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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 15, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our religious values are aspirational expressions of our highest expectations for ourselves. Expectations can provide powerful inspiration and help us live out our Unitarian Universalist faith and reach for our best selves. So too though, sometimes the unexpected and letting go of expectations that are not serving us well can also bring enrichment to our lives. We will explore the intricacies and paradoxical nature of expectation.

Chalice Lighting

We light this chalice, the flame of our heritage, in solidarity with Unitarian Universalists and all the peoples of the world lighting candles of planetary hope. May it ignite a spirit of solidarity and enthusiasm for the new world we can create, together.

Call to Worship

Now let us celebrate our highest values. Now let us worship together.

Transcendence
To connect with wonder and awe of the unity of life

Community
To connect with joy, sorrow, and service with those whose lives we touch

Compassion
To treat ourselves and others with love

Courage
To live lives of honesty, vulnerability, and beauty

Transformation
To pursue the growth that changes our lives and heals our world

Now we raise up that which we hold as ultimate and larger than ourselves. Now we worship, together.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

TRUST YOURSELF TO THE WATER
By Alan Watts

Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is like when you trust yourself to the water.

You don’t grab hold of the water when you swim, because if you do, you will become stiff and tight in the water, and sink.

You have to relax, and the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging and holding on.

In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight.

But the attitude of faith is to let go and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

Sermon

All of this month, our religious education classes and activities are exploring expectation as a spiritual topic, so today, we will also spend some time considering expectation as it relates to our Unitarian Universalist faith.

To begin this morning, I thought we would start with a reflection on expectation taken from one of our great Unitarian Universalist sacred scriptures, National Public Radio.

Power of Expectations video

I loved that chapter from our NPR sacred texts because it captures so many of the conundrums we encounter when we examine our expectations, especially from a spiritual or faith-based perspective.

So, for example, we set expectations for ourselves, and yet, as the video demonstrated, other folks also place expectations upon us. On top of that, we quite often internalize the expectations placed upon us by others without even realizing that we are doing it, and so they become unconscious self-expectations.

Our expectations and those of others toward us can be greatly beneficial to us.

Studies have shown that positive expectations can beneficially influence everything from health outcomes to psychological well-being to career and sports performance, and on and on.

Yet, expectations can also limit us when they are set so high as to be unachievable, or our life situation changes such that what was once possible for us can no longer remain a reasonable expectation.

Conversely, expectations that are too low can also adversely influence us. For example, many studies have shown that teachers having lower expectations towards students of color or with disabilities greatly disadvantages such students.

So sometimes we have to learn to let go of unreasonable or harmful expectations, and sometimes we try to defy expectations that would otherwise limit us.

Interestingly, our expectations not only impact our behavior and that of others toward us, as pointed out in the video, now research indicates that expectations can have actual physiological effects upon us.

My favorite study I found about this involved drinking beer.

The researchers randomized people into two groups. Both groups were asked to taste test two different beer samples. One sample was just plain beer. The other was the same beer to which the researchers had secretly added balsamic vinegar.

The researchers did not tell the first group the difference between the two beer samples.

The folks in this group overwhelming preferred the taste of the balsamic vinaigrette infused beer.

The researchers told the second group the difference between the two beer samples before they tasted them.

Almost to a person, the second group hated the beer with the vinaigrette in it – many going so far as to spit it out and exclaim something like, “this is terrible.”

The expectation that adding the vinaigrette to beer would ruin the taste caused them to experience exactly that.

Subsequent tests showed that it was not just mental perception. Telling the second group up front about the balsamic poisoning of their beer had subtly altered the physiology of the second group’s taste buds compared to that of the first group.

Other research has identified physiological effects from our expectations that are much more potentially life altering than the tase of our beer.

Other research has also found that our expectations can draw our attention and focus so strongly that we may miss other important information.

This probably had a survival advantage at one time by, for instance, allowing us to focus on what we expected a potential predator might do and not get distracted by less life threatening things.

Today though, that focus itself can sometimes become the distraction.

Let’s watch an example of this phenomenon.

As you watch the next video, following the instructions at the beginning of it, please try not to express any verbal reactions so as not to break the concentration of your fellow congregants.

Ball Passing Video

How many of you saw the man in the gorilla suit before they played it back a second time?

This is probably an experiment that is better done in an individual versus group setting because those who see the gorilla may give off subtle reactions that clue others in the group to then see it also.

I watched it alone the first time and did not see the gorilla. The researchers have found that well over 50% of people who watch it do not see the gorilla because we are focusing so intently on our expectation about being able to correctly count how many times the folks in white pass the ball.

And I did get the count right, by the way, even if I did miss the damn gorilla.

Next, I want to introduce you to Daniel Kish, whose story I think so embodies the power of letting go of unhelpful expectations, defying expectations that limit us – keep us from claiming our full potential and humanity.

Daniel Kish Video

Daniel was born with a form of ocular cancer. His doctors had to remove one of his eyes when he was 7 months old and the other eye when he was 13 months old.

The first thing he did after waking up after his second surgery was to climb out of the crib and crawl around the nursery they had put him in at the hospital.

For whatever reason, his mother decided not to try to hold him back, even though she feared he might get hurt.

And he did a few times, but he says it was worth it.

Daniel learned to echolocate that clicking noise you heard him making in the video allows him to listen to how the noise bounces off things and determine shapes and motions around him.

It is much that same way that bats use sonar to navigate when they fly.

As you saw in the video, Daniel learned to ride a bike. By the time he entered elementary school, we was able to walk to school on his own and pretty much take care of himself through out the day.

Because his mother never enrolled him in an assistance program for the blind and let him go to a regular school, Daniel did not encounter other blind people until he got older.

He was dismayed to discover that so many blind folks he met were unable to take care of themselves in so many of the ways that he was capable.

Daniel came to believe that the well intentioned efforts of loved ones and non-profit services to help blind folks with so many aspects of daily living was creating expectations well below their potential.

So, he started the non-profit organization he discusses in the video. Through it, he teaches echolocation to others and sets expectations allowing folks to live more fully and more independently.

Researchers using MRI scans have found that people using echolocation light up the brain in the same patterns of those of us with ocular vision.

They can correctly identify and describe the shape of objects placed in front of them, as well as the direction of motion.

So, in a real since, by raising expectations through teaching echolocation, Daniel Kish is giving people of form of vision.

With that, I want to close by talking briefly about how I think expectation is such a large part of our Unitarian Universalist faith.

As Unitarian Universalists, we share 7 principals that we affirm and promote.

• • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

• • Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

• • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

• • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

• • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

• • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

• • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

It is likely we will be adding an 8th principle regarding dismantling racism. At this church, we also have a set of religious values that you all read together earlier with Elizabeth.

