Invitation to Transform

September 18, 2024 by tom Posted in Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
September 15, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Building beloved community is, at its heart, about transformation. Reflecting upon cultural differences among the generations is one way we can think about welcoming pluralism into our lives and our communities.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

Welcome to this place
where certainty transforms
to questions.

This place that takes what is
and imagines what can be.

Welcome to this space
where what was fixed begins to shift; where
rigidity embraces unfolding,
as we join in the dance
of trans-form-a-tion.

Welcome to this
moment of change,
where together, we
transfigure and transcend together.

– by the Rev. Dr. David Breeden

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

LOTS’ WIFE
by the Rev. Dr. Lynn Unger

Where will you go home?
These mountains cannot receive you,
and there is no cave or grave to be dug
for you in your old hills.

And still a current of air
keeps singing home … home
as if that meant something
you could go to, as if something
could finally stand still.

Turn then, and keep turning.
Faster, like a drill
through your old God’s promises,
like a potter’s wheel,
like a spindle, twisting

your tears into salt crystals,
into the face of this
wrecked land, into the distant,
perfect stars, which will not
take you up, but hold to you

like mirrors, flashing their
salty glare with each minute,
with each
magnificent
revolution.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors that weren’t caught.

In our story this morning, Casey, a Gen-Zer or a Zoomer, listened and learned from Grandma, who was a silent generation person. They, that is Casey, learned some lessons about change over time, what to expect, and how best to cope with change. While we didn’t go into all the details in the children’s story this morning, we can imagine how rich and deep those conversations got between Casey and her grandmother.

This is often how we think about elders and wisdom. That wisdom is passed down from older generations to younger generations. And all that is true. It is so true and so important. We younger generations need to remember to ask questions, to ask for stories, to listen. Our elders need to remember to share their stories with us. And it’s not the only way that we learn wisdom. Wisdom can flow from any generation to any other. Sometimes older generations, like mine, can and do learn from younger generations.

There was a person named Audrey, not our Aubrey, I wanna be really clear about that. Nothing bad happened to our Aubrey. Audrey was a woman, a trans woman in Houston who I met right after she graduated from college when she was 21, right when she was beginning her process of transitioning. I only knew her for a year and a half or so before her life ended tragically, a consequence of the social and political climate in which trans and non-binary people currently live. She was a wonderful person. I loved her so much. She was just beginning her faith journey. She hoped to go to seminary and become a UU minister. She had been hired to be the General Assembly Young Adult Coordinator for GA 2023 so you may have heard of her from that context. She was amazing.

She restored my faith just at that cusp of churches emerging from the pandemic and trying to figure out what post-pandemic church was going to be like and what post-pandemic Unitarian Universalism was calling us to do. And she restored my faith in the future of our faith tradition. She had a wonderful way of invitational listening. She was a membership coordinator at the UU Church in Houston, Emerson, and she would sit people down in the comfy chairs, and I have this image that will stay with me forever, of her putting her head and her chin in her hand and just sitting and watching and listening and you could tell that she had her entire focus on the person that she was listening to and people opened up to her.

We learned so much about the church and what was going on in the church because everyone was telling Audrey. I also, Audrey was a Gen-Zer, a Zoomer, I also learned so much from Audrey about how social justice movements were being organized in college and by young adults in their 20s and how it was being done in such a better way than we had in the past, how it was so much more collaborative, how there was so much more shared leadership, and I have taken those lessons with me and carried them forward in my ministry.

She may have been only 21 or 22 and I her elder by 30 years but she had wisdom to share with me. All of this is really getting at the question of culture, especially the question of culture in churches.

So if you are new or visiting with us today, if this is not your church home or it’s not your church home yet, and maybe someday, you can also think about these things I’m saying about culture as working in your workplace or in your family or in the nonprofit organizations where you volunteer, all sorts of different settings. So this is for all of us, although I will focus on talking about church.

So, culture. Culture is a set of rules of behavior. That’s the simplest definition. A set of rules of behavior. Those rules of behavior might be unwritten. They might be written down somewhere. And there are a group of people that share those rules of behavior.

Culture can be regional, national, generational, queer, deaf. There are lots of different cultures and subcultures. They can go with one’s ethnic heritage. They can go with one’s orientation or gender identity. Lots and lots of different cultures, including within the United States.

Churches, like families and schools and other groups, also have culture. We have a set of rules of behavior about how things are done, when they are done, et cetera, how meetings happen, how bylaws are written, all sorts of different things. So recognizing that church has a culture, a set of rules of behavior that people are expected to follow. What we’re going to try to do this morning is reconcile that, those sets of church cultural expectations, with what we learned last week, especially from Brené Brown’s video that I shared, about how her research showed that that opposite of belonging is fitting in.

So how do we encourage people to feel like they belong, help them feel like they belong, help ourselves feel like we belong, and also have these cultural rules and expectations, many of which are unwritten, like who sits where and in which pew. Dangerous for visitors, right? ‘Cause they don’t know where to sit. No clue whose pew is whose. And sometimes, I don’t know if this happens in Texas, but I did serve churches that were hundreds and hundreds of years old when I was in New England. And I had people whose family sat in the same pews for the last couple hundred years, honest.

So if we are to build beloved community where more and more people can feel like they belong, we also need to take care that we are not expecting all the different kinds of people that we want to feel welcome here, that we want to feel like they belong here, or not even just new people, but the people who are already here wanting to feel more like they really do belong here ’cause both are true. And then we have these expectations about how to “fit in” to the church culture that is already here. How do we do that? How do we weigh those different ways, W-E-I-G-H, those different ways, W-A-Y-S. I didn’t intend that to come out that way. (laughing) Of being.

So there is a toxin that is present in this church, and in all of our churches, about how there is one right way to do things, one right way to do church, or one right way to have the holiday family dinner, or one right way to cook the ham, that’s the classic example from one of those apocryphal stories.

So I’m going to share some more lighthearted examples. Okay, one of the other things I learned from Audrey, Zoomer, remember, is that when texting on your phone, it is rude to reply to someone by saying “okay”. How many of you knew or thought that that was true? Very, very few. Much more polite is to say K or KK. OK is rude, according to the Zoomers.

I grew up with rules about how to use the phone. Never call during the dinner hour. Rules have changed over time as technology and social norms have changed, whether we call at the dinner hour or not, whether it’s more polite to call because someone has trouble either physically manipulating a phone to text or is older and never learned how to text, whatever the reason, some people in some situations it might be more polite, more kind, to call as long as it’s not at dinner. For others, it’s much more polite to text. It’s quite rude to call someone on the phone. That includes my generation. It interrupts your life less with a text. You don’t have to actually stop what you’re doing. You can actually answer without doing the phone screening thing.

For Zoomers, yes, you still have to text, But you don’t say “okay”.

So we take this all into context are we texting with a zoomer. Maybe we don’t say okay. Maybe they are kind to us and say “Oh, you old gen-Xer, You don’t know that you’re being rude, so I’ll ignore it”.

In any case, there’s no one right way to use the phone anymore. There used to be one right way when I was a kid, but no longer.

Another example, Brent and I, we both come from New England, not Texas. We are both gen-Xers. We get each other. We have a different sense of humor. Light-hearted teasing means we actually love you, so if Brent makes fun of me in a light-hearted, not mean bullying kind of way, a light-hearted way, then that means he likes me.

He and I will also speak directly to each other and to all of you. As Brent says, because we’ve discussed this, he doesn’t know how to talk Southern. I don’t really either, because I’ve been here less time than he has. I’m learning.

Brent shared an example with me about how at home one day his wife said, (and I’m sharing this with his permission,) “Oh, gee, it looks like the trash is getting pretty full.” And then hours later, the trash still being there, she commented about the trash still being there. The light finally goes on in Brent’s head and he says, “Oh, when you said that the trash was getting full, what you really meant was ‘Brent, take out the trash?’ ” At which point she said, “Yes.”

So, if we want Brent or me, for that matter, to take out the trash, tell us to take out the trash. I’m being light-hearted about this. These are smaller ways in which we can miscommunicate, and they’re also more fun to use as examples. But our goal in all of this is really to understand each other, not to change each other.

I’m not going to try to get you all to stop speaking Southern. I’m going to try to learn how to understand it and figure out when to take out the trash. And you might do the same and put some effort into learning how to speak Connecticut or Maine or Massachusetts every once in a while. But to understand that we have different ways, that’s the most important piece. Not to change each other, not to force each other to “fit in” to a set of norms or expectations that aren’t crucial.

So remember that we do all of this within a hopefully relatively safe container of having healthy relations covenants and a healthy relations team which can provide us and support us when we do get into trouble with communicating with each other or understanding each other.

So that doesn’t mean anything goes, is what I’m trying to say. We do stay within the covenants and we also don’t try to force each other to fit in. And I know it’s hard.

So, the reason why I’m talking about all of this relates to this mission. In church, in this church especially, we are building the beloved community in here so that we can also do it out there. And in order to do so, we need to welcome in new ways of being and doing church. There is no one right way of doing church or much of anything. Maybe landing on the moon has one right way or something like that, but for the most part, most of our lives, multiple different ways are okay. There’s no one right way.

And we’ve been learning about this in lots of smaller ways. I recently talked with the seniors at the senior lunch about pronouns and how to use them correctly now that we understand that we have more than two genders and that gender is not binary.

We have added visual descriptions to who we are as worship leaders as we come up for each of our turns during the service. That is for a few different reasons, but including for people who have partial vision loss but not complete blindness, it helps them be able to find us later. You want to talk to the minister, knowing to look for bright pink can be really helpful if it’s someone that can see colors. So accessibility is part of this. We’re doing slides with better visibility. People with vision issues, have a better chance of reading the words to the hymns, we’re beginning to add more ASL to our services, lots of different ways that any one change might be kind of small, all together, they’re huge, they’re enormous. We’re doing it people, this past year together, we’ve been doing it.

We’re building a bigger and better, more open, more inclusive, more accessible, beloved community. And we are also doing it in bigger ways, both within this church and within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Some of these bigger ways include some amazing work that just came out of a recent board retreat. We’re going to be working on some of the ways to dismantle white supremacy culture by changing the way that we do our monitoring reports, focusing more on qualitative reporting than quantitative reporting. We both here and in the UUA are working on changing our bylaws and policies using simpler language so that more people can understand, so that more people can understand how a congregational meeting is run, so that they can better participate, have a chance of participating.

Let’s face it, back in the day when we were super, super strict with Robert’s rules, you had to study it. You really had to study it. If you wanted to get up and make a change or do something effectively in a meeting, it took a lot of work and a lot of intelligence. Now we’re making it simpler so more people can participate in democratic systems and in church polity.

So remember, it’s not just here in church that we’re doing this. We’re also doing it at home, in our marriages, in our workplaces. Think about how two people get married from two different families of origin. You have to figure out all sorts of things, like whether to put the toothpaste cap on, which direction the toilet paper goes, how to spend your holidays.

Culture is little, little tiny things that are unwritten all over the place, as well as the big humongous things that can really break our relationships in half. So part of building this beloved community is about learning all of these, maybe not every single one, but learning a lot more of these different ways of being and doing so that all can belong.

And today we’re focusing on multigenerational culture. Church now has six adult generations. SIX. Six different adult cultures about the best or right way to do church. SIX.

We have the greatest generation who are the oldest members of our congregation in their upper 90s, but they’re still here.
We have the silent generation. Those are the folks who grew up during the depression and who fought in World War II, who tend to be pretty traditional and conservative when it comes to finances. They’re very much institutionalists.
We had the baby boomer generation who followed the few civil rights leaders who weren’t all that silent in the generation, like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a silent generation exception, but was followed by lots and lots of baby boomers, right? Baby boomers who did all of this work around civil rights, and there was a lot of civil unrest, and then paradoxically, to my Gen X mind, went ahead and created the workaholic culture of the 80s, still working on that. Still working on understanding y ‘all. But I’m working on it.
Then we have Gen X who, unlike the free love that the baby boomers experienced, came of age during the AIDS epidemic and learned that sex was kind of like playing Russian roulette, and was a potential death sentence. That is formative on a young person’s outlook in the world, so maybe you can understand why we tend to be those cynical people. We’re also the middle child between the baby boomers and the millennials, which are two enormous generations on either side of us, and we often act like the middle child.
And then we have the millennials, who are people who grew up with a lot more technology than we did. They experienced 9 /11 when they were kids.
We have Gen Z, who are the Zoomers, who just came into adulthood the last several years and who are digital natives. They do not remember a time before smartphones existed, never mind black and white TVs.

And we’re all adults with the things that shaped us, shaped our generational cohorts in terms of our outlooks on the world and our understandings of our relationships to institutions, whether we’re institutionalists or anti-institutionalists, all sorts of different things come into the mix of those multiple generational cultures. Six.

And that is not including all of the other ways in which we have an experienced culture, like our ethnicities, our social class, our education levels. That also comes into play. So this is a really complex mix of cultures is what I’m trying to say.

If you are a follower of social media, You may have noticed that there are some generational wars going on. Primarily between the baby boomers and the millennials. That’s where that phrase “okay boomer” comes from. But also between Gen Z and their elder siblings, the millennials. The most recent thing is tearing apart their method of decorating in what they call millennial gray, which the millennials say is a reaction to the baby boomers way too bright chaotic colors of their childhood, that they need something calmer like plain old gray.

There’s also (this is one of my favorites) a fight about how to make the bed. You all heard this one. So baby boomers, greatest generation, silent generation, all make the bed with a bottom sheet and a top sheet. And then maybe a blanket, comforter, whatever, on top of all that. If you’re a millennial or a zoomer, you’re most likely not using the top sheet. And this really upsets the boomers, really upsets them. Gen X could go either way. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Being the middle child, we are often forgotten and somehow nobody’s making fun of us in social media ’cause they don’t remember we exist, but in any case. I’m being lighthearted and fun about it, and it’s also serious, right?

All these things come into play in our church life. If we can’t figure out how to use the phone, if we don’t know what the rules are for how to use the phone or email or text, how do we communicate with each other in church when we have so many ways of communicating. I think what we really need to do is learn about and understand each other and our various cultures that we come from. We need to be curious about each other, take away the pressure to fit in, the pressure to do church or whatever else it is, the way that it has always been done, which is a myth anyway, but still persists.

I promised you the offering plate story today. So I’m wrapping up and here’s the offering plate story. When I was a kid, I loved church. I grew up in a very liberal congregational UCC church. We had the choirs, the adult choirs, the kid choirs, the youth choirs, the handbell choirs. We had the robes, not just for the ministers, but all of the different choirs. We had gloves for the handbells. We did New England church. And we had “Holy, Holy, Holy”, and “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”. The big, huge, joyful organ music with these long processions and robes and pageantry.

And we were relatively low church compared to the Catholics, but I loved it, I loved it. And there were so many rules that went along with it, including (and you had to learn this before confirmation) how to pass the church offering plate correctly. None of this willy-nilly stuff that we do here. The usher hands it to you on the end of the row, you pass the plate all the way down to the end of your own pew without putting any money or envelopes or anything in it. That would be rude. It has to go all the way down, then the first person at the end of the pew puts their money in. As it comes back, that’s when you get to give your money to the church. And only then.

We can adjust and learn new ways like Brent is helping us learn today. You may have noticed during our candle lighting music that he had some new ways of using his voice. So he’s gonna demonstrate for us quickly, right? So here is the old traditional way of using one’s voice. (Brent sings “Spirit of Life”.) And here is the new modern weird, because we’re in Austin, way of using one’s voice as a vo-coder. (Brent sings using a vo-coder, the audience laughs) Someone yelled out that was awesome.

So our point being, We are a living tradition. Our traditions change. We don’t necessarily throw out the old ways. We’re still gonna sing “Spirit of Life,” the way that Brent sang it for us first. But we also welcome in other music. We welcome in other ways of being or doing church. We can adjust. We can learn new ways. We can grieve old losses, we can grow and remain a thriving, vital, if slightly different congregation or family or whatever. It’s all about us building Beloved Community everywhere we are and everywhere we may go.

