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Rev. Michelle LaGrave
April 7, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We live in a universe filled with awe and wonder. Join us as we celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse.

Chalice Lighting

ALL THE LIGHT IN THE HEAVENS
by Cynthia Landrum

For the wonder and inspiration we seek from sun, and stars, and all the lights of the heavens, we light this chalice.

Call to Worship

Come you who are wonder-filled,
Come you who are awe-stricken,
Come you who are filled with faith,
or riddled with doubt.
Whether you are scientist or mystic,
or both,
Whether you are one to seek answers.
or to embrace mystery,
Come.
All who are humbled by the stars, moons, and planets,
are welcome here.
Let us worship.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

All of today’s music is from Pink Floyd’s 1973 album “Dark side of the Moon”

“TIME” Lyrics
Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun
But it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation
Is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over
Thought I’d something more to say

Reading

Excerpt from “THE MOST DAZZLING ECLIPSE IN THE UNIVERSE”
by Adam Frank

Eclipses are not particularly rare in the universe. One occurs every time a planet, its orbiting moon, and its sun line up. Nearly every planet has a sun, and astronomers have reason to believe that many of them have moons, so shadows are bound to be cast on one world or another as the years pass.

But solar eclipses like the one that millions of Americans will watch on April 8 – in which a blood-red ring and shimmering corona emerge to surround a blackened sun – are a cosmic fluke. They’re an unlikely confluence of time, space, and planetary dynamics, the result of chance events that happened billions of years ago. And, as far as we know, Earth’s magnificent eclipses are unique in their frequency, an extraordinary case of habitual stellar spectacle. On April 8, anyone who watches in wonder as the moon silently glides over the sun will be witnessing the planetary version of a lightning strike.

Centering

This is the time in our service where we center ourselves together. We breathe together.

And breathing together, we sense one another’s loving presence.

Breathing in and breathing out, we follow our breath to a deeper place inside; a place of greater wisdom; a place where we are touched by awe and filled with wonder; a place where imagination reigns and inspiration rises; a place where a spark of the divine resides.

As we enter into this space, we call to mind the vastness of the universe. We travel outward in our imaginations, from the earth, moon, planets, and sun; from the Milky Way to other galaxies, to the universe itself. And as we do so, we find ourselves gaining a new perspective; our lives, our troubles, our joys become smaller and we are filled with wonder.

Now, let us enter into a time of sacred silence.

US AND THEM Lyrics
Pink Floyd

Us and them
And after all, we’re only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows, it’s not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
The General sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side
Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who Up and down
And in the end, it’s only round and round and round
Haven’t you heard it’s a battle of words
The poster bearer cried
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There’s room for you inside

Sermon

Here in Austin, Texas we are expecting a grand celestial event early tomorrow afternoon. Sun, moon, and our little arc of the planet Earth will align just so. The moon will block the sun, so that only its outer atmosphere, the corona, will be visible as a brilliant ring of fire that lights up what seems to be a nighttime sky. Over the course of a relatively short period of time, the moon will appear to glide toward, over, and past the moon so that we will experience something like a miniature sunset and sunrise.

At least that’s what the scientists, and their various fields of study, tell us to expect. Without them, we would have no way to prepare ourselves or our expectations ahead of time. We would experience tomorrow’s eclipse much like the ancient humans before us would have experienced it and like all the various animals, birds, and plants will experience it tomorrow. No time to declare a state of emergency, or stock up on food, or don special eyewear ahead of time. No way to come up with advance explanations of what is happening. Only the ability to simply experience.

How many of you have experienced a total eclipse of the sun before? (Not a partial eclipse, a total one.) For most of us, this will be a once in a lifetime experience and so it is difficult to predict what exactly we should expect. First of all, the weather forecast changes day by day and we are far from certain that here in Central Texas we’ll have the best viewing conditions.

Even more importantly, we Unitarian Universalists are an experiential people. We have an embodied theology. That means that we do not begin our theological thinking with received set of creeds, doctrines, dogmas, scripture or even teachings. Instead, we begin our theological thinking with our embodied experiences, with our lived experiences. In other words, our individual lives inform the creation of our theology, at least in the beginning. Our individual lives are kind of like our primary source material. We then go on to co-create our theology from the material of our lives, each other’s’ lives, our ancestors’ lives, various fields of study, and many received teachings and scriptural sources as well as with what we might refer to as the movement of the spirit; the holy, the divine, the sacred, the eternal, maybe even G_d hirself.

In still other words, revelation is not sealed. Which means, that in relation to tomorrow’s eclipse, we have a bit of a theological hiccup. If our theology is based in lived experience (revelation) and we haven’t yet had that lived experience, how can we fully know what we might think about it, theologically? We might have some ideas. We might have some guesses. We might have listened to stories about others’ experiences. We might be fully versed in the science of it all. But (most of us) haven’t actually had the experience yet, so what are we to make of tomorrow’s eclipse? How do we celebrate it?

I’d like to propose that today is kind of like the pre-game show, for all you sports fans out there. We’re excited. We’re making plans. We’re analyzing. We’re predicting. We’re discussing. We’re getting together with family or with friends. We’re putting safety precautions in place. We’re ready. Or we think we are, as best we can tell.

Imagine this scene: Three announcers behind the desk.

• • Announcer 1 The first theologian or minister suggests the solar eclipse is all about alignment. That is getting ourselves in alignment with the universe as well as with people.

• • Announcer 2 Another one suggests the spiritual meaning is all about seeing what cannot be normally seen. Usually the sun is so brilliant we cannot see all the atmospheric gasses emanating from the center.

• Announcer 3 Another jumps in to suggest looking from another direction. The meaning of all this is about the moon covering the sun, about the darkness, about hiding what can normally be seen. Its like those troubling times in our lives, but then, the sun eventually comes out again. Just like in our lives we go through horrendous grief and loss and then at some point we eventually move into more joyful times.

But it’s also kind of like someone telling us we’re about to have an amazing, life-changing spiritual experience before the experience actually happens. Will it live up to all the hype? How could it? What if it doesn’t happen? What if I’m the only one who doesn’t feel this great sense of awe or wonder? What if I don’t live in the path of totality or can’t even get there? What if I’m stuck inside for some reason? FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is a real thing, y’all. 

So, I’d like to invite you to either turn toward someone close to you, preferably someone you don’t know very well, or take some time to quietly reflect on the following:

What expectations do you hold for tomorrow’s eclipse? And what do you hope to experience during the eclipse? What expectations do you hold for tomorrow’s eclipse? And what do you hope to experience during the eclipse?

That was part 1. Here come’s part two of our spiritual preparation for tomorrow. Think of a time when you have eagerly anticipated some special event, or class, or occasion. What happened? Was the experience better than you ever could have imagined? Did the experience match your expectations or fall short in some way?

I don’t really know what to expect during tomorrow’s eclipse. I do know that I have some plans in place, that I want to try to pay special attention to the way any animals or birds may react, and that I want to enjoy and celebrate the event, as best I can, for whatever it has to offer. I also know that I can rest in reassurance from my past lived experiences that no matter how many times I have anticipated some event or other with great eagerness and high expectations, I have always found something valuable in the experience that I can keep, even when it has differed greatly from my expectations.

As we build our theologies from our lived experiences, there are gems to be found everywhere; sometimes in the darkest, most hidden locations, sometimes in the light of day, sometimes in the most obvious of places, and sometimes in the most unlikely.

All we have to do is pick them up and treasure them for what they are. May your celebration be a treasure trove.

Amen and Blessed Be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

“Wisdom tells me I am nothing; Love tells me I am everything; and between the two my life flows.”