Our faith principals, our religious values, they are our aspirations, the expectations we have set for ourselves concerning how we will be in our world – how we will be with each other – how we will live our lives.

And we are reaching for those expectations all of the time, in so many ways through the many ministries and programs of this church, as well as our our larger denomination.

Next Sunday, we will have the chance to live our values when we celebrate this religious community and all pledge together to support it into the future.

Our green sanctuary ministry team has been living our principle about respect for the interdependent web in so many ways, including getting the Austin City Council and the Travis County Commissioner’s Court to pass resolutions that require our city and county governments to put into high gear actions across their departments to fight the climate crises.

And this Friday, September 20, Unitarian Universalists from across the country will live out the expectations of our faith by joining in a world-wide climate strike.

Led by our youth, people from across the world will join together to demand urgent action on the climate crisis before it is too late.

And folks we do not have long. A few years at most.

Some links where you can get more information are posted on the church website.

Here in Austin, the climate strike will begin with rallies at the state capital at 10 a.m. and again at noon on Friday.

I hope as many of us who can will live our religious values by participating. Our youth are expecting us to leave them a world that is at least livable.

Our youth are expecting us to act as if our house is on fire.

Because it is.

As Unitarian Universalists, our faith has always been one of hopeful expectation.

For Unitarian Universalists, our faith expectation is that there is meaning and beauty in our world that has yet to be fully revealed.

As Unitarian Universalists, our faith tells us that we are the ones who must unveil those revelations yet to become.

May we make it so.

Amen.

Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
Ausust 25, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This month’s Soul Matters is Emergence. We will explore how we might keep ourselves open to unexpected and creative possibilities and the potential for transformation.

Chalice Lighting

As we light the chalice may our souls become its hearth. We join our hearts to the one great flame of bright compassion, Beloved Community, and fervent justice. May our sparks become a wildfire in the world, lighting the way for all.

Call to Worship

“MERE CHRISTIANITY”
by C.S. Lewis

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.

We are like eggs. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Meditation Reading

“YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN”
by Howard Zinn

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

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

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

Sermon

Janine Shepard had dreams of competing in cross-country skying at the Olympics for her home country of Australia.

She was on a training bike ride with some of her fellow teammates headed toward the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney.

They had reached the foothills, her favorite part of the ride. She stood on her bike to allow her to pedal more strongly.

She felt the cold mountain air in her breath.

She reveled in the morning sun on her face and basked in the beautiful morning sunlight in her eyes.

And then everything went dark.

A speeding utility truck had hit her, knocking her unconscious, breaking her neck and back in six places, fracturing five ribs on her left side, crushing her right arm and leaving her with internal bleeding and a number of other life-threatening injuries.

Medics airlifted her to a hospital with a specialized spinal unit in Sydney. When she arrived at the hospital, her blood pressure was forty over zero.

As Janine Shepard herself puts it, “I was having a REALLY bad day.”

She was paralyzed from the waist down.

She spent ten days in the lCU before the internal bleeding stopped, and her doctors could do surgery on her back.

Her lower back was crushed. The surgeon spent hours removing fragments of bone from her spinal cord. They removed some of her ribs and used them to rebuild her back.

The surgery was a success in that she regained slight feeling and movement in parts of her lower body; however, she was told she would never ski again and might not ever walk again.

After some time, they were finally able to move Janine to the acute spinal unit, which would be the first step in her long attempt at rehabilitation and recovery.

Here is Janine Shepard herself, describing life in that acute spinal unit.

VIDEO

After six months, Janine’s parents were finally able to take her home, in a wheelchair, still wrapped in a plaster body cast.

Janine was depressed. She wanted her body back. She wanted her life back.

Then, she remembered her friends in the spinal ward, the connections, the hope, the courage of those fellow human beings in circumstances so like her own.

And she knew she could accept her new circumstances.

She began to think about how she might build a new life. She says, “I stopped asking myself, ‘why me’ and realized, ‘why not me’. I thought, ‘maybe rock bottom is the perfect place to start. ‘”

And in that uncertainty, she found a new creative freedom to begin imagining a new life, such that one day when she heard a plane flying overhead, she looked up through her bedroom window and thought, “Well, if I can’t walk, I might as well learn to fly.”

“Mom”, she cried out, I’m going to learn to fly.”

“That’s nice, dear,” replied her mom.

And Janine did learn to fly. She booked flight training with a nearby school. They lifted her into a plane, body cast and all, and once in the air, the instructor gave her control of the plane, as she could use her hands and arms. He pointed toward the Blue Mountains and said to fly toward them.

And so her new life began right above where her tragic accident had happened.

She eventually learned to walk again.

She eventually got, first a single engine plane license, and then several other types of licenses, leading up to her commercial license and even an aerobatics license – you know where people fly upside down and in loops and such.

Just less than 18 months after Janine Shepard left the spinal unit, she began her new calling, teaching other people to fly at the very same school where she had first learned how to take a small plane out over the Blue Mountains.

The theme we have been exploring this month in our religious education program is the spiritual theme of “emergence”. Emergence is defined as to become manifest, to rise from, the process of becoming.

I wanted to share Janine’s story with you this morning because I think it so powerfully illustrates so much of how the emergent, how transformation and change happen in our individual lives, even when it is on a much less dramatic basis than hers.

Her story demonstrates how so often, something new arises out of change that has been forced upon us, even sometimes difficult or even tragic circumstances.

Now, I want to be careful to state clearly, we are not talking about cliches such as: “God works in strange and mysterious ways,” to somehow justify tragedy as being ultimately good.

What happened to Janine was random and terrible and not part of some master plan.

It was how she responded to it that allowed the emergence of her new passion.

Janine’s story also shows how so often in order to say yes to something new, we have to let go of something else that is no longer healthy and sometimes no longer even possible for us.

And often, for transformation to emerge in our lives, we have to learn a new perspective. We gain a more complex understanding about life.

Later in her Ted Talk that I showed you a segment from earlier, Janine Shepard says, “I learned that I am not body and you are not yours.”

And so she says that if we learn to look beyond the superficial and help each other to try to live vulnerable, authentic lives, allow the ultimate, creative expression of who we really are to emerge, our collective liberation and bliss might just become emergent also.

We need relationship. We need belonging for beneficial emergence to occur.

After all, like the folks in that acute spinal unit, we are all interconnected by millions or billions of metaphorical straws. Non-plastic, metaphorical straws, no doubt.

That brings me to the scientific theory of emergence.

In science, emergence theory is the study of how creative and complex systems arise that are greater than the sum of their constituent parts. The system comes to hold properties that none of its individual components alone do.

