Bringing Imperfect Gifts

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

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Kye Flannery
May 6, 2018
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

As a highly educated and progressive denomination, we think often about what should be and what could be. But sometimes our deepest engagement with what “is” creates the best progress – and the best stories.

Call to Worship
By Erika A. Hewitt

All of us are welcome here; all of us are loved
All of us are welcome here; all of us are loved

Some of us are bringing our best selves to this space, and some of us are bringing our struggling selves, including pieces we might be ashamed of. All of us are welcome here, and all of us are loved.

Some of us already have open hearts; and some of us aren’t quite there yet, because our hearts have gotten a little beat up this week and might’ve forgotten how to trust and open. Your heart is welcome here, no matter how bruised. We welcome you among us.

All of us are imperfect, but we’re here to drop our defenses and trust that what happens in worship is powerful and life-giving. Together, we affirm that this day — and our being together — can make each of us braver, more compassionate, and wiser than when we woke up this morning. We welcome you here.

Reading
from Dakota
by Kathleen Norris

The desert monks were not moralists concerned that others behave in a proper way so much as people acutely aware of their own weaknesses who tried to see their situation clearly without the distortions of pride, ambition, or anger. They saw sin (what they called bad thoughts) as any impulse that leads us away from paying full attention to who and what we are and what we’re doing; any thought or act that interferes with our ability to love God and neighbor. Many desert stories speak of judgment as the worst obstacle for a monk. “Abba Joseph said to Abba Pastor: ‘Tell me how I can become a monk.’ The elder replied: ‘If you want to have rest here in this life and also in the next, in every conflict with another say, “Who am I?” and judge no one.'”

Sermon

First, I want to ask you to imagine a mental post-it in your mind. And on it, will you put the answer to these two questions?
What is a mistake?
What’s the worst mistake you ever made?

The last few years I’ve been attending high holidays in the Jewish faith. Learning about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has influenced my understanding of mistakes or sins. It’s a day where everybody reckons with their behavior over the last year, and asks each other for forgiveness. The phrase that is used at Yom Kippur is “missing the mark.”

Right now, I define mistakes as a misunderstanding or a forgetting of the bigger picture.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made was not going to a funeral of a friend when I was 17. It was a person I loved who had died suddenly in a terrible accident — I was a freshman in college — I’d broken up with him… I was dating someone else — I felt unbearably, hideously guilty. I was afraid to face his family — I didn’t have the money to travel to Ireland, where he lived… I had no idea what to do. There was nobody I trusted to talk to about it. I just didn’t go.

And my guilt and my grief… I carried my guilt and my grief for ten years. Those two things, when you try to avoid them, they just clatter along at your heels, and I learned you can spend years just covering your ears, pretending all that din is normal.

I’ve been a chaplain now for about 4 years — I’ll start soon working with the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, a nonprofit which meets with families when someone is extremely sick and could be a candidate for organ donation.

One of the best gifts of being a chaplain is that you get real comfortable with making mistakes. Going into hospital rooms, these are like people’s living rooms. And you just walk right in. No idea what you’ll find…

Once i asked a young man in his 30s in a cardiac ICU if the patient in the bed was his mother, when it was his wife. They were a lovely couple, both ministers, and I hope they’re doing well, that she’s trucking along w.o complications — You don’t make that mistake too many times.

You come at an awkward time, walk in on somebody turned over in bed with their bum being wiped. You stop hanging on to embarrassment, yours or theirs —

I’ve learned that the more comfortable I am as a chaplain with my own missteps and mistakes, the more I can give the gift of understanding to other people’s mistakes.

Making mistakes – and walking into the room knowing you’ll make them – takes courage.

  • Brene Brown talks a lot about this.
  • She and others have suggested we must “fail better next time”
  • “You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.” -Winston Churchill
  • There’s a difference between honoring our mistakes and our growth and whitewashing — Watching all the lies of this administration after a mistake is made — when we lie about a mistake, that’s not courage. And it’s also not acceptance. I’ve met a lot of people in difficult circumstances, life and death…

I remember a woman who died at the hospital — a mistake I made there was speaking to her only in Spanish. People had told me she only spoke Spanish. That wasn’t true at all. She was bilingual. So she suffered through my tentative Spanish… Like a parent, you just suck up your mistakes and move on — chaplaincy in an intense situation can be a lot like parenting, in fact. You need to be okay, because you need to be able to ask everyone else in the room if they’re okay.

She wasn’t supposed to die that day. Her family wasn’t there, they were coming from hours away. I stood with her as she struggled for breath and sang to her and held her hand. One thing you know when you’ve been with a person as they’re dying — it’s not about saying “the right thing,” at all. It is about saying, “I care, and I’m here, I’m not leaving you.” And that’s pretty much it.

What you are left with as a chaplain is not “How can I not make a mistake here” but “Given all the things that are happening that nobody wanted, how can I just be decent to this patient and this family, treat them like I’d want my family to be treated?” It is a kind of love which amounts to Fearlessness. Applies to a lot of life I think.

So people just kept showing up for this woman who was dying — three of her exes showed up at the hospital.

In Texas, when you’re a chaplain, you know you have built trust with a family when they will acknowledge some of the more complicated truths: “My mom was a lesbian.” “She raised hell when she was younger.” “There is this crazy incident where somebody lost an earlobe.” “She had such a temper.” But also, “She’d do anything for you.”

Another patient whose family I got to know told me a great story about a family white water rafting trip.
Somebody’s planning was off, or the river itself didn’t go quite as they thought it would. This flotilla of rafts… just ran aground.
So, this man, he hopped out — turned a cooler top into an impromptu tray for drinks and said, “I’m your wader/waiter.” It was a brilliant move.

This is a story that was told at his funeral —
So much of what defines our character is what we do with something unexpected, our mistake or another person’s —

At the time when we die… what do we expect to have someone say at the funeral?
What is your wish? To live so authentically and lovingly that our Exes show up?
Maybe not ALL our exes 😉
But — is it really our deepest wish to have a funeral where people say, “Nothing to see here, mistakes were made, but not by her…”

I was a chaplain for a year to a mom who was in her early 30s. She died last year, leaving behind a small child, just two years old. A funny, loud, strong little girl. And her mother, my patient, knew it could be dangerous for her to get pregnant, but she went ahead with it, and ended up with this terminal disease.

This young woman, her heart was enormous. She was broken-hearted, but so courageous. She knew she was dying for almost a year. Her body had stopped being able to process nutrients. She was starving, slowly… She knew she was going to leave her little girl with her husband, her mother, their families. And I just remember … my dear patient, grooming her own Mom to be mother to her baby. This wasn’t the mom she’d have asked for — many of the things my patient had made of her life, her motivation, her enthusiasm, her schooling — she’d grown into these things in OPPOSITION to her mother — and yet, she knew her boat and her mother’s boat and her daughter’s boat were tied together. So she worked to teach her mother what she knew about being a good mother.

Everybody in that room was mothering each other the best way they knew how.

