Called to Compassion

October 6, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

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

One of the religious values our church community vows to uphold is compassion, which we define as “to treat ourselves and others with love.” How does treating ourselves with love open us to acting with compassion toward others?

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 based upon First UU Church of Austin’s religious values.

NOW LET US WORSHIP TOGETHER.
Now let us celebrate our highest values.

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.

Reading

There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another. What makes life livable despite the cruelties of chance – the accident, the wildfire, the random intracellular mutation – are these little acts of mercy, of tenderness, the small clear voice rising over the cacophony of the quarrelsome, over the complaint choir of the cynics, to insist again and again that the world is beautiful and full of kindness.

– Maria Popova

Sermon

During what turned out to be the last time my late spouse Wayne was in the hospital, I left work at the church here one day and went up to visit with him in his room.

I got there only to encounter him chastising a nurse over the fact that he was in one of those hospital beds with the rails, and an alarm that would go off rather loudly if he tried to get out of the bed by himself to go to the bathroom or something like that.

He was feeling terrible so understandably was not exactly being being very nice, expressing himself in no uncertain terms, some of which I cannot use here in the sacred space of our sanctuary.

His nurse kept a little smile on her face, listening to him until he seemed to have finished, then said, “I understand. I’ve been in one of those beds myself, and I still can’t let you get up on your own because you’re at a high risk for falling, and I would be at high risk for losing my license.”

So then, Wayne tried pulling rank, informing her that he was a doctor, and that he would be speaking with his hospital physicians and telling them that he didn’t think that bed alarm was really necessary.

Still smiling slightly, she informed him that he could go right ahead, that in her experience she knew more about bedside care then the doctors did, and that she was pretty sure they wouldn’t remove the order unless she thought it was OK. She didn’t because she didn’t want him to hurt himself and make himself feel even worse.

So then he said he was going to demand a different nurse, to which she said that he could go right ahead, that all of the nurses would tell him the same thing and that by the way she supervised the other nurses.

Finally, he threatened to intentionally set the bed alarm off all day and all night until it drove them crazy and they let him get up on his own. She again replied, “Go right ahead. There are more of us, and we will outlast you, and if we have to, we’ll get out the bed restraints.”

Wayne couldn’t help himself; he giggled a little at the fact that she wasn’t backing down and that she knew it was never going to get to that point.

She saw that, giggled too, and said, “so don’t make me spank you.”

Well, the next time I was there when that same nurse was on duty, they had become the biggest of buddies.

On the day that he was released from the hospital so I could take him home, she insisted on being the one to take him down to our car. They hugged and wished each other well as she helped him out of a wheelchair and into the car.

The spiritual theme were exploring this month in our religious education, classes and small group ministries is “cultivating compassion”. We’re putting a link in each Friday newsletter to a terrific packet of information on our monthly theme, in case you would like to delve into it even further.

As you may have noted in our call to worship we read together earlier, Compassion is one of our church’s religious values.

We describe compassion as “to treat ourselves and others with love”

I love that, because it turns our value of compassion into an action – something we must do.

Compassion then is really about living love — that sounds familiar – the agape love, the fierce love, the divine love for humanity and all that is we have been talking about so much here at the church.

Now, today, I’ll concentrate mostly on that part about self compassion – treating ourselves with love.

I focus on self compassion not because our compassion for others in our world is not vital – indeed it is needed now more than ever – I focus on it because until we learn to love ourselves fully, we cannot love our world fully.

Self compassion is how we sustain our passion for social justice.

We have to put on our own oxygen mask first.

Acting with compassion toward ourselves is spiritual practice for offering compassion to others, even those whom we find difficult or with whom we disagree.

I began with that story about Wayne’s nurse, because she so beautifully demonstrated an essential way we practice self compassion – treat ourselves with love.

She set a clear boundary.

She said “no” to him getting out of that bed on his own. She said “yes” to to protecting her own license and “yes” to providing the best care to him that she possibly could with some limits around approaching things with a sense of equality, equanimity, and even humor between them.

Having such a clear boundary, let her empathize with how having been sick for so long he couldn’t be at his best or sweetest and to understand how he might feeling angry over such a loss of personal agency.

By setting a boundary that was compassionate for herself, it allowed her to treat him with love rather than resentment over his words.

And in doing so, she opened up this sense of spaciousness within which a beautiful new relationship between them could emerge.

Researcher and author Dr. Brene Bown says, “Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They’re compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”

Practicing self-compassion begins with setting firm, clear boundaries: knowing what is important to us and what really is not; claiming our own needs and desires while knowing the difference between them and releasing all else; being aware of that to which we must say, “no”, and, just as importantly, that to which we can joyfully say “yes”. Once our boundaries are clear, it leaves open a remaining spaciousness within which our compassion for others can be boundless.

Now, in addition to setting boundaries, here are a few other self compassion practices.

The first of them is to speak to ourselves as we would to a close friend. Most of us would not say to a friend or loved one who was experiencing a challenging life situation, “Well that’s because you’re a screw up and it’s all your fault. You should be ashamed.”

Why do we so often say something much like this to ourselves! Can we instead offer ourselves the comfort and support we would to a good friend?

Next – embrace and offer compassion to our whole selves, including the parts of ourselves that we may not be so proud of or like so much, even if that’s a past self. After all we are each an ever evolving process, so we never really leave behind who we used to be entirely.

Here’s an example of how I had to do this during my formation as a Unitarian Universalist minister.

I was raised in a fundamentalist southern Baptist Church as a young child. Later, I rejected that religious belief system into which I’d even been baptized!

I rejected it because it’s tenants seemed, well, untenable to me.

The problem was, for many years I also rejected all spirituality along with it because I had felt hurt by that religion.

So, for hot minute after I became a Unitarian Universalist, when someone would ask me about my faith, it would go something like this.

“So, Unitarian Universalist. Never heard of that. Is that a real religion?”

To which I would reply something like, “Well, yes. But we’re based heavily in reason and science and don’t believe in a lot of hocus-pocus, supernatural stuff. Hell, we don’t even believe in hell.”

And then they would usually say, “Really? Then how do you get people to give money?”

Our religious self can’t be only about what we’re not anymore.

To fully become a UU minister, I had to forgive and direct compassion toward that little boy who had gotten baptized in the Baptist Church because he wanted to belong so much and who then had to process having felt hurt by religion, once he finally found one where he did belong.

I had to reclaim that little guy and his baptism within holiness for myself.

Next – the science shows that engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer or meditation, especially the Metta meditation we did together earlier, grounds us in the present moment and gives us a sense of our vast interconnectedness with one another and all that is, which is so necessary for compassion and forgiveness toward both ourselves and others.

Buddhist activist, scholar and author, JoAnna Macy says, “You need that wisdom, that insight into the mutual belonging of everything that is interwoven as it is in the web of life.

And when you have that, you see, you know that this is not a war between the good guys and the bad guys, but that the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart.

And we are so interwoven in the web of life that even the smallest act with clear intention has repercussions through that web that we can barely see.”

Finally, maintaining an awareness that there is this really cool synergy between self compassion and practicing compassion more generally can help keep us focused.

Self-compassion generates compassion for others, as we’ve been discussing.

Acting compassionately toward others benefits us in multiple ways and nourishes our own love of self.

As our reading earlier said, “There is no greater remedy for helplessness than helping someone else, no greater salve for sorrow than according gladness to another.”

Research indicates that the benefits of practicing compassion include:

Psychological and Relational benefits such as reduced stressed and anxiety, emotional resilience, increased life satisfaction, greater feelings of self- worth, less depression, deeper and more authentic relationships.

Physical benefits have also been found like lower blood pressure, reductions in chronic disease, improved immune function, quicker recovery from illness, AND increased longevity”

In the realm of psychological benefits, a recent New York Times article detailed how setting a self-compassionate boundary around our busyness, which we can so easily think is a sign of our worth, saying no to some of the demands on our time, can allow for the rest, relaxation, and contemplation that can free up space for vastly increased creativity and innovation.

We’re taught to feel selfish and guilty about saying “no”, and yet, sometimes, we do more creative good through saying “no.”

Other research has found that this one self-compassionate boundary, setting limits on our own time, has myriad mental and physical health benefits AND it opens up this spaciousness within us in which we are far more able to notice the needs and suffering of others and ourselves and are thus far more likely to act with compassion.

In that same vein, there is even research that says that when we act on compassion often enough, it actually rewires our brains, creates this neuroplasticity through which we become more empathetic and even more prone to being compassionate.

Since I am reclaiming with self-compassion that little religious guy who got baptized all those years ago, I’m going to think of that as a “God-given compassion feedback loop.”

Setting boundaries.
Speaking to ourselves as we would a close friend.
Embracing our whole selves with love.
Engaging in spiritual practices
Remaining mindful of the interdependent nature of self compassion and compassion for all.

My Beloveds, if you hear nothing else today, hear this:

Self-compassion is a sacred act. We cannot truly treat others with love until we treat ourselves with love.

When we treat ourselves with love, we find we must treat others with love. If God is an ocean of fierce love that flows through our universe, then this sacred act is how we manifest God within us, among us, and beyond us.

Hallelujah.

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

For our benediction today, I invite you to find a comfortable position, take a deep breath, and then repeat after me:

May I be well; may all be well.

May I experience loving kindness

May all experience loving kindness.

May I dwell in peace and beauty.

May all dwell in peace and beauty.

Amen. Go in peace.

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

It’s Us

October 2, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Carrie Holley-Hurt, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
September 28, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

This church has so often stood against the societal tides of dehumanization and marginalization. We have been a soft place to land for those of us who did not fit in and have felt alone in our opposition to the dominant messaging of oppression. This church has been and will continue to be needed by those here now and by those to come. But what does that say about our role and responsibility to one another and to those we will never meet? Rev. Carrie explores who we are, what we are about, and how Living Love can help us.

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

COMMUNITY MEANS STRENGTH
by Starhawk

We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been, a place half-remembered and half-envisioned. We can only catch glimpses from time to time, community.

Somewhere there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere, a circle of hands will open to receive us. Eyes will light up as we enter. Voices will celebrate us whenever we come into our own power.

Community means strength. That joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends, some place where we can be free.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WE HOLD HOPE CLOSE
by Reverend Julianne Jamaica Soto

In this community, we hold hope close. We don’t always know what comes next, but that cannot dissuade us. We don’t always know just what to do, but that will not mean that we are lost in the wilderness. We rely on the certainty beneath, the foundation of our values and ethics. We are the people who return to love like a North Star and to the truth that we are greater together than we are alone.

Our hope does not live in some glimmer of an indistinct future. Rather, we know the way to the world of which we dream, and by covenant and the movement forward of one right action. And the next, we know that one day we will arrive at home.

Sermon

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

I think this church is a miracle. Not a miracle in parting the Red Seas or Buddha levitating over a river, but rather a miracle in that after years of people in this country tending towards isolation and disconnection and loneliness. At a time when we use the word epidemic for loneliness, this community exists.

This community bucks the trend by staying strong and growing. To me this is a miracle and it’s deeply needed. This church has always been a place That’s been needed and it will always be a place that’s needed. A community. And not just a community, but a community with an ethos of being about what is right. About opposing the harmful status quo.

Now we might not do that right perfectly and we definitely don’t always get it perfect. We are still growing and we have a lot to go until we are safe space for everyone who could come and find comfort here. But from what I understand of our recent history, we have been a place where many people who feel a deep resistance to the dominant culture or who have experienced marginalization because of the dominant culture could come and find community.

For example, this church has supported queer people since the 1970s by either providing space for things like the National Conference of Gay Liberation in 1971, providing dances for lesbians, my favorite, for partnering without you so that queer kids could have a safe and fun prom.

This community has done the right thing. It might have taken some coaxing every once in a while, but it did do the right thing. And it did it at a time, which feels a lot like this time, when homophobia was celebrated, encouraged throughout society and into the highest levels of power, where queer people face violence, where our government allowed AIDS to ravage the community when discrimination was the reality for so many people. It wasn’t popular and it wasn’t what most churches were doing, but then again that’s not what we’re about.

We aren’t about what most churches are doing. We aren’t about, or at least we try hard not to be about, those this close that harm, hurt and dehumanize. Instead, our mission is about one another, about humanity, it’s about liberation.

This church has taken a firm stance for the rights and dignities of people. We have a commitment to dismantling systems of supremacy in ourselves and in our church. Right now, Our values and commitments are in direct opposition to the powers that be.

Because of that, this church is positioned to be a community for those of us whose souls and hearts grate against the pervasive dehumanization that are the structures of this society. A place for those who have been deeply hurt by their spiritual houses of worship.

For so many people in this church we can be a place of belonging and healing. Now has it always done that perfectly? Nope. That’s because this church isn’t some removed magical thing. When I say this church or when I say this community I want you to hear you.

It’s you, church is you, and it’s me, it’s we. And it is the people that came before us, and it is the people that will come after us. All of us throughout time are this church. And because we are all people, we are not perfect. We are human, we have faults, but we seek to be better, we come together to be better.

My prayer is always that may we have more clarity than our ancestors, and may our descendants have more clarity than us, may it always be so.

So our religion has a polity, and it’s just a word that means organizing philosophy. It stretches way back to the 17th century, it’s called the congregationalist polity. Which just means that we, the members of this church, create and we maintain and we direct what we do as a body. So we don’t have a presbytery or a bishop or a pope that sets over us that dictates what we should do or how we should believe.

This is why we say we come together not by creed but by Covenant. We try to make good promises and have good boundaries so that we can create the kind of church that will set out to do the important work of our mission. And through living into these promises and commitments to one another, we keep this church alive.

We press against the marginalization and dehumanization out there. We make sure that those who need us can find us, and hopefully start to feel as though they have found their way home, or at least are on the right path. It’s us. We do this. And it’s the beautiful interplay of the individual and the communal.

It’s Leo Collas who’s created Easter eggs all over this church so that we can be inspired by those who came before us. People like Paul Kirby, who bought the poster that’s just right outside the sanctuary. It has the seven principles when the seven principles were first passed in the 1980s. Paul Kirby, who also, while being sick himself, helped organized doctors and nurses in this church to get vital and life extending medication to AIDS patients. To take the medication from those that have passed and to give them to those that were still alive.

To me, this story exemplifies how we, with our beautiful and precious inherent dignity, bring our hearts and our talents and our resources to this place and then we do the work with others to make beautiful and wonderful things happen. Those doctors and nurses they were at great risk for what they did but what they did was beautiful.

They weren’t supposed to be helping people with AIDS the way they did but it was the right thing to do. It was a compassionate and humane thing to do even though what they did would have been considered a crime but they understood that the bigger crime was to let people die when medication was available.