– Nisargadatta Maharaj

May tomorrow, and all your tomorrows, be filled with both Wisdom and Love, in nothingness and everythingness, held in that perfect, delicate, and intricate balance that calls us into wholeness and also keeps us humble. You have been blessed. Soon, go forth blessing all others as you yourselves have been blessed.

Amen, may it be so.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 10, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

During this “Great Turning,” it can sometimes feel more like the world is turning away from truth and justice rather than toward it. How, during these often troubling times, might we sustain hope?

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 GREAT TEACHERS IN LIFE
Jason Cook

We seekers are on a quest:
A quest to discover truth and meaning.
Sometimes we think we’ve found it-
Wrapped up, glimmering with newness
Straight off the intellectual assembly line.
All the answers right here for us
And others, if they’d only listen.
But truth has a way of coming in disguise,
Sometimes wearing rags and sometimes finery,
But so often cloaked from our immediate sight.
And sometimes, that which we have rejected,
That which we have let go of
Or decided was only for others
But not us-Can be our teacher.
Let our time of worship be an acknowledgment
Of the never ending journey toward truth and meaning,
And our appreciation of those we learn from along the way.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE WEB OF LIFE
Robert T Weston

There is a living web that runs through us
To all the universe
Linking us each with each and through all life
On to the distant stars.
Each knows a little corner of the world, and lives
As if this were his all.
We no more see the farther reaches of the threads
Than we see of the future, yet they’re there.
Touch but one thread, no matter which;
The thoughtful eye may trace to distant lands
Its firm continuing strand, yet lose its filaments as they reach out,
But find at last it coming back to him from whom it led.
We move as in a fog, aware of self
But only dimly conscious of the rest
As they are close to us in sight or feeling.
New objects loom up for a time, fade in and out;
Then, sometimes, as we look on unawares, the fog lifts
And there’s the web in shimmering beauty,
Reaching past all horizons. We catch our breath;
Stretch out our eager hands, and then
In comes the fog again, and we go on,
Feeling a little foolish, doubting what we had seen.
The hands were right. The web is real.
Our folly is that we so soon forget.

Sermon

Several years ago, pre-pandemic, and with great excitement, I went to see the film Wonder Woman. The movie is about the famous comic strip superhero who has been around for generations. Without giving away the plot, just in case you haven’t seen it yet or aren’t overly familiar with the comic strip, I’ll share the story of her origins as portrayed in the movie. Wonder Woman is an Amazon; yes, those Amazons we have heard about from Greek mythology. Her mother is a Queen; they live on Paradise Island with only other women warriors; and she is the only child amongst them. Wonder Woman plays the role of hero and her male sidekick, the damsel in distress.

Though many have long thought the Amazons to be only the stuff of legend; more recently archaeologists have confirmed their existence. Or, perhaps more accurately, archaeologists have demonstrated the historical existence of the women around whom this famous mythology has arisen. They were Scythian warriors; groupings of nomadic people who lived on the steppes of Eurasia and rode horses millennia ago, perhaps as early as the Bronze Age. They lived in extended family groupings of women, men and children. About a third of the warriors were female. And their territory included one island off the coast of the Black Sea. Earlier, when the skeletons of these women warriors were first discovered, they were presumed to be men due to the “masculine” nature of the grave goods associated with them. It is only with more recent DNA testing that archaeologists realized they were, indeed, actually women warriors.

There is quite a bit of mythology associated with these women, much of which deserves what we call a “content warning” these days. They were said to have lived only with other women. They were said to have killed their men and male children or maimed or castrated the young boys. They were said to have been lesbians. They were said to have had only one breast, having cut the other off to better shoot their bows and arrows while riding atop their horses. They were also known to have been heavily tattooed and fond of using marijuana.

Much of this mythology arose with the Greeks who seemed to both fear and admire these women warriors. Some of it was based in what we would call fact. The rest of it in rumor and ill-logic that might have gone something like this … obviously, no men would ever allow their women to be warriors, therefore they must live in groups of only women; since the women did not live with any men, they must have done something to the men -like kill them. Since the women did have children and women cannot procreate with each other, they must have found other ways to get pregnant, like visiting nearby societies were men did live; furthermore, since the women did have children and their offspring would surely be both female and male, the women must have done something with their male children -like kill or maim or castrate them. And so on.

All this goes to show, that we people of the 21st century are not the first victims of “fake news.” And if you haven’t figured it out already, the only scientifically verified facts, in the midst of all this fake news, are the parts about smoking pot and getting lots of tattoos. Hmm, that kind of sounds like a prehistoric version of Austin.

Today we live in a post-truth era filled with alternative facts, disinformation, and fake news, not to mention AI chatbots pretending to be customer service reps and, even worse, deep fakes. Some of this is not all that new. Before there was fake news there were hoaxes and propaganda; some of it even published in what today we would consider more reputable publications. What is new, is the speed at which fake news travels; mostly due to social media, and the extremely high quality of deception; due to advancing technology.

Living in a post-truth era often feels somewhat surreal. This can be underscored when the practice of gaslighting is added to the dissemination of fake news. In the aftermath of the attack in Charlottesville a half dozen years ago, members of the alt-right circulated fake news stories claiming that the person who videotaped the car driving into the crowd was not there by coincidence, but “in fact” was there as a set-up from the Left to discredit the Neo-Nazis. Let me repeat that, the alt-right claimed that the person who videotaped the car driving into the crowd didn’t just happen to be there, but was intentionally planted, ahead of time, as a set-up from the Left to discredit the Neo-Nazis. It’s mind-blowing, isn’t it? And it’s intentional, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.

NPR did a news segment, a while back, on the problems science teachers are having teaching students, due to the prevalence of fake news stories that have come into circulation. For example, science teacher Nick Gurol says his students believe the earth is flat. Why? Because a basketball player named Kyrie Irving said so. No matter what the science teacher says, whether simply correcting the students or reasoning with them, they will not change their minds. They believe the earth is flat. Gurol says: “They think that I’m part of this larger conspiracy of being a round-Earther.” In other NPR segments describing what teachers are doing to effectively combat fake news, one teacher shared that a student asked the question “What is news?” Other students asked a NPR reporter if NPR traffics in fake news.

And here is the crux of the matter, the paradox – Sam Harris, a well-known atheist and neuroscientist puts it this way:

“If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?”

These are questions that don’t have easy answers. 

So how did we get here? – to this place where facts are not to be believed and science is considered a conspiracy?

Well, there are people who study this stuff. Robert Proctor and David Dunning are two of the more well-known figures. And … this field of study has a name: agnotology.

AGNOTOLOGY is commonly defined as the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt i.e. ignorance or doubt purposefully created and spread by people, typically those in power.

I say “typically” because with the advent of social media, those who are otherwise lacking in power, now also have the ability to spread ignorance and doubt. Actually, anyone can do this through the power of social media – either intentionally or as unwitting prey to more powerful interests. 

Janna Rose and Marcos Barros, two professors at the Grenoble School of Management, describe it this way:

“Agnotology is more than the study of what we don’t know; it’s also the study of why we are not supposed to know it. One of its more important aspects is revealing how people, usually powerful ones, use ignorance as a strategic tool to hide or divert attention from societal problems in which they have a vested interest.”

Examples include the tobacco industry spreading doubt about the negative health consequences of smoking as well as conservative think tanks spreading controversy about the science of climate change.

So how can agnotology help us to better understand this world we find ourselves living in? Julian Birkinshaw, of the London Business School Review cautions us that in attempting to understand our current political climate “we shouldn’t mix up cause and effect: contempt for expert advice is what created the Trump bandwagon, not vice versa.” (as well as Brexit, if you live on the other side of the pond) I’ll repeat that: contempt for expert advice causes bandwagons. Bandwagons, or their leaders, don’t cause contempt for expert advice.