May it always be so. 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

by Eric Williams

Blessed is the path on which you travel.
Blessed is the body that carries you upon it.
Blessed is your heart that has heard the call.
Blessed is your mind that discerns the way.
Blessed is the gift that you will receive by going.
Truly blessed is the gift that you will become on the Journey.

May you go forth in peace.
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

2024 Water Communion

September 2, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave and Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 1, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

RIVER CALL
by the Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti

Between rocking the boat
and sitting down;
between stirring things up,
and peaceably going along,

We find ourselves
here,
in community.

Each called
from many different
journeys,
many different
life paths,
onto this river road.

Some are here
because of the rocking of
the boat
has been too much:
too much tumult,
too much uncertainty,
too much pain.

Some are here with questions
about where the boat is going;
how best to steer it;
where this journey ends.

Others are here
as lovers of the journey,
lovers of life itself.

Here in front
beside
behind
each a passenger;
each a captain;
doing the best we can.

“Rest here, in your boat,
with me,” the river calls;
“Listen to how I flow,
the sound of life coursing all around you.”

Let the current hold you,
let the current guide you;
the river that gently flows
through your soul,
whispers:

“Come, let us worship.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS
By Langston Hughes

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

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Sermon

STORY OF WATER COMMUNION
Chris

On the first Sunday of September each year, it is our tradition at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin to begin our new church year with our much beloved water communion service.

We bring water, perhaps from a cherished spot – water that holds special symbolic meaning for us, and then carrying that meaning in our thoughts and hearts, we blend all of the waters each of us have brought together just as we gather to create shared meaning and a culture of love and care in this religious community.

If this happens to be your first water communion service, I promise more explanation and instructions will be coming soon.

Last year, we added a new element to our annual ritual – retelling the story of how our water communion tradition first came to be within our larger Unitarian Universalist faith.

For by remembering our stories, we are reminded of the wellsprings of our faith – values that flow to us from those who came before.

In 1980, a group of feminists within our UU movement were advocating a greater role for women in our ministry and in our worship, as well as eliminating sexist language, such as “mankind”, from our guiding documents of that period.

Two of them, Carolyn McDade and Lucile Schuck Longview put together a worship service for the Women and Religion Continental Convocation of Unitarian Universalists.

They called that service “Coming Home Like Rivers to the Sea”.

Here is how they described that first water communion ceremony:

“Making our way like rivers from places distant and near, we come together to give shape to a new spirituality.

… we come together to question. To hear. To share. To speak. To inspire. And to celebrate through new rituals, knowing that our energy and our love are transforming.

Celebrating now our connectedness, we choose water as our symbol of our empowerment … a spirituality that uplifts, empowers and connects.”

They used rinsed out cosmetics and perfume containers in which to bring their water as a symbol of, quote, ” … abandoning products that exploit perceived feminine inadequacies to make room for shared power”.

So we inherit these communal values, rooted in transformative love – a river of love that flows throughout our universe – a river that replenishes us and a river for which we serve as tributaries, adding to that river of ever growing love, centering our faith in love.

And this we do symbolically each year, with our water communion.

THE RIVER
Michelle

As Unitarian Universalists of the twenty first century, water communion is one of our most beloved rituals. Though it is one of our newer traditions, clocking in at only 44 or so years old, water communion has become an essential part of our living tradition; a tradition which changes and adapts over time, much as a river does.

Rivers shape the environment in which humans live as much as humans shape the environment in which the rivers flow. Rivers flood their banks, dry up, flow peaceably along, carve new paths, cool off hot bodies, and sustain life of all kinds. It is hard to imagine life in this corner of earth without rivers or the lakes, streams, creeks, and springs which they form or by which the rivers are formed.

And so rivers are an apt metaphor for talking about the Eternal – whether that is within the context of process theology or a never-ending stream of prophetic voices calling for our attention or a way in which we might begin to understand the Tao, or a way to embrace our own Living Tradition.

One of the things I have loved best about my calling as an interim minister, thus far, is how each congregation, no matter how big or small, has had a role to play in shaping, or forming, my own faith. And, as if that were not enough, once I have been re-shaped, or re-formed, I then have the opportunity to bring my new learnings, or insights, to the next congregation. As I have done already here, and would like to do so again now.

One of these former congregations had the practice of beginning each of the children’s religious education classes with a common sharing of joys and sorrows. That, in and of itself, was not all that unusual, but they added to the practice a ritual of passing a small bowl of water and a little dish of salt around the table as they did so. Each child would share their joys and/or sorrows, then add a tiny pinch of salt to the bowl of water, and stir it with their finger. The salt in the water represented the natural composition of human tears. Whether our tears are of sorrow, or of joy, they all contain water and salt. The bowl of water that was passed from person to person was a bowl full of the community’s tears – the happy ones and the sad ones, too.

Whether the river that carries you through the world is a river of Love, as Rev. Chris has described, or a river of Life, as I might say, the River carries with it the power to heal and the power to bless.

INVITATION TO WATER COMMUNION
Chris

In a moment, when the music begins playing, I will invite you to come forward down either of these two aisles, carrying the water you have brought with you, or you may use water we have provided at the table up front. When you reach one of the tables, please pour your water into one of the larger vases, holding in your mind and heart what it symbolizes that is holy for you, and, perhaps, what is sacred about the place from which it is drawn. You are welcome to stir in a little salt as in Rev. Michelle’s story.

You may return afterward down this center aisle and may also light a candle during this time if you are moved to do so.

If you have joined us online today, please feel free to replicate this ritual in any way that works for the space from which you are watching.

You may notice some folks bringing forward an empty cup, as a reflection of the water insecurity in Gaza right now. We have provided empty containers on our tables for anyone who may wish to join them in solidarity.

After the service, we have created a station in Howson Hall where you may create text and artwork expressing what the water symbolizes for you. If you are online, please feel free to post text or images in the comments.

Now, let our water communion begin.

BLESSING OF THE WATERS
Michelle

The waters gathered together, here, in these common bowls, and among all of you online, represent all of the symbolic meanings you have brought with you today. Memory, Hope, Joy, Heritage, Anger, Resilience, Justice, Friendship, Tradition, Forgiveness, Transformation, Love, and much more has been stirred together. These common bowls hold within them so much of the mystery and meaning of communal life so let us, together, bless these waters. All are invited to hold out our arms in a gesture of silent blessing … and then say together: These waters are blessed. May our lives also be blessed.

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

As you sail along on the River of Life and of Love,
may the winds be gentle,
your sails strong,
the weather fair,
your friends plenty,
and the waters replenishing.
May the congregation say: Amen and Blessed Be.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

2024 Question Box Service

August 27, 2024 by tom 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 and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
August 25, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Michelle and Rev. Chris will answer your questions about the church, life, the universe, and everything (though neither will pretend to have the answers to all that).

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 marvelous thing about a good question is that it shapes our identity as much by asking the question as it does by the answering.

– David Whyte

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Courageous people willing to admit ignorance and raise difficult questions is usually not just more prosperous, but also more peaceful than societies in which everyone must unquestioningly accept a single answer. People afraid of losing their truth tend to be more violent. Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.

– Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive the omissions and/or errors.

Michelle
So today is our question box sermon. This is a time when we attempt to offer an answer to some of your questions. It may not be the only answer or the right answer or the best answer, but we will offer some answers, some potential answers and I also want to and we will do our best to get all of these questions I want so much to answer everyone they are so precious today we may not get to all of them but we will try and realizing each one could be a sermon in its own right. You’re asking two preachers. So double the trouble.

First question that we received ahead of time is a two-part question.

HOW SHOULD YOU RESPOND WHEN SOMEONE SINCERELY SAYS THEY WILL PRAY FOR YOU?

Michelle
My answer is most of the time to look them in the eyes with kindness and gratitude and say thank you because it is about them and their spirituality and they are offering you a gift in the best way that they know how. Some of the time that may not be appropriate. What I’m thinking about are instances relating to oppression, such as when someone offers to pray the gay away, or offers to fix your disabled body, or things like that. In those cases, I would not respond in those ways.

But if you’re in some time of crisis in your life, facing a hospitalization or surgery or grieving a loss, then gratitude is what I would offer as the best response to an offer of prayer.

The other half of that question is:

HOW ABOUT WHEN THEY ARE SARCASTIC OR NASTY ABOUT IT, SAYING, FOR EXAMPLE, YOU SURE NEED THESE PRAYERS?

Michelle
A simple ouch. Or, wow, is fine. You can call them on it and say, you know, that’s a really hurtful comment. It’s okay to name it and say it. Prayer is not and should not be a weapon.

Chris
Thanks, Michelle. I wouldn’t add a lot to that except I try to also remember that we don’t know what they think of as prayer when they say this to us. So for Since I do pray, but it’s not to a higher power, it’s kind of just putting my wishes for the universe out there. So if I say I’m praying for you, I’m sending you well wishes, is what I mean by that. If they’re sarcastic or nasty, I just tend to say, well, and I’m going to pray your hairdo gets better too. I don’t actually. I think that what I do consider sometimes with something like that is do I need to set boundaries and or is this a person I need to continue to have in my life?

The next question,
DID GOD CREATE HUMANS IN GOD’S IMAGE OR DID HUMANS CREATE A GOD IN THEIR IMAGE?

Chris
Yes.

Actually, that was a joke, but I’m going to talk in a minute about a theology that I hold that I think would answer that, yes, or both. And I also, though, want to get to what I think this question may be getting at, which is that when we create an idea of God that reflects ourselves, that we humanize, it’s too easy to cast our own selves into that God and to cast our own prejudices and our own hatreds and our own behavior into that God and thereby to excuse those things about ourselves. So I think that’s the danger of creating a God in our own image.

A theology that really supports me these days is called process relational theology and the idea behind it is though we think of ourselves and this pulpit as solid objects – we’re really not. We are processes of evolution or becoming so the very fact that we’re having this conversation today is changing us. As we have it the Buddhists would say, “That flame in our chalice seems to be a solid object but it’s really not.” It’s a process of fuel and oxygen repeatedly being burned….

…its tributaries is calling us to live in the ways of love. And so from that perspective, that river of love that I call God is both creating us and we are contributing to God and creating God at the same time. So I think that’s a lovely theology and it calls us by the very nature that we’re all processes to engage in liberation together because none of us can become…

Michelle
… so you may recognize that this question refers to an early line in Genesis about God creating humans in God’s image. And the interesting thing about the Hebrew is that it is actually plural, Elohim, in our images, that there are a multitude, a multiplicity of gods, not just the one monotheistic God that we have been taught to believe in.

The Hebrew Bible came into creation over at least 1,400 years, depending on how you do the math, possibly a few hundred more years than that, depending on which academic scholar you follow. And it took all of that time to come into what most Christians consider to be a solid monotheistic perspective that they have today. In the meantime, if we were to think about the ancient Israelites, such as those who the story is told about wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, they believed that there were other gods out there and that the God that we now call simply God was their God. And they imagined when they were fighting with other groups, with other cultures, other peoples, as in wartime, not simple conflict, that while the humans were battling on the field here on earth, their God leaders were also battling up in heaven. And it was the stronger God who would win.

So when we talk about God’s rod and staff, we’re really talking about the symbols of God that are carried in and before a people, especially during wartime, not instruments used to beat people, their symbols. That’s a complete misunderstanding of the Hebrew.

So long answer is, interestingly enough, now that we are U.S. who believe in a multiplicity of theologies and philosophies, we can go right back to the beginning of the Hebrew Bible that also believes in a multiplicity of gods. Hopefully ours won’t like go to war, though. Oh, and then the next question I have is:

I DO HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT THE DISCUSSION OF GOD AT THE UNITARIAN CHURCH. I WOULD IMAGINE THAT IF WE TOOK A SURVEY OF OUR CONGREGANTS AND ASKED IF THEY BELIEVED IN GOD, MOST WOULD SAY YES. NOW, OF COURSE, INDIVIDUAL BELIEFS IN GOD WOULD VARY TREMENDOUSLY. MY QUESTION IS: WHY DON’T UNITARIANS EVER DISCUSS THE SUBJECT OF GOD, EITHER FROM THE PULPIT OR IN SMALL GROUPS? I IMAGINE IT IS BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE SOME UNCOMFORTABLE AND OTHERS FELT IT WOULD BE TOO CLOSE TO PRESSING A DOGMA. BUT IT SEEMS A BELIEF WOULD HAVE A BIG PART OF SPIRITUALITY WHICH I FEEL IS LACKING IN UU.

Michelle
This could totally be a sermon in response. That’s a very long question. So I have so much I would love to say about this.

One is that as Unitarian Universalists, we are a faith tradition of people who are come-outers. We do have our children that we raise in our faith and grow up and remain UUs. We also have many, many new people who are constantly leaving other faith traditions and coming into our faith traditions. They are bringing so much of their religious hurt with them that as a community in order to support them, we are often in the position of supporting people who are feeling really hurt and broken over concepts of God and religion…

…I’m not sure I want to call it standard Christianity, but mainline Christianity believes in this Greco-Hebrew amalgamation of a monotheistic god with all sorts of omnis attached to it doesn’t mean that’s the only definition of God.

We UUs have as much power and privilege to define God in the way that we see God as they do. So we can say that we believe in a God and define that God for ourselves, whether it is as a river of love or a force in the universe or the power behind evolution, all sorts of different kinds of ways. So yes, we often default to terms like eternal, sacred, divine, holy, universe, earth.

But we also have this opportunity to learn to translate in and amongst each other and with other faith traditions to make the theology work for ourselves. This is where it comes in of not being you, easy to be a UU. We have to work to be UUs, right? Amen. That’ll move us along. Next question.

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET FOR CREATING SUCH A POSITIVE, ENGAGING, EXCITING ATMOSPHERE FOR ALL AGES AT FIRST UU, BOTH IN THE SERVICE, ESPECIALLY IN THE SERMON, AND ALL AROUND THE CHURCH, IN SPITE OF ALL THE WORRIES THAT SURROUND US AND OUR DAILY LIFE, POLITICS, CLIMATE, VIOLENCE, ET CETERA.

Chris
Wow. There’s a whole other sermon here. So first, thank you. Questions like this help me keep that positive outlook. I think that for Michelle and I as spiritual leaders of the church, or at least speaking for myself, in order to do that, I have to know how to do that for myself. Where do I sustain myself? How do I find that positive energy even when things are hard?

And for me, I go back to that sustaining theology, process theology, that I was just talking about and try to make that real in my life, even when things are hard….

… I’m doing a whole sermon here. One of the professors, Sharon Welch, where I went to seminary, talked about when things are really hard, letting go of the outcome is so important and thinking about what are we going to do? How do we live? Can we find the joy regardless of the outcome? So, for instance, I think with the climate crisis, we do work toward an outcome that we hope for. And I think that outcome is possible. And I think we’re also seeing that we may not get the outcome we hope for. We’re seeing some really scary stuff. And if we only look at that outcome, it’s hard to fill the joy in what we’re doing now. And so living according to our values in the moment and working for what we dream about in the world, whether or not we know that’s going to happen, helps us maintain that joy.

The final thing I’ll say, many of you know what I’m going through in my personal life right now. As a young Southern Texas male I was taught that the way you deal with those negative things is to not feel anything at all. And let me tell you that is not the answer because feeling nothing at all I can tell you is worse than feeling grief and hurt and pain. We need those things because without those things, we also don’t feel love and joy. So let me tell you, the hurt is worth, the love is worth the hurt. It absolutely is. And please don’t try not to feel. Feeling, you have to feel. And that’s the whole gamut of things because if you anesthetize the pain, you anesthetize the joy and love.

Michelle
And I would just put that right back on all of you when I can walk in here on Sunday morning and pick up on so much energy and life and vitality and joy. It feeds my spirit so much. It’s the best part of the entire week for me is when I arrive here at church on Sunday morning. And I don’t know if any of you online can pick up on that or feel it at all. I hope that you can. And I assure you that it is here. And that is from all of you.