They acted justly and they acted at great personal risk and they were able to do it because they acted in community. Together, they ensure that people who needed medication got medication. And decades later, Leo is sharing their story with all of us, beautifully moving the past and to the present as a way to model and fortify us for the work that’s ahead of us. A beautiful dance between the individual and the collective. It shows just how much we need one another, how much we need each other to show up in all of our fullness.

When we bring ourself to this place, when we bring our talents and our hearts, our commitment and our resources to the collective, we do important and needed things, Things that will impact lives now and reverberate well into the future, just like those doctors and nurses. And because of this, we have a great responsibility to this place, to this community, to this church, to one another.

As Mary told you, today is Commitment Sunday. It’s the official kickoff to our pledge drive, and we are going to be hearing a lot about it between now and October 19th, about committing our pledges to this place. We do this every year and I bet for some of you it might be a little off-putting. I’m looking at you people who stream when NPR is doing their fundraiser.

How about some of you have been taught that talking about money is crass or rude? It’s not. It’s just a necessary tool to doing the work of living love.

There was a time in our country for our proto-Unitarian churches where there wasn’t a need for pledge drives. The state would just sponsor the churches. And while that seems way easier than what we’re doing right now? It wasn’t very UU. The separation of church and state are such a fundamental value to us, and rightfully so.

But the part about that separation is that it becomes our responsibility to keep this beautiful community that gives us so much going. It’s our responsibility to nourish those things that grow us that help us to live into our values so that they can continue to exist for us for each other and for those that we haven’t even met yet.

And money, because that is the way of the world is a major part of how we do this. Money is the reason that we have a building That even occasionally has air-conditioning. Money is the reason that we can buy curriculum and food and pay musicians so that we can nourish souls. Money is the reason that we can transform lives through things like supporting amazing work of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry or the Austin Sanctuary network. And it allows us to provide spaces to life-saving organizations like PFLAG.

And money is the reason we can meet week after week and we can stream week after week. It is the reason we have a computer program that is frankly very useful to reach people and share news and opportunity and rapid responses all in an effort to do our part of building the beloved community.

Money is also part of our values. And I wouldn’t say it’s even part of our shared theology. As Unitarian Universalists, we are committed to distributive justice, meaning we believe that people should be paid fairly for their work, paid a wage which allows them to live without struggling. We have been working hard to pay our staff up to the UUA’s standard, just like Mary told you. And my hope is that we can make it happen. I would love to see it happen this go around.

Because I want our staff, who do the everyday, sometimes challenging and often mundane work necessary to keep this place going, to be paid equitably. Money matters because it’s how the world operates, but most importantly, it matters because it’s how we make our missions happen.

And ultimately, living into our mission is what it means to live love. To live love is to do the very real and very tangible work of nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice to build the beloved community. To live love means we put our focus and our resources on those things that will benefit each other and those we haven’t even met yet, or may never meet.

As these next few weeks unfold, I hope that you will not numb out, I hope that you will not start streaming your podcasts, but rather that you’ll think about the ways that you’ve been impacted by this place, the ways that you want to impact the world, and the ways that this community, this church, makes it possible. And then think about what makes sense for you based on your life and your other responsibilities.

Because we are needed. We’ve always been needed, and we will always be needed. The work we do is built on a foundation of those who’ve come before who felt responsibility to this place.

And the work that we do now, the contributions that we make of our time, and our talents, and yes, our treasure, will be the foundation that those who come after us will build from.

All of us, throughout time, dreaming of a more beautiful and just world, and all of us doing the tangible work to bring it into reality, so that, as Reverend Soto says in our reading, by covenant and movement forward of one right action and the next, we know that one day we will arrive at home.

May it always be so.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we leave this sacred time of community, know that you are loved, know that you are held in love, and know that what you do matters, and know that we are needed. May we always remember that. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Building Belonging

October 1, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Carrie Holley-Hurt, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
September 14, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

When we work towards justice, we are building a world of belonging. But what does that look like in our community, and what do we need to do? Rev. Carrie explores how we might build belonging and how our religious roots can help us.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

IN TROUBLED TIMES
by Reverend Stephen Schick

From the loneliness of troubled times we come,
to discover that we are not alone.

Into the dwelling place of togetherness we come,
to collect remnants of hope.

From fear that all is lost we come,
to discover what will save us.

Into the comfort of each others arms we come,
to build a strength that is not yet vanished.

From darkness we come,
to wait until our eyes begin to see.

Into the refuge of fading dreams we come,
to remove illusions and focus new visions.

From despair that walks alone we come,
to travel together.

Into the dwelling place of generations we come,
to pledge allegiance to being peace and doing justice.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

EVERYTHING IS STILL ON FIRE
by Reverend Julian Jamaica Soto

Everything is still on fire, despite your best efforts. In addition to living, it is clear that fire or not, you must level up in what it means to thrive. Right now, that means wrestling with the truth and the fact that everything is not all your fault.

I am sorry that everything is still on fire. Once hate catches the winds of “not my problem” blow, and the blaze is hard to stop. But hard is not impossible. Not yet is different than never.

You and community have an answer. You have a response to systems of power and control and to the cost of suffering. You and your community together are the answer.

You are not only a people of flame, but also a people of cold, clear truth. You know both where you fall short and where you flourish and where you still reach. Everything is still on fire but all is not lost.

You remain more nimble than steadfast, more unshakable than swayed by the latest rage. You are here to put out the ravenous flames and heal the world. Enough is enough.

Sermon

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

So we’re gonna go back to the 19th century for a few moments. In the 19th century Universalist minister Hosea Ballou was out riding the circuit in New Hampshire. Now the circuit was when ministers would go from town-to-town preaching at different churches, on horseback, of course.

On this occasion he’s riding with the Baptist minister. And of course, they’re debating theology. And at one point, the Baptist says, “Brother Balllou.”

Now, I don’t know New Hampshire accent, so we’re just going to imagine New Hampshire’s in the South.

“Brother Balllou, if I were a universalist and feared not the fires of hell, I could hit you over the head, steal your horse, and saddle, and ride away, and I’d still go to heaven, because I believe it.”

Ballou looks over at him and says, “If you were a Universalist that idea would have never occurred to you.”

I love that story because it’s funny and it’s witty and I can just imagine the Baptist minister getting turning red and like having no response at all. And, let’s be honest, as a Unitarian Universalist that scratches my ego quite a bit.

But what does that mean? Does my religious affiliation really mean that I wouldn’t have such a violent thought? And if that’s true, is it a chicken or the egg situation? Is it that peaceful and kind people are drawn to this religion? People who would never think about stealing someone’s horse. Are those the ones that show up at this church? Or is that the teachings of this religion lead us to be people who would get all those horrible ideas just right out of our head?

I think a case could be made for both. We definitely are a self-selecting people. When I decided to come back to Texas, Austin was my non-negotiable. But there’s also something to be said about how our communities, religious, or others shape us and our actions.

For example, growing up, I had a front row seat to what we now, or what we called at the time the religious right movement, and I saw how it played out in people’s lives. I experienced people who loved their kid, they expressed levels of empathy for other people’s suffering and other people’s kids, and they would consistently vote for candidates who would vote against free and reduced lunch and vote against gun reform and vote against systems of support for parents.

But those candidates also promised to do away with Roe versus Wade. And as we know now years and years of those candidates getting the support of those single issue voters has led us to where we are now.

Now I can’t speak for those people who did that. I am sure that at least some of them, had they had their way, would not have wanted to the slow erosion of policies that protected children. Or maybe not. I can’t speak for them.

But what I do know is that often these kind and empathetic people were voting with the belief that the ends justifies the means. Yes, this person goes against everything I say I believe, but they said the magic words. And so I’m gonna vote for him.

And the fruits of those ends have not worked out for most anyone, but especially those in our society who are most vulnerable and are less likely to fit into the controllable blocks of white supremacy hetero-patriarchy, those that have been and continue to be marginalized.

The outcome of the religious right, backed by the ends justify the means, has resulted in who belongs in this country and who belongs in power getting narrower and narrower by the day. This week’s Supreme Court recent ruling in favor of racial profiling is a prime example of that.

Now many books have been written about how the religious right movement used those single issue voters for nefarious ends. We know that Jerry Falwell and others were upset that their tax exempt status was going to be taken away unless they integrated their white-only academies. They wanted a world that existed before the civil rights movement, and so they used an issue they thought would motivate people. They used abortion to get what they wanted. They grew their desires for a pre-civil rights America right into the Christian nationalist movement that we are living in today.

Now, I simplified that a lot, but I use that example because it’s a good one. We are in a place in our history where we can see this fully, we can see how this philosophy has played out, but mostly I brought it up because it has a lot of rich lessons for us right now.

And while I don’t mind exposing what’s happening, and I think it’s really good to take a historical look to see how we got where we are. I’m more concerned about what we’re going to do about it than anything else.

So one thing I want us to take away from this example is that the purpose and the impact of Christian nationalism is to narrow down belonging. They want and are making great headway in having a protective in-group and a vulnerable out-group.

Which means our call as a justice-loving and justice-seeking people is to do whatever we can to push against laws that have this at their heart. Like the bathroom bill that was recently passed here in Texas that is a blatant attempt to remove and erase trans and non-binary people. Or the Supreme Court ruling and all the ICE raids that are trying to further instill this idea that to be American, to deserve protection, is to be white. Or the many many attacks on reproductive rights that seek to control people’s body and put cis men in authority over everyone else.

Now of course this isn’t anything new. White supremacy heteropatriarchy has always existed in this country and has always shaped legislation. It has always been protected. There’s always been an in-group and there’s always been out-groups, but right now we find ourselves in a time when a concerted effort is underway to roll back all progress that has been made. And not just that, it’s a time when racism and sexism and homophobia and transphobia are celebrated.

So the good news is this isn’t new, right? This isn’t new, we know what to do. But we have to be louder than we have been and we have to fight harder against the normalization of it. We have to condemn it when we talk to our friends and our family, we have to condemn it. When we talk to the city councilors or school board members or the legislature or any person in any position of power, we have to condemn it with consistency and frequency pointing out what is happening and say wholeheartedly that we condemn it.

When we do this, when we use our voice and when we take actions, we plant seeds for a more just world. For the beloved community that we’re always talking about. And we do it with the sort of stamina that comes from knowing we are not going to see the fruits of our labor. At least not most of us.

What we are seeking to do external to this community is a long game, and we keep doing it. But here in this building, in this community, we act to see those fruits now. We do the work of growing ourselves and making sure to see where we see our own barriers of belonging, and we dismantle them now because while the work of building the beloved community will take generations, the work of building belonging in our community won’t.

And this is where we get back to Reverend Ballou. In order to be a community where we are building belonging, a community that honors and respects and supports the full expression of humanity, We must also be a people to do the work. The work that will make sure we aren’t the guy who would hit the other guy over the head and take his horse. To do the work to understand that the means, they don’t justify the end, they condition the end.

What we pour into ourselves, what we pour into our community, and what we pour into the people around us will shape what happens and will shape the ends. And this comes from the work of educating ourselves and then doing the spiritual work of taking what we learned from head knowledge to heart knowledge so that we live it. This is the spiritual practice of anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism. It doesn’t just stay in books we read, we must embody it. We have to let what we learn be embodied so that we and the way we operate is fundamentally changed.

For those of us who are white, this means examining the way that white supremacy has shaped our world-view, how it has shaped how we view the global majority, what actions we take to uphold the systems, because systems cannot work unless we comply. And then we do the hard and the very sacred work of dismantling white supremacy in ourselves.

For those of us who are cis, we need to do the hard work of seeing how patriarchy has shaped our notion of gender, and how we comply, How possibly we weaponize it and then we do the hard and the sacred work of dismantling it in ourselves.

For those of us who are straight or able-bodied or have citizenship status or who have class privilege, those of us who hold any privileges, we must examine how we are complying to these systems that hold up so much oppression. We must examine the ways that we uphold those structures that seek to narrow belonging, because that’s what they are doing. And then we do the hard and very difficult work of dismantling them in ourselves and in our community. Because we just don’t become the person who wouldn’t knock someone off their horse. We have to work to be those people.

Reverend Ballou said,

“It is well known and will be acknowledged by every candid person that the human heart is capable of becoming soft or hard, kind or unkind, merciful or unmerciful, by education and habit.”

It takes work. It takes education and action. It takes learning from books, yes, and learning from each other. It takes empathy and risk and failure. It takes stepping outside of our comfort zone and growing ourselves. It takes education and habit.

This type of growth of spiritual practice and transformation is embedded into our religious tradition. Both Unitarians and Universalists believed it was important to work on personal growth. Of course, sometimes they missed the mark, especially the Unitarians, okay? They were often more individualistic than was helpful at times.

But the idea that we can learn and we can grow and we can be different from the larger system around us. That’s inherent to our faith. Our religious foundation is about finding that third way, not ping-ponging back and forth, not just doing the opposite of what those causing harm are doing, but breaking out of the paradigm of oppression altogether and doing things differently so that we can have more meaningful, more beautiful, and more inclusive outcomes.

I believe that justice, real justice, where everyone has a place, where everyone is protected, where everyone is represented, happens because those working to justice have worked to transform themselves. Have worked to dismantle systems of supremacy in their own heart. Have allowed themselves to break from the larger system. And that’s the liberation that flows into the community so that we can be a place of belonging. A place where our whole selves and where everyone’s whole self can come and find belonging.

And that work toward personal and collective liberation will imbue our work. It will create beautiful and fertile soil to nourish what will be born out of our work and the fruits of which will be expansive and beautiful and it will happen in the here and then now, all the work we do, all the movement towards widening our circle in this community, when we stretch our notion of belonging will benefit us all in this community, in the here and now, all of us, all of us, in the here and the now.

May it always be so.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As you leave this place and return to the normal rhythms of life May you feel held. May you feel held by this community and may you feel held by love. May you know belonging, and may you be the reason that someone else feels that they belong. Go in love.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Don’t Miss the Next Chalice

September 1, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Carrie Holley-Hurt, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
August 31, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Every generation in our church brings something beautiful and unique to our living tradition. This Sunday, we will explore how the youth have helped shape our faith and how those of us who are older can encourage and provide space for them to grow and contribute.

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 Elandria Williams

We are the children of freedom fighters, visionaries, and radical liberal theologians.

We are the phoenix rising out of the ashes of the McCarthy era and the civil rights, women’s, and queer liberation movements.

We are the survivors and beneficiaries of youth-led and youth-focused beliefs and programming that encouraged us to be change makers, boundary pushers, and institutionalists at the same time.

We are and will be the ministers, religious educators, congregational presidents, organizers, and social change leaders our faith has led us to be.

We wear our faith as tattoos on our bodies and in our hearts as testaments to the blood, tears, dreams, and inspirations of our community ancestors and elders.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

Connie Goodbread

“Faith development is all we do. Unitarian Universalism is the faith we teach. The congregation is the curriculum.”