Birkinshaw tells us that there are two distinct trends that are shaping our understanding of the world.

• • The first is that humans are becoming stupider if stupider is measured relative to all the world’s collective knowledge. In other words, while our IQs have indeed risen a bit, they have not kept pace with the exponential growth in humankind’s collective knowledge. He says: “The gap between what each one of us knows and what the world knows is growing rapidly.”

• The second trend Birkinshaw sees is that business and politics are growing more and more interdependent. And the effects of one on the other can be rather unpredictable. The global economy is a complex system and he says: “It is a strange paradox of our times: the more we connect, the harder it is for us to predict.”

Over these past eight or so years, I have engaged in so many, many conversations with people about what is going on in our world. Feelings of cynicism, pessimism, hopelessness, and despair about the state of the world seem to be on the rise. People are struggling to understand how we have come to be in this place; this place where, among other things, vast numbers of people vote to put in office someone who is in direct opposition to their own self-interest. Julian Birkinshaw has the best explanation I have seen about how and why this happens so I will take the time to share an extended quote. Here goes:

“Put these two points together: as individuals, we are struggling to understand the present, and it is getting hard to predict the future. The result is a form of cognitive dissonance. As thoughtful beings, we like to be in control, but increasingly we cannot. So how do we resolve this dissonance? We fall back on belief – on our own intuition.

 

This is a scary point: it is human nature to jump straight to a judgment, often on the basis of the slenderest of facts and, paradoxically, the more complex and uncertain the issue, the more we tend to trust our intuition … If asked, [a complex question like] do you support leaving the European Union, the reasoning-based part of your brain goes into meltdown, and the intuitive part takes over.

While this tendency to leap to judgment has always existed, it has become a bigger problem as individuals become (relatively) ignorant and less able to see what’s coming next. Technology then exacerbates the problem, with our Facebook and Twitter feeds … [spreading news] that [is] often completely devoid of facts. And smart politicians are quick to exploit the trend, tapping into our intuition and subconscious beliefs, rather than boring us with hard evidence. Emotion beats logic in the art of persuasion – a point that the Brexiteers and the Trump campaign understood very well.”

Emotions beat logic. Our brains go into meltdown. Our intuition takes over. We fall back on belief. I’ll repeat that:

When faced with increasingly complex issues … Emotions beat logic. Our brains go into meltdown. Our intuition takes over. We fall back on belief. We are literally overwhelmed with information. And we become susceptible to fake news, alternative facts, and disinformation; which in turn, overwhelms us. Robert Proctor sums it up best: “We live in a world of radical ignorance, and the marvel is that any kind of truth cuts through the noise.”

In one of the earlier scenes of the movie Wonder Woman; our superhero discovers that her new sidekick, the first male she has ever seen, has been deceiving her. She then wonders aloud how she would know if he is deceiving her again, now. Her solution? She wraps her lasso around him and squeezes the truth right out. Unlike Wonder Woman, none of us has a Lasso of Truth, but there are things we can do to protect ourselves and our children from a vast ocean of deception among them making use of websites like Snopes, PolitiFact, and FactCheck.

Like the man on the beach tossing starfish back into the ocean, one by one by one, we face daunting odds. It would be easy for anyone of us to lose hope in this post-truth era. But like him, and the writer who joined him, we can keep hope alive by making a difference for this one: by debunking this myth, by teaching this child to think critically, by stopping the spread of this piece of fake news and by not tolerating the intolerant, by not tolerating this hate group, by not tolerating this act of intimidation, by not tolerating this symbol of racist ideology.

It is time, in this post-truth era, to live into the paradoxes of contemporary life and stop wasting energy railing against them … verbally. I don’t mean don’t do anything. I mean stop spending energy railing against what is. You can get into a lot of Buddhism here, actually … with non-attachment and attachment. When you’re attached to the idea that logic should rule and it doesn’t, you suffer … right? So, non-attachment is what I’m talking about.

And we can look for reasons to hope. We can find reasons for hope in the North where folks are helping to pay for families who are relocating from states like ours where trans kids are not safe. They’re bringing their kids to other places. They’re helping to support people and find houses and things like that. We can be symbols of hope to each other.

It is all one thing, not many separate things. It is both and not A but B. It is the individual starfish and the ocean. It’s just that we usually see each piece of the web separately, except in those precious few moments when the fog rolls away and our hands reach for the truth.

May we see truth more clearly and hold it more dearly. Amen and Blessed Be.

Closing Words

CHERISH YOUR DOUBTS
by the Rev. Dr. Michael A Schuler

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the servant of truth. Question your convictions, for beliefs too tightly held strangle the mind and its natural wisdom.

Suspect all certitudes, for the world whirls on-nothing abides. Yet in our inner rooms full of doubt, inquiry and suspicion, let a corner be reserved for trust.

For without trust there is no space for communities to gather or for friendships to be forged.

Indeed, this is the small corner where we connect-and reconnect-with each other.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

NOW MAY THE LOVE OF TRUTH
by Jane Mauldin

Now may the love of truth guide you, the warmth of love hold you, and the spirit of peace bless you, this day and in the days to come.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
February 25, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Did you know that Unitarian Universalism has its very own theology? It is called Affect Theology and was created by the Rev. Dr. Thandeka, a Unitarian Universalist minister and theologian. This umbrella theology is an embodied theology that when well understood and applied can help UUs of multiple theological and philosophical perspectives to lead lives of wholeness and fulfillment.

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 LONGING FOR SOMETHING MORE
by Gretchen Haley

Every little thing that breaks your heart
Is welcome here
We”ll make a space for it
Give it its due time
and praise
for the wanting it represents
the longing for something more,
some healing hope that remains
not
yet

We promise no magic no making it all better
But offer only this circle of trust
This human community
that remembers
Though imperfectly
that sings and prays
though sometimes
awkwardly

This gathering that loves,
though not yet enough
We’re still practicing
After all,
still learning,
still in need of help
and partners
Still becoming able
to receive
all this beauty and all these gifts
we each bring

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Story for All Ages

Once upon a time, in a magical space called Howson Hall, two Unitarian Universalists sat down together. They had just come out of the worship service. Rev. Michelle had been preaching about affect thea/ology.

“Hey, Lucas, how are you? You look like you might be feeling a little down,” said Sheldon.

“Well, I guess I kind of am, said Lucas. That sermon got me thinking about my job and I’m realizing how unhappy I am with my career.”

“What do you do?” said Sheldon.

“I sell really fancy cars, like this one. I want to help people and I like seeing how happy they are when they drive away in their new car, but I don’t love what I do in the same way the other salespeople do. They get really excited talking about engine specs and trim packages, even when they’re on break. They wave their arms around a lot when they’re talking about cars. One of them accidentally smacked me in the face the other day because she was so excited about the new car model that just arrived on the lot and she didn’t even notice I was standing next to her. But I just get so stressed out with the pressure to sell. I can feel my heart pounding in my chest and my stomach doing flip flops. I think I might need a new career.”

“Mmm, said Sheldon. That might be a good thing to think about. It sounds like even though you want to help people in a fun way, your job is just stressing you out a bit too much.”

“Thanks for listening, Sheldon. I am going to think about it some more. You’re a great friend. I’m so glad we met here.”

“Me too, Lucas.”

A few weeks later, the two friends met up once again after worship. This time, out in the courtyard.

“Hey, Lucas, how’s it going? said Sheldon.”