Examples include how life itself first arose on our planet and then evolved from single cell entities into ever more complex life forms.

How energy transitions into matter.

How fish school and birds flock together, moving as one with such grace and coordination without an apparent leader.

And the examples go on and on.

Scientists are studying whether the natural laws, the rules by which each of the individual components of these systems adaptively interact in such ways that create something more complex and creative.

Scientist Harold J. Morowitz takes this even a step further and applies it to human social systems. Morowitz even describes a spiritual/ theological aspect of this.

For Morowitz, our ethics, the rules we follow in our interactions with each other and all that is, make us partners with the immanence of, the continuing emergence of God in our world.

Now whether we agree with Morowitz’s version of theism, it does seem that emergence theory supports Janine Shepard’s idea that our individual and communal emergences are linked and together might have the potential to result in something even greater.

I recently saw a video featuring Michelle Alexander, the author of the book, “The New Jim Crow”. Unitarian Universalists across the country read, studied and discussed her book together a few years back, as the source material for our annual “Unitarian Universalist common Read”.

In the video, she reminded me of another aspect of emergence.

We most often do not know exactly what is emerging until the full emergence has happened.

I want to share that video with you now.

VIDEO

I am intrigued by her idea that we may be the revolution – that those of us who want to struggle together with compassion and love to build the Beloved community and secure our collective liberation are creating the new emergence and that the forces of bigotry and hate are the resistance against that new emergence.

And yet, as I said before, we can’t know what will actually emerge while it is still happening, so we have to make sure that the ethical and spiritual rules we are following, our own emergence, contributes to that greater system – that Beloved community about which we dream.

I don’t know about you all, but for me that can be difficult sometimes. With the barrage of negativity and hate and half-truths and outright lies that are coming at us constantly these days – with the images of people, including children, in cages, with no where to sleep except on a concrete floors without even enough room to stretch out – with children dying while in the custody of our government – with two mass shootings in less than 24 hours recently – with almost daily reports of authorities apprehending one or more young white men with multiple weapons of war who have threatened synagogues, churches, schools, retail stores, gay bars – it can be difficult sometimes to act and feel in healthy, constructive ways.

It can be far too easy for me to want to lash back out, for anger, fear and even rage to emerge within me.

I keep wondering when one of those young guys will avoid apprehension until it is too late, and they commit the next mass killing.

So I think we have to honestly acknowledge that we are living in a time of extraordinarily elevated anxiety. We are experiencing social trauma.

No matter which side of the political spectrum one is on, to reach for our best selves, for our best selves to have any chance of emerging, we have to acknowledge these feelings. We have to find ways to talk about them with other people.

Not talking about it is not really an option, at least not a healthy, life giving option.

I believe this church is a place where we can have such honest and vulnerable conversations.

We can be there for one another. certainly, I want you to know your ministers are here for you during these times.

This church, this congregation is a place where we can both find respite and seek the emergence of our best and truest selves, the people we are called to be, both individually and communally.

I want to close by telling you how fortunate I feel, how grateful I am to get to do ministry with this congregation and with our extraordinary and just plain fun senior minister, Meg.

I am moved by what we have already become and by the church that is still emergent.

You heard earlier about the new ways of doing religious education that are emerging. Our religious education ministries are brimming with potential and filled with fantastic people.

I have no doubt that wonderful new ways of being and understanding will emerge for both our religious education learners and those leading the programs and classes.

With our beautiful new renovations and expansion, so much can now emerge that we cannot yet even fully imagine the potentialities.

New ministries are already emerging, such as a visitation program for older church members who can no longer attend church on a regular basis.

So much is already happening. So much is yet to become.

I can’t wait to witness and be a part of the emergence of all that we have only begun to dream.

Much love. All blessings. Amen.

Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
July 21, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

In our religious education department, we are experimenting with teaching our children UU values through guided, joyful, playful games and activities. Many of our church groups are also engaging in more opportunities, for fun, fellowship, humor, and connection. We’ll take a look at how joy, fun, and connection can enhance our spiritual learning, build resilience and enhance our overall wellbeing.

Call to Worship

MINDFUL
by Mary Oliver

Everyday 
I see or hear 
something 
that more or less

kills me 
with delight, 
that leaves me like a needle

in the haystack 
of light. 
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,

to lose myself 
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself 
over and over

in joy, 
and acclamation.

Reading

WELCOME MORNING
by Anne Sexton

There is joy 
in all: 
in the hair I brush each morning, 
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning, 
in the chapel of eggs I cook 
each morning, 
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee 
each morning, 
in the spoon and the chair 
that cry “hello there, Anne” 
each morning, 
in the godhead of the table 
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house 
each morning 
and I mean, 
though often forget, 
to give thanks, 
to faint down by the kitchen table 
in a prayer of rejoicing 
as the holy birds at the kitchen window 
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it, 
let me paint a thank-you on my palm 
for this God, this laughter of the morning, 
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn’t shared, 
I’ve heard, dies young.

Sermon

“BE MORE DOG” VIDEO

OK, it is not my intention to inflame a cat lovers versus dog lovers war by starting with that video this morning.

I love both.

I think the “Be More Dog” metaphor is about being less aloof and allowing ourselves to experience and engage in more fun and joy.

Though, of course, if you have ever engaged in cat cohabitation you know that they have their own ways of playing and playing pranks. Evil pranks.

As you may have heard already, there at the church, we are experimenting with help our children and youth learn our Unitarian Universalist history and value, engage in spiritual development and learning through games, play and joyful, fun activities.

And this is not just limited to our children and youth activities.

We will be infusing our adult religious education programs with this same sense of humor, play and joyfulness.

In addition their other activities, many of our church groups and ministries are also trying to add opportunities for connection, joy and fun, such as lunching together, holding potlucks, watching video and films together and other types of social activities.

Examples include our People of Color group, White Allies for Racial Equity group, our Alphabet Soup group and some of our Chalice Circles.

The same is being practiced more and more in our own and in other social justice movements. More and more, it is becoming clear that for such movements to be maximally effective, for folks to have resilience and avoid burnout, opportunities for social connection, play, humor and joy are absolutely vital.

And of course we have a fellowship team that creates such opportunities for the church as a whole.

Another group has started a game night here at the church.

All of next week, the church will be teaming with young witches and wizards attending our annual Hogwarts Camp UU.

The halls will be filled with laughter, fun, play and joy, while at the same time much learning about our faith will be happening.

Now, shhhh, don’t tell them I told you this, but I suspect that the adult volunteers, who make Hogwarts happen each year, experience as much, if not more, fun and joy as our children and youth they are serving do.

And all of this attention we are paying to fun and joy is for good reason.