Sermon

Who loves Unitarian Universalism? Raise your hand or make some noise.

Me too!

Now who loves the chalice? So do I. It’s just such a beautiful and rich symbol, isn’t it.

So here is the thing, we don’t have Unitarian Universalism and we don’t light the chalice if we hadn’t listened to our youth.

Unitarian and Universalist way back in the 19th century kept looking at each other and saying …should we be friends. Should we make it official?

Maybe they kept running into each other at the same protest or annoying all the same people.

So the adults would get together and work towards merger but something would come up and they would say “we aren’t ready yet” or “maybe it not a good idea.”

Not to digress too much but one of the best pieces I found that might explain the reluctance to merge was found in a paper by John Cummins… he writes…

“One Back Bay matron was heard to sniff that Universalists were ‘nothing but Baptists who could read.'”

Universalists complained that Unitarians didn’t feel they’d had a good sermon unless they didn’t quite understand it themselves.

You got to love church history!

So the adults are struggling to make this coming together work.

But the youth of those groups said, we will do our own thing then and in 1935 they essentially merged. Now the Universalist General Convention voted that down but…

Well that did not deter them

And by 1949 their religious educators took their lead and formed the Liberal Religious Educators Association or, because its still around, you might hear it called LREDA.

The youth merger was motivating. And soon the adults started to take on lots and lots of merger work and finally in 1961 the Unitarians and the Universalists merged and became Unitarian Universalism!

Now I told that story the way I did, not to demean the really hard work and the millions of hours that must have gone into this really important decision, after all there were real theological differences between the groups. There were questions of polity and asset management.

Having set in my fair share of board meetings, I know those people did the phenomenal work for our faith.

But I wonder, would we still be debating merger or if one side would have died out completely … if our youth hadn’t motivated us.

To me This story highlights how vital our kids and your youth are to the heaith of our congregation. They bring a perspective that those of us who have to think about things like Polity and merger or assets don’t have. They can nudge us to move more quickly.

It doesn’t mean that youth were better than those adults or us adults, it just means that have a different lens.

I am a big believer that we need all sorts of lens… all sorts of perspectives… in order to live out our values. In order to keep our living-tradition living and evolving into something more beautiful and more encompassing of the vastness of creation.

Their perspective, their clarity of seeing how these two groups could and should work together was powerful. And I am so grateful that those adults took their lead.

Now onto the chalice.

The image of the flamming chalice was created for the Unitarian Service Committee in the 1930s so they could have an officially looking image to stamp documents they needed to get jews and unitarians away from the Nazis.

But for about almost 50 years, the chalice was just an image. It did get an update after merger, when the two circles around the chalice were added. But it wasn’t until the kids get involved that we get this very tangible symboi of our faith. In the 1970s the kids in religious education along with their religious education teachers would talk about the chalice, and explore the meaning, and then they would craft their own. Susan Richie writes that we think the chalice first made its way to the sanctuary when the kids would have their service each year.

Isn’t that beautiful?

I just imagine sweet little kids, like the kids in our church, bringing in their homemade chalice and lighting them as part of their worship service.

And from there some adults must have said, I like that, thats a good idea. And fast forward to today. Sunday morning chalices are lit in churches from Austin to Australia.

What a gift those kids brought into our lives.

Our kids and the youth in this church – with their different perspectives, with their own curiosity and ideas, their different ways of worshipping, have so much to offer us.

Maybe even the next chalice.

But here is the other part of the story… those kids and those youth were able to do what they did, merge two religions and give us our richest and most consistent religious symbol – because they had adults who created the structure for them.

They had adults who volunteered in religious education, they had adults who listened to them, and maybe even helped them take their ideas and make them into realities. They had adults who said, what you brought to our sacred space is meaningful and we will follow your lead.

And that is what I want to nurture and nourish at this church while I have the honor of serving you.

I want us all to to embody what Connie Goodbread said in the reading. That the “congregation is the curriculum.”

I want that for us adults and I want that for our kids and youth.

So here what I am asking of you.

First,lets get experimental.

My favorite theological idea is praxis. It comes from liberation theology and its the idea that we reflect on our beliefs, our values, and then we act based on them and then we reflect actions and then act, reflect… you get it.

This requires creativity This requires energy This requires flexibility And it might even require some failure.

Sol and I ask for your input and your energy. Because our kids have experienced a lot in those early days of the COVID pandemic. And they are experiencing a lot right now. We all are. But could you imagine being 5 or 10, or 17 years old living through what we are living through?

Our kids need us to pour into them. And while I think we have been doing a really good job, I think we can reimagine things to meet the moment for these kids.

So how do you help with this? Well one we want your ideas. We want your thoughts and we want to hear what you are observing.

Secondly, be flexible. It is my desire to welcome all that come into this space with the best hospitality, and that goes for our kids. If “the congregation is the curriculum” then how we worship when we have all ages services, or how we treat kids (and their people) when they are in the sanctuary is all a lesson, it is all faith development.

Let’s make those lessons good and fun and loving.

And I get that what I am asking is a lot for some of you. I am asking you to sit with two important values and prioritize one.

We have a value of being a radically welcoming space. We say we want to embody the beloved community.

And some of us have a value that church be comfortable. That services be consistent and not deviate from the way things usually are. And I get that, and I do not want to deem that as a value. I am so proud that this church can be such a nourishing space for so many.

But when we have two opposing values like that.

The desire to embody the beloved community and the desire to have our services always be what we want, we have to decide which one takes priority. Which one helps us to live more into our values.

I know which one I am rooting for.

And that leads nicely to my next point, I may disappoint you in this role and you may disappoint me. Let me disappoint you. I rather try something new to nourish our community and disappoint someone, than to do nothing and leave people out.

Finally, I need your energy. You time and talent. We have a consistent set of volunteers for religious education but we need more people especially for our youth group.

We need you.

Even those of you who think that you aren’t good with kids or you have no desire to teach kids, that okay. We have lots of ways you can help out and never have to read curriculum at all.

But I need you to volunteer and not… just because the kids and youth need you, which they do.

No, I need you to volunteer because I care about your spiritual development.

Whether it is Chalice Circles or 5th to 8th grade religious education – being a part of religious education grows you spiritually and in connection to others.

But you don’t have to take my word for you it, I recently asked some of our consistent religious education volunteers for their thoughts. From Melanie “It is a joy to volunteer with our amazing children. I learn as much from them as they do from me.”

Paul wrote that volunteering for 5th through 8th grade led [him] to the conclusion that one of our most significant UU tenets is community.

Arywn said “Watching the kids grow, learn, and play has been a huge expression of my UU faith, and has been genuinely transformative for me.”

Volunteering for religious education, any religious education, is not a sacrifice, it is a profound spiritual experience.

So please volunteer… Orientation is going to be on September 6th.

I feel very strongly about our religious education, and how it can transform lives for the whole lifespan of a person.

I feel strongly about our responsibility to our kids and our youth and the importance of a strong religious education program to grow our church.

My own husband has a story like many of you. He wasn’t particularly a church guy but when I found this place he felt strongly that it would be a good place for our kids. And he was right. Our kids have grown in this church.

They have made connections. They have grown in their values and in the creation of their own belief system which is something that is deeply needed in a world where the Christian nationalist agenda is encroaching into the classroom.

And because they have grown, we have grown. There have been times that they were the ones dragging us here. Because we were here we were experiencing our own growth and transformation.

If we want to transform lives, a strong religious education program is the way to do it.

But, given the week we just had at the capitol and in Minnesota I almost didn’t preach it. I thought about doing something else… something more justice oriented.

But then I realized this is a justice issue.

That the assault on trans people. The assault on reproductive health care. The school shooting. Are all apart of the larger narrative that our kids face in this political climate.

Our political system is screaming at them that it does not care. It does not care for them. That it doesn’t care if they are safe in school. It does not care if they have food or shelter or health care. It doesn’t care if they are safe in their body. It doesn’t care if their belief system is respected. It does not care about them.

But this is a place.

In this church we affirm loudly through our words and our actions that We care for them.

We see them. Who they are matters. Who they are is respected. And what they bring to this community is valued. May our actions speak this. And may we be a loving and soft place for all those who come through those doors.

May it always be so

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we leave this place and go back to the natural rhythms of our life May you feel, the warmth of your faith. May you feel by ALL empowered in this community.

And May you feel held by love.

Go in peace

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 Question Box

August 25, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Carrie Holley-Hurt, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
August 24, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

LABYRINTH
By Rev. Leslie Takahashi

Walk the maze within your heart: guide your steps into its questioning curves.
This labyrinth is a puzzle leading you deeper into your own truths.
Listen in the twists and turns.
Listen in the openness within all searching.
Listen: a wisdom within you calls to a wisdom beyond you and in that dialogue lies peace.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTING NEAR HIGHLAND ILLINOIS

When the revenant came down
We couldn’t imagine what it was
In the spirit of three stars
The alien thing that took its form
Then to Lebanon, oh, God
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
(Oh history involved itself)
Mysterious shade that took its form (or what it was)
Incarnation, three stars
Delivering signs and dusting from their eyes

Reading

SOME QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK
by Mary Oliver

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn’t?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape?
Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does It have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should t have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?

Sermon

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

HOW DO YOU LIVE HERE WITHOUT THINKING THAT YOU’RE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE?

Chris: I think that one can believe that one’s belief and one’s heart are in the right place without believing that that makes us better than someone else. We can believe, for instance, that our religious or political ideology is one rooted in love that then benefits more people than one that is not. That doesn’t make me better than anyone else. In fact, if I love everyone, I have to love them equally.

Carrie: So some of y ‘all know I grew up as a fundamentalist, and when I was a little kid, I really loved people and I thought the best way I could love them was to share the good news of hell. [ Laughter ] And let me tell you, I was pure of heart, right?

But I grew up and I met people and I had experiences and my world opened up. And so, I’m no better than that little girl. I just have a wider lens in which to look through the world.

And so we are no better than those people who have a narrow lens. We just have more information and probably more access to cooler people. [laughter]

WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

Carrie: Why? Because that’s the nature of things, you know. I mean, why do good things happen to really not great people, right? We could ask either question. Why do people who are willing to cause harm seem to hoard all the wealth and have all the privilege? It is it is just the way of the world and also those people (the people that have everything) cannot be protected from heartache just as much as we cannot be protected from heartache.

I don’t believe in an interventionist God that would protect certain people and not others. I Think bad things happen because our bodies are fragile and kind of tending toward chaos and because we live in a system that is controlled by supremacist thinking and bad things happen because of those things and we can do one thing about one of those things which is to work for a more beautiful and just world for everyone.

Chris: Yeah I think that’s pretty much the way I would Answer that also, I think that some of you may have heard me say that My personal experience of God is also not of an interventionist God. It is a God that is a fierce Loving presence that is with us even when those random terrible things happen in our lives lives. And so I think of God as a comforting presence, not as a presence that causes good or bad things to happen to us.

SO I’D LIKE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT GETTING GROUNDED IN SPIRITUALITY DURING SERMONS. WHAT WOULD YOU THINK ABOUT GIVING MORE SERMONS ON THAT TOPIC?

Yes? Okay. (audience laughing)

Yes. (audience laughing) – Well, that one was easy. (audience laughing)

HOW DO YOU DEFINE GOD? – WHAT ARE THE SACRED TEXTS OF UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM?

Carrie: I brought props. (audience laughing) So, how do i define God? [ Barry Taylor] the guitar tech for AC/DC. (I studied lots of theology – just so you know) said: “God is the name of the blanket that we lay on the mystery.”

And to me, that God is the mystery, and that mystery is what calls us to justice, it’s what calls us to each other, it’s what calls us to risk, even when we do not have stakes in the game, It comforts us like Chris said, when we are in those low places the one scripture that I always think is the even in the Depths of Sheol. There you are. So that’s God for me.

Books? I have, like I said… Okay, I really am a nerd. So, and I also cheated because it said five books.

So you want to get the and History of Unitarian Universalism, volumes one and two, that will give you a whole, several centuries of knowledge from Unitarians and Universalists.
And then we go to Mark Morrison Reed’s text on the Selma Awakening, which talks about our religion getting involved in the civil rights movement. And to me, it’s a very prophetic text. It’s not just historical.
Then we move on to James Luther Adams, who should technically be before James Luther Adams is one of our very, to me, one of our best theologians who was dealing with fascism during the middle of the 20th century and asked great questions like can our liberal religion stand up to fascism? And his collection of essays is just phenomenal.
Then there’s the book Centering, which is what ministers of color put up with in Unitarian Universalist Church, which I think is very illuminating.
And then Widening the Circle of Concern, which also shows the work that we have to do in our own church so that we can then really do the work of building the beloved community outside our church.

Chris: Great, thank you Carrie. You all just heard me talk a little bit about how I experience God.

As far as the sacred text of UU, I would say that we draw from all of the sacred text of all of the world’s religions and major philosophies as well as the collected works of Mary Oliver. And Carrie and I are kind of combining another question that we got here that wanted to know also beyond the sacred text, sort of what are some of the texts that tell us about our origins, our history, our struggle, how we’re organized, what’s the intellectual basis of our faith. So I too brought five books. I didn’t actually bring the books, just the titles.

One is Our Chosen Faith by John Buehrens. It’s a little bit dated now, but I think really still goes into how we do draw from so many sources.
Congregational Polity by Conrad Wright, which talks about how we’re organized as a faith.
Love at the Center, which is by our current Unitarian Universalist president, and really gets at now that we have centered our faith in love. What does that mean, theologically.
A Faith Without Certainty by Paul Razer I think is really important because we are a faith that doesn’t embrace certainty as we’re doing today. In fact, we find a lot of our religious faith and our spirituality in the questions, in the uncertainty, in the mystery.
And then I also, as Carrie had Widening the Circle of Concern and I have copies in my office you can borrow if you would like to help widen our circle of concern at this church.

Carrie: I’m going to add something because I clearly was very excited to answer that question that I did not get asked and I just wanted to say yes all we also can pull from all places for our sacred texts and just this week in a pastoral care and I was able to pull from the sacred text that is the Icelandic pop sensation, “Bjork.”

So it is all around.

Chris: – And actually that makes me want to add a little more about sacred texts. I think one of the really cool things about our faith is our sacred texts can also be our experience of life and what it teaches us and it can be music and it can be great drama and poetry and art and so many things so we are we are really not limited in how we define sacred and what informs what is sacred for us.

WHO ARE OUR UU SAINTS?

Chris: Unitarian universalism does not believe in hell, capital punishment or saints. I joke, I do think that while as a faith we have tended to have folks from throughout our history that we admire and respect and hold up and love some of what they did, we tend not to venerate folks.

