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

Join us for a fun and festive service where the congregation will “unwrap” gifts of presence.

Our theme today is the gifts of presence, so we’re unwrapping the gifts of presence. That is a gift for those of you who like puns and a lump of coal for those of you who don’t.

(There are lots of wrapped packages on the stage.
Rev. Erin starts by unwraping the first one.)

This one says “Open First” so I’m going to find out. All right, It says “Today we are literally going to unwrap this service.” I’m going to invite volunteers to come up, open a present, and each box or bag will have some part of the service in it. One box has the opening hymn wrapped inside, another has the offertory, and so forth.

We’ll take a moment to breathe together as they come, and even if it means that our opening words happen at the end, or our closing hymn is first, it’s okay. We’re gonna have some fun today, and we’re gonna learn some things from it.

Benediction

MYSTERY OF BEING HERE
by John Donahue.

May you awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift
and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence of flame and anxiety
never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
May it be so and Amen.

Reading

MYSTERIES
by Mary Oliver

Truly we live with mysteries
too marvelous to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of lambs,
how rivers and stones are
forever in allegiance with gravity,
while we ourselves dream of rising,
how two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken,
how people come from delight
or the scars of damage
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance always
from those who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say,
Look and laugh in astonishment
and bow their heads.

Story for all ages

THE SHORTEST DAY
by Susan Cooper

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

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

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

So a couple of weeks ago Reverend Michelle and I were in the minister’s office commiserating and catching up on the life of the church and that is one of the best things about being on a ministerial team is you’re in it together and just being together in those moments of sharing about our struggles, about our joys, instead of over email or text, but to really be together. And it’s in those luxurious moments when something magical might sneak in. In this case, I said to Well, in seminary, I used to be so creative about worship planning, walking meditations around the sanctuary, dancing. I just don’t have the energy for that kind of creativity these days, and that’s okay. We do what we can do.

We do what we can do is one of my favorite mantras, and I believe it, But of course the universe heard me and sent the unwrapped service through a colleague’s Facebook post. And here we are. A few days later we found ourselves gift wrapping, making a party of it in the minister’s office. Now gifts aren’t really my love language and I’m terrible about waiting until the last minute to shop and I find myself wrapping presents usually alone in my room on Christmas Eve muttering to myself and looking for the tape and feeling resentful mostly toward myself that I did this to myself. So it was with incredible gratitude that Reverend Michelle, her spouse Reverend Micah, Reverend Michelle’s mom Nancy and Kinsey all offered to wrap gifts for this day together. Yes.

It’s hard when a team member leaves, so I want to say a special note of how nice it was to have Kinsey in the room. She wrapped one present and then she said, “Is it okay if I just sit and get some work done while y ‘all are wrapping? Just be here?” And absolutely yes. And we learned in that time that we have a shared favorite song, so we got to dance around a little bit, and now I have that memory. I also want to thank Brent and the musicians and the tech team again for being a part of this unwrapped service, which is a particular curveball for you. Thank you for your talent, your openness, and the clarity of when it really isn’t going to work, to just wing it. Great.

So, friends, you never know what your presence may offer someone, what a gift it may be. And you never know what staying open and present to the mystery of the universe might bring you. In this holiday season, presence and the corresponding word “absence” can be a challenging thing. I find myself often torn, wanting to be a bunch of places at once, which of course I can’t do. And you may find yourself aching over those you have lost, whether to death or family estrangement or simply moving away. Our challenge in the hustle and bustle is to acknowledge those feelings, to not push them away, but to somehow also ground ourselves into being present to the joys and loves around us.

Vietnamese monk and peace activist, Tich Nhat Hanh, known as the father of mindfulness, said this,

“When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there? The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they bloom like flowers.”

Today’s service is intended to give us a chance to not just talk about mindfulness, but to practice it together, to pay attention because we cannot autopilot this one. It gives us a chance to breathe while we wait for the slides or when a hymn is opened out of place, a chance to hear sacred words in new voices, young and old. And while for some of us not Knowing whether and which hymn is coming next, I admit, may be stressful. If we can let go of control even a little and know that whatever is in the box, it’ll be okay. I hope that that knowledge will serve you well during the holiday season and what’s to come in our world in January and beyond.

And this call to live in the moment is not just modern spirituality or self-help but ancient wisdom. The Chinese philosopher Lao Su, born in 571 BC, wrote,

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”

That may be an oversimplification given what we know about the body and chemicals and the brain, but still I think those are wise words. So I hope you’ve been paying attention to where the service might be affecting you and giving yourself a chance to ponder now or later why you might be delighted in some spots or stressed in others and how you might apply that knowledge to your daily life. If you’ve been delighted by something different, something a little silly at times, perhaps seeking more silliness or spontaneity or difference in your daily life would bring you joy.