More and more, we are discovering that fun and joy are key contributors to our learning and wellbeing.

More and more, science is finding that joyfulness and joyful play stimulate neurological patterns and neuro-chemical transmitters that improve our ability to learn and retain information.

Joy helps us lay down more complex and contextual memory and to retain such learnings and memories longer because they get associated with pleasure centers in the brain.

As one researcher puts it, “nothing lights up the brain like joy and play.”

Games and play also teach social skills and allow for a more creative perspective on the subject matter involved.

This is partially why many educational programs in general have begun to move away from strictly transmission models of teaching to more generative and even transformation models.

Within Unitarian Universalism there is even a model that is called “spirit play” (and in Christian traditions, “God Play”).

To over generalize a little, folks are moving away from the banking education model, wherein the teacher stands at the front of the classroom and deposits information into the passive minds of the students, to more like this (show Child Play Slide) wherein learning occurs through a sense of joy, play, games, humor, fun activities and social interconnectedness.

And, it is important to note that joyful play is not just rehearsal for adult challenges, as we oftentimes tend to think of it. For instance, if you prevent a kitten from playing, as an adult cat it will still know how to stalk, hunt and kill prey.

Humans and cats and dogs know instinctively know how to engage in play with each other simply for the joy of the playing.

In fact, all mammal species have been observed to engage in play at all ages of their lives.

The researcher I quoted earlier has found that play seems to have some vital biological role, just as sleep and dreaming do.

Joy, fun, play seem to be beneficial to us both psychologically and physically.

The opposite is true also. As adults, a lack of joyful play has been associated with depression. Children who are deprived of play often develop serious psychological issues as adults.

This was found to be a factor with Charles Whitman, the U.T. tower sniper who killed 16 people and injured 31 others here in Austin back in 1966.

I would propose that joy and play are also vital to our spiritual development and that a lack of joy damages our very souls.

In fact, there is a theory that church, along with its associated religious rituals, is in truth “deep play”. It is helping us understand deep and complex life issues in metaphorical ways at least partially through experiences of spiritual ecstasy (otherwise known as joy or bliss).

I want to share with you a story that I think illustrates both how we learn through our experiences of joy and how being open to joyfulness can be so good for us.

The guy in the video I am about to show you is a farmer and goat rancher from upstate New York named Jay Lavery. The video has become known as “The Barn Dance”.

Now, since our subject matter today is “Learning Through Joy”, and one of the ways we experience joy is dancing, I encourage you to get up and dance along with Jay if you are so moved – or at least to groove in place on your chair or pew if not.

VIDEO

I got a little worried when he started the stripper moves there (actually, he keeps his remaining clothes on through the rest of the video).

Mr. Lavery posted his video for his Facebook friends, partially because he had serious back problems, and he wanted them to know he was doing OK.

He says never expected that his joyful video would go viral, with over 7 million views in less than a year.

Fifteen years prior to making that video, Mr. Lavery had a traumatic back injury that required several surgeries including a discectomy and a spinal fusion.

His dancing, along with practicing yoga and meditation, are how he overcomes the back pain he would otherwise have and how he avoids having to take pain medications.

Now there could be some physical aspects to this, but I have little doubt that his joyfulness in his dancing has helped him learn how to move through the pain.

As he puts it, he hopes his video inspires “anyone to move in spite of pain and I hope this puts a smile on your face … ” Avery even got to go on the Ellen Degeneres show, where he expressed his great amusement over many aspects of what he calls his” 15 minutes of fame”, including several marriage proposals he has received from several women smitten by his silky moves.

“What they didn’t realize,” he says, “is I’m gay.”

So, if, as is apparent from Jay Lavery’s story, joy is so good for us.

If joy helps us learn more readily and in more complex and complete ways, why don’t we infuse more joy, fun, humor and play into our our educational institutions, our workplaces, indeed our lives?

Why has the banking model of education persisted for so long and why does it still continue to be the primary model throughout so much of our current educational system?

Well, I am not sure I know all of the answers to those questions.

I suspect though, that it could have something to do with our protectant work ethic and more broadly our puritan ancestry.

Work, school, and church are not supposed to be fun!

On a more individual level, I think we may sometimes not allow ourselves to fully experience joy because of what social science researcher Bene Brown calls, “foreboding joy”.

Now some of you may have heard me talk about Dr. Brown’s concept of foreboding joy before, so this time I thought I would let her tell you about it herself.

BRENE BROWN VIDEO

So, we do not get to experience true joy, the fullness of joy without vulnerability.

Joy requires a sense of belonging and connection, and we do not get these unless we risk being our authentic selves. We don’t get these unless we allow ourselves to also experience the inevitable sorrow and loss that goes along with living and loving fully.

Joy requires us to have the courage to be be vulnerable.

One of the religious values we have defined for ourselves here at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is this:

“Courage – To live lives of honesty, vulnerability, and beauty.”

May we live that value together so that we may experience a full and vibrant joy together.

And let’s remember to dance, laugh, play and have a little fun while we are at it!

I would like to leave you with the words of Steve Garnaas Holmes, who is a Methodist Minister and author. He comes from a Christian perspective, so I invite you to translate with your own understanding of that which is ultimate as you listen to his words.

They are titled, simply, “Joy”. “Who says God has to be so serious all the time? That God can’t have some fun, go on a lark, crack a good one?

Who says God can’t evolve a platypus instead of a woodchuck, or a flightless bird just as a joke?

Or give you a gorgeous sunset just to see the expression on your face? Or invent laughter?

Who says God’s passion is reasonable and not unrestrained celebration?

Jesus’ first miracle was a party trick. Pure. fun. Wine from water. And really good stuff, too. And at a wedding, no less. It’s a parable of covenant faithfulness, and love, and an ironic reverse-foreshadowing of the Last Supper.

It’s a parable of abundance and beauty and mystery and needless splendor.

It’s about life, and about blessing, and about joy-way too much and too good, way more and better than we need. Ridiculous. Over the top joy.

So raise a glass! Drink deep.”

And amen to that.

Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
July 14, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We live in an economic system that perpetuates itself by creating a culture of scarcity. What if we stopped to appreciate and express gratitude for all that we already have? What if we worked toward a culture of abundance?

I recently bought this iPhone. It’s the latest and the greatest technology.

Within a few months, a newer model with even later and greater features will come out – a model that was already planned when I bought this one.

We live in an economy that is designed to keep us at first thrilled with our new purchases and then quickly disillusioned with them and craving their replacement.

We exist in a culture where we are told that what we have is never enough. We exist in a culture that by design creates a myth of scarcity.

How often have you gone to reserve a hotel room or a flight online and gotten the little flashing message that only two more are available at this price.