Many times at the hospital, you’re confronted with the question, … often accompanied by anger and fear… Am I doing enough? Are we doing enough? Is this other family member doing enough?

And what you learn in walking with families in this scenario is that… we all do our damndest to make the best decision we can in the moment with the energy and information we have.

Being with people in this way makes me think there really are no mistakes when you’re coming from love.

Alice Walker’s rewriting of the Beatitudes features this line: “HELPED are those who love the broken and the whole; none of their children, nor any of their ancestors, nor any parts of themselves, shall be hidden from them.”

I love that! If our hearts are big enough, our lenses are big enough, and we take in all parts of ourselves and each other.

One of the biggest things we fear in our imperfection is that we do not deserve respect and love.

That if we reveal ourselves as imperfect, we will not be offered Dignity – Belonging. Someone will say — YOU! Out of the pack. You’re holding us back!

Part of what I like about being UU is that we work to make space for many kinds of people in the pack.

Poet and mystic Marianne Williamson — writes about the dangers of “playing small” — we give others freedom, she says, by living out loud:

“We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

What I admire about a child is not that she gets everything right, I’m willing to forgive selfishness, thoughtlessness, wrong words…

I admire her “is-ness” — not measuring what she is against what others think, but nurturing a direct and profound and observational relationship with ls… Tao…

No movement is perfect, no people are perfect.

Pauli Murray… stubborn bus integrator… gender-queer person who did not get to be the face of the civil rights movement because she dressed in a masculine way and loved women.

Likewise, Bayard Rustin… MLK’s right-hand man… Meet the gay activist behind Martin Luther King Jrs civil rights movement “Not a problem for Dr. King, he was under such scrutiny, but it was a problem for the movement…”

Women’s suffrage movement 1880s where white leaders agreed not to pursue black folks’ right to vote — leaving black women and men disenfranchised —

No movement is perfect, no people are perfect. But part of respecting learning is not avoiding mistakes — we have to get it out there before it’s “perfect”

I think this connects to the Buddhist concept of Shunyata – emptiness, no-self. Is it a dodge for personal responsibility? “Mistakes were made, but not by me?” I don’t think so —

Shunyata is a way of dealing with mistakes as impersonal. It means we don’t have such hard edges that rub us wrong or cut us when we make a mistake.

Like when you get someone’s pronouns wrong.
Immediate feeling: (blush, terror) “This is going on your permanent record!” It can call up anxiety like at report card time — will I be judged and found wanting?
A students? B students? C students? Do we have feelings about that?

I’ve been an “A” student for most of my life — but in the last few years I’ve started to embrace my inner “C” student. C students of the world unite –!

I have a friend who says — a friend who’s intensely brilliant and also struggles with ADHD, so has had to do a lot of work on deep acceptance of imperfection — “There’s nothing I like so much as having been wrong about something.” Notice the tense. I was wrong, now I know better.

I sometimes present in a more gender-queer way (maybe not as much in Texas — it really depends), and a friend whose daughter I was babysitting asked me point-blank if I’m a girl or a boy. That was surprising, but cool. Her mom was mortified — But really it was okay with me. When we can be a safe space for people who are struggling with a question, that’s the best.

A friend of mine who is trans* feels the same way. He says, “I don’t mind kids asking questions, I like it,” he says. “I’ll ask them back, ‘well, what do you think I am?'” And kids will have the chance to think about signifiers of masculinity and femininity.”

It also brings I think new light to Jesus’ question: “Who do you say that I am?” Because we notice too in that passage that what the answers people bring to the table tell us a lot more about culture, about assumption, than they do about who a person truly is.

When we are willing to ask or to entertain questions, we’re willing to learn something new. We open the landscape, and say, ‘this space is okay for mistakes.’

One of my favorite Christmas stories is The Littlest Angel. Do you all know this story? A lonely, forlorn small child in the very grown-up world of heaven…shiny, harmonious, sparkling and tasteful — he’s dirty and clumsy — there is a contest to give the best birthday gift to the Christ child. And the most valuable gift is the gift given by this child — a bird’s nest, a dog’s collar, a butterfly, 2 white stones…

When we start to deeply engage with nondualism – not just living in black or white – we also begin to engage with paradox – when 2 white stones and a butterfly are fitting gifts for the King of Kings.

Tao – nondualism – “The Thunder” poem from Nag Hammadi. We are no one in isolation. We only understand in community. And none of us is only one thing.

As a chaplain — having met people at many stages of their lives, and at the time of death — nobody says, “I wish I had been more polite and remembered everyone’s name,” “I wish I’d paid my rent on time,” “I wish I hadn’t offended a friend twenty years ago.” What they regret is what they did with a mistake: “I wish I hadn’t let our relationship go.” “I wish I hadn’t stayed with the wrong partner for so many years.” “I wish I hadn’t let my mother go through a painful time alone.” Because mistakes are our chance to recommit to what we believe is true and important, by doing something hard. Really, we regret not the mistake, but what we did or didn’t do with it.

Actual Regrets I’ve heard: “I wish we’d gotten to start our blueberry farm.” “I wish I could have recorded another album.” “I wish I’d had a chance to fall in love.”

If you listen deeply to these wishes, you start to realize that they’re really wishing for … the chance to make more mistakes.

And at the end of life — Big, audacious mistakes mean you will leave people laughing and in awe of you. (Hopefully nobody loses an earlobe.)

In the midst of any glorious mistake, I think we can feel free to ask ourselves: What am I practicing?

What is it you’re practicing? Right in the thick of your worst mistake, on your mental post-it… what is it you’re practicing?

Gail Sher, author of One Continous Mistake… a Buddhist approach to writing: “If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.”

That terrible mistake when I was 17 — not getting to see a friend’s family one last time, not finding a way to travel to his funeral, not finding a way at the time to claim my grief and honor his life — At the time, I couldn’t have told you what I was practicing.

Now I know:
I was practicing not seeing money as a barrier to important things —
I was practicing following my heart — really badly, it turns out — but you learn how tolisten better.
I was practicing confronting terrible feelings of guilt and walking myself through them.
And learning the dance I go through when I want to block them out…
I was practicing showing up for grief — learning the beast that grief can create under the surface if you don’t give it air, and let it breathe.

I wish I’d moved heaven and earth to be there to honor his life, and mourn his death.

But I couldn’t, and instead, that led me closer to my vocation. That was when I began to see steps toward where I wanted to be. And now, as a chaplain, I walk with others through their grief process.

Lucky enough this week to be exposed to some lines from Rilke: ” So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp/ it has an inner light, even from a distance- and changes us, even if we do not reach it/into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already are…” (Thanks, Ann Edwards!)

Now my job is finding nonjudgmental space for people who fear they haven’t done their best, who have hurt others, who haven’t known what to do.

I believe this is a key commitment we make as universalists — to follow the light, not to leave each other in hell, or even purgatory, when we mistakes. Not using a mistake as an excuse to put a person, or ourselves, out of our heart. We must be kind, because we are each fighting a hard battle.