And I actually think that that’s good that we can also criticize Ralph Waldo Emerson and say the type of individualism he was espousing at his time was in a context where communalism meant conformity and that might be too great an individualism for our time. And on and on. We can talk about how Theodore Parker fought for abolition and was in fact racist himself.

And so I think it’s actually important that we don’t hold up the almost perfection of saints because then that becomes a perfectionism standard for ourselves that we can’t live up to because we’re fallible human beings and if we try to hold ourselves up to a saint we can fall into despair and choose to do very little instead.

Carrie: That is where I landed as well. I’ve been thinking about this question all week because I really think it’s interesting and I think that’s exactly right. we have to move away from this idea of perfection so that we can actually do real work, except for maybe Mary Oliver, which is what someone told me.

IF SOMEONE BELIEVES IN AN AFTERLIFE WHERE INDIVIDUAL SOULS PASS INTO THAT AFTERLIFE AS A PHYSICAL LIFE, WHAT DOES THEIR INTELLIGENT AND THEIR PERSONAL SELF PASS ON?
WHAT IF THAT PERSON WAS OF HIGH INTELLIGENCE, BUT IN LATER LIFE SUFFERED FROM DEMENTIA. WHICH VERSION OF THAT PERSON PASSES ON TO THE OTHER SIDE?
WILL THEIR BEST SELF RETURN, OR WILL THEY BE LISTLESSLY WANDERING AROUND FOR ETERNITY?
FOR THAT MATTER, I AM A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON THAN I WAS AT 40 YEARS OLD. WHICH VERSION OF ME CONTINUES ON?
BUT PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM DEMENTIA ARE THE MOST EXTREME EXAMPLE OF DIFFERENT PERSONS IN THE SAME BODY AND THE QUESTIONS OF LOSS AND INTELLIGENCE AND THOUGHT PROCESSES.

Carrie: Okay, so first of all this is where I get real envious of that little girl who would have a good answer for you. But my answer is, obviously I don’t know what happens when you die. I do know biologically we have always existed, and we will continue to exist because this body, these borrowed carbon molecules will go back in to the earth and have a new life. And that’s beautiful. And that’s including our brain. And my brain wants to say, and I get to keep existing, and I hope that’s right. And I’ve had experiences that made me think that there is some core, some soul, some something, some essence that is me that is totally separate from my biological process that will continue to exist. And I really hope that that’s true.

Chris: – It’s a great question and I actually come to it from a similar perspective as Carrie. And actually I was just reading some really interesting scientific research where they really are starting to see that there may be energy patterns that we both omit and receive and actually are occurring between Carrie and I, and you and all of us right now, that may kind of be an essence of us.

Like Carrie said, I would find it hard to believe that Chris, as the intellect that’s talking to you right now, or as the physical body that’s talking to you right now, goes on in that way.

My own experiences, like Carrie say that maybe something of us, a core essence, our values, the love that we feel may go on, and I talked about my experience of God as that presence of fierce love that is there for us and all around us.

I have had experiences where people who I’ve lost seem to have kind of merged into that, And so the essence of them still seemed to be there and surrounding me and with me and supporting me, but it wasn’t like I was there with them physically or that we had a conversation. It was just sort of that presence and that communication. And there’s a certain wisdom that sometimes comes from that when I’m in deep meditation that actually applies to my life. So whether that is actually my spouse, Wayne, who died communicating something to me that I need to know, or whether it’s my subconscious creating him to communicate that to me. I really don’t care because it helps either way.

IS IT RESPONSIBLE TO PROSELYTIZE FOR UUS? I WANT TO SPREAD THE WORD OF OUR FAITH AS AN ANTIDOTE TO THE NEGATIVITY OF THE WORLD, BUT I DON’T WANNA BE THAT GUY. (audience laughing)

Chris: – Be that guy. I think, especially in this day and age, Unitarian Universalism has a saving message for our world and for folks that are out there who are hungry for a spiritual home that is grounded in fierce love and does want to create more justice and more love in our world, and we ought to be out there telling people about it.

There’s a difference between being coercive about it and going out there and saying, “Hey, friend, I’m a member of this faith in this church that has changed my life for the better and I believe is changing our world for the better. Let me tell you about it. I’d love for you to come sometime.” You’re not forcing them to come. You’re just saying, “Hey, I want you to share what has meant so much to me and been so valuable to me.”

Carrie: There’s no threat of hell, right? So that’s you’re not it’s not a scary place to bring people.

But I will say I found this place because someone told me to come and sign a petition to get the school district to treat trans people better Okay, I had no idea that y ‘all existed and I could have really used y ‘all many many years before that. So I am a little upset that any Unitarian Universalist I needed to tell me about it. So it is not, you are not proselytizing, you are not selling people the good news of hell. You are giving them that is something deeply meaningful in a time where there is just so much chaos. And I know that we all benefit from that, right? So we can be that guy. Be that guy.

Chris: All right, thank you all for such great questions. I haven’t run this by Carrie yet, but I think you won’t mind. There were a bunch of really good questions that we didn’t have the time to get to. I think over time, as we’re doing sermons, where that question might be applicable, we’ll come back to some of those and tie them into whatever topic we might be preaching on that might be related as we get the opportunity.

More of Carrie’s notes:

WHAT ARE 5 KEY TEXTS THAT YOU THINK ALL UUS SHOULD READ TO LEARN ABOUT THE ORIGIN, HISTORY/STUGGLES, AND INTELLECTUAL BASIS OF OUR CHOSEN FAITH?

A Documentary History of Unitarian Universalism, Volume 1 and 2
Anything James Luther Adams but one of the quickest way to dive in is with the book: JLA. The Essential James Luther Adams, Select Essays
Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison Reed – I think of him as a prophetic historian. Read The Selma Awakening for sure, but also Black Pioneers in a White Religion
Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity & Power in Ministry
Widening the Circle of Concern

ARE WE CHRISTIAN?

Yes, No, and sort of

Yes, Unitarians and Universalist were christian all the way back to the beginning of Chrisitanity, or Jesus followers. Its just theologians like Arius- who said at the Council of Nicea “the trinity doesn’t make sense” and Origin who was branded as a heretic for saying – “hell, who is she?” Pushed those movements underground for a long time and when they popped up they were suppressed until you get to America and there was just more freedom for them to thrive.

But even both of those movements started moving away from Christianity. The Unitarians because of transcendentalist and humanist, there were and still are christans Universalist in 1946, before the merger created the symbol of an off centered cross – its where we get our off centered chalice form at the time

Gordon Mckeeman wrote:

“The Circle is a symbol of infinity a figure without beginning or end. The Cross is the symbol of Christianity, It is placed off-center in the circle of infinity to indicate that Christianity is an interpretation of infinity but neither the only interpretation of the infinite nor necessarily for all people, the best one. It leaves room for other symbols and other interpretations, It is, therefore, a symbol of Universalism.”

So yes our roots are christian, but when we merged – there was alot of back and forth about how we were going to define ourselves, the source of who we were, in our bylaws (article 2, for those in the know) and after a lot of back and forth. They settled on “the universal truths taught by the great prophets and teachers of humanity in every age and tradition.”

From there thats what we have been. Sure some of us are Chrisitans or Jesus followers and a lot of us are humanist, atheist, buddist, or Pagan and a lot more. We do our best to grow spiritually together in those beliefs.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE GOD?

Attributed: Barry Taylor guitar tech for AC/DC and a pastor said:
“God is the name we give the blanket that we throw on the mystery.”

Mystery that pulls us together, that pulls us towards justice, that feeds a holy imagination, that exists in each one of us.

WHAT ARE THE SACRED TEXTS OF UUs?

Almost anything can be a sacred text. All sacred text can be used by us.

We have the bible which is part of our heritage and something that I wish we all were more literate in, not because it is a moral text – I don’t think it is at all…. But rather that like all good and holy text it is about people and their stories and poetry that are all circling around the same thing we are.
What is our purpose?
What is god?
What is bigger than our self?
How do we live life?
What do we owe each other?
What are we owed?
To me the bible is like the most specific library housing big questions and musings over 5000 years to a specific set of ancient people.

But also the icelandic pop musician Bjork has created some really lovely text.

WHO ARE OUR UU SAINTS? (I am obsessed)

We have martyrs- Rev. James Reeb and Viola Luzzo. If you go back in time you have Michael Servatus who was murdered by John Calvin But I don’t think we have saints.

And as I’ve been obsessing about that I think I love that about us. We have puritans roots and we are all swimming in white supremacy, both holding this idea of perfection and a move away from our humanity. The idea of sainthood, plays into that because its about purity and that’s not conducive to growth we need as people who are trying to pull out systems of supremacy within our selves and the larger world.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we go out into our world now, may we continue to explore questions more profound than answers.

And may we also find some really good answers every now and then.

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

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Spiritual Legacies

August 20, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 17, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

On this very special music Sunday, we’ll pay tribute to some of the musical greats and examine the spiritual messages and legacies they have given us.

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

From DEEP IS THE HUNGER
by Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

“So you do not expect to live to see the trees reach sufficient maturity to bear fruit?” I asked. “No,” he replied. “But is that important? All my life I have eaten fruit from trees that I did not plant, why should I not plant trees to bear fruit for those who may enjoy them long after I am gone? Besides, the man who only plants because he will reap the harvest has no faith in life.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

adapted from A HOUSE CALLED TOMORROW
by Alberto Rios

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen – You are a hundred wild centuries… bringing with you In every breath and in every step Everyone who has come before you, All the yous that you have been… Look back only for as long as you must, Then go forward into the history you will make. Be good, then better. Write books. Cure disease… And those who came before you? When you hear thunder, Hear it as their applause.

Sermon

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the ancestors for those who will follow. We are the hope of dreams made manifest for those who came before. We are legacies in the making – inheritances emerging- imaginings unfurling. We are the messengers of a world yet becoming – the priesthood of a spiritual awakening still dawning.

Today, we’re paying tribute to some of the musical greats that we have recently lost: David Lynch, Brian Wilson, Ozzy Osbourne, Marianne Faithful, Sly Stone.

When our director music, Brent, told me he wanted to do this tribute, it got me thinking about, as I would argue that each of these musical artists did during their lives, what enduring messages to the future, what spiritual legacies I, and we, might want to create with our own lives. What examples of how to do so have they left us?

As I researched their lives and careers, I was struck by their musical differences and the gifts such differences created, and yet how each of them, despite working in such disparate genres, had in common that they brought great innovation to the musical genres within which they worked. Sly Stone with funk and Ozzy Osbourne with heavy metal, just for example.

Likewise, they shared many musical themes in common, left us many very similar messages of great value through their music. One of the biggest ones being our unity, our interconnectedness – that we are all in this together and that there is both great value in our differences and at the same time that we hold so much in common with one another.

Others important and extremely useful themes they shared within their work included:

The need for love. It’s power. That love is worth it even though loving means we will also experience loss.
The multifaceted nature of being human – that we all have the capacity for good and for doing harm and must work toward the good.
The juxtaposition between simplicity and the complex within our world, and how we must see the interplay between them to better understand that world.
That change is possible. We’ll come back to that.

Yet once again, I also found great value in the fact that they each explored different themes and have left their own unique messages for us also, such as Marianne Faithful’s and Sly Stone’s social critiques or Osborne’s reflections on dealing with existential dread and mortality.

And despite, or perhaps because of the personal struggles that each of them dealt with at times during their lives, from drug, alcohol and other addictions, to other mental health issues, to marital and relationship difficulties, to physical health problems, to encountering discrimination, each of them expressed a desire for their music to make a difference.

Each of them overcame their individual life challenges and, in fact, wove their struggles into their musical and life legacies. And given that we all also experiences struggles in our lives, I wonder if we might learn from their examples.

In an interview near the end of his life, Sly Stone expressed a desire for his music to be a force for unity and celebrating diversity. He said, “I know music can make a difference.”

Marianne Faithful believed that music has the power to transform people – to connect people, to heal, and to allow the expression of the deepest human emotions.

Brian Wilson stated of his music, “I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can…” He also said, “I believe that music is God’s voice.”

Ozzy Osbourne expressed hopes for his music to center the voices of those who felt unheard or marginalized.

David Lynch stated that his art expressed his desire for people to know that, quote, “This world is supposed to be beautiful. We’re supposed to love each other as a family.”

Goodness gracious” They all sound like Unitarian Universalists”

And I think that desire to believe that we might leave the world a better place, that our lives might have some legacy beyond our physical time here on earth may be universal or at the very least extremely common.

An anonymous poet writes,

I have tried to leave my mark-
Pressed my name into the trees,
only for the bark to scar
and swallow my touch.

Spoken into open air,
only for the words to fade
and sink into wind.

Let ink bleed into paper,
only for the page to thin
and crumble to dust.

The world is good at forgetting-
The rivers scatter my reflection,
the mountains shed my step in landslides,
even stars do not pause to mark my loss.

And yet-
Somewhere, the laughter I gave
finds its way back in memory.

Somewhere, the kindness I gave
lives in the hands of another.

And somewhere, the love I gave
spreads unseen beneath the surface-
Like a stone slipping through water,
its ripples never truly gone.

Not all of us can be musicians and songwriters, poets, playwrights, great artists, powerful politicians, wealthy enough to leave a legacy gift that results in a building with our name on it.

So Federowski’s words ring so true to me. Our lives can be the legacy we leave, the inheritance we bestow. The laughter, fun, and joy we bring to and share with others, radiates outward through space and time in ways we will likely never comprehend.

The kindness we show to some stranger whom we have never met may in some small way we cannot know, change them, and they in turn interact with others, whom they then change for the better in some small way, and so the manner in which we choose to live our life might very well leave an inheritance of a world slowly evolving for the better the more creative, the more kind and loving.

The love we share and express helps divine love become manifest in our world and creates even more love. That river of fierce love that flows through our universe becomes a torrent of love that surges and flows creating oceans of love emergent.

We will to the future whatever wealth we may have, both material wealth, whether small or expansive, but more vitally, the spiritual wealth we create through the ways in which we live our lives and touch the lives of others.

In his final days in hospice care, my spouse Wayne thought and talked a lot about the legacy his life would leave. And after his death, part of my work became helping to make sure that inheritance he wanted to leave became reality.

And I am so proud of all that he left this world, materially yes, and through how he lived his life and the amazing ways in which he gave and did so much for others.

I am a part of that legacy because I am different and better because he was in my life.

He also wanted to leave an inheritance to the church, and I have arranged for most of that. Well, except for the multi-door, doorbell system he wanted to fund for when most of the doors at the church must be kept locked. You see, he said that he wanted it to make the Adam’s Family doorbell sound (make sound) and then to have a recording when we opened the door of Lurch saying “You rang”.

He really did tell me he wanted this, though there may have been a sly grin behind it when he expressed this wish. We’re still working upon how to fulfill the general spirit of that one.

