Holy Ground

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 23, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Join us for a restful service full of stories and music about finding Holy Ground. Rev. Michelle LaGrave weaves together a tapestry of stories accompanied by the atmospheric/symphonic stylings of music guests Thor & Friends. Take some time for rest and reflection in the midst of an increasingly chaotic 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

by Macrina Wiederkehr (adapted)

My bare feet walk the earth reverently for everything keeps crying.
Take off your shoes.
The ground you stand on is holy.
The ground of your being is holy.

When the wind sings through the pines like a breath of God, awakening you to the sacred present, take off your shoes.

When the sun rises, coloring your world with dawn, put on your garment of adoration, take off your shoes.

When the red maple drops its last leaf of summer, wearing its burning bush robes no longer, read between its barren bushes and take off your shoes.

When a new person comes into your life like a mystery about to unfold, and you find yourself marveling over the frailty and splendor of every human being, take off your shoes.

When, during the wee hours of the night, You drive slowly into the new day and the morning’s fog, like angel wings, hovers mysteriously above you, take off your shoes.

Take off your shoes of distraction.
Take off your shoes of ignorance and blindness.
Take off your shoes of hurry and worry.
Take off anything that prevents you from being a child of wonder.
Take off your shoes.

The ground you stand or sit or walk or roll-on is holy.

Affirming Our Mission

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

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

Story for all ages

“MOSES”

So, I’m going to tell you a story today that is really, really old. People have been telling this story for more than 2 ,000 years, and eventually it got written down in both the Jewish Bible, also known as the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Torah, and the Christian Bible in what is called the Old Testament. It’s a story about someone called Moses.

So Moses was living with his wife and his father-in-law in an area near Mount Horab, and he was taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep. His father-in-law was the priest of Midian, and he was taking care of the sheep, which means that he was sort of following them around and making sure that nothing bad happened to the sheep. He was acting as a shepherd. So he was wandering around in the wilderness with his father-in-law’s sheep, and Then, for whatever reason, he decided to take a little detour and head up on Mount Horab with all the sheep, and that was a mountain that was known as the mountain of God.

And while he was walking on the mountain, all of a sudden he saw a bush that looked like it was on fire. But, Even though it looked like it was on fire, the bush wasn’t burning up. All the leaves were still green. Pretty weird, huh? So Moses said to himself, “I must turn aside and go over and look at this bush that is burning but not burning up.” And you know what he saw when he looked at the bush? It wasn’t really on fire. There was an angel in the bush, and it wasn’t one of those angels that we think of today with a white gown and white wings and a golden halo. It was an angel that looked like it was on fire. It was so bright, it was hard to look at the angel.

And then, as if that weren’t enough, all of a sudden, Moses heard the voice of God. And God said, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses said, “Here I am.” And then God said, “Come no closer. Remove the sandals from your feet because the place you are standing on is holy ground.” So Moses took off his sandals.

And God said, “I am God, the God of your father, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and he had to tell him which God he was because back then they believed that different people had different gods so he had to identify himself and Moses got afraid and hid his face because back then people thought that if you looked at God you might die. So God was, so Moses was really afraid. God is talking to him. This bush is not really on fire. He’s hiding his face. He’s got his sandals off.

So, God then said, “I have seen the misery of my people who are slaves in Egypt, and I am going to send you, Moses, to free them from slavery.”

And Moses said, “What if they don’t believe me? “What if they don’t Think that I’m really coming from you. I don’t I don’t even know who you are, What do I tell them? What is your name? and God said “I am who I am.” which it sounds a little interesting in English. In Hebrew what they wrote down is the four letters, the four consonants of God’s name, which are Yodhe, Vavhe, and which looks kind of like, sounds kind of like YVHV in English.

But you know what, they didn’t write down the vowels. So nobody really knows how to say it anyway. So now we just call God “God”.

But he said, “I am who I am. Tell them, tell those people, my people down in Egypt who are in slavery, I am has sent me to you.” This is my name forever and my title for all generations.

The reason this is important today is Two things. We’re talking about holy ground through the whole rest of the service. But also, do you remember a couple of weeks ago we had a child dedication. And, in a couple of weeks, Easter and Passover are coming up. And so we’re going to have the baby parade that we always have on Easter. But before that, we’re going to have another child dedication for, I don’t know, at least three more kids. I’m not sure how many yet.

Do you remember what we did at the beginning of the child dedication, those of you who are here? before we made the promises to the children, before we told them that we would look out for them and take care of them and help them learn and grow. The first thing we did, We said the child’s name. We asked the parents what is the name of your child and they gave us the child’s full name.

So naming is very important. When Moses learned the name of God, God told him he was standing on holy ground. And when we learn your names, when you are dedicated and then we make promises to you, we are also on holy ground. It’s a really special and sacred moment in the time of your life and we’re gonna promise to take care of you all the way until you’re grown up and then you’re gonna help take care of the kids who come next.

Story

BY Stephen Huyle

A damp chill pervades the air as Amita wends her way down the dark street to the river. For warmth, she pulls her sari about her head and adjusts her light wool shawl more tightly around her shoulders. Then she reaches down with both hands to pull her two young children along with her. They stumble sleepily as she guides them through the narrow passageways. Just above the river, she stops quickly to buy a small lamp made of a curled dry leaf. In its center, a dob of clarified butter holds a wick.

The three sidle through the huddled bodies of unidentifiable figures and down the ancient stone steps that run as far as they can see along the river’s edge. Steps grooved through centuries of use, and then the black expanse of the river fills their gaze and they slip off their sandals and walk down the last steps into the icy cold water.

The children are reluctant, their teeth chattering, their mother is determined, intent on fulfilling this ritual which begins each day of her life. They wash their bodies and their clothes with soap. All the while the sky has been lightening.

Across the river, the promise of sunrise turns the water from deep purple to rich blues tinged with orange, the shivering three steps again into the water, which now seems warm compared to the biting air. Amita is immersed to her knees, Minu and Bablu to their waists. Together they sing prayers to the goddess Ganga, who is also the river.

They visualize her magnificence, her nurturing presence as the purifier and mother of all existence. With a match, Minu lights the small leaf lamp and gently floats it out before them. At that moment, the sun’s first rays peek above the sandy horizon. And they begin singing to the sun god Sarya, the source of all energy, the great provider.

Story

“EMILY”

There once was a cow named Emily, a very frightened cow, who found herself in a slaughterhouse. She was next in line when all of a sudden, the lunch whistle blew and the workers took a break.

Well, Emily saw her chance and made her own break for it, leaping in a very uncow-like manner, right over a five foot high fence and heading for the woods. When she got to the woods, she ran with a herd of deer, all the while eluding capture by both Slaughterhouse workers and the local police.

Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to Emily, Emily’s escape made headlines. People everywhere heard Emily’s story and fell in love with the cow who had rescued herself from imminent death. In the midst of all this hubbub, a group of people came together to try to rescue Emily and after some negotiation, she was purchased for a dollar. Later, when Emily’s saviors pulled up to the edge of the woods with their truck and after having wandered in the wilderness for 40 days. Emily was ready for her ordeal to end. Encouraged with some buckets of grain, Emily walked up the ramp and was brought to her new home on the grounds of the Peace Abbey in a town called Sherborn in Massachusetts.

Emily lived for several more years and was credited by many as a teacher of love and compassion and a source of inspiration for change and growth. When Emily eventually died, she was buried on the grounds of the Peace Abbey, not far from a statue of Gandhi. Her grave is now marked by a bronze life-sized statue and clippings from her hair and a sacred thread from her ear have been released in the Ganges River. People still make pilgrimages to visit her grave.

Story

“FERRY BEACH”

It is summer, and I am spending the week at Ferry Beach, one of our UU camp and conference centers located on the coast of Maine. I awake to a beautiful, bright, sunny, and warm day and head to the beach as soon as I am dressed. I cross the boardwalk, slip out of my flip-flops, and quickly head down to the water’s edge.

There I stand with my feet buried in the sand and the waves lapping at my legs. This is my favorite place to meditate and pray, while standing and gazing out over the vast expanse of the ocean.

This morning, though, the sun is exceptionally bright and since it is early, low on the water. The sun and the sun’s reflection on the water are so bright that I cannot see the ocean before me. When I try, my eyes hurt and water and I am forced to lower my head so that I see only my toes and the water surrounding me. In this posture I remain for a long time, recognizing the humility inherent in the pose, sensing its foreignness to both myself and my culture.

And I wonder, here I am, standing before the sun and the ocean, feeling the immense power of both, forced into an attitude of deference and humility, which I cannot choose to overcome, sure of turning and walking way. And I wonder, is this how Moses would have felt barefoot and face hidden standing before God? And I wonder, is this how Amida feels every morning of her life as she stands in the sacred waters of the river, bending to light and release her lamp. And I feel connected to those who have gone before me and will come after me, to those who also experience awe and wonder and humility. Eventually I turn and slowly climb up the beach, replace my sandals, wash my feet, and return to my daily study of routine and learning.

I return to the beach often. For me, these visits are a reenactment of my own sacred creation story. As I take off my shoes and move lightly and quickly down to the water’s edge, I return to the primordial waters, to the murky origins of myself and my species. As I play and swim, I remember my origins, back when my kind were still fish in the sea.

When I finally emerge from the water and climb back up the beach, I wonder, at this struggle it always is to leave the water behind. And I imagine how difficult those first evolutionary transitions, those first climbs up onto the beach must have been. And I feel awe at those first changes from fish to amphibian. I think, then, that I understand the dolphin, a mammal who once on land chose to return to the sea. I understand for I too feel these urges, for I too feel the call of the deep, and I know. I know the power of this holy ground.

Message

In all of these stories, there is a common experience of standing or walking on holy ground. For Moses it is at Mount Horrib, for Amida in the River Ganges, for Emily and later her pilgrims on the grounds of the Peace Abby, for myself at the ocean’s edge.

At various times and in various ways we all visit holy ground. In doing so, some of us take off our shoes. Some of us come face-to-face with God. Some of us commune with the cosmos. Some of us come face-to-face with our own salvation.

I imagine there are many, many other stories about holy ground which I could tell. People of many faiths walk labyrinths, pagans cast circles, Hindus draw sacred diagrams called kolams near the entryways of their homes. Surgeons place special covers over their shoes before entering operating rooms. Walking, standing, rolling, or simply being on holy ground is a common human experience, one that many of us share.

When we visit holy ground, we experience awe and wonder. We ponder the great mysteries of life. We feel the force of evolution. We sense the power which emerges from our collective humanity, the power of change and growth, of inspiration and creativity and of love. We need not embark on a pilgrimage to far off lands to visit Holy Ground. Holy Ground is available to us at all times and in all places.

Holy Ground is here in this sanctuary; out there in the art gallery; around the corner at Howson Hall where we visit with each other after the service; down that hallway there where the children meet for classes and staff work to fulfill the mission of this congregation; out on the playgrounds and in the youth room; in your homes, and in so many, many places.

It is we who must set an intention to understand the ground we happen upon is holy. It is we who must pay attention. An experience of the sacred of the Holy is available to us at any time, anywhere. When I received my call to ministry, I was not at a pilgrimage to a sacred site or standing at the ocean’s edge. I was sitting at my dining room table reading a magazine. Moving to an Understanding of the ground we find ourselves upon as sacred or holy grounds can feel risky. And it’s not a journey to be undertaken lightly.

When we visit holy grounds, we confront the nature of life and death. We gain insight. We become self-aware. We come face-to-face with those parts of ourselves and others we had not previously known. We realize our human nature. We may even come to know God.

Where is your holy ground? Where do you take off your shoes? When do you bow your head?

As Unitarian Universalists, it is our religious duty to follow the paths each of us finds sacred to ourselves. These paths are incredibly diverse, take many forms and lead in many directions. They are all holy. As together we navigate the triumphs and tribulations of this great mystery we call human life. We are blessed to be able to join together in this community of faith, which honors such divergent understandings of the human, of the divine, of the holy. May we be so blessed evermore.

Amen and blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

Open your eyes, your ears, your hearts, your minds, your spirits. The ground you sit, stand, walk, roll, dance, crawl upon is holy. As you remember, as you leave this place, remember you are blessed. The holy, the sacred, is available to you at all times and in all places. Go forth, blessing all others as you yourselves are now blessed. Amen and blessed be.


SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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

Rest

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 16, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rest has long been a spiritual practice or even a religious mandate of many people. Yet, life can feel so busy that we imagine there is no time to rest. How might we come to a better sense of balance in our lives that honors the need to rest?


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 NEVER ALONE
by Sharon Wylie

It is okay to be tired of change
It is okay to be tired of everything different
Okay to feel weary of resiliency and wholeness and learning and growth
And okay to yearn simply for rest
It’s okay to be grouchy and unsatisfied
And all the ordinary human ways of being that we are
Let this morning be a reminder that you are loved
Let our time together soothe what is restless in you
May you be comforted in knowing that whatever you are
feeling today and other days
You are not alone. You are never alone.

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

REST IS RESISTANCE: A MANIFESTO (Excerpted)
by Tricia Hersey

Tricia Hersey, also known as The Nap Bishop, is the founder of The Nap Ministry. Hersey makes a historical connection between slavery and contemporary grind culture and views rest as one form of reparations for Black people. She holds a Master of Divinity degree as well as a bachelor’s degree in Public Health.

Everything we know about rest has been tainted by the brainwashing from a white supremacist, capitalist system. As a culture, we don’t know how to rest, and our understanding of rest has been influenced by the toxicity of grind culture. We believe rest is a luxury, privilege, and an extra treat we can give to ourselves after suffering from exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Rest isn’t a luxury, but an absolute necessity if we’re going to survive and thrive. Rest isn’t an afterthought, but a basic part of being human. Rest is a divine right. Rest is a human right. We come into the world prepared to love, care, and rest. The systems kill us slowly via capitalism and white supremacy. Rest must interrupt. Like hope, rest is disruptive, it allows space for us to envision new possibilities. We must reimagine rest within a capitalist system.