I’ll close with some words from Leonard Cohen — “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free –“

BENEDICTION

Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
We have tried in our way to be free

Like a worm on a hook
Like a knight from some old-fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee
If I, if I have been unkind
I hope that you can just let it go by

If I, if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you

Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
We have tried in our way to be free

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 18 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Transformation through Service

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Meg Barnhouse, Sermons

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse & Leadership Team
October 8, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

How will you use your gifts? What if we were able to use our gifts to their full potential, and purposefully encourage others around us to do the same?

Call to Worship
Mother Teresa

Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service. Whatever form we are, able or disabled, rich or poor, it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing; a lifelong sharing of love with others.

Reading
How Will You Use Your Gifts?
by Don Southworth

One of the first things I saw on my first day of seminary at Starr King School for the Ministry in August 1996 was the official school T-shirt. On the front of the shirt was a beautiful drawing of a sand dollar. I discovered the importance and meaning of the sand dollar later that morning during our opening worship service. Rebecca Parker, the president of Starr King, spoke poetically and movingly about the sand dollar’s history at the school and its symbolism for our time there. For decades incoming students have been given a sand dollar as a welcome gift in a ritual to honor the gifts we brought to the school and to represent the grace and mystery of our vocations to ministry. We were each invited to choose a sand dollar to take with us on our journeys.

With tears in my eyes, I prayerfully selected the sand dollar that I knew would be the perfect companion on my road to ministry. When I returned to my seat, and as I lovingly fondled it, my precious sand dollar shattered into several pieces and soon was nothing but sand dollar dust. I realized that this probably wasn’t a good omen for my future, so I snuck back to the basket to take another. Certain that nobody saw me, I slunk back to my seat and gently placed the new sand dollar in my pocket. Fifteen minutes later, when I went to touch my sacred sand dollar, I discovered it too was in pieces. Convinced that the Gods were telling me something about my choice to pursue the ministry, I quietly dumped my sand dollar dust into the garbage and wondered if seminary was the right place for me.

Fortunately, the T-shirt on the wall had writing on the back as well. It said: “How will you use your gifts?” Since sand dollars did not seem to be my thing, I hoped I could do a better job with that question. On that day, that question became one of the guiding lights of my life and ministry. How will you use your gifts? I have been blessed to be surrounded by faculty, friends, family, colleagues, and congregations committed to living that question with me. It is a question with the power to transform the world.

How will you use your gifts? Imagine what would happen if everyone of us committed to fully living out the answer to that question and helping others to do the same. Imagine if every person in the world overcame their doubts, fears, and oppressions and shared all their gifts.

We have the power to change and heal the world when we use our gifts to bless the world. And what better place to practice than in our religious communities, where we are encouraged to bring our unique talents, skills, passions, and dreams, and share them as widely as we can – even on those days when we feel as imperfect as a broken sand dollar.

You and I are miracles, my friends. We are packages of gifts that have never been seen before in the history of the world and will never be seen again. Our potential, our greatness, lie in how well we open our packages, our lives, and share them with other people. To paraphrase the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

Everybody can be great. Because everybody can share their gifts with the world. You don’t need a master of divinity degree to share your gifts. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to share your gifts with the world. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. (And maybe a pocket full of sand dollar dust!)

Sermon

Meg Barnhouse

(Sung)
Let the life if lead speak for me
Let the life if lead speak for me
When I’m lying in my grave
and there’s nothing left to say
Let the life if lead speak for me

Our Worship this morning is about Transforming Lives. Two members of this congregation will speak about their own lives, which have been transformed through service within this congregation.

One of my favorite theologians is the Baptist minister Howard Thurman. He said

“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.”

Most of the church members you see participating in worship this morning are members of the First UU “Transformation Through Service” team. They are here to invite you into transformation. If you care to participate, they have interviewers who sit with you for about an hour to ask you questions about you. This morning you are invited to think about a word or two that describes a gift you bring to this community. You might be a good teacher, a listener, a builder, an idea person, a detail person, or all of the above. This program is an invitation to transformation through service, so no one is asking you to sign your gift words. They will be collected at the end of the sermon time and some of them will be read aloud so we can be encouraged by the many gifts among us.

Tomas Medina

If I had my way, we’d change the order of our mission statement. I’d swap “do justice” and “transform lives” so that our mission statement read, “We gather in community to nourish our souls, do justice and transform lives:” In my experience, that I’m about to share with you, it is in doing justice that lives are transformed.

When I first walked through the doors of First UU, three and a half years, ago. I came for the worship service, to nourish my soul.

And my soul was nourished. It felt really good to be surrounded by people who believed in the same things I did, our 7 principles, and who drew on our 7 sources to inform their spiritual journey.

When I took the path to membership class here, I was told that there was a need for ushers and that being an usher was a good way to start becoming part of the community.

So my very first act of service here was to usher. And I did it for selfish reasons, to become part of the community. And it worked.. One Sunday, while I was ushering, Rev Mari walked up to me and asked me if I was going to come to the newly formed Alphabet Soup group, for people who identify as belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning community. I joined.

Another Sunday Rev Mari asked me if I was going to be part of the Adult religious education group, that was going through the new Welcoming Curriculum to help ensure that we continue to be welcoming to the LGBTQ community. I joined.

Another Sunday, Rev Mari asked me if I was going to be part of the newly formed People of Color group. I joined.

As an aside, if I just read the announcements in our order of service, Rev Mari woldn’t have had to take the extra step of telling me about all these opportunities. But I grew up Catholic and at the end of mass, the priests always read the announcements. I kind of figured if there was something I should know it’d be announced from the pulpit. That is not the case here.

Eventually, people other than Rev Mari starting asking me to do things. I became the facilitator of the Alphabet Soup Grop, I served on the intern committee for our most recent ministerial intern, Susan Yarborough. And, I’m a steward for this year’s pledge drive.

But it was my encounter with Peggy Morton, that really transformed my life, she told me about an opportunity to visit immigrant women being held in detention , at Hutto, about 45 minutes from here.

I am a child of immigrants and very much appreciate the opportunities this country has given to my family and me. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to give something back And, I’ve been very bothered by the fact that many immigrants to this country don’t receive the welcome that my parents were given when they immigrated in the 1950’s.

I began to visit women at Hutto once or twice a month All I did was converse with them, about simple things like their families back home or in the States. And, about incredible things such as their harrowing trips from their home countries to the states and the reasons why they came, which was often out of fear for their lives after seeing family members killed by gangs.

Talking with these women was humbiling. I very much admired their courage and resilience. It also made me appreciate how easy my life is because of the fact that I was born in the US, through no effort on my part.

All of the activities I’ve mentioned have been transformative for me. Before moving to Austin, I lived in NYC for 25 years. When I lived there I was a very appreciative consumer. I took advantage of much of what the city offers: theater, restaurants, night life, etc. My time at First UU has made me much more into a creator. I feel like I make experiences now as much as I consume them.