Anyway, my point is, as our poet describes, and Wayne demonstrated, we can make the humor, the kindness, the love we live out our gift to our current world and the world we will leave behind.

I think that is especially important now, in this dangerous time in which we find ourselves. The humor, the kindness, the love are an even greater part of the wealth we so desire to bestow upon the future than any material or financial wealth.

Because you see, the President who wants to be king has seized and taken over a major US city. And make no mistake, though it is easier for him to do that with Washington DC, this is only the beginning – a test run on the highway to autocracy of which he dreams.

It is no accident that this, and the other cities he has threatened are largely progressive and governed in almost every case by folks who are not Cis, heterosexual, white males.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

His words seem if anything even more relevant now.

Will we stand up? Will we fight? Will we engage in that vigorous and positive action and confront the fierce urgency of now?

Will we like Brian and Marianne and David and Ozzy and Sly continue to believe that change is is still possible.

Will we leave to those whose ancestors we are becoming the democracy, freedom, and justice we cherish? Though we may not all be poets or songwriters, we can think of our spiritual legacy as a song that has been handed down to us from those who came before.

And we, we get to write and sing the next verse, keeping the good from what we have inherited and creating the change that is needed to set the next movement of the music for those who follow us to pick up and continue it in their own verse and their own direction. Like the musicians to whom we pay tribute today, we can treat that music as the voice of God.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We are the ancestors for those who will follow.

We are the hope of dreams made manifest for those who came before.

We are legacies in the making – inheritances emerging- imaginings unfurling.

We are the messengers of a world yet becoming – the priesthood of a spiritual awakening still dawning.

May we sing it forward. May the voice of God play on.

Amen

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we go out into our world today, may the music of our lives play on. May the verse we sing move us and our world toward compassion, justice and the realization of the Beloved Community.

May love be our song and our legacy

May the congregation say, ‘Amen” and “blessed be” Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

There is More…

August 11, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
August 10, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Our world can feel challenging, if not downright scary, these days. Add to that the challenges and losses in life we will all encounter, and it can feel as if renewal, hope, and change for the better are no longer possible. And yet history and human resilience have shown us over and over again that there is a wellspring of love that makes hope, peace, and joy always still available to us.

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

– Reverend Dr. Howard Thurman
A prominent American theologian of the early 20th century grandson of slaves.

“It was my conviction and determination that the church would be a resource for activists, a mission mentally perceived. To me, it was important that individuals who were in the thick of the struggle for social change would be able to find renewal and fresh courage in the spiritual resources of the Church.”

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

– Ellen Bass
A contemporary American poet and author

“The thing is to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it. And Everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it…Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, Yes, I will take you. I will love you again.”

Sermon

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

To begin this morning, I invite you to remain seated as we sing together verse 1 of hymn number 95 from the gray hymnal. That’s verse 1 only. There is more love.

♪ There is more love somewhere
There is more love somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more love somewhere

There is more love somewhere. There is more love everywhere. There is a fierce love that surrounds us and dwells within us. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that God is love. For many of us, fierce love is God.

In these times though, when it can seem that the forces of anti-love have gained the control of the levers of power in so many places around the world, I know it can feel as if love is hard to access sometimes, hard to find.

It can especially feel hard to find that fierce love for those with whom we disagree, who seem to be doing their damn level best to work against the very tenets of love and beloved community.

Here’s a little hint from someone with beloved family members with whom he often adamantly disagrees. It’s entirely possible to love someone even during times when we may not be liking them very much at all.

Anyway, given the challenges we face in our world right now, as well as the challenges, losses, and sorrows we all face just as a part of life, we need that fierce divine love because it is our wellspring of joy.

It’s what sustains us and keeps us working for a better world even during times when peace and hope and joy can seem so far away.

Perhaps it was prescient then that last year our denomination as a whole centered our faith in love – made that fierce divine love, the very core of what it means for us to be Unitarian Universalist.

As Reverend Dr. Howard Thurman said in our call to worship, our Unitarian Universalist churches can then become the wellsprings of our spirituality, the sustaining resources for our efforts to bring more of that fierce love into our world to realize the dream of beloved community.

My beloveds, that fierce love is there and we can always find it.

Last year around this time when Wayne my spouse of 33 years died I wondered if I would ever know love again.

As I moved through the grief though I discovered that his love for me and my love for him were still there, all around me, that my love for doing ministry, for this church, for this faith, for hiking in nature, for reading, for writing, for music, for theater, for arts, and so, so much more for life was still there somewhere, and I could find it again.

Eventually, I even found romantic love again with someone incredibly loving and extraordinarily lovable.

And the amazing thing is, in all of those loves, my love with Wayne lives on.

There is more love somewhere. There is more love everywhere. We’re going to keep on, keep on finding it.

Now let’s remain seated as we sing together verse number two of hymn number 95 There is more Hope.

♪ There is more hope somewhere
There is more hope somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more hope somewhere

Prior to a losing bid to become vice president of the United States, a certain ex-governor of Alaska and precursor to the current aspiring dictator in the Oval Office once asked about the Obama administration, “How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?”

How’s that short-lived, dead-end political career working out for you?

I can love her and not like her.

One of the things that wannabe authoritarians do and that we’re seeing so vividly from our current administration is they try to take our hope away to make us feel that resistance is hopeless.

And one of the ways that they do that is to try to make it seem that change against what they are doing is impossible. They do that because they know. They know that as human beings in order to have hope we have to believe that change is possible.

And yet, yet, here is where they fail. From within the wellspring of fierce love for one another and for life itself, human history has seen us rise up in hope again and again to seek and create change, even when it seemed impossibly difficult, even up against totalitarianism, famine, oppression, disease, enslavement, and so many other forces that would subvert hope.

We must always remember that change, renewal, rebirth, are always possible. And even when we in our lifetime aren’t able to bring about all of the change of which we dream, there is still hope to be found simply in the struggling for it – in our love for life, for freedom, for one another, and this beautiful world we have been given.

The chiché “Hope springs eternal” is true, and it it bubbles forth from that wellspring of fierce love that is the center of our faith and that some of us call God.

Now the thing is Authoritarians also know that fear is like kryptonite for hope, so they try to keep us in fear.

And sometimes when that’s happening, we can unintentionally direct our attention away from the larger things that we really, really want to change and instead direct it in ways that may not be so effective or appropriate that could even cause unnecessary fighting with one another. We do that because, because the larger fight for the change we really want can seem so big, so scary.

So sometimes, much like the little tree in our story, we have to let go of our littler fears so that larger hope can grow.

It can even happen in churches.

On a recent Sunday here at this church, stickers suddenly appeared on some of our toilets, expressing someone’s thoughts on proper etiquette for flushing conservation.

Now, water conservation is an issue and is a part of an even larger issue of the global climate crisis of which we cannot lose sight. And there are so many big issues right now, fighting a police state from being established in our country, protecting basic human rights, saving democracy.

So, having around 500 church members post whatever concerns them wherever they might like in the church at any time, that could prove to be a bit of a distraction from pursuing our larger mission.

So one of the ways that we as a religious community can help keep hope alive is to channel our very legitimate fears toward the actual sources of those fears, to work together in the spirit of love to bring about the change that is still possible in our lives and in our world, even given our current admittedly scary social and political environment.

There is more hope somewhere. It is out of fierce divine love that hope springs eternal.

Now let us sing number 95, verse 3, “There is more Peace.”

♪ There is more peace somewhere
There is more peace somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more peace somewhere

On-going war in Ukraine. What can now only be called ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. So many more conflicts we don’t hear about as much, almost 100 countries involved in warfare and state-sanctioned violence across the world according to the nonprofit vision for humanity.

It can seem as if peace in our world is so far away that We may never find it somewhere.

The stressors of daily life, economic uncertainty and turmoil, conflict and rancor across our society, racism, bigotry, injustice, oppression, still omnipresent and currently endorsed, supported, and institutionalized by far too many folks in the halls of our government at all levels.

It can seem as if personal inner peace is so far away that we may never find it somewhere.

And yet there are literally hundreds of organizations throughout the world dedicated to the firm belief that peace is still possible, working toward finding that peace.

There are multitudes of movements alive and well within these United States, heaven bent on justice, equality, restitution, and reconciliation.

And we can be a part of those movements. We can immerse ourselves in the struggle for peace and justice in our world and thereby find peace in our own lives.

And there is this synchronicity in the fact that to work for peace in our world to sustain that work on an ongoing basis We have to find peace within ourselves. As Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others have noted, we will never end violence with more violence, whether physical, emotional, or verbal.

And so our work for peace in our world must begin from a place of calm and peace within.

So how do we find that personal peace amidst all that chaos?

Well, it turns out there is a multitude of research on this. Here are just a few of the ways for us to keep on until we find peace:

To start, since we’re here at a church, we’ll begin with spiritual practices. Meditation, mindfulness, prayer, and poetry, writing, music, art, walking in nature.

Going to church. Any practice that gives you a sense of being a part of something larger than yourself, that sense of our vast interconnectedness.

Practicing gratitude, that’s another spiritual practice yet one so powerful that it deserves to be listed on its own.

And finally, we come back to that wellspring of fierce divine love.

Remembering to actively express love for others and importantly to allow ourselves to receive their expressions of love openly gives us that sense of inner peace. When we make love a verb in our lives not just something we feel but something We do.

Some interesting research found that if two people love one another and one is at peace but the other is experiencing stress, if the one at peace simply places their hand on the other person with consent and appropriately, if they do that, their own brainwaves, their own heart rate and the like begin to sink with and to help regulate and calm the same physiology in their loved one, bringing their loved one greater internal peace.

Now though it feels like a Unitarian Universalist sacrilege to quote Huey Lewis and the news from the pulpit. “That’s the power of love.”

Now let us sing together verse 4 of hymn 95, “There is more joy.”

♪ There is more joy somewhere
There is more joy somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more joy somewhere

Experiencing joy is a part of how we find meaning and purpose in life.

And there’s this paradox that during the really challenging and really difficult times that’s when it can be the hardest for us to find joy, and yet those are the times when we need the most joy. We need more joy to maintain our sense of meaning and purpose.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage examined the writings of Viktor Frankl, as well as others who wrote about how they found joy and meaning even while enduring the concentration camps of the Holocaust.

They identified the following sources of joy, even in such harsh realities.

engaging in acts of resistance, no matter how small.
finding beauty wherever you may experience it, even if it is again in small ways, such as just the sight of something out of nature like a bird that flutters past your window.
finding humor, even in the difficult, even in the absurd, or perhaps especially in the absurd.
engaging in small acts of kindness and building friendships and community.
which brings us finally, once again, back to love, to relationships, fiercely holding on to love even for those whom we have lost or from whom we are separated.

The sum of their experiences was that we already know what brings us joy and we can summon it. We can find it And we can engage in it within almost any environment.

Well, I’d like to wrap all of this up by letting you hear from someone who can most certainly preach perseverance better than I can.

[VIDEO]

My husband asked for a divorce after 46 years of marriage. I thought I was done. I was completely broken. And I thought there’s nothing more to live for because we had done so much together, had six kids and all this stuff. And then he asked for a divorce. And I felt like I was just in limbo.

How do you move forward?

Oh, I was totally broken and I didn’t want to be broken. About a year later. I was able to write my ex-husband a letter and say “Thank you for giving me my freedom.” Because all of a sudden I was not Bill and Gladys, like I had always been during our marriage. I was Dr. Gladys. So all of a sudden I had a new identity and I could use it. The hard times come, but they go too.

Why do we laugh so little when we get older?

We forget. We start carrying the baggage, it’s better to let it go. But if you take it in and you say, “Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.” and you let it go. It’s gone. You don’t even remember it. I’m really content with where I am. I don’t have much you know here, but I’ve got the whole world.

We’ve got the whole world We’ve got this whole still beautiful world that fierce love gives us – a fierce divine love that surrounds us and dwells within us.

There is more love.

Now let’s rise in body or spirit and sing that through one last time. Hymn number 95 verse 1

♪ There is more love somewhere
There is more love somewhere
I’m gonna keep on
’til I find it
There is more love somewhere

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

– Reverend Dr Howard Thurman

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

May the congregation say Amen and blessed be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

The Transforming Power of Pride

August 6, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Carrie Holley-Hurt, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
August 3, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Pride was a riot ….and pride was a party. Pride is also liberation, self-actualization, and so, so much more. Let’s celebrate Pride in community as members of our congregation share the ways they experience pride in their own lives.

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.

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

Call to Worship

MY FIRST PRIDE
Bis Thornton

The crisp desert sun is shining on us out of an infinite sky, and it’s my first pride because we didn’t have that where I grew up.

I’m sitting on a trailer being pulled by my friend’s truck. The trailer isn’t decorated or I should say it’s decorated by us and nothing else. It’s a simple thing made of old wood and black metal and we’re shouting and waving flags and holding each other. If we weren’t all wearing boots we would have splinters. I see my friend hanging one arm out of her big white pickup and all is right in the world.

We go down this big street in the middle of town and pass by all my favorite restaurants, and I’m holding all my favorite people, and it’s one million degrees, and I don’t care.

What I do care about is the way we’re starting to become surrounded by people with yellow signs who start shouting at us. They tell us we don’t have to submit to the bondage of sin. We could be free of the lifestyle that has trapped us. They say worse things than that.

A lot of them are smiling and I find it unsettling, but I feel safe in the rickety trailer because all of my friends are here. Finally someone starts shouting Bible verses at us I remember feeling surprised that it took so long, but I can’t remember which ones they were saying.

What I remember is the way one of my friends climbed on top of the white pickup They stand defiantly the wind in their eyelashes their heart as big as the sky which frames them in impossible bright blue.

The miracle, in the miracle way of trans voices, they shout and they sound like a golden trumpet, like the cry of the wind itself. In Christ there is no male or female. I had never heard anything like it.

When I remember that day, I hear the whipping of pride flags in the wind, the creaking of dry wood beneath our stomping feet and the proclamation ringing out from my friend on top of the pickup truck. I see the sky carrying it to our ancestors and our descendants. I feel defiance and triumph and love. This was my first pride.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

PRIDE IS A BECOMING
E Ciszek

So I’ll share a little bit of my thoughts here as I stand in front of you in my late 30s and reflect on what Pride is for me at this juncture in my life.

Pride is a becoming. It is a journey and a destination. It is aspirational.

Sometimes, pride is a ‘Fake It Till You Make It’ kind of strategy. It’s the bricks I try to lay on the road ahead.

Pride is showing up to work. It’s standing at the podium of my classroom, and feeling the impact my visibility has on hundreds of students. I’m a professor.

Pride is remembering the teachers that showed up for me as a young person.

Pride is also wearing my unapologetically queer t-shirt to the gym.

Pride is volunteering in my children’s class and fielding questions From my son’s kindergarten classmates like: Are you a boy or a girl?