Sermon

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

The Torah, the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, whatever it is you call these most ancient of the Jewish and Christian texts, they all begin, as most stories do, bear a sheet and The first story that is told about the creation of the world of our world and How after six days of work? God rested on the seventh God rested. God who some theologians later came to describe as omnipotent, got tired and had to rest.

So I ask if God, Godself, can get tired and need to rest, who are we not to? Who are we to say that we don’t need to rest, that there’s too much to be done that we can rest later. After X, Y, and Z things have been done, of course. Who are we to tie our self -worth, our sense of value, into how much and how quickly we get things done?

Notice the words I’ve used here, self-worth, and value. These are also monetary terms, which is no accident. Our Western Judeo and Christian history of laboring for people other than ourselves or our own communities is long and fraught and goes back to ancient times. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, God took some extra time to specify exactly what God meant by saying, “On the seventh day, you should rest.” Not just you should rest, but your sons and your daughters, your male and your female slaves, your livestock and alien residents in your community. Everyone must refrain from work. Everyone must rest. No exceptions.

We know why, right? Because people are people, even ancient times, and because we know that somebody was going to try to get away with resting themselves while requiring other people to work.

In more recent history, our track record is no better and likely worse. With the rise of capitalism as it moves through its various stages, much of this nation’s wealth was created by people who were oppressed in many ways, especially blacks who were enslaved, but also indigenous people who were enslaved, white indentured servants, and white people who did not own property and could not vote, which included all women and all children for centuries.

The dominant culture of our nation has valued production, the more, the better, the faster, in terms of creating wealth. And it has done so for centuries, regardless of the cost, the cost, or the toll, the toll, more monetary terms. It has taken on human bodies and human souls. The more wealth, the better. The faster we acquire the wealth, the better.

And this has spilled over into our other aspects of our lives as well. Not just the creation of wealth, but also the arts. Think of ballet, the ballerinas with bleeding feet for our entertainment. Sports, think of any of them, but especially football, even our learning. The more difficult, the better, the higher numerical grade, the better, the faster we move ahead, the better, and our academia. The more journal articles and books published, the better, the more the better. It is all over the place.

So what do we do about all of this?

  • The first thing is to acknowledge that this idea, this value, the more the better, is one aspect of the dominant culture in our country.
  • Next thing is to acknowledge that this aspect, the more the better, is a problem. It exists and it’s a problem.
  • And finally, the work is to dismantle this aspect of our culture. Stop putting such a high value on the more the better.

After all, look at where it’s gotten us. to right here, exactly where we are with billionaires running our country, some of them not even elected.

Ā 

And for those of you who haven’t picked up on it yet or aren’t familiar with the work of Tima Okun and others, I am talking about dismantling one of the toxins of white supremacy culture. I know that phrase white supremacy culture is really hard. It’s really challenging and difficult. So I talk about dominant culture instead a lot. But it’s the same thing. To do this, it is helpful to look to the leadership of those who have been most adversely impacted by this culture, by toxins like the more, the better, the faster, the better. Enter Trisha Hersey, author of the reading you shared with us earlier today from her book, This is resistance, a manifesto.

Slowing down our grind culture, turning away from the focus on production, dismantling the constant push of the more, the better. It’s not only good for our bodies and our souls, it is also an act of resistance. A bill of reparations owed, an act of allyship, and a deeply theological imperative.

One of the places we have begun this work is right here in our church, because the more the better has been true here, right? We count the number of programs the church offers. we count the number of people who show up to a program at the church. We count the number of minutes there are in a sermon or a worship service. And we make judgments on those. The sermon’s probably the only one which the longer the better might not hold true. (audience laughing) The exception to prove the rule. And by the way, this morning will be shorter than my usual so that you have a little more time to rest on your Sunday.

I know. I know how much there is to be done in all of our lives and in this country and in this world and from so many, many perspectives, I know how easy it is to feel a sense of overwhelm. I feel it, too. I struggle with finding enough rest, too. Sometimes that’s why we preach these sermons, is because we need to preach to ourselves. This is one of those cases.

We all feel the overwhelm, and we should know that we aren’t the first to feel this way. When the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt the weight of the struggle for change and justice, and its attendant exhaustion, and the fear for his own life that he lived under. He turned to a particular hymn, his favorite, “Precious Lord, Take My Hands,” which we will sing together shortly.

And as you go forth a little bit later today, after eating some pie, I encourage you to continue to explore. We began with our kids earlier today, the many, many ways of resting. Sleep, yeah. Sure, get plenty of that, but not just sleep. Find other ways to rest, too. And as you do, remember that in your resting and in your insistence upon rest, you are doing the work of the resistance. You are not taking a break from doing the work of the resistance; by resting, you are resisting.

May it be so. Amen and Blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

by Tricia Hersey

You are worthy of rest. We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out … Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us. The more we think of rest as a luxury, the more we buy into the systematic lies of grind culture. Our bodies and Spirits do not belong to capitalism, no matter how it is theorized and presented. Our divinity secures this, and it is our right to claim this boldly

Whether you are a resistor, or an ally, or a little bit of both, … Go, boldly claiming your divine right to rest and in doing so, bless all others as you yourselves are blessed.

Amen and Blessed Be.


SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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

Building Communities of Trust

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
March 9 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Trust is an important component of beloved community. How are communities of trust built? kept? restored? What does it look like when a community leads with trust in each other and the greater 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

THE LONGING FOR SOMETHING MORE
by Gretchen Haley

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

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

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

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

First Reading

LIFT OUR VOICES #120
by Erica Hewitt

I don’t have anything to say.

Well, I do, but it might not be interesting to anyone.

I have secrets inside of me and struggles, and I don’t know if I’m ready to share them.

I want to hear what you have to say.

I want to speak of the deepest things together.

I want to hear what you dream about, what you hope for.

I want to know how you have come to arrive at this resting point along your journey.

What if I speak and you don’t understand me?

I will listen and listen again until my hearing becomes understanding.

What if I can’t find the words to share the world inside of me?

I believe that wise words will emerge from you.

How can I trust you to hold my life’s stories? You, who I may not even know.

By knowing that as I receive part of your story, I will give you part of mine.

How will this work? What will happen? What awaits us?

We can find out anything by beginning.

Let us begin to listen and trust and to deeply know one another.

May it be so.

Second Reading

by adrienne maree brown

trust the people who move towards you and already feel like home.
trust the people to let you rest.
trust the people to do everything better than you could have imagined.
trust the people and they become trustworthy.
trust that the people are doing their work to trust themselves.
trust that each breach of trust can deepen trust or clarify boundaries.
trust the people who revel in pleasure after hard work.
trust the people who let children teach, remind us how to emote,
be still, and laugh.
trust the people who see and hold your heart.
trust the people who listen to the whales.
trust the people and you will become trustworthy.
trust the people and show them your love.
trust the people.

Sermon

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

This morning I Will begin with an assertion Followed by many many questions Which in turn are sprinkled with a few stories and Almost no answers Our topic today is trust, specifically building communities of trust. And it is one that is particularly tender during this time, I think. And we are going to sort of preach this sermon together. So are you ready for something a little different, a little more participatory? We’ve got things for the introverts and for the extroverts today.

My assertion is this. Trust is an essential component of beloved community. If trust is not present, beloved community is not possible. Beloved community or communities are communities of trust, trust like beloved community must be built, created, and when broken restored. The higher the level of trust, the closer we come to true beloved community.

So I’ll repeat my assertion because this is the foundation of what we are going to do together this morning and it was kind of a lot packed into a few sentences. Trust is an essential component of beloved community. If trust is not present, beloved community is not possible. Beloved community, or communities, while we’re working on the greater community, are communities of trust. And trust, like beloved community, must be built, created, and when broken, restored. The higher the level of trust, the closer we come to true beloved community.

So my first questions, these are for the introverts because I’ll say them a couple of times and then I’ll pause for a few moments of quiet reflection. We have ideas about what beloved community might mean that come from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and it has been many decades since we lost Dr. King and so ideas about beloved community have evolved since then.

So what does beloved community mean to you? And what is the role of trust in building Beloved Community? What does Beloved Community mean to you? Now, today. And what is the role of trust?

Next questions. How do we build trust? How do we create it? This is the participatory part where we get some ideas flowing. Reverend Aaron will call on a few people, let’s say maybe three, to share their ideas and then repeat what they’ve said into the microphone so we can all hear both in this room and online.

For those of you who are online, you can type your thoughts into the chat if that’s available to you and your method and begin a parallel discussion to ours here in the sanctuary. So here are the questions again. How do we build trust? In other words, where trust is already present, how do we increase or build our level of trust with each other? And how do we create trust? In other words, when we meet people for the first time or they are new to us, how do we begin the process of trusting each other? How do we build? How do we create trust? Some ideas.

So I think you can create trust with new people by using the platinum rule to treat others the way they want to be treated. And if people see that you treat them the way that they like to be treated, they might trust you more. Awesome.

Okay, Nick said that with new people in particular, but with anyone, right, we can create trust with the platinum rule. And if you haven’t heard of the platinum rule, that’s treat others the way they would like to be treated, right? So that requires us to invite them to tell us and to notice how they’d like to be treated. Thank you, Nick.

LP, who has an amazing bow, said that one way that we can build communal trust is through shared cooking and that sacred process of breaking bread together. Thank you.

Inconveniencing yourself for others so that people know when they really do need to ask that you’ve demonstrated that they won’t be a burden and you’re willing to do things. So did I kind of get that close? Awesome, thank you.

Russell said, “To really sincerely be open when you meet someone to demonstrate that sincerity and openness in your listening.” And I felt that in your responsiveness as well, a quality of presence and openness. Thank you all, thank you.

Thank you. Those are some wonderful ideas to get started.

  • So yes, we can allow ourselves to be known. We can share our stories, we can open ourselves to those more vulnerable places inside that go even deeper, help us move even deeper into relationship.
  • We can listen deeply without judging, without interrupting, without spending our time while listening, actually planning to say what we’re going to, how we’re going to respond.
  • We can hold confidences when they are shared with us.
  • We can act with integrity, which is one of our UU values.

And I think we can see, without my saying too much about it, why if my assertion about trust is true, our chalice circles and wellspring groups, which for those of you who are new, are small group ministries where people share deeply about monthly themes like trust, which is this month’s theme, are so important. They’re not just important for our spiritual growth, but also for building trust and building the health of our community.

Ā 

So, I have a story. Long ago, just before I headed out to seminary, I was a preschool teacher. And one day I was presented with an opportunity to get to know one of the teachers better. I shared with her, confidentially, that I had felt called to ministry and would be going to seminary in the fall. Not long after that conversation, I got called to the office and asked about my future plans. The other teacher had betrayed my trust and shared with the director that I would be leaving.

An uncomfortable conversation ensued and I shared my plans with the director in a way and with a timing that I had not chosen. I was hurt and what I thought of as a newly developing friendship was damaged. I later came to understand that she was operating out of what she thought of as the best interests of the students and the school. She did not want me to wait too long to share my news and risk my position going unfilled. Of course, I would have preferred she come to me with her concern and share that and encourage me to share my news instead of doing it for me.

But I need to honor within myself that she did have good intentions. And what she did not know was that I was considering two options, one that would have required me to move away and live on campus and leave my position as a teacher and the other which was nearby and would have allowed me to take classes in the evening and maintain my job teaching during the day for the next few years. I had not shared my plans with the director because I had not yet decided which path I would take to becoming a minister. And then I felt rushed in making that decision because the director then wanted to know.

At the time, I did not have the skills to address this break in relationship with the other teacher. If I had I would have asked her to share with me why she made the decision she did and listen to what she had to say and then I would have shared my perspective including my feelings of hurt and betrayal and also the missing information she did not have and then to ask if there was a way we could restore our relationship.

So I’m not naive. I think few of us are. We know that every time we choose to trust, we are choosing risk. There is always the possibility that confidences will be broken, that our trust will be betrayed. Trust is broken in ways little and big all the time. We are imperfect humans. The key is to trust each other enough to work to restore trust, to do the work of repair, and to know that sometimes this doesn’t happen, that the work of repair doesn’t happen, that people can and do decline our overtures to restore relationship. And still we must find a way to be at peace with their decision, a decision which is outside of our control. And yet still all remain in beloved community together.

We also want to acknowledge that sometimes in certain very extreme circumstances we really need to shift how we understand trust for our own spiritual and mental health. There are, after all, people who are sociopaths and psychopaths out there in this world. Yes, I’m using the lay terms here.

In these circumstances, when someone is incapable of being trustworthy in the way we usually think of trustworthiness, we can still trust them to be who they actually are. I learned this from speaking with someone recently about the challenge of finding hope within our current political climate. She shared with me that she trusts a particular leader to mess up so badly at some point that he will actually wind up creating an opening for change. She trusts him to be who he actually is instead of who she wishes he would be, and she does it in a way that creates hope. She trusts him to mess up, to create the opening, and therein lies the hope.

By the way, since this is a sermon after all, faith is actually trust, plus an element of the transcendent. Whether that is God or some universal force bigger than ourselves. So it would also be appropriate if you’d like to think of all of this in the terms of the word faith.

So returning to relationships here in this congregation, in this community, with people being people, with people being imperfect, with people being prone to messing up unintentionally or otherwise. Can we trust that when trust is broken, as it will be, that we have a covenant and a team and processes that can help us find a way through to restoring relationships?

Can we trust that when we do the work of restoration, Sometimes we don’t do it as well or as smoothly as we’d like, and yet there still is integrity to engaging that process. Can we trust that this congregation or whatever other setting you may find yourself in is healthy enough to allow for places of discomfort, such as when apologies or olive branches are not immediately accepted. Can we trust this congregation, this community, to still hold and love us all, to know and accept that we all belong even in our imperfection.