If you feel frustrated, angry or anxious, I’m sure you’re not alone, and perhaps you could have the kind of conversation with a friend, the way I’m so thankful to be able to have with Reverend Michelle when I need to, and talk about what might be underneath what you might be feeling. We can ask ourselves, how would I like to feel when faced with something different, unusual, or beyond my control. What would my best self be in this situation? These are also good questions, not just for inevitable holiday curveballs that happen at the airport or when family gets together, but for our life in this church. First UU is expected to call a second co-lead minister next year and who knows what kind of creative or theological differences or ways of doing things they might bring. So my prayer for you as your sabbatical minister and someone who loves this congregation so much is that you can meet those unknowns with at the very least calm curiosity or even better a spirit of delight and wonder.

When I told one first UU staffer about this service, they said, “I love it. Bring the chaos.” And I frankly was not expecting that from you, Shannon. I love it. And my favorite song on KUTX right now is a song called “Little Chaos,” and there’s a lyric in the verse that goes, “Is the room in your life for a little chaos.” And the thing is, you have to have some room to be able to welcome change or the unexpected, be it a miracle or an emergency. And so in my life as a parent, my husband and I talk a lot about trying to leave room in the Google Calendar for the unexpected. And I remind that today to myself and to all of us.

Lastly, I can’t talk about presence without sharing a story that’s been on my heart about what it is to be present with each other. Recently I sat with an elder from our congregation who was in the last days of hospice care. She could not open her eyes or speak to me. So I sat with her for a while, gently put my hand on her hands, not knowing how that would feel to her. Sometimes I sang songs quietly, “Amazing Grace,” “The Lord blessed you and keep you”, Spirit of life.” Not sure if she was aware of my presence. I wasn’t sure what to say because I didn’t know her well. But I leaned in and I said, “Your church family loves you so much. We love you, we love you.” And to my surprise, she nodded very clearly, twice, at those words, the only movement in my visit.

The poet Maya Angelou famously said that people will not remember what you say or do, but they will remember how you make them feel. I know from this church member in that experience that your presence matters. The love you bring to each other matters. If this is a challenging season for you, I want you to know your church loves you so much, and we are here for you. May this be a time of great joy in the ways that it can be, and may we be present to each other in everything else.

Blessed be.

Opening Words

FORGED IN THE FIRE OF OUR COMING TOGETHER
by Reverend Gretchen Haley

What’s going to happen?
Will everything be okay?
What can I do?
In these days,
we find ourselves too often, stuck with these questions on repeat.
What’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? What can I do?

We grasp at signs and markers, articles of news and analysis,
Facebook memes and forwarded emails,
as if the new Zodiac
is capable of forecasting all that life may yet bring our way
as if we could prepare,
as if life had ever made any promises of making
sense, or turning out the way we thought.
As if we are not also actors in this still unfolding story

for this hour we gather
to surrender to the mystery,
to release ourselves from the needing to know,
the yearning to have it already figured out.
and also the burden of believing we either have all the control or none

Here in our song and our silence
our stories and our sharing
We make space for a new breath a new healing a new possibility
to take root
That is courage
forged in the fire of our coming together
and felt in the Spirit that comes alive in this act of faith.
And that we believe still a new world is possible,
that we are creating it already, here and now.

Come, let us worship together.

Thank you for being present to the mystery of the season, the mystery of our very lives and existence and co-creating this service with us. Your presence today has truly been a gift. We saved this box for last because it would be awkward to extinguish the chalice before it was lit. And because we always have our words of blessing ringing in our ears and hearts as we leave this place. I don’t think we lit it. So we’re going to light it, and then we’ll extinguish it, and thank you so much for being a part of this. The first time we ever did an unwrapped service here. Go in peace, go in love, blessed it 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.

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Rev. Erin Walter
December 1, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Sexism and misogyny harm people of all genders and can affect our communities in subtle, even unnoticed ways. How can we make a spiritual practice of rooting out those prejudices in our world and ourselves? Rev. Erin Walter updates her UU Women’s Federation award-winning sermon “From Eve to Hillary.” The sermon was featured at the 2017 General Assembly in New Orleans. Today’s updated version still resonates for post-election 2024 and for this moment.

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 are not on call for the pain of the world. I know you feel every hit of the hammer beating plowshares into swords and people into plowshares. And every time you fail to step between the blow and its target, the injustice is sewn into your bones too. And so when the hammer rises, you must rise with it, raising your voice, your eyes, your awareness, your body, whatever part of you that can, given as an offering.