Or “there are 30 people currently looking at this hotel.”

How many ads do we see that contain a not so implicit message that we are never successful enough; we never have enough; we are never good enough; attractive enough; thin enough; sexy enough; smart enough, etc.

Some other car is always newer and nicer than ours; our dishwasher is too slow and too loud; our clothing is already passe; our hairstyle is no longer the style.

Scarcity. Scarcity. More scarcity.

This morning as we have gathered for worship, the Trump administration has threatened to round up, detain and then deport thousands of immigrant families – a move which will:

• worsen the conditions at already overcrowded and inhumane detention camps,
• separate families, including taking even more children away from their parents,
• and send folks who have been contributing to our society to countries where they will often face threats to their wellbeing and sometimes even their very lives.

And this too is also at least partially a fear-based tactic rooted in that mythology of scarcity.

Now there is a lot going on with this, including not so subtle racism and xenophobia, but these too arise at least partially out of the scarcity myth.

Trump himself has stated that we do not “have room for these people” – that somehow if we allow asylum seekers into our country it will mean taking jobs and resources away from the folks who are already here.

And yet study after study has found that this is simply not the case. We have plenty of wealth to go around. Immigrants are net contributors to our society. We have the food, housing, economic and other resources to more than support our population plus many more.

And when it comes to basic human rights, I like this meme that has been going around lately.

“EQUAL RIGHTS FOR OTHERS DOES NOT MEAN LESS RIGHTS FOR YOU. IT’S NOT PIE.”

The scarcity myth drives inequality and human rights abuses.

It drives radically capitalistic, consumerism.

The scarcity Myth is one of the major lies that has been used to excuse a vast transfer of power and wealth from the many to the very few that has been going on for decades now.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not against economic development and technology advancements that can enhance our lives and wellbeing. I love my iPhone.

I just think we can choose a different narrative that would eventually drive a different kind of economy and society.

I believe that rather than scarcity, we can choose abundance, not just for the few but for all.

We can adopt a narrative that we are, there is ENOUGH.

VIDEO CLIP

That’s Kevin Cavenaugh, an architect by training and now a commercial real estate developer in Portland, Oregon. The flowery pants he is wearing in the video were made for him one of his children out of fabric recycled from their old couch.

Cavenaugh goes onto explain that as they began to recover from the recession, and he rebuilt his business, he kept asking himself this question about enoughness – how much is enough?

Doing so has changed how he lives and how he does business.

He asked himself how much is enough wealth and discovered that while he was making a percentage of the profits from his building developments, the members of his small staff were not. So, he created a program in which they could become vested in a percentage of the profits also the longer they worked with him.

He also asked himself how much equality is enough because the inequity in pay between men and women in our country bothered him.

He then redesigned the pay pyramid for his company so that instead of him making more than everyone else, everyone gets paid exactly the same, including himself.

It turns out, he discovered, that companies that treat their employees better and equally have better long-term stock valuations. They attract the best talent. As he puts it, not paying equally was stepping over dollars to pick up dimes.

Finally, he was disturbed by the rising level of homelessness in Portland. Rent in the area has grown 20 times faster than wages, so that even folks with a college degree and who are working can find themselves living out of a tent in one of the city’s parks.

He asked himself and a group of investors for one of his buildings, how much would be enough rent? They did the calculations and discovered they could make enough return from their investment if they developed a building that would provide simple rooms with a bed and washbasin, shared showers and restrooms and a communal kitchen and living area. By doing so, they could rent the rooms out for $290 a month each.

So now, a number of formerly homeless folks have simple but adequate shelter. It is enough.

And this defining and redefining of “enough” it turns out is one of the strongest ways in which we can resist the cultural myth of scarcity. It is one of the ways we can find greater life satisfaction.

All over the country, people are engaging in this counter cultural idea and redefining for themselves what “enough” means.

People are embracing minimalism. You can learn more at theminimalists.com, but basically minimalists are discovering a new sense of freedom by living with far less stuff.

One common way that people get started is by jettisoning at least one material possession each day for at least a month by asking each day of one item, “does this have value to me? Does it have utility in some way or bring me joy?”

If the answer is no, it goes – sell it, donate it to charity where someone else might find value with it, just get rid of it.

Many folks have found they got rid of more than one item per day and continued the practice for several months.

I’m pretty sure it would take me at least a year to clear our whatever all that stuff in our garage is.

Other families with children have determined what the minimal salary they need is to feel life satisfaction and provide adequately for their children. They then live off of that and donate anything they earn above it to benefit others.

We have all witnessed the movement toward smaller or even tiny houses that has been growing.

What folks have discovered when they have done some of these things is that it freed them to pursue their desires and goals in life more easily. Many found they did not need to make us much money and could take a job that left them time to travel, go back to school for their Master’s degree or pursue a passion such music or an art, as examples.

Now, I am not suggesting that everyone here has to become a minimalist, give all their money to charity (but if you do please consider your church) or sell their house and all their stuff to move into a 600 square foot box.

I just offer some of these trends as an example of how it is possible to define and redefine “enough” for ourselves. I am suggesting that by periodically asking ourselves the question, “What is enough to me” we may begin to find ways to experience a greater sense of abundance.

In addition to thinking about what enough means to you, here are a few other ways that we may also develop a greater sense of abundance in our lives and that have thereby been shown to increase life satisfaction.

Invest more of your time and resources in your relationships with others.

Whether it is our spouses, partners, children, other family members, friends, our fellow church goers, the stranger we just met or some folks in need we may never meet, study after study have shown that belonging and connection, love and doing for others are vital to our satisfaction in life.

Also, invest more of your time and resources on experiences rather than things. Traveling, attending a play or concert, learning to play the guitar or speak a new language, taking the children to an amusement park or to go camping, whatever the experiences may be, a wealth of studies have shown that we place higher value on experiences rather than things. Experiences bring us greater happiness than possessing material items.

Next, practice gratitude every day.

Practicing gratitude has been shown to be one of the strongest ways to develop a sense of abundant life and is continually associated with greater life satisfaction.

The key is that it has to be a practice something you do. It is the active practice of gratitude that brings abundance. Here is a little more about the science of it and some potential gratitude practices.

VIDEO

Finally, whether it is through attending worship, cultivating a spiritual practice such as meditating, gardening, working for justice in our world, making art or music, whatever it is for you, finding ways to connect with something larger than ourselves, to experience the holy, to know truth meaning and beauty within our connection and experience of that something larger than ourselves lies abundant living.

These are just a few of the ways we can develop a sense of abundance in our lives.

I’d like to close today by inviting you to engage with me in a spoken and sung meditative ritual on abundance. Please repeat after me:

I am grateful for life.