There’s a lot to think about and I don’t have all of the answers. I am looking to all of you to help with finding the answers within. Especially since I will be leaving soon and this will remain your community, but not mine. I will say that I do believe you can do this, that I have faith in all of you.

One last story, and then a final challenge. I once worked at a church as an interim. You know that I’ve moved from church to church to church traveling around the country doing this interim work specialized work. And as usual I began with a startup workshop where a consultant from the UUA’s regional office came in and worked with all of us about roles and responsibility and making sure we had clarity about who had the authority and expectation to do what between the minister and the board and the congregation and the RE teacher. So in this case, the consultant asked the assembled group, the congregation, if it was okay for the ministers to speak up on their have. This was meant to be a provocative question that would open a great deal of discussion. Instead, the response was, “Yeah, of course. We trust our ministers to speak up for us.” The consultant was a bit flabbergasted because most of our congregations do not allow for this.

And this is where the challenge comes in. First UU is one of those congregations that prohibits its ministers from speaking up in public on their behalf. Ministers are free only to speak for themselves. It’s a little bit of splitting hairs when you’re out there in public to say I speak only for myself, but I am the minister of this congregation. People don’t really hear it that way anyway. This has been how it has been in most UU congregations. But I wonder, I wonder if it’s time for a change. We are living in a world and in a nation which is rapidly changing. We are living in a time of rising fascism.

The prohibition of ministers speaking up on behalf of their congregations may have served its purpose and its time, and there may have been reasons for it, good, valid reasons. But is it still helpful now? Does this time call for something different? For a new way of being in the world? What would it be like to trust your ministers to speak up with the full weight of the congregation behind them? Out there in the public square while we are fighting authoritarianism and fascism.

What would it be like to trust your ministers to be able to speak up immediately about the wrongs they see in the world and in this nation without having to go through a many months long process of congregational discernment and resolution making. What would it be like to trust your ministers to be able to judge for themselves when a particular issue is too sensitive to speak out about immediately and to trust that the ministers will take you through that process of congregational discernment when necessary. What would it be like to be able to trust on this level?

There are stories in this congregation and in all of our congregations about ministers being human, that’s a rumor, from making relatively minor mistakes to doing serious harm to outright misconduct. What would it look like for a congregation, for this congregation, to fully heal from the past, to accept that mistakes were made, that problems arose, and then to trust that a new way can be made.

This, by the way, especially for those of you visiting with us today, applies just as well to our families and our workplaces as it does our congregation. What would you as a congregation or some other group of people be able to do in this world if your leaders were well and fully trusted? What would you be able to do in this world if you well and fully trusted each other?

I don’t have all the answers for you. Just a few ideas and a lot of questions. What I do know, though, is that whatever you would be able to do with this level of trust would be nothing short of absolutely transformative, just like it says right up there in your mission. Transform lives. And I have faith that this community can find a way.

Amen and blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

May we remember that trust, like love, grows in small moments:
In promises kept and confidences held,
In boundaries respected and amends made,
In showing up again and again.
May we be brave enough to risk trust,
Patient enough to build it slowly,
And gentle with ourselves and others when it breaks.
Amen.

by the Rev. Angeline C. Jackson

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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

Justice for All and All for Justice

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
February 23, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Michelle will reflect on this month’s theme of inclusivity and what this means for our mission of doing justice. So often we think about doing justice so that all will be included. But what might it look like to include all in doing justice?


Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

WE GATHER TOGETHER

We arrive
as individuals as couples
as families
as neighbors
as friends

We got here by walking by biking
by riding
by driving
by connecting

We bring with us
our joys and our sorrows
our laughter and our tears
our worries and our fears
our questions and our beliefs
our ethics and our values

A ceramic mug of coffee sits on a table
next to an open laptop,
showing many people in Zoom cells.
Some of us
arrived early this morning
or joined us ten minutes ago
or encountered obstacles on their way
or will arrive just in time for the sermon
or will sign online later this week or even next month

We
are sitting in pews
leaning on walkers or canes
stretching in the aisles
settling in wheelchairs
and relaxing in recliners

We, members, friends, and visitors alike,
come from many paths
and join together as one congregation,
to lift up our highest ideals.

We have gathered.
Now, let us worship.

Affirming Our Mission

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

First Reading

Micah 6: 6-8

Micah asks on behalf of the people: “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Micah answers on behalf of God: He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

Second Reading

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With Courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes upon,
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again,
to the dream.

– Maya Angelou

Sermon

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

Micah was a prophet who lived in ancient Israel during the 8th century BCE. His hometown was a small village called Morsheth, not too far from Jerusalem, and he lives in a time of rapid change. Much like we are today.

Commerce was expanding, Trade was increasingly moving away from a barter system and toward a monetary system. Fraudulent weights and measures had become common. Land was being accumulated in large quantities by the hands of wealthy landowners and at the expense of small farmers. And the gap between rich and poor was increasing greatly and rapidly. The powerful dictated what they desired. Judges and other officials are taking bribes, people are lying, and the families, families are falling apart due to lack of trust in each other.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Micah lived during a time of rising power, wealth, and corruption. And so he went out into the marketplace and prophesied. During ancient times, people brought other people to court for breach of covenant and were heard by a judge. In Micah, as elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, God brought the people of ancient Israel to court and indicted them for breach of covenant with the mountains, the hills, and the earth for witnesses, similar to the ways in which human courts worked. In God’s case they were out of covenant, out of right relationship with God. Of what were the people guilty of? Injustice. Injustice in the land was flourishing.

And so the people cried out as we still tend to do during a crisis, atheist or not, and ask, “What does God want from me? What do you want from me, world, universe? What do you want from us? How much would you take from us? Everything we have and more?” And Micah reminded the people that God has already told them what is good, What is required of them? And that is to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with their God.

Micah’s story is an age-old story and one we are in many ways reliving today, though now the threat of our own government comes from within and not from the Assyrian Empire. And Micah’s answer to the people is still a good one, a good lesson for us today. We are to do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly, which in, you know, 3,000 years ago language meant remain in covenant, walk humbly, remain in covenant with the holy.

So today I’d like to talk just a little bit about why it is we do justice as Unitarian Universalists. At least enough to establish that doing justice is well within our living tradition. Micah is only one of many examples from the Hebrew scriptures, which are sacred to both Judaism and Christianity, of justice-seeking as a requirement of being in right relationship with the divine. Jesus’s ministry as well was a liberatory one and his teachings are foundational to Unitarianism and Universalism which both emerged out of Christianity.

Over time, our theological underpinnings have expanded as more and more people have joined us from more and more faith traditions and backgrounds, and as we have continued to grow in our spiritual and theological understandings. Today, justice is one of Unitarian Universalism’s shared values. We have covenanted with each other, congregation to congregation, to work to be diverse, multicultural, beloved communities where all thrive, to dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression, and to support the use of inclusive democratic processes within our congregations, our association, and society at large. That’s right in our bylaws, in our Unitarian Universalist Associations bylaws.

Finally, let us not forget that doing justice is right up there on our wall in this congregation’s mission statement. Together we nourish souls, transform lives and do justice to build the beloved community. So having established that we are indeed a justice-seeking, justice-building, justice-creating, justice-making people, let’s who it is that does or does not do all of this justice-making and how it gets done.

At times, I’m a little sad to say this, it seems that within Unitarian Universalism, and I imagine elsewhere, the loudest voices for justice are all about marches and protests and visiting legislators at the Capitol and sit-ins and die-ins and civil disobedience that results in arrest.

Do you know what all these have in common? Anyone want to guess? They require people to either be able-bodied or to put their disabled bodies on the line at a much higher, higher risk than is generally taken by non-disabled people. Yes, that includes even visiting legislators at the Capitol.

I tried to do this once. Earlier during my time here in Austin, I wanted to visit the Texas State Capitol. So, being physically disabled, I did my usual research into what I would need to know to visit a new place I had never been.

First, I found out that there was a special webpage called Capital Accessibility Services with all of the information that I would need. And right at the top of that page was an assurance that all capital, capital extension and capital visitor center facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities, as well as a link to an accessibility guide. Great, we’re off to a good start here.

Then, with further reading, I discovered that it was actually a considerable distance to walk from the parking garage to the building where I wanted to go and an even farther walk from that garage to the only accessible entrance to that building which was actually on the other farther side from the garage. In other words I’d have to walk all the way around the outside of the building to get inside without using any stairs or very many stairs.

Then I thought, well, I can rent a motorized scooter for the day. Most recently, I often use a rollator, but I have often used motorized scooters at large events and in large stores, though I don’t actually own one myself. No problem, I thought. There are rental places which will deliver a scooter to my destination. I don’t even have to figure out how to transport it there myself.

And then I read, motorized scooters are not allowed on the capital grounds. Okay, now that’s out too. So how am I supposed to get into the capital?

So, I kept reading. A wheelchair was the last option. To get it, I would have to walk from the parking garage to the visitor center, which was in the opposite direction of the Capitol building itself, get the wheelchair, and then wheel myself back past the parking garage and all the way around the Capitol building and to the other side to go in the accessible entrance. There was no way. I don’t have the arm strength for that. That’s why we have motorized scooters in addition to wheelchairs.

And then I realized that the only possible way I or anyone with limited leg mobility and arm strength could go to the Capitol was to be pushed in a wheelchair by someone else. My spouse Micah was unable to take me on that particular day and it was too late at night to call by that time and make arrangements with anyone else. Besides I wondered who could I ask? Who would be willing? I mean it’s a pretty big ask to call someone and ask them to spend the entire day with you pushing you around in a wheelchair. And what do people who don’t have anyone in their life who could help them do? And what about all the people who can only use a motorized scooter? There is no circumstance under which they could make a visit to the Capitol. Despite the website’s promises, this was not and is not accessibility.

I share this story, not, NOT, to get you all fired up and headed down to the capital to demand change on my or any disabled person’s behalf, but to give a glimpse into just a very little slice of only one person’s disabled life on only one evening trying to plan only one outing. There are many, many more stories out there with different or worse or better experiences than mine.

And there are many, many more of my own stories that I could share, but I chose this one because in it I was attempting to do justice while being disabled. People who are disabled need to be more than the subjects of doing justice. We need to also be full participants in justice-making.

The point I want to make today is that there are as many ways of doing justice as there are of being human. So, so many people are living in even greater than usual risk in this country today. Primarily people who are undocumented and people who are transgender and also people who are BIPOC, LGBTQ plus and disabled, as well as anyone who has a uterus and is able to get pregnant. We are living in a time of rising fascism and we are gonna need as many people as possible doing justice.

So it’s time to put away any of the old ideas about what it means to do justice the right way, or the best way, or the only way. We need lots of different kinds of justice-making, and we need justice-making and justice-doing to be as accessible as possible.

Some common justice-making actions are already pretty accessible to a lot, if not all people. Things like writing letters or making phone calls. There was a great example of a letter from one of our congregants, Denise Pierce, going around lately. In it, she called for a company, in a very positive way, to increase the accessibility of their website. She explained that she loved the company, really wanted to shop there, and why she wanted to shop there and then said that she would need them to make it more accessible for her in order for it to work.

There are lots of different ways, new or different ways that we can think about making justice-making more accessible. People can help with digital security or giving rides or digital communication or preparing food for justice organizers and events, and many, many other ways. We need to start thinking outside of the box.

Remember, we don’t have to make the entirety of any action or event fully accessible to everyone. That would be near impossible. But we can make different components of justice actions or events accessible in various ways for various needs so that more and more people are able to engage in a piece of the work. It is a duty, an imperative, doing justice in these times.

Here are just a few tips we can help make this happen just to get started.

ā€¢ The first thing we need to do is accept that no one can fully know what it is like to live in another person’s body or to live another person’s life. Each of us has the right to determine the level of personal risk we are willing to undertake or not in any justice-making, justice-doing we take on and no one else has the right to make judgments about whether or not someone else should have taken more or less personal risk bodily or otherwise and this goes for everyone not just disabled folks.

ā€¢ The second thing we need to do is to take care of our spiritual and emotional selves. We are facing tactics that are intentionally meant to overwhelm us or shut us down or cause us to freeze. We have a responsibility, a moral duty, to deal with the overwhelm so we can get unstuck and get moving in whatever ways we can and in whatever ways we do best. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Give each other as much of a chance as possible to get unstuck and get unfrozen and get moving. We need as many of us to join the resistance as is possible. Every person and every action counts. No fake fights about our justice-making or anything else that might serve as a diversion from the moral, ethical, theological and spiritual imperative to do justice.

ā€¢ The third thing we need to do is pay attention to inclusion in any of the social justice actions or events we are planning. If someone can’t march or sit or stand or hear or see or walk or whatever else it is very well, what can they do? If someone is in a greater risk category because they are undocumented or black or queer or all of the above or some combination of the above, what might they need to better or more fully participate? We might not know, and if we don’t know, let’s make the effort to find out.

So to recap, These are my three getting-started tips.

  • Number one, we each get to assess our own level of personal risk, no second guessing by anyone else.
  • Number two, we need to take care of ourselves and each other so we can, if possible, get unstuck and live up to our responsibility to do justice.
  • And number three, pay attention to inclusion in any social justice events or actions we are planning.

By keeping love at the center, we can continue to widen the circle of concern farther and farther. And by including more and more people in the work of justice-making, we can do more justice.

Ā 

As Maya Angelou says, “Let us give birth once again to the dream.”

May it be so. Amen and blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

In all of the ways that our bodies and our minds work, both literal and metaphorical, I say to you, go now in peace with love in your hearts, kindness on your lips, and compassion at your fingertips. Blessing all others as you yourselves are now blessed.

Amen and blessed be.


SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 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

2025 Burning Bowl

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
January 5, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

For New Year’s Day, we will hold our annual burning bowl service. We contemplate what we would like to let go so that we may more easily find our center. Then we whisper that which we would like to let go into pieces of flash paper, toss them into a fire, and watch them burn away.


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 bid you welcome on this first Sunday of the new year.