You cannot stay this way forever. Sown to this cacophony of blows every movement of yours a follow until your body is owned by the drumbeat of the raising of weapons, until your days string together in a stuttering heartbreak of rage, and you can’t catch your breath.

But that is what you promised to those who don’t get to choose whether or to show up for the fight. You promised that you would hold nothing back, I know, except you cannot be on call for the pain of the world.

It is not work that can be done without sleep. When we said that people are too sacred to be beaten into plowshares or swords we met you. We need you for the fight and we need you for all the things that are less and more than fighting.

We need you to be ready to listen in the soft way earth listens to rain in the hours before dawn, to be tender, to cradle precious things, to hold the smell of dew in your hair, to hum the songs that flowers will rise up through the earth to hear.

I need you to stay in love with the world.

– Rev. Liz James

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

The lore of the conniving shrew, the cunning wench, the lying Jezabel, this embodiment of untrustworthiness in female form has been carefully crafted over history and is genius in its simplicity. Gut the credibility, remove the voice.

And in a country such as ours with stronger Judeo-Christian ties than any other westernized nation, it is particularly compelling. Eve, giving Adam the apple, is a powerful illustration of the cultural casting of a woman caught in her penchant for treachery, complete with a faith-based other worldliness that makes it irrefutable by design.

This caustic trope has been reliably reincarnated in the Salem witch, the woman’s suffragist, the second-wave feminist, the modern-day gold digger, all in an attack on veracity that deliberately seeks to cast doubt on a woman’s intentions and actions and succeeds in nullifying her words before she can even speak them.

– Katie Masa Kennedy

Sermon

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

The sermon that I get asked to preach the most was called “From Eve to Hillary.” And I wrote it in 2016, it won the UU Women’s Federation Sermon Award, and I preached it at General Assembly in New Orleans. And of course, I wrote it at a time when I hoped that my daughter and I might celebrate our first woman president. So when people started asking for it again this year, I said, “Okay, and I’ll see what I can update for this time we’re in.”

I have to tell you, I didn’t really need to update it very much, (audience laughs) which is, I have a lot of feelings about. I call it “From Eve to us” now because the call is for us. We are not outside the work. So here we go.

When I was in seminary, people were always suggesting books to me as though seminarians have time for extra books. More than once, it was “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time” by Marcus Borg. And I told these kind book recommenders, take away the word again, and that’s me. As someone who grew up humanist, Unitarian Universalist, in this congregation, where my whole memory of Jesus has to do with a sermon that one of my colleagues gave called “How Jesus is Like the Lone Ranger” and I’ve reached out to him and I want to know what he said. He doesn’t quite remember and neither do I, but I invite us all to do our own research and maybe figure out what that might have been.

But I was reading the Bible for the first time when I was in seminary and I am not proud of this. I want to be very clear. For those of us who grew up UU, and I hope for those of you who are growing up UU now, it’s important that we have literacy in sacred texts, especially if like myself in my primary role as the Executive Director of the State Justice Network for UUs, we are to minister with and work with people of diverse faith backgrounds and cultural backgrounds.

The Bible is very important to a lot of the people that we work with, even if it’s not what I was particularly raised with. And when we go, in particular, on our immigration border witness trips, I’m always so moved that some of the only things that people bring with them on these long, long journeys is the Bible and their faith.

Now, it is in all great religious traditions that we argue with our sacred texts, and that is very UU, so let’s go. We’re gonna start in Genesis chapter 3 of the People’s Bible.

God said, “You shall not eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it or you will die.” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired and to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened.

God tells Eve she will die. Does she? No. No. Many of us grew up with that message, and you’ll hear some language in here from 2016, which we may have also heard this year, but that Eve ruined paradise for everyone. It was her fault that humans had to spend our lives atoning and trying to make paradise great again.

But Unitarian Universalism encourages us to question, to not just accept one story or to recognize that there may be beauty and untruth in the same story. So here are my questions. Just who is lying in this part of the Genesis story? Whose motives should arouse suspicion? The woman who chooses knowingly to seek wisdom and face good and evil? The animal who is maligned through the ages, but if you read the actual text told Eve the truth about her choices or the fear-mongering entity in power who makes a bold but hollow threat to the people to hang on to that power.

How different 2 ,000 years of Judeo-Christian history including our own UU history this is where we come from It might be if Eve were respected, admired for her choices, her willingness to seek knowledge, to take risks.

And it’s not too late to change the story and to tackle the intersectional oppressions that we see in our world which include sexism and misogyny here in this story. Another world is possible and in fact it has been written.

In the Women’s Bible commentary scholar Susan Niddich says Genesis 3 has been misunderstood. Eve is the protagonist – not her husband. This is an important point Niddich says as is the realization that to be the curious one. The seeker of knowledge, the tester of limits, is to be quintessentially human.

