeting the challenge set before us.

Grant us the courage to continue on the journey, the courage to speak up for the well-being of others and ourselves and the planet. May we forgive each other when our courage falls short, and may we try again.

Grant us hearts to love boldly, to embody our faith and our values in living words and deeds. May our hearts open to embrace humility, grace, and reconciliation.

Grant us the ability to learn and grow, to let the Spirit of Love and Truth work its transformation upon us and within us.

Grant us the spirit of hospitality, the willingness to sustain a fit dwelling place for the holy that resides in all being.

Grant us a sense of being at peace in the world, even as we are in motion. Let us cultivate together the strength to welcome every kind of gift and all manner of ways to be on the journey together. To this we add the silent prayers of our hearts.

Meditation Readings

From Buddhism – The Dali Lama

To be genuine, compassion must be based on respect for the other, and on the realization that others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering just as much as you. On this basis, since you can see that others are suffering, you develop a genuine sense of concern for them.

… Genuine compassion should be unbiased. If we only feel close to our friends, and not to our enemies, or to the countless people who are unknown to us personally and toward whom we are indifferent, then our compassion is only partial or biased.

… , genuine compassion is based on the recognition that others have the right to happiness just like yourself, and therefore even your enemy is a human being with the same wish for happiness as you, and the same right to happiness as you. A sense of concern developed on this basis is what we call compassion; it extends to everyone, irrespective of whether the person’s attitude toward you is hostile or friendly.

[po 302-304, The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings]

 

 

From Christianity – I Corinthians 13:4-11, 13

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end …. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Sermon

Part 1

The greatest of these is love. The fiery prophets, the mystic saints, the Buddhist monks, all agree. Love is the greatest force in the universe.

But — Have you ever thought of love as mushy or weak-kneed? A fleeting feeling, instead of an unconquerable, eternal power? I admit I have. I have cringed at saccharine sweet pictures of love, especially this time of year. And I like sugar! I even like those little candy hearts with the silly expressions of love. Still, love a force?

The picture of love from Corinthians confuses me more patient, kind, not arrogant or boastful. Christianity and Buddhism alike urging us to love our enemies! Our enemies! The people who hate us and want to destroy us. How can a love like that be a force? Much less the greatest force in the universe, as Dr. King wrote in that note. It’s hard to align that slow patient kindness, that openness to potential destroyers with the idea of a force in the universe. Love that will not let go, that will defend its object and that will vanquish lesser motives and ideas. How does love do that?

Maybe it requires us to consider, not love itself, but the other side of the equation – force. Maybe we need to reconsider what force might be. When we think about force, we usually think about what might better be labeled violence. We think about someone making someone else do something. We think about force as physically pushing or threatening harm. We think about force as bullying or strong-arming coercion.

What if force were something different? What if force were like water? There’s an old Holly Near song – Holly Near is a bisexual singer-songwriter who was active in the women’s movement back in the day. The song went:

Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone?
Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air,
Weaker than stone by far, but be aware,
That as time goes by, the rock will wear away.

The idea is much older than the twentieth century. Taoists in ancient China often spoke of the power of being like water. Water, said Lao Tzu, overcomes the hardest substance and offers no resistance.

What if that is the patience of love, that it can wait while gently having its way? It does not insist on its way. It may wear the rock away, or if another pathway opens, it may flow around the rock, eroding the side of the rock instead of its upper surface. The water has flexibility, to flow where it can. And yet, to know where it must go … somehow. And its power cannot be dismissed. Anyone who has just come through an ice storm knows that. That’s water in its most angry and destructive form.

Perhaps love can be a force.

Sermon Part 2

This hymn comes from the same place that our reading does – the book of I Corinthians in the Bible, chapter 13. It’s one of the most famous readings of Christians, often read at weddings. It’s not about eros love, though, or storge love. The word “love” in I Corinthians 13 is agape, that big, huge love that encompasses everything and everyone. I Corinthians was written as a letter by Paul, a leader who had persecuted Christians until he had a conversion experience and became one. He was writing it to a church in the city of Corinth that was having trouble. Paul had founded that church about twenty years after Jesus died, and he went off to Ephesus where he heard stories about how the church members were not treating one another well and were arguing about all kinds of silly stuff. Churches do that sometimes, even today.

So Paul wrote to the church at Corinth telling them how they needed to treat on another in the church, with agape with patience, kindness and so on — with that full overwhelming love that flows through us to others, like water.

And the song we just sang whose words come from that letter tells us that not only is love powerful, it’s essential. If you are brave and inspirational, but you don’t do it with love, it comes to nothing. That’s what the words tell us.

Psychologically, love is necessary. Babies cannot thrive without it. Heck, that’s why we’ve got hormones that make us take care of them! Really, none of us thrive without love. We need to be touched with affection – hugs and kisses and tickles and cuddles. We need to know there are people we can count on, who will show up and help us get what we need. We need to know someone who will listen to our deepest, darkest secrets and still show up for us. What’s more, we need to give love as well as receive it. People who spend money on someone else instead of themselves are happier. And when you give to others, they often give back – whether money or love. “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place,” wrote the Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston.

And this is the kind of love we aim for in church. Do we always get there? No, we let people fall through the cracks and not receive the love they need. Sometimes, we break their hearts. But we keep trying. We ask for forgiveness We try to love through our ministerial staff. We try through the structures of the church, like our Caring Council. And, most importantly, we try to love – all of us — in our personal interactions – all of them – in the groups we are part of, in the meetings we attend, in all of our formal and informal relations. Because love has to flow like water. It can’t be just the formal structures. We want it to be everywhere.

The Rev. Jo Von Rue, minister of May Memorial UU Society in Syracuse, New York, told a story about her embarrassment as a poor child to be prompted kindly to wear deodorant. She writes:

Love shows up in soft, easy comfortable places: a new baby in the delivery room; a meal train when you’re ill; a hug, or the sweet smile of a stranger.

But here’s the thing: love shows up everywhere.

We don’t always recognize it, but love shows up even more in the messy, vulnerable places. Love shows up in the form of a friend seeking forgiveness. Love shows up every time we interrupt bad oppressive comments and jokes. Love shows up in complicated conversations-and for me, love showed up in the simplicity of a teacher awkwardly reminding me about deodorant.

And Paul tells us, you can’t just go through the motions. It shows. If you do not have love, the deeds do not carry the force or power that they would have with love. As Mother Teresa said, “it is more important to do small things with great love than to do great things with little love.”

Part 3

Most of you know something about our UU principles. We also have a set of sources. One of them is “Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Of course, love is not only taught by Jews and Christians. Buddhists use the word compassion, but I think compassion is much like agape love – big love that we have to nurture. It doesn’t come as naturally as love for family or sweethearts, or even for our friends. We have to encourage it. To do that might take a lovingkindness meditation, as Buddhist practice.

May I be well and happy.
May you be well and happy.
May my family and friends be well and happy.
May those I do not know be well and happy.
May my enemies be well and happy.

Practice does make it easier, even if it stays really hard. We can practice everywhere, though, sending the energy of our love to clerks in the grocery store, to drivers we pass on the road, to people we see at work or school, to the people of Turkey and Syria and Ukraine, to those we see in the news. Practice opening our hearts and sending love. They may never know it, but it may change you.

Our religious tradition comes from two distinct but overlapping branches – Unitarianism and Universalism. For the Universalists, love was always central because they believed in a God so loving that they would never send anyone to hell. The Universalist God saved everyone. The Universalist God was what I learned God was when I was four years old in the Baptist church – love. If God is anything at all, I still believe that God must be love. The powerful, all-encompassing love that sustains us and everything and everyone in the universe.

Rev. Chris told you last week that the UUA is updating what’s called Article II – he’ll be leading a program about those II revisions next week following the service. And that proposal puts love squarely at the center of Unitarian Universalism, as it was always at the center of Universalism.

The Article II Commission said:

Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values. We are accountable to one another for doing the work of our shared values thru the spiritual discipline of love.

Are we ready for a religion with love at its center? Love, I expressed publicly as justice, as Cornel West has reminded us. Love strong enough to cast out fear, to save us from foolish priorities like ego and greed. Love that connects and reweaves the fabric of our families, our culture, our nation, our world. A love that breaks down the barriers of politics and religion so that we can fully embrace even those who are far different from ourselves. A love that makes “we” bigger and more inclusive every day. A love that flows in us, through us, around us, so that we are awash in it.

Benediction

Omid Safi, liberationist professor of Islamic Studies

Go, be your best self. Be your most beautiful self. Be your luminous self. Be your most generous self. Be your most radically loving self. And when you fall short of that – as we all do, as we all have – bounce back and return. And return again. There is a grace in this returning to your luminous self.

 

 

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

Love Calls Us Forth

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
February 5, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Love is fundamental for fulfillment in our lives and central to our theology as Unitarian Universalists. Love brings us great joy, comfort and so many other wonderful feelings. And to love will mean to experience loss. Love is not just an emotion but also involves behavior in which we must engage to keep it alive. Love calls us toward our best selves and beckons us 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

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

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

Loving only ourselves is escapism; loving only our opponents is self-loathing; loving only others is ineffective. All three practices together make love revolutionary, and revolutionary love can only be practiced in community.

Love is more than a rush of feeling. Love is a form of sweet labor: fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving – a choice we make over and over again.

– Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

Sermon

“Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby-awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.” That’s a quote from Lemony Snicket, pseudonym for author and musician Daniel Handler.

During February, we will be exploring “The Path of Love” as our spiritual subject. I loved that quote because, to me, it captures in a humorous way how love is so much more complicated than the sentimentality often portrayed in greeting cards and made for TV movies.

Certainly, love can involve extremely feel good emotions. It can be sentimental, romantic, even joyous.

Valarie Kaur, whom we heard from in our reading earlier, describes it like this, “…that rush of oxytocin…that rush of feeling, being swept away, and it’s delicious, and it’s delirious, and it’s what we live for. It’s glorious.”