And on top of that, I walk into working with this great staff team with Kinsey and Shannon and Brent and Aubrey and everyone else and they are just amazing to work with and you are so lucky to have them and I feel so lucky and blessed to work with Rev Chris to minister with him I am just having the best time doing that. So, that really feeds my joy. Next question.

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MINISTER GOES ON SABBATICAL OR OTHER LONGER TERM LEAVE HOW IS THE WORK OF THE CHURCH CONTINUED. WHO COVERS FOR THEM.

Michelle
This is a very relevant question right now. So as many of you know, Chris’s husband is in hospice. So he will be facing bereavement leave at some point. And we are going to hold and support him through that whenever that happens. Also, Chris is due for some sabbatical time this year and I will let him share in a moment about what he might do on his sabbatical.

I am also facing some surgeries this year. So as a congregation that has a form of policy governance which requires us to have a continuous operation plan. The basic plan is basically you are going to have one minister all year with periods of two ministers for maybe a couple of weeks at a time here and there.

So this is a joy today to actually be with Chris before he goes out for another couple of weeks. So Chris will be out for two weeks in September, for sure. He will be out for sabbatical in November and December. I will be going out for a total knee replacement in January and February, Chris will be going out for sabbatical in March and April. I will be saying goodbye to all of you in mid-June and then taking another opportunity for my other knee, total knee replacement and moving to wherever I go next. So between the two of us, we are planning to have a calm, stable, sustaining year. We’re probably not going to do a whole bunch of brand new, huge initiatives. It’ll be more like little tweaks and improvements here and there, and also just keep one of the reasons I chose to come to this church is because you are vital and alive and thriving post-pandemic. So we want to keep that going and that’s basically the plan.

Chris
Great. I wouldn’t add a lot except just to let you know that I was actually due for my sabbatical and then the pandemic happened. And then I was talking about taking it and then our minister Meg retired. So it’s been a while coming. I look forward to it. The reason we do sabbatical is to refresh ourselves a little bit and to get some time that we can think about, what in the world am I going to preach about next?

Right now, what sounds good to me for sabbatical is to load my two pups in the car with me and have a general idea where I’m going and then just drive. So I would love to do that for a little bit. I will also mention that we will bring in some help, some coverage part-time. We have talked with Aaron Walter, who you’ll remember was one of our interim ministers last year, and she will be helping us out. So I do want to get to a couple of these, and we’re running out of time. So one of the questions that just got asked is:

WHY DID MICHAEL SERVETUS GO TO GENEVA WHEN EVERYBODY TOLD HIM NOT TO?

Chris
Because he was a Unitarian. Just kidding.

WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST FULFILLING IN YOUR WORK AS A UU MINISTER?

Michelle
Oh my gosh. So much. Like I already said, the joy and vitality of coming in here and being with you in person on Sunday morning. But the things that touch my heart the most are when you share your stories about how you are going through life and what you are learning and how you are growing and changing from it, how you are transforming.

Chris
So I think we’re running out of time. I agree with all that. I think the only thing I might add is that I want to be a part of a faith that makes a real difference for us and for other people in the world. I believe this church does that. It certainly does that in my life. Being with you’all makes a real difference. That is the thing I love the most. Our faith makes a difference in the world for the better.

Michelle
All right. Actually, I’ll close with a little story, and then we’ll sing. We just had a board retreat, and at the close of that board retreat, we came to a place where I felt like the entire board was on-board with really doing the work of dismantling white supremacy culture, and really turning in the way that they’re thinking about how to do the work of governing this church in a new way. And so I am so excited and fulfilled by having heard what they had to say.

And Chris and I were talking this morning about apologies for the past. For the first time, we’re excited about writing our monthly monitoring reports. Because a whole new world has opened up, and we’re going to be able to do it in such a better way. And I just love that.

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

As we go out into our world now, may we continue to explore questions more profound than answers. And may we also find some really good answers every now and then. May the congregation say amen. And blessed be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Renewal, Restoration, Reclaiming

August 24, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 18, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The challenges of life and our current world can exhaust our minds, bodies, and spirits. We often think of renewal as finding nourishment and new energy from sources outside of ourselves, and that can certainly be valid sometimes. What if another source of reinvigorating our spirit comes from within though? How do we release the spark of the divine within us so that it can burn brighter than ever?

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

STRIPPING AWAY ALL THAT IS NOT WHO WE REALLY ARE
by Alan Seale

Michelangelo said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” There is nothing to add to our souls, to ourselves, or to our societies in order to find out who we are as manifestations of Source, Consciousness, or God. Our job now is to carve away everything that keeps us from being who we really are … who we are called to be from the depth of our human spirit.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE UNBROKEN
Rashani Réa

There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.

Sermon

As many of you know, but some may not, a few months ago my spouse, Wayne, had to go on home hospice care because of a hereditary, chronic immune condition. We have since tried one final potential treatment, but it caused dangerous side effects, so he is now on health maintenance and palliative medications only. He is pretty much homebound now.

We have some good days though, as well as some times that are hard. We are in a liminal space, where we have no way to know what to expect each day, though we do know we have fewer and fewer days left together, so we’d better get busy loving each other in each moment now.

But isn’t that really always true.

I start by sharing this with you this morning for at least a couple of reasons. One is just that, I know it can feel awkward to bring it up, even if to express your thoughts and support.

As we continue to build an even greater culture of caring in the church, we have to be OK with discussing these things. It’s OK to share what we’re going through. It’s OK to to express care and support for what others are going through. It doesn’t have to be awkward to raise the subject – even when it involves the minister. And, I want you to know how much your expressions of support have meant to both me and Wayne.

Now, in a church this size, it can become difficult though for folks to share updates with more than 400 people on an individual basis, so we’ve set up a system where the co-chairs of our First UU Cares Ministry and the ministers can let the church know what is going on with folks who are facing life challenges.

The same is true for me. I am keeping Rev. Michelle, and Susan and Toni of First UU Cares updated on our situation so that they can let you know what is happening with us, should you want to ask them. You can email First UU Cares through caring@austinuu.org.

The other reason I wanted to start with this it that today we are exploring how to find renewal when life depletes our energy and resources sometimes.

Wayne and I are pretty much having to find renewal every day in order to make the most of every moment we can, while we still can.

So, I thought I might share somethings that help me find renewal these days. Now, I didn’t just come up with this stuff myself – these are things out there in the literature that have been found to revive our spirits even during difficult circumstances.

And lets face it, we all go through challenges sometimes, whether in our own lives or more broadly – more broadly, like, oh, a pandemic, a climate crisis, an election where fascism will be on the ballot, witnessing and some of us experiencing experiencing ongoing, systemic racism and oppression, witnessing war, terrorism, genocide and more in world events – well, all of these and then some can kind of wear us down sometimes, can’t they – exhaust us, mind, body and soul.

And so here are some places we may find renewal even in challenging times:

Community,
Nature,
Rest and Reset,
Joy and Play,
the Sacred Self

COMMUNITY:
We so often find rebirth in relationship – find ourselves revived by the support of others.

Wayne and I are so fortunate to be held by so many wonderful communities of love and support, including this one.

And research is finding, for example, among social justice movements, that it is not possible to sustain our efforts, to consistently access these other sources of renewal without building community first.

Now, there is this interesting paradox about community though – sometimes we also need solitude in order to fully realize the depth of community. We have to go up to the mountain top alone in order to come back more fully interconnected and engaged than ever.

One morning recently, I snuck away to a little spot nearby that overlooks a babbling creek, just to have my morning coffee in solitude. And somehow, in that time alone, I sensed more strongly than ever how firmly held in community I truly am.

NATURE:
So many of us replenish our souls through being in nature, in solitude or in community with others. Our UU transcendentalist forbearers thought of nature as a source for communion with the divine. Getting out in nature is a big one for me – at least when it is not 105 degrees out!

Well, I could go on and about the renewing nature of nature, but why listen to me when we have the poetry of Mary Oliver.

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
– Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beach, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness and discernment,
and never hurry through the world,
but walk slowly and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and callout, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again. “It’s simple,” they say.
“And you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

REST AND RESET:
Becoming a caretaker, I’ve discovered, adds so much extra. It means helping someone else do the things we normally do for ourselves. The chores and errands of daily life – laundry, doing the dishes, getting groceries, picking up prescriptions, – things that were once shared, must now be done by just one. So all that extra also requires extra rest.

The problem, says activist, performance artist and founder of the Nap Ministry, Tricia Hersey, is that we are programmed not to let ourselves rest. She goes on to say, “There is deep power in taking a break, honoring your body and actively participating in your deprogramming from grind culture. We have been brainwashed to be violent towards our own bodies by pushing it to exhaustion… Rest is a form of resistance…”

So, we, I, have to know that we can, and must, reclaim the right to rest! Now, another paradox is that rest can at times come from things that may involve some exertion, but that also help us reset: our spiritual practices such as meditation or gratitude journaling, music, arts, gardening – whatever helps us enter a new mindset and thus, reset.

Again, paradoxically, physical activity can be one of the major ways to rest ourselves by resetting ourselves – dancing, for instance.

Now, even if we can’t dance like they do, we can dance however we are able, even if in our imagination!

So, dance like no one is watching, as the saying goes, or better yet, dance and be fine with whomever may be watching. I love the joy, humor and playfulness they infuse into the dancing we just watched.

And that bring us to joy and play.

JOY AND PLAY
There may be nothing else that restores us like engaging in play and experiencing joy.

One thing that Wayne and I have always shared is playful humor, and that shared humor is helping us through this current journey together, even if the humor gets a bit dicey these days, like when Wayne keeps insisting that he wants the processional music for his memorial service to be Baby Elephant Walk.

And that’s OK, because once again, movements for social justice are showing us that joy is integral to building the resilience, the continuing ability to find renewal so necessary for sustaining ourselves.

As an example, a group called Revival Resistance Chorus helps infuse joy into social action through their music. Here is how they describe themselves.

Resistance Revival Chorus believes in the words written by the poet Toi Derricotte when she wrote, “Joy is an act of resistance.” We believe in the words of Mr. Harry Belefonte who said “when the movement is strong, the music is strong.” We sing to revive the hearts of those who fight for social justice, and we sing together for freedom.

We’ll hear more from them shortly! Well, I want to talk last about perhaps our greatest source of renewal, last in part because I think that everything we have we have covered so far helps us to access this – what I am calling the sacred self.

THE SACRED SELF
What we refer to each week in our service as a spark of the divine within each of us. What a psychological theory called Internal Family Systems calls the authentic self – an ever renewing wellspring that is joyful, playful, calm, courageous, compassionate, pure and loving.

And part of renewal often involves putting aside parts of us that mask our authentic self – parts that have often helped us get through at times, but that may no longer be helpful and may in fact be wearing us down – other parts that may have been internalized through our family and our culture.

Parts such as the always ready fighter, the perfectionist, the people pleaser, the procrastinator, the constant helper of every one else, the self-medicator. What are some parts of you that may have once been helpful but may now be keeping you from accessing your sacred self?

Like Michelango carving aways the excess marble to free the angel within in our call to worship earlier – Like how restoring an old house often involves not so much adding new, but getting rid of the ugly seventies wallpaper, tearing out the regrettable shag carpeting in order to reclaim the beauty underneath – Our renewal often involves thanking these parts of us for the ways in which they have served us, and then quieting them, letting them rest, letting them rest so that our authentic self can light our way.

As we enter a new church year, face this election year, sustain our work for justice, deal with all that comes in our own lives and our world, together let us remember: community; nature, rest and reset, joy and play – these will release the sacred self.

These will refuel that true, radiant spark of the divine within us, so that it may shine forth again, and again, and again. Shine on, my beloveds. Shine on. Amen.

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.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Transformative Moments

August 14, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 11, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In life, we and everything around us are always changing, even if in sometimes imperceptible ways. Yet, there are moments that hold the potential for more transformative change. And such transformative moments contain seeds of change that can be constructive and beneficial, but that can also turn us toward destructive and harmful change. It feels as if we may be in such a moment in our world now. How can we seize the moment and reach for transformation that brings about even more creative possibilities, love, and justice in our lives and in our world?

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 delight in the beauty of a butterfly, but rarely admit the changes is gone through to achieve that beauty.

– Maya Angelou.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

NO ORDINARY TIME, THE RISE OF SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE AND EVOLUTIONARY CREATIVITY
by Jan Phillips
We are attendants at the wake of the old way. And each of us through our actions, our thoughts, our work, our relationships is midwifing a new world into existence. This is our destiny, our meaning, our purpose. And when we come to our day with this awareness, when we are fully wakened to the tremendous privilege, when we sense the oak and the acorn of our being, then we will have the energy to move mountains and shift tides. It is an illusion that we are powerless. It is an illusion that someone else is responsible. It is an illusion that we cannot transcend these dualities and difficulties that are making a mockery out of our democracy. We are the people. This is our world.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an ai generated transcript. Please forgive any errors or omissions.

They were twins, sisters, born together, formed together, so much the same and yet not, perhaps the same coin but different sides. And then that day came in their late teens when the outsiders invaded their village. The outsiders burned the houses and buildings. They pillaged the supplies of grain and the other foods. They wrought death and destruction among far to many of their friends and loved ones, including massacring their father.

The sisters hid together until the outsiders left as suddenly as they had come, taking with them all that they had looted leaving the twin sisters and the remaining family and townsfolk in the smoke and ruins the stench of tribalism and hatred thickening the air and burning their lungs and she went into hiding. She became consumed with hate. She joined the group that would leave the village to inflict hatred upon hatred. She was among those who would hunt the outsiders doing to them what they had done, but she could not stop there. They moved from town to town among the outsider’s fellow clans, bringing to them the same fate her village had suffered. And eventually, she led them into skirmishes that transformed into war until both sides suffered injury upon injury, death upon death, including eventually her own.

But she – she turned to the love of her people. She turned to the work of rebuilding their village and healing their wounds. They went about the work of forgiveness and worked for peace and eventually they helped negotiate the end of war and brought reconciliation and reparations. She joined with those who created a new vision of peace and flourishing where there were no outsiders anymore.

And so in this wisdom tale, one twin emerges from a transformative moment as a butterfly that would bring more beauty to the world, pollinating more and more love and justice. And sadly, another sister becomes a wasp, losing more and more of herself with each hate and harm-filled sting until nothing is left.

Transformative moments are like this. They hold the possibility of both transformation that can be harmful and destructive as well as the creative potential for beauty and flowering. And so today we will explore how we can react to such moments more like butterfly sisters, a recently renowned subset of which have been referred to as childless cat ladies.

I think many of us are feeling like we’re in one of those transformative moments in our country’s history. Now, we have a big election going on and that is a huge part of this moment. And, as many of you know, that as a tax exempt non-profit the church cannot endorse any individual candidate nor can we endorse a political party.

We can, though, talk about issues related to our religious values. And our values around the separation of church and state mean we work against the state, mandating, endorsing, or sponsoring any particular religion, including even our own. And we can speak about how politics and eventually the public policy that will come out of it either contravene our religious values or uphold them. Values such as those of our Unitarian Universalist faith. Love held at our very center.

Love Flower Graphic

Now, you may have noticed on the slides that both our UU faith and our church have one more value we uphold. Transformation.

Our UU faith defines transformation like this.

We adapt to the changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openess to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages. Never complete and never perfect.

Here at the church we simply say that transformation means to pursue the growth that changes our lives and heals our world. Personally, I like how our church defines transformation. It’s more concise. And I think it fits this transformative moment in which we find ourselves.

Because again, as our story earlier shows us, transformative times can lead to change that is healing, or they can lead to change that is harmful. And this transformative moment contains an element that looms even larger than the immediate election and that holds the potential to deeply violate our religious values.

A white, fundamentalist, Christian nationalist movement is alive and active in our country, and it has found political and public policy expression in a 922-page far-right conservative manifesto called Project 2025, created by the ultra-conservative lobbying and influence group, the Heritage Foundation.

Project 2025, in my opinion, would run counter to all that we value, decimate our democratic institutions and cause great harm to many, while greatly privileging, far, far fewer. Fewer who just happen to be mostly white, hetero-cis male theocratic fundamentalists.