Like Janus, we gather with part of us looking backward and part of us looking forward. We gather on the edge of the new year, saddened by our losses, cherishing our joys, aware of our failures, mindful of days gone by.

We gather on the cusp of this new year, eager to begin a new, hopeful for what lies ahead, promising to make changes, anticipating tomorrows and tomorrows.

We invite you to join our celebration of life, knowing that life includes both good and bad endings and beginnings.

We bid you welcome.

– Sylvia L Howe

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Now the work of Christmas begins.
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins.
To find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people
to make music in the heart.

– Howard Thurman

Sermon

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

Rev. Michelle’s Homily

LOOKING BACK

Here we are on the first Sunday of the new year 2025. We’ve celebrated the winter solstice and Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and probably a few other things. We’ve sung fast away the old year passes and now we find ourselves preparing for the annual Burning Bowl ritual.

This is a season of ritual and celebration and a time of sorting, a time of sorting our feelings, our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams, thinking about the things we want to leave behind and the things we want to bring with us. So before we say goodbye finally, to the old year.

Before we let go of whatever it is that needs letting go, I have a few thoughts to share about why we do what we do and why it’s important. The first one comes from the Hebrew Bible and the book of Psalms. I tend to be a little bit of a Bible geek. I studied Hebrew in seminary even though it was optional. I’m not at all an expert about it. However, enough to have learned some really interesting things about the Bible. And from the book of Psalms, there is a verse which I suspect most of you will have heard and find familiar. It is “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still and know that I am God.

So the Bible was originally spoken and then written down in Hebrew. In English, when we read and hear this verse, we hear “be still,” which has a connotation of stopping action, relaxing, being quiet. It’s a passive verb, the way that it’s been translated. So be passive, be still, be quiet, and know that I am God. However, in Hebrew, the word, the verb that we use is actually an active verb, and it means something probably closer to unclench. So imagine that your hands are clenched, grasped around something that you’re holding onto, your body is tense, you’re thinking about whatever it is that makes you a little stressed out, right? So to unclench, take some action. You have to let go of those muscles. You have to open your hands. Unclench and know. Let go of those old ideas about who and what God is or isn’t. Open yourselves to new ideas. Open yourselves to knowing.

And the second thought comes from Buddhism and the first three of the four noble truths. Buddhism teaches us that attachment is the root of all suffering, right? When we are attached to things too much, too strongly, that is when and how we suffer. So when we’re looking back at the old year and we’re thinking about the things that were attached to you, the way we wished things were, the way we wished the world was, the way we wished things had happened or not happened, and we’re attached to what we had wanted, what our desires were, right?

So in order to end the suffering, we have to let go of those attachments to what it is that we had wanted or wished for. We have to detach and let go of what it is that we wish our lives should have been or would have been.

And so, whatever it is that your theological or philosophical perspective is, Whether it’s Judaism or Christianity or Buddhism or something completely different, I invite you to take a few moments to ponder what it is in your life, your world, your reality that needs sorting, unclenching, detaching, or letting go.

May it be so. Amen and bless it be.


Rev. Chris’ Homily

LOOKING FORWARD

All blessings on all that we have just released this morning.

One of the reasons that we do this ritual at the beginning of each year is that by letting go of that which may not be serving us well or is just not necessary in our lives, we open up a spaciousness within an openness to all that life has to offer. And this we hope will allow us to live more fully into our highest values and our greatest creative potential. And we are going to need that spaciousness in the weeks and months to come.

Tomorrow is January 6th, the day that Congress will likely certify the electoral vote making Donald Trump our president once again. Of course, it’s also the anniversary of when four years ago a violent mob overran our capital in an attempt to overturn, prevent the certification of that duly and fairly held election.

Now the person who incited that insurrection will be returning to the White House and we do not yet know what will happen. We do know that we will be called to counter an ideology of division and harm with a public-facing theology of love and radical interconnectedness. We’ll talk more about exactly how we might do that in the days to come.

I know that this morning, though, so many of us are feeling fear about what is to come and particularly for those among us who are immigrants or who follow the spiritual call to love the stranger among us, those who are LGBTQ, particularly our trans-siblings, those who make up the over 50% of our populations that call themselves female.

For all of these folks and more, that fear is unfortunately well-founded. And those forces of division and harm are quite successfully using fear to succeed in driving their ideology forward in public life, and we, we will never counter fear with more fear. So we are going to need to let our fear warn and inform us about what may be required of us and then we’re gonna have to let it go. Let it burn away in the flames of love and justice to create the spaciousness we will need to think and act in new ways that can ignite even more love and joy and justice in our lives and in our world.

So, for instance this morning I whispered into my paper that I am letting go of the fake fights we sometimes have amongst ourselves. I’m not engaging anymore over whether the church newsletter should be digital to save on paper or printed on paper to save on energy. An actual argument that has occurred in this and other churches. I’m not invested in arguing over what musical styles are suitable for worship or whether we start at 10:45 or 11:00.

I am invested in creating the beloved community of care and support among us so that we can go out and join with others to create even more of the same, and I am letting go of any and all allergies that I might still have around Bible or God language so that I can proclaim in the public square that which Jesus actually said, which offers up a God of inclusion, love and justice, not the white Christian Nationalist God, the false idol, the anti-Christ being offered up by that ideology of division and harm that is currently ascendant and is winning the political God war. We’re going to talk about that more too.

So, starting this morning, now, in this very moment in place, may we burn away all that is false and frightens and distracts us so that we can open up such spaciousness that love may truly overcome emergent and ascendant instead.

Amen.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

Having let go, set our intentions, named our curiosity, committed our energies, and given ourselves over to lives of balance, purpose, and meaning. Let us begin again in love. May the congregation say amen.

Amen and blessed be. Go in peace.

Ā 


SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

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

2024 Christmas Pageant

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
December 22, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We join together for this annual tradition of song and holiday merriment.


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

WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR?
by Quinn G. Caldwell

If you came to this place expecting a tame story, you came to the wrong place.

If you came for a story that does not threaten you, you came for a different story than the one we tell.

If you came to hear of the coming of a God who only showed up so that you could have a nice day with your loved ones, then you came for a God whom we do not worship here.

For even a regular baby is not a tame thing. And goodness that cannot threaten complacency and evil is not much good at all, and a God who would choose to give up power and invincibility to become an infant for you, certainly didn’t do it just you could have dinner.

But.

If you came because you think that unwed teenage mothers are some of the strongest people in the world.

If you came because you think that the kind of people who work third shift doing stuff you’d rather not do might attract an angel’s attention before you, snoring comfortably in your bed, would.

If you came because you think there are wise men and women to be found among undocumented travelers from far lands and that they might be able to show you God.

If you came to hear a story of tyrants trembling while heaven comes to peasants.

If you came because you believe that God loves the animals as much as the people and so made them the first witnesses to the saving of the world.

If you came for a story of reversals that might end up reversing you.

If you came for a tale of adventure and bravery, where strong and gentle people win, and the powerful and violent go down to dust, where the rich lose their money but find their lives and the poor are raised up like kings.

If you came to be reminded that God loves you too much to leave you unchanged.

If you came to follow the light even if it blinds you.

If you came for salvation and not safety, then: ah, my friends, you are in the right place.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE INNKEEPER
by Anne Dilenschneider

The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene:

Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on the door and finds a young couple standing there. The woman is very pregnant. She and her spouse look exhausted.They’ve walked a hundred miles over rough, rocky terrain to get here from Nazareth.

The innkeeper is confronted with a dilemma. The inn is full; there just isn’t any more room. At the same time, the innkeeper knows that offering hospitality is part of being God’s people, because they had been sojourners and strangers in Egypt. That’s why the innkeeper has always made sure there’s an empty chair for an unexpected guest at the annual seder meal celebrating Passover.

What to do?

As a child, the innkeeper had learned the story of Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers into their home. After they made the strangers a lavish feast, the couple discovered their guests were messengers (“angels”) sent to bring great news: as laughable as it seemed, the elderly Sarah was going to have a baby. So, the innkeeper knows the tradition of entertaining strangers; the innkeeper knows strangers are messengers (“angels”) from God. Tonight there is a bedraggled and weary couple on this very doorstep.

What to do?

The innkeeper pulls the door to a bit, hastily assessing the situation. Is there any space, anywhere? The beds are all taken. There are even people sleeping on the floor. What to do? Is there any possible solution?

In a moment of inspiration, the innkeeper remembers the stable out behind the inn. It’s not much, but it’s some protection from the wind. No matter how bitter the weather may become, the heat from the animals will keep these guests warm.

The innkeeper flings open the door and welcomes the couple with a broad smile. There’s not much, but there’s a possibility. A stable. Will it suffice?

It does.

And the innkeeper saves the day.

Our Annual No Rehearsal Christmas Pageant

OPENING WORDS

The season of the winter solstice has been celebrated in one form or another for thousands of years.

A hundred different cultures have told stories about how the birth of their gods took place at this time of year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we tell stories about how light, hope and life are returning to the world.

Darkness is good for rest and for root growth, but we also need light for growth and setting a direction, so, while we revere darkness, we humans also celebrate light.

Today we will present the Christian faith story, as Christianity is one of the sources of our UU faith.

It is the story of a special baby, a child of God as all babies are, a child called Jesus who became one of humanity’s great teachers.

As UUs, we know that we do not have to believe that the stories of our sacred texts are literally true to embrace the metaphorical wisdom that may be found within them.

In this way, we are able to reclaim such stories and retell them in ways that reflect our living tradition, for which revelation is not sealed.

Today this story is wrapped not only in swaddling clothes, but also in wonderful carols, which also contain some Earth-based Solstice elements.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY

Here is the Christmas story. It happened a very long time ago in a land far away. A couple named Joseph and Mary had to make a journey to the city of Bethlehem, because there was a new law that said everyone had to return to the city of their birth in order to pay their taxes.

Joseph was worried about Mary taking this trip as she was going to have a baby very soon, but Mary wanted to be with her husband for the birth of their first child. It was a long trip to Bethlehem, three full days of walking. Mary was glad when they could see the rooftops of Bethlehem in the distance.

“Joseph,” she said, “Let’s stay at the first inn we come to. I think our baby is almost ready to be born.”

But when they got to Bethlehem, they found the little town crowded with people. They stopped at the first inn they came to and knocked on the door. But the innkeeper told them, “I’m sorry, there is no more room here.” At the next inn the innkeeper said, “We’re full. Try the place three streets over. It’s bigger.” Joseph tried another place and another place, but everywhere it was the same story: “Sorry, no room for you here.”

Finally, when it was almost night, they saw a house at the edge of town with a light in the window. Joseph knocked at the door, and told the innkeeper, “Please help us. We need a place for the night. My wife is going to have a baby soon and I don’t think she can travel any farther.”

And the innkeeper said, “There’s no room in the inn, but don’t worry, we’ll find someplace for you.” The innkeeper showed Mary and Joseph to a quiet little barn where the animals were. It was clean and warm and smelled like sweet hay.

And on that very night in that barn in Bethlehem, their little baby was born. They named him Jesus. Mary and Joseph wrapped him in the soft swaddling cloth and made a little bed for him in the hay. That night, like every night, there were shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem, watching the flocks of sheep. The shepherds were surprised and amazed by a very bright light in the sky and a strange song coming from nowhere and everywhere, all at once. It was angels and they were glorious!

After sharing the joyous news, the angels went to see the baby born in a stable in the city of Bethlehem to tell him hello. What a beautiful baby!

After the angels had gone away, the shepherds remembered what they had said, that a wonderful baby had been born and that they could find him by following the brightest star in the sky. So the shepherds all said to each other, “Let’s go look for that baby.” They had no trouble finding the stable, because of the bright star, and sure enough, there inside were Mary and Joseph, watching over their little baby, Jesus. And the shepherds saw that Jesus was just stunning. “Oh! What a beautiful baby!” Then the shepherds went away and told everyone what they had seen.

On this same night, three wise ones saw the bright star and said to each other, “Look at the amazing star! It must be shining for something very special!” The wise ones loaded up their camels with treasures and traveling supplies and followed the star all the way to Bethlehem. Jesus was very young when the wise ones found him, but they knew he was special. “What a wonderful child. This child will be our teacher.” And they gave their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and other gifts useful for babies.

Mary and Joseph wondered for a long time about all of these things that happened when their child was born. “lt’s astonishing that all these people would come to see our baby and give us presents for him. They don’t even know him.”

When Jesus grew up, he was a courageous teacher, just like the wise ones said. And one of the most important things he tried to teach people was to love each other and to treat all people, even strangers, with kindness and care. And people who have tried to follow his best teachings have become better people, and have spread light through their world, which is what we are here to do.

Tonight we shared the Christmas Story about one special baby. But this baby isn’t the only special one. Every child is a treasure, a wonder and a miracle. And as they grow up, they are always and forever a treasure, a wonder and a miracle.

READING

“EACH NIGHT A CHILD IS BORN”
by Sophia Lyon Fahs, Excerpted and adapted

For so the children come
and so they have been coming.
Always in the same way they came-
Born of the seed of man and woman.

No angels herald their beginnings.
No prophets predict their future courses.
no wise man see a star to show where to find
The babe that will save humankind.
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Fathers and mothers
Sitting beside their children’s cribs-
Feel glory in the sight of a new beginning.
They ask “Where and how will this new life end?
Or will it ever end?”

Each night a child is born is a holy night
A time for singing-
A time for wondering
A time for worshipping.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

In this season and throughout the year:

May you know the wonder of a new born child.

May you experience the eager anticipation of the shepherds. May you be blessed with the resilience of Mary and Joseph. May the peace of that night long ago be with you through even life’s times of challenge.

May the love of angels be a constant in your life.