However, she goes on to say: “And it’s fleeting.” “And it’s something that happens to you, right? “

The point she goes on to make is that love is more than a feeling. To keep love alive, to express love to its utmost dimensions, to channel and amplify that great river of love that flows through our universe, we must choose love, as she says, “over, and over, and over again”. Love makes demands of us. It calls us to engage in loving actions.

It lures us toward joyfully making love the primary occupation of our lives.

My spouse Wayne and I have been together for almost 32 years now. I truly believe that part of the reason that we are still together and still in love is that we have engaged in keeping love alive. We have done the work of love.

Through all those years, even in difficult times, even when it was tough, we have both always been willing to come to the other and say, “Can we find a time to talk?”

Now. I’ll admit that sometimes when Wayne has come to me with that, what I was really feeling inside was: “Oh, OK.”

“How about three years from next Thursday?” But I always said, “yes”. And I know Wayne has also felt that way at times when I have come to him, and he has always said “yes.” And those difficult conversations have kept our love filled with vitality. Another thing we have always done is something quite simple. One of us will just go get the other one and, for example, say, “Come see this with me. The night sky is unbelievably beautiful from our front porch tonight.” That brings me to what research psychologists John and Julie Gottman have called, “Bids for emotional connection.”

Here is a short explanation of this.

SERMON VIDEO

I still need to work on that “putting away your screens” part. Similarly, researcher Dr. Sara Algoe has found that the simple act of expressing gratitude, especially if we are specific about what we appreciate, is a key aspect of living out our love for each other.

And it is important to note that these ways of doing the work of love:

 

  • Being willing to engage in crucial conversations;
  • Turning toward bids for connection;
  • Expressing gratitude;

 

All of these can also benefit our relationships with other family members, friends, co-workers, here at the church and out in the world of forming solidarity for social justice.

Now, Valerie Kaur also says though, “Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects that which is loved. And when we think we have reached our limit, wonder is the act that returns us to love.”

To make love the primary occupation of our lives, we must also accept that to know the joy of love we will also suffer loss.

At memorial services, I sometimes quote Kahlil Gibran:

 

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

 

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?..

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

 

And, as a spiritual task, we must also know that there are times when love will drive rage within us, especially when we witness injustice. We must allow that at times, anger is a necessary part of loving. As Audre Lorde, who described herself as “”black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” wrote, “My fear of anger taught me nothing. Your fear of that anger will teach you nothing, also.”

But, as Kaur also says, we must know that returning to the wonder of love is how we sustain the struggle for justice. If we dwell only in love’s anger, we will cease to know the joy of love.

And all of this is KEY to our faith as Unitarian Universalists. It is at the core of our shared theology.

Though we may have many different individual beliefs, what holds us together as a religion is that we are covenantal. We make promises to one another that we will walk together in the ways of love.

Our Unitarian ancestors believed in the oneness of God, rather than God as the the trinity of the father, the son and the holy spirit. In time, for many Unitarians this became about the oneness of all of us and of all things.

Our Universalist forebearers proclaimed that God’s love is universal. That he would not condemn any of his children to eternal hell.

Because that would be child abuse and quite severely patriarchal. Over time, we have often come to broaden this as a calling to universal love for others and for all that is.

Currently, a study commission of the central organizing and support structure for our faith, the Unitarian Universalist Association (or UUA) has recommend that we, the constituent congregations and faith groups of the UUA, consider a change to the bylaws for our association.

Paula Cole Jones, co-author of the 8th principle serves on that commission. The commission is proposing a new covenant for our religious movement composed of a set of religious values that embody the essence and intent of our current principles, as well as incorporates key language from each of them. I will be offering a session to learn about and discuss this recommendation on February 19 after the worship service.

Briefly for now though, here is their graphic representation of the proposed values.

SLIDE

What is striking to me is that love once again shows up as the core of our faith – our theological anchor. Once again, love is calling us to make it the primary occupation of our lives. And that means love is also calling us to love beyond our family and our immediate circle, beyond even this religious community.

Love calls us to get outside of our daily lives and beyond these church walls. It is so easy, especially for those of who experience one or more forms of privilege, to remain in this sort of bubble of our closest loved ones and associates, who are often very much like us. We may vote in ways that support greater justice. We may say the right words and know the language of justice. Still though, when the going gets tough, many of us have the option of escaping to our bubbles. We can look the other way.

Holocaust surviver and author, Elie Wiesel, said that “the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.”

So, we must guard against indifference settling in just beyond our immediate awareness. It can lure us into a comfort that denies where love is calling us – to justice. As Cornell West famously said, “Justice is love showing up in public.”

So love is calling us to show up. It is calling us to speak out. Love calls us, for instance, to cry out for dismantling and re-envisioning a criminal justice system that privileges some of us with protection while damning others to terror, mass incarceration, abuse and slaughter at the hands of law enforcement.

Love calls us to rage against police beating to death Tyre Nichols as he pleaded, “I’m just trying to go home,” as he cried out for his mom. This bloodbath in the streets of modern America must end.

Love demands that we continue to demand responsible gun regulations and put a stop once and for all to the massacre of innocent people that continues to plague this country.

Love calls us to denounce the continued efforts in this state to violate the very humanity of our trans siblings.

Love beckons us as love warriors against the decimation of reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy we are witnessing through draconian anti-abortion, anti- LGBTQ laws and so much more.

Love weeps for us to act now in outrage over the practices and policies that are threatening devastation within that sacred web of all existence of which we are a part and have propelled us into a climate crisis. The very future of our children is at stake.

And my beloveds, these are only just a few examples of the ways in which love is calling us to show up in our world for justice.

Our Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry is holding a legislative action day at the state capital on March 13. May love lead as many of us as possible to be present.

So, love moves our outrage toward a sustained and ever growing struggle for justice as we reach for the dream of the Beloved Community fully realized.

Now, I want to close though by returning to some of the words from Valarie Kaur. “Anger protects that which is loved…wonder is the act that returns us to love…revolutionary love can only be practiced in community.”

Again, we need the anger that love drives in us to protect that which is loved, but we cannot exist in the anger. Always, always we must return to the wonder of love.

And we must direct that love even toward those with whom we disagree. We must find love even for those who act in ways that we may view as reprehensible, harmful and immoral. This is how we avoid becoming the same way. This is necessary to making love our primary occupation.

And we need community to hold on to the wonder that makes this possible. Spiritual community like that found here at first Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. A spiritual community where we care for each other so that we can keep manifesting love in our world.

A couple in our church recently said something to me that I thought was very wise. Like we must love ourselves before we can fully love others, we must care for each other within this religious community so that we are able to help build Beloved Community beyond it. Rev. Jonalu and the Co-Chairs of First UU Cares will be holding a conversation on March 12 on how we may best do that.

I believe that love is calling this religious community to be a righteous voice for it in this, the heart of Texas.

May the universal river of love flow through us. May the unity of all bring us great wonder and give us unwavering strength. May we answer the call of love throughout our days together, bringing into being the Beloved Community, within which divine light radiates.

Amen.

 

 

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

Finding our Center: Building a New Way

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 Long
January 29, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Please join Rev Chris Long, The Minister of Congregational Life (Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge, LA), as he returns to Austin for the first time since 1994 -1995. He will explore the Soul Matters theme of the month.

 

 

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 COURAGE TO BEGIN ANEW
By the Reverend Rosemary Bray McNatt
President of Starr King School for the Ministry – Oakland, CA

…In this moment of worship we call to mind those times of failure and regret common to all of us. We remember first, in silence, those times when we have failed to do all that we meant to do, or through our actions failed to be all we were meant to be.

We now recall our moments of integrity, those times we have lived into our deepest values, and acted as the human beings we always dreamed of being.

We choose at this moment to lay down the burden of our shortcomings, and grasp the courage to begin anew. Together, we affirm our capacity for goodness and grace, for freedom and purpose and joy. We are not trapped in our past, but freed by creation to live and grow today. With gratitude, we say blessed be and amen.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

RESPONDING TO VIOLENCE IN OUR WORLD
By The Reverend Dr. Hope Johnson – Of Blessed Memory
(Excepted from the UUA Website – November 13, 2017)

“…We can pause. We can express our gratitude for the positive efforts being made. We can each do something. And we can celebrate the fact that none of us is alone – we’re a team. From there, we can work with our congregations by supporting their efforts to balance the disparities that abound. We don’t have to do it all but, if we want to be part of the change that we’d like to see, we do have to keep challenging each other, not by being hard on ourselves, but by being real….”

Sermon

My name is Rev. Chris Long. My pronouns of choice are he/him/his. I am so delighted to be HERE!! I am so delighted to be here, in Austin, Texas for the first time in 29 years. It has been both a time- traveling and soul affirming experience since arriving Thursday evening.

I had the great fortune to complete a 16-week internship at St. David’s Rehabilitation Center as a part of my undergraduate degree in Therapeutic Recreation!!!! As fate, LIFE, would have it, it would be another five years before I would meet Unitarian Universalism, and The Reverend Jonula Johnstone who was then Minister of James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Madison, Wisconsin.

On December 12, 1999, in Reverend Jonalu’s then Church Office, I would “Sign the Book” to become a Unitarian Universalist. Since that FaithFULL day, I have been humbled to call here a Dear Mentor, Ministerial Colleague and Friend.

It is through these many years of connection, support, love, and with the affirmations by Reverends Chris and Erin that I am truly grateful to be here today with you, all!! Good morning!!! A special note of thanks to Reverends Chris, and Erin, Kelly Stokes, Brent Baldwin, Peter, Rina Saporssantos, and all of the staff, technical support staff and volunteers who have made my visit here one I will long remember. Also, I am grateful to have had conversations of grounding and connecting with some of the BIPOC Members of this congregation. My soul is FULL Y’all!!!

The title and theme for today’s Worship Service is, “Finding Our Center: Building a New “Way”.

When you hear the word, or phrase, ‘to center’ or to be ‘centered’ what comes to mind? If you are one who practices yoga, forest bathing, Buddhism, or any other number of meditations or spiritual practices. If you engage regular exercise, you have a music practice, you may be familiar with the concept or practice of being “centered”. And if you do not practice any form of regular “centering” for any number of reasons, too much work, the children are your “center”, or if one’s body is not able to do any of those forms of centering, you are not alone!!