I’ve saved the most important transformative experience, I’ve had for last. This June, inspired by my time at General Assembly, our annual gathering of UUs, I took my first pro bono immigration case as an attorney. I represented a lesbian woman from Guatemala who had fled with her girlfriend because of threats made on their lives. When the women crossed the border into the US, they were caught by ICE and put into detention, aka jail, at Hutto. The girlfriend voluntarily deported herself back to Guatemal unawae of her rights to seek asylum. My client, on the other hand, did file for asylum. Though American Gateways, a not for profit organization that provides legal help to immigrants, I represented this women in immigration court. I’m happy to say that on August 23, the immigration judge handed down her decision and granted my client asylum. My client is now out of detention, living and working in Austin, without fear of being deported.

This was the single most transformative event of my life. Last year in a class I’m taking here at First UU, we were asked the question as to what is the thing in your life that you feel driven to do, that you just can’t not do. I answered that I’ve struggled with this my whole life. I felt like I should have a calling but never had one. I can now say, I have one. Using my legal education to help new immigrants to this county, is now something that I cannot not do.

Currently, I’m helping with our guest in Sanctuary, Alerio’s legal case. And it feels great to be able to provide the service that I feel called to, in the same place that I call my spiritual home. I feel whole, in a way that I’ve never felt before.

My point in telling you all this is to encourage you to move beyond just attending worship and start providing a service that you feel at least a teensy bit of a calling to. Or, if you already giving service, first of all, thank you. And secondly, if you fee so called take a leap and try something you have never done before. I acknowledge that we’re all busy and it totally normal to resist giving up more of your time. Believe me, I’ve often had that feeling myself. But, I promise you that in providing service to others your life will be transformed, in ways big and small. And just as important as the transformation, your soul and the souls of those your serve, will be nourished.

Carolyn Gremminger

So, how is serving others transformational?

My path of service at First UU has transformed my relationship with our community: from being a consumer to being a co creator. My energy has been heightened. I now purposefully try to see how I can use my gifts to become an innovator in service here and how I can connect with others to enhance our church community, and its efforts to better serve Austin and our world.

As writer Thomas Moore has said, “this process is not so much something we do, as it is something done to us”

Of course, it is important that I am clear on my motivation and attitude.

I try to enter with an open heart and mind and create a loving, accepting place for others. This effort sometimes open up new avenues inside of me.

If I draw from my Source, my Ground of Being, this enables me to have more hope and energy

“We all have a unique gift of service to contribute, and with time and persistence, it becomes apparent, by finding that “sacred service” the work that helps others and nourishes ourselves, we find how to “begin with ourselves, but not end with ourselves”- Roger Walsh

I have found that service can be transformational, when done mindfully and intentionally. There is a joyful path of service, a conscious spiritual path.

Not out of a sense of obligation, or for the ego or personal gain, not attached to outcomes.

A specific commitment to care for a need in our circles of concern.

I would like to share an example of how I was a beneficiary of someone else’s apparent path of service. I was going through a biopsy procedure, a few years ago and I was very afraid.

I did not take anyone with me to the appointment at the Hospital.

A volunteer approached me in the waiting room, and asked if she could accompany me. I agreed.

The reason it was scheduled at the hospital was due to the fact that the area to be biopsied was close to my rib cage. I decided to be a brave solder, as usual, and did not accept my doctor’s offer of a local anesthetic.

The volunteer stayed right by my side. As the procedure went on, I came to understand my doctor’s offer. The pain was intense and I was obviously distressed. The volunteer held my hand as the doctor administered the anesthetic. Tears were rolling down my face…. I grasped my helpers hand and looked up at her through my tears and said “thank you” and I will never forget her response…”there is no where else I would rather be.

This happened years ago, and I have never forgotten it. I don’t know the lady’s name, and I would guess she is a cancer survivor. I have always hoped that her act of service helped her in some way. She surely helped me that day, and I was a total stranger.

It can be an inspirational path, in service of creation, done in gratitude and can result in a more joyful experience of life.

You might find that the people you are attempting to serve can help you, teach you things.

I can honestly tell you that I have been personally transformed by my path of service here at First UU.

When I first entered these doors 15 years ago, I felt pretty lost and isolated. I now have support on my spiritual journey in community. I feel at home here.

Being a lay leader has introducing me to people and ideas that have changed my life at a profound level. I see myself in a different way today, more confident and loved. My mind and heart have been opened to a whole new realm of possibilities and hope. I now know that I am a valued member here whose talents and presence are needed. It has truly been a life changing experience.

In our community, our tribe, in the crucible for the creative, to quote Meg’s recent sermon. I experience so much fun and meaning and I have made some really dear friends through service on the Board of Trustees, cochairing the Public Affairs forum and helping out with the theater group and gallery openings.

Together we have accomplished great things…I can’t wait til the next service opportunity!!!! J

First UU is a safe place to practice new skills.

You can risk failure and be ok. Grow from the risk, in a non shaming environment. You can take a leap of faith here!

We are all in need of caring and care at certain points in our lives.

One could ask the question, who is really being served?

My reality is that I receive so much more than I give.

There are so many ways to get involved in service work here both large and small, short and long term projects and efforts.

So, if you are interested, how can you find your calling, your “Path of Service”

You could ask yourself:

What makes me come alive? What causes am I passionate about? What energizes you? What is needed?

Be open to the gifts that service can give you. The Process open up new possibilities, talents, feelings, sensitivities, a new and profound sense of belonging. It can unearth a new identity.

What we do in this life matters, for ourselves, our loved ones, and the community at large…. We can help to build a “heaven on earth”.

So, what do you say friends, let’s all work together, to continue to build Beloved Community .

Thanks!

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 17 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

Water Ceremony

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Laine Young
September 10, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

We bring water to share from a place that is meaningful to us. Into this ritual we bring our love, hope, and courageous faith, and through it we seek to renew our covenantal commitments with one another. We remind ourselves of the church home we share.

Call to Worship
by Barbara J Pescan

For the beauty of the earth, this spinning blue green ball, yes! Gaia, mother of everything, we walk gently across your back to come together again in this place to remember how we can live, to remember who we are, to create how we will be. 

Reading

Water Makes Its Mark
By Matt Alspaugh

A glass of tea sweats a circle of droplets on an old table
Drying, they pull dirt and stain from the wood, leaving a ring
Water makes its mark

Deep in the earth, in a cave, a drop falls each minute
Where it lands, a great pillar of white rock has grown up
Water makes its mark

On the surface above, a stream burbles and flows
carving out potholes in the granite of its bed
Water makes its mark

Along a highway cut, a geologist points out the layers of tan slate
each penny-thin sheet,
the memory of a torrential rainstorm eons ago
Water makes its mark

In its network of veins, the blood-
-salty like-the sea water- from-which -we -sprang
flows on in cycles, giving life
Water makes its mark

The dark clouds pass on, yielding no rain
Crops wither, and drought comes
Famine, migration, violence, and death soon follow
Water makes its mark

A space probe turns its camera toward whence it came
Imaging one solitary pixel of light
Its color the pale blue of oceans
Water makes its mark

A solitary tear slides down the cheek
A tear of abiding joy,
a tear of unending grief
We see, and share the depth of feeling at its true core
Water makes its mark

Sermon

When I started thinking about today’s service, I thought, “What better way to start today’s water communion than with a Story For All Ages! I am a religious educator, after all” Once I had this realization I knew the perfect story. I’ve told it here before, although not in a while. It is one of my kiddo’s favorite stories, so it is told more frequently around our house.