“Well, a little better, I guess. I left my job selling cars and now I’m trying to sell houses. I have a friend, Tanisha, who is a great realtor. Their whole face lights up with excitement when they talk about their career. I thought that selling houses would be fun, plus I thought it would feel good to help people find their home sweet home.”

“But it’s not working out that way?” said Sheldon.

“No, I’ve been job shadowing Tanisha. They still love what they do, but I’m just finding it all kind of … odd. Some of these houses just creep me out. I can feel shivers going down my spine and I get goosebumps on my arms.

“Hmm, said Sheldon. I know helping others is important to you, but maybe its not people you’re meant to help.”

“What do you mean?” said Lucas

“Well, I notice you’re wearing a shirt with dogs all over it. You seem to wear that one a lot. And I noticed you only eat the vegetarian dishes at the church potlucks. Plus, you got really excited when that tiger, India, was it?, was on the loose in Houston. You said something about wishing you could volunteer at that animal sanctuary he went to. I know you love animals a lot. Maybe you could think about helping animals instead of people?”

“Thanks, Sheldon, I will do some thinking on that. You’re the best.”

And so Lucas did just that. He went home and he thought about all that Sheldon said and about how much he loves animals and how much he loves being helpful and he made a decision. Lucas went back to school and became a vet tech. Now, he works with, and helps, the animals he loves every day as well as their human parents.

A couple of months later, the two friends met up once again, this time at a pool party at Sheldon’s house.

“Lucas, I can’t believe how much happier and more relaxed you look these days,” said Sheldon.

“Yes, I am, Sheldon,” said Lucas. “That’s in part, thanks to you. I love my new career. I’m eager to go to work each morning and find out what the day will bring and I feel so fulfilled at the end of my day. I really appreciate all the listening you did and the way you helped me put things together in a deeper way. You really are a great friend.”

“So, how are things with you, Sheldon?”

Reading

Excerpted from Braver/Wiser
by Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin

When I used to work with Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism {BLUU)-doing workshops or meeting people in UU congregations-inevitably a very well-meaning white person would ask, “Who’s the Black Emerson?” or “Who’s the Black Thoreau?”

This question is wrong; icky for so many reasons. One of the tenets of white supremacy culture is the prioritization of the written word, and not understanding that if you want to discover the “evidence” of Unitarianism, Universalism, or Unitarian Universalism in the lives of Black folks, it’s not always in written essays-because historically, we’ve had different trajectories: different levels of care and resources and access that would enable us to create something like that.

If you’re seeking sacred Black “text” in our tradition, you have to examine the way our Black ancestors lived. You have to seek out the Black folks who were in Unitarian and Universalist or UU congregations, and the work that they were doing in community-whether it was suffrage, or trying to educate Black children, or their working towards social action or civil access. Our “text” is embodied in the lives of people like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Joseph Jordan, David Eaton, and countless others.

One of the things I love about this tradition is that our faith is covenantal and not confessional-meaning that to some degree, our tradition cares little about what you stand up and say you believe. The evidence of your Unitarian Universalism is embodied in the depth of your relationships: how do you live in relationship to self and other? {I don’t just mean human other: to the plants, to the animals, to the stars … ) The proof is in the pudding, for UUs. It’s not about what you have to say. How are you living?

Sermon

The words washed over me like the first drizzle on a parched land:

“Though you have broken your vows a thousand times;
Though you have broken your vows a thousand times;
Though you have broken your vows a thousand times … “

The rhythmic repetition of the congregation singing in unison began to settle into my body and nourish a place in my spirit I hadn’t known was thirsty. The verse continued, washing in and out like the tide, while other voices sang from above:

“Come, come, whoever you are,
wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving,
ours is no caravan of despair,
come, yet again, come.”

And … 

“Though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
come, yet again, come.”

A sense of sweetness settled upon my heart and I allowed the words to soothe me. I was sitting in the pew of the UU Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, celebrating the Soulful Sundown service. The minister, the Rev. Aaron Payson, had invited us to join in singing the missing line from Rumi’s poem; the one which does not appear in our hymnal.

I think I understand why Rumi’s verse about breaking vows does not appear in our hymnal. It has to do with the tendency of Unitarian Universalism, as a whole, to avoid all things relating to sin, confession, and forgiveness, often to our own detriment. Many, and perhaps most, of us have arrived at Unitarian Universalism after coming out of another religious tradition. And all too often, we arrive here having suffered spiritual harm from a theological language of sin, confession, and forgiveness that was used to incite feelings of guilt or shame. And so, all too often, we arrive here wanting to avoid these theological terms. Yet, this self-protective action can also come at a price. We can close ourselves down, refuse to hear or try to understand what scares us, and so reject the good and beneficial which may be mixed in and amongst the harmful.

So, while we UUs tend to avoid topics like confession or brokenness or guilt or forgiveness; sometimes, though, I think we get it right. The worship leaders at the Soulful Sundown service I went to that time got it right. I needed to hear that message that night: though I have broken my vows a thousand times, as I surely have done, I still must come. I still must approach. I still must join with. I still must return, over and over and over, again. Theirs was a message proclaiming that I belong, here, in this faith community, even in my brokenness.

Theirs was a message promising that I will be seen, here, in this, my beloved Unitarian Universalist faith tradition, for all of who I am, even the less than perfect parts, and that I will be accepted not in spite of, but because of my imperfections. Theirs was a message of hope, acceptance, and strength, not one of shame or guilt, and this is a message we all need to hear. So, I’ll repeat it in slightly different words. To truly and completely affirm ourselves and each other, we must accept those feelings of brokenness; we must accept that there are parts ourselves and each other that feel out of alignment with who we understand ourselves to be and who we hope to become. We must begin by accepting our imperfection. Only from there, will we be able to seek wholeness in any truly meaningful way.

Which brings me to … UU Theology and an introduction of Thandeka. I first met the Reverend Dr. Thandeka on Star Island a UUA/UCC camp and conference center off the coast of New Hampshire, well over a decade ago. She was then a professor at one of our UU seminaries: Meadville-Lombard Theological School; and she is a Unitarian Universalist theologian. Morning after morning, just after breakfast, for an entire week, I listened to Thandeka lecture on a system of thought she termed affect theology. She traced its evolution from Friedrich Schleiermacher through George de Benneville and William Ellery Channing and up to her own refined application to contemporary Unitarian Universalism.

Affect theology is an incredibly complex system of thought, based on neurobiology, psychology, child development, anthropology, and theology. It is also an umbrella theology: a single theology that has the inherent ability to overarch or encompass all of our individual theologies and philosophies of life. Yes, all of them – whether you consider yourself to be a UU humanist, a UU Jew, a UU Buddhist, a UU Christian, a UU atheist, a UU Pagan, or a plain-old UU; there is a home for you within the umbrella of affect theology. It is a theology to which we all belong.

In hearing Thandeka speak over the course of that week, I was both fascinated intellectually and unsettled emotionally. Somehow, I felt like my body knew the truth of her words in a way I could not articulate. Her words sounded … vaguely familiar. Her words almost … haunted me. So, ever the researcher I am, once I returned from the Island, I decided to compare what I had learned about affect theology to my very recently written credo statement. It was with that reading and in that moment that I became a believer.

I became a believer. And ever since, affect theology has been formational in the way that I think theologically, in the way that I grow spiritually, and in the ways that I teach and minister. So, what is affect theology all about and how does it work? As we prepare to explore the 4 components of affect theology, let’s imagine ourselves embarking on a journey; a journey on which we search together for truth and meaning; a journey on which we encourage one another to spiritual growth; a journey toward belonging; a journey toward wholeness; a lifelong journey.