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


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

So many of you asked for the list of tips for how to survive a zombie apocalypse after last week’s sermon that we decided to sent them out you all electronically.Ā  Here they are…

How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

#1Ā FindĀ a Hideout

#2 Pay Attention

#3 Live in the Moment

#4 Prepare

#5 Love Your Neighbor

#6 Maintain Your Sense of Humor

#7 Keep the Sabbath

How to Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
December 8, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev Michelle offers us survival tips for the spiritual work that we can learn and follow to prepare for the new administration coming in January. She uses the term Zombie Apocalypse as a metaphor because the circumstances we face are so extreme, so out of the ordinary, so out of control, that they seem unreal.


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

Our call to worship this morning is from Kalidasa. Kalidasa was an Indian poet and playwright who lived around the turn of the fifth century and wrote in Sanskrit. His works have been translated into many languages and read the world over and throughout the centuries since his death.

Look to this day,
for it is life,
the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
the glory of action,
the splendor of achievement
are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yestarday a dream of hapiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Our reading today is from Lao Tzu. He was an ancient Chinese philosopher who wrote the Tao Te Ching and is considered the founder of Taoism.

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.

Sermon

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

Let’s begin with some definitions.

ZOMBIE, a person who is deceased, a member of the undead, a person whose body is dead but acts as if it is living, often known to walk with a very slow shuffle, although in more recent stereotypes can move more quickly and in many different ways. Often with a decayed look about their faces.

Definition: APOCALYPSE, In the tradition, this comes from the book of Revelation and is about the end of the world. In more common terminology, apocalypse can refer to any event which is radically changing the world and might feel like the end of the world.

Definition: SURREAL, The feeling that one’s current circumstances are so out of the ordinary that they must be a dream, or one feels like one is in a dream-like state because the current context is so unusual, so different, so extreme, so out of control that it feels like it can’t really quite possibly actually be real.

The date of the zombie apocalypse is January 20th, 2025. Yes, this is a metaphor.

That said there are some survival tips about the spiritual work that is before us that we can learn and follow. I’ve come up with seven. There may be many, many more. And I could go on much longer than a sermon length about all the things we could or maybe should do. But we’ll stick with seven for today.

ā€¢ NUMBER ONE: FIND A HIDEOUT.
Praying in your closet is actually a long time spiritual practice of our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors on these lands. It was in what is now known as the United States, but at that time was referred to colonial times. Our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors had a critical spiritual practice of going into a closet, going into a private space to pray and to examine themselves and to look for signs of good works in their lives. So we have a long tradition, a long long tradition of doing this.

Jesus himself in Matthew 6:6 taught his followers to pray in secret and he also went off into the wilderness frequently away even from his own disciples to pray and to commune with his God whom he referred to as his father. In the coming zombie apocalypse, you will need a place of spiritual refuge, free from the distractions of other people. Find it, prepare for it, get it ready now. Start using it now.

ā€¢ NUMBER TWO: PAY ATTENTION.
There is an old Zen story about a student who said to Master Ichu,

“Please write for me something of great wisdom.” Master Ichu picked up his brush and wrote one word – “Attention”. The student said, “Is that all?” The master wrote, “Attention, attention.” The student became irritable. That doesn’t seem profound or subtle to me. In response, master Ichu wrote simply, “Attention, attention, attention.” In frustration, the student demanded, “What does this word attention mean?” Master Ichu replied, “Attention means attention.”

Pay attention. Pay attention to the beauty that is in this world. Pay attention to your family, pay attention to your community, pay attention to your body, pay attention to yourself.

Ā 

Pay attention to those who are different from you, to those who have different abilities or disabilities, to those who have different heritages, to those who have different experiences of racism in the world. Pay attention to those who are LGBTQ+. Pay attention to how they are experiencing these current times and learn from people who are different from you. We all have different skills and strengths and challenges. I’m not saying steal from other people or other cultures. I’m saying learn from each other through authentic relationships and having real true deep heartfelt conversations with each other.

Learn about what it means to be a person of color who knows all about resourcing and what resourcing is. Pay attention to people who are black and talk about black joy and how that is possible. Pay attention. Pay spiritual attention. Also pay attention to the news about what is happening, but not all the time.

Take the news in small, but regular doses. Do not be caught sleeping through the apocalypse. It will be too late by the time the zombies come for you. Pay attention. And do not allow yourself to become like a zombie going on autopilot throughout your world and without a care for anyone else.

You may or may not be experiencing the coming months and years in a way that is very different from people who are around you. There are some of us who are needing to consult lawyers at this time and make plans in preparations for how our legal statuses of marriage or citizenry or refugee status may change. So pay attention.

ā€¢ NUMBER THREE: LIVE IN THE MOMENT.
Living in the moment does help with number two, paying attention.

Lao Tzu said, “Do not live in the past. You will become depressed. Do not live in the future. You will become anxious. Do live in the present and you will find peace.

Be present in the present and you will find peace. You will be able to see that beauty in the natural world. You will be able to see how you and your own body is experiencing what is going on in our world. You will be able to see others who are different from you, who are part of this beloved community and out into the larger worlds and what they are facing. The past cannot be changed. It is in the past. Remaining attached to how we wish the past might have gone is a point of suffering. This is Buddhism now. We’re moving from Taoism to Buddhism all within the same number three. The future cannot be predicted.

Ā 

Listening to news about what is actually happening is one thing. Listening to hours and hours and hours about what people who are anxious or are trying to sell sensationalist headlines are saying is not helpful, it is anxiety producing, and it may or may not be true. No one can prophesy the future. We will move forward on our best educated guesses by what is happening now.

Focus on what is happening right before you, right now. Act on what is happening in the world right now. It’s not just paying attention and listening and hearing, this is also about acting. We will need everyone to act in different ways. And part of your spiritual work will to be to go deep inside and assess what your level of risk is and will be and what you are willing to put out there. That will be different for each person, and we will need to accept and respect those risk tolerances that are different from our own.

And by the way, we are working with the social justice folks beginning to have some conversations about how to make social justice work more accessible and what people who cannot physically go down to the capital or march in the streets can do instead within their own abilities. It will need all of us.

Act on what is happening in the world right now, the one thing you can do, the one thing you can do right now. If you make a list of all of the things that need to be done, you’re likely to become overwhelmed or anxious. Do the one thing right now that you can do. And when you have done that, do the next one thing that you can do. And when you have done that, do the next one thing that you can do. That was number three, live in the moment.

ā€¢ NUMBER FOUR: PREPARE.
This lesson comes from Rev Michelle in the form of what not to do. The other day I was driving to church in my little hybrid truck, and I got this message warning in bright red flashing up on the screen saying, “You have less than 50 miles until your gas runs out.” At which point I thought, Micah did tell me I really, really need gas. And then about 10 seconds later, another message packed up on my screen saying “Your tires are low on air”, okay, but I got to get to church right now another 10 seconds pass and another bright message pops up on the screen saying “Your window washer fluid needs to be refilled.” This has never happened to me before. Do not be caught without the spiritual versions of fuel, air, and liquid soap. (Laughter)

Actually, there is not one list in terms of getting prepared. Our needs will continually change, and we’ll need to keep adapting and making new skills, learning new skills for new times. But there are some places we can start now. And now is not too soon to start building some skills like in the area of cybersecurity. So get your VPNs in order, lock down your cookies or various trackers, secure your personal info, start using encrypted messaging systems, or communicate in person with any sensitive information. If that sounds like a bunch of gibberish, welcome to the club. I’m learning too.

The ways we communicate, especially in the area of social justice, is going to change Radically, again. I’m sorry, I know we just did this with the pandemic, learning all these new skills with Zoom and live streaming and all sorts of things that we had not done much or at all before. It’s coming again.

Wired had a great recent article about how to protect yourself from governmental cyber surveillance and you should be able to find that online fairly easily if you Google it. See me in person if you would like to set up a way to communicate with me securely. We are going to be using end-to-end double encrypted secure messaging systems and I can let you know how to do that and likely people will learn how to crack that encryption and likely we’ll need to move to another version of encryption and so on.

So number four was prepare in all the ways – still fill your gas tank – still have your Go-bags, but also spiritually prepare.

ā€¢ NUMBER FIVE: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
We are back to Jesus’ teachings again. Love your neighbor as yourself. There are two parts to this.

  • The first is loving your neighbor, being kind to your neighbor, ALL of your neighbors, no matter how they voted.
  • And number two is loving yourself.

You cannot love your neighbor very well if you do not love yourself very well and you are trying to follow this edict to love your neighbor as yourself. So love yourself, take care of yourself. take care of your physical self, eat well, get good nutrition, exercise, go to the doctor, and take care of your mental health and your emotional health. Love is a verb. Loving your neighbor, loving yourself are action words.

Ā 

Remember the story of the good Samaritan and love those with whom you disagree. There was an article recently that has been floating around online, I’m sorry I didn’t go back and try to find it and I don’t remember the author’s name, but it was about building up empathy. He wrote, He studied the brain and he wrote about the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays and how if you were part of a family that was mixed politically and things got a little fraught in the family conversations over the dinner table, to try to redirect the conversation. and to ask grandpa or whoever it is to tell a story about a time they did something good for someone else. Tell a story about how someone has done good for someone else. He said that they have studied this and found out that people aren’t just born with this one level of empathy. Empathy is actually a skill or a muscle or something like that that can be built up over time.

And if you stop, if we stop trying to change people’s minds with rational reasonable arguments and instead focus on encouraging them to build up feelings of empathy and compassion by telling these stories and then more stories and then more stories, we can begin to change the world, to ease the burdens of the world, at least a little bit, by loving each other and supporting each other in building up empathy. That’s number five, love your neighbor.

ā€¢ NUMBER SIX: MAINTAIN YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR.
This ties in with your mental health, with systems theory, with all those good things. If you notice your sense of humor is decreasing or even disappearing, that is a red flag. That is a warning sign that you might want to seek out some support with your mental health, Some medication some therapy whatever it is that you might need. Pay attention to your sense of humor levels And notice if they’re changing we want them to increase you want to be playful We want to keep our senses of humor up. This will help us get through these coming times. And we can be serious and playful at the same time.

We can be playful about very serious life or death situations. It is a survival tip. These are survival tips. And for some people in the coming months, we are literally talking survival, life or death. And all of you who are not in that situation by keeping up your senses of humor and your sense of playfulness, that will help us all get through.

So, think about your favorite shows or books. NCIS, LA, the character of Heddy who’s like the super-secret super spy who knows everything all the time and no one ever knows how she knows. Think about “Get Smart” or “James Bond” or “Mission Impossible” or “Mrs. Hallafax”, the elderly recruit to the CIA because no one would guess she’s an agent with her white hair. Become your own secret social justice agent and have fun with it. Imagine yourself as a super secret social service, social justice agent. That’s number six, maintaining your sense of humor.

ā€¢ NUMBER SEVEN: (back to Judaism and Christianity) KEEP THE SABBATH.
Set a regular day or evening or time to put away the news and any form of electronics. Take Take a break, rest, be with the people you love and who love you. Keeping Sabbath is an incredibly powerful spiritual tool of renewal and restoration. It doesn’t have to be on Friday night to Saturday morning. You can choose whatever time worked for you. I do do Friday night. Keep a Sabbath. Rest.

Be with those we love and those who love you. Good luck. Amen. And blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

Your lips and compassion at your fingertips, blessing all others as you yourselvesare now blessed. Amen and blessed be.


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

Soul Matters: Repair

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Michelle LaGrave
November 17, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In times like these, what kind of soul work are we called to do? Can we, might we, repair our spirits?


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

LAY IT DOWN
by Joan Javier Duvall

Here, here is where you can lay it down,
lay down all that you have carried,
the weight of the world that has rounded your back,
leaving you aching and exhausted.
Here, here is where healing begins,
where burdens are set down and alongside one another’s,
their magnitude does not seem as great.
Here is where the door is thrown open
and the light can lift away the shadows
and what was hidden can now be seen.
Here, here is where you can rest,
Where nothing is expected,
but that you bring all of who you are
Into the presence of the holy
and of this loving community

Let us worship together

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.

It has been quite the week and a half, hasn’t it? I feel like I did at the beginning of the pandemic, like what we are facing in the coming months is just too big, too unknown for me to fully comprehend, to fully grasp what is or is not about to happen. And I am left with one gigantic question. How do I lead you, my people, when I don’t know where we’re going.

I am no Moses nor am I Miriam. I’ve received no divine message or instruction for how to proceed and yet I feel like we are about to enter into the wilderness for an unknown amount of time, though hopefully not 40 years. How does one, how do we prepare for such a journey? What do we pack? What do we bring with us? There are so many many questions right now.

How do any of us lead when we don’t know where we’re going? We might have some ideas. I certainly had some ideas at the beginning of the pandemic, many of which never actually happened. And so from that lesson, I need to remember, we don’t really know for sure where we’re going.

And here is the only answer that I can give right now. We prepare. We pack as best as we can and then we proceed mindfully from one moment in time, from one movement to the next, with spirits full to overflowing. When I was in seminary, preparing to finally answer my call to the ministry and at our last weekly chapel service, the professor served the graduating class a communion of milk and honey. I think most of us thought we were about to enter the promised land, the land of milk and honey, our journeys to ministry at that point complete. None of us knew that we would eventually be leading our various faith traditions through a pandemic, nor through times like this.

As it turned out, we were entering, we were actually entering the wilderness, the Promised Land, a murky vision of milk and honey still far off. But before that service, that one filled with milk and honey and promises we were taught an invaluable lesson about ministry.

Now I’m going to share it with you now. Imagine a tea cup. Imagine your body as a tea cup. It can be fine flowers and gilded edges. It can be plain white. It can be sturdy. It can be any manifestation of a teacup you would like. Imagine a teacup with a saucer underneath and a silver spoon in the saucer. The teacup is your body, is your container, and your job is not to just fill it but to fill it to overflowing. And as a minister, as a leader, as a person in these times, what we do is we serve others, we minister to others by using that little silver spoon and serving from our saucer not from our cup from our saucer so our job then becomes to fill our cups our bodies to overflowing continually again and again and again as we continue serving and serving and serving with our spoon as our saucer begins to empty we refill our cup to overflowing to overflowing to overflowing and we serve and we serve and we serve from the saucer. We need to enter these times with spirits filled to overflowing.