Pride is unlearning the miseducation of sex that is baked into heteronormativity and white supremacy culture.

Pride is learning and accepting that identity and desire and passion and attraction are fluid and relational – not static.

Pride is something I’m trying to embed in my anatomy.

Pride is something I carry in my bones.

Sermon

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

So today we are in it for a real treat because I’m not going to be preaching. We’re going to have two wonderful members of our community, L.B. and Tomas, preach for us.

They’re going to share what pride means to them. L.B.

L.B. Lomeli

Good morning, all of you beautiful flowers. My name is L.B. Lomeli. I would like to start with a question I was asked at a pride event some years ago here in Austin.

What does pride mean to you? Feel free to chime in with your own beautiful responses? Freedom. Pride. Respect for yourself and others, that one’s beautiful. – Pride. – Yeah. Belonging, also beautiful.

My personal answer is honoring your inner monologue. A quote I read in Nikita Gill’s book The Girl and the Goddess Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom in regards to the narrators bisexuality. “There is a secret sapling in me that I refuse to water and still it persists,” And still, it persists.

I have known my whole life I was queer, not necessarily in words that I understood how to express, but in that spirit of a sapling inside of me. And despite some denials I may have come along the way, I saw how everyone in my life had known. I saw this by how I was constantly questioned in ways that I had grown to resent, questioned about the letters in my name, questioned about the clothing that I put on my body, questioned about the makeup I choose to decorate my face, questioned about the choices I make regarding the hair given to this humanly body. I grew to resent that these questions needed to define my queerness when I know my queerness is simply just my existence.

Now though, I have been learning to let that little sapling grow. Come to find out when I stopped pruning it I got to see the flowers that could come with it. I got to see the strength it could stand with and with every flower and every leaf I like grow within me. I learned to care for myself when I learned to listen to myself that inner self, that inner monologue, I learned to grow for myself. I learned to honor myself.

I don’t need to explain those choices anymore. I know now everything I do is queer because I am queer. And I’m so thankful because with all this growth came an ecosystem, a community, a community I feed into, a community that feeds into me. I’m notorious for crying so please don’t be concerned. A community that is bright and colorful and strong, it stands so strong and resilient. I never thought this was going to be about falling in love with the intricacies of a flower. But what a wonderful way to be.

I leave you with the words of 1950s sapphic cabaret dancer Francis Fay. Gay, gay, is there another way?

Tomas Medina

Good morning My name is Tomas Medina and You know what I’ve never introduced myself up here. So I feel a little nervous about this part and I was hoping I’ll be wouldn’t so that I wouldn’t feel the need to do it but I am a middle-aged Latin man with a shaved or bald head and I’m wearing a too tight t-shirt that says resist in the colors of the trans flag and I’m going to speak on the transforming power of pride.

When I think of the power of pride The first image that comes to mind is the trans women of color who took part in the Stonewall Riots, one of their earliest though not the first queer resistance movements. I feel like I owe my very existence as a gay man to these early brave resistors. I’m not only filled with gratitude to these ancestors, I’m filled with pride to be part of their legacy, part of their family,

But, I wasn’t always proud. I was raised Catholic, and when I was a kid, I very much wanted to grow up to be a saint. Every day, I prayed that God would give me stigmata. I wanted to wake up with bloody palms from the nails of the cross. But as I got older, instead of bloody palms, I became attracted to other boys. So I changed my prayers. I prayed that if I couldn’t be a saint, maybe, just maybe, I could be not gay. I thought who I was was a sin and that I was broken.

But then when I was 17, I went to my first gay disco and life began to change for the better. I came out to my best friend, who then came out to me. I met other gay, lesbian, and trans folks. I joined a support group at my college. I began slowly to feel more comfortable in my own skin. When I came out to my parents that same year, they sent me to a therapist.

That therapist, truly useless, told me that to deal with my homosexuality, I should have avoid looking at other young men wearing shorts on my college campus. And I was 17. I mean, come on.

After a few sessions, I’d had enough and I quit. I told my parents if they had a problem with my being gay, they should see a therapist.

As I began to take pride in who I was, something else shifted. I started celebrating and making space for others who live out their full authentic selves. And not just members of the queer community, but anyone who says loudly and vulnerably, “I am who I am. And if you don’t like it, you can just eff off.”

I’ll admit sometimes I envy those people, but more than envy. I feel off. I’m moved. I’m inspired by their willingness to show up fully, proudly and sometimes imperfectly their pride fuels my pride. Over time I’ve come to realize that pride isn’t just about pride in ourselves. It’s also about pride in our communities.

When I was 24, my parents took me and my niece, who had just turned 15, to Spain. It was all of our first time in Europe. What most impressed me during that trip was our visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid. We saw masterpieces of the Spanish Renaissance, Valesquez, Goya, El Greco. I remember thinking, “Why have I never heard of these artists before?”

In that moment, something shifted in me. For the first time, I felt pride in my Latino heritage. Up to that point, I often wished I’d come from a family like the ones I saw on TV – white, suburban, upper middle class.

But, standing in that museum surrounded by brilliance and beauty from my own culture, I began to feel something new. I belonged to something worth celebrating. And now I take pride in being part of the Latino community and in being part of many communities, the queer community, the greater UU community, and this church.

Having pride in myself and others and my community is a lifelong journey. Every day, some part of me still wonders if I’m doing this “being human” thing all wrong. Am I working the wrong job, living in the wrong city, being a bad friend, the list goes on. But I know I’m not alone. I know there are others who carry these same doubts, maybe even some of the same people who inspire me. And yet, we go on.

Even with our doubts, we keep showing up. We live our most authentic lives the best we can. For me, pride isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about choosing to live out-loud anyway.

And all of this, this journey, this defiance, this celebration feels especially urgent today. It’s a time when queer and trans lives are under renewed attack. When books are banned, rights are rolled back, and identities are politicized.

Living out-loud isn’t just personal. It’s political. It’s resistance. It’s our pride, our Part one, deeply rooted pride that gives us strength to resist, to keep going even when the world would rather we shrink or disappear.

Now more than ever, pride means choosing to be visible, choosing to be vulnerable, and choosing to show up for ourselves and for each other. That, to me, is the transforming power of pride.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt

I feel super blessed. Thank you, thank you. Which is a good thing because I’m going to give you all a blessing now. Actually, Sol and I are going to give you a blessing.

Today is our glitter blessing, and today is the day that we remember as Reverend Chris wrote, “Pride is not just about rainbows and parades, though those things are wonderful. It is an unapologetic declaration that not only is who I am not sinful or unnatural or any of the many other claims that would deny my very soul, who I am is a beautiful expression of God’s creativity and love that refuses to be defiled or denied.” And so, we offer this glitter blessing, a recognition of the sacred beauty inherent in every single person in this room and online.

Glitter is resilient and tenacious, if you’ve ever found it in your carpet. Glitter shines bright when it sits by the sun, and it can pierce the dreariest of spaces.

This glitter that we share with each other today is a reminder of each of us, the beauty of our sacred imperfection, our ever-changing selves, and our glorious plurality.

As the music plays, I’d like you to come up. Sol and I will be on either side of the stage here, and you can tell us where you like your glitter.

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

Our benediction today in part comes from our congregant Sparkle.

Pride means an opportunity to live my life to the fullest. Pride means an opportunity for others to live their life to the fullest. Pride means an opportunity to squeeze that last ounce of joy out of this relatively short time that we are blessed to live on this planet. May we all queer or straight endeavor to squeeze that last ounce of joy out of this life.

Amen and Blessed be.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

The Blessings of Small Group Ministries

July 28, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
and Small Group Ministry Participants
July 27, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

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

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

May we be reminded here of our highest aspirations and inspired to bring our gifts of love and service to the altar of humanity. May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected in a mystery and miracle to the universe, to this community and to each other.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

from THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA
by Maladoma Somé

Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave. The full realization of their innate gifts and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged and confirmed. There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius. In the psyches of such people, there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them cannot perceive it.

Sermon

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

Chris:
There are two things that people crave the full realization of their innate gifts and to have these gifts approved acknowledged and confirmed.

I love that statement from our reading earlier and given our current societal and political situation. I don’t know about you all but for me it can feel like as the author pointed out those innate gifts are being stifled.

Anyone besides me feel like living under the threat of rising fascism can be challenging to our psychological well-being and spiritual development? Well today we have some terrific folks who are going to testify about how participating in or even leading one of the small group ministries our church offers can provide a sense of connection and belonging. These groups provide a space where folks can talk honestly and vulnerably about some of the most vital and meaningful aspects of life, where folks can perceive, and then approve, acknowledge, and confirm one another’s unique inner power and authority.

I am delighted to invite these folks to share with you their experiences with our Chalice Circle and Wellspring small group ministries.

Hi, I’m Signe. Wellspring was my first introduction to small group ministry in 2021 as a participant. After that, I signed up for Chalice Circle and recently co-led a group, and I see some of my members out here, so that’s kind of fun.

Some of you may have seen me sitting over there near the candles in natural light. I’ve smiled and waved and shook the hands of many fellow UUers during the beginning of the service. Thus my smaller UU community started, the ones that like to sit in the same place.

Yes, we sat, sang, and stood together, but that was not the deeper connection I desired. It was during a homily someone else spoke about being in a chalice circle and how that impacted them and their UU faith. That sounded like something I needed to hear at the time, thus starting my UU spiritual journey.

So I signed up for Wellspring. This group explores in depth UU’s spirituality practices within safe structured group format as designed by Parker Palmer. Learning by doing, deep listening, and spiritual reflection within the group process requires dedication. Practices shared were drafting a group covenant, learning to craft a personal prayer, and how art, music, and movement are essential to a spiritual practice.

My inner Catholic contemplative mystic found this type of soul work familiar, now fueled with UU spiritual practices and like-minded people.

My journey of self-transcendence continues with a spiritual director, also called companion, from resources provided by Wellspring. Well, Wellspring requires a commitment of self-discipline and time for deep reflection and spiritual practice. The following year, I needed something lighter and signed up for Chalice Circle, which directly relates to the monthly topics of the church.

Chalice Circle continues to use safe group practices while reflecting and sharing about the church’s monthly themes. Each year, the themes change based on practices of our faith, values, and principles, like practicing resistance and cultivating compassion. Complete materials are provided via packets that are 10 to 15 pages long. The contents are carefully curated spiritual questions, exercises, poems, videos, playlists to expand on the Church’s theme. I found them worth saving for self-reflection, thus building my online spiritual library.

One of the past spiritual questions from the Path of Belonging Packet in 2022 was, “When was the first time you thought to yourself, Now I belong?” And because of Wellspring and Chalice Circle, I believe now I belong here. Thank you.

I’m Peggy Morton and I’m honored to have time to talk to you a little bit about my wellspring experience, the wellspring love at the center experience.

So I’ve been a part of this First-UU community for 29 years and have attended two chalice circles over the years, organized several social justice activities, and I’m not sure why it took me so long to finally sign up last spring for a wellspring class, but I’m truly glad I did. And I must say, it’s been the most enlightening experience I’ve had in this community.

I need to admit, I was not excited when our national denomination decided to go with this Article two. Because I thought I was very grounded in UU theology from our eight principles. But embracing this wellspring Love at the Center class, where we met twice a month for six months, opened my eyes and heart more deeply to UU theology, both historically and into today, and I now understand Article two better, and I like it.

Both the Reverend Carrie Holly-Hurt and a relatively new UU Melanie Caulfield guided us through this work in a way that I learned more about myself, six other attendees, and our facilitators in community together.

After each meeting, the next day, we would be emailed the readings that we were supposed to read and journal about and prepare for our next meeting. Obviously, we had two weeks to do this, which gave me a lot of time to read and think.

But at the next gathering, I would always hear a variety of perspectives about the lessons. And I have to admit, sometimes I would think, Did I misunderstand what we were supposed to do? But in reality, what it was, I eventually realized that we as individuals were gathered in community and embracing pluralism, a new term to me from Article II. And we shared from all of our different experiences, our different backgrounds and perspectives, coexisting quite like that interdependent web of existence that we learned about long ago when my spouse Fred and I first came to this church together and we only had seven principles at that time.

So I had known personally that having taken a sabbatical from teaching to live in Ecuador for a have in return to continue teaching high school journalism and to eventually add or start specializing in teaching English as a second language for the last eight years of my teaching career that I had lived experiences working with people from different backgrounds.

After retirement I stepped into voluntarily teaching adults English as a second language and eventually into advocating for human rights first in solidarity with unhoused people, then immigrants, then formerly incarcerated people. And I knew that I had learned from them about coexisting and embracing the lessons they had taught me in our interdependent web.

Yet through our wellspring group I saw better that Even when so many of us in this sanctuary today may seem like we’re all the same, we too have equally different backgrounds as we seek understanding from each and every individual who we meet. We’re bringing to life that spark of the divine that you used to say we were all born with. And I’m grateful, the many lessons I’ve learned and those that I still have to learn. And I appreciate each of you for listening to me today. I hope several of you will find or be able to make happen the time to explore and join a wellspring class.

Hello, I’m Doug Gower. Thank you, Reverend Chris, for asking me to speak about chalice circles. They say Unitarian Universalism is a process theology, not a belief one. Thus a chalice circle emphasizes not inculcating religious beliefs, but discovering and practicing our own.

What is that focus? To me, it’s the beloved community in the form of getting to better to know a small subset of our church congregants. A chalice circle is an intentional gathering for spiritual reflection. It is covenanted. That means anything discussed in the group stays confidential in the group.

Each session starts with lighting the chalice. In our case, that was a 99 cent plastic battery candle that one of our two wonderful leaders would switch on with a laugh.

A chalice circle is not a debate club. Neither is it a therapy group. Although being human, we always make some time for bitching and complaining. It’s real human beings sitting across from each other. Above all, it’s personal. It’s not performance. It’s not social media. It’s often said that people underneath are surprisingly alike, But we’re also surprisingly, amazingly different.

I met someone in our group who had traveled the world for years. Every continent, with little money, often sleeping outside in fields or under orchard trees on cold ground. I found that amazing. The only way you’d get me to sleep on an air mattress is if it were inflated on top of a king-size bed in a nice hotel with a bar.

In a chalice circle, we discover that we are alike and unique. Everyone has good days and bad days. You are privileged over the monthly meetings to witness these human ebbs and flows.

In the chalice circle, after some deep breaths, we take refuge. On the good days, we laugh a lot, out loud, gales of it. We learn to better know some of our fellow UUers. As much to the point, we get to know ourselves.

There’s a chalice workbook. Its exercises change monthly. I’m 74 years old. The last time I did a workbook was the third grade. Was I ready for this?