And again, what on earth does it mean to “Find Our Center” to those of us who are not sure what it is? Furthermore, is it the same as being ‘grounded’? As important is what does this have to do with me, or you, being a Unitarian Universalist, members of this congregation or someone seeking possible community with us, and why now?

First, I find it very important to state, that finding ‘center’is not a static place, and if one does not know what it is, or find it important, this is OK. And, I hope that we all could use some supports in working, working, to explore if and why it is a concept we might continue or begin to practice,… as the days, moments, years of our lives are or may be becoming ever busy. Ever busy, complex and our lives, friends and families pull at all of what it means to be a human being, today.

In searching for support on the subjects of centering and ground, I found something on the topic by Dr. Diana Raab. Dr. Raab is a Transpersonal Psychologist who has written extensively about the subjects of “centering” and “grounding” helping me to frame some of my thinking for today’s Offering. From the February 3, 2020 online issue of Psychology Today Dr. Raab wrote:

 

“Sometimes the words centering and grounding are used interchangeably. Centering usually refers to our mental and physical state of mind. It’s the place we know we have to get back to when we’re not feeling like ourselves. When we’re not centered, we might feel lost or out of touch with ourselves. When we center ourselves, we bring calm to our emotions. We do so by slowing down our breathing so that we “feel” more of what’s going on around us. Becoming centered is a way to find peace within the chaos that might be surrounding us. It’s about being “in check” with what’s going on. Individuals who are centered are typically calm and peaceful.”

 

She goes on to say,

 

“Grounding is a term used in conjunction with the energy fields around us. Being grounded means that we’re content with who we are. We’re sure of ourselves and have confidence in the decisions we make. Becoming grounded is about getting rid of excessive energy in the body, allowing clean energy to come through. When we ground ourselves, we’re calming or slowing down our emotions and getting more in touch with our internal and external worlds. Grounding our energy can be helpful when we feel either unbalanced or nervous. Being grounded also means that we’re more mindful with respect to our environment.”

 

Centering and grounding. In preparation for today’s Service, I am humbled to say that I have had a few weeks of connecting conversations with Reverends Chris, Jonalu and Erin. Also, through my chats with Peter and with some of the BIPIC members over a meals the last two days, I got to take in each person’s passions regarding the health, health of this Church, and in the areas of continued hope and possibilities that you all are working, working, into in the life of this congregation.

Additionally, I took a few minutes to look over this Church’s history wall in Hausen Hall. I was amazed to learn some gathered under the values and beliefs of Unitarianism starting here,in Austin, in the late 1800s. Then, officially becoming a Unitarian Church in 1954!!

Y’all have been around a long time, and doing the sacred, holy work of justice, love and mercy. AMEN???

In this time of continued transition as a congregation on many levels, namely how we all continue to navigate life post the hardest parts of the pandemic, having the realities, and difficulty of Reverend Meg Barnhouse deciding to retire in May of last year, leaving sooner than most would have desired, and to be in the middle of the process, holy process, of deciding the next chapter in the life of this congregation related to selecting your Senior Minister, the transitions continue.

And, AND, I am learning joy, justice, mercy and a deep dedication to embodying the 8th Principle, again, the work of embodying the 8th Principle, as a spiritual, religious undertaking is mission, vision of this historic Church. Amen???

As you may well know, one of your Ends Statement Reads:

 

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

 

Even, or especially with all of the changes going on inside and around us, the violence in particular, how shall we work on finding our center, during these ever uncertain times? How can, or might we do the work needed to build a new way towards more love, justice and mercy now? The Reading Peter shared a few minutes ago was excerpted from an article on the Unitarian Universalist Association website, uua.org, from November 13, 2017. Again titled, “Responding to the Violence in Our World”.

The Reverend Dr. Hope Johnson, who was a long-time mentor, friend, colleague, now an Ancestor of Blessed Memory, crafted those words in a short, sacred article in response to some of the violence, in the name of religion, that was happening in the world at that time. I highly commend it to you for your ongoing reflection as we potentially continue or begin to reflect on the possibilities of having this church, and other spots in our world be considered, a place for meaningful, ongoing centering, and grounding.

As Unitarian Universalists or those seeking to become a part of this sacred community and living religious tradition, what role, if any does this congregation play in working towards more justice, mercy, compassion and love for all, right here, right now? Do we have a role in co- creating the world that we seek? If we do, or do not have a practice, or practices of “centering”, how might we consider starting a practice so that we can weather the storms of our lives that will, that will come? How are we, or might we do this in community here?

As critical, and at once, if you will, how do we explore not only centering that is needed here, but how might we move our justice making into the center of marginalized communities, in even more authentic and accountable ways? At the close of the article of the Reading shared, Reverend Dr. Hope Johnson shares this, just as yet another heart breaking, soul wrenching attack killing many and wounding more had happened, in the name of religion.

She writes:

 

“And yet, I know how important it is for us to allow our grief-filled hearts to invite faith, hope and love to seep in–drop by precious drop. Allow our hearts to guide us in coming together, once again, as often as we must, to claim that we will not let fear dictate the kind of people we are and will be, in spite of the anger, the tears and the fears. Allow us to be the people who know how to respond-yes, once again-by uniting our actions, our hearts and our minds in love. Allow us to remember as we work with the larger world, our congregations, and each other, that we are part of a team, doing the work that we have each been called to do.”

 

As we begin to take our leave from this Worship Service today, may we find this Church to be a place of ongoing “centering and grounding”. Especially as we dig ever more deeply, into harder religious questions of our day. May we continue to do this holy work in faith, love and compassion, in our precious, precious lives?

Amen, Ashe, Blessed Be, Shalom, Salaam and May it Be So!!

 

 

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 Animal Blessing 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
January 22, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We bring our pets for our annual pet parade and animal blessing. We explore how our animal companions so often bless us by helping us find our center.

 

 

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

For all that dwells below the skies,
let songs of hope and faith arise.
Let peace, goodwill on Earth be sung,
or bark or howl by every tongue.

– Rev Laura Kim Joyner

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

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

– Job 12, 7-10

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

Trans Inclusion and Beloved Community

by Posted in Audio available, Erin Walter, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

o

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
January 15, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

On the Sunday of MLK weekend, as the Texas Legislature has just returned to the capitol, join us for a special worship service that honors the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and also affirms how transgender rights and inclusion are part of the greater work of Beloved Community. First UU’s interim Minister for Joy and Justice, Rev. Erin Walter, will be joined by Zr. Alex Kapitan, co-founder of the Transforming Hearts Collective.

 

 

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

TO REMEMBER

Spirit of Life
We are here today to remember
what some are intent on making us forget.
To remember a man who fought to end segregation,
To remember a man who marched to counter prejudice and oppression.
To remember a man who was filled with peace and hope,
To remember a man who with promise and a dream,
To remember a man who with a voice that rang out for justice and freedom.

All these things we remember and honor
in the legacy of Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
and a life lived well
in service to all.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

KEEP MOVING
Maggie Smith

Do not turn away from joy
even if arrives at an inconvient time,
even of you think your should be grieving,
even if you think it’s too soon.
Joy is always on time.

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

Finding Ourselves in Past Present Future

by Posted in Audio available, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
January 8, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The past has shaped us. We rest in the present. We look forward to the future. How do they interact together to help us find our center?

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

LET ASTONISHMENT BE POSSIBLE
by Rev. Gretchen Haley

Whatever you have come in
anticipating
Whatever you expect
Or worry
For our world, for the future
For our lives-
Let it go

Make space in your heart to be surprised
Make room in your soul
For a new story to take shape
Let astonishment be possible

At this life that remains a miracle
Imagine here the bursting of joy
Relentless and resilient
Coming in waves
Washing over us
with music,
and story
silence,

and still this dreaming together
Being hope for each other
and courage
to believe
in this new day dawning
for us all.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

WE ARE ABLE
by Vijaya Balan

Things happen, moments are created, faces are remembered and feelings are tightly grasped within the dry skin of our cracked hands,
Cracked hearts too maybe?

Where do we go but forward,
Remembering absent friends, lost loves, broken dreams and a hope to bury it all in that dark backyard behind our weathered but sturdy home,

We will move on, forge new paths, break new barriers, repeat a thing or two,
but oh well,

We all have some familiar cycles in our life right?
We are resilience built on the foundation of faith and belief, We are unwritten pages, with past chapters that can fill a library, a library that none might visit,
And we will still go ahead and do everything that we want to, regardless of what anyone else ever said,

We are beings with a field of uncertainty surrounded by determination at the most unexpected moments,
Love and let go, love and cherish, love and be broken, love and not expect anything in return, love and be loved back a 1000 times,

We are the sum of billions of atoms,
We are the moments we create and the things that happen, We are the beliefs of more than thousands of faiths in this world,

We are the tragedies of past, the conundrums of the present and the triumphs of tomorrow,
We are able,
We are capable of all of them,
We are capable and able.

Austin UU History Lesson

WHERE DO WE COME FROM?
– Leo Collas

Unitarianism was brought to Austin by the Reverend Edwin Miller Wheelock in 1868.

Wheelock was a Harvard educated lawyer who also graduated from Harvard Divinity School as a Unitarian minister. He was a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and was even open to Transcendentalism.

He served in the Civil War as a chaplain in the Union army, and afterward worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau in the gulf coast area of Louisiana and Texas. He was married and had 2 children.

His specialty was in education. He developed curriculums to teach formerly enslaved children how to read. His work was very effective, and in 1868, the governor of Texas moved him to Austin and appointed him as the first Superintendent of Schools. This may just sound like a nice, progressive career path, but there is a really interesting backstory to all of this that makes it a really amazing story.

Wheelock was a devoted abolitionist. He was passionate about what we now call “human rights” and was outspoken about the immoral institution of slavery. Here is the story about that.

Soon after he got his first Unitarian ministerial appointment, in Dover Massachusetts, he delivered a stirring sermon supporting the raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry Virginia by fellow abolitionist John Brown. Brown, in October 1859, raided the Federal Armory intending to start a slave liberation movement that would spread to the southern states. It wasn’t well planned, and the enslaved people it was meant to liberate didn’t exactly know what was going on, so it failed. Brown was tried for treason and was hanged on December 2, 1859, the first person executed for treason in the history of the United States.