Since it is Water Communion, today’s story is about a drop of water.

Once upon a time there was a drop of water named Higgins. Higgins was no ordinary drop of water. He was a drop with a dream. Higgins lived in a valley where it had not rained in a very long time, so all the lovely green grass was turning brown, all the beautiful flowers were wilting, and all the trees were starting to droop.

Higgins had a dream that one day the valley would be a beautiful place again. But what could he do? After all, he was only a drop of water.

One day Higgins decided to travel and tell others about his dream. All the other drops listened very politely, but no one believed that his dream would come true. “Higgins,” said one, “get your head out of the clouds. You can’t spend your whole life dreaming.”

Higgins decided that he had to do something to make his dream come true. So he began to think and think and think. One day, as he was walking by a rusty old bucket, he got an idea.

“If enough of us drops of water got together in this bucket,” Higgins thought, If there would be enough water to sprinkle on a few flowers to help them grow and become beautiful again!”

Eagerly, Higgins told everyone his great idea. But everyone thought he was being foolish. “That Higgins is nothing but a dreamer,” they said.

Higgins decided he had to do something to convince the others that he was right. So he said to them, “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting into the bucket! I hope some of you will join me. Then there might be enough water to help at least some flowers grow beautiful again.”

So Higgins ran as hard as he could, hopped way up in the air, and landed with a kerplunk in the bottom of the bucket.

And there he sat … JUST A DROP IN THE BUCKET.

For a long time Higgins was very lonely. It seemed like no one else was going to join him. But after awhile some of the other drops could see that the grass was dying and the flowers were wilting and the trees were drooping. They all agreed that something must be done.

Suddenly, one drop shouted, “I’m going in the bucket with Higgins!” And he leaped through the air and landed- kerplunk -in the bucket.

Then two other drops yelled, “Wait for us!” And they hopped through the air and landed in the bucket. Then ten drops jumped through the air into the bucket. Then thirty. Then fifty! And then hundreds of drops came from all around just to hop in the bucket!

Soon, the bucket was completely full of water. But there were still more drops that wanted to join, so they found another bucket and hopped in. Before long, there were two buckets of water-then three-then four-then ten-and then hundreds-and then thousands of buckets of water!

Along came a powerful breeze that blew over all the buckets, and all the water flowed together to make a mighty stream. Everywhere the water flowed, the grass turned green again and the flowers bloomed and the trees stood tall and straight once more.

All this happened because Higgins had a dream and his dream came true. Because he knew that although he was just a drop in the bucket, enough buckets with the wind behind them, then justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

How many of you have felt like Higgins before? Sometimes it can seem like we are all alone and that our dreams of a just and loving world will never become reality. This has never been more true than in our current political and environmental climate, where we may feel like only a drop in the bucket compared to the many crises affecting our world today.

But then we find a community like First UU Church of Austin that shows us that we are not alone on our journey. Every year as we come back from whatever we have done over the summer we gather in community to remember that together we can do more than we could ever do alone. We celebrate our reunion each year in a ritual we call water communion.

Into this ritual we bring our love, hope, and courageous faith, and through it we seek to renew our covenantal commitments with one another. We remind ourselves of the church home we share, a home that we come back to, a home we welcome all to make their own, a home of love, hope, and faith.

We gather this morning carrying reminders of our summer. The water we share may call to mind light summer showers, thunderstorms, dewy mornings, or misty evenings. Or it may remind us of moments at ocean sides, poolsides, riversides, lakesides, or even our own backyard. Perhaps we found ourselves in the presence of water during a moment of sadness or joy. As we blend our waters together, we reflect upon what we did in these places and moments.

And now, we will begin our Water Communion. Remembering that the sounds of children are part of the silence, please come forward and add the water you have carried with you silently and reverently.

Blending Waters

May our gathering together this morning be a blessing for one and all. May it inspire us to make this coming year a year of hope, love, and courageous faith. And may we walk in the full awareness – as often as possible – of the blessed ties that bind each of us together in community. Amen.

Benediction

It starts with a drop, Then a trickle …
A burble, a rush of water, bubbling toward its destination;
And finally the wide, endless sea.
All rivers run to the sea.
Today you brought water
Poured it into a common bowl.
Though our experiences have differed,
These waters mingle, signifying our common humanity.
Today you came
And shared in this sacred community.
May you depart this sacred space,
Hearts filled with hope for new beginnings;
A fresh start.
Go forth, but return to this community,
Where rivers of tears may be shed l
Where dry souls are watered,
Where your joy bubbles,
Where your life cup overflows,
Where deep in your spirit you have found in this place a home.
All rivers run to the sea.

Blessed be.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 17 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

From Eve to Us

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Erin Walter
August 13, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

Sexism and misogyny go way back, and challenging those oppressions can be a source of personal and spiritual growth. Why are UUs called to address sexism in ourselves, our churches, and our wider world? What simple or creative ways can people of all genders rise against misogyny in our daily lives? This sermon won the UU Women’s “Justice for Women and Girls” 2017 sermon award.

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 17 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Seeing God in a Wild Old Dog

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Andy Gerhart
July 16, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

Many of us UUs find God language off-putting. Through a focus on Patty Griffin’s music, we reflect on how both our theologies and atheologies arrest what is sacred to us. Can we cultivate an uncertain reverence? Annabeth Novitzki will be singing.

Text of this sermon is not yet available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Grace, Covenant, and Beloved Community

by Posted in Andrew Young, Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Pastor Andrew Young & Interim LFD Director Laine Young
June 25, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

UUs and other religious progressives often talk about replacing discrimination and bigotry with unity and compassion. But actually creating such a community is more difficult than just talking about it. What can we do in our own lives to be the change we want to see in society?

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Who loved you forward?

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Nell Newton, Sermons, Video available

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Rev. Nell Newton
June 11, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

How did you get into this mess? Whatever your particular mess might be, and we all have at least one. We reflect on the work of our community as growers of both roots and wings.

Text of this sermon is not yet available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

To nourish souls

by Posted in Audio available, Sermons, Susan Yarbrough, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Susan Yarbrough
May 14, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

As I say goodbye on Mother’s Day, I’ll describe how you nourished my soul, thank you for teaching me how to do it for others, and reflect how we all can be nourishers of souls, regardless of whether we are parents.

Call to Worship

Our call to worship this morning is written by American poet John Fox, an amputee whose early suffering has led him to a lifetime of developing the field of poetic medicine, which he teaches in medical schools around the world. Here are his words:

When Someone Deeply Listens to You
John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you,
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.

When someone deeply listen to you,
the room where you stay
starts a new life,
and the place where you wrote your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold had been discovered!