Each month has a cover illustration. One was Joy. It pictured a guy in a wheat field wearing a hipster hat playing a saxophone. I had a little trouble with that one. For one thing, I don’t play a sax. For another, my beard really doesn’t grow a good soul patch. So maybe extravagant jubilation under exotic conditions isn’t the whole point.

Some workbook questions were subtle. Others, honestly, a bit simplistic. But the group’s discussions never were. Joy I learned could be many things, working in a garden. Or just stop stopping, taking a moment, in the middle of a hot parking lot, on a tough day with troubles of your own to look up and see sunlight shifting through trees.

In chalice circles, we are not alone with our thoughts. In our chalice circle, the closest thing to an electronic device is the 99 cent battery calendar candle. In those 90 minutes, its scrawny, flicker, makes for not just a safe space, but a sacred one.

Americans are quick to focus on individual desires rather than the needs of the community, says Scott Hayes, a clinical psychologist. Looking around, I see people from my chalice circle right now, especially if I wasn’t wearing my reading glasses. (audience laughs) When I spot you in the pews or in the hallways, we often say hello, or stop and chat. But seeing you, I always think, “There’s people I know. There’s my community.”

The Chalice Circle is a UU program that helps make more real the beloved community. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Nancy, and as many of you know, I am in the long process of preparing to go before the ministerial fellowshipping committee, a committee that will ultimately determine whether or not I’m fit to serve as a Unitarian Universalist Minister.

Now the majority of people who choose this route also choose to attend one of the two Unitarian Universalist Seminaries, Star King or Meadville Lombard, and most can anticipate leaving these seminaries with a strong sense of what it means to be a Unitarian.

But unfortunately, I did not have that luxury. As a mom of three, I am unwilling to relocate and my budget is tight. I know there are educational opportunities online, but trying to find privacy in a house of five is a near impossible task. So instead, I opted to attend Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which is a Christian Seminary here in town.

At Austin Seminary, I was constantly making note of the differences between their faith and ours, and so I left feeling like I had a pretty good grounding in UU theology.

But then I began to worry. As you can imagine, there is much speculation about what candidates will be asked by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. And my fellow seminarians and I soon began to suspect that we’d be expected to prove our grounding in UU theology, specifically because we had attended a Christian seminary.

And so, to cover my bases, I decided that I’d better take as many adult R .E. classes as possible. And soon, I found myself co-facilitating the Wellspring Sources Group with another one of my fellow UU Seminarians, Zach Havenwood.

Now, I thought I had a good understanding of my UU identity, but sources made me realize the depth and breadth of our theology. The Wellspring Sources Group explores each source in detail, complete with readings, essays, music, and of course, small group discussions. The class significantly deepened my appreciation of this faith, and it actually strengthened my commitment to this congregation, which is truly a statement I never anticipated saying.

I’ve always been very suspicious of organized religion in general, And I’ve always bristled about being told what to do and what to believe. Indeed, for as long as I can remember, I’ve always believed in the subjectivity of truth, which in most religious traditions is problematic. But our sources support this belief and celebrates the many different ways that people make sense of the universe.

For me, our sources go far in explaining who we are as a religious body. In fact, I often rely on our sources when I give people my elevator pitch for being a UU. I guess it makes sense then that sources is the foundational wellspring group. It is a prerequisite for most of the other courses.

In addition to exploring each source, I learned so much about myself and about my fellow group members throughout the entire class. It made me realize and appreciate the diversity of beliefs within this congregation. And it allowed me to form friendships with fellow congregants, something that can be challenging when you’re in a church as big as ours.

I enjoy the Wellspring Sources group so much that I went on to co-facilitate spiritual practices with fellow church member John Scott in the newest wellspring offering Love at the Center with Zach once again as my co-facilitator. And I’ve left each of these experiences with new friends a better understanding of my biases and a deep understanding of just how rich our faith really is.

As an added bonus, I started seeing a spiritual director, namely the Reverend Kathleen Ellis who is also a member of this church. The Wellspring groups encourage participants to take part in spiritual direction and I can honestly say that spiritual direction has been life changing for me. It has taught me much about the importance of presence and deep listening. I can’t say enough about the great experiences that the groups offer.

So instead, I’ll simply invite you to experience it yourself first-hand. This fall, I invite you to deepen your UU identity, to make new self-discoveries, and to get to know the members of this church a little bit better. All this and more awaits you. Thanks.

Chris:
Thank you so much to each of you for sharing those moving and informative experiences this morning. And if after hearing these folks you might be interested in getting involved in a small group ministry a special email announcement will be coming out later this afternoon or you can go to www.austinuu.org and get more information on how to get involved in a chalice circle or wellspring small group.

From our universalist heritage, we draw that sense that a river of divine love flows through our universe and through each of us. Small group ministries are one way in which we can help each other find channels for the expression of that divine love in our world, not in the abstract, but in the here and now, in this world as we find it.

Our small groups are a way that together we can combine those rivers into oceans of fierce love for our times.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we go back out into our world today, may we carry with us the love of this, our beloved religious community. May we center our lives in love just as we center our faith in love. May the melody flowing through our souls be a river of love that carries us forward. Until next we gather our spirits again.

May the congregation say amen and blessed be.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Revolution Began/Begins with a Dream

July 22, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk
July 20, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

For this very special service, we will stream Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk’s sermon from our recent annual Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, which examines how our ancestry, heritage, and religious values have prepared us for the challenges and opportunities of our time.

Introit

REQUIEM
Eliza Gilkyson
The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble & Band; Brent Baldwin, director
Dedicated to the victims of the Hill Country floods

[MUSIC]
♪ Mother mary, full of grace, awaken
All our homes are gone, our loved ones taken
Taken by the sea
Mother mary, calm our fears, have mercy
Drowning in a sea of tears, have mercy
Hear our mournful plea
Our world has been shaken
We wander our homelands forsaken

♪ In the dark night of the soul
Bring some comfort to us all
Oh mother mary come and carry us in your embrace
That our sorrows may be faced

♪ Mary, fill the glass to overflowing
Illuminate the path where we are going
Have mercy on us all
In funeral fires burning
Each flame to your mystery returning

♪ In the dark night of the soul
Your shattered dreamers, make them whole
Oh mother mary find us where we’ve fallen out of grace
Lead us to a higher place

♪ In the dark night of the soul
Our broken hearts you can make whole
Oh mother mary come and carry us in your embrace
Let us see your gentle face, mary ♪

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.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Anthem

LET IT BE
Paul Mccartney / John Lennon
The First UU Adult Vocal Ensemble & Band; Bethany Ammon, voice; Brent Baldwin, guitar/direction; Rob Chase, bass; Jill Csekitz, drums; Mauricio Starosta, piano

[MUSIC]
♪ When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be, be
And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me
Shinin’ until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music,
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
And let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Sermon

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

Volitile markets, a trade war, controversy over citizenship, Foreign interventions, businesses closing, economic turmoil, global uncertainty. 1815 was a pivotal year for the United States.

It was also an important time for the birth of American Unitarianism. The War of 1812 had ended in February of that year, a war between the youthful United States and Great Britain over trade, commerce, maritime rights, and the meaning of U.S. citizenship and territorial expansion.

With the ending of the war, William Ellory Channing, a liberal congregationalist and minister of the prominent Federal Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues anticipated a better if not calmer year. They were wrong.

A different kind of fight was gaining momentum. A fight not wage with cannon fire, and bayonets, but with convictions and ideas that would revolutionize American religious life forever and give a name to a growing body of religious liberals.

What had become known as the Unitarian Controversy had erupted in 1805 with the election of Henry Ware Sr. as the Halless Professor of Divinity at Harvard College, where and a growing number of congregational ministers were challenging core Calvinist doctrines, including original sin, the nature of salvation, the interpretation of the Bible, and the trinity, and many of their parishioners were embracing this emerging, a liberal theology. It was a quiet revolution that was never meant to be a revolution at all.

By 1807, the liberals held the majority of the faculty positions and the presidency of Harvard College and the conservative wing of the congregationalists, the ones who called themselves orthodox, meaning right thinking, responded forcefully. They issued critical pamphlets, launched periodicals, shunned liberal colleagues, and established their own theological school Andover Newton.

The Orthodox began calling the liberals Unitarian as an insult. This theological feud would ebb and flow until 1815, and that’s when Orthodox minister Jedidai Morse, spearheaded renewed attacks on liberal ministers.

He wanted to expose these ministers and their liberalism, separate them from their Orthodox colleagues and their congregations. In a calculated move. Orthodox ministers refused to exchange pulpits with their liberal colleagues. Jededia Morse also wrote a book entitled American Unitarianism. A book was an attempt to brand the liberals as heretics.

By associating them with an English form of Unitarianism, The intention of these efforts was to isolate the Liberals, and instead it consolidated their resistance. And so from his pulpit at Federal Street Church in Boston, we now know as Arlington Street Church. There you are. William Ellory Channing began answering these attacks publicly, emerging is a spokesperson of the liberal movement.

And let’s be clear, let’s be clear, he did not do this alone. He had lots of colleagues and family members and people in his life supporting him, including women, people of color, who often get left out of the story.

Then, in this very city of Baltimore, on May 5th, 1819, Channing delivered the ordination sermon of Jared Sparks at the newly gathered First Independent Church of Baltimore. The sermon that became known as Unitarian Christianity, embraced the label Unitarianism, and interpreted it as the understanding of the unity of God, not a trinity. And Jesus’s role is an important teacher that was subordinate to God. And in that sermon he laid out the basic tenets of what he called a pure Christianity, a pure and rational Christianity. It was a theological declaration of independence.

Even after the Baltimore sermon and embracing the label Unitarian and redefining it, even after Channing helped gather a church in New York City, even after the court decision in 1820 when that church property was awarded to many of the liberal leaders and congregations, the Unitarians resisted creating a new association, Or at least it seems like that.

Many of the liberals were not ready to fully separate themselves from the congregationalist body. It would take six more years before the liberals formally organized themselves into an association.

And yet, the liberals were organizing all along. They had created periodicals like the Monthly Anthology and the Christian Monitor. They had established clubs and ministerial organizations and associations like the Evangelical Missionary Society. A circle of Boston liberal ministers had joined together to hire ministers at large, including Joseph Tuckerman to serve the poor and those in need. That is community ministry, my friend.

And in May of 1820 Channing invited liberal ministers to meet at his church to develop an organization for mutual support. They called it the Berry Street Conference. We know it today is the Berry Street Essay.

Could you hear me? The younger generation of liberals still sought stronger connections. At the meeting of Anonymous Association, that was really the name, the Anonymous Association, an organization of liberal Boston ministers, young Unitarian ministers like Ezra Giles Gannett and Channing’s assistant minister, by the way, and also Henry Ware Jr., his father senior was the one back at the Unitarian Controversy time, they and others decided that they could not wait any longer, and they took it upon themselves to design an organization to support Unitarianism in New England and beyond.

And so in May of 1825, at the Berry Street Conference The American Unitarian Association was born. A constitution was adopted and a purpose that wanted to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of the liberal tradition of Unitarianism. They did not seek to hide Unitarianism. They sought to share and expand this practical and life-saving tradition. With this act, the separation between the Orthodox and the liberal strands of congregationalism was institutionalized. It was an act of hope. They were lovers of life. They were builders of institutions. They were seekers of truth and keepers of faith. They are our ancestors and we are their hope.

[MUSIC]
♪ Which now that all the morning star rises
And sings and sings who we are
Which now that all the morning star rises
And sings to the universe who we are
We are our grandmother’s wares
And we are our grandfather’s dreamers.

♪ We are the breath of our ancestors.
We are the spirit of God.
We are wonders of our mission.
We are wonders of time.
We are wonders of dust.

♪ We are wonders
Of great visions, of sisters, of mercies
And mothers of love, we are fathers of life
We are builders of nations, we are builders of truth
We are builders of faith, we are makers of peace
And wisdom of ages ♪

♪ We are
Our grandmothers’ prayers and we are
Our grandmothers’ dreams
We are the bread of our ancestors
We are the spirit of God
We are mothers of our witches and mothers of time
We are daughters of dust
And the sons of great vision, the sisters of mercy, the brothers of love.
We are lovers of life, and the builders of nations, the sisters of truth.
We are mothers of faith,
and the makers of peace,
and the wisdom of ages.

♪ We are
Our grandmothers’ prayers and we are
Our grandmothers’ dreams
We are the bread of our ancestors
We are the spirit of God
And each child that’s born
Sons of Christ and saints
Who we are
We are the bread of our ancestors

♪ Who we are ♪

We are the ancestors We are our grandparents prayers, and we are our grandparents dreams. We are the breath of our ancestors and we carry the spark of the divine within us. We carry the weight of unfinished promises and unrealized dreams. We are the ancestors of tomorrow.

And what kind of ancestors will we choose to be?

We gather in this moment of profound challenge when many of us feel worn out, frightened, angry, fragmented, heartbroken. What we hold dear, what we hold dear, freedom, justice, diversity, pluralism, equity, inclusion, reason, peace and love are facing alarming attacks. As individuals, as communities, as a nation, the weight of uncertainty and the erosion of freedom weighs heavily. And we carry other burdens with us. Family strife, a layoff, a break up, a bad diagnosis, a denial or erasure of who we are, friendships broken, loss and separation. And in this moment, volatile markets, a trade war, controversy over citizenship, foreign interventions, businesses closing, economic turmoil, and global uncertainty.

And we too face a rigid orthodoxy, and it’s called White Christian Nationalism, An orthodoxy that seeks to establish what our founders rejected, a theocracy that would silence the very freedom they fought to protect and couldn’t even fully imagine the impact of what they were saying. That foundation, the foundation what this nation was started from and this religious tradition is under attack. They’re trying to silence us.

We live in the times that Quaker activist Parker Palmer calls the tragic gap. The space where between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible. We can imagine what Martin Luther King Jr. called the Beloved Community. We can envision what writer James Baldwin demanded, a more humane, connected, and just world.

Our ancestors had dreams, and so do we.

Historian Barbara Ransby instructs us that change is possible. Change is possible, and transformation begins in our individual and collective imaginations where we look out, where we can already see and do the impossible, imagine something we have not yet seen. She tells us, Barbara Ransby tells us that revolution begins with a dream. And at the end, we must fight for it. We know the possibilities exist because we have experienced them in moments of profound connection and acts of justice that bends the arc towards love, although right now it feels like someone’s trying to pull it the other way, in communities that held space for the full humanity of every person.

And yet we also know the gaps. We know the gaps in our history and ourselves. As my beloved colleague Abhija Yamamachi reminds us we practice an aspirational faith that frequently, if not routinely, has not lived up to the fullness of what it preaches.

We are dreamers – awakening, it’s taking a long time to get fully awake. We are dreamers awakening to the hard work of making dreams real.

Bear with me for this next part. I think I could get through this.