Wheelock’s sermon made him kinda famous. He was asked to speak in Boston, and his sermon was printed in newspapers.

Wheelock’s sermon didn’t pull any punches on the topic of slavery: “withholding the key of knowledge, abrogating the marriage relation, rending families asunder at the auction block, makes the State that protects it a band of pirates, and the church that enshrines it a baptized brothel.” The State of Virginia put a $1500 bounty on his capture – dead or alive – for treason. Luckily for Wheelock, the civil war broke out in 1861. He immediately enlisted and became a chaplain in the Union Army.

That’s how he got appointed to work with the Freedmen’s Bureau during reconstruction.

But think about it. Here is this man who was once hated throughout the South, somehow able to work with both the Southern gulf states and the Federal government to do something that the people of the South found unimaginable – teaching reading to those they had enslaved! He was able to do it, and do it successfully. And he got a high-ranking position in Texas from Governor Pease – who was a former slave owner!

Wheelock had some mighty diplomatic skills.

He served in a number of high-ranking jobs in Texas government, including as the Superintendent of the School for the Blind. Texas was not really ready for liberal religion at that time and Wheelock knew that. He went to Spokane Washington in 1887 to form the Unitarian Society of Spokane and serve as its minister for 2 years. He came back to Austin and in 1891 started a Unitarian ministry here. That ministry survived Wheelock’s death in 1901 (he was 72), and continued through WW1. Rev. Wheelock’s daughter, Emilie, carried the mantle of Unitarianism in Austin after her father’s death and for the rest of her life. From what I have gathered, she had a lot of her Father’s diplomacy and courage. Emilie was married to a British man by the name of John D. Howson, who was associated with the International Great Northern Railroad and the Austin National Bank. They had 1 child, Edwin, who died as an infant in 1889. Emilie’s great social justice passion was for getting the vote for women. She was involved in every organization that promoted women’s rights, and she was a leader of many of them. Emilie was a charter member of the Austin Woman’s Club and was involved in the formation of the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs. After years of working toward women’s suffrage, Emilie was 59 years old when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.

Austin Unitarianism survived quietly, evolving after WW1 into the Community Church of Austin, which ceased in the winter of 1951 when it morphed into the Unitarian Fellowship of Austin. Services were held in people’s homes initially. Among the founding members was Emilie Wheelock Howson, who was by then 90 years old.

Emilie called in all of her favors to get things jump started for this church. I think she knew it was going to be her last hurrah. The YWCA gave the fellowship space to meet, then the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs did. Other Women’s organizations gave equipment and administrative assistance.

Finally, in 1954, the Unitarian Fellowship of Austin had grown strong enough to call its first minister, and become incorporated as the First Unitarian Church of Austin. There were 66 families committed to the new church, with 81 members, and it continued to grow.

Sadly, in 1957, Emilie Wheelock Howson died. She was 96 years old. But she wasn’t done helping this congregation. She left this congregation a legacy of $100,000 (equivalent of about $1M today) which was used to purchase land and build a church here at this site. The building was dedicated in January of 1961 with “Howson Hall” named in Emilie’s honor.

Rev. Wheelock and his daughter Emilie played key roles in the forming of this church, but they were not the only ones. It was their spirit, their determined commitment to the spiritual practice of social justice that helped inspire others. I’m certain there were many individuals who inspired them.

After Howson Hall was built in 1961, the classroom wing was built in 1968, and in 1987 this beautiful sanctuary was added. There are many stories about all the things that have taken place here, many people who have worked toward compassion and justice in this place from racial integration, to LGBTQ rights, moral treatment of immigrants and refugees, reproductive justice, the list goes on. In 1961 when the initial church building was new, the Austin American Statesman published an article entitled “Unitarian Service Features Dancing”. I’m sure that caused a collective clutch of the pearls around the city. But little did they know, we were just getting started.

Sermon

Thank you, Leo. It’s important to hear and know the stories of our past. To find ourselves, our center, which is this month’s theme, we need to learn from the past, to rest in the present and to look to the future. Or, as the poet said earlier, “We are the tragedies of past, the conundrums of the present and the triumphs of tomorrow.” Of course, we are also the triumphs of the past, the joys of the present and the uncertainties of tomorrow.

I no longer believe that my biography begins with my birth. I can’t tell my personal story without also telling you about my mother and my father, who met in the military and courted going to Broadway shows on USO tickets and who gave me both my genes and a nurturing environment. My story even includes my grandparents, who shaped my parents. Would I be who I am if my mother’s parents hadn’t run a dairy in Oklahoma? If her grandparents hadn’t moved to Oklahoma from Illinois and Iowa? If my father’s father hadn’t come to Maine from Canada? If my father hadn’t been adopted? My beginnings go further back in time than I can even recount, or recall, because I only know them from the stories other people have told me.

We create our stories of ourselves. All of us have stories we tell over and over about our lives – the story of how we met our spouse, of how we chose our career, of the birth of our child, of the death of our parent. We tell our stories to reinforce our experience and so that we can understand better what has happened to us and who we are. This is true for trauma, as well as joy, failure as well as success. It’s why we tell stories of those we love after they die – we are inscribing those stories on our hearts and minds so that our loved one lives on. We really only learn from our experience when we have translated and refined our story. Without putting it into a form, it’s hard to learn from experience. We need the story to make meaning out of the experience, to understand what has happened, to learn so we can move on, whether in the same or in a different way. Commentator David Brooks has written: “If you don’t have a real story, you don’t have a real self.”

We do the same thing on communal levels. Our families have stories, our church does, as Leo shared a bit this morning, our nation does. None of these stories are idle or random. They establish the essence of the civilization, defining how life is to be, how people are to act, and what has the most value. The past is as much story as history – so it matters if and how we include the 1619 arrival of enslaved people in this country, the genocide and land-grabbing against indigenous people, the colonization, the Civil War. None of these stories is singular, they are collections of individual stories, and they always have a particular perspective.

The foundational stories of the Pilgrims coming to Massachusetts have shaped us, both as Americans and as Unitarian Universalists, since the Pilgrims are our direct religious ancestors. Since we’re so deeply influenced by such stories, we need to hear the others, like the Wampanoang people’s story, since they were there when the Pilgrims arrived.

History is never as simple as, “Look at this perfect hero,” or “That evil person ruined everything.” We’d like it to be so, yet the stories really are nuanced, full of imperfect heroes and a tug of war between good and evil where the sides cannot always be identified until much later.

White UU theologian Rebecca Parker gives us perspective on just how broken our world is – and note, she wrote this in the early days of the 21st century, long before the current crises:

We are living in a post-slavery, post-Holocaust, postVietnam, post-Hiroshima world. We are living in the aftermath of collective violence that has been severe, massive, and traumatic. The scars from slavery, genocide, and meaningless war mark our bodies. We are living in the midst of rain forest burning, the rapid death of species, the growing pollution of the air and water, and new mutations of racism and violence.

Parker’s phrase “post-slavery, post-Holocaust, postVietnam, post-Hiroshima world” reminds us of the significance of what we call history. She goes on to tell us that history has left scars. Then, she locates us in the particular context of our present. Today we would need to add post-9/11, post-Jan 6, and living amidst the spread of viruses previously unknown.

Scottish-American moral philosopher Alasdair Maclnttyre says that I can’t answer the question “What am I to do?” until “I can answer the prior question, “Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?””

As consequential, powerful and unavoidable as stories are, they can also mislead us, even trap us in a lie. That’s why we need to continually re-examine, re-tell, re-write the stories.

Have you ever been with siblings and told childhood stories, only to find that you all remember what happened differently? You could consider that problematic – if our memory was like a video-recording that we could trust to be objective. But it’s not. Our memories include our emotional responses, as well as sensory data; our judgments, as well as our observations. Which is why our sibs don’t agree with our memories of that Thanksgiving years ago. We did not live through the same experience.

The advantage to the way we encode long-term memory is that we can rewrite our stories – either to include new information that we didn’t know before or to look at our lives from a different perspective. Psychologists call it narrative therapy, a process of telling a story that grounds a particular problem, then finding new ways of seeing that story, and retelling it, so that the problem is minimized.

Here’s a simple example from UU minister Amanda Poppei. She writes:

I used to believe a story that I was a bad driver. I don’t like driving on highways, lance hit a parking post in a garage, I needed the examiner to explain a three-point turn during my driver’s test. All those things are true, and so the story must be true, too. But over time, I’ve worked on hearing a different story. This story is the one about how I drive all through DC, handling traffic circles like a pro. It’s about good parallel parking skills, and always wearing my seatbelt and using my blinker. It’s about passing my driver’s test the first time, since I did, after all, know how to do a three-point turn. Those things are all true, too, so the story must be true.

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/lBcdD3- HrGkRPgOIXre8mup4a7wuujQJwlkHNdsMKH4Y/edit]

The stories we tell ourselves are interpretative at least as much as reality based. We have some freedom to choose our stories. Not absolute freedom. If your stories drift far enough from real facts, then they become ridiculous fantasies, like the biography of George Santos.

“A tree, whatever the circumstances, does not become a legume, a vine, or a cow,” explains biracial Ghanian Brit Kwame Anthony Appiah in the Ethics of Identity. “The reasonable middle view is that constructing an identity isa good thing … but that the identity must make some kind of sense.”

[qtd. in https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2015/jun /12/rachel-dolezal-black-identity-civil-rights-leader

We don’t get to choose everything about our story because we are shaped by who we are born as and the people we have come from and by the people who are entangled in our lives and memories.

But — since we have stashed emotional and interpretive content in with our objective and sense-based data, we can pull the whole mess out and pull apart what’s there and ask ourselves, “Is what I believe to be true about myself, about my life, really based in truth, or have I distorted it? Have I learned something else? Do I need a new story?”