Now, as a minister, I cannot, as part of an official church function, endorse a particular candidate either. I can, however, express what I think of their stance on particular issues, as long as I do so as only me, not on behalf of the church as a whole.

So, let me just say, not speaking on behalf of the church, he who was always white until a number of years ago when he happened to discover spray tanning and his running mate, J.D. Vanceypants have tried to distance themselves from Project 2025 and claim to know very little about it. Yet, J.D. Vance wrote the foreword for a book about it by the primary author of Project 2025, and more than 30 Trump associates helped create the document.

Trump has said of the Heritage Foundation, and I quote:

“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will look like.”

But, I don’t know. Speaking only as me, maybe they’re not being entirely honest about this issue. That’s the pastoral way of saying they’re lying. Another more recent lie, as Project 2025 proves highly unpopular, the more people find out about it, is that they try to say that it has been put back on a shelf, as if they can’t take it right back off the shelf depending on how the election goes. And church member David Overton recently put together an excellent comparison of the party platforms in Texas. The legislation and policy proposals of one of those party platforms are derivative from and, if anything, more extreme than Project 2025 itself.

So what exactly is this Project 2025? Well, basically, it’s a blueprint for forming a theocratic authoritarian administration. As I said, it’s over 900 pages, so it’s impossible to cover all of their plans for every federal department this morning. Here, though, are just a few examples of what a presidential administration following Project 2025 would do, much of it within their first 180 days.

Eliminate job protections for and fire experienced qualified civil servants and replace them with partisans whose only job qualification would be loyalty to the conservative president.

They have already established a database of people who would serve in these positions.

Gut the Environmental Protection Agency.
End climate research.
Eliminate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service.
Reverse all LGBTQ plus federal protections and end all transgender health care under Medicare and Medicaid
Expel trans folks from the military as well as anyone requiring treatment for HIV.
Eliminate the Department of Education.
Revoke the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Policy that prevents raids on churches.
Convert the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Life, tying benefits to traditional family structures,
Eliminating abortion as health care,
Utilizing the federal bureaucracy to effectively prevent access to abortion nationwide as well as to
severely limit access to contraceptives.
Restructure the Justice Department and the FBI to serve the aims of the presidential administration and
End enforcement of voting rights.

Well, these are just a few. It goes on and on and on. God, guns, and gays is back with a vengeance. And if anyone claims it is an overreaction to call Project 2025, a detailed plan for establishing a permanent white nationalist, Christo-fascist state. Listen to what Trump said just recently to a group of fundamentalists.

“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time, You won’t have to do it any more. You know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, was even more direct, saying, quote,

“We are in the process of the Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it.”

To paraphrase Maya Angelou, when people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.

Interdependence
Equity
Generosity
Pluralism
Community
Courage
Compassion
Justice
Transcendence
Love

The kind of transformation we seek in our lives and our world, these are under seige by the wasp stings of a white suprimacist nationalism theocratic facist institutionalized patriarchy that has arisen during this Chrysalis time.

And so we, we must also raise up our religious values in the public square. We must become the pollinators of love and justice in our world, the butterfly siblings that dismantle all Project 2025 seeks to fortify and build in its place the beloved community.

So how do we do that? I don’t have all the answers. But right now, as Carrie mentioned in the announcements, we UU the Vote. Because when people vote, our religious values tend to become more actualized in public policy. So after the service today, join us in sending postcards, encouraging folks to vote. Consider serving as a poll worker during the election. Right now, we educate ourselves about Project 2025 And we inform and educate others about it because polling shows that even fairly conservative folks oppose it when they find out what is in it.

And right now, if you so choose, you can work for those who you believe are most likely to pursue laws and policies consistent with your values, values centered in love. Perhaps most importantly though, we must know that this transformative time will continue beyond this particular election. It will require more of us. Project 2025 will just try to become Project 2029 and so on.

So we take the long view. And one of the ways that we do that is by living our values in our daily lives. We build communities of love, joy, and justice such as this religious community. As our reading earlier said,

“We are attendants at the wake of the old way, and each of us through our actions, our thoughts, our work, and relationships is midwifing a new world into existence.”

And so in our lives, our actions small and large, our communities, our ways of being, we breathe our values into the world. We build a new way. We join with others bound for a new land of freedom and justice singing come and go with me along the way.

Author and activist Adrian Marie Brown writes,

How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. The patterns of the universe repeat at scale. There is a structural echo that suggests two things.

One, that there are shapes and patterns fundamental to our universe.

And two, that what we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale.

Remember, my beloveds, we do what we can. How we live matters. How we live makes a difference. How we respond in transformitive moments has the potential to build the world about which we dream. This is our project.

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

I leave you with words from Octavia Butler.

All that you touch, you change.
All that you change changes you.
The only lasting truth is change.
God is change.

May the change we bring builds the beloved community.
Amen and Blessed be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

The Blessings of Small Group Ministry

July 29, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson, Toni Wegner, Melanie Cofield, and John Scott
July 28, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

One of our church’s most transformative ways of deeply connecting with fellow church members and experiencing profound spiritual growth is by participating in a Chalice Circle or Wellspring ministry group. Join us for this special service and hear about the real differences they make possible.

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

May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations,
And inspired to bring our gifts of love and service
to the altar of humanity.

May we know once again that we are not isolated beings
But connected, in mystery and miracle, to the universe,
To this community and to each other.

– Anonymous

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

From THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA
by Malidoma Somé
Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave: the full realization of their innate gifts, and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged, and confirmed.

There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius.
In the psyches of such people there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them cannot perceive it.

Sermon

Today’s service features several folks from the church who will explore the real differences our small group ministries such as Wellspring and Chalice Circles can make in our lives.

(NOTE: This is an ai generated transcript. Please forgive any errors.)

Melanie Cofield

Good morning, everyone. My name is Melanie Cofield, and I am a white queer woman with short grayish brown hair, wearing glasses, and a blue button -up shirt. My pronouns are she /they. I welcome this opportunity to share a bit about my experience participating in First UU Small Group Ministries.

I’ll start by sharing a little of my background. Due to experiences of judgment and exclusion in churches of my youth, I have been long estranged from organized religion. During the COVID pandemic, I found welcome, comfort, hope, and peace in the online services provided by First UU of Austin. And I joined as a member with my wife in 2022.

As someone working in higher education my entire career, and relatively new to Unitarian Universalism, a logical first step for me as a new church member was to learn more about the foundations of this religious tradition.

I attended a membership information class and someone mentioned the opportunity to join a wellspring group focused on the six UU sources. So I signed up excited about a new learning adventure. Now I expected to learn about the history and foundations of Unitarian Universalism But I was surprised and moved to learn so much about myself and to connect so deeply with my fellow wellspring group members.

My spiritual life has been firmly grounded in a primal reverence for nature since childhood. And it has been a solitary, private, and somewhat haphazard pursuit for most of my years. Participating in wellspring groups has helped me deepen and fine-tune my spirituality and expand my spiritual circle. Put another way in borrowing the pragmatic motto of Unitarian Minister Reverend Mary Safford of the Iowa Sisterhood in the late 1800s, I’m learning to lengthen the cord and strengthen the stakes. Let me share some highlights from my Wellspring takeaways with you in hopes that it will inspire you to consider participation in the future. I’m pursuing deep reflection and practicing deep listening. I’m developing intentional spiritual practices. I have found a vocabulary for alter articulating my spirituality.

I’m reconnecting with my creativity And I’ve both recognized and discovered new sources of wisdom and inspiration that feed my soul. I’m slowly but tangibly letting go of self -consciousness and self -doubt in my spiritual endeavors.

And I’m moving from an exclusively solo spirituality to one based on trust and connection and community. Finally, I found space to build resilience and hope in a chaotic and despairing world. After joining that first Wellspring Sources group, I wasn’t ready for the experience to end, so I lengthened my cord and volunteered to co-facilitate a Wellspring Deep Questions program focused on the eight principles of Unitarian Universalism.

This coming year, I’m delighted to continue serving the first UU community by co-facilitating and exploring a new program in the Wellspring Curriculum called Love at the Center, UU Values and Covenants. My experience has been profound and I encourage others to explore the gift of these small group ministries offered by First UU and consider participating. We hope to see you there. Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.

Jim Scott

Good morning. My name is John Scott and I’m a relatively new member here. My pronouns are he /him. I started attending here about two and a half years ago online, shortly after my father died. And I very unexpectedly, found myself, after about 30 years of not going to church, feeling like I wanted to belong to something like a church. So I started kind of looking around, seeing what was available, and what might feel welcoming to me, and gradually found my way here. So after attending online for several months, I began to feel ready to meet people and kind of be more engaged with the community.

And I love being a student. It’s one of my favorite things. So I thought, well, I’ll look for adult education opportunities. And I went online on the website and found my way to adult education and the Wellspring program. And it just sounded perfect for me, especially because when I was clicking around on the website, I found something that looked a lot like a syllabus. And there was like a reading list and homework assignments, and I thought, you know, this is for me. So I signed up. I signed up for Wellspring. And Two years later here. I am talking about wellspring This year we’re offering love at the center, and that’s the one that Melanie was just talking about That’s a foundational course for people who have not taken a wellspring program before so it’s For everyone in other words and plus it’s brand new so even if you have taken wellspring before You might just be interested in that because it’s new.

But then there’s also a second program called Spiritual Practices, and this one is for people who have already taken Wellspring in the past, a Wellspring Sources program. So I know there’s a group that’s just finishing Wellspring Sources. There are people that have taken it in years past, and this Spiritual Practices program would be especially for you because it’s one of the second year programs that we offer through Wellspring.

So just a little bit about how the groups work. We meet here twice a month in the church in the classrooms. It’ll be first and third Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9 p .m. We put the chairs in a little circle, put a stool in the middle with a candle on it as our chalice, do a brief check -in with each other just to see how we’re doing that day, how our spiritual practice is going. And then we spend most of the time reflecting on questions together. So about two weeks before we meet, the facilitators send out an email with things, and little video clips to watch, and about five or six questions to review. And for me, it would only take me maybe an hour, hour and a half over that two week period to do the homework and make notes in my journal about the reflection question.

So it’s a little bit of homework, but it didn’t feel like overly burdensome at all. And then when we’re together, twice a month, we go through those questions one at a time using Parker Palmer’s Circles of Trust. So I brought Parker Palmer’s book. It’s a really good process where when someone shares what they’ve reflected on, the rest of the group just holds that in sacred silence, just kind of deep listening. And the basic guideline is that there’s no fixing, no changing, no advising, and no setting each other straight.

So it’s not like a normal conversation. You’re deeply listening to each other, deeply sharing from your heart, and I really found this to be so helpful and nourishing. And it’s a great way to learn how to just be present with each other, which is ultimately maybe the most valuable thing we can offer to each other, is just being present with each other. So after that first year of Wellspring Sources, and Melanie was one of my colleagues, the group decided to stay together for a whole second year and do the Deep Questions program, which we just just a couple of months ago. So I think that speaks to how meaningful we all found the experience that we really bonded and we wanted to stay together a whole second year. And I just wanna give a brief shout out to my wellspring siblings, ’cause now I think of them as my siblings. So Jenny, I saw Jenny over there, and Carrie, Amy, and Melanie, Sharon, Stephanie, Aaron, AJ, and Eric. So they’re my siblings now and I look forward to having more siblings after this coming year from Wellspring. There are descriptions that I brought. If you like the syllabus like I do, I brought some of those so you can find me and I’d be happy to share those. And they will also be on the website. If you go to learning and and adults, you’ll find information about Wellspring.

Toni Wegner

Good morning. I’m Toni. I use she /her pronouns. I’m on the other side of middle age and I’m wearing a summery dress and sensible shoes. Regardless of what my record may suggest I did not join this church just to be on committees. I’m delighted to be here today because small group ministries are what nourish my soul.

I spent two years in wellspring up until the pandemic and I highly recommend the program for those who can make the time of commitment. I continue to zoom the spiritual advisor I had during that program. She was a lifeline during the pandemic and currently in my transition to retirement. I participated in Chalice Circles for a couple of years before Wellspring and for the past two years.

We currently use the Soul Matters curriculum which has themes each month that tie into the themes for the sermons and into RE, themes like renewal, mystery, generosity, heritage. We get a package of materials two to four weeks in advance that have readings and quotes, video links, spiritual You can pick you pick one spiritual exercise and one question to talk about when the chalice circle meets once a month And you can even make up your own question It’s very flexible with lots of options to choose from and you can spend as little or as much time on the packet As you’d like so there doesn’t have to be a big-time commitment It’s a fun and interesting curriculum that challenges you to think and to feel, I personally was definitely on the shorter time commitment end.

The group I met with was on Zoom, which I found very convenient, but other groups meet in person, which also have positives. Many of the activities have been creative and interesting, like identifying a family memento that has a hold on you or realizing your mother saved nothing, taking a weird walk, doing something generous while remaining anonymous, making a list of delights in your life, taking quizzes on our political misperceptions, or exploring how each of the homes you lived in has shaped and helped create you. I came away from each of the exercises and questions with insights about myself, some positive or comforting, others not so much, but always feeling like I had a better understanding of why I am the way I am.

In the chalice circle, after an opening reading and check-in, each person has the opportunity to talk about the exercise they did and the question they answered. This is completely without interruption, usually three to four minutes each, so very similar format to Wellspring. After everyone has had a chance to share, there’s a brief period for responses and reflections, again following Parker Palmer’s no fixing, saving, advising, or setting each other straight.

Here’s what I loved. I loved that even at this age I am learning things about myself that feel important, that I can talk about things that I have ever talked about with anyone else in my life, with full confidence of confidentiality, that all of us share things that make us vulnerable, and in doing so, we form a deep bond. And that I feel a deeper connection to members of the first UU community than I would have ever felt through coffee hour or committees. We had an end of year child event in June where people from all the different childless circles got together to share reflections on the program.

And having gone through the program, I felt a bond with many of these people, even though I had never met some of them before. People overwhelmingly enjoyed the curriculum, which has something for everyone. There were also lots of positive comments about the value of having uninterrupted time to talk with others listening, the practice of deep listening, and the bonding that comes from this depth of sharing.

I’m really glad that our church offers these small group ministries and hope that everyone looking to make connections or go deeper will consider signing up this year. You commit a couple of hours a month and you get a lot of nourishment for that. For those who are skeptical, as most you use are, I hope you’ll consider participating in a taste of soul after church on August 4th or 11th to let you see what this experience will be like.

Check the newsletter for more information. Finally, I haven’t mentioned yet that I was a co-facilitator last year and will be one again this year. Why do I co-facilitate? Well, pragmatically, the more facilitators we have, the more spaces available for people to participate. Also, you get to pick when and where the group will meet, so that’s kind of a plus, hence online. There’s a really good two -hour online training and opportunities to meet with other facilitators and other than that facilitating takes like less than 15 minutes a month more than participating. So you can facilitate even if it’s your first chalice circle. And I was a co-facilitator getting to work with and to know my co-facilitator has been a highlight of my last year, so please consider it. I hope that I get to know you better in a chalice circle someday.

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

As we go back out into our world today, may we carry with us the love of this, our beloved religious community.

May we center our lives in love, just as we center our faith in love. May the melody flowing through our souls be a river of love that carries us forward until next we gather our spirits again.

Amen and Blessed Be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Poetry Plus

July 1, 2024 by tom 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 and AJ Juraska
June 30, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

So often, we recoil against overly literal interpretations of the bible that at best seem irrational and at worst harmful. What if rather than a “literal- factual” understanding of biblical scripture, we embraced scholar and theologian Marcus Borg’s “historical-metaphorical” approach instead? Might then the bible become poetry of love and justice?