I read that and thought, “Wow, Eve would have made a pretty great Unitarian Universalist, or at least the curious kind that I want to be, that I aspire to be.”

In 2016, when I first wrote this, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations of which we are a part, had just had its first female president, the Reverend Dr. Sophia Betancourt, appointed along with two men. Then we elected our first female UUA president. Let’s see, the Reverend Susan Frederick Gray followed. Now the Reverend Dr. Betancourt is our UUA president again, by election for a full term. She is the first woman of color elected to lead our faith. It was my honor to co-lead, worship, and sing with Reverend Sophia back in October at our UU The Vote service at your sibling congregation in Plano.

This is a crucial era for women, gender queer people, people of color in our movement and in our nation. The Reverend Ashley Horan who used to lead Side with Love and is now one of the vice presidents of the denomination said in her Berry Street lecture at that General Assembly in 2017, “Everything is falling apart.” This is still true. We still see it in glaring attacks on immigrants, trans and queer people, people of color, people seeking abortion care. And in the election at the time between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, we saw it in hate that was indiscriminately directed at women. The Reverend Susan Frederick Gray reported directly from Charlottesville, and she said that in between Nazi chants were peppered homophobic and sexist rants. We see that still today.

On the day before election day this year, I drove my daughter to high school. She and her best friend, assigned female at birth, in the carpool with me. And as we drove up, there were two guys who’ve been doing this for years, but predominantly since the first election that, when this was written, holding up big, hateful signs about all kinds of things. It was a grab-back of all the hateful things. And one of them was wearing a shirt that said, “Your body, my choice.”

I appreciate – I was thinking about it while they were singing Time after Time, like something’s just time, after time, after time. But I appreciate the reading that Zak gave us from Katie Massa Kennedy taking that historical view. As awful as it is, it’s a little bit of a piece of hope to me to also remember that we are not the first to be fighting and working for equality. And we didn’t invent it, I didn’t wake up to it. It’s been in our texts For centuries, it’s a lot of work to do and this idea that when you cast women or anyone in a marginalized group automatically as less trustworthy and you remove the voice then that next step is where we are now Removing the choice. “Your body, my choice.” Absolutely not.

But there are so many things the common you knew. You heard some of the list from Zak. But also in 2016 we added “Nasty Woman” to the list. Do you remember that one? We added, “Nevertheless, she persisted.” Do you remember that moment? Mitch McConnell saying to Elizabeth Warren, reading from Coretta Scott King in the Senate, McConnell said, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” Like this was a bad thing.

I know, I think we all know, what black women have to put up with under the characterization of being an angry black woman. We don’t know personally some of us, but we hear and I hope we’re listening. At the time, Black Lives Matter and Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism was an emerging movement and we were having to contend with who we listened to and how the tropes and dismissals nullify a woman’s words before she can even speak them, Kennedy says.

So the losing of your voice yourself because of sex or gender and expression goes directly against our UU principles. The inherent worth and dignity of every person, our values centered in Love. And the reason I’m bringing this up to you now, is because with the rise of extremeism in our politics and relition. Often times UUs want to say we’re not a religion, not really church. I beg you I beg you to claim it, to claim your role as a person of faith, to understand Unitarian Universalism as a religion that comes from somewhere and has a role to play, a very serious role to play, encountering those narratives, and helping us come together. Thank you.

It’s really important. I don’t want to talk about this. Like I would rather talk about, and sometimes we can, about how dancing feeds your spirit or any number of other topics. But it is so important that we understand that this work is ours to do. It matters that it comes from a faith place. It matters that people of all genders are involved in this work. And it’s not intellectual, Right, there is the there you can research all you want, but you know that it’s true and That it has real real life Implications shamefully unequal pay and poor conditions for women in the workplace and for all people doing so-called women’s work a United States where trans women are murdered at record rates Particularly almost all of them women of color, the loss of our reproductive rights, and the rise of this extreme Christian nationalism.

So what are we going to do? What are we going to make our spiritual practices here, whatever your gender identity? I’m asking you to think about that today, because who you are may mean that what you’re going to do about it is a little different than the person sitting next to you. And it can feel really overwhelming, this big history that we have to tackle. So I invite us to start small. I’m going to start with what are the stories that we tell. And I’ll give you an example from my house from 2016.

When my daughter, Ace, then seven, asked on a drive to school with her brother, then three, in the car, how many girl presidents have we had. I choked on a lump in my throat to say her and her brother to her and her brother none. In 230 years, none.