Part of the challenge is that when new facts we encounter don’t fit into our story, we tend to ignore the facts rather than reconfigure the story. That’s just how our brains are made, so we have to work to overcome that impulse to dismiss what doesn’t fit.

None of us is one thing. None of us has a single story. Your church certainly doesn’t have a single story; nor does our nation. Stories are shaped by who has the power to tell them, by the perspectives they include – and exclude – by the visions they cast and the boundaries they draw. And stories shape us, which means we need to continually examine our stories for truth, for completeness, and for how they serve – or fail to serve – us.

“Stories can break. And stories can repair,” said Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie. Indeed. Stories can break. And stories can repair.

Returning to a past that has been distorted or moving ahead to a future that has never been more than a dream. We are going through a time in our nation where the illusion of a shared national story has evaporated. Recognizing the illusion for what it is, maybe we are freed to shift into the future with the scales removed from our eyes.

We need a process of sorting out meaning. We have to see what we want to claim from the past and how to recast it to serve the future. We have to decide which relics are worn out and which fresh enthusiasms we wish to pursue. Knowing more about the past and the present allows us to make more reasonable choices for the future.

The present is more than the dividing line between past and future. Nigerian storyteller Ben Okri says:

… we live by stories, we also live in them. One way or another we are living the stories planted in us early or along the way, or we are also living the stories we planted – knowingly or unknowingly – in ourselves. We live stories that either give our lives meaning or negate it with meaninglessness. If we change the stories we live by, quite possibly we change our lives.

[A Way of Being Free (London: Phoenix House, 1997), 46, qtd in King, The Truth about Stories, 153]

We hold the past in our present, and sometimes need to let it go. The great Black American writer James Baldwin writes: “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”

Only when we have sorted our past can we fully be present in our present and look to the future. UU’s love Utopian visions. Thumb through the hymnal sometime if you don’t believe me. We will never reach those visions – the Beloved Community — until we have better understood our past and acknowledged our present.

That’s true for us as individuals, too.

May we treasure what we can of the past, acknowledge the rest of it, rest contentedly in the present, as we move towards the future we envision together.

Benediction

THAT WHICH IS WORTHY OF DOING
By Steve J Crump

That which is worthy of doing, create with your hands.
That which is worthy of repeating, speak with a clear voice.
That which is worthy of remembering, hold in your hearts.
And that which is worthy of living, go and live it now.

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 Sermon Index

by Posted in Indexes, Sermons

2023 Sermons

 

 

Sermon Topic
Speaker
Date
 Burning Bowl 2023  Bis Thorton
12-31-23
 2023 Lessons and Carols  Rev Michelle LaGrave,
 Rev Chris Jimmerson
12-24-23
 2023 Christmas Pageant  Rev Michelle LaGrave, Rev Chris Jimmerson and Kelly Stokes
12-17-23
 Let the Mystery Be  Rev Michelle LaGrave
12-10-23
 Oh, Holy Night  Rev Chris Jimmerson
12-03-23
 Generosity of Spirit  Rev Chris Jimmerson
11-26-23
 Thanksgiving  Rev Michelle LaGrave and Rev Chris Jimmerson
11-19-23
 Centered Relationships are Key  Carrie Holly-Hunt
11-12-23
 All Souls  Rev Michelle LaGrave
11-5-23
 Fear and Flourishing  Rev Chris Jimmerson
10-29-23
 History, Heritage, Hope  Rev Chris Jimmerson
10-22-23
 Celebration Sunday  Rev Michelle LaGrave
10-15-23
 Hearts Broken Open  Rev Michelle LaGrave
10-8-23
 Commitment Sunday  Rev Chris Jimmerson
10-1-23
 Belonging  Rev Michelle LaGrave
9-24-23
 The Promises We Make  Rev Chris Jimmerson
9-17-23
 Covenantal Beginnings  Rev Chris Jimmerson and Rev Michelle LaGrave
9-10-23
 2023 Water Communion  Rev Chris Jimmerson
9-3-23
 Getting to know you  Rev. Michelle LaGrave
8-27-23
 Question Box Sermon  Rev. Michelle LaGrave and Rev Chris Jimmerson
8-20-23
 Post Pandemic Ponderings  Rev Chris Jimmerson
8-13-23
 Faithful and Proud  Rev Chris Jimmerson and three couples
8-6-23
 Blessings for the next chapter  Rev Erin Walter
7-30-23
 Nurturing Spiritual Wholeness  Rev Chris Jimmerson and Small Group Leaders
7-23-23
 Lessons from Chalice Camp  Rev Chris Jimmerson and Chalice Campers
7-16-23
 Culture of Caring  Rev Chris Jimmerson Susan Thomson Tony Wegner
7-9-23
 Joy and Justice, Amen  Julica Hermann de la Fuente
7-2-23
 Toward our Metamorphosis into who knows what  Rev Chris Buice
6-25-23
 Diving into Delight  Rev Chris Jimmerson
6-18-23
 I Am What I Am: Reflections on Radical Welcome  Rev Erin Walter and guest speakers
6-11-23
 Flower Communion  Rev Chris Jimmerson
6-4-23
 Divine Co-Creation  Rev Chris Jimmerson
5-28-23
 Creating Creative Welcoming  Rev Chris Jimmerson and Kelly Stokes
5-21-23
 Religious Words We Love to Hate  Rev Jonalou Johnstone
5-14-23
 Loving, Leaving and Letting People In  Rev Erin Walter
5-7-23
 Resistance is NOT Futile  Rev Chris Jimmerson
4-30-23
 Purple Theology: The Music and Message of Prince  Rev Erin Walter and Simone Monique Barnes
4-23-23
 A Faithful Undertaking  Rev Chris Jimmerson
4-16-23
 HalleluJah – A Celebration  Rev Jonalu Johnstone
4-9-23
 Rise and Shine  Rev Anthony Jenkins
4-2-23
 Litergy: The (Earth) Work of the People  Rev Sara Green
3-26-23
 Choose Kindness  Rev Ed Proulx
3-19-23
 What if you can’t  Rev Jonalu Johnstone
3-12-23
 Lamenting the Winter of our Lives  Rev Jonalu Johnstone and Rev Erin Walter
3-5-23
 Sacred Ground  Rev Chris Jimmerson and Genie Martin
2-26-23
 A Return to Center, A Return to Love  Rev Addae Kraba
2-19-23
 The Greatest Force in the Universe  Rev Jonalu Johnstone
2-12-23
 Love Calls Us Forth  Rev Chris Jimmerson
2-5-23
 Finding our center – Building a New Way  Rev Chris Long
1-29-23
 2023 Animal Blessing Service  Rev Chris Jimmerson
1-22-23
 Trans Inclusion and Beloved Community  Rev Erin Walter
1-15-23
 Finding Ourselves in Past Present Future  Rev Jonalu Johnstone
1-8-23
 Burning Bowl 2023  Rev Chris Jimmerson
1-1-23

 

Sermon Archives Index

 

 

Sermon Indexes
by Year
Principal Speakers
2022 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson, Erin Walter, Jonalu Johnstone, Lee Legault,
 2021 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson
 2020 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson
 2019 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson, Lee Legault
 2018 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson
 2017 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson, Susan Yarbrough
 2016 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Chris Jimmerson, Marisol Caballero
 2015 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Marisol Caballero
 2014 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Marisol Caballero
 2013 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Marisol Caballero
 2012 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Marisol Caballero
 2011 Sermon Index Meg Barnhouse, Ed Brock
 2010 Sermon Index Janet Newman, Ed Brock,
 2009 Sermon Index Janet Newman
 2008 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Aaron White, Brian Ferguson
 2007 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Jack Harris Bonham
 2006 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Jack Harris Bonham
 2005 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Jack Harris Bonham
 2004 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Victoria Shepherd Rao
 The Jesus Seminar Davidson Loehr
 2003 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Hannah Wells
 2002 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr, Cathy Herrington
 2001 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr
 2000 Sermon Index Davidson Loehr

2023 Burning Bowl

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
January 1, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

For New Year’s Day, we will hold our annual burning bowl service. We contemplate what we would like to let go so that we may more easily find our center. Then we whisper that which we would like to let go into pieces of flash paper, toss them into a fire and watch them burn away.

 

 

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 you have the courage to shape your life from the essence of who you are, you ignite, becoming truly alive. This requires letting go of everything that is inauthentic. But how can you even know your truth unless you slow down, in your own quiet company? When the inner walls to your soul are graffitied with advertisements, commercials, and the opinions of everyone who has every known and labeled you, turning inwards requires nothing less than a major clean-up.

Traveling from the known to the unknown requires crossing an abyss of emptiness. We first experience disorientation and confusion. Then if we are willing to cross the abyss in curious and playful wonder, we enter an expansive and untamed country that has its own rhythm. Time melts and thoughts become stories, music, poems, images, ideas. This is the intelligence of the heart, but by that I don’t mean just the seat of our emotions. I mean a vast range of receptive and connective abilities, intuition, innovation, wisdom, creativity, sensitivity, the aesthetic, qualitative and meaning making. It is here that we uncover our purpose and passion.

–Dawna Markova, From “I Will Not Die an Unlived Life”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

BURNING THE OLD YEAR
Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.
So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.
Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.
Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

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

2022 Lessons and Carols

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Lay Leaders
December 25, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Come join our annual Christmas Eve worship service of Lessons and Carols. We will read, from the Christian texts, the story of Rabbi Jesus’ heralded birth as well as sing Christmas carols and hymns for the holiday.

 

 

Chalice Lighting

On this night of anticipation, we raise our voices in story and song to greet Christmas. May the lessons of compassion, trust, and generosity alight within us and lead us into the new day, renewed.

Opening Words

The Persian poet Rumi wrote,

God’s joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box
From cell to cell. As rainwater, down into flowerbed.
As roses, up from ground.
Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish,
Now a cliff covered with vines,
Now a horse being saddled.
[God’s joy] hides within these,
Till one day it cracks them open.