We begin this journey in the base of our brains. This is where our brains receive both external and internal sensory input. We see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. Here, we begin to be aware that our hearts are racing, that our bodies are feeling pain, that our skin is sweating, that our muscles are relaxing. To hearken back to my Soulful Sundown experience … I heard the music: a familiar melody with a new descant weaving in and out and among notes well loved; I felt the vibrations of dozens of others singing along with me; I saw candles lit and flickering in a darkened and beautiful sanctuary. Our bodily experiences are foundational in the way we understand and live out our faith lives. Affect theology is an embodied theology.

Next, and second, on our journey, we move a bit farther up our brain stems to where our emotional responses occur. First, we experienced sensory input within our bodies. Now, we experience emotions which we feel about these same sensory experiences. I felt emotions about my worship experience – not all of which were name-able, but include feelings of comfort, relief, nourishment, reassurance, and gratitude.

Next, and third, on our journey, we move even farther up our brains and into the neocortex, the most recently evolved portion of our brains, the center of thinking, reasoning, and logic. Here it is that we think about our bodily, sensory experiences and the emotions we have felt about those experiences. Here it is that we do the work of reflection and of meaning-making. I made sense of and came to an intellectual understanding of my Soulful Sundown worship experience by thinking through that experience. I thought about the contrasts between Unitarian Universalism and Sufism in the importance each religion places on making and keeping vows and what it might mean to break those same vows. I thought about the making, keeping, and breaking of vows and how that might relate to traditional Jewish and Christian theological concepts of sin, confession, and forgiveness. And I thought about the relative lack of those same traditional theological concepts within Unitarian Universalism and what that might mean for us as a faith tradition.

Finally, with the next, and fourth, step on our journey, we move to the last component of affect theology, which is our actions. That is to say, we have sensory experiences, emotions we feel about those experiences, thoughts we think about what we experience and feel, and actions which we undertake as we interact with the world, as we live our lives. I act by admitting my mistakes, apologizing, asking for forgiveness, and changing my future behavior. I act by writing and delivering this sermon. Sensory input. Emotions. Thoughts. Actions.

According to Thandeka, it is only when these four components:

• sensory input
• emotions
• thoughts
• actions

are in alignment; it is only then, that we feel whole, that we feel fulfilled. When these four components of our lives are out of alignment, when our thoughts don’t match our actions and our feelings don’t match our thoughts, we feel broken, disaffected, fragmented, disembodied. 

Affect theology is a path to leading a life of healing and wholeness and of fulfillment; a journey which we can all choose to take, regardless of our individual belief systems. In some ways, it is simple to understand (sensory input, emotions, thoughts, actions, all in alignment) but it is not actually easy to do and will never be finally or fully accomplished by anyone.

And so it is, that I believe in being fully present to those who I am with, yet I sometimes find myself feeling impatient or becoming lost in thought. And so it is, that I believe in making careful, considered, and ethical choices when shopping, yet I sometimes find myself choosing the easiest or least expensive option rather than the most ethical one.

For each piece we snap into place, there are more to be sorted, as we continually put together the puzzle we call life and journey onward. That is why we need each other – to help sort the puzzle pieces, to support and encourage one another, to call each other back into alignment. Just as Lucas’ friend Sheldon did for him, and as Lucas will do for Sheldon.

Take note, that means I ask you to call me back into alignment with myself. That’s the beauty, the absolute beauty, at the center of this theology – I ask you, my atheist friend, to call me back into alignment with my panentheistic self, not your atheistic self. And you, you ask your Christian friend to call you back into alignment with your Pagan self. No one’s individual theology or philosophy need threaten or take away from another’s. I need you all to hear this, because the survival of our faith tradition depends on this: no one’s theology of philosophy of life need threaten another’s. What we need is each other. What we need is a faith community to which we can belong.

In other words, as individuals, incorporating affect theology into our understanding of ourselves as whole, or even holy, beings is certainly … hmm, adequate for living a moral and ethical life.

We can use this system of thought to see a way toward becoming more ethically consistent in the totality of our individual being. We can use this system of thought in a spiritual practice of self-examination and self-culture. But the concept of working on ourselves by ourselves is no longer enough. It never really was. We are intimately connected on the interdependent web of life. We can only truly and fully understand ourselves in relationship to others. A change in any one of us is felt by all. We are all one.

I’ll say a little more about this, using Thandeka’s own words. In writing about a need for a language of reverence, she defines the symbol of salvation within the context of affect theology in this way:

“Human salvation is thus a corporate affair. We were not conceived, born, or individuated alone. If others did not exist (including the wider world of nature and the universe) we would not be here. We could not be here. A basic eco-biological law of nature is that organisms cannot flourish without an environment that nurtures, sustains, and enhances their developmental continuity through life-affirming relationships. Our human affections are thus deeply private and utterly social. We feel the world upon us and within us. The world stirs our affections. We are a pulse of its life.”

We Unitarian Universalists have covenanted together as congregations in relationship to other congregations of Unitarian Universalists, to encourage and support one another in our mutual quests for spiritual growth, as we each engage in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. And so, when the search for truth and meaning becomes difficult, when we find ourselves living too much in our heads, or too much in our hearts, we can remind each other of our need for balance; our need for alignment. Body, heart, mind, will, spirit, all are essential on our path to healing and wholeness.

After all, we are all disaffected, disembodied, or broken, in some way. This is the natural order of life and the result of our all-tao-human experiences. If we were not, we would be inhumanly perfect, and no one is. Thandeka reminds us: “We were not broken alone and we cannot heal alone. It takes a religious community to heal a broken souL” We need each other.

As Unitarian Universalists, we have long struggled in finding a foundation for our liberal theology. Lewis B. Fisher said back in 1921: “Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move.” This captures something quintessentially true about liberal theology, that our theology lives and grows and changes. Our theology is constantly in the process of becoming. Thandeka demonstrates that with affect theology, our search for a foundation may be over.

The foundation of affect theology actually rests outside of theology, and within the field of science. Human experience is understood through the lens of neurobiology. As people of liberal faith, we are not likely to ever plant our feet in a cement-like faith, but here we can find a place to rest, a place to find the ground beneath our bodies, a place to stop our seemingly endless wandering. Here, within the warm embrace of affect theology, we can move forward together, with purpose, as we join with each other on a life-long journey of becoming and of belonging.

May it be so.

Benediction

There is a promise, inherent within affect thea/ology, that we might one day come more fully into our own; a promise reflected in this poem by Derek Walcott; a promise that life itself is, indeed, poetry.

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
January 28, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

How do we build an accessible church where more and more people will feel included and welcome? We’ll share some stories of what it means to live a disabled life and how we can begin to dismantle ableism within ourselves and our 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

“TODAY WE CELEBRATE A DREAM AWAKENING”
by the Rev. Dr. Elizabeth M. Strong

Today we celebrate a dream awakening.
Today we worship with renewed hope in our hearts.
Today we act on an audacity of hopes and dreams for the future.
Today we, begin the hard work for justice, equity and compassion in all human relations,
for today is a day like no other and it is ours to shape with vision and action.
Let us worship together and celebrate a dream awakening.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

“MEANT FOR LOVE AND BEAUTY”
by Julian Jamaica Soto

I need you to know
that there is nothing
wrong with you, if you
find the world congealed
and unwieldy. You were
never meant to serve money,
to give loyalty to unprincipled
power, to spend your joy
frantically soothing yourself
in order to tend wounds
of being constantly
dehumanized. I need you
to know that your sense
of injury and anger is not
overdeveloped. You are meant
for love and beauty. You belong
where you are known and
where your future is not just a
resource, but a promise, which
you begin to fulfill by being
unmistakably, irrevocably
yourself.

-you are not wrong.