I wish though here’s where I want to claim a role in the story. I wish that I had taken a moment though to educate her about Shirley Chisholm who in 1972 became the first Black candidate for a major party’s nomination in the US, I wish I told her about the rest of the world, about the more than 20 female heads of state or government leading countries right now. At the time, I let that America first propaganda that I abhor. The we’re so great keep me in that narrow place when I could have given her a truer answer, that there our female leaders all around the world.

So I invite us to choose knowledge and think about ways we can answer questions that inspire our kids and ourselves with the truth to do better.

I invite you also to look at the behavior in our churches. It’s not just the presidential election that has me bringing this up to you. We are in search for a co-minister. This is a chance for all of us to pay attention to our subtle biases. Not just about gender, about race, or culture, about people’s religious expression. If you felt uncomfortable today when I said God in prayer, or if you felt uncomfortable when I might have just called God a liar. You So how do you handle it when someone says something uncomfortable and do you give them more leeway if they’re a man or if they’re older or if they’re straight or cis-gender? So as our congregation seeks and goes through this process of leadership search, I ask you to think about these kind of things too.

Once, in another congregation I served, we were having a committee meeting. We were on a tight deadline and a woman spoke up. She said, “I raised this issue we’re working on months ago because I knew we needed time to get it done,” and no one responded to my email. The committee only acted when a man brought it up a few months later. She said, “I’ve dealt with this at my job, too. I’m frustrated. I’m dealing with it here at my church. No one wants to listen to older women, she said. She said, it’s only getting worse as I get older.

I’ve talked to you about the spiritual practice of reading your email. I invite you to think about it from a lens of whose emails am I reading and who am I responding to? Ageism is a part of the intersections as well. We love this woman. None of us meant to hurt her. We promised we would do better. And I tell that story to you as part of my promise to her.

So One of the things I also think about though is how sexism and misogyny affect men. I’m the mother of a son and how I raise him and the man that he grows up to be or the person that he grows up to be is a responsibility I take very seriously, especially in this age of mass shootings and so much more. So I want all the men in the room And all the people who do not identify as women, to know that you’re very much on my heart every time I think about this sermon, as it was when I wrote it and certainly still today. People of all genders need healing from sexism and misogyny. Just as people of all races, their souls are harmed in the insidious work of racism in the world, in different ways but make no mistake.

So I want to close by sharing a story with you. Again from 2016, one of your sibling, UUs at Wildflower Church in South Austin, Kurt Cadena Mitchell, I asked him to share his feelings because I knew he was a proud male feminist. He was our board vice chair and a young adult leader in the community, later the chief of staff for the city of Austin, now a seminarian at a Quaker Seminary, last I checked. In his photo, direct photo in the church directory, it said, “Women’s rights are human rights,” on Kurt’s shirt. I emailed to ask him why that shirt, why that message back in 2016. And his long reply that I wasn’t expecting, brought me to tears, and I’ll share it with you with his permission.

He said, “I’ve been thinking about why a woman’s nomination for president makes me tear up and catch my breath and wipe away happy tears in a different way. Growing up one of the biggest things that frequently made me feel out of place, a misfit, or less valuable, was around concepts of masculinity. What it meant to be a man or a boy. I didn’t usually fit that picture. I played house, dolls, dress up. I used my Star Wars action figures to set up a toy school or a hospital or a convent of nuns. I didn’t like contact sports. I preferred the company of my aunts, grandmother, and other female relatives. I knew from the media, school, and society what a little boy should be like. I wasn’t exactly that picture.

In a hometown that was majority Latino, I had ample examples of people who looked like me in positions of power. That is not to say that racism didn’t manifest in ugly ways. It did. But I had strong counter-messages that my culture, race, and heritage were something to be proud of. Being gay was more isolating. My biggest anxieties and feelings of being less than worthy were rooted in not fitting the standard of masculinity, regardless of whether the messages sent explicitly or implicitly. So when I see a woman nominated for president in one of the two major parties, I get emotional.

Now I see an example that you don’t need to be a man with all the meaning attached to that word, to be a badass, get it done, kick butt, and take names, trailblazer, who put herself in the spotlight despite the ridicule, animosity, and violence. Was Hillary Clinton my first example of this? No. Of course not. Absolutely not. My first examples were my mother, who stood up to police. My grandmother, who fought as hard as she could for her family’s future. My aunts, who never let a man define their life or their future. My female cousins, who are living proof of courage, resilience, and hard work. It doesn’t surprise me that focus on the negative of a historic presidential campaign. It was never my race that made me consider taking my own life. But it was the messages the world sent that masculinity was better than femininity. Being feminine was less valuable. And if you were feminine, you were worthless. If you were feminine, you were worthless.