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

READING THE BIBLE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME;
TAKING THE BIBLE SERIOUSLY BUT NOT LITERALLY
by Marcus J Borg

“… stories can be true without being literally and factually true … A metaphorical approach to the bible thus emphasizes metaphors and their associations … metaphors can be profoundly true, even though they are not literally true. Metaphor is poetry plus, not factuality minus.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

“The Bible is like Santa Claus and sex. Children hear about it on the playground or on the street, whether or not their parents discuss it with them. And as an adult, if you don’t enjoy it and wish to abstain, you can successfully avoid it only by taking extreme measures such as total social deprivation or profound isolation.

The Bible is holy scripture because it is the living document and foundation of many important faiths, including Unitarian Universalist. To abandon the Bible would mean alienation from one of the world’s most important influences on religious thought-liberal and otherwise …. Our concept of respect for the web of existence, for instance, emanates from a stream of thought that flows through the Psalms and the Prophets from that same God of Genesis who declared the goodness of creation.”

– Rev. David McFarland

Sermon

AJ Juraska’s Homily

I just finished my first year of seminary. If you had told me five years ago I would be in seminary, I would have been shocked. Even more so by the fact that I am attending a Christian seminary.

I wanted to attend a Christian seminary in part because I knew that whether I end up being a chaplain, a parish minister, or working on social justice issues, living in Texas means that I will be exposed to Christian viewpoints and references to the Bible. The more I learn about the Bible, the more I realize that the Bible is hidden in plain sight all around us – in song lyrics, art, writing, common sayings, and so much more. The song we heard earlier, Turn Turn Turn by Pete Seager, is from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. While working on this homily, I learned that Emily Dickenson’s works reference the Bible.

A part of me also hoped that, by going to a Christian seminary maybe I would find myself identifying as a Christian again. I grew up in a Christian church and I miss some of the magic I found there, and the belonging in having a shared text. Being a UU can be hard in that way. When I used to play roller derby I would often get asked “but where is the ball.” I think the equivalent in UUism is “where is the central text that you all read and agree on.”

As it turns out, though, even the Christians don’t agree on a central text. Catholics include different books of the bible than Protestants. So we’re not even all reading the same Bible. It took hundreds of years after Jesus’ death before there was even a semblance of agreement on what books to include, and the order to read them in.

The books of the Bible were written in a time and a place. As my New Testament professor says, some of what we are reading is essentially someone else’s mail. Paul is writing to early Christian churches to try to guide them in how to be successful in this new endeavor, especially at a time when Christians were persecuted and there was debate over who could be included in this new church.

So why should we read something written nearly two thousand years ago that has context and meaning for a time so long in the past? Unitarian Universalist Minister John A Buehrens answers us in his book Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals. He says, “Progressive people simply cede their power to opponents when they leave interpretation of our religious heritage, or the meaning of our nation, or authentic ‘family values,’ to the reactionaries, the chauvinists, and the bigots.” He goes on to say that if we reject the Bible, it, quote “doesn’t mean that it ever goes away. Rather it simply means that it ends up only in the hands and on the lips of others – often reactionary others-where it can and will be used against you.”

Buehrens is right. Louisiana just passed a law requiring public school classrooms to display the ten commandments. Texas tried to pass a similar bill last session, and we can bet it will be on the docket again come next year’s session. We can shout about separation of church and state all we want, but the Bible isn’t going to leave our political dialogue any time soon.

While the ten commandments are a part of the bible, they are cherry-picked, in that, according to Jewish tradition, there are actually 613 commandments or mitsvot in the Bible. Most of these mitsvot cannot be followed for a variety of reasons, including that they require being in the temple which was destroyed.

One of the big questions in the early Christian church was whether the early Christians needed to follow the law, in other words the commandments. The New Testament in part is grappling with this question, and there are different interpretations of whether the Jews and the Gentiles, the Christians who do not have Jewish heritage, need to follow the law.

Laws to post the ten commandments might still get passed, but imagine if more teachers knew this context, and could explain that the ten commandments are just a selection of the 613 laws that one ancient group thought were appropriate for governing themselves.

For all my humanist friends in the audience, I promise we haven’t forgotten about you. In fact, Buehrens calls himself a Biblical humanist. He points out that one can have a foundation in the Bible without believing it reveals something about the supernatural.

The Bible has a lot for us to learn. I took a class on the book of Judges last semester, and I’m taking a class on Revelation in the fall (fun fact, it’s Revelation without an S at the end, not Revelations as I know I had said my whole life). Judges is one of the harsher books in the Bible, with lots of violence including some of the most horrific violence against women in the text. Through analyzing the book, I came to learn all the ways it can be read, including as a feminist piece, one that in talking about violence against women is in fact speaking out against it. It can also be read as a tract against kingship, and many parts of the Bible are speaking out against empire.

Like much of the Bible, Revelation chapter 13 was written in a way that people of that time and place would have understood, but we do not if we try to read it literally. It talks about beasts but is in fact coded writing against the Roman empire. This is the chapter that includes a reference to 666, or 616 in some of the manuscripts. 666 and 616 are actually codes for Emperor Nero, not a literal devil.

So where do we go from here? I don’t have all the answers, and I know Rev. Chris has some more to share with us as well. I don’t necessarily recommend trying to sit down and read the whole Bible. I do recommend looking at a study bible and learning how to use the footnotes and references. If you’d like to learn more about how to do that, I’ll be teaching a workshop called Reclaiming the Bible on July 14th from 1-3pm here in the church. We’ll go over how to look up passages and the meanings behind them using study bibles and other reference tools. An announcement will be going out soon about that workshop if you are interested.

There are also great books like John A Buehrens’s book, which I have here if you’re here in person and would like to look at it. I also have a few other books up here that you’re welcome to look through after the service. If you want to take a deeper dive, you can audit a class at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary or another seminary. There will be a class in the fall on the Hebrew Bible taught by one of my favorite professors that is mostly asynchronous, for example.

The Bible that I have discovered in seminary is not the one that I was taught as a child growing up in a Christian church. It is both more violent and more beautiful and poetic than the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Jesus from my childhood had led me to believe. If you find yourself afraid of or unsure about the Christian Bible, know that you are not alone. There are many of us who share those concerns.

I know that many come here with religious trauma from Christianity and the Bible. If engaging with the Bible is painful for you, honor that. No one should have to engage with religious or spiritual practices that cause harm. I am still on my own journey when it comes to the Bible. I have discovered some verses that I really like, such as James chapter 2 which talks about how faith without works is dead, or James chapter 5 which warns rich oppressors that God sees the harm they have caused. I have yet to draw the spiritual comfort from the Bible that I see so many others have-something a part of me wishes I had too.

I’m grateful for the UU value of pluralism, which celebrates diverse theology and honors that we can draw from more than one source of spiritual wisdom. The Christian Bible is one source of spiritual wisdom, but it is not the only source, and I appreciate the opportunity to explore all these wisdom traditions in this religious community. Thank you.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson’s Homily

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That’s the Gospel of John chapter 3, verse 16 of the New testament.

King James Version. Don’t you just love the King James language? “Believeth.” “Begotten.”

Some of you have heard me talk before about how I was raised as a Southern Baptist and said I wanted to be a minister when I was a very young child, even preached sermons into the cassette tape recorder my parents had given me.

One such “baby” sermon was based upon that bible verse.

It is amazing to me that all of these years later and having rejected the fundamentalist religion of my childhood, I can still remember John 3: 16 word for word. King James version, no less.

Here’s why I think that matters.

Regardless of our religious upbringing, despite a culture that has gown more and more secular over time, the words and images and metaphors of our largely bible-based religious history have become embedded within our our cultural symbols, mythologies, values, rituals, traditions – indeed the very language with which we think and communicate, and therefore imbedded within our individual subconsciouses as well.

So, as our reading earlier describes, the bible is still pervasive in our society, and is a large a part of our Unitarian Universalist liberal religious heritage.

So to though, are more fundamentalist interpretations of the bible, like that of my Southern Baptist childhood, also imbedded within our cultural landscape.

And so part of my spiritual journey through adulthood has been to reclaim the biblical narratives that got so implanted into my formational inner psyche in ways that parallel my evolving values and understandings of life.

I have learned to reinterpret and re-embrace the sacred texts of my younger self – like that one from John 3:16.

Lessons from Chalice Camp

June 11, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Kelly Stokes

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Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Kelly Stokes with Chalice Campers
June 9, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This week we hosted Chalice Camp, a summer day camp exploring UU history, theology, values, and traditions. During worship this Sunday, the campers and counselors will be sharing some of the songs and stories from camp. Join us for this youthful – and very joyful – worship service.

Chalice Lighting

We are Unitarian Universalists,
now we light our chalice.
We are the church of the open minds,
we are the church of the listening ears,
we are the church of the loving hearts
and helping hands.

Call to Worship

It’s a blessing each one of us was born.
It matters what we do with our lives.

What each of us knows about god is a piece of the truth.
We don’t have to do it alone.

– Sheri Prud’homme and Laila Ibrahim.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

LET THIS BE A HOUSE OF PEACE
by Jim Scott

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Let this be a house of peace,
Of nature and humanity,
of sorrow and elation,
Let this be our house,
A haven for the healing,
An open room for question,
and our inspiration.

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Let this be a house of freedom;
Guardian of dignity
and worth held deep inside us,
Let this be our house,
A platform for the free voice,
Where all our sacred differences
here shall not divide us.

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Let all in this house seek truth,
Where scientists and mystics,
abide in reverence here,
Let this be our house,
A house of our creation,
Where works of art and melodies
consecrate the atmosphere.

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Let this be a house of prophecy,
May vision, for our children
Be our common theme.
Let this be our house
Of myth and lore and legend,
Our trove of ancient story,
and cradle of most tender dreams.

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Let this be a house of peace.
Let this be our house of peace.

Sermon

Every day this week, the counselors acted out a play for the campers about our UU history. Today we are sharing two of these. In these stories, we see how UU’s in the past have helped others.

On Tuesday, we talked about how it matters what we do, and we sang this chant.

We’re UUs and we’re here to say,
we’re making a difference in many ways;
some are big and some are small,
but they make a difference
for one and all.

CHALICE CAMP THEATER

SCENE 1: Classroom

NARRATOR: You see before you a classroom at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Anywhere. The teacher and children have just finished lighting the chalice when Miguel asks a question.

MIGUEL: So now do we get to learn how Unitarians and Universalists became one church?

NARRATOR: Not yet. We have another tale to learn. This one is about the chalice. For this we must go back to the 1940’s during World War II.

STORY OF OUR THE FLAMING CHALICE

SCENE 2: Nazi Border

NARRATOR: You see before you a group of Jewish refugees escaping from Eastern Europe due to the Nazi occupation. They come upon a border patrol.

GUARDS: Stop. You may not cross unless you have papers.

REFUGEES: We are going to Lisbon. Here are our papers.

GUARD 1: What is this?

REFUGEE 1: These are papers from the Unitarian Service Committee in America. They are expecting us.

GUARD 1: (speaking to Guard 2) I’ve never seen this seal before, but it looks official.

GUARD 2: Yes, let them through.

GUARD 1: You may pass.

NARRATOR: The refugees went on to Lisbon where they were helped by the Unitarian Service Committee.

UNITARIANS AND UNIVERSALISTS WORK TOGETHER AND UNITE

A few years later, after the war was over, people in Europe did not have enough food, blankets or clothing. The Unitarian Service Committee worked to send supplies from the United States to people in Europe.

Members of Unitarian and Universalist churches packed up goods such as food, blankets and medicine to be sent to Europe. Like this Universalist family from Maine:

SCENE 3: Universalist family home

CHILD: What are you doing?

PARENT: Packing up a box of goods to be sent to Europe. The people there need food, blankets and medicine .

CHILD: But the war is over.

PARENT: It will be awhile before the people there have all that they need.

CHILD: How will it get there?

PARENT: It will be sent by the USC – the Unitarian Service Committee.

CHILD: But aren’t we Universalists, not Unitarians?

PARENT: Our two churches are working together on this project. We have a lot in common with the Unitarians. Here, Becky, help me draw this symbol – it’s called a Flaming Chalice.

CHILD: Why are we drawing this on there?

PARENT: That’s the symbol of the Unitarian Service Committee. They used it during the war on documents which helped refugees leave Europe. When they see the symbol they will know this box contains help.

SCENE 4: (Back to the classroom)

NARRATOR: Thank you guys. Good work on the play.

The Unitarians and Universalists realized that they had much in common. They decided to merge in 1961, becoming one church. Around that same time, the chalice started to be used in churches around the country and now throughout the world. Chalices don’t have to look a particular way. People make them out of clay or wood or metal. Even play-dough. I’ll bet you’ve made chalices in Religious Education.

CHORUS: (singing chalice lighting song)

We are Unitarian Universalists,
now we light our chalice.
We are the church of the open minds,
we are the church of the listening ears,
we are the church of the loving hearts
and helping hands.

NARRATOR: You got it. Now when you go home you can quiz your parents to see if they know the origins of the flaming chalice.

CIVIL RIGHTS LIBERATION MOVEMENTS

NARRATOR: We are going to transport ourselves to three different times that Unitarian Universalists fought for Civil Rights.

Womens’ Suffrage Movement

SCENE 4: (Protest Sign that says “How long must women wait for liberty?” goes up in the air.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Voting rights for women. Voting rights for women.

NARRATOR: Women deserve to have a voice in public affairs! Our voices must be heard. It is no longer tolerable that we cannot vote! I say to you all that it is only fair that we be given full emancipation!

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Voting rights for women. Voting rights for women.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Women at home keep our country strong. Women at home keep our country strong.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Voting rights for women. Voting rights for women.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Women at home keep our country strong. Women at home keep our country strong.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Voting rights for women. Voting rights for women.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Women at home keep our country strong. Women at home keep our country strong.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Voting rights for women. Voting rights for women.

Civil Rights Protest

NARRATOR: All Americans deserve the right to vote.

SCENE 4: Protest 2. (Sign that says “Unitarian Universalists for Voting Rights” goes up in the air.)

NARRATOR: None of us will be free until all of us are free. We stand in support of fellow Americans who are fighting for their right to vote. We join in the struggle with Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. All Americans deserve the right to vote regardless of the color of their skin. The arch of history is long, but it bends toward justice. Civil rights for everyone. Voting rights for everyone.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Civil rights for everyone. Civil rights for everyone.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Whites only. Whites only.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Civil rights for everyone. Civil rights for everyone.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Whites only. Whites only.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Civil rights for everyone. Civil rights for everyone.

Gay Rights Protest

SCENE 5: Protest 3. A sign goes up that says: “Civil Marriage is a civil right.”

NARRATOR: Same-sex couples don’t get the same rights and responsibilities as our straight friends. We have been granted a separate and unequal status. We are second-class citizens. This is wrong. This is un- American. This is not an example of our nation living up to its highest ideals. This must end. Civil marriage is a civil right.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Civil Marriage is a civil right. Civil Marriage is a civil right.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Defend traditional marriage. Defend traditional marriage.

UU GROUP: (CHANTING) Civil Marriage is a civil right. Civil Marriage is a civil right.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP: (CHANTING) Defend traditional marriage. Defend traditional marriage.

UU GROUP: Civil Marriage is a civil right. Civil Marriage is a civil right.

NARRATOR: Great job you guys. Come sit down. Let’s talk about this. It is so hard to believe that women couldn’t even vote.

ALL: Yeah!! Maybe in 100 years people will think that about gay marriage.

NARRATOR: So what did all those protests have in common?

They were fighting for people’s rights.

They were making our country better and more fair.

Even people who had those rights were fighting for other groups to get those rights.

NARRATOR: You guys nailed it. Those were the three ideas I wanted you to learn:

1) They were fighting for people’s rights;
2) They were insisting our country live up to its best ideals;
3) Even people who already had those rights were fighting for those groups to get those rights.

And the reason that we are talking about this in church is that Unitarians, and Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists were involved in every one of those liberation movements. That is something to be proud of. Our religion asks us to make a difference in this world.

NARRATOR: That concludes Chalice Camp Theater. (Performers bow.)

Extinguishing the Chalice

Let us remember that each of us is a blessing, that it matters what we do, and that we are not alone, until we light this flame next time.