When someone deeply listens to you,
your bare feet are on the earth,
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

Reading

From an Australian woman who goes by the name Brooke and writes a blog called “Slow Your Home”.

You know that your soul has been nourished when you have a feeling of contentment and fullness because someone has handed you something that will sustain you for days.

Text of the sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Growth

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Senior High School Youth Group
May 7, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

The Senior High Youth Group provide their reflections on growth and what it means to grow up.

Welcome: Julia Heilrayne

Chalice Lighting: Marah Moers, Ava Gorecki

Call to Worship: “Glory Days” (Olivia), read by Rae Milstead

Affirming our Mission; Paige Neemidge

Story of all ages: “Four little seeds” Shanti Cornell

The Kinds of People
by Kate Hirschfeld

Let’s go back. To when the days were counted not in numbers but by discoveries. Small fingers outstretched to the sky, trying to get a grasp on this world, one experience at a time. Asking questions without answers Your favorite word was always “why.” “Why” Punctuated with intensely curious eyes, Your head cocked slightly to the side, Expecting a response even when there wasn’t one to give. Minds full of fairy dust Wide eyes of wanderlust Never knowing what life had in store for us.

Back to when you had perpetually paint-stained hands, Dirt under fingernails, Hair tangled by the wind, Mud stains on your new dress.

Don’t tell mom but you always liked it better like that anyway. Said it reminded you of chocolate milk. And everyone knows, there’s nothing on this earth better than chocolate milk.

Back to when we gazed at the stars so long our eyes themselves began to twinkle. We took to staring contests during the day to share our galaxies. We woke up early to watch the sun paint the sky like a canvas. Pink stained clouds never ceased to take our breath away.

Call us crazy, but thought it beat Cartoon Network any day. We stayed up past our bedtimes to wave the moon goodnight. We searched the sky for the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt. They were the only constellations we knew, But the way our eyes lit up when we saw them, Made them the only ones we needed.

Back to when wonder was our only motive. We dived in head first not because we had courage, But because we didn’t know to be scared yet.

Back to when we rolled the windows down just to taste the wind without fear of ruining our hair. And daydreaming was a common pastime not a waste of it. When we were more than just people, We were heroes and pirates and wizards and royalty. We soared through stormclouds and danced with dandelions. Our heartbeat was the only music we ever needed. And every raindrop was proof that magic really did exist. Bedtime stories didn’t seem so far off.

What happened between then and now? How did magic become merely a device for Disney to make a profit. And four-leaf clovers became so rare we stopped even bothering to look. We stay up late but keep the curtains closed from the cosmos. They say money can’t buy happiness but it’s starting to replace it. We shy away from opportunity because we finally learned what fear was. Our dresses remain clean and we don’t drink chocolate milk We close our fists and turn our eyes from the skies. We don’t have time for staring contests so our galaxies flicker and dim. Your favorite word became “Because.”

Except, for a few. Some people never stopped daydreaming They still wish on dandelions though some may call them childish. And wander forests in their free time because their curiosity surpasses their fears. They love for the sake of loving, their joy does not need justification. Most of all, they still ask questions.

Change is the Only Constant
by Julia Heilrayne

Change is all around us, all the time. It is what we live and breathe. As a science nerd, I love the saying “change is the only constant” because well, that’s the truth. Change is scary. I’ll admit that, but without it, progress and growth would be impossible. Change and growth are the driving forces in life — pushing us forward to the next discovery, the crucial part of history, the next step in our own lives. Without change, people would never grow, plants would never blossom, and none of us would be where we are today.

In my 15 years, change has been one of the best and worst things to happen to me. It has saved my life, and made it infinitely harder. Change has let me breathe again, while at the same time, it has taken my breath away and refused to give it back. But most of all, I have learned to love and appreciate the constant state of change in the world because without it, I have no idea where or who I would be today.

When I was in sixth grade, change took over my life. Just after the second semester had started, my parents told me I was switching schools. This news was wel- comed with tears, excitement, and relief but most of all, fear. I had been having problems at school for a little while, fighting back against a system that no longer worked for me, and fighting back against a teacher who no longer taught me. Even though I was glad to get away from that school and get another go at this whole learn- ing thing, I had never known any different than my little tiny private school and that scared me more than I can explain. So in February of sixth grade, I was abruptly pulled from the school that I had at- tended for eight and a half years, ripping me apart from my friends and much of my identity at the time.

To me, switching schools mid-year felt like being thrown into the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a storm. I was alone, scared, and more vulnerable than I have ever been. As I was tossed around in the stormy waters of public school, otherwise known as STAAR tests and cafeterias, I struggled to swim, or even keep my head above the water. For those of you who don’t know me, I like to win. I like to be the best at everything I do. So as I watched the other kids, most of whom had been in public school for their entire lives, navigate this world with ease, I felt like a failure. I saw the other students around me, excelling at school and at sports, swimming through life gracefully, as I struggled to find my next class.

Eventually though, I memorized my schedule and I stopped getting lost on my way to classes. I found my group of friends, and I stopped feeling lonely all the time. But best of all, my mind moved on from my old school. Although I will never forget the experi- ences I had there, both good and bad, I don’t think about it as often as I used to. In sixth grade, I realized that my new school, friends, and teachers, had been my saving grace and exactly what I needed. It wasn’t until seventh grade when I accepted the change that had turned my life upside down and shaken it around a few times, and at that point, I started to really love what had become of all the shaking.

My new school gave me confidence I never knew I had. My friends taught me how to laugh like I hadn’t laughed in a long time. And my teachers taught me how to breathe, and how to live again.

If you ask anyone who knew me when I was a student at my old school and who knows me now, they will undoubtedly agree when I say that I am a completely different person. Although switching schools was one of the most painful things I’ve ever been through, if I was in the same situation now, I wouldn’t do anything differently. Public school gave me my life back, and led me to my best friends, my mentors and my teachers. My experiences forced me to fall back to the amazing support system I have in the UU world. My closest friends, some of who sit behind me and some of who live 4 or 5 hours away, exist in my life only because of this church and my other UU communities.

Today, I am a freshman at Austin High School. Today I am part of the Academy for Global Studies, and today I am one of the top students in the Biomedical Science program. Today I am 100% positive that I want to go into the medical field and today, I am 100% positive that I want to work with chil- dren as part of my job. But I would not be any or know any of this today, had it not been for the immense change that swept through my life yesterday.

Change has been and will continue to be the only constant in my life, and in yours. It is the force that keeps us going, and refuses to forget anyone. Change is the reason we grow, adapt, and adjust to our world in the best pos- sible way. Drastic, painful change is the reason that most of my closest friends are my closest friends. Change has forced me to grow into the person I am today, and I could not be happier.

Although it can be scary, change is necessary. It causes growth, and allows us to live. So I ask you, embrace change, and learn to love it for all it has to offer.

