Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.
Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 18, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
We know that a sense of belonging is a basic human need – vital to our well-being. As humans, we seek belonging in life. Perhaps though, we may find our greatest sense of belonging by creating more of it for everyone.
Chalice Lighting
This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.
Call to Worship
When it feels like lament
is the only sound and need,
the only way of being.
Here is that one warm room
where you know that you belong.You know this waiting, open, ready
Here is that place you remember
where you are remembered
in this too cold world,
this place called now.Softly come into the circle
where you know you belong.– Rev. Dr. David Breeden
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Meditation Reading
There was a headline in a newspaper several years ago, saying, “We’re entering a state where, for the first time in over 350 years, the world will be led by a non-Christian, non-white country.” And what it was saying is, we should be afraid. So the early debates around integrating schools – the white segregationists were, “We can’t have integrated schools, because black and white children might get to know each other and might marry each other and have babies.”
The white segregationists were right. You bring people together, they will actually learn to love each other. Some of them will marry and have children. And so it will, actually, change the fabric of society. When people worry that having gays in our community will change what marriage really means, actually, they’re right. When people worry that having a lot of Latinos in the United States will change the United States, they are right. We’re constantly making each other. And so, we can’t hold onto a notion that “This is what America is. So, Latinos, don’t affect us.” So part of it is that, our fear; that we are holding onto something, and the other is going to change it. The other is going to change it, but we’re going to change the other. And if we do it right, we’re going to create a bigger “we,” a different “we.”
– John A Powell
Sermon
Text of this sermon is not yet available.
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 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