I am grateful for loving and being loved.

I am grateful for the adventures and experiences of my life.

I am a part of something larger than myself.

I experience truth, meaning and beauty.

There is enough.

I am enough.

I am enough.

I am enough.

Please sing after me:

What we need is here.

What we need is here.

Now please sing with me:

What we need is here.

What we need is here.

My beloveds you are enough. Abundance is already ours.

Amen

Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
Bear Qolezcua
July 7, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We often think of perseverance as being strong, having grit, to keep pushing forward even against difficult obstacles. Perhaps though, perseverance also requires a time for rest and spiritual renewal, being vulnerable enough to acknowledge that we need help sometimes and need others to carry the burden for a bit while we do the things that restore us.

Call to Worship

STILL I RISE
by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.

Reading

– Aimee Van Ausdall

This morning I have been pondering a nearly forgotten lesson I learned in high school music. Sometimes in band or choir, music requires players or singers to hold a note longer than they actually can hold a note. In those cases, we were taught to mindfully stagger when we took a breath so the sound appeared uninterrupted. Everyone got to breathe, and the music stayed strong and vibrant… So let’s remember the advice of music: Take a breath. The rest of the chorus will sing. The rest of the band will play. Rejoin so others can breathe. Together, we can sustain a very long, beautiful song for a very, very long time. You don’t have to do it all, but you must add your voice to the song.

Bear Qolezcua

THE LIGHTHOUSE AND THE LITTLE BLUE BOAT

Once upon a time there was a mighty lighthouse. The tower had a broad base and a bright pink stripe spiraled up its body. The house that sat beneath it was always warm and inviting, its furnishings roughhewn but cosy. The smell of lemons, cinnamon, and vanilla swarmed around its great hearth.

The lighthouse sat on a very old bay. For many years it oversaw the sea and swells as storms came and went, crashing over the shore and snarling at the tower with great blows. The lighthouse survived each one but even though sometimes a window might be broken or the tower would be scarred and chipped, it continued to be a beacon of safety and strength.

Time passed and the sea changed. Parts of the surrounding bay got deeper, and others more shallow. Jagged boulders were upended in the distance to form a sea wall. They created a gentle pool beneath the watchful tower of the lighthouse. The jags were dangerous and dark, making the lighthouse’s job more important than ever.

After some years, the dry dock beneath the tower was opened and a little blue boat was taken from it and put into the water. The lighthouse loved its little blue boat. It was squeaky and small but safe and dependable.

It stayed afloat even when the ocean swelled and threatened it or when it found itself being pushed to the craggy breaks and jags out at sea. The little boat served its purpose well, no matter the gales against it, as it rescued many who were lost in the water, bringing them safely to shore without fail.

Once, the little blue boat’s oars fell off and it was swept quickly into a current, unable to find its way home. It discovered many dark places in the sea, some were far more dangerous than the jags the boat had avoided so well in its bay. A kind young woman discovered the boat, trapped in mangrove roots along a river inlet. She gave it new oars and asked nothing in return. She wished the little boat farewell and the somewhat scuffed and marred vessel made its way back home.

On a frosty winter morning, the lighthouse found it had a crack in its foundation. Many tried to mend the damage but it could not be repaired. The lighthouse resigned itself to shining brightly as long as it could. Years later the foundation broke and the light faded. The lighthouse fell.

The kerosene lantern used to light the tower spilled fuel and flame, the woodwork burned to ash, leaving only chipped, bare stones in a pile on the shore.

The little blue boat sailed off into the sea, not knowing which way to turn. It did not rescue others from the waters because it was scared of not having a safe place to take them when it had no safe place to go itself. It became so very lost in the great sea that it couldn’t find the shore at all. It stopped looking at all, fearing more jags, more fire, from any shore to which it might come.

By chance, the boat happened upon the familiar rocky breaks of the sea wall it once knew. More rocks had been upended and the bay was cut off from the outside. The little blue boat looked through whatever cracks and faults it could find and saw that the shore had changed much more. The pile of rubble still on the land, buried under a thin layer of mud and sand. The little blue boat stayed there for so long it forgot how many moons passed.

Workers with noisy machines came and cleared the fallen building, they gathered and buried the ashes of the tower’s frame. Nothing was left but the Ebenezer stone bearing the name of the original overseer. The little blue boat wished to be closer and see more but it could go no farther in the water.

The loss of the lighthouse left the boat scared to return to the open sea and so it stayed stuck along the jags for years, letting them cut at it, scuff it, and wear parts of it so thin they threatened to break open where the sea water would overtake the boat and claim it in the depths.

Some young people found the little boat while out on the water and two got into it. They asked the boat to take them back home and the boat did, having nothing else to do with its time. The boat lingered on their shore, resting from the great jags and storms. With time, many came and repaired the boat, patching weak spots, strengthening it and protecting it.

This rest ended one day when a great ship passed nearby the boat and caught itself in a shoal too shallow for the ship to make. It slowed and began to capsize. The passengers and crew were in danger as the ship yawed toward the water. Some made it to rescue boats but many were thrown dangerously into the cold dark waters out at sea. They cried for help but none seemed to come from the lifeboats surrounding the ship. Many of which had already made it to shore.

The little blue boat heard them crying out but it felt so afraid. It was unsure about the mended parts of its body, worrying if it would be strong enough and whole enough to be able to once again carry the weight of others within. It decided that with the rest it had received it must at least try and floated quickly over to passengers in the water, taking them on board and delivering them safely to the shore, many times over it did this until none were left in the water. It discovered that it saved itself by caring for others who needed only the safety of a lifeboat.

Having once again found its purpose, the little blue boat sailed off into the sea knowing the currents and sea walls would never allow it to return to its bay. Because of its time of rest and repairs, the little boat carried the strength and endurance of its lighthouse within, once again bringing hope and safety to passengers and ships in peril.

Chris Jimmerson

When my mom was 67 years old, she wrecked her Harley Davidson motorcycle.

She slid off the road on a sharp curve in the hills of the East Texas pine forest and skidded sideways across several dozen feet.

She broke her nose, scraped the skin off of both arms and broke seven vertebrae in her lower and mid back.

The emergency responders had to take her by life flight to a hospital that was over an hour and a half away from where the accident had happened.

We were not sure she would survive.

The neurosurgeon who took care of her back injuries had to use screws to attach two metal rods on each side of her spinal column.

It is still a lot of fun to go through airport security with her even today.

I asked her permission to tell you the story of her accident and her recovery from it this morning, because I think I learned about perseverance from it.

My mom survived the accident and then persevered through first a rehabilitation hospital and then outpatient physical therapy, yes, partially through her own grit and determination. She drew upon her own religious faith and spiritual practices.