Growing Up a Human is a Lot Like a Tomato Plant I Once Had
by Everly Rae Milstead

A few years ago, my family decided to have our very own garden in our backyard. We grew things like squash and tomatoes and peppers. We would harvest them and I would proudly bring my harvested tomatoes to school and give them to my teachers. I would go on long speeches about how much we had to do to get this one handful of toma- toes. It was my own take on trying to be the teacher’s pet. Now we fast forward a few years and our little home garden is pretty much a heap of dirt that has grass growing on it. I plan to eventually get myself out there again and get my garden back up and running, keyword being eventually. Now the real reason for why I am telling you a story about a little home garden, besides that it goes so comedically well with the theme of this service, is that I hadn’t realized how much my life related to this tiny garden. Just like this garden falling apart, my life fell apart. Along with dealing with the normal hormonal roller coaster that is teenage-hood, I also had my family life completely turned over in front of me. There were so many nights that I cried myself to sleep wondering what I had done or what my family members had done to deserve any of what was going on. I watched a sibling who was the strongest person I knew fall defeated to none other than themselves. I watched my mom have to handle things that no mother deserves to go through. I watched my happy, sunflowery self become wilted and sad. My seventeen-year-old self was an abandoned garden.

But the thing is, throughout the years this garden was left unattended, a toma- to plant was able to persevere through it. This tomato plant made it through the Austin droughts and the floods and the freezes and heat waves that sometimes happened in the same week, because we live in Austin and that’s what Austin does. This little tomato plant once pro- duced juicy tomatoes during the early summers and now it produces a meta- phor for my life. Like this tomato plant, I dealt with my own winter freeze. My winter freeze took shape as depression and feeling lonely and cold. This tomato and I went through our roots, what kept us stable, getting frozen and our happy bright leaves falling off. Like this tomato plant, I went through a drought. My drought was the feeling like I just may not make it to the finish line or the next cycle of seasons. The little tomato plant wasn’t able to see whether or not it would make it just like I did. Life is rough, but like this little tomato plant, I have shown the grit to get through it no matter the circumstance.

I feel as if everyone is a plant in their own way. My mother has been a giant tree with roots that go so deep into the Earth that I know I am safe to lean on her. My siblings and I grew apart as we grew up, just as plants need space in order to live. We all made it, just as that tomato plant did.

While my life is still going on, I have realized that I don’t have to grow on my own. Just like plants have bees, ladybugs, and spiders, and many other critters to help them grow, I have friends, mentors, and this church to help me on my pathway of life. I have skills like making sure I get myself in a safe place before my life enters a hard freeze, just like we put hooped covers over plants to protect them from the cold. Life is going to keep going, whether I like it or not, and plants are still going to need to be tended to, just as my life will need assistance at times. As I plant more tomato plants, I will always think of that tiny tomato plant that seemingly made it through everything I could imagine. I will think of it the next time my life hits another drought or flood.

Change: Never Wanted, Always Needed
by Abby Poirer

Life is all about change-it’s commonplace and a vital part of the way we live. Change is scary, many people dislike it, but the thing is, if none of us ever changed, if none of us ever grew, we wouldn’t be where we are today. I wouldn’t be where I am today. You wouldn’t be where you are today.

Without change, without growth, I would be stuck. Stuck in a mind- set that rendered me incapable of learning. Stuck between a rock and a hard place simply because I refused to find another way. I don’t want to be stuck — I want to do things, discover things, change things. Even though it’s scary.

When I was between the ages of 11 and 14 I stared down the barrel of many a change. In the fifth grade my parents told me they were going to take me out of public school and enroll me in online school with some others for my sixth grade year. Part of me was excited, part of me was sad, and the other part of me, the biggest part of me, was terrified of everything that was about to change.

I was only 11, I didn’t have a say, and I didn’t really try to argue too much about it. I bought my uniform, I learned how to use the program, and I walked into my new “school” with a bunch of other kids my age that were even more scared than I was. I quickly became close to all of them and we remain friends to this day (one of them is even on the verge of graduating now), but still, it was terrifying to lose everything I was accustomed to in the public school system.

After two years of using on- line school, after I’d mastered the software and the format, after I’d made lifelong friends, after I loved where I was at this point in time, we disbanded. I had to start over again. I had to change everything. Again. I bought the new uniform I needed for this new school, went to my ori- entation, then walked in and became friends with the first girl I noticed smile at me. She welcomed me to her group, and the amount of relief that I felt when they later called me their friend made everything okay. It made all the changes I’d endured okay. Sadly, she and I stopped be- ing friends after about six months, which still hurts me to this day, but without that horrible, awful change, I wouldn’t have gotten even closer with another girl, who became my best friend, to whom I also remain very close.

As scary as it was, as much as it hurt, it was definitely worth it. I’d never had a friendship abruptly end before, and then all of a sud- den I had. She and I slowly became friendly again but we never got back to being actual friends, never got back to being close. On the last day of school, an enormous group of us wanted to take what we called our “family photo” and the girl I was no longer friends with was a part of it. We all huddled together, snapped the picture, and then, going our separate ways, we all started heading to our cars to go home for the summer.

But then I heard my name called in a voice that hadn’t been spoken to me in months. I turned around and there she was: hopeful. Welcoming. Changed. She opened her arms for a hug and we both pulled each other in oh-so-tightly as if to make up for all the lost time. But what has stuck with me ever since is what she whis- pered in my ear between each of our sobs: “thank you.” I couldn’t believe what I’d heard, I said “for what?” Her response? “For everything.” Even though we weren’t friends anymore, even though we still aren’t, even though it took every bit of courage she could muster to say those two words “thank you,” even though neither of us could ever ad- mit, until now, that our experience allowed us to grow. Not only apart, but within ourselves. The old her never would have been able to utter those words, but she wasn’t “the old her” anymore, she was the bigger person. She allowed the experience to change her, as did I.

In the beginning, this whole issue kind of drowned me. It hurt so bad and I was gasping for air but there was nothing. So badly I wanted to make up, but I wanted to maintain my pride and keep saying I was right even more. I kept gasping, hoping to rescue this friendship, this person, but eventually, as you do, I ran out of air. A part of me died, I was devastated that we had both given up on each other, on ourselves. But this allowed me to approach my new school, yes another one, with no guilt, nothing holding me back, and nothing to weigh me down.

There’s a stigma around growing up, around aging, becoming an adolescent, then later an adult, even just matur- ing, because it means you’re not a kid, it means you are about to enter the world with all your rights and all your freedoms and the world is now yours to experience and no one can control you and it’s scary. But the thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown up, all these 16 years: growing up is freeing. Sure it’s scary, change is scary, new is scary, different is scary, the unknown is scary, every- thing in the world is scary. But growth as people is the only thing that can save us from a numbingly monotonous life where the only real growth is your height. I’m not scared. I’m not scared to be a better person. I’m not scared to become more understanding. I’m not scared to grow. I’m only scared to stay the same forever. I want to grow. I want to change. Every day is a learning oppor- tunity, how could I fear that? Growth is what the world is made of. We can all grow, because we are the world. The young, the old, the everywhere-in-betweens, we can all grow. It’s what makes the world go round.