Benediction

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Ev’rywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.
Building up a world, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

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2024 Flower Communion

June 4, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Michelle LeGrave
June 2, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This Sunday we will hold our annual Flower Communion Service. Please join us for this much-loved Unitarian Universalist ritual exchange of flowers. During the service you will have the opportunity to add your flower(s) to large bouquets we will create in the sanctuary and to take a different flower with you, symbolizing both the unique, sacred beauty of each of us and the even greater beauty we create when we share that sacred uniqueness with one another.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

“You who have an eye for miracles regard the bud now appearing on the bare branch of the fragile young tree. It’s a mere dot, a nothing. But already it’s a flower, already a fruit, already its own death and resurrection.”

– Diego Valeri

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

FLOWER COMMUNION
Lynn Unger

What a gathering-the purple
tongues of iris licking out
at spikes of lupine, the orange
crepe skirts of poppies lifting
over buttercup and daisy.
Who can be grim
in the face of such abundance?
There is nothing to compare,
no need for beauty to compete.
The voluptuous rhododendron
and the plain grass
are equally filled with themselves,
equally declare the miracles
of color and form.
This is what community looks like-
this vibrant jostle, stem by stem
declaring the marvelous joining.
This is the face of communion,
the incarnation once more
gracefully resurrected from winter.
Hold these things together
in your sight-purple, crimson,
magenta, blue. You will
be feasting on this long after
the flowers are gone.

Sermon

On June 4, 1923, Rev. Norbert Capek, the minister of Prague Liberal Religious Fellowship, a Unitarian church, created what has become our flower communion.

Rev. Capek needed a symbolic ritual that would bind people together as they faced the impending threats from Nazism in neighboring Germany ..

Capek turned to the beauty of the surrounding countryside and created a communion where congregants would bring flowers from their gardens, fields or the roadside and share them with one another – symbolizing that just as no two flowers are exactly alike, so each of us has an inherent and unique beauty.

Capek’s wife, Maja, also an ordained minister, came to the United States in 1940 and introduced the ritual to U.S. Unitarians while she was here.

Unfortunately, she was unable to return to Prague at the time, because World War II had broken out.

It was only after the war that she learned that the Nazi’s had sent Capek to a concentration camp.

However, even in the concentration camp, he held a flower ceremony with his fellow prisoners, using whatever flowering weeds they could find, testifying to a love larger than themselves and that would outlive them – a ritual we still practice today – a ritual still symbolizing both the unique, sacred beauty of each of us and the even greater beauty we create when we share that sacred uniqueness with one another.

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

As we go out into our world now, let us continue to share our unique gifts.

May we flourish and flower in communion with one another and all that is.

May we bring one another and our world delight.

May the congregation say, “Amen” and “Blessed Be”.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Exponential Theology

May 11, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
May 5, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We often talk about how divided we are politically, societally, and religiously. Many a magazine article lately has even featured how so many of us are even feeling divided among the many parts within ourselves. What if we valued these differences though? What if, with loving intent, we put them into conversation with one another? Might not this pluralism help us all grow our own depth and breadth of being by many multiples?

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

– Walt Whitman
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.

– Rumi
There are many ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE SACRED HOOP

Then I was standing
on the highest mountain
of them all,

And round beneath me
was the whole hoop
of the world.

And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell

And I understood
more than I saw.

For I was seeing
in the sacred manner
the shape of all things
of the spirit.

And the shapes
as they must live
together like one being.

And I saw that the sacred hoop
of my people
was one of many hoops
that make one circle,
wide as daylight and starlight,

And in the center grew one
mighty flowering tree

To shelter all the children
of one mother
and one father.

And I saw that it was holy.

– Black Elk

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

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.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

First UU is Doing Justice

April 24, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
April 21, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our church and our faith have a long history of doing justice in our world. We will explore our current efforts to build the Beloved Community and how you can get involved. Our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to do justice, as does our church’s mission. Our spiritual practices sustain us in that work. In turn, building Beloved Community can be a vital source of our own experience of spiritual nourishment and transcendence.

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

BELOVED COMMUNITY

“Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.”

– The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (Adapted)

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Exerpt from MARTIN LUTHER KING JR’S WARE LECTURE to the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly in 1966

I’m sure that each of you has read that arresting little story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled Rip Van Winkle. One thing that we usually remember about the story of Rip Van Winkle is that he slept twenty years. But there is another point in that story which is almost always completely overlooked: it is the sign on the inn of the little town on the Hudson from which Rip went up into the mountains for his long sleep. When he went up, the sign had a picture of King George III of England. When he came down, the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States.

When Rip Van Winkle looked up at the picture of George Washington he was amazed, he was completely lost. He knew not who he was. This incident reveals to us that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that he slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution.

While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountains a revolution was taking place in the world, that would alter the face of human history. Yet Rip knew nothing about it; he was asleep. One of the great misfortunes of history is that all too many individuals and institutions find themselves in a great period of change and yet fail to achieve the new attitudes and outlooks that the new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.

And there can be no gainsaying of the fact that a social revolution is taking place in our world today. We see it in other nations in the demise of colonialism. We see it in our own nation, in the struggle against racial segregation and discrimination, and as we notice this struggle we are aware of the fact that a social revolution is taking place in our midst. Victor Hugo once said that there is nothing more powerful in all the world than an idea whose time has come. The idea whose time has come today is the idea of freedom and human dignity, and so allover the world we see something of freedom explosion, and this reveals to us that we are in the midst of revolutionary times. An older order is passing away and a new order is coming into being.

Sermon

Sarah Frankie Summers

I always thought of the flame in the chalice as representing the spark of the divine within each of us. I guess that I came up with that as a kid because sparks, fire, yeah it made sense. I knew the story about the Austrian artist and fighting the Nazis and just figured it made a cool origin story but didn’t think about how that affected my life in the present day.

I also figured the chalice was vague enough to be open to interpretation, since a “free and equal search for truth and meaning” is a core of our religion, so people were going to have their own interpretations of it, and that’s a good thing.

Interestingly, a pamphlet about the flaming chalice by Susan Ritchie says this about it:

When we light the chalice in worship, we illuminate a world that we feel called upon to serve with love and a sense of justice. The flame is what one of our beloved congregational hymns terms “The Fire of Commitment.”

Well, now that resonates with me too. Especially because the story I was told while interning at the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office was that the Unitarians and the Universalists started working together at the UN before the organizations even finished merging. So I have been describing this religion as a “social justice faith” since I was nineteen.

At least from this perspective (and of course we can tell our stories from many perspectives that shed different lights depending on what we want to convey) – so at least from this perspective, the present day iteration of Unitarian Universalism is largely predicated on our work for justice and making the world a better place. But I always framed it as work the church was doing – again, not necessarily thinking beyond my own passion for recycling and ethical eating. But thinking of this flaming chalice as the Fire of Commitment also recognizes the significance of our own First UU chalice lighting, particularly the part that goes: “As our struggle becomes our salvation.” and here is where I was finally moved to action.

I admit when I first came to this church, two things stuck out to me that I wasn’t too sure about. I don’t know that they rubbed me the wrong way per se, but they were new and therefore uncomfortable. They were also confusing because they seemed a little too connected to a Christian theology with which I had no connection.

The first thing was that part of the chalice lighting “as our struggle becomes our salvation.” And the second thing was this bit of the mission about Beloved Community.

I guess I’ll be completely honest. I thought something along the lines of what the heck are these people on about? Beloved Community sounded exclusive. And why was it capitalized?

I stuck around, trusting it would make sense in time. Sure enough, Meg and Chris took to explaining this idea from time to time during the Moment for Beloved Community. They would often point to the King Center for more information on Beloved Community, so I turn there now for some of Dr. King’s words.

King said that

“Agape [love] does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people…It begins by loving others for their sakes” and “makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is directed toward both…Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community.”

He felt that justice could not be parceled out to individuals or groups, but was the birthright of every human being in the Beloved Community. “I have fought too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concerns,” he said. “Justice is indivisible.”

There is so much more information about Beloved Community on the King Center website – I encourage you to check it out for yourselves. This radical idea of Beloved Community makes sense to me. And it was during one of these moments for beloved community, when Meg had taken to driving home the ways white supremacy thrives on inaction – the relative comfort of a status quo that keeps the power structures stable – that the chalice lighting finally clicked.

How does our struggle become our salvation in the Unitarian Universalist faith? For me, that “struggle” is to stop turning away from the discomfort of looking in the mirror and seeing how I still carry the invisible backpack of white privilege. For me, that struggle is to overcome the inertia of inaction and to get up and do what I can to create change. For me, that struggle is meeting others whose ideas and values differ vastly from mine and listening with compassion, the work of finding common ground.

Recall the reading that Ani did a few minutes ago. This was Dr. King speaking directly to the Unitarian Universalists. Directly to us! He could tell we were inclined toward justice, but perhaps a little lazy about it. “Don’t sleep through the revolution!” he said.

Well, I’d been sleeping. I’d been resting on my UU upbringing, thinking that just being a part of this church was enough. That the church was doing the work of justice. But of course WE are the church. And we are the ones who have to do the work.

But do not despair in the overwhelm of all there is to be done. There are so many awesome ways to get involved here!

First UU has an amazing history of social action work, which I know was promised we would discuss, but in the interest of galvanizing you to take your own actions, I will tell you instead about the work that is being done at present. Our pillar leaders will be in Howson Hall after service with resources and ways to get involved, as well as microactions you can take TODAY. A microaction is a small step you can take with the potential for big impact, especially when many people take part.

Peggy Morton is our point person for Immigrant Rights. Visit the Immigrant rights table to sign-up to receive a link to sign a petition from Austin Sanctuary Network that calls for everyone in Travis County to have an attorney at their first appearance before a magistrate judge, including individuals targeted under the controversial SB-4 law.

Elizabeth Grey spearheads the team working for Reproductive Justice. Stop by the Reproductive Justice table to learn about the anti-abortion clinics posing as resources for pregnant persons and how to get the word out about these places known as crisis pregnancy centers that target vulnerable teens in particular with unscientific information.

Richard and Beki Halpin are the fearless leaders of the Environmental Justice arm, with many thriving programs aimed at addressing the climate crisis. Stop by their table for tools to reduce your carbon footprint. The time is critical and celebratory! Earth Day is tomorrow. A blessed day for many of us here to remember the interdependent web of life of which we are all a part.

Ginny Fredericks leads the Racial Justice group in tandem with Scott Bukti. Stop by their table to pick up a list of Black Owned Businesses and head over to one this week. We want this year to be First UU’s first ever Juneteenth service, so sign up if you want to lend your support to our BIPOC group who is working hard to plan this in tandem with TXUUJM.

Vanessa McDougal is our resident Voting Rights and Democracy expert. Stop by her table today to pick up a sample ballot for Austin’s upcoming election and make your plan to vote. For the first time, Travis County is electing 3 TCAD appraisers. Early voting starts tomorrow and runs through April 30th; election day is May 4th.

Leo Collas is our LGBTQIA+ Rights Pillar Leader (as well as one of our congregation’s TXUUJM reps). He has invited you all to join the Community Heart Circle today at 2pm in Room 13. They follow a format similar to Chalice Circles, so if you’d like to get a feeling for UU spiritual discussion groups, please join us and make new friends!

Each of these groups represents a pillar of social action here at First UU. We formed the current pillars after conducting a survey and analyzing the data to see where people were presently galvanized and where we already had leadership, but there is always more room for work to be done! For example, we had an awesome team of First UUers at iACT’s Hands on Housing event earlier this month. This is an interfaith action group that supports low income Austin homeowners. Any way you want to get involved and share your time, we could use your talents! I look forward to talking with you all after church at the tables in Howson about staying awake through the struggle of how you can help with the work of building the Beloved Community.

Chris Jimmerson

I’d like to start this morning with a story that I first told many years ago, I think the first time I shared this pulpit with our minister emerita, Meg Barnhouse, right after she had promoted to full-time minister with the church.

I also shared it at the installation service of a dear friend.

To offer some context, I’ll start with another quote from the Rev.

Dr. Martin Luther King, “Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”

And, of course, Dr. King also made popular the term “Beloved Community”.

I think that, especially for Unitarian Universalists, we often experience the spiritual or religious when the two meet, those experiences of unutterable fulfillment, of which Dr. King spoke and the creation of Beloved Community – the bringing of love into our larger world as justice and liberation for all.

So, back in 2013, a Texas state senator named Wendy Davis became nationally famous when she held a long filibuster against a proposed bill that at the time we thought imposed unbelievably draconian restrictions on women’s reproductive freedom in Texas.

My spouse Wayne and I joined a group of Unitarian Universalists from across the state to support a large rally held on the steps of the Texas State Capital to protest the bill, as well as other attacks on women’s rights.

We all showed up in our bright yellow Unitarian Universalist tee shirts, and folks from our church gathered around our big, bright yellow First UU Church of Austin banner.

The women’s rights groups that had organized the rally absolutely loved it, so they put us right behind the speakers for the rally.

The event drew a huge crowd, and near the end of it, we noticed that all eight of us holding up the banner at the women’s rights rally were men.

That didn’t seem so unusual for UUs, so we just shared some amusement about it.

After the rally though, as I was walking to my car, a woman I had never met touched my shoulder. I turned to her. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “I just want you to know how moving it was for me to see a group of all men holding up your church banner.”

Then she looked away briefly, turned back to me and said, “You know, I don’t think of myself as religious, but I’m going to have to find out more about you folks.”

I guess we were both stunned by the movement of something sacred that was occurring between us in that moment, because neither of us said anything for a while.

I don’t remember how long we just stood there or which of us broke the silence first, but I do remember that at some point she asked where she could get one of our bright yellow Tee Shirts, so I gave her the web address for that and some information about our local churches.

I don’t even think if we exchanged our names.

I will tell you though – I still have never been happier to call myself a Unitarian Universalist than I was in that moment.

I have never been more grateful to be reminded that the religious&; can happen anywhere and at any moment and that we are called to be there for it.

“Unutterable fulfillment” and doing justice, building the beloved community are inseparably linked, and it is in this interrelationship between the two that I believe our Unitarian Universalist faith flourishes.

That event was over 10 years ago, and if anything, I have come to believe this even more now and to believe it is even more vital now that our Unitarian Universalist faith flourish like never before.

The bill which Wendy Davis filibustered eventually got passed in a special session of the Texas Legislature.

We thought it was so horrible at the time because it did things like banning abortion beyond 20 weeks and imposing stringent requirements on physicians and clinics, making it much more difficult for them to continue providing abortions services.

Little did we imagine then, how much worse it would get by now. And of course, it’s not only reproductive justice that is at risk these days.

Which is why we so critically need all of the social action pillars you heard about earlier:

Reproductive Justice
Racial Justice
Environmental Justice
LGBTQ Plus Rights
Immigration Rights

Our very democracy itself are all under seige.

I’ve got some news for the forces of bigotry and oppression though Wendy Davis’s filibuster has never really ended. More and more of us have just picked it up and are expressing it in a multitude of ways.

It is not over.

This is not over.

You have awakened the sleeping giant. There is a great rumbling across the land. We are seeing it in elections and voting and public action over and over agaIn.

We are coming for justice and liberation. And we will not be sleeping though this revolution – a revolution that will once again alter the face of human history – a revolution that has already begun.

This is our moment for unutterable fulfillment. We shall overcome. We shall all be free. We shall live in peace.

That dream of Beloved Community lies just upon our horizon.

And love – love will guide us there.

Amen.