We all need this lesson right now. We are all leaders. We all do engage in ministry of one sort or another, and we are all called to build beloved community.

Our theme this month from the Soul Matters program is repair. So this is a big admission for a minister to make, but I’m in need of some soul work right now. How about all of you? So how do we do this? How do we repair our very spirits? How do we fill our cups? How do we prepare for another unknown journey. How do we do these things in these times?

There are more lessons from seminary. Somehow going back to the beginning is filling me with some answers, some sense of potentiality that feels helpful at the moment and during seminary one of the things that we studied was a practice of ritual which Kinsey began to speak to you about a little bit earlier this morning. Practicing ritual, engaging with ritual is an embodied experience. It is a physical experience. It is a participatory experience. It is filled with repetition upon repetition upon repetition. Whether that be words or melodies or actions, we move deeper and deeper and deeper into the sense of things, the meaning of things, the meaning of language, of poetry, of music over and over again. And we pay attention to the sensations in our bodies. We feel the vibrations in our hearts, in our chests. We feel the vibrations of those around us. We feel the vibrations of the music near us.

What we can do as individuals, as families, as a community, one of the things we can do is engage in ritual, to pay attention to those embodied experiences in a way that maybe we’re not always so mindful about and That is what we are and will continue to be doing during this service There is a lot of fear and anxiety out there right now As well as other emotions.

It is in the news. It’s all over social media. It is infecting our families, our communities, ourselves, causing conflict, division, polarization among friends, families, colleagues, congregations. People are revisiting questions they have been revisiting for some years now about how we maintain or build or create or repair relationships with people whose political views might be very different from our own, especially as we are entering in times, which are going to be extremely risky, if not actually life-threatening for many among us.

How do we do that? Yes. By filling our cups to overflowing, yes, from serving, for serving from the saucer, and also by considering generosity as a value. This is one that we newly embraced at our last General Assembly GA that we haven’t spoken about as such very much yet. Generosity of spirit. Generosity of serving from our saucers. Generosity to ourselves of filling our cups to overflowing in the first place so that we even have the ability to serve from our saucers.

In terms of our denomination, our association, the value that was chosen that we went with after many, many hours and years of listening to people was generosity. And there’s a little secret place in my heart The almost wishes, the word that we had gone with instead, was grace. So I’ll say that maybe we can think about generosity in terms of being generous and extending grace. We need to remember that what we are sensing and feeling from the world as a whole right now is not the fault of the person sitting next to me or my husband at home or my mom who’s sitting out in the pews with us right now, they should not be the targets of all those anxious feelings.

We need to really pay attention to our relationships and care for one another and realize that we all might be a little more grouchy than usual and extend grace when mistakes happen. We can be generous with grace.

But to tell you the truth, it’s kind of easy for me to be generous with grace with people that I know, with Micah and with my mom especially. There are some with whom it’s a little more challenging, with people who have very different views from my own, who may not see my life as a queer and disabled person, who is married to a trans person as worthy. So how do we do it in those circumstances?

I recently, at the end of October, went to a virtual ministers network conference. Our featured speaker was a Canadian, Dr Betty Vries. She is an expert in working with people, congregations and other organization who are experiencing conflict and polarization and how to work throught it. One of her favorite techniques is to use a mantra. The one that she favors is:

I am beautiful,
I am worthy,
I am a beloved child of God.

And then she turns that over to the other person. I am, she he they are, They are beautiful, they are worthy, they are a beloved child of God.

Ā 

And when she’s about to enter a conflictual situation, in particular, she spends some time saying that mantra over and over and over and over and over again, until that space in her heart, in her body begins to shift even a little bit and she encourages she knows that that mantra I am beautiful I am worthy I am a beloved child of God is not going to work for everyone so she encourages people to create their own mantras they can be the Buddhist mantra of loving kindness, or it could be one that you make up yourself that helps you turn your spirit, repair your spirit, so that you can move into a place of greater generosity, into a place where you are able to extend grace.

These mantras, these repetitious mantras are one of the ways that we can fill our tea-cups. The why of filling our tea-cups, the theology of filling our tea-cups is one of generosity, of living out that spiritual value, of generosity of spirit, of generosity of grace in the world, in our communities, in our families, and in our relationships. But first, repair. Repair of ourselves. Repair of our own spirits. Repair is a way to prepare for what is coming in all of its unknowing.

So I’ll leave you with one final reminder that these spiritual practices are PRACTICES. None of us, even the most accomplished of clergy people is expert in them. We repeat them over and over and over again. PRACTICE them.

So I’m going to be vulnerable once again and share another story from seminary. This is a story that I had freely given to one of my best friends from seminary, Craig Nowak, who is also the my matron of honor at my wedding. Because I knew I wasn’t ready to share it with a congregation yet. So he’s been using the story for many years with me as the anonymous person in it. Today you’re gonna get to hear it and know that it’s me.

So when I was in seminary, seminary was hard. Hard in a very different way than things are hard right now. It is a 90 credit graduate degree program that takes at least three or more likely four years, it requires psychological evaluations, clinical experience, field experience, internships, a presentation of a portfolio of competencies, like a hundred or more pages long, you go before a fellowship committee and basically defend your preparation similar to doing a doctoral dissertation, similar to preparing for medical practice. Very different because it’s religious in some ways, but also some strong similarities.

So I was in my second year of seminary, which was in Boston, and I was serving as an interim director of religious education at one of the oldest congregations in the country. There’s a little bit of an argument about that, but we won’t get into that for the moment. Based on whether the congregation was formed in England or after arrival. So if you count England, it’s the oldest congregation in Boston. And I was serving as the Interim Director of Religious Education. Their first paid religious professional. There was a lot of work to be done. And I was also full-time in seminary. And I was also doing my hospital clinical experience in Connecticut. So I was literally traveling every three and a half days from Connecticut to Massachusetts and Massachusetts to Connecticut. I never knew where my shoes were. It was stressful.

And then this day, the Saturday came when we were having a workshop for the religious education folks to work through how they wanted their program to function and whose roles and responsibilities would be whose. And I was supposed to be bringing all the refreshments and the grocery store was crowded and busy and traffic was horrible and I was stressed to the max.

So I decided I needed to engage in one of my favorite spiritual practices of that time period in my life, which was singing meditation, which I did frequently in the car because nobody else could hear me. And I chose many different songs from our hymnals, songs that I had learned as a child. They varied all the time. I did it a lot in those two and a half hour rides from Connecticut to Massachusetts. But this day I decided to sing “Breathe in, Breathe Out.” Not the jaunty upbeat version that Brent has us do, the really slow meditative one and I was singing it and singing it and singing it over and over again it had probably been at least 20 minutes.

I had been singing it and I had started to be feel it settling into my soul into my spirit and all of a sudden this car cut me off and I yelled out a horrible swear And at first my reaction was, “Wow, I was just saying I breathe in peace, I breathe out love, and here I am swearing at this guy.” And then I started laughing hysterically because it was so ridiculous that that’s what I was saying and then that’s what I did in the disconnect. So in the end, so yes, it’s spiritual practice.

That’s where I’m going with this. We have to keep practicing over and over and over again. And yet, even though it didn’t work in the way it was supposed to work, it did work. It lifted my spirits because I thought that it was so funny. So with that note on practice, let us keep on practicing together so that we can keep on keeping on.

Amen and blessed be.

Reading

LECTIO DIVINA
Jamila Batchelder and Molly Housh Gordon

The strength of water takes on many, many forms. Just as each of you has a unique and necessary strength that you bring to our community and to the work of love.

Take a moment now to drop down into the deep wellspring of your own spirit and bathe yourself in the strength that is the groundwater of your person.

Are you a roaring fall wearing rock away with sheer force of will.
Are you a tiny drop of water in a crevice, breaking it open slowly,
steadily?
Are you buoyant like a great salt lake, practiced at holding others aloft?
Are you tenacious, like the mountain stream, finding your way down and around every obstacle you face.
Are you still and calm, like the pond at daybreak, offering radiant peace by your shores?
Are you in touch with hidden depths pulling from a vast well?
Do you soothe like the steam rising from a cup of tea?
Do you dissolve away stubborn muck like water left in a pot to soak.
Do you soften and smooth the edges like a creeping fog?
Do you clear away distraction like a cleansing rain?
Do you roll with the ebb and flow like the ocean waves.

Settle your minds upon the strength, the power that is yours. Draw that strength up and into your heart. Dry up into your soul. As we gather together the many waters of this community. We need each of your power, each of your resilience, each of your love to make us whole.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

I know this rose will open,
I know my fear will burn away,
I know my soul will unfurl its wings,
I know this rose will open.


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

Onwards

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

This is the time to lean into our faith and one another. Sunday we will have some time to talk about our collective grief, anger, desperation, and just be with one another.


Chalice Lighting

We light this flame
To ignite the sacred power of justice.
We light this flame
So that it may be a beacon of hope
In moments of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and the unknown.
We light this flame, and are emboldened by its blaze,
Knowing our strength as a prophetic and powerful people Is rooted in the diverse ways we answer the call to love.

Call to Worship

by Rev. Rebekah Savage

Welcome beloveds, welcome!
We come to spiritual community this morning with many hopes in our hearts:
The hope for inspiration, the hope for comfort, the hope for renewal.

In this time and space, may inspiration water our thirsty souls. In this time and space, may comfort blossom in the gardens of our hearts, and bring us sweet relief.

In this time and space, may renewal course through us,
as electric as a surge of energy,
as serene as a nourishing meal,
as contagious as joy,
and bring us vitality and rejuvenation.

May our time together honor all the hopes we hold within;
May our time together bless us with the gifts of inspiration, comfort and renewal.

Let us Worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Words of Solice and Lament

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

Chris Jimmerson

Good morning. I’m Reverend Chris Jimmerson co-lead settled minister here at the church and I am technically out on sabbatical. How’s that for bad timing?

I wanted to come in this morning after the events of this week and be with my people. I know that so many of us have been feeling things like despair, disbelief, anger, anxiety, fear, disgust. I’ve been feeling all of that and so much more.

Right now, I’m pretty squarely centered in the anger-defiant stage of my reaction. So, it says I’m supposed to offer words of solace and lament. I’m not sure if it’s the right time for that, or maybe it’s exactly the right time for that. I don’t know.

I can offer you a few things that have been helping me. The first is that I know those emotions I mentioned can can be something that we experience as painful. I think though that they are like when we feel physical pain, they’re telling us we need to pay attention to something, something that will bring us harm unless we make change. And so if we try to not pay attention to those emotions, try to move through them too quickly, we can sort of latch on to a kind of false hope that doesn’t bring change that won’t sustain us as we go forward. By moving through them, we learn what we have to do, where we need to go next, how we find a true hope in our world.

The other thing I just read from Dr. Brene Brown was that she said that while hope is the antidote to despair, hope is not actually an emotion. It is a cognitive behavioral aspect of our life. It is the way that we think and do and be in the world. So to find that hope again we have to move through these emotions.

Here’s what I know. I know we need this religious community of love and support more than ever before.

And I know that there are a lot of people who have joined us this morning and will continue to join us this morning because they want to be part of a theology of love, joy and justice up against an ideology of hate and division, we have to be there to welcome you. And so I welcome you all this morning whether you’re here in person or online.

And finally, I know that that theology centered in love, justice, and joy is needed now more out in our community, in our state, in our nation, in our world than ever and that we have to be there. We have to show up because our world needs us to live that mission more than ever where we show up to nourish souls, transform lives, we show up to do justice, we join with others in solidarity and we build the beloved community because it is the beloved community that will move us through this ideology of hate and division back to a place of joy, of justice, of love.

Those forces want us to feel that we have no power as long as we center ourselves in love and relationship we have all the power we need.

That is the way forward.

I love you.

Reading

HOW IS IT WITH YOUR SOUL?
by Ashley Horan

How is it with your soul? This is the question that John Wesley, Anglican priest and the founder of Methodism, was known to ask of participants in small reflection groups. I ask you because, for me, this has been a hard week. So, beloveds, how is it with your souls?

If your response to that question is anything like mine, I want to invite you to pause as you read this. Take a deep breath, say a prayer, sing a song, light your chalice, feel the force of gravity pulling us all toward the same center-whatever helps you feel more rooted and less alone.

Now do it again. And again, and again.

And, once you feel that rootedness and connection, hear this:

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.

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.

Centering and Medition

Now let us take a few moments to center ourselves in silence with these words from Harold Babcock.

Let us be quiet without and within.
Let the stillness be in us.
Let the silence hold us.
May we find the deep places of the soul and begin to let go of the distractions
which plague us.
May we let go of irritation, calm the confusion which inhibits us,
let go of fear.
The quiet is within us,
The stillness is in us,
the silence will hold us.
There are deep places in the soul.
Here, may we find peace as we enter into the silence together.

Amen, and blessed be.

Sermon

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

Rev. Jami Yandle

Unbeknownst to me, Reverend Chris said everything I was going to say and then some, but we’ll move on with my plan anyway and see how the spirit moves.

So instead of me blabbing on up here, I want to take a few minutes and hear from you. Turn to your neighbor and answer this question. Where are you feeling the events of this last week in your body?

I have felt tension in my shoulders, I found out just now Reverend Michelle has felt it in their gut. Where have you felt it? Gut. Jaws. Heart. Head. All over. Left foot. Left foot. wrist.

The reason I had you do that exercise is because generally some, some you use, particularly some white you use, are super great at two things. One, intellectualizing their feelings and two, trying to find the first actionable thing they can do to distract themselves from feeling their feelings.

Also if you are new here and you like spiritual questions and don’t respond to hypocritical fire and brimstone faith, don’t worry, you’re in the right place too. So how quickly you were able to discern what is going on in your body and or you were able to answer the question, might be different based on the color of your skin and some other key factors like how much society has intentionally silenced and oppressed you. But I’m gonna back up and explain a few things so you have some context for where we’re going with all of this.