Sermon

Together, we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the beloved community. This is the mission of this church and this church is the most mission-driven congregation I have ever had the joy to minister. Together, we build beloved community and the love which is centered in the word beloved is a serious love, it is a liberating love.

Today, I’m going to talk about the liberation of a people we don’t talk much about. People with disabilities. All kinds of disabilities because we come in all kinds of bodies. Some bodies think differently, some bodies process pain differently, some bodies regulate emotion differently, some bodies work differently, some bodies see and hear and move differently. Differently how? Differently from “the norm”, differently from the way human bodies “are supposed” to be. As if there were a single magical template from which any deviation is a problem.

Before I go any further, I’d like to make a note about language. As with any group of people, disabled folx don’t all agree on language, or anything else for that matter. Just like able-bodied people don’t all agree on language or anything else for that matter. And language tends to change over time. So, I’ll say right up front that I choose to use the words disabled and disability. I think these words, disabled and disability, are the best way to get at the heart of what ableism is and why we need to do something about it. In other words, because ableism is still largely unacknowledged, talking about disability and disability justice helps to acknowledge the very existence of ableism. Maybe someday, when we live in a more just world, I’ll feel differently, and I will find a better way to talk about the experience of living in my human body.

Some folx experience themselves as disabled their whole lives. For me, I didn’t encounter any serious issues until I was close to 40 years old. I was serving a church in central Massachusetts in a hilly little village, and by little, I mean a population of around 1200 people. This is relevant because in order to have a Memorial Day parade it was all hands on deck. Including all clergy hands. Yes, the clergy were asked to march, as our own little unit, right behind the Fire Department. All 3 of us. And since it was a hilly and fairly long parade route, it was also how I measured the onset of my disability. I went from marching the entire route one Memorial Day, no problem, to not being able to march at all the next.

Perhaps even more difficult than adjusting to the chronic pain was the process of coming into a new identity, that of a disabled person. Using a cane, getting a disability tag for my car, climbing into a mobility scooter for the first time, deciding whether I wanted to use the word disabled to describe myself, all were big milestones, as was getting matched with my first service dog for mobility, Bella. So, too, were the obstacles I began to encounter and my realization of inaccessible and ableist the world was, even more milestones.

Ableism flies so far under the radar that it’s worth a moment to define it. Simply put, ableism is the unspoken and un-thought-about assumption that able bodies are normal bodies. As a society, we build houses, apartments, offices, stores, libraries, hospitals, rest rooms, and more with this assumption. We design classrooms and museums and other educational or learning opportunities with this assumption. We create transportation systems, cars, airplanes, and even bike racks with this assumption. And, yes, we design our churches and our worship services this way, too.

Which is why there is a new ministry team here at First UU. A few months ago, I was approached by Vicki Almstrum who wanted to start an accessibility ministry team. While some accessibility features were put in place a long time ago, especially in the newer sections of the building – think hearing loops, a ramp up into the pulpit, wireless receivers to better hear the service, door openers outside the sanctuary doors, support grips in the restrooms, braille signs and hymnals, and so on, she knew that accessibility is about much more than seeing, hearing, and using a wheelchair. The new team was approved, and she got to work reaching out to people who might be interested in joining the AMT – Accessibility Ministry Team. Their first official debut was at the Connections Fair in December where many of you submitted suggestions for ways that accessibility can be improved here.

Beginning today, you’ll start to see some changes taking place with both the worship service and the website, the two areas the team has identified to prioritize. Because accessibility covers such a wide range of needs and in so many different areas of congregational life, there is going to be a lot to learn, and I include myself in that. So, to share your ideas for accessibility or your kind, caring, and covenantally constructive feedback, the Accessibility Ministry Team has a new email address. You can send your thoughts to Access@austinuu.org.

Like I said, there is a lot to learn to do accessibility well and it will take lots and lots of practice, on all of our parts, including those of us who are disabled because we still need to learn about each other’s needs, which are different from own. This is all work that can and should be joyful. Before I talk a little bit more about what we’re doing, I’d like to say some more about why. And it’s all about that liberating love embedded right there in our mission statement.

Those of you with a Christian background will likely remember these words of Paul’s and the rest of you will probably find them familiar, too, as they are so well known. In First Corinthians, which is actually a letter Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about how to be together as a church, he said: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud … ” and so on. Setting aside issues with Biblical translation for now, I’d like to share excerpts from something the Rev. Tess Baumberger wrote, which is based on this passage from First Corinthians. Here it is:

Love is kind with people but impatient with injustice.
Love is assertive and respectful.
Love listens to the anger of those who experience oppressIon
Without responding, without defending,
Without interrupting, without explaining.
It listens with compassion, seeking always to understand …
Love is willing to examine itself,
Its thoughts, actions, and unmeditated bias.
It recognizes one’s power to harm, or to be part of systems of harm
With or without awareness, but once aware it can only intend
To make amends, to right the wrongs, to change the systems…
Love is willing always to change,
Always to learn, always to heal.
Love rejoices in truth and in equity.
There is no limit to love’s steady presence,
Or it’s holding us, gently but insistently, to what is right.

This love she speaks of is a liberating love, a love that sets people free from oppression and systems of oppression. This love is a love that does what is right because it is right. And this love is a love that doesn’t give up because doing what is right is difficult to do. This love is willing to learn and willing to practice. This love is willing to change and to grow. This love is a joyful love. This love is a liberating love.

What does this kind of liberating love mean in action? Sometimes, it looks like new slides, in a different font, in a larger size, and a higher contrast color ratio. Sometimes, it sounds like purchasing more wireless receivers because hearing aid technology has changed. Sometimes, it smells like fragrance free soap, shampoo, and lotion. Sometimes, it speaks in American Sign Language. Sometimes, it means the time of silence isn’t actually silent. Sometimes, it means that the preacher’s image is left up on the sanctuary’s monitors. Sometimes, it means that people move around a lot during worship. Sometimes, it means that there’s a dog on the chancel. Sometimes, it means that the preacher speaks in plain language. Sometimes, it means that we get a little repetitive. (It’s okay to laugh at that one. I did it on purpose and I’m kind of making fun at myself.)

Now, I’m guessing that some of those ways of demonstrating a liberating kind of love that I just named feel easier or more challenging than other ways. Take the time of silence, for one. Silence is an age-old spiritual practice that does have many benefits for the inner spiritual life. And, it is challenging, stressful, and sometimes even impossible for some disabled folx to do. Never mind the non-disabled folx. Babies cry. Children fidget. And elders, well … a number of years ago, a noise audit was done for congregational worship. You know what they found? That the elders made more decibels of sound than the infants and children.

I’m guessing, though, that the most challenging way of becoming more accessible to more people for Unitarian Universalists is the use of plain language. We UUs (as a whole, not just this church) tend to pride ourselves on the number of college and graduate level degrees we hold, though it’s important to note , that’s not all of us.We are, on the whole, an educated bunch and we tend to intellectualize a lot. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. I can “geek out” on occasion along with the best of them. And people who have graduate level vocabulary tend to use it, without even thinking, most of the time.

Here’s an example. My mom, who holds a graduate degree, and gave me permission to share this story with all of y’all, spent much of her professional life teaching in special education. I often substitute taught in her classroom or volunteer chaperoned on class trips. The students, who were high school or college aged, sometimes couldn’t read or read at a 2nd or 3rd grade level.

So, one time, I was helping to chaperone a class trip and a student who also had mobility challenges was struggling to walk up a paved path. My mom said to her “Don’t worry, it’s only a steep incline.”

My eyes grew wide and I struggled to not burst out laughing immediately. Later on, she heard it from me though. “What was up with that steep incline, Mom? It’s a hill. It was a hill.” We are a family who love to laugh at ourselves, and that joke lived on for a long, long time.