This sermon was never about any particular candidate. That’s not what we do here at church. What we do here is we seek our wholeness together. We seek the truth that all of us are fully loved, fully human, beautiful, strong, needed, belonging in this world exactly the way we are. And I consider it our call as Unitarian Universalists to root out that deadly, deadly message that would tell us otherwise. Kurt is not the only one and if you’re someone who is felt that way in this room and this is emotional for you I Love you and we can talk after the service.

I Want to say we’ve come a long way since 2016 But we’ve lost some fights. I see you Elizabeth and I see all of you who’ve worked so hard for the rights that we have and what we’ve lost and we had our vice president Harris as a female presidential candidate have to spell out to people that not all women are aspiring to be humble. I’m not sometimes, sometimes it’s good to be Well, just like any other human being,

I reserve the right to live a full range of emotion and expression. So we have work to do. And I ask you just to sit with what your own work might be and how it might intersect with some other work we might have to do together. Where there might be little things every day, maybe it’s at home. I know that a lot of us who are doing the work of justice and equity are still living a very binary existence at home, some of us. So what we could do at home, in the workplace, in the church, to root out and get back to the original, original meaning of the story, that Eve is a shero, not a villain, and to understand people of all genders as protagonists in our collective liberation story. Maybe so.

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

Spirit of life and love, thank you for this community where we have the opportunity to come together each week outside of the hustle and bustle, into sacred silence and song, and into a place that calls us to our highest and best selves. May we go out into the world ready to hear the songs that bring the flowers from the earth, ready to fall in love as hard as it is sometimes, as real as the struggle to fall in love with the world all over again and share that love joyfully everywhere it is needed. Blessed be.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
November 3, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

On the Sunday between Dia de los Muertos and Election Day, Rev. Erin Walter reflects with us on the call of our ancestors and our power, as Patti Smith sings, “to dream, to rule, to wrestle the earth from fools.” However hopeful or scared, energized or exhausted, you may be feeling in this changing season, come sing, dream, and exhale in 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

by Orlanda Brugnola

Flame, friend of our most ancient ancestors,
we kindle you now to make you visible in this time.
Yet, in truth, you burn always,
in the unique worth of each person,
in the imagination,
in the turning of the heart to sorrow or joy,
in the call to hope and
in the call to justice.
Burn bright before us.
Burn bright within us.
May we enter into this space,
nourished by the love and warmth of community.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

by Rev. Ashley Horan, UUA
(written just before 2016 election)

“You are loved beyond belief. You are enough, you are precious, your work and your life matter, and you are not alone. You are part of a “we,” a great cloud of witnesses living and dead who have insisted that this beautiful, broken world of ours is a blessing worthy of both deep gratitude and fierce protection. Whatever happens tomorrow, our ancestors and our descendants are beckoning us, compelling us onward toward greater connection, greater compassion, greater commitment to one another and to the earth. Together, we are resilient and resourceful enough to say “yes” to that call, to make it our life’s work in a thousand different ways, knowing that we can do no other than bind ourselves more tightly together, and throw ourselves into the holy work of showing up, again and again, to be part of building that world of which we dream but which we have not yet seen.”

Prayer and Meditation

An excerpt by Rev. Kristin Grassel Schmidt

“We have gathered this morning with gratitude for all that has brought us to this day, this moment, this breath.
Let us never forget that we serve our neighbors, our values, our free faith in the spirit of the many who have gone before us,
who made ways where there was no way,
who left legacies for us to remember, to follow, to emulate
As we prepare for the week ahead,
Let us pray that the fire of commitment, the Spirit of truth, love, and justice that was in those ancestors goes with us.
God of many names and beyond all naming, Spirit of Love,
Breath of Life,
In this time when so many stakes feel so high, help us remember that no season lasts forever,
that the days of the greedy and powerful are numbered,
that there is a force at work in our world and among us that lifts up the oppressed and fills the hungry … ”

Sermon

(Sings)
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

-Tom Petty

I love that song but I actually disagree with the patron saint musician Tom Petty. The waiting is hard but it’s not the hardest part. The hardest part is women dying without abortion care. The hardest part is our trans families who aren’t here anymore because they had to leave the state. The hardest part is the militarization of our beautiful border communities, war, voter suppression and intimidation, mass shootings. That’s the hardest part.

And still we sing. And i want to talk about what we can do in the next couple days. Because I know we are tired. The work we do over the next two days is what we can do to stave off the hardest part. We’re going to gather our spirits this morning for the next couple days.

So on Friday I got on Zoom, in between dropping my daughter at theater practice and joining my band in the studio, and I got on the Zoom call with our UU state action network siblings in North Carolina. I am honored to lead our Texas UU Justice Ministry, and we do our work in relationship with UU the Vote, our 40 congregations, and partners around the country.

The story that my colleague Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson told that brought so much joy to my heart.