Reading

“COME INTO CHRISTMAS”
by Ellen Fay

It is the winter season of the year
Dark and chilly
Perhaps it is a winter season in your life.
Dark and chilly there, too
Come in to Christmas here,
Let the light and warmth of Christmas brighten our
lives and the world.
Let us find in the dark corners of our souls the
light of hope,
A vision of the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Let us find rest in the quiet of a holy moment to
find promise and renewal.
Let us find the child in each of us, the new hope,
the new light, born in us.
Then will Christmas come
Then will magic return to the world.

Reading

“THE SHORTEST DAY”
by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us-Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Reading

 

“ON ANGELS”
by Czeslaw Milosz

 

All was taken away from you: white dresses,
wings, even existence.
Yet I believe you,
messengers.
There, where the world is turned inside out,
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.
Short is your stay here:
now and then at a morning hour, if the sky is clear,
in a melody repeated by a bird,
or in the smell of apples at close of day
when the light makes the orchards magic.
They say somebody has invented you
but to me this does not sound convincing
for the humans invented themselves as well.
The voice – no doubt it is a valid proof,
as it can belong only to radiant creatures,
weightless and winged (after all, why not?),
girdled with the lightning.
I have heard that voice many a time when asleep
and, what is strange, I understood more or less
an order or an appeal in an unearthly tongue:
day draws near
another one
do what you can.

Reading

Luke 2: 1-7

1. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Reading

 

A GENTLE KIND OF MADNESS
by Anthony F. Perrino

 

A gentle kind of madness
Comes with the end of December
A winter solstice spell, perhaps,
When people forget to remember –

The drab realities of fact,
The cherished hurt of ancient wrongs,
The lonely comfort of being deaf
To human sighs and angels’ songs.

Suddenly, they lose their minds
To hearts’ demands and beauty’s grace;
And deeds extravagant with love
Give glory to the commonplace.
Armies halt their marching,
Hatreds pause in strange regard
For the sweet and gentle madness born
when a wintry sky was starred.

Reading

“EACH NIGHT A CHILD IS BORN”
by Sophia Lyon Fahs

For so the children come
and so they have been coming.
Always in the same way they came-
Born of the seed of man and woman.

No angels herald their beginnings.
No prophets predict their future courses.
no wise man see a star to show where to find
The babe that will save humankind.
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Fathers and mothers
Sitting beside their children’s cribs-
Feel glory in the sight of a new beginning.
They ask “Where and how will this new life end?
Or will it ever end?”

Each night a child is born is a holy night
A time for singing-
A time for wondering
A time for worshipping.

Reading

Luke 2: 8-14

8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Reading

“IN THIS NIGHT”
by Dorothee Solle

In this night the stars left their habitual places
And kindled wildfire tidings
that spread faster than sound.
In this night the shepherds left their posts
To shout the new slogans
into each other’s clogged ears.
In this night the foxes left their warm burrows
and the lion spoke with deliberation,
“This is the end revolution”
In this night roses fooled the earth
And began to bloom in snow.

Reading

Luke 2:15-20

15. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Reading

“THE CAMELS SPEAK”
by Lynn Ungar

Of course they never consulted us.
They were wise men, kings, star-readers,
and we merely transportation.
They simply loaded us with gifts
and turned us toward the star.
I ask you, what would a king know
of choosing presents for a child?
Had they ever even seen a baby
born to such simple folks,
so naked of pretension,
so open to the wind?
What would such a child care
for perfumes and gold? Far better
to have asked one born in the desert,
tested by wind and sand. We saw
what he would need: the gift
of perseverance, of continuing on the hard way,
making do with what there is,
living on what you have inside.
The gift of holding up under a burden,
of lifting another with grace, of kneeling
To accept the weight of what you must bear.
Our footsteps could have rocked him
with the rhythm of the road,
shown him comfort in a harsh land,
the dignity of continually moving forward.
But the wise men were not
wise enough to ask. They simply
left their trinkets and admired
the rustic view. Before you knew it
we were turned again toward home,
carrying men only half-willing
to be amazed. But never mind.
We saw the baby, felt him reach
for the bright tassels of our gear.
We desert amblers have our ways
of seeing what you chatterers must miss.
That child at heart knows something
about following a star. Our gifts are given.
Have no doubt. His life will bear
the print of who we are.

Reading

A RITUAL OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE FIRE”
Rev. Meg Barnhouse

Let us take into our hands a Christmas candle, a Solstice candle
this is a night of ancient joy and ancient fear
those who have gone before us were fearful of what lurked
outside the ring of fire, of light and warmth.
As we light this fire we ask that the fullness of its flame
protect each of us from what we fear most
and guide us towards our perfect light and joy.

May we each be encircled by the fire and warmth of love
and by the flame of our friendship with one another.
On this night, it was the ancient custom to exchange gifts
of light, symbolic of the new light of the sun.

Therefore make ready for the light!
Light of star, light of candle,
Firelight, lamplight, love light

Let us share the gift of light.

Reading

“THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS”
by Howard Thurman

When the song of angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are
home,
When shepherds are back with
their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the brothers,
to make music in the heart.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Closing Words

“KNEELING IN BETHLEHEM”
by Ann Weems

It is not over, this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which God can throw stars.
When we begin to think
that we can predict the Advent of God,
that we can box the Christ in a stable in Bethlehem,
that’s just the time that God will be born
in a place we can’t imagine and won’t believe.
Those who wait for God
watch with their hearts and not their eyes,
listening, always listening for angel words.

 

 

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link below or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

PODCASTS

2022 Christmas Pageant

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
December 18, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We join together for the awe and wonder of our Annual Christmas Pageant as we hear and perform the famous story and sing beautiful carols.

 

 

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

WINTER SOLSTICE
By Rebecca Parker

Perhaps
for a moment
the typewriters will stop clicking,
the wheels stop rolling
the computers desist from computing,
and a hush will fall over the city.
For an instant, in the stillness,
the chiming of the celestial spheres will be heard
as earth hangs poised
in the crystalline darkness, and then
gracefully
tilts.
Let there be a season
when holiness is heard, and
the splendor of living is revealed.
Stunned to stillness by beauty
we remember who we are and why we are here.
There are inexplicable mysteries.
We are not alone.
In the universe there moves a Wild One
whose gestures alter earth’s axis
toward love.
In the immense darkness
everything spins with joy.
The cosmos enfolds us.
We are caught in a web of stars,
cradled in a swaying embrace,
rocked by the holy night,
babes of the universe.
Let this be the time
we wake to life,
like spring wakes, in the moment
of winter solstice.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

WORDS OF WISDOM
by Dr Howard Thurman

There must be always remaining in the individual life some place for the singing of angels — some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and by an inherent prerogative, throwing all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness — something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience from drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright light of penetrating beauty and meaning — then passes. The commonplace is shot through with new glory — old burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear. Despite all the crassness of life, despite all the hardness of life, despite all the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels.

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

Music and the Season of Advent

by Posted in Audio available, Jonalu Johnstone, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Jonalu Johnstone
December 11, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Don’t we all love Christmas? And Advent? And music? Maybe yes, maybe no. We’ll hear the wonder of music as we consider the season and its mixed history and present.

 

 

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 will light candles this Christmas,
Candles of joy despite all the sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all year long.

– Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

Affirming Our Mission

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

Moment for Beloved Community

This morning in our moment for Beloved Community, I want to make the case against a moment for Beloved Community. Not because Beloved Community is not valuable or a worthy goal; rather, because Beloved Community is so valuable and such a worthy goal.

Beloved Community will always be aspirational. No particular church or community is, itself, a Beloved Community, no matter how much any of us loves and appreciates our particular community. Rather, Beloved Community is more like the Kindom of God, not Kingdom, but Kindom, a place of relatedness, a place without violence, war, racism, sexism, oppression, homophobia, transphobia, homelessness, hunger, poverty, or climate change. A place where we live sustainably and generously and everyone – of every race, ability, gender and age can thrive, peaceful, happy, healthy, and safe. A place where we grow and offer one another our best selves, always.

So, it’s wonderful that this congregation has set aside this moment during each service to contemplate different aspects of Beloved Community. However, isn’t our whole service about the aspiration of Beloved Community? Isn’t our mission Beloved Community? Don’t we aim to encompass Beloved Community in all that we do as church?

Probably not. That, though is the ideal.

Beloved Community is not a moment; it’s a way of life. So, Rev. Chris, Rev. Erin and I – along with some other staff members — have been thinking about how we make the whole service and the whole church more infused with Beloved Community. We have been attending to the sources we draw from, the readings we share, the ideas we talk about, and the learnings we offer. We have been inviting guest speakers with BIPOC identities. We have begun encouraging use of the UUA’s “Widening the Circle of Concern,” a report from the Commission on Institutional Change as a guideline for examining the racist and antiracist practices that exist within our own institution. We will be offering a Trans Inclusion curriculum in January. We want to view everything that we do through the lens of anti-oppression work and the goal of Beloved Community.

Now, during the holiday season, as has been the tradition, we will not have moments of Beloved Community as part of the service. We may bring back the moments from time to time, or with some consistency, and we may not. We will, though, keep working toward Beloved Community. And we are all happy to hear your feedback about this work and how it’s best done. Because we learn from one another.

Readings

FOR THE DARKNESS OF WAITING
By Janet Morley

For the darkness of waiting
of not knowing what is to come
of staying ready and quiet and attentive,
we praise you O God

For the darkness and the light
are both alike to you
For the darkness of staying silent
for the terror of having nothing to say
and for the greater terror
of needing to say nothing,
we praise you O God

For the darkness and the light
are both alike to you
For the darkness of loving
in which it is safe to surrender
to let go of our self-protection
and to stop holding back our desire,
we praise you O God

For the darkness and the light
are both alike to you
For the darkness of choosing
when you give us the moment
For the darkness and the light
are both alike to you
to speak, and act, and change,
and we cannot know what we have set in motion,
but we still have to take the risk,
we praise you O God

For the darkness of hoping
in a world which longs for you,
for the wrestling and the labouring of all creation
for wholeness and justice and freedom,
we praise you O God

For the darkness and the light
are both alike to you

 

 

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

The music of the spheres.
A harmonious universe – like a harp.

Its rhythms are the equal,
repeated seasons.
The beating of the heart.