My point in sharing that story is that while plain language is more accessible, it can be hard to change the way we talk, especially in worship and during the sermon. It does not mean, though, that our sermons and our services have to be any less deep or any less based on complex thea/ological ideas. Let’s face it, we’re only getting so far in less than twenty minutes anyway.

There are many stories I can tell about what it is like to live with a disability that causes chronic pain and limits my mobility. And many tips I can give about how to interact, or not interact with and near me.

A few quick ones, all of which have actually happened to me:
1. Never call someone else’s service dog to you while they trying to go down the stairs.
2. Never park your car or truck or other vehicle with one end hanging over the sidewalk.
3. Never cut off someone who is using a mobility scooter in a store, either with your body, your child, or your cart. Those things don’t have brakes, people!
4. Never glare at someone parking in a disabled spot. Many disabilities are invisible or nearly so. And, yes, it was amusing to see how quickly faces changed once Bella hopped out.

And one longer, and more humorous story.

One year, I went Christmas shopping for my spouse, Micah, in one of those dollar-type stores. I was looking for things to fill his stocking and I was there with my service dog, Bella, a beautiful black lab, whose jobs included picking up things I dropped on the floor, getting my cane when it was out of reach, and so on. I was stopped by the rack of crossword puzzles and word searches, wearing my glasses, and flipping through the pages of one of the books, when all of a sudden I heard two older men say, from partway across the store:
“She can’t help us. She’s blind.”
So, I turned in to find out:
(a) if they were really talking about me. (They were) and:
(b) what they were up to.

It turned out that someone, a niece apparently, had sent them to the store in search of some feminine products, without clear instructions, and they didn’t know what they were doing. I decided not to volunteer to help, curious to “see” what would happen. They did wind up getting some help, from a store clerk. My only regret was, they were not around when I went out to the parking lot, got in my car, and drove away.

The moral of the story is – we never know what anyone person’s needs or abilities are without actually getting to know them. We can learn how to put some good practices in place, but in the end, we are all different, and yet we are all the same. We are all human and we are all worthy.

Amen and Blessed Be

Benediction

As you go forth, in the many ways you go forth,
May your hearts and minds be open to the many ways of being in this world,
May your senses be open to new encounters, May the ways you experience the world,
lead you to transform this world,
all for the better.

Amen and Blessed Be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
January 7, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Play and playfulness are easily overlooked aspects of faith, development, and spirituality. Join us for a playful New Year’s service filled with Robert Fulghum readings.

Chalice Lighting

EXPLORING WHO WE ARE
by Melanie Davis, adapted

Under the right circumstances, playing around the fire is a delight -imagine being gathered round a firepit as the crackling flames invite us to sing, dance, and roast a marshmallow or two.

Our chalice also invites us to play, although with ideas rather than with marshmallows. The flame encourages us to explore who we are, who our neighbors are, and where we are on our spiritual journeys.

Today, we light this chalice in the spirit of play. Let us trust the light to guide us in this hour and in the days to come, finding joy along the way.

Call to Worship

ENTERING THE BRIGHT WORLD
by Shari Woodbury

Let us enter this sacred sanctuary
the way a soft infant enters the bright world:

squinting in wonder
holding to another
taking it all in.

Let us open all our senses
and let our synapses spark
one connection after another

as we make sense of the world
and find joy with each other
and follow the instinct to play.

Affirming Our Mission

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

First Reading

WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE?
Robert Fulghum (excerpts)

PLAYER Definition: Persons with enough nimbleness of mind to accept a surprise invitation to jump into a quick game of imagination. People with a loosey-goosey sense of mischief. Players are also Laughers. And you can’t tell the Players by the way they appear on the outside.

Example: Here’s a uniformed city bus driver standing in the door of his vehicle, staring into the rain.

An invitation from me, passing by: “OK, here’s the deal: I’ll pay for the gas, and you’ll drive us to California to the beach at Santa Monica.”

With a straight face he says, “OK, meet me here at midnight. It’s the end of my run and they won’t miss me or the bus until morning. I’ll get some barbecue.” He smiles. A PLAYER.

Consider this lady with a shopping cart full of oddball stuff standing beside me in front of the cheese counter at the grocery story.

My invitation: “I like the groceries in your cart better than mine. Want to trade? You take mine and I’ll take yours. Could be interesting when we get home.”

She smiles. Checks out my cart. “You’ve got a deal,” she says. We take each other’s carts and roll away. Later, she’s waiting for me at the check-out counter. She knows and I know: we weren’t really going to go through with it. But those few moments of madness brought new meaning to “going to the store for a few things.” And the lady knows the game. A PLAYER.

On the other hand: There’s a tailor shop on Queen Anne Avenue. Sign in the window says “ALTERATIONS AND REPAIRS FOR MEN AND WOMEN.” The tailor is standing in the doorway. I stop.

“I’d like to get altered and repaired,” I say.

She looks at me cautiously. Goes inside. Closes the door. NOT A PLAYER.

Second Reading

WHAT ON EARTH HAVE I DONE?
Robert Fulghum (excerpts)

Here’s me again, at a well-known company to pick up copies of a manuscript. I am visibly annoyed – this is my third trip to get what was promised yesterday. The anxious clerk, Miss Saucer-eyes, is obviously new to the herd behind the counter and doesn’t know what to do with me or for me. The work is still not done, despite promises. Getting mad won’t help.

“OK, I won’t make any trouble,” I say, “Just give me a really clever, off-the-wall creative excuse – the wildest thing you can think of. Make me laugh and I’ll go away.”

Miss Saucer-eyes is mute. This situation was not covered in training school last week. “I’ll speak to my manager.”

Definitely not a PLAYER. But the story continues.

Miss Saucer-eyes retreats to the back of the shop and consults with her boss, a high-energy, sharply dressed woman, who marches briskly toward me with a steely look.

She leans over the counter and explains: “Sir, you may not know this, but this store has been a front for the Irish Republican Army for years. We’re supposed to be turning in our firearms, and it seems a bazooka is missing from the inventory. When we find the bazooka, things will get back to normal. If I were you, I wouldn’t make any trouble – just come back tomorrow, OK?”

A big league PLAYER.

A garbageman in charge of a monster truck. Lousy day. Cold. Rain. But he’s a Player. This time the invitation comes from him. As I pass by, he says, “Hey, you look prosperous.”

“Thank you. I feel prosperous.”

“You look like a man who might have some frequent-flyer miles.”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Lots of them.”

“Listen, I need enough to get me to Buenos Aires, one way.”

I’ve got enough. They’re yours. But what’s in it for me?”

“Take the keys to this garbage truck. It’s yours. Even trade.”

“Yes! I’ve long had an urge to drive one of those things. I’d like to dump a load of garbage in a certain person’s front yard. It’s a deal.”

“You got a license to drive a truck?”

“Well, no.”

“Deals off. I can’t be part of anything illegal, but no problem. Get a license. I’m here every Monday.”

As he drives off, I wonder how many other people on his route get offers from him every day. He has all the nervy characteristics of a nonstop all-day PLAYER.

One final example: A double whammy I didn’t see coming.

Clerk in a bookstore – older lady with dyed red hair. “Can I help you?” she asks.

“Happy birthday,” I say. (Always makes people smile – sometimes you’re early, sometimes late, but sometimes right on. An invitation to play.)

“Well, I hope you’re coming to my party,” she says. “We need someone to jump out of a cake.”

“I’m your man.”

“You’d be expected to go-go dance naked.”

“Then I’m not your man.”

“My mistake. I thought you looked a little kinky.”

A PLAYER.