Also though, she had a whole host of loved ones who stayed with her and supported her through those times.

My step-father, Ty, took care of her when she was not physically capable of caring for herself.

Her children and other family members chipped in too. Along with a whole host of friends, we brought them meals, helped with chores and errands, provided rides to where she needed to go, gave her emotional support and sounded a resounding chorus of “no” when she wanted to get back on a motorcycle again before she was even fully healed. Today at age 78, my mom no longer rides a Harley, but she does have an open air go-cart in which she zooms around her neighborhood at altogether alarming rates of speed.

So perseverance, our ability to survive and sometimes even thrive through adversity, has both an individualistic component and a communal aspect.

We persevere through our own grit and determination, yes. And science has shown that we can cultivate this tenacity and resilience through spiritual practices, religious faith, remaining open to humor beauty, joy, grief, embracing gratitude and forgiveness and practicing self-compassion. But, we also need community. We need love and support to fully develop our perseverance.

We find greater strength, power and sustenance communally.

So, our religious community here at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin can help us all maintain our spiritual perseverance.

We need each other and so many more if we are to persevere against the assaults on human rights and dignity; the degradation and potential destruction of life and our planet we are witnessing in these times.

Sometimes we have to vulnerable enough to admit that we need help and be willing ask for it.

Sometimes, to be able to persevere in the long run, we need to set the burden of our struggles down and let others carry them for a while. We just need a pause – a respite – a time to simply take care of ourselves and our nearest loved ones. We need this in order to be able to build up the resilience that is so necessary for perseverance.

And yet, it is more complicated than that even, because those of us with relative privilege can more easily retreat from the struggle than those who are being crushed under the weight of extreme oppression and maltreatment. We must not allow ourselves to fall prey to the lie that we can look away permanently, because in the end, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhereÉWhatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

This past week, we witnessed the juxtaposition of the celebration of our country’s Independence day (and all the values it is supposed to represent) with the Department of Homeland Security’s own Inspector General’s report on “Dangerous Overcrowding and Prolonged Detention of Children and Adults” at five Customs and Border Protection holding facilities here in Texas.

These are supposed to be temporary holding facilities at the border, and yet in these 5 facilities alone, the Office of the Inspector General found:

• 8,000 detainees in custody with almost half held greater than the time period allowed by law.
• 2,669 children, 826 held longer than the law allows, 50 younger than 7.
• Children and adults sleeping on concrete floors with no access to showers, limited or no changes of clothing and no hot meals.
• Adults held in over-crowded, sometimes standing room only conditions, some for over a month.
• Adults who had gotten sick after being fed only bologna sandwiches.
• Once facility was basically outdoor cages that had been constructed under a bridge in the outdoor heat of El Paso.

These are just some of the conditions that have been observed. These are only the border facilities and do not include conditions at longer term prison camps maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I am dismayed that my country is doing this (AGAIN) – horrified that it is happening in my state. I can only imagine how painful witnessing this must be for those of you with small children of your own.

I struggle because no matter how many phone calls I make, emails I send, petitions I sign, contributions I give, rallies and protests I attend and on and on, still it never feels like enough.

I struggle with persevering when it would be so easy to fall into despair and helplessness.

And yet, I know the folks in those facilities have had to persevere against conditions in their home countries, perilous journeys to seek refuge and the horrifying way in which they are being treated by our government.

I know these folks have had to persevere in ways in which I never have and can only begin to grasp at understanding.

I know that I cannot claim to affirm our Unitarian Universalist principles, such as the inherent worth and dignity of each person, justice, equity and compassion – I cannot uphold this church’s mission – I cannot maintain my own humanity if I remain silent while the humanity of people seeking our help is defiled.

I know that I must act now – that waiting for the next election to act is too late, as important as that election will be in relation to ending these atrocities.

I know to persevere, to keep up the struggle in the face of such heartbreak, I will need:

• this religious community,
• my Unitarian Universalist faith,
• the leadership of those who have experienced our broken and bigoted immigration system,
• the many other folks and organizations that are joining together to cry out for an end to these atrocities.

My beloveds, I believe that our Unitarian Universalist faith, our religious values, this church’s mission, they are calling us, each of us, to do what we can to demand an end to these crimes against humanity.

Doing what we can will look different for each of us, depending upon our circumstances.

We have left a list of many different ways to get involved on the social action table in Howson Hall and have also put it on the social action page of our church website so that you can follow the hyperlinks it contains. Beloveds, we come from a long tradition of perseverance on behalf of truth, justice and human dignity.

Today, we are called to continue in that faithful tradition. We can carry each other when each of us inevitably needs respite. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Amen and blessed be.

Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.

SERMON INDEX

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

PODCASTS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
June 9, 2019
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Even in life’s challenging and difficult times, we may still experience beauty; sometimes when it is least expected. And that, in turn, can help us through such times.

Call to Worship

By Rev. Mary Katherine Morn

Beauty does more than awaken us.
It also admonishes us.
It demands something…
We are here, in religious community, not to hide from the anguished cries or the tender lullabies.
We are here, in religious community, not to protect our hearts from breaking.
We are here together to borrow courage for the task of coming alive.
We are here so that together we might heed the admonitions of beauty.
Answer its call to create; protect; and preserve.

Reading

John O’Donohue

It’s the question of beauty … there are individuals holding out on front lines, holding the humane tissue alive in areas of ultimate barbarity,where things are visible that the human eye should never see. And they’re able to sustain it, because there is, in them, some kind of sense of beauty that knows the horizon that we are really ca!led to in some way. I love Pascal’s phrase, that you should always keep something beautiful in your mind. And I have often – like in times when it’s been really difficult for me, if you can keep some kind of little contour that you can glimpse sideways at, now and again, you can endure great bleakness.

Sermon

“Where beauty is apparent, we are to enjoy it.
Where there is beauty hidden, we are to unveil it.
Where there is beauty defaced, we are to restore it.
Where there is no beauty at all, we are to create it.”

I loved that quote from the late minister, theologian and social justice activist Robert McAfee Brown.

I love it, because I think it captures so well the complex and profound ways in which we are called to interact with beauty in our world.

Beauty is the monthly theme we are exploring in our religious education classes and activities this June, so let’s take a bit of time to explore beauty together in worship this morning also.

Research has even begun to show that attentiveness to beauty may be beneficial us to psychologically and physically. Most of the studies have been based upon experiences of beauty in nature; however, now the research has begun to expand to such experiences through the arts and music.

Here are just some of the potential benefits that have been found:

• Emotional well being.
• Pro-sociality – having concern for others.
• Greater life satisfaction.
• Reduced stress.
• Lower heart rate and blood pressure.