.. UUs from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland came down to help get out the vote in North Carolina, where Asian Americans have been experiencing harassment and intimidation at a senior center polling place. All these UUs asked themselves what was needed, what kind of resistance could they bring in the spirit that they claim. So they put together a choir of musicians, a lot like the bluegrass we heard today. And they sang and created a spirit of love and welcome at their polling place for voters.

You might need to sing at your polling place. This is not theoretical. If it gets ugly out there on Tuesday, I want to hear that our people sang!

I voted at the South Austin Community Center this week. I remember my first time voting when I was 18, and still this time, I have never felt so emotional about voting in my entire life. I teared up. ! wanted to hug every single volunteer in that rec center.

A friend also voted there Friday night and waited in line for more than an hour, on the last night of early voting. She said someone referred to her as a procrastinator. My friend is a social worker who works with people who are homeless, addicted to drugs, and HIV positive. She is not a procrastinator. She got to the polls as soon as she could.

With two days to go until the election, I come today to celebrate all the ways we as UUs are working for democracy, to hold space for the absolute Halloween caldron of emotions we are feeling right now, and to remind us that, frankly, though I know we are weary – I am weary – we must take heart, take a breath, and keep working. The work we do in the next two days can decide whether our values show up to the polls, our Supreme Court, our laws of bodily autonomy, who feels safe enough to stay in Texas or this country, whether we have a department of education or not a few months or years from now.

And I don’t know what the results will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, or any day. Last weekend, I spoke on a panel for the NY State Convention of Universalists, alongside my colleagues Rev. Julian Soto and Rev. Chris Long, about allyship across state lines, and Rev. Soto talked about Fannie Lou Hamer and how hard she worked for voting and economic rights for Black Americans and therefore all Americans. If you are struggling in your spirit about voting, please go seek out the history of Fannie Lou Hamer. She is the one who famously said, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Hamer also said, “I feel sorry for anybody that could let hate wrap them up. Ain’t no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face.” Rev. Soto told the NY Universalists to remember Hamer’s work and to remember that, as people with privilege, many us, some fights are not ours to win. They are only ours to fight.

So whatever happens this week, please take heart, we can’t know which fights we’re going to win and when, and we know what our commitment as people of faith in be in the fight for democracy. And I urge you to remember the words of Fannie Lou Hamer and not let hate wrap you up. There is a spark of the divine in all of us.

(Sings)
The only thing that we did was right
Was the day we started to fight
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on

The prize of collective liberation.

So I implore you to let this time together in church bolster your spirit to spend as much of the next two days calling, texting, knocking on doors, and having hard conversations as you can.

Yesterday I walked my dog with a close friend. As we visited, she told me she probably wasn’t going to vote. She doesn’t believe the claims of either of the major parties. It’s all just too much. I listened and told her I understand the frustration. And then we talked about Project 2025 and extremists’ desires to get rid of the Department of Education. Our kids are in public school. I mentioned control of our own bodies. We both have daughters. I told about how a big city like Houston has still had races decided by a small number of votes. I lament that I didn’t have this conversation with her during the early voting period, but better late than never. I said, I’m sorry, I know this is not fun. I know we are sick of this. And she said, no, thank you for reminding me to do my duty as an American.

I will text her on Tuesday to check in and encourage her one more time to vote. I will check with all my friends on Tuesday.

This is the work we have to do in these last days before Election Day, and really, as people with faith in democracy and a vision for a true multiracial democracy, this is our work to do always. To talk with our neighbors with empathy. To take no vote or voter for granted. To acknowledge where we still have much work to do, and must hold our leaders accountable, and that voting is but a first step in that direction, not the last.

We can call and text strangers. We can protect the polls. And we still need to check in with our friends, family, church members, and neighbors,

Sarah Serel-Harrop in mid-October: “I was blockwalking with some fellow UU’s today, and we knocked on 57 doors … But the most impactful part was when one of my colleagues asked a person on the street if he was ready for the upcoming election. He said he wasn’t eligible. I asked, are you sure? And in talking with him, he was actually off paper [completed his term of incarceration or probation and any related paperwork] and thus was eligible to register. So I registered him, explaining that he couldn’t vote in November, but could vote after that. And, I gave him a few mail-in forms. This just goes to show how impactful it is to be out and visible in the community. It was also so meaningful to me to be able to help someone regain his citizenship rights.”

We don’t know exactly what’s to come. But we do know that every conversation you have in your community matters, how you live your faith in the public square matters every day.