I spent this past week, no doubt, like Many of you, feeling a bit lost, gobsmacked, sad, despair, and mostly angry. The gamut of emotions ran throughout my body and the concern I have for so many vulnerable communities. I can feel that concern seeping into my bones. It’s settling, and I don’t like that feeling, and it feels like pain all over. That concern that has become pain is full of questions, not only about my own trans community, but for our black and brown beloveds, migration, education, bodily autonomy. My kids go to public school in Texas. Maybe you are worried about that too. Is it time to move? Can I afford homeschool? What is going to happen? So many questions I have swirling in my mind.

My partner Natalie, who is also UU and a person of color, tried to bite her tongue and not say, I told you so. She was so much more relaxed this week to an almost alarming degree.

From the beginning, she watched everything go down and said, “This is not possible yet. This election will not produce the results that reflect our UU values yet.” It isn’t possible because her body knows something mine does not. As a woman, and especially as a woman of color, she knows all too well how far the hate goes. Generations worth of PTSD does not course through my veins as it does hers, reminding her how far systematic oppression goes. Something I have read about quite a bit and experienced and witnessed some, but it will never be to the same degree.

So I had more hope than she did. And for the record, I don’t feel foolish for hoping and dreaming. I refuse to stop, because everyone from Martin Luther King, Jr., to Victor Frankl, to Sylvia, Rivera, to Harvey Milk, and so many more of my personal heroes carried that same message.

So if any of you among us have a spark of hope left for God’s sake protect it with all you’ve got So you can reignite the flame in your neighbor, but I kept wondering What was Natalie’s deal? Why was I a frantic stress ball and she was so calm Unwavering she remained the anchor of the household. Meanwhile, I, like so many of my white peers, turned to documentaries, memes, poems, a John Stuart segment even. Anything to fix this. I was desperate. That was how I spent part of my Tuesday and Wednesday. Natalie watched all this quietly and on Thursday Natalie said to me, Stop it Stop trying to fix this you cannot fix it with your white anxiety Until you feel it more than that and you just need to feel it right now all of it

She took my hand and said just sit in it with me Be here with me My hand on her heart, hers on mine, a tender moment between two humans, the weight not the same in my body as hers, but nevertheless pushed to a newer place I opened up for more capacity for my feelings, instead of trying to rationalize and mobilize, we sat there. She said to me, This, too, is how we will dismantle systematic oppression. When you are with me, truly seeing and understanding me, this is when you will start to riot in the streets. The only way out is through. So we sit here until you understand how bad it actually all is.

Then, With you next to me we will go through this together But it can’t be a fad this time. It cannot be safety pins or blue bracelets performing allyship Risking nothing It has to be long lasting and daily to the point you will do anything to make the suffering stop For as long as it takes

So right now, this is what we’re gonna do Collectively we are going to sit we are going to feel this The elders and the ancestors providing a shield for us and with us we will sing songs and We will go through the rest of the service but intentionally Here with one another Be reminded about the power of humanity and the connections between and around us recharge your battery before making the next long road trip.

There will be time to physically move and to take action. And when it is time, you will know that because your deep knowing well will tell you so. Right now though, just be. Soul, connecting with soul, moving onwards by sitting still.

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

A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL
By Audre Lorde

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision
crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge
the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going
in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward
at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed
futures
like bread in our children’s mouths
so their dreams will not reflect
the death of ours;

For those of us
who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk
for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us

For all of us
this instant and this triumph
We were never meant to survive.
And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full
we are afraid of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty
we are afraid we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone
we are afraid love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid

So it is better to speak remembering
we were never meant to survive


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

2024 Celebration Sunday

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
October 27, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Each year, we celebrate the differences we make in our world together, and the joy that comes from being a part of and supporting this religious community. Join us for an uplifting service followed by a joyful celebration of building the Beloved Community together.


Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

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

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Once a traveler came across three bricklayers.

She asked each one of them, “What are you doing”?

The first answered gruffly, “I’m laying bricks,” and returned sullenly to his work.

The second replied, “I’m putting up a wall,” and continued with the task at hand, growing wearier and slower with each brick.

But the third aid enthusiastically and with pride, “I’m building a cathedral.” And not so long after, it came to be, and was more magnificent than anyone could have possibly imagined.

– Anonymous

Sermon

Chris’ Homily

Happy Celebration Sunday!

On this, the last Sunday of October, last year, I was preaching the last of two sermons of a full ministerial candidating week, and then everyone went off to vote on whether I would be called as the next settled minister (while I waited nervously at a coffee shop one block away).

So, I am celebrating that I’m not doing that again on this Sunday this year!

And a year later, we have much to celebrate!

Today, we celebrate you, and the commitments, the pledges you have made or will make to keep this church and its mission alive and going strong in our world.

Your pledges make so much possible.

We have built an ever-growing culture of caring at First Unitarian Universalist (or UU), launching our Caring Companions lay pastoral support ministry and are planning for even more organized ways of supporting one another in the months to come.

Your pledges make a thriving social action ministry at the church possible.

This church year, we have committed more time and resources to dedicated church-wide social justice events and worship services than ever before, on topics like reproductive justice, climate justice, democracy and voting and more.

We are also working to make sure we live our social justice values here first, by exploring how we can become ever more inclusive and welcoming, finding ways to offer accessibility across all areas of church life, and taking steps to dismantle vestiges of white supremacy culture in our own ways of doing things.

Fare the well, Roberts Rules of Order, we bless and release you. Now, we have an election coming up in a little over a week, and no matter what the result, this church will be called upon to do justice and build the Beloved Community more than ever.

Depending upon the result of the election, those in control of our state government during the upcoming legislative session will either feel empowered and unchecked by the next Presidential administration or, if it goes the other way, they will do their best to undermine and run as counter to it as possible.

So, either way, as the large UU Church nearest the state capital, we will be there to demand love and justice, our voices raised and on occasion, I suspect, our fists in solidarity with so many of our partners.

Let us celebrate today that because of your pledges, that strong and faithful voice for love and justice will be showing up and stirring up!

Your pledges are also making it possible for this church to playa larger and larger role in our greater UU faith movement.

We’ve become a virtual birthing center for mentoring and supporting new ministers. I’ve lost count of how many ministers have come out of this church and how many of our current folks are at various stages of becoming UU ministers.

In the months to come we will also again become an internship site.

Folks from throughout the church are serving in several leadership capacities within our larger faith, and we continue to explore partnerships with other local UU churches, TXUUJM, and our UU Southern Region.

More and more folks are visiting the church and joining as members. We’re growing, not just in numbers, but in our spiritual development and our presence in each others lives and in our world.

This too is happening because your commitment is providing that spiritual home so many are seeking.

Well, I could go on and on about the future and vision your pledges make possible – a future and vision that will no doubt be extremely appealing to potential co-lead ministers out there!

I will close with this though.

When this church called me around this time last year, I had no way of knowing that my own personal calling would be altered so drastically only a few months later, when I would be called to become first caregiver and then mourner for the love of my life.

Because of that, I have witnessed in a very personal way the very real difference this church and our UU faith makes in people’s lives.

In the last months, they saved mine.

So, I celebrate you today for creating a religious community that I could not be prouder to say I serve as a minister.

I celebrate you.

Thank you for being First UU.


Michelle’s Homily

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

I’d like to tell you a little story. It’s a story about three people named Aubrey, Sasha, and Kinsey. Sasha is your administrator, Aubrey is your kitchen manager, and Kinsey is your manager of religious education.

They came up with an idea. I imagine it was a little idea at first but then as they talked and planned it grew and grew and grew. There were requests for recycled materials to come into the church. Cardboard tubes and boxes and paper towel rolls. There were searches on Facebook Marketplace looking for reused and repurposed materials for their project. There was sorting through and culling out of large storage closets. There was requests of volunteers to donate time and materials. And the project, the idea, grew and grew. It was definitely a project, not an idea anymore.

And I inserted myself every so often and asked if they needed some more of this or something of that and mostly they said that they were good and I wasn’t quite sure how it was gonna turn out because last night was the big reveal of their project. Have you all figured out what I’m talking about yet? Haunted Howson Hall.

I know not all of you have seen it yet. And it’s mostly still there. Last night it was much darker and much spookier and had more candy and had some games that aren’t there right now. But even so, the next few days it will remain up and you can be able to go through it and explore it and experience it.

And this is the totally unbelievable part. How many of you have already seen it or experienced it? A number of you have. Would you believe all of it costs less than $200? They are amazing. I was bowled over when I walked in last night and experienced haunted housing. It was amazing and it was fun and there were little kids and there were older adults and we were all there together and there were costumes and fun to be had.

And it’s a story not just of abundance because everything this community needed to put on something as fun and amazing as haunted housing was already here. It’s also a story of transformation. That hall is just this little segment of our bigger picture as first UU community. Your staff, and some very dedicated volunteers, and even the students that go to high school here during the week helped out and transformed your hall for you for this amazing celebration Sunday.

So here is the part where I talk about being an interim and what that means. I haven’t really talked about it a whole bunch with you over the whole last year, but a key part of being an interim is intentionally coming in with an outsider’s perspective, being able to reflect back to you what it is that I see and that’s important in what I’m trying to say today on Celebration Sunday.

So you know that I’m leaving and I’ll be with you the rest of the year but I will be leaving. You know that my salary is already set I’m not invested personally in what happens with the Pledge Drive and the budget for the next several months. I’ll be going, but I am invested in the presence of this church as an amazing, thriving, vital UU community, and I want more of them all over the place, but especially in Austin, Texas.

So anyways, this Outsiders perspective is what I want to say about that is that this building that you’re doing, this building of the beloved community, it’s really all about you. It’s about you, it’s about your amazing staff. It’s about your amazing minister. It is about your amazing seminarians and newly ordained ministers, your community ministers, your musicians, your choir, your children, everybody. It’s all about you and what you are becoming.

So I kind of have this image in my head. I wish I had like two little poles right here with those red flashing lights, strobe lights that could go off, okay. So we’ve been hearing that y ‘all want some more theology, explicit theology. So theology, here we come. (audience laughing) There’s your warning sign. So, as an outsider, I am free to celebrate with you everything that you have become so far and everything you will someday become and everything you are right now.

Becoming is an ongoing theological and spiritual process. We are always becoming. We are always building on what has become before. We are always building on what is yet to come. This is process theology. I’m a process theologian in part, as is Chris. I’m also a pantheist. So I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about that, but it does go all the way back to William Ellery Channing and his preaching sermons about being a likeness to God in the 19th century theology-of-self culture and building ourselves up and always improving and becoming better. So there is some of that white stuff in there that we want to dismantle, but it’s also about God or the holy, whatever it is, the universe that you see that is bigger than any of us as individuals, is also in process, is also growing, is also changing. It’s a rejection of a static God or a static holy or static divine. So together with with whatever is greater than us, we are building. We are becoming.

I joked with Brent earlier about this old cartoon called Bob the Builder. Do any of you know it? It was popular when my nephew was a kid. And the opening song goes, I’m not going to sing it, but it’s about Bob the builder, can he build it? Yes, he can. We heard it from the choir. I sent him a YouTube video and told him that’s what we should sing today. Thankfully, he chose something else.

But the truth is that we are all Bob. I’m Bob, even as my outsider perspective, you’re Bob, you’re Bob, all of you are Bob, new people who just joined the church are Bob, the visitors who are here for the very first time are Bob, the people who’ve been here since the 1950s and helped founded this church are Bob. We are all Bob, members, friends, new folks, visitors. you have built, we are building, and you will continue to build it. All of us. So just like House and Hall has been transformed out of the abundance of resources that are already here, that are present, right here, right now, you are. We are together transforming this community both inside and outside of these physical walls. Right now you are at 85 percent of your goal after only two weeks. Let’s celebrate that.

We’re going to celebrate that today. And as careful as your staff has been with the resources that you entrust to them, Under $200, amazing experience right outside these doors, the truth is that our expenses have gone up by a lot, by a real lot. And I know that those sustaining pledges are easy to continue from year to year. So whether you haven’t pledged yet or you’re one of our amazing sustainers, remember to go in, and if you can, if you at all possibly can, increase those pledges so that we can keep up with those rising expenses. We are almost there. So let’s continue to pool those resources, let’s celebrate, let’s bring this pledge drive home. All the way, All the way, people keep telling me that you kind of usually stop at 85, 90, 95%. I’m challenging you to get to 100 % or more before the end of the drive. We have everything we already need right here in this room, out there in House and Hall, out there online. Our resources are here.

Let’s pull them together so that we can keep on doing amazing things because you are amazing and you are doing amazing things. Every dollar, every hour, given counts. Can we build it? Yes, we can.

Amen, and blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

by Peter S. Raible

We build on foundations we did not lay. We warm ourselves by fires we did not light.

We sit in the shade of trees we did not plant We drink from wells we did not dig. M: We profit from persons we did not know

This is as it should be.

Together we are more than anyone person could be.

Together we can build across the generations.

Together we can renew our hope and faith in the life that is yet to unfold. C: Together we can heed the call to a ministry of care and justice.

We are ever bound in community.

May it always be so.

Amen and Blessed Be. Go in Peace


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

2024 Commitment Sunday

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
October 13, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We join together with love, joy, and a sense of belonging to express our commitment to our mission. Join us on this special Sunday when we explore building the Beloved Community and all that we are and dream of becoming as a religious community. Together, we make our pledges for 2025 so that we may live that commitment into the future.


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

REACHING FOR THE SUN
by Rev. Angela Herrera

Don’t leave your broken heart at the door;
bring it to the altar of life.
Don’t leave your anger behind;
it has high standards
and the world needs your vision.
Bring them with you, and your joy
and your passion.