Day/night. The going and
returning of migratory birds.

The cycles of stars and corn.

The mimosa that unfolds by
day and folds up again by night.

Rhythms of moon and tide.
One single rhythm in planets, atoms, sea,

And apples that ripen and fall,
and in the mind of Newton.

Melody, accord, arpeggios
The harp of the universe.
Unity behind apparent
multiplicity.

That is the music.

– ERNESTO CARDENAL

Sermon

The Wonder and Controversy of Music and Advent
Rev. Jonalu Johnstone

As a child, I took piano lessons from Mr. Cleveland Fisher, organist at a prominent Washington, D.C., Episcopal church. Every year early in December, he’d admonish me, “You’re probably already singing Christmas carols at your church.”

Mr. Fisher was accusing me — and most of the Christian world — , including the stores as well as churches, of singing out of season. At his church, they reserved Christmas carols until the 24th of December and sang them through the official Christmas season, until the Feast of the Epiphany in January. During the period of Advent, the month before Christmas, they sang Advent hymns, like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” and – surely, there’s some other Advent hymn, but I’m betting few of us would recognize it. Our choir is doing Advent music today, though. Two points for them! The idea is that in this season of Advent, we are waiting for the birth of the child. He’s not here yet, we’re not even certain if he will come, so we’re in a time of hope and prayer and quiet, waiting.

Of course, the Advent-Christmas liturgical divide is only one of the many ways Christmas songs stir controversy. In the early years of this country, the Puritans and Pilgrims – our own spiritual ancestors — hated Christmas music. Actually, they hated Christmas, making it illegal in Massachusetts until 1681. Even after it was legalized, it was at best tolerated. Schools in Boston stayed open on Christmas Day until 1870.

Today, there’s less open hatred of Christmas spirit and Christmas music by Christians, though non-Christians may tire of it. And people of various faiths find the ubiquitous strains of Christmas spirit blared in malls and doctors’ offices obnoxious. Anybody here? On the other hand, you have those who keep Sirius or Pandora tuned in to the Christmas station – whatever that is – from Thanksgiving through New Years without fail. The variety of Christmas music is staggering from Bing Crosby, who recorded more than 22,000 different seasonal songs, to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, from cathedral choirs to the “Christmas Tree Farm,” by Taylor Swift. Someone’s buying all that Christmas music. And someone else is hating it.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that Christmas music engenders conflict. There may be nothing more controversial in religious communities than music. Ask any church that replaced their choir with a praise band.

Even in this congregation, where we’re pretty mellow, and our music department led by Brent is deeply appreciated, not everyone wholeheartedly embraces all the music. We all have different tastes. And, like all religious communities, we have to guard the lines between entertainment, performance and spiritual depth. Because, though music can stir the soul, the music in a service is never simply performance, or entertainment, but exists at the service of worship – which depending on your philosophy and feelings, mayor may not include applause. I know there are moments when I want to simply hear that final note fade into the room.

Plus, I know that’s “worship” is a controversial word in UU congregations. Who or what do we worship? We ask. For me, it’s simply an acknowledgement of something beyond – something beyond the musicians and the gathered congregation, some inimitable something, nameless, and yet real, almost tangible.

Spirit. The Holy. The Divine.

Because the words we say express meaning, but rarely touch the actual experience of Spirit. That sometimes requires the arts. Twentieth century Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky explored the connection between art and spirit. He talks about three effects of color: physical, psychological and spiritual effects. You can tell by what he writes that his understanding of art weaves together with his experience of music, a passion since his childhood, as both his parents played piano professionally. Like color, music has the same array of effects – physical, psychological and spiritual.

Physically, music is vibration travelling through the air to our ears, and even to other parts of our bodies. People who are deaf, for example, feel music, so can dance as gracefully as those who hear. Babies as young as five months move to music without ever having a dance lesson; their bodies are part of what they hear. Kandinsky writes that painting affects more than the eye, but rather all five senses. Music is the same – it affects more than the ear.

Psychologically, music lowers the stress hormone cortisol, while raising endorphins, oxytocin, and dopamine, diminishing pain and giving pleasure. This hormone interaction can even stimulate that sense of chills you get sometimes with an extraordinary performance. Anyone else get chills with music from time to time? From the physical experience of hearing music, we can actually become more relaxed and happier. Music can even boost our immune system.

The music itself may create a particular mood, evoking the feelings and experience the composer put into it. Music also creates associations – maybe you heard that song at your loved one’s memorial service and it makes you sad. Maybe it reminds you of a particular place or a fictitious landscape or a time in your life or a dream you have for the future. Those associations are personal and vary considerably from one hearer to another.

Music is more than a piece of sound; it is an experience, which blends into the spiritual. The deep breathing required for singing produces many of the same benefits as meditation. Indian mystic Osha said: “Music is the easiest method of meditation. Whoever can let [the]mself dissolve into music has no need to seek anything else to dissolve into.” And it’s a heck of a lot easier to focus your brain on music than it is to make your mind go blank.

Kandinsky calls the elusive nature of art the “spiritual vibrations.” Since music is physical vibration, could it also be spiritual vibration? Pythagoras and other classical philosophers hypothesized a “music of the spheres,” a celestial harmony that came from the orbiting of stars and planets, a delicate music not audible on earth, but ringing through the universe. More than one ancient myth tells of a god or goddess singing the world into being.

Since the first ancient Veda was chanted, music has been part of spiritual pursuits. Australian aborigines blow their didgeridoos. Jews and Muslims sing their religious texts. The Christian tradition claims Gregorian chant and Bach masses, gospel music and Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Blue.”

Music has a presence that works in our bodies, minds and hearts beyond and outside of words. It smooths the rough edges of life, awakens our hearts, focuses our preoccupied minds. It’s as if music has its own spirit that speaks to ours.

And so does Christmas itself, of course. We speak of having the Christmas Spirit? What can be said of it?

It’s never been unambiguous. Many of us UU’s have mixed feelings about the Christmas story. Too many angels. And virgin birth, one of the standards of ancient time — Ra, Horus, and the pharaoh Amanophis in Egypt, the Phrygian god Attis, the Greek Dionysus, Krishna in India, even the Roman Julius Caesar – all born of virgins. And the Greeks regularly gave their heroes gods for fathers – Pythagoras, Alexander the Great, Augustus – all fathered by gods. Many of the other features of the story occurred in pagan traditions first.

What’s more, the two main stories of the birth – one in Matthew and one in Luke – don’t seem to agree on much of anything: Matthew has wise men and Luke has the manger and the shepherds. The usual practice is to mash the stories together for the full-blown extravaganza and cast of thousands – angels and animals, shepherds and magi, stars and stables. Makes a better Christmas pageant, parts for everyone – an experience we’ll share next week.

Nor do the stories align with reality too effectively.

And yet, the story has spoken to people through the ages and across cultures, the story of a child born in a humble setting, proclaimed God incarnate. The miracle of a baby’s birth brought angels and stars in the sky, and shepherds from the field, admiration from high and low. The story has opened hearts. And inspired music in every genre and century of the past two millennia. Somehow, the music reminds us that stories need not be factually true in every detail to have a deeper spiritual truth, to inspire us and remind us of our values – like hope, love, joy and peace.

There’s one more problem we find with the Christmas songs and stories. How do we move to a celebration of birth, of hope, of joy, when so much that is in our world evokes sadness, confusion, anger, fear, or rancor?

I’m going to take a step back into traditional Advent for a moment because Advent acknowledges what a messy world we live in. The prophets are read at Advent rant on about the horrors we experience – how the adversaries surround us, how darkness covers the earth, how warfare, oppression and sin afflict humanity, how the world needs someone to straighten it out. Not much has changed in these hundreds and thousands of years. We may not quake in fear in response to the sun’s decline. Instead, our fear centers on elections, court decisions, gun violence, racism and antisemitism, global climate change and domestic and foreign terrorism.

Advent reminds us of our helplessness in the face of all kinds of limitations – the utter inhumanity we can have towards one another, as well as our own smallness in the scheme of the universe. So, how do we get from there to the celebration of Christmas?

In the Christian tradition, that comes with the birth of a child. It can come in other ways, though. With a change of heart. With a new insight. With support from a friend. It can come with the birth of a child. I have a friend whose grandbaby was born more than 100 days early, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Seeing the survival and thriving of that little baby helps me know the resilience of the human spirit, and that miracles do happen in this world.

One way the bridge from Advent to Christmas often comes is through the music. When our hearts are touched and opened, we may may find our souls soothed in troubled times. We may find the link that takes us from the strange mix of hope and despair that characterizes Advent to the true joy of Christmas.

Despite those staunch traditionalist Christians like Mr. Fisher who do their best each year to fend off Christmas carols until as late in December as possible, we Americans tend to plow right through from Thanksgiving, or Halloween, to Christmas joy, without touching the mire of Advent. And here’s where those traditionalists have a point. We try to shift into the Christmas spirit – the feasting and gifts and songs – without the reflection on our human condition. That’s when Christmas can morph into a season of values misspent – to debauchery and drunkenness and family fights and maybe even tragedy.

But, if we let Christmas come while acknowledging and holding the challenges that Advent brings us, then we allow transformation to overtake us – and, we are ready to truly celebrate.

Our challenge is to face squarely the world we live in with its division, its violence, and its oppression, and hold onto hope, peace, joy, and love.

That may sound impossible, but if you can do it, even a little, the hope, peace, joy and love transform you and the spirit of Christmas does rise up in gratitude and rejoicing. If you can picture that child who should not have been born yet who breathes on her own, you can hold onto hope. If you can remember hugging your own child, or parent, or lover, as if your very life depended on it, you can hold onto love. If you have known a time when the tears you cried were a deep welling beyond sorrow that came from loving life, you can hold onto joy. If you can summon the moment when you heard that perfect harmony, you can hold onto peace.

Even in the presence of tragedy, hope, peace, joy and love triumph.

So, we sing. We sing whether or not anyone claims we’re out of season, by the calendar or by the news story. As Leonard Bernstein said: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” We sing because we know that hope, love, joy and peace are ours and are the only way that we will survive and find comfort. Always. Amen.