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

As we go out into our world today, may we know the spiritual fulfillment of working together to do justice.
May we find solidarity beyond these church walls with the many, many folks in our community and our world, who like us, are striving to build the Beloved Community.
Guided by love, may we remain ever awakened to the revolution.
And in doing so, nourish souls and transform lives, including our own.
May the congregation say, “amen” and “blessed be”.
Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Interdependence Day

April 16, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
Rev. Michelle LaGrave
April 14, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We often speak of interdependence in terms of the web of all life, from earth to all the plants and animals. But what does interdependence mean in the context of human life? How does interdependence impact human relationships and human 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

RENEWAL IN THE WEARY WORLD
Rev. Shari Woodbury

Welcome, all who seek renewal in a weary world.
Welcome, all who come with love and energy to share.
Welcome, to those who worry for the future.
Welcome, each one who is grateful for today.
Know that in this place, you are not alone.
In community we share our strength with one another
and we keep the flame of love burning bright.
Know that in this place, responsibility is shared.
Here, tradition holds us; ancestors shine a light from the past.
Here, the young lift their bright faces, and beckon us onward.
Take my hand, and we can go on together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

SURVIVING THROUGH RECIPROCITY
Robin Wall Kimmerer
An excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass

Scientists are interested in how the marriage of alga and fungus occurs and so they’ve tried to identify the factors that induce two species to live as one. But when researchers put the two together in the laboratory and provide them with ideal conditions for both alga and fungus, they gave each other the cold shoulder and proceeded to live separate lives, in the same culture dish, like the most platonic of roommates. The scientists were puzzled and began to tinker with the habitat, altering one factor and then another, but still no lichen. It was only when they severely curtailed the resources, when they created harsh and stressful conditions, that the two would turn toward each other and begin to cooperate. Only with severe need did the hyphae curl around the alga; only when the alga was stressed did it welcome the advances.

When times are easy and there’s plenty to go around, individual species can go it alone. But when conditions are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward. In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival. So say the lichens.

Sermon

Text of Rev. Chris’ Homily is not available.

Rev. Michelle’s Homily

A little over 30 years ago, I headed off to Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine. I had recently graduated from college with a double major in history and anthropology. I was especially interested in museum education and historical archaeology. And, after 17 years of schooling, I was especially interested in not spending most of my days reading, researching, and writing. So it was, that with great excitement and a little trepidation, I headed off to live and work on a historic farm.

While we had some hidden access to modern amenities like running water, real bathrooms, minimal heat, and electricity, we interns, of which I was one, lived as if the year was 1870 most of the time. As it was a working farm, chores needed to be done whether visitors were present, or not, and they were divided by gender. Much of the time, I was the only woman intern. I rose early, dressed in costume, walked the half mile uphill from the 1795 house in which I was living to the main area of the farm. I milked the cow, fed the chickens, collected eggs, pasteurized milk, made butter and cottage cheese, did all the cooking on a wood stove, weeded the garden, and so on. Fall was a time of harvesting, canning, making apple cider, bottling hard cider. Winter brought lots of snow and ice, horse-drawn sleigh rides and cutting 2 foot thick ice from the pond for the ice house. I taught school in the one room schoolhouse, danced in the barn on Saturday nights, made homemade ice cream, and finished off crazy quilts. I assisted with the births of piglets and a calf. And, when visitors weren’t around, I had the opportunity to try my hand at the men’s chores, too, like driving the team of oxen to pick rocks out of the fields before they were plowed and splitting wood and, yes, I learned there were some very practical reasons for the old fashioned division of labor.

Most of all, though, I was amazed at how much I had learned to do, how empowered I felt, how self-reliant I had become. I imagined that I could homestead, someday, if I wanted to. I was taken in by this feeling of independence.

And then I got sick, really sick, and I learned that feeling of independence was just a feeling; that in some ways all that selfreliance was just an illusion. I was the last of the interns to come down with whatever it was. I became feverish, weak, and beyond exhausted. The director of the museum had to take me home, down the hill to that 1795 house, get me inside, start the fire in the wood stove, and make sure I had plenty of wood right next to the stove. I fell into bed and slept, getting up only to put more wood in the fire or use that hidden bathroom.

And, at some point during that time, I began to feel better enough to think and I realized how totally and utterly dependent I was on other human beings. If I were all alone, I would not have been able to make it outside, through all the snow, over to the woodshed, and brought in all that wood. I would have frozen, become hypothermic.

Remember what I said last week? About how our lived experiences are the raw material, the scripture from which we build our theology? I was not yet a minister, had not yet been to seminary, or even graduate school and had not been raised UU. Though, as Callie Pratt, I attended an 1870 Universalist meetinghouse on Sundays, I had not yet been exposed to the Unitarian Universalism of the modern day, or its Principles, or its Values. I knew nothing of the interdependent web and was not familiar with the concept of interdependence. I was fascinated by these ideas of and feelings about independence and dependence; how both could be true at the same time. I did have a lot of survival skills and I did need other people in order to survive. I had experienced, in a very in-your-face kind of way, the concept, the reality of interdependence. Revelation was not sealed.

We humans are just like the algae and fungi of this morning’s reading; fairly independent when resources are plentiful, fairly dependent when resources are scarce, and totally interdependent – with each other, with the earth, and with all of life, all of the time.

And, we people of First UU Austin, are like the people in this morning’s story: a community in which each person has a role to play, each person is needed, and each person needs each other; it is all together that we become whole.

As Unitarian Universalists, we often place a high value on individuals hearing a call, finding a purpose, seeking fullfillment, and so on. Sometimes, we just want to be helpful, or useful. It can be easy for us to focus on these roles as something of a higher purpose. But today, and especially because it is New Member Sunday, I want to ask us, all of us, to focus on the opposite – on being helped, on allowing ourselves to be helped. (in appropriate ways, of course) I’d like us to think about how being served is of as much value as being of service. We all have different skills, different needs. We all go through times of joy and times of struggle. We all have times of service and times of being served. None of us should focus overly much on one over the other. Both are important. Balance is important. We are an interdependent community. With each other, with the earth, with all of life.

We all need one another, in all the ways, and all the time.

May it be so. 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.

Closing Words

by the Rev. Peter Raible

We build on foundations we did not lay
We warm ourselves by fires we did not light
We sit in the shade of trees we did not plant
We drink from wells we did not dig
We profit from persons we did not know
This is as it should be.
Together we are more than anyone person could be.
Together we can build across the generations.
Together we can renew our hope and faith in the life that is yet to unfold.
Together we can heed the call to a ministry of care and justice.
We are ever bound in community.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Easter Sunday 2024

April 1, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Michelle LaGrave, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 31, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In the gospel stories, the people who found Jesus’ tomb empty or experienced his resurrection felt uncertain. They wondered: What is happening? What does this all mean? What should I do? Like them, we too, have much to feel uncertain about – in our lives, in our church, and in the wider world, and we ask ourselves similar questions. What might happen if we decided to embrace these feelings and experiences of uncertainty? What gifts might we discover? What joy might we find?

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

On this joyous day, enter into this sanctuary with an alleluia in your heart, and a hosana on your lips. For though we know not what tomorrow, or even today, will bring, we know that we have each other and that makes us rich in spirit. So let us rejoice and be glad. Our hearts beat as one community. We share a great Joy and a great Love. Hallelujah and Amen.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Mark 16:1-8 NRSVUE (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Sermon

REV CHRIS’ HOMILY

It is so good to be back with you all this Easter Sunday.

In the Christian religious tradition, a major theme during the Easter holidays is death and resurrection.

As most of you know, my spouse, Wayne, entered home hospice care about three weeks ago.

So I have been thinking about this theme a lot.

By the way, Wayne is fine with me sharing our journey with you. And what rises up for me within the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the Christian gospels is that we can find a larger theme about faith rooted in a love powerful enough to embrace uncertainty and unknowing.

And, of course, death may be our greatest unknowing.

Within the time between Jesus’ death and when he rises again, the Gospels tell of a great unknowing.

Those days contain so much uncertainty. Has the promised Messiah really been vanquished? What are his disciples and followers to believe now?

What will become of the movement for justice and love he had begun?

Additionally, the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection differently. As far as the resurrection, among the many differences between the gospels are:

which folks first arrived at the tomb of Jesus,
whether or not they experienced a violent earthquake,
and how and to whom we experience Jesus reappearing after he has risen from the tomb.

These are just a very few of the differences.

I think that these variances between the gospels also create a sense of uncertainty, require a faith in the metaphorical messages they all present about about a divine love that lasts forever and focuses especially upon the disenfranchised and the downtrodden.

But perhaps we find this theme of uncertainty the most in the gospel of Mark. As you heard in our reading earlier, the original version of Mark ended without a scene in which Jesus reappeared at all.Instead, a mysterious young man in a white robe, presumably an angel, tells the women who have come to the tomb to anoint Jesus that he has risen, and that they are to tell his disciples that he will meet them in Galilee.

But they are terrified and flee the tomb, saying nothing to anyone.

Now, apparently that original version of Mark got terrible reviews, and I understand that Jesus was extremely miffed about not getting to make his final appearance.

So, later biblical scribes added not one but two happy endings, in which Jesus does reappear – several times – to many different people – and then ascends to right hand of God, and they all live happily ever after, proclaiming the good news.

Personally, I like the original ending of Mark much better. Because it is filled with uncertainty and unknowing, just like life is.

Those of you who saw my message to the congregation earlier this week know how much uncertainty Wayne and I are living with on a day-to-day basis.

This church has shown such resilience through so much uncertainty, from surviving through the stay at home days of the pandemic; to the retirement of a much loved minister due to serious health issues; to a time of much transition and unknowing between called ministers.

Any now this, with me and mine.

And yet, I think the real message we can find in the original Mark and in the broader themes of Easter is about how love not only sustains us through uncertainty and loss, it can help us find new life and new creative possibilities out of the unknowing.

I think this is the true essence of having faith. The very word faith implies uncertainty. I believe, in fact, that faith without uncertainty becomes dogma and fundamentalism.

True faith is when, even out of our state of unknowing, we invest ourselves in trusting that love survives all, continuously giving rise to rebirth and renewal.

When we engage in a great love like Wayne and I have for almost 34 years; a great love for all humanity and all that is;

or a love for an art or music;
or a love for searching out new discoveries in physics
or computer sciences or the endless mysterious of consciousness and the human mind;
or perhaps some combination of many or all of these and more.

When we build a love as great as this, we have already created the resurrection.

Happy Easter, my Beloveds.

Together, may love lead us to rebirth and renewal, time and time agaIn.

REV MICHELLE’S HOMILY:

Back in the day (I love that I get to say this now) which was about 17 years ago, I was in seminary, going through a process that we call ministerial formation. That means that I was growing into a minister and there were a lot of people involved in helping me to grow, especially a lot of professors and ministers and even some psychologists, as well as the other seminarians. Back then, we had to pass through 2 committees to become a UU minister, to get fellowshipped. That meant going before a group of about 8 or so people and getting questioned on a variety of things.

The first committee was called the Regional Subcommittee and that one happened early in our formation. Once we passed through the Regional Subcommittee, we became candidates for ministry. It was a big and exciting step in the process of becoming a minister. So at the end of my first year of seminary, it was with a great deal of excitement and apprehension that I went before the New England Regional Subcommittee. And guess what happened?

I didn’t pass. I didn’t pass. After my interview, they called me into the room, and picture this -I sat before a room filled with about 8 people and they told me what they thought I needed to do to become a minister. They said a lot of things that day, including that they thought my therapist wasn’t doing me any good and they thought I needed to get a new one so that I could better integrate my life experiences into my ministerial formation. I was shocked that the committee could and would be so bold to say such things to me. And I was devastated. I had felt my call to ministry to clearly and strongly that I was heartbroken to hear that I had more work to do and needed to come back to the committee next year.

I left the building and sat on a bench on Boston Common and wept. I was grief-stricken. I felt the committee had an image in mind of who I needed to grow into but I couldn’t see that image and I didn’t know how I could grow into something that I couldn’t see or even imagine. I was filled with uncertainty.

In some ways all of our lives are filled with uncertainty. We never know for sure what will happen tomorrow, later today, or even a few minutes from now. Most of the time, we don’t think about all of that uncertainty all that much. And there are other times when are lives seem filled with uncertainty. Maybe even rich with uncertainty. Or pregnant with uncertainty. Like the seeds we planted this morning and many of you will plant later today or this week, we don’t always know what it is we are growing, exactly. We might have an idea, like that we are growing some kind of plant, or growing as a human, or growing into a better minister but we don’t always know what that looks like, exactly.

These times, these potentially rich times of uncertainty, are times when we can grow as individuals, as families, as a church community – if we embrace them. If we embrace uncertainty and allow the growth, as difficult as it may be, to happen, we can find joy, even in the midst of grief.

So, back to that scene on the Boston Common. What happened? Well, I did a lot of thinking, a lot of grieving, and a lot of processing. I thought about all the ministers I knew who I respected and admired, affirmed to myself that my call was clear and true, and decided to embrace the process, even though I didn’t understand it and couldn’t see the outcome. I did all of the things that the committee asked of me: I took an extended unit of CPE, clinical pastoral education, I continued my seminary studies, I took a job working in a church as an interim ORE, Director of Religious Education, I took care of myself – and got diagnosed with and treated for an autoimmune disorder, and … I got a new therapist, who worked with me by using the enneagram as a model for personal and spiritual growth.

And guess what? The committee was right. I had needed a new therapist. I had needed all the things they prescribed. As horrible and devastating and grief-filled as the experience was, it was also a time of great growth, great joy, and great love. And I am filled with gratitude for the committee, and the person, who with great courage, spoke the truth, the hard truth, to me, in Love. So, the next year, I returned to the Regional Subcommittee and passed into candidate status, and later went to see the MFC, the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, with passed with the highest ranking. My experience with the MFC was the complete opposite of my experience with the Regional Subcommittee – instead of being devastated, I was filled with joy.

There have been, and are, and will continue to be times in my life that are rich with uncertainty, as is true of all of you, and of this church. This church has been filled with uncertainty for several years now. You went through a pandemic and began recovering, only to find that your senior minister needed to retire for devastating medical reasons. You’ve called and settled one co-lead minister, only to hear that his husband has now entered hospice. And you’re approaching the end of your second year with interim ministry. This church is rich with uncertainty and grief. It is also pregnant with great joy and new life. May you, may we, all embrace the gift of uncertainty and in the midst of grief give birth to new energy, new joy, new hope, new life, and new love. For you are held in Love, not only by me, and Rev. Chris, but also a wider community of ministers and UU congregations. Have faith, dear ones, have faith. As Julian of Norwich had said and Rev. Meg has sung many times – all will be well, all manner of things shall be well.

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

In times of uncertainty, and grief may you always be open to
New Growth
New Joy
New Love

Go in peace, knowing that you are Loved.

Amen and Blessed Be

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Wholly Spirited

February 24, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and OWL Facilitators
Kinsey Shackelford, Amanda Ray, Isaac Braman-Ray, and Elizabeth Gray
February 18, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our Whole Lives (OWL) is the nationally renowned sexuality education program rooted in our faith values. Developed jointly by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church Board of Homeland Ministries, OWL includes age-appropriate curricula for people from kindergarten through older adulthood. Come and find out about how OWL is an essential element of our faith development ministries here at First UU Austin and the differences it is making in the lives of people in our religious community and beyond.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

By Elizabeth Canfield
From OWL Facilitator Training

I’ve often wondered what it would be like if we taught young people swimming in the same way we teach sexuality. If we told them that swimming was an important adult activity, one they will all have to be skilled at when they grow up, but we never talked with them about it. We never showed them the pool. We just allowed them to stand outside closed doors and listen to all the splashing. Occasionally, they might catch a glimpse of partially clothed people going in and out of the door to the pool and maybe they’d find a hidden book on the art of swimming, but when they asked a question about how swimming felt or what it was about, they would be greeted with blank or embarrassed looks.

Suddenly, when they turned 18, we would fling open the doors to the pool and they would jump in. Miraculously, some might learn to tread water, but many would drown.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

“BREATHS” Lyrics
Ysaye Barnwell

Chorus:
Listen more often to things than to beings
Listen more often to things than to beings
‘Tis the ancestor’s breath when the fire’s voice is heard
‘Tis the ancestor’s breath in the voice of the water.

Those who have died have never, never left
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees
They are in the groaning woods
They are in the crying grass,
They are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth.

CHORUS

Those who have died have never never left.
The dead have a pact with the living.
They are in the woman’s breast,
They are in the wailing child
They are with us in our homes.
They are with us in the crowd
The dead have a pact with the living.