Bridging Ceremony

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Spring has sprung

by Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
April 30, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
austinuu.org

Spring Into Action 2017 will come to a close at the end of April. We spent the month exploring “welcoming,” what is looks like and why it matters. Rev. Chris Jimmerson is joined by the Spring into Action team panel; Scott Butki, Wendy Erisman, Tomas Medina, Joe Milam-Kast, and Peggy Morton.

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Adventures in Hymnody

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Kiya Heartwood
March 26, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Ever wondered what those numbers are at the bottom of the page of the hymnals? Find out many things you never knew before.

Call to Worship
Martin Luther

The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them …. In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits.

Reading
Plato

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Sermon

Have you ever really looked at your church’s hymnal? Have you ever wondered where those songs came from and why those particular songs were chosen? This article is a very brief history of some of the musicians and theologians determining those choices.

Early Christian music was based on Jewish and Byzantine religious chants, primarily focused on praise or “psalms” such as the 150 Psalms attributed to King David in the Old Testament. These were sung by priests or cantors and trained choirs that sang in unison, often in a call and response style without harmony or instrumental accompaniment.

“Plainsong” or “Gregorian Chant” is the music of the Catholic controlled Western world well into the Sixteenth century. Plainsong is “musical prayer” designed to unite the faithful in “devout thoughts” while the participants symbolically reenact the Last Supper and take Communion. Over time, the music of the Mass gets more elaborate and adds more instruments and harmony but the role of music in worship does not change until the Reformation.

As Saint Augustine writes in his Confessions” … the weaker mind may be stimulated to devout thoughts by the delights of the ear. Yet when I happen to be moved more by the singing than by what is sung. I confess to have Sinned grievously … ” This philosophy makes some music “spiritual” and other more “secular” (of the world or of the Devil.) All church music was in Latin or in the case of the Eastern Orthodox, Greek. The participants weren’t there to enjoy or understand what was being sung.

As far as church music is concerned, the two most influential Protestant reformers are Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564). Most modern Protestant denominations can find their roots in one of their two approaches.

Martin Luther was a priest and skilled musician who loved music and felt it to be a great tool to change people’s hearts and minds. He said, “Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.”

Luther believed the center of worship should focus on the congregation, especially in singing. He encouraged the use of literary, poetic and secular vernacular to widen the appeal of the Christian message. The Chorale is probably one of his biggest contributions. The other may be the belief that music, and musicians could glorify God. Just because music was pleasurable didn’t necessarily make it sinful. He felt art and artists should be supported and that they should strive to make their work “pleasing to God.” Many denominations are in the Luther camp including Anglicans, Methodists, and Baptists.

John Calvin taught that the only use of music was to sing the Psalms or other scriptures. He said,” these things being not only superfluous, but useless, are to be abstained from, because pure and simple modulation is sufficient for the praise of God, if it is sung with the heart and with the mouth.” The beauty of music was a temptation and “useless”. Music from Calvin influenced denominations therefore have very simple to no arrangements and little to no instrumentation. The Congregationalists, Unitarians, Presbyterians all subscribe to John Calvin’s approach.

Calvin influenced Hymnbooks known as “Psalters” become common with one note per syllable or metric. All hymns still use this metric system. In hymn meter you count the number of syllables per line verses thinking in poetic “feet”. For example “Amazing Grace” and Joy to the World” are both in 8.6.8.6 or in Common Meter. In your hymnal it will say C.M. In early hymn books only the words would be given and by knowing the hymn meter you could choose a tune that your congregation would already know that would fit the hymn’s meter. Try singing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Joy to the World” or visa versa and you’ll understand. The songs have different accents on different syllables but they both have the same hymn meter.

In the Sixteenth century the Church of England became the only sanctioned religion in England. If you didn’t agree or follow the rules you were considered a Dissenter or Non- Conformist. One very influential non-Conformist was the minister and hymnist Isaac Watts (1674-1748). Isaac Watts took the Psalms and paraphrased them, often from his own individual perspective. He did this using poetic language and form. This was revolutionary and opened the door to hymnists such as Charles Wesley (1707 -1788), and many others who wrote about a more personal relationship with God or Jesus and the twin armory of an Oxford poetic education and a deeply personal and emotional spiritual perspective.

In America, two key figures are American composer and singing teacher William Billings (1746-1800). Billings developed his own compositions without any formal training. He was perhaps the most popular composer in Revolutionary America. The remnants of his style of American frontier music make up Shape Note and primitive singing to this day. This approach was almost eradicated by the music educator and composer Lowell Mason (1792-1872) whose was trained in Classical European music and felt that Billings and others were too primitive and backwards. He believed that we should honor the European composers and teach standard music notation and Common Practice rules of harmony and theory in public schools. The rules of arranging and music theory from the Common Practice era of Mozart and Hayden are still taught in public schools and colleges today.

Hymnody is a fascinating subject to explore. Find out who wrote and selected the hymns in your hymnal and why? Happy digging!

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

To run and not be weary

by Posted in Audio available, Sermons, Susan Yarbrough, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Susan Yarbrough
Feburary 19, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The distance of social justice efforts is enormous, and we often wonder how we can find the strength to stay the course.

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

Watch your language

by Posted in Audio available, Sermons, Susan Yarbrough, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Susan Yarbrough
January 22, 2017
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We are a talking, word-intoxicated denomination, but we sometimes fail to talk when we should.

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

The fruit of the spirit, the gifts of age

by Posted in Audio available, Sermons, Susan Yarbrough

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Susan Yarbrough
November 27, 2016
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving with fruits of the earth, and we’re now preparing to celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa with gifts to each other. These holidays are not just times of celebration, but are also strong markers of age and memories. During this transitional season, let’s think together about what are the fruits of the spirit, and how we can use them to gather the gifts of age.

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.

 

We begin again

by Posted in Audio available, Sermons, Susan Yarbrough, Video available

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Susan Yarbrough
October 2, 2016
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

The night of October 2nd marks the beginning of both the Jewish and Muslim New Year, a rare occurrence occuring only once every thirty-three years. Both of these faiths have something to teach us about new beginnings.

Prayer

God of many names, whose highest name and form is human love, the prayers of the people are gathered before you in the midst of a great cloud of witnesses as our joys and our concerns are made known.

Thank you for new beginnings, day by day and moment by moment. Thank you for the easily received gifts of love and joy and forgiveness, as well as for the painful teaching gifts of pain and resentment and separation. Thank you for this congregation and its ministry to this community and to each other. And thank you for all people of good intentions, good will, and good hearts, wherever they may be.

Kindly and gently remind us of your presence everywhere, and invite us to reach for you, to speak to you, and to listen for you, even though you are frustratingly and maddeningly mysterious to us. If you have hands, hold us in the palm of them. If you have a heart, keep us close to it. If you have tears, weep for us when we resist and move away from you. And if you have ears, hear us now as we thank you for the new beginning that is in every breath and every step.

Amen

Text of this sermon is not available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 16 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.