A lady waiting in line behind me overheard this bookstore babble and drifted away from the counter and out the door. She missed her chance.

Probably not a PLAYER.

Later, as I walked by a sidewalk table at a nearby coffeehouse, I spot the lady who fled the store.

“Sorry, hope we didn’t annoy you,” I said.

She smiled. “Oh no,” she replied, “It’s just that I jumped out of the cake last year. It hurts my feelings to think they’re looking for a replacement.”

A PLAYER after all.

Sermon

In our readings this morning, Robert Fulghum is, essentially, asking each of the people he encounters: “Are you a player?” This is a not inconsequential question. Are you? Or you or you or you? Are you a player?

Several Christmas’ ago, I got my spouse, Micah, a game he’d been wanting for a long time. It’s called Forbidden Island and the game is about retrieving four treasures from different parts of the island and then getting off the island before it floods. Micah was reading the directions aloud and while I understood the object of the game easily enough, I couldn’t quite see how the rules I was hearing would align with a strategy until I heard, Micah say: “We have to work together.” Oh. Ooh. Then it made sense. It was a cooperative game. I had been listening with the assumption that it was yet another competitive game. But this time, we would win or lose together.

As it turns out, the game of Forbidden Island is much like the game of Real Life. We have to work together to get anywhere we really want to go. For a long time, people believed that evolution was primarily a matter of survival of the fittest, the ultimate in competitive games. More recently, anthropologists have come to understand the essential role that cooperation – plays in evolution. Humans were, and are, able to evolve in the ways we do because we cooperate in meeting common goals. The strategy for the game of Real Life is cooperation.

And this is important because as Peter Gray, a psychology professor at Boston College says: “Play primarily evolved to teach children all kinds of skills, and its extension into adulthood may have helped to build cooperation and sharing among hunter-gathers beyond the level that would naturally exist in a dominance-seeking species.” In other words, not only is cooperation essential to the path of human evolution, but play is what helps us learn cooperation.

Play has other benefits as well. Lisa Barnett, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says we play because it is therapeutic. In the work environment, play speeds up learning, increases productivity and improves job satisfaction while at home, play helps with bonding and communication. She says that playful adults have better coping skills. While they feel the same stressors as everyone else, they experience and react to these stressors differently. Playful adults can transform stressful situations into something entertaining, which then allows stressors to roll off more easily than for those who are less playful.

The late Edwin Friedman – rabbi, family therapist, congregational consultant, and author of what is pretty much “the Bible” of congregational systems theory said that: “A major criterion for judging the anxiety level of any society [that is congregation] is the loss of its capacity to be playful.” In other words, playfulness, and the ability to be playful, is an essential attribute of a healthier congregation or family or individual.

And so the question remains, are you a player? Fulghum gave us a definition of a player as a: “person with enough nimbleness of mind to accept a surprise invitation to jump into a quick game of imagination. [A person] with a loosey-goosey sense of mischief.”

I’m guessing that some of you might have noticed some mischief going on around here the last month or two with miniature versions of some of the staff popping up here and there. In case you missed it, here’s some photographic evidence.

Images on the screen of Barbie dolls outfitted as church staff members and their personal equipment.

Of course, Robert Fulghum is not the only person to try to define what a player is. According to researchers who published a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences there are four types of playful adults. (Wallace, 2017)

• • those who outwardly enjoy fooling around with friends, colleagues, relatives and acquaintances;

• • those who are generally lighthearted and not preoccupied by the future consequences of their behavior;

• • those who play with thoughts and ideas;
  • and those who are whimsical, exhibiting interest in strange and unusual things and are amused by small, everyday observations.

I think I’d definitely put Robert Fulghum in that last category.

Or, with a hat tip to Kelly, who brought this back from the last LREDA conference, we can think about these 8 play personalities as identified by a researcher named Stuart Brown.

Let’s try to have a little fun with this. I’ll describe the play personality and then whoever feels like they have that personality can raise their hand. You can raise your hand as many times as you’d like. (This is one situation in which you are not limited to having only one personality.)

The Joker – Play revolves around silliness and making others laugh. Jokers tend to be the “class clown” in school, and may engage in play through telling jokes, doing funny impersonations, or playing practical jokes.

The Kinesthete plays through movement. They experience pleasure in movement and feeling the result of physically pushing their bodies. While this category may include athletes, competition is not the main focus; the joy of engaging in the activity takes precedence. The Kinesthetete’s play might take the form of running, dancing, sports, yoga, swimming, hiking or walking.

The Explorer is enthusiastic about, and engages in play by exploring the world around them. The Explorer’s play can be physical (going to new places) emotional (search for a deepening of emotion through music, art or movement) or mental (researching a new area of interest or reading a book).

The Competitor engages in play through competitive games with specific rules, and enjoys the thrill of winning. The games can be solitary, such as trying to beat his/her top score in a video game, or social, such as competing in a team sport. Competitors may also play through observing and being a fan of competitive sports.

The Director engages in play through planning and executing events. They are the organizers of the social world and may be the instigators of a weekend up North, or throwing a party. Directors may be active in creating a facebook group, or organizing a meet-up.

The Collector plays through engaging in seeking and holding onto the most, best and most interesting collection of objects or experiences. They experience bliss in finding a new piece/experience, organizing or showing off their collection. The Collector may be interested in coins, purses, shoes, cars, or photographs (the possibilities are endless!)

The Artist/Creator plays through creating and making things. The Artist/Creator may engage in drawing, building, or sculpting, painting, singing, knitting, gardening, woodworking, or any number of creative endeavors. The Artist/Creator may also take joy in fixing or making something work, like taking a part a broken item, cleaning and replacing parts, and putting it back together again.

The Storyteller engages in play through adventure into the imagination. They may enjoy reading novels, writing, or watching movies and theater. Storytellers enjoy being immersed in a story, experiencing the thoughts and emotions of characters in the stories.

Well, that was fun! So why does it matter whether we play, or are playful, in church? In addition to keeping levels of anxiety down, there are probably many, but I’ll share two more for now.

One is that in our playfulness we turn toward each other as play partners. We become less self-absorbed and more community oriented. In order to play with each other or play off each other, we need to pay attention to each other and how our wants, needs, hopes, dreams, personalities, and even our cultures differ. Music, staff, ministry teams play can also support us in meeting the goal of becoming more radically welcoming. Once we know, understand, and care about our needs we can better meet them. Think about that explorer personality.

Another possibility relates to the work of faith formation. We have covenanted to encourage one another to spiritual growth. In order to be thea/ologically or philosophically flexible we need to be able to be both creative and open to change with our ideas. For some of us, this aligns with process thea/ology specifically. G_d, or Love, or that which is Ultimate is continually in process and so are we. Being playful helps us to be more flexible.

So… it doesn’t really matter what kind of player you are, just that you play and play often. And, if you are not a player, or not much of a player, know that you can learn to play. Play skills are something you can teach yourself by observing the ways in which others play or by trying out one of the play personalities we talked about today.

Today is the first Sunday we have gathered all together since the start of the New Year. Last week, you ritually let go of those things you wished to leave in the past, with the Burning Bowl service led by Bis. Now it is time to choose what it is you would like to take up in the New Year. I invite you to consider taking up play. The interim period can be a stressful time. Learning to play together, or how to play together better, can relieve some of the stress and anxiety inherent in any transition, including an interim ministry. Plus – it’s fun! And who doesn’t want to have more fun? The only question remaining is … Are you a player?

Amen and Blessed Be

Benediction

As you venture into the new year …
may you find a nimbleness of mind and spirit,
may much love and laughter await you,
and may all that is Good hold you and keep you. Amen and Blessed Be

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 24 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

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