CHORUS

Reading

The UUA and The United Church Board of Homeland Ministries

From The Advocacy Manual for Sexuality Education, Health and Justice; resources for communities of faith

It is our religious heritages that compel and guide us to create a safe environment within which people can come to understand and respond to the challenges facing them as sexual beings. We are grounded as faith communities in a common and continuing promotion of justice for all people. We affirm the dignity of the individual, the importance of personal responsibility, and the essential interdependence of all people.

We believe that humans seek meaning in life and organize into religious communities to pursue meaning as a common endeavor. We believe that sexuality can enrich life and is thus an essential concern of religious communities. We recognize that people can encounter the spiritual through sexual expression.

Therefore, we believe the religious community must take an active role in the promotion of education and justice in human sexuality. To accomplish this, religious communities must engage in a wide range of activities and address the whole person through worshipping, nurturing, educating, supporting, challenging, advocating, confronting, forgiving, and healing.

Sermon

WHOLLY SPIRITED

Kinsey Shackleford

Kinsey: Hi there, I’m Kinsey. I use she /her pronouns. I am a white woman with dark blonde hair, rainbow earrings, and a striped shirt. I am First UU Austin’s OWL Coordinator. I was first introduced to OWL when I began working here at the church, and soon was trained to be a facilitator for grades K-12. Last spring, I taught a class of Kindergarteners and 1st graders, whom you’ll hear from in a moment. I’m currently one of the four fabulous facilitators for the 5th and 6th OWL class. I love teaching OWL because it fights shame and stigma. Shame of our bodies, shame of our families, shame of who we love and how we identify. Liz Jones, former Director of Religious Education at First UU San Diego, says it best:

“By honestly and openly addressing sexuality in appropriate ways we are honoring them as whole people. We acknowledge their worth and dignity. Through offering our sexuality program, we not only honor each individual, but through knowledge we help each other along the path to respecting and honoring those who are different from ourselves.”

I believe this work changes lives. I believe the kind of education and open conversations about sexuality and right relationships with one another, the kind that happens in OWL leads to better quality of life. But don’t just listen to me, listen to those kids who have gone through the OWL program. Thank you for your time today.

Student 1: Please watch!

Kinsey: So, teach us OWL real quick.

Student 2: (writing on a chalkboard) these are kids. They want to go to OWL, but they don’t know anything about OWL. We would have to show them, tell them, and give them an idea of what it’s like.

Kinsey: What do you remember about OWL class?

Student 2: I remember we talked about our bodies.

Kinsey: What about our bodies?

Student 1: How babies are made!

Student 2: And our private parts.

Student 1: It’s meant for questions.

Kinsey: What would you say to someone who said “I don’t wanna take OWL”

Student 1: I’d say, you should take OWL, you can learn more about your body. And if they said no…

Student 2: I’d be like, too bad!

Student 1: I’d say, it has some really interesting stuff in it. You get to do crafts…and yeah, fun stuff!

Kinsey: What do you think is the most important thing that you learned from OWL?

Student 2: Probably that…

Student 1: How babies are made!

Student 2: Probably that there are so many secrets to unfurl… and we don’t even know a lot, like do the sperms and eggs have names like ‘hi, I’m Johnson!’ or ‘hi, I’m Linguine!'”

Kinsey: What did you learn about gender identity and pronouns when you were in OWL?

Student 2: If you have a vagina, they call you a girl from birth. If you have a penis, they call you a boy from birth.

Kinsey: Is that always the case?

Student 1: No.

Student 2: No, it’s not.

Kinsey: Sometimes it is and that’s okay! Sometimes it isn’t…

Family Member: And that’s okay too.

Kinsey: If you were talking to a kindergartener who was thinking about going to OWL, what would you say to them?

Student 2: I’d say OWL is a very good place to learn about your body. Penis or no penis, vagina or no vagina, you will learn more about it if you go to OWL.

Student 2: (drawing on the board, one tall person and one short person): Here’s us.

Family Member: You’re so much bigger than the kindergartener.

Student 1: Yeah!

Captioned on screen: Drawing different types of families…in OWL, we learn that love makes a family.

Kinsey: Should more people take OWL?

Both kids: Yes!

Student 2: It’s fun and you get to learn more about your body and how bodies work.

Student 1: Yeah…and how babies are made.

Caption on screen: You heard it from the students, now come and learn for yourself! Visit austinuu.org for more information.

Amanda Ray and Isaac Braman-Ray

Elizabeth Gray:

Back in 2009, along with my husband Eugene, I participated in an Adult OWL class taught by Michael West and Barb Tuttle, both members of this church.

Oprah Magazine sent out a journalist to report on us, since Adult Sex Ed was apparently a thing, and they wanted to write about it. When the article was published online, I read the comments. I remember one disparaging remark “Why do adults have to meet in a church basement to learn how to have sex?” Well, I thought-first, we are in Texas and our church doesn’t have a basement! But indeed, why do adults-grown ups!–need to learn about sex–what do they not already know?

Why are there three comprehensive OWL curricula for adults:

Young Adults (ages 18-35)

Adults (ages 36-50)

Older Adults (over 50)

Young adults need accurate information, they are increasing their self-knowledge, and need help with safety and strengthening interpersonal skills.

The Adult curriculum

uses values, communication skills, and spirituality as starting points,

builds an understanding of healthy sexual relationships,

affirms diversity, and

helps participants accept and honor their own sexuality throughout their lives.

The Older Adult classes address sexuality with candor, sensitivity, and respect for older adults’ wisdom and life experience. Or put another way, the Adult OWL classes meet participants where they are:

How can I enjoy sex if I’m struggling with infertility and it feels like work,

not pleasure?

How do I manage being a parent and a sexual person?

How do I enjoy my sexuality if I’ve lost a breast to cancer?

Can I feel sexually satisfied if I am alone-if I don’t have a partner?”

What happens to my sexuality if I or my partner no longer want the intimate

activities we enjoyed in the past?

Your sexuality doesn’t end because you are alone, divorced or widowed, unwell, disabled, over 60, or just too tired tonight. Sexuality is part of who we all are at our core. It must be integrated into our spirituality because for UUs, spirituality is about wholeness.

And yes, back to that group in the church basement, when you take an Adult OWL class you are very likely to learn something you didn’t know.

As an OWL instructor, I never want to let an opportunity pass for us to learn about our sexuality. Here’s an example:

Image

The picture is a fist-sized pink object that looks sort of like a sensual sculpture of an orchid flower.

Shout it out if you recognize what this is.

That’s right, it’s an anatomically correct model of a clitoris, probably more detailed than what was in your high school biology textbook.

Sexuality. It really is Our. Whole. Lives.

Rev Chris Jimmerson:

I wanted you to know their great work and how vital the OWL program is to our faith and this church – the difference it makes for folks’ human and spiritual development.

I believe OWL is one of our faith’s and our church’s greatest contributions to nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice.

And as your newly installed settled minister, I wanted emphasize, as so many know, that this and our other great religious education offerings are not something that just happens back there in that other part of the church.

They are vital to us living our our values and mission.

I want to bring RE into the sanctuary and into the entire life of the church and visa versa. So, I wanted you to hear about OWL today because it matters. It is integral to our faith.

You know, sometimes we say that our children and youth are the future of our UU faith and our church. To that I would add – they are also our UU faith and our church right now.

I am so grateful for work this church does in religious education and bursting at the seems proud of our OWL program. They bring our faith alive and move it toward the future about which we dream.

And amen to that. May you know, peace, love, and joy.

Benediction

As we go back out into our world today, may you be held by the love of this religious community throughout the moments of your daily lives.

Until next we gather again in this place that is sacred to us, may we experience the holy amidst all we encounter.

May the congregation say, “Amen”, and “blessed be.”

SERMON INDEX

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Talkin’ bout a Revolution

February 13, 2024 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
February 11, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In our mission, we say that we “do justice”. What if truly doing justice requires not just new ways of thinking but new ways of being? Equity instead of equality? Liberation versus liberalism? Proximity rather than paternalism? What if we moved beyond charitable compassion to a love that is revolutionary?

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

If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! – and listens to their testimony. – James Baldwin

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

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

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

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

– Howard Zinn

Sermon

I want to share something with you.

VIDEO

That’s Danez Smith, award winning poet, writer, and performer who identifies as queer, non-binary, and HIV positive.

It is part of their poem “Principles”.

If you get the chance, it is well worth watching the rest of their performance, which you can find on YouTube. Their words demand to be heard.

Because Danez Smith isn’t calling for incremental fixes to a country filled with so many systems of oppression and denial that we can no longer believe that those systems are “broken”.

When year after year, we witness the continued killing of unarmed BIPoe folks by law enforcement – When one out of every seven police interventions results in bodily injury – When we know that one out of every eight black person in the U.S. will be sent to prison –

When year after year after year, despite both so called liberal and so called conservative interventions, inequities by race, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation and more continue to persist in employment, income, wealth, housing, healthcare, education, food and nutrition, well just about every facet of life in the U.S., every system and sector of our society, we have to face the reality that these systems are not broken.

They are functioning exactly as they are intended.

They are concentrating more and more wealth and power within the control of fewer and fewer folks.

And still, most of them white. Most of them male. Most of them heterosexual. Most of them Cis. Most of them already born into power and wealth to begin with.

That’s the system.

So, Danez Smith is crying out not to repair America around the edges, but to replace our fundamental societal structures with something entirely new that lives up to the values of justice, liberty, and the potential for human dignity and fulfillment we claim to hold.

Here is more of what they have to say:

i want to be a citizen of something new.
i want a country for the immigrant hero.
i want a country where joy is indigenous as the people.
i want a country that keeps its word.
i want to not be scared to drink the water …
i want a country not trying to cure itself of me …
I want a nation under a kinder god.
I want justice the verb not justice the dream.”

Danez Smith is “talkin bout a revolution”. My words, not theirs.

Well, those of Traci Chapman in the lyrics of her song we heard earlier.

And so, if are to make justice a verb, to do justice as we say in our mission, if we are to tear down the systems of injustice we have now and build new ones – build The Beloved community – we need a revolution in our ways of thinking and being in our world.

Folks as diverse as Bryan Stevenson, social justice activist and law professor to faith activist Rev. William Barber, provide what I think are at least fours ways in which we can create that revolution.

The first is to root our work for justice in a theology that moves and sustains us.

Now that word theology can sometimes freak out some Unitarian Universalists (UUs for short) because it can imply a creedal belief system involving a God or Gods.

But it does not have to involve these things.

Rev. Dr. Elias Ortega, of our UU Meadville Lombard Theological School describes how theology can be “practices of being, thinking, and acting in the world” that move us toward that which we hold most vital.

For Unitarian Universalism, our theology grows out of traditions embracing the unity of all life and creation and a universal love that flows through our universe and our lives.

Our is a living, ever evolving theology of collective liberation, that values all people and beings, especially lifting up those of us who experience marginalization and inequity.

It is a relational theology that recognizes that each of us can only reach for our fullest creative potential when all of us are able to do so.

In the famous words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

We need one another.

The revolution, the Beloved community, can only become when it is co-created by us all.

And such a theology moves us to the second way we might build a justice revolution.

In the late 80s and early 90s, I was involved in non-profit HIV / AIDS research, education, treatment and humans services.

All greatly needed because so many people were suffering and dying from the disease.

And even though I could see every day how much this charitable work was necessary, I started to grow more and more depressed and disillusioned, as more and more people I had come to know and love died, one after the other.

I remember at one point looking through my contact list and realizing that at least a third of the people in it had died of the disease.

And so I began to realize that only providing charitable support, as much as it was needed, was doing nothing to address the systemic racism and anti-LGBTQ bigotry that were blocking people from learning how to keep from getting the disease in the first place and accessing treatment once exposed.

I began to see the complete lack of humanity in a healthcare system and drug development process that exist to worship the Gods of profit at the expense human life and wellbeing.

And so I knew I had to also get involved in activism and building new systems to replace those that were quite literally killing people.

Research from Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation reveals that the vast majority of charity in the U.S. actually goes from the wealthy to the wealthy – to healthcare facilities, institutions of higher education and the like that serve mainly the very rich.

And as I had discovered with HIV/AIDS, charity, wherein most often the powerful determine what and how to give to the less powerful, can frequently serve to uphold systems of inequity by alleviating just enough pressure to prevent the rebellion against them that might otherwise arise.

As educator and philanthropic innovation researcher Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen says, “Charity is about helping people survive. Justice is about helping people thrive.”

A theology of collective liberation moves us beyond charitable compassion toward a revolutionary love that dismantles the unjust systems creating the need for charity in the first place.

And this leads us to a third and corresponding way we can revolutionize how we do justice.

A relational theology requires us to be in proximity to those with whom we are trying to be in solidarity.

Mother Teresa once said, ” … it is fashionable to talk about the poor, it is not so fashionable to talk with them.”

We call for justice, yet we don’t want the multi-family, low cost housing project in our neighborhood.

We prefer to drive across town to volunteer for the charity health clinic.

And don’t put that homeless shelter in the old hotel down the street.

And lest we think this is a conservative versus liberal issue, research indicates that liberal enclaves are some of the most segregated in the country.

As our call to worship pointed out earlier though, to change systems, we have to be in conversation with those who are most affected by those systems.

And, further, collective liberation theology calls us to follow their lead.

In 2015, I joined a group ofUU’s from across the country in Selma, Alabama at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Several of the mostly white UU s there had to be told that, no, they would not be at the front of the commemorative march across that bridge.

The black folks who had organized the event and whose lives had after all been most affected by the history being remembered were perfectly capable of leading their own march.

Here’s an example of when we’ve done better.

First UU helped to form the Austin Sanctuary Network, and from the beginning the sanctuary network has centered in its leadership folks most affected by our inhumane immigration system.

Collective liberation theology moves us from paternalism to proximity.

Finally, I believe that our faith is strong enough, our underlying theology powerful enough, that it can sustain us through the discomfort in which we will have to dwell at times in our journey toward transformation.

Discomfort?

What in the world is Rev. Chris on about now?

Go with me for just a moment into some discomfort that exists right here within this here very church.

We have had a lot of surveys, listening sessions, and the like in the church over the last couple of years, haven’t we?

Well, some themes around where we feel discomfort have occasionally emerged.

For instance, we want First UU to be a strong force for justice in our world.

And there is some discomfort talking about politics in church.

But you know, a lot of what happens regarding justice or injustice, is enacted through legislation or through court rulings, both of which are driven by politics.

So, while we are prohibited from supporting political candidates or parties, we must move through any discomfort around justice-related political issues, whether in church or in the public arena.

I can assure you our fundamentalist faith counterparts have no such discomfort.

And further, given the need for revolutionary change that Danez Smith proclaims in their poem …

And given that far too often our political choices these days seem to be between regressivism at worst and painfully slow incrementalism at best, we will need even more than political engagement.

We will need more than protests and marches.

We will be required to dream of new societal systems and structures and to begin living out them out, sometimes in rebellious ways, within our daily lives.

And that can be extremely uncomfortable for those of us for whom the current systems provide privilege.

As author and activist Arundhati Roy says of war, “Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe.”

UU theologian (and one of my favorite people), Sharon Welch, applies this to the many aspects of our lives in her book, “After the Protests are Heard“.

She writes that we must notice “the ways ways our everyday decisions already create more justice.”

And though that awareness may sometimes bring discomfort, changing even small acts in our daily lives, as our reading earlier described, germinates seeds of hope and transformation.

Here are some of Danez Smith’s thoughts on that hope.

VIDEO

My beloveds, rooted in faith, we can move the mountain. Sustained by a theology of liberation for all of us, every single one of us, now, now, we’re talkin’ bout a revolution.

Benediction

As we go out into our world now, may you carry with you a sense of the great river of love that flows through our universe and through each of us.

A revolutionary love that moves us toward equity, justice, and the realization of the Beloved Community.

May you also carry with you the love of this religious community, until next we are gathered again.

May the congregation say, “Amen”, and “blessed be”.

Go in peace.

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