Bring your loving,
and your courage
and your conviction.
Bring your need for healing,
and your power to heal.
There is work to do
and you have all that you need to do it
right here in this room.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Centering

ALL THAT YOU NEED LIES WITHIN YOU
by the Rev. Angela Herrera

Consider this an invitation
to you.
Yes – you
with all your happiness
and your burdens,
your hopes and regrets.

An invitation if you feel good today,
and an invitation if you do not,
if you are aching –
and there are so many ways to ache.

Whoever you are, however you are,
wherever you are in your journey,
this is an invitation into peace.
Peace in your heart,
and peace in your heart,
and – with every breath
peace in your heart.

Maybe your heart is heavy
or hardened.
Maybe it’s troubled
and peace can take up residence
only in a small corner,
only on the edge,
with all that is going on in the world,
and in your life. Ni modo. It doesn’t matter.
All that you need
for a deep and comforting peace to grow
lies within you.
Once it is in your heart
let it spread into your life,
let it pour thru your life into the world
and once it is in the world,
let it shine upon all beings.

Sermon

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

MICHELLE’S HOMILY

I love this congregation. My favorite part of it is on Sunday morning when I walk in and I feel all of this energy and vitality as people are gathering and entering into the sanctuary and I can feel, I know, that this church is alive, that is doing things, that is going somewhere, that feeling is palpable. You know your mission, you recite it, you believe in it, you live it, you refer to it, you are so curious, you have this great immense love of learning, an ability to change and grow and transform both yourselves and your congregation.

You have resilience, so much resilience, which we can see even in the story of the last dozen years or so. When you went from a time a really painful conflict with the congregation voting to dismiss a minister to doing the work of an interim work that you really did. Then calling Reverend Meg Barnhouse, your minister emerita, doing the work of rebuilding healthy relationships, covenanting together as a congregation, surviving the pandemic together as a congregation, and then coming out of it ready to rebuild, ready to grow in spirit and in numbers. Not every congregation did that. Some are still faltering, some are still recovering. And yet we come in here, and most Sundays, we’re almost overcrowded.

There’s a retreat going on at UBARU this Sunday, so we’re a little lighter for people on retreat. But still, you’re all here, and I can feel your presence, your love of being here, your joy in being here, the ways in which you are comforted by being here.

You went through the news of Reverend Meg’s devastating illness. You supported her through her need for an early medical retirement. You are going through the interim process again. You are working, you worked through the decision to go to co-ministry, you called Reverend Chris, you learned the departure of your DRE, went through another healthy transition process, moving the fabulous Kinsey into managing the RE program, Religious Education program, and now you are going in to search again. And still, the energy is there. And sometimes the staff struggles to keep up with all of you. Often we struggle to keep up with all of you. We talk about this a lot. It’s the opposite problem a lot of congregations have. You are amazing. And that’s just the brief story of what you’ve done and what you’ve been through in recent years. You’ve also done so much more than that. And still, you come out ready to thrive, ready to grow, ready to do, to nourish souls, to transform lives, and to do justice. That is truly amazing. This is my job as an interim to reflect your story back to you.

I’ve been around the block a bit. I’ve served congregations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Nebraska, and Texas. And it is being here in Austin, in this city, in this congregation that gives me faith in the future of our liberal religious tradition as a whole. Faith that we can and we will not just survive, but thrive, post-pandemic. That other congregations can learn how to do what you are doing and have been doing. That in this new world that is all too quickly emerging with its immense needs, including the needs for spiritual nourishment and transformation and justice building that it can be done. You all have, you already have a very long history of supporting and integrating the LGBTQ + community and working to integrate and support the local BIPOC community. You’ve passed the eighth principle, which is about anti-racism for those of you who haven’t heard of it yet, who might be new. You’ve worked through a congregational process of supporting the UUA’s Article 2 bylaws change, and now, as you heard last week from Celeste Padilla, you have more to do. Yes, there is more to do, both internally and externally. Internally, there is more to be done in the process of dismantling a culture of privilege that is embedded in not just all of our congregations, but all of our nation’s institutions. More to be done to become truly radically welcoming to all people, including BIPOC folks, non-binary folks, and disabled folks, keeping in mind that some of us are the same people. So many of us have intersecting backgrounds identities and needs and you will do it You will do it. It’ll be challenging and I have faith that you will do it.

These are some of the reasons why I believe in this congregation. I hope that you do too And I hope you will show that you believe in this congregation too, by increasing your commitment to it in all the ways, by working to grow yourself spiritually, by working to transform the culture of this congregation, I should say continue to transform the culture of this transformation of this congregation, and by increasing your financial commitment to do all that we are here to do. One of the things that we ministers and staff have been hearing lately, and we do listen, is that you like to make the Church’s covenant more prominent in the life of the congregation. You’d like to see it more, hear about it more, read it more. So let us begin by doing that now.

Let us begin by making it even more clear how it is that we aspire to be together as we do the work of fulfilling the mission of this congregation. So will you rejoin me in recommitting to this congregation, to its mission, and to each other by reading or listening to the Covenant together now.

FIRST UU CHURCH OF AUSTIN COVENANT OF HEALTHY RELATIONS

As a religious community, we promise:

To Welcome and Serve by

  • Being intentionally hospitable to all people of good will
  • Celebrating all aspects of diversity
  • Treating other as we want to be treated
  • Being present with one another through life’s transitions
  • Encouraging the spiritual growth of people of all ages

Ā 

To Nurture and Protect by

  • Communicating with one another directly in a spirit of compassion and good will
  • Enshuring those who wish to communicate are heard and understood
  • Speaking when silence would inhibit progress
  • Disagreeing from a place of curiosity and respect
  • Interrupting hurtful interactions when we witness them
  • Expressing our appreciation to each other

Ā 

To Sustain and Build by

  • Affirming our gratitude with generous gifts of time, talent and money for our beloved community
  • Honoring our commitments to ourselves and one another for the sake of our own integrity and that of our congregation
  • Forgiving ourselves and others when we fall short of expectations, showing good humor and the optimism required for moving forward

Ā 

Thus do we covenant with one another.

So we are covenanted, so we are committed.

CHRIS’S HOMILY

Thus do we covenant. These promises we make. This is our great commitment to center ourselves in love and right relationship together.

Last Sunday, as Michelle mentioned, Celeste Padilla so eloquently reminded us that the commitment we make is not just to who we are now, but it is also to building the beloved community of our dreams and aspirations. I just lost my spouse Wayne a little over a month ago, and so, of course, as we have approached this commitment Sunday, I haven’t been able to help but think about the commitment he and I made to one another, and how we came to realize that that commitment was not just to who we are and the love we have at any moment, but also to acting for that love, doing the work to keep that love growing stronger and larger.

So I have to share with you all a story about that commitment we had to becoming together. So to start, you have to know that Wayne absolutely loved dogs. You’ll see why in a little bit. Now some of you have heard the first part of the story before. Wayne and I first got legally married in Vancouver, Canada. We got married in this beautiful house on the bay by this wonderful woman who happened to be babysitting a dog named Marley who she thought she had locked away for the time of doing our nuptials but Marley broke free and came in and that turned out to be a good thing because when we got to the point where we were to say our vows both Wayne and I got unexpectedly emotional and couldn’t really speak and Wayne was able to make before he got too sick to travel was to go back to Vancouver. And unbeknownst to me, while he was there, he fell in love with the work of a gay Ukrainian artist and bought this large piece of art that I didn’t know about. And in the weeks leading up to his death, he started to kind of sheepishly tell me about this because that was kind of against the rules of our relationship to buy a big piece we were gonna hang in our house without talking to each other about it. But he hoped I would love it as much as him and he had even picked out where he hoped I would frame it and hang it in the house.

Well a week after he died I found the cardboard tube that had the piece of art in it. So I took it to a frame shop near our house and I told the woman who was helping me, I probably can’t make it through this without breaking up because of the situation and as she unrolled it and I saw that it wasn’t the print I thought it would be but the actual piece of art, art and the actual canvas, I did totally lose it.

Well, there was a female couple in the shop with us who had a dog and the dog came running over and insisted that it love on me and I love on it and that once again rescued me so we were able to measure the piece of art and it was so large they had to ship it off to their central warehouse in order to get it framed.

Oh, and also, Wayne and I had been discussing that our oldest dog, Benjamin, turns nine years old on January one of next year, and so I should think about getting another puppy to help me through when I lose Benjamin, because that’s getting near the end of his lifespan, and it would really help our younger dog, Luisa, who has never lived without a canine companion. So I started looking into that, but it was a little too soon right now because I plan on doing travel through the end of the year.

And at the same time I was doing that, I kept trying to track the painting online and it kept saying, “We can’t wait to get started.” And a month later, I was starting to worry like, “Have they lost the painting?”

Well, yesterday was my day, the first one without Wayne, and so I was worried about how I was going to make it through that. And then partway through last week, I got an email from the woman that we bought Benjamin from saying, “You can be among the first, if you would like, to choose from the litter of puppies I’ll have in early November that we’ll be ready to adopt after the first of the year.

And then I got an email saying his ashes could be picked up. And so I got my younger brother to take me over, and we picked up the ashes and brought him home.

And then yesterday, the painting showed up. And so it kind of feels like Wayne Spirit made it back just in time for my birthday and gave me a large-framed art piece and a new puppy.

Now that’s a commitment to becoming together.

You know, people say that we Unitarian Universalists have no common theology because we have folks who range from non-theistic humanists to naturalists to Christian-oriented to folks who draw from one or more of the many world religions or philosophies, and I say they’re wrong. I say we do have a common theology because common to all of our various perspectives, we have that commitment to centering ourselves in love and right relationship. And because we have always been a living tradition, our promises and covenants we make among ourselves embrace who we are now and also include a commitment to who and what we are not yet.

We commit to all that we have been, all that we are and all that we aspire to become together, just like Wayne did with me.

Recently, I was telling Wayne’s best friend of over 40 years, Teresa, that at one point, after he had gone on hospice, we were talking, and he said to me, “I love Teresa more than anyone in the world except you, and sometimes I’m not so sure about that.”

Thanks, honey. I can tell you this. I love and am committed to this church, second only to Wayne of that I am sure. And I know, I know that so many of you love this church and are just as committed to it and your church needs you because we have been hit with almost a hundred thousand dollars in greater expenses for 2025 due to insurance and other cost increases and that means our expenses will be about thirty two hundred dollars per day even with a very cost conscious budget.

That is a big challenge. And I know, I know that this church will not only meet that challenge, but will also do so many great things in this coming year because we commit, we make promises, we make covenants about how we will grow together in the ways of love. You see, for us theologically, God is in those promises we make. And our divine promise emerges from within right relationship centered in love. And our pledges are a promise.

So my beloveds, pledge early. Pledge now. Pledge big. It makes you feel good all over. God is in the promises we make, now let us make those promises together.

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

We come to religious community from many paths and with diverse needs:
If you have come here seeking comfort, may your pain be soothed
If you have come here looking for answers, may you find new questions
If you have come here seeking purpose, may your call be awakened
If you have come here hoping to build a new way, may the path open before you
May it be so, Amen, and Blessed Be


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

Imagination

Listen to the service by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Patrice (PK) Curtis and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
October 6, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Rev. Patrice Curtis is helping us prepare for this year’s ministerial search and the possibilities a new co-minister might bring. In their role as the UUA’s Transformational Interim Ministries Director they amplify belonging, diversity, equity, and inclusion within congregations and in querying unhealthy patterns that make Beloved Community difficult to realize. At their request Rev. Curtis’ homily is not included.


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

– Sobonfu Some

Community is the spirit, the guiding light of the tribe, whereby people come together in order to fulfill a specific purpose, to help others fulfill their purpose, and to take care of one another.

Come, let us worship together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WHAT YOU RISK TELLING YOUR STORY
by Laura Ann Hershey

Ms Hershey (August 11, 1962 – November 26, 2010) was a white poet, journalist, feminist, and a disability rights activist and consultant known to have parked her wheelchair in front of buses. Hershey was one of the leaders of a protest against the paternalistic attitudes and images of people with disabilities inherent in Jerry Lewis’s MDA Telethon. She had spinal muscular atrophy.

What you risk telling your story:
You will bore them.
Your voice will break, your ink spill and stain your coat.
No one will understand,
their eyes become fences.

You will park yourself forever on the outside, your differentness once
and for all revealed, dangerous.
The names you give to yourself will become epithets.
Your happiness will be called
bravery, denial.

Your sadness will justify their pity.
Your fear will magnify their fears.
Everything you say will prove something about their god,
or their economic system.

Your feelings, that change day-to-day, kaleidoscopic,
will freeze in place,
brand you forever,
justify anything they decide to do with you.

Those with power can afford to tell their story
or not.
Those without power risk everything to tell their story
and must.

Someone, somewhere will hear your story
and decide to fight,
to live and refuse compromise.
Someone else will tell her own story,
risking everything.

Sermon

At Rev. Curtis’ request the audio and text of the homily is not available.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

“We receive fragments of holiness, glimpses of eternity, brief moments of insight. Let us gather them up for the precious gifts that they are, and renewed by their grace, move boldly into the unknown.”

– Sarah York


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

Invitation to Transform

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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


Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

Welcome to this place
where certainty transforms
to questions.

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

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

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

– by the Rev. Dr. David Breeden

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

LOTS’ WIFE
by the Rev. Dr. Lynn Unger

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May it always be so. Amen and blessed be.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

by Eric Williams

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

May you go forth in peace.
Amen and Blessed be.


SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

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

2024 Water Communion

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

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


Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

RIVER CALL
by the Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti

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

We find ourselves
here,
in community.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Come, let us worship.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS
By Langston Hughes

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

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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

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

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Sermon

STORY OF WATER COMMUNION
Chris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is how they described that first water communion ceremony:

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE RIVER
Michelle

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

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

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

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

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

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

INVITATION TO WATER COMMUNION
Chris

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

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

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

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

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

Now, let our water communion begin.

BLESSING OF THE WATERS
Michelle

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


Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

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


SERMON INDEX

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