(Sings)

This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
This joy that I have
The world didn’t give it to me
The world didn’t give it,
the world can’t take it away

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 Andrew Pakula

As you prepare to leave this sacred space
As you prepare to leave this sacred space
Pack away a piece of this church in your heart.
Wrap it carefully like a precious gem.
Carry it with you through the joys and sorrows of your days –
Let its gentle glow strengthen you, warm you,
remind you of all that is good and true
Until you gather here again in this place of love.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
July 30, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In her last service as our interim Minister for Joy and Justice, Rev. Erin Walter will reflect on the congregation’s learning and spiritual growth in the past year, and offer blessings for the church’s future. Rev. Jonalu Johnstone will also join the service by video.

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 ARRIVE TOGETHER HERE
By Andrew Pakula

We arrive together here
Travellers on life’s journey
Seekers of meaning, of love, of healing, of justice, of truth
The journey is long, and joy and woe accompany us at every step
None is born that does not die
None feels pleasure that does not also feel pain.
The tear has not yet dried on the cheek but the lips curve sweetly in a smile
Numerous are our origins, our paths, and our destinations
And yet, happily, our ways have joined together here today
Spirit of life. Source of love.
May our joining be a blessing
May it bring comfort to those who are in pain
May it bring hope to those who despair
May it bring peace to those who tremble in fear
May it bring wisdom and guidance for our journeys
And though this joining may be for just a moment in time
The moment is all we can ever be certain of
May we embrace this and every instant of our lives.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
June 11, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Happy Pride Month. This Sunday, Rev. Erin Walter and three members of First UU will co-lead a service inspired by the recent Transgender Inclusion in Congregations course. What did folks learn that can spark more love and joy in our own lives? How can lessons of trans inclusion help First UU foster belonging for all be more welcoming of all ages, cultures, abilities, and more?

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 want a world where boys can feel, girls can lead, and the rest of us can not only exist but thrive. This is not about erasing men and women but rather acknowledging that man and woman are two of many stars in a constellation that do not compete but amplify one another’s shine.

– Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

THREE REFLECTIONS ON RADICAL WELCOME

First UU members and friends present their reflection on radical welcome, a service inspired by the recent Transgender Inclusion in Congregations Course. Listen to the three reflections by clicking the play button at the top of this page. They are:

1. Becca Brenna-Luna

2. Leo Collas

3. Glenna Williams

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Erin Walter
May 7, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

A proverb (and countless songs) tell us, “If you love something, set it free.” But alongside letting go with love, we also need the capacity to invite people in. This is a muscle we are still regrowing from the pandemic.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.”

– Frida Kahlo

Affirming Our Mission

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev Erin Walter and Simone Monique Barnes
April 23, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Seven years after his death, Prince’s work continues to influence and inspire the world. With religiously themed music and lyrics, combined with an ongoing exploration of identity, self expression, truth-telling, joy, injustice, grief, and of course, love, Prince’s deeply spiritual music offers a theology of liberation.

As we look inside, look around, and look beyond ourselves, we begin to ask questions like, “How do we perceive and define our individual selves?” “What role do we play in our collective healing?” “How can we survive and thrive in times of heartache and oppression?” “How do we imagine the next chapter of our lives, our church, 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

Music is the gift from God. Used properly it can do many great things.

– Prince

Affirming Our Mission

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

Readings

There is something about having people around you giving you support that motivating and once I got that support from people then I believed that I could do anything.

– Prince

---

Beloveds, Let us love one another because love is from God.
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love, does not know God for God is Love.
Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

Love is the one who is love. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

The one who made everything. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

The one who will listen when all others will not. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

We need love and honesty, peace and harmony. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

There will be peace and for those who love God a lot. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

Love and Honesty, Peace and Harmony. Love is God.
GOD IS LOVE.

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

TO REMEMBER

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

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

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

KEEP MOVING
Maggie Smith

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

IN THE SPIRIT OF SEARCHING
Rev. Joan Javier-Deval

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

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

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

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

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

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

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

Sermon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————-

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

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

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein said,

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Awe:

• • helps us expand our sense of possibility and stimulate new ways of thinking.

• It also helps us build relationships. Awe frequently happens in solitude, yet it draws us toward others – the desire to share this feeling!

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

————-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

————-

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

The Harvard Business Review study suggests some ways:

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

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

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

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

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

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

———–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessed be.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

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

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

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

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

– Lynn Unger

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

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

– John Lewis

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

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

– Howard Thurman

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

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

– Howard Thurman

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

THE ATHEIST PRAYS
By Barbara J Pescan

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

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

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

GO TO THE LIMITS OF YOUR LONGING
by Rainer Maria Rilke

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

 

---

 

GONE FROM MY SIGHT
by Henry Van Dyke

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

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

Gone where?

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

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

And that is dying…

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

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

– Matthew P Taylor

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

MIRIAM’S DAUGHTER
By Mandie McGlynn

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

Sermon

Text of this sermon is not yet available.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 22 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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