Here is how philosopher, futurist and social media and television personality, Jason Silva says that “Beauty Can Heal Us”.

Silva video

“Beauty can shake us out of our jadedness … Let the music make you cry … gaze upon the fading sunset.”

So, first, “where beauty is apparent, we are to enjoy it”.

That seems simple enough, yet how often do we allow ourselves to pay attention to and enjoy that which we find beautiful? How often to we explicitly set aside time for it in our daily lives?

I know for me, as some of you have heard me share before, one of my spiritual practices, one of the things that keeps me grounded and relieves stress, is to go on a meditative hike in one of our many local nature areas – to allow myself to just get absorbed in observing the beauty of nature.

And yet, in the times that are challenging and difficult, the times when I need it most, I am also most likely to put off this practice that so soothes and relaxes me. I have to remind myself to make the time to experience the beauty that will help me through such difficulties.

“Beauty can shake us out of our jadedness … Let the music make you cry … gaze upon the fading sunset”, Chris.

It is so hard to practice what I preach sometimes, I’ll tell you!

Next, “where there is beauty hidden, we are to unveil it.

It is easier, I think, for us to find beauty in the places that have been more traditionally associated with it – nature, the mountains, the oceanside, a spectacular sunset, those we love, the music that moves us, the work of art that takes our breath away, a stunning moment in a play or movie or dance performance, as just a few examples.

It can be harder to see the beauty in what we might otherwise consider unattractive or mundane. And yet, if we look for it, the beauty is likely always there in these places too.

When I was in seminary, they had us do an exercise called a beauty walk that was based on a Native American tradition. They had us go to an area we would not normally associate with beauty and walk through it slowly, being attentive to the potential for beauty we might have missed before, bringing a camera to take pictures of what we found.

I went to a warehouse/industrial area and was surprised to discover that it was teaming with life and elements of beauty.

• Ants dwelling in the cracks in the sidewalk.
• Flowers finding places to bloom even amongst all the metal and concrete.
• Birds dwelling everywhere they could find.
• The interplay between the bright colors with which people had painted some of the buildings.
• Landscaping people had created to surround themselves with beauty when they sat at their outside lunch table.
• Vegetable gardens people had grown in plots they had created outside the warehouses in which they worked.

My beloveds, beauty surrounds us, both in the classical ways in which we have conceptualized it and in places we might least expect it, as well as within so many of the seemingly mundane moments of our every day lives.

I invite you to try the beauty walk exercise and see what hidden beauty you may unveil.

Here is a short video that I think captures this idea that beauty is to be found in the sublime, as well as in the more mundane.

Video

Finally, “Where there is beauty defaced, we are to restore it. Where there is no beauty at all, we are to create it.”

I think this is at least partially what our call to worship you all read with Mary Jane earlier is expressing.

Our Unitarian Universalist minister, Rev. Sean Dennison, says it like this:

“The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not wantonly destroy. With this, we are reminded that beauty does more than soothe and heal. It demands. It creates commitment. It doesn’t just say, ‘Love and appreciate me.’ It says, ‘Protect me! Fight for me!'”

So yes, beauty is there for us to experience it with awe and joy. Beauty is there to comfort us and sustain us in our struggles.

And, our experiences of beauty also call us to create more of it – to restore it when it has been defaced and to create it where it has not yet existed.

Beauty calls us to love and justice. It calls us to leave our world more beautiful than the one into which we were born.

And with all of the ugliness, all of the beauty defaced in our world today, I know, for me, it can sometimes be hard to hold on to a vision of that more beautiful world, that world toward which beauty beckons us.

For me, what would be beautiful, what beauty calls us to create, is a world in which children coming to the U.S. after fleeing persecution with their parents are welcomed with loving open arms rather than being torn away from their parents and locked in cages.

Beautiful would be a world in which we have answered the call to abolish immigrant concentration camps and prisons, and children no longer die while under the custody of our government.

Beautiful will be when Alirio, who has taken sanctuary here in our church, and Hilda and her son Ivan at St. Andrews, are all free and no longer fear for their lives.

Better yet, what would be beautiful, what beauty calls us to envision is a world in which we have helped to create conditions in people’s homelands that are safe, secure and prosperous.

Beauty beckons us to create a world in which our own children can attend schools that provide safety, equity, a caring loving environment. Schools where our 5 and 6 year olds and on up no longer have to live in fear and participate in mass shooter drills.

Beautiful will be when we have put into place a federal administration and state governments that all stand up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexed folks rather than encouraging discrimination against us by making it legal.

Beauty calls us to build a world in which transgender and all queer folks are able to live out loud as a our true and beautiful selves without fearing violence or even death at hands of hatred and bigotry.

Beauty will happen when women and all people capable of bearing a child have control over their own bodies in all states and regions of our country. Beauty calls us the cast the patriarchy upon the ash heap of history.

Beautiful will be a time when black mothers and fathers no longer have to feel terror over the prospect of their children and loved ones being shot by the very law enforcement that is supposed to protect and serve.

A criminal justice system that actually is just – that would be beautiful, and beauty is begging us to create it.

Beautiful would be Muslims in the U.S. and ALL people of faith living without fear and coexisting in peace.

Each of us living our own religious beliefs without trying to force them upon others. How beautiful would that be?

Beautiful would be saving our planet, bringing democracy to our work places, restoring our institutions of representative democracy to their proper balances of power.

Beautiful would be eliminating poverty and homelessness, wiping out economic and wealth inequality, dismantling white supremacy culture.

Beauty calls us, it lures us to these and all forms of love and justice.

OK, now just go do all of that, and I’ll see you next week.

I think one of the places beauty is too often hidden and must be unveiled is our inability sometimes to recognize our own beauty.

We must know our own beauty to be fully able to experience the beauty in our world, restore that which has been lost and create that beauty which has not yet become.

To build the beloved community, to create that world about which we dream, we must overcome the many messages that we receive telling us we are not enough, not beautiful as we are.

Certainly, our cultural standards for physical beauty, especially for women, exclude all but a small segment of the white European descendent population.

Even more so though, we are discouraged from expressing the beautiful unique wholeness that is each of us.

Here is a poem by Maya Angelou that I think expresses this idea so well.

PHENOMENAL WOMAN
by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

My beloveds, you are beautiful.

You are phenomenal.

You hold within you your own unique spark of the divine. You have your own unique set of gifts that only you can bring into our world.

And as a religious community, as a religious faith, we may combine together each of our unique sparks of the divine, blend together our unique gifts to answer the call of beauty.

Together, may we radiate the divine our into our world, restoring beauty where it has been defaced, creating beauty where it has yet to become.

Amen.

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