 

 

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

Everything is a Miracle

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
December 4, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says “to be spiritual is to be amazed,” and research shows cultivating our sense of wonder and awe can stave off narcissism, spark joy, and promote connection. Rev. Erin Walter reflects with us on our December theme of Wonder.

 

 

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 SPIRIT OF SEARCHING
Rev. Joan Javier-Deval

In this spirit of searching
out of depths unknown
the spark of light ignites
and we are born.

We enter a world,
a universe,
not of our own making.

Our lives unfold in mystery and wonder,
questions abound for which
there are no definite answers.

And so we gather in community
to be reminded
of what is most ultimate
and what is most sacred.

In this spirit of searching and of reverence
let us worship together this morning.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

To wonder is to cultivate a sense of awe and openess.

Sermon

“EVERYTHING IS A MIRACLE”
By Rev. Erin Walter, © all rights reserved.

Would you turn to a neighbor, and tell each other your names if you don’t know each yet, and then tell each other a color that you love. A color that brings you joy or delight. Repeat it a few times so you have a shot at remembering.

My favorite color has always been sunshine yellow. The color of summer. The glow that, like scripture jumping off the page, declares joy cometh in the morning.

I live in the woods of Bastrop, about an hour east of here, among many very tail trees. And just before Thanksgiving – before my husband and I would host our extended and chosen family – all the leaves turned yellow, it felt like overnight. I don’t know if I missed it last year in the stress of moving to a new home, but this year, all of a sudden – boom – my favorite color as far as the eye could see. I was in awe. So were our Thanksgiving guests.

Then yesterday, as I sat reading on my porch, one of my spiritual practices, all of a sudden a sustained gust of wind came and rained all of this yellow down on my books and me. Yellow leaves in my coffee, yellow leaves in my hair. Yellow everywhere. It was magical. Beautiful. And part of me was sad. That was it? Only a week? The trees will not be yellow anymore.

But then I remembered, hopefully, I can look forward to this every year for the rest of my life, and that! can pass that awe down to my children and hopefully my grandchildren and great grandchildren when they come to these woods. And I remembered my responsibility to his land, to our earth, to something greater than me.

I didn’t experience that wonder in a vacuum. I can thank the’ divine for the miracle of nature, and there were choices I made to put myself in that moment. I listened to my spirit when it said during the pandemic, “Move somewhere with more trees,” And again, every morning, I keep my prayer practice of starting the day on the porch, staring out at God’s creation.

Where did you experience wonder this week? What has helped you feel closer to the holy? I hope you will look for wonder in the favorite color of your neighbor this week and think of them, let them know.

—————-

Our church has named five values for itself, and the first is: Transcendence – To connect with wonder and awe of the unity of life.

Wonder is a universal part of religious and spiritual life across the ages and around the world. So many sacred texts are about both saying “Wow” and asking questions – wondering — to make meaning.

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein said,

 

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”

 

I can only tell you that raised in this church – grounded in a universal, interconnected love- and continuing to choose Unitarian Universalism daily despite its challenges – I feel a deep spiritual orientation to option 2. Everything is a miracle.

And I was delighted to learn this week that scientific research also shows the benefits of this orientation – of cultivating our sense of wonder. That awe can reduce stress, stave off narcissism and promote connection.

“Why You Need to Protect Your Sense of Wonder – Especially Now” David P. Fessell and Karen Reivich, Harvard Business Review

 

“Often the things which bring us awe have an element of vastness and complexity. Think of a starry night sky, an act of great kindness, or the beauty of something small and intricate ….

 

“Cultivating experiences of awe is especially important and helpful now as we renew our energy and make plans for a more hopeful future (in light of the COVID pandemic).”

 

One experimental group, when asked to draw pictures of themselves, literally drew themselves smaller in size after having an awe experience. Such an effect has been termed “unselfing.”

The researchers found: As you tap into something larger and your sense of self shrinks, so too do your mental chatter and your worries. At the same time, your desire to connect with and help others increases.

Does that sound like church to you? I hope so. We are here to be connected to something larger than ourselves.

Awe:

 

    • helps us expand our sense of possibility and stimulate new ways of thinking.
  • It also helps us build relationships. Awe frequently happens in solitude, yet it draws us toward others – the desire to share this feeling!

 

This reminds me of my band mate Katy Koonce, a trans musician and therapist originally from small-town East Texas, whose late mother was known to point and exclaim in her Texas twang, “Look at that moon!” I know Katy misses her mom Donna deeply, as do so many of us with loved ones who’ve become ancestors. And one of the ways she keeps her spirit alive is by telling friends about her mom’s love for the moon. So whenever Katy’s bandmates or friends from Zumba see a full moon, we take a picture and text it to the group thread with a caption “Look at that moon I” It has become a spiritual practice in our chosen families. Donna’s sense of wonder spread to Katy who has spread it to her friends, and now I share it with you. May our wonder and awe be so contagious.

————-

Scientists also found that awe inspires pro-social behavior like generosity and compassion, perhaps evolving to aid group solidarity.

This is crucial at a time of … in our country, our faith movement, and our world when we are called, to save our planet and our communities, to get past individualism and focus on collective liberation.

So how to put ourselves in the path of wonder, in a spiritual stance for awe to arrive?

Rachel Carson, white American marine biologist and conservationist who lived from 1907-1964, wrote: “One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'”

As a songwriter, I have expressed this in one of my own songs, “Hit By A Bus,” with the lyric, “If you look me up and they say, we’re sorry, we’re sorry … ” I am always writing about living life to the fullest and trying to appreciate it while we can.

In the book “In the interim” about Unitarian Universalist interim ministry, I was struck by one of the questions the book recommended that interim ministers pose to the community in our listening circles: “How would it feel to arrive at the church and discover it was gone?”

I know from the listening circles Rev. Jonalu and I held that many of you dream of quite the opposite – of the church growing, in impact, in spirit, in diversity.

————-

The good news is we can cultivate wonder, and it may make, us and this community a more welcoming place.

The Harvard Business Review study suggests some ways:

 

    • Take an “awe walk.” Wander and be curious and observe the everyday beauty around you, even in a familiar place like your neighborhood or church grounds. I used to do this when I was a hospital chaplain in Oakland, CA, when I served patients in advanced stages of cancer, recovering from strokes, or adjusting to life with amputated limbs. I went back to these “beauty walks” during my deepest grief of the pandemic – when so many jobs including mine were eliminated, live music was gone, losing a beloved aunt to COVID, my kids were isolated – I walked my neighborhood every day, taking photos of flowers, literally smelling the roses. It didn’t fix it sometimes I see a certain kind of flowering shrub and melancholy washes over me – but it helped get me through, one day at a time.

 

    • I bet many of you had similar experiences, maybe even miss the free time you had for walks in early COVID times. How did we get back to such busy lives so quickly? May we save time for beauty walks.

 

    • The Harvard report also gives us a bit of a “l didn’t need Harvard to tell me” moment, saying “The harmony and complexity of music can also elevate and inspire awe.” Create your own personal “awe playlist.” I made one while I was writing this sermon, and I will include it in the Faith Connections email too. I’ll make it collaborative so you can add songs too. Please email me and tell me which ones you added.

 

 

  • Another option for awe: tune into news sites and podcasts that spread good news – acts of kindness, generosity, and perseverance. Keep a file and tap it when you are feeling overwhelmed or depleted and want to be elevated. Anti-racist activist Scott Butki from this church has done that. He has a public Facebook group called Positive, Inspiring Life-Affirming Stories and Videos with more than 950 members. Sometimes I go there to share in the wonder of life. During COVID, Scott wrote that “spending more time in this group is to find positive stories that make me less worried about COVID.”

 

Experts say to ask yourself: “What took your breath away this week?” or “What made you glad you’re on this planet?”

These questions are similar to some of the ones Black womanist theologian Monica Coleman uses in her book, Not alone, Reflections on Faith and Depression. If wonder and awe feel like an impossible uphill climb this time of year, I highly recommend Coleman’s brief devotional readings in Not Alone.

———–

Remember, wonder isn’t just awe. It is curiosity. To say, “I wonder … “instead of “Nope” when someone shares an idea. To try on other ways of thinking, feeling or being.

 

“The more I wonder, the more I love.” – Alice Walker wrote in the color purple.

 

In this time of interim ministry, we have been asking you to bring your sense of wonder to this community – to wonder with the interim ministers and each other in the listening circles, sharing your awe at the things you love about the church and being curious about what does and doesn’t meet the spiritual needs of others. Wondering together about our future, what it would mean to even more fully live out our mission.

We have heard from you about wanting to grow in size, impact, and inclusivity, and at the same time we’ve heard your pain and worry about change, aging, illness, abandonment, and more…

We’ve heard from some members of color about the longing for a more diverse and representative UUism.

I want you all to know that the ministers and staff have taken your feedback as the deep and powerful gift that it is, and while not everything is visible on the surface yet, we are reflecting, praying, and working on it.” Some examples:

 

    • Developing a diverse list of guest preachers, so that no matter who the church calls as its next senior minister, you will be seeing and hearing from more than just white ministers.

 

 

    • Seeking diverse sources for music and readings, and inviting more of you into lay leadership”. This is why you hear us name the culture and background of sources, because naming has power and we are being intentional in our choices.

 

 

    • Supporting a return of the BIPOC group and BIPOC families group …

 

 

    • Bringing the Transgender Inclusion in Congregations curriculum to the church, starting in February. Stay tuned for more on that and other programs.

 

 

  • This is shared ministry. You, as volunteers, are reinvigorating the caring team, the social justice council, and more…

 

The leaders of this church are trying to balance what we all know we need in Advent – more peace and rest, more time to stare up at the night sky in awe – and the programs and work you and our mission are calling for.

The words of Valerie Kaur that Carol read: “To wonder is to cultivate a sense of awe and openness to others’ thoughts and experiences, their pain, their wants and needs. It is to look upon the face of anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know… “

God, rain yellow leaves on me.
Remind me to look at that moon.
To get to know the parts of us we do not yet know.

Blessed be.

 

 

 

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