This year has taught me something profound about the relationship between dreams and loss. Between what we inherit and what we leave behind. Six months ago, my husband, Frederick, died after 13 months of living with terminal cancer. Now, we had time before he died, time to speak of the past, time to reckon with the regrets and mistakes, time to recall the shared joy, time to dream of a future that would not include his physical presence, but we would continue to be shaped by his love and dreams. We dreamt that together. (He knew about this moment, by the way.)

I have been reflecting what it means to be alive in this moment, to survive the loss of a partner, to be more than 25 years in my Unitarian Universalist service as a minister, 13 years at Meadville Lombard Theological School, and more recently having the opportunity to serve my local congregation, All Souls Unitarian in Tulsa.

I’ve been thinking about how to reckon with this moment in my life and also what’s happening to us in this nation and how Unitarian Universalism is caught there in between.

How do we live into this moment when there is disappointment and broken dreams? How? How do we be a part of this movement that’s more than just surviving as a Unitarian Universalist.

My conversation with Frederick, I learned that grief and hope are not opposites. They are partners in the sacred work of remembering and imagining. When we grieve, we grieve because we have loved. When we dream, we dream because we have hope for the future.

What does it mean to be the people who inherit our ancestors’ legacies, both the legacies we know of and the legacies that have been silenced? What does it mean that they were both flawed and full of promise? And how do we carry these legacies forward when we ourselves are flawed and full of promise?

Our bicentennial for one part of our tradition, Unitarianism, calls us to reflect on the past. ALL of it. The celebrations, the leadership, the breakthroughs, and the mistakes, the failures, the places where the injustice prevailed. We must never forget where we have failed. We must never forget so that we can hold space to honor the grief, the loss, the missed opportunities, and to do something about it. We also hold tighter inheritance of this life-giving, saving, loving faith tradition, and even as we reflect on the mistakes, we still honor the leadership, the creativity, the adaptability, the imaginations, the possibilities of so many who came before us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.

Let me know you’re here. Let me know you’re here. Yeah.

200 years from now, let alone 50 years from now at General Assembly, perhaps at Baltimore or the moon, or wherever it may be, what will they say about how we showed up in this moment? Because we will be the ancestors I hope they sing of.

The American Revolution did not fully liberate all Americans, but it did create the possibility of a future liberation movement. The Unitarian Revolution did not create a perfect faith, but it created the possibility of a faith that could evolve towards greater inclusion theologically, economically, socially, bodily.

Freedom isn’t the absence of restraint, it is the presence of love. It’s the courage, it’s the courage to remain open-hearted even after the loss, even after the brokenness, even after the shattered dreams, it’s the willingness to keep on dreaming even when we have lost what seems like our hopes. When we gather like this, bearing witness to life’s fragility, and it is fragile, life’s fragility and magnificence.

Freedom is never finished. We will be the ancestors that are going to be spoken of. Will we then be the ancestors who refuse to let democracy die on our watch? Will we be the ancestors who insisted that no single religion dictates the truth? The work of liberation is never done but each generation must take up the torch and carry it forward.

Remember, yes, remember in these tough times where rights are being denied and where the clouds of war are on the horizon, where fundamentalism is on the rise and your health and your loved one’s well-being is at risk.

Unitarian universalism must be both a rallying cry and a refuge. We offer sanctuary for the soul and summons to live our values of love and justice out in the world. But you know, we know, it in order to do this we have to have depth. We have to have the spirit. We have to have our humanness in connection with one another. We are a faith that doesn’t just believe in justice or talk about justice. We offer a moral framework and organized spirituality.

We have a courageous history, a history of engagement that’s so courageous and we must not neglect to remember to offer space for spiritual healing and growth. And if you don’t have that in your community right now and you recognize that, then you are part of what is going to be the people gathering to make that happen.

We need these spiritual roots or however you translate that word, those spiritual roots through our music, our poetry, our words, our meditations, our prayers, sermons and songs that feed us, feed our sparks of the divine, feed the spirit in our communities so that we can not only transform ourselves but then go out and transform the world.

We need that fuel, Yes, that fuel of healing, that fuel for growth. We need this because bell hooks reminds us that we need each other when she told us:

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. None of us do this alone.”

Looking back, looking back at what happened 200 years ago when Jedidia Morris tried to brand the Liberals as heretics and isolate them, something remarkable happened. Instead of scattering a fear like leaves before the storm, they planted seeds that would grow into strong sequoias. They did not retreat, they advanced and they consolidated their resistance. They organized. Channing’s Baltimore sermon became their battle cry:

“Speak your truth boldly, prove all things and hold fast, that which is good.”

They created periodicals to carry their new theology across the land. They established clubs where like-minded individuals could meet and create caring communities. They sent ministers at large into the city streets to serve the forgotten and the forsaken. They formed the Berry Street Conference, creating sanctuary for souls under siege.

They did not wait for permission.

They did not wait for permission, they decided they could not wait any longer and they took it upon themselves to create the American Unitarian Association. And when they accomplished this, when they accomplished this, they went from defense to offense, reaction to creation.

This pattern is written in our spiritual DNA. Feel it, know it, act on it, live live out of it. When they tried to, the orthodox, when they tried to silence our ancestors, they organized. When they tried to isolate us, they built bridges. When they attack your legitimacy, nurture your institutions that recognize your infinite worth. Communities where you can bring your entire beautiful self.

The same fire that burned in their hearts burns in ours today. They are all around us. We called them in this room this morning and online. The same courage that moved them to action calls to us now. We are not here by accident. We are the living legacy of those who refuse to be silent refused to be diminished, refused to surrender their liberation and the liberation of others.

The future is calling us now. We are the hope of the ancestors, the ones who came to Baltimore more than 200 years ago, the ones before them, the ones who came after. So many who have been there and helped us expand and understand how big our love is, how grand and large our freedom is.

In this moment, friends, don’t be afraid. Don’t stop organizing. Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop loving, friends. This faith matters. Your congregations, your communities matter. Your dreams matter, and the things we choose to do and say in the months and years ahead, matter.

Our ancestors, the spirit of life and freedom and most of all, I think, you know the word – LOVE. Let’s just say that together LOVE is holding us – is carrying us – is inspiring us – is putting our hope in us. Love is all around my friends – let’s not forget it. Can you feel it? Love is all around.

[MUSIC]
♪ All around, all around, everywhere I look your love is all around.
All around, all around, everywhere I look your love is all around.
Now you sing,
all around,
all around me,
all around you.
And where I look your love is all around.
It’s all around, all around,
All around,
all around.
Everywhere I look your love is all around.
Yes, I look your love is all around.

♪ If I look to the north and the south and the east and the west –
It’s all around,
it’s in you, it’s in me –
Let the nation sing,
let the nation sing –
Let the people shout,
let ’em tell,
let ’em hear you.

♪ Praise, praise, praise,
let your kingdom come
Oh, just hear it out,
Pour it out today,
the day to manifest,
Manifest your love
Let it grow and manifest,
Manifest your love
All around me,
all around you, all around us

♪ That’s My love, your love is all around
Let me hear you sing, yeah
All around
My love, your love is all around
Let’s sing, let the people shout
Let me hear you shout, yeah
Little
And the kingdom come for your spirit out
Pour it out, pour it out, pour it out, pour it out
And manifest
Manifest your love
In the beautiful day two
Manifest
Manifest
Manifest
Manifest your love
All around
All around, all around, all around, all around,
everywhere I look, your love is all around. ♪

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we return into our daily lives, let us remember that love is all around. Let us manifest that love all around.

May the congregation say amen and blessed be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Faithful Sanctuary

July 14, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
July 13, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Over the past decade, First UU Church of Austin has twice offered immigration sanctuary to immigrants fearing unjust detention and deportation. What might being a sanctuary church look like, given the racist, police state tactics we are currently witnessing under the intentionally deceptive guise of national security and immigration enforcement?

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

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

– Hebrews 13:2

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

WHAT DO RELIGIONS TEACH ABOUT IMMIGRANTS
by Alonzo Gaskill

The majority of religious traditions teach their adherents the importance of respecting life. Many, such as the dharmic faiths, have a central teaching, the need to practice ahimsa, or non-violence in actions, but also in words and thoughts. Thus, most major faith traditions will take the position that if someone from another country or community visits your own, you have a duty to treat them with love, respect, dignity, and honor.

…the command to embrace love and even help those who immigrate or visit is consistent. Indeed, most religions teach that there are spiritual or salvific consequences for negating this sacred commandment.

Sermon

Valerie Kaur’s Movie Clip:

She clung to a jacaranda tree. When I was little, my father said to me, “If you ever get lost in the woods, hug a tree.” That’s what they teach us when we are children, that the trees will calm us, protect us, love us when we are scared and alone.

She clung to a jacaranda tree. They took her anyway, pried her fingers from the silver trunk, dragged her into an unmarked van. Bystanders shouted and cursed and cried for them to stop, but they did not stop. Masked men threw tear gas canisters behind them as they drove away, disappearing into a cloud of gas like villains in a poorly written movie script.

I can’t get the images out of my head. The masked men, the bystanders, the cloud of gas, the young woman, and the tree.

Who do I want to be in the story? Who do you want to be in the story? I want to be the jacaranda. I want to make myself so strong, so steady, so rooted that my neighbors can hold on to me, the neighbors I know, and the ones I do not know. I want to find the courage inside of me to transfigure myself, to be braver with my love than I ever have before.

You might say, “What’s the use? They took her anyway.” Here’s what I see. One jacaranda is not enough. We need hundreds of jacarandas, millions of jacarandas, so that no matter how hard they pry her away, another one of us is right there ready for her to take hold. We must all become jacarandas.

This is not pretty poetry. This is a life-and-death call to risk ourselves for others, to become that strong, that rooted, that powerful, that beautiful, to become jacarandas.

In May of 2015, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin offered immigration sanctuary to Sulma Franco, whose life would be endangered if Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE were to deport her to her home country of Guatemala.

If you don’t know Sulma or her story, we will be celebrating her here at the church on this coming Saturday evening, July 19.

In the summer of 2017, we again offered immigration sanctuary to a young man named Alirio, whose life would also be at threat if ICE were to deport him to El Salvador.

Back then, providing church immigration sanctuary involved setting up a private, apartment-like area of the church in which Sulma and then later Alirio could live.

At the time, ICE had an internal memorandum dictating that their agents would not enter a church building to detain an immigrant and place them into the deportation process.

Because Sulma and then Alirio might have been at risk if they left the church grounds, church members also provided for meals, groceries, laundry and the like.

Along with a number of other churches and organizations, some of which have joined together to become the Austin Sanctuary Network, we also worked with Sulma and, again, then Alirio, to conduct a public advocacy campaign.

The campaign was designed to gain their freedom from the threat of detainment and deportation, as well as to shed light on a broken immigration system.

Sulma’s status is now such that she no longer requires church sanctuary.

Alirio remains in a kind of extended sanctuary, wherein he is able to spend more time with family and loved ones, while still accessing whatever safe haven the church can still provide, which I will talk more about shortly.

We have remained a part of the Austin Sanctuary Network and still consider ourselves a sanctuary church.

But then came the second Trump administration, and they rescinded that ICE memorandum about not entering, not desecrating, church spaces.

Then came the second Trump administration and the implementation of the extremist, White Christian Nationalist plan called Project 2025, and suddenly – suddenly, we find ourselves in a new and far more threatening environment in which our government is using immigrants and other vulnerable folks as targets to test how far we will allow them go toward establishing an authoritarian police state.

And if we are tempted think this is an exaggeration, we need only study the history of authoritarian states to understand that this is the playbook aspiring despots have so often used.

We need only look out how the administration co-opted the California national guard and sent them along with marines into the streets of Los Angeles on trumped up claims of riots that were in fact mostly peaceful protests in reaction to ICE raids destroying so many lives in that city.

We need only look at these photos posted by my friend, Lawrence Ingalls in Santa Ana, CA, several miles from where the supposed riots in Los Angeles were supposedly occurring.

Lawrence and his husband, my friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Jason Cook, live just one mile from where these military personnel were deployed, fingers on the triggers of their automatic weapons, no explanation provided for their presence on the streets of an American city.

Under the false guise of national security and law enforcement, they are denying due process, violating humanitarian norms, separating families, including children from their parents, kidnapping people and flying them off to countries where they have never been and that are known internationally as the most egregious violators of human rights and dignity.

In those countries and now here in the U.S. in facilities such as the recently opened, so called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, the Trump administration is placing people into what can only truthfully be called concentration camps.

Trump and his supporters, including some in our government, have even made jokes literally celebrating alligators eating people who might try to escape that facility in Florida, one of them posting “Alligator Lives Matter”.

And this language is no accident. This is a racist throwback to the early 1900s when black people, especially black babies were often referred to as “alligator bait.”

The language is on purpose. It is a blatant racist appeal.

And because our government and ICE are doing all of this under the cover of lies and secrecy, behind the cowardice of wearing facial masks like the KKK of old, racists vigilantes across the country are adding to the terrorism and victimization by posing as ICE agents themselves.

Here is just one extremely disturbing example, though this fool didn’t even bother with a mask.

ICE impersonator video

So, given this racist, government sanctioned environment, what do we do?

How do we as a church continue to provide faithful sanctuary?

And make no mistake, we must continue to do this.

At the very least, we must continue to do it to halt the authoritarians from expanding their reign of terror upon even more folks.

More vitally though, we continue to do it because our values centering us in love demand this of us – because that mission we say together every Sunday demands this of us – because our humanity – the preservation of our very own souls demand this of us.

We cannot know and be a part of the divine love that flows through our universe and allow this to go on.

So, how do we continue to do it?

What does faithful church sanctuary look like in this age in which we find ourselves?

Well, I’m not sure we know all for the answers to that yet. I know I don’t. We’re still learning even as we resist the new evils being perpetrated. I began with the video from Valarie Kaur though because I think that metaphor of us all becoming jacaranda trees is so powerful and so useful.

We must all become those trees, and, as a church, we will also be called to provide more branches for more folks to hang onto.

So, for instance, there may be circumstance in which we are still called to provide a literal, physical place for someone to stay within the church.

But even when physical sanctuary is not a viable solution, we will be called to try to metaphorically shelter those whose legal and human rights, indeed their very life and wellbeing are at risk by joining in pubic advocacy campaigns – we are called to let our rogue government know we are watching and resisting – called to protest – called to demand information on the whereabouts of folks taken into ICE custody and due process for them, such as the 49 people in our community that ICE “disappeared” recently – and, yes, some of us may be called to civil disobedience and personal risk.

We are called to demand local law enforcement disengage with ICE and provide proper due process, access to legal representation, including for immigrants.

We will be called to accompany folks to court and immigration visits – leveraging our own privilege to take sanctuary into the places where ICE abuses are regularly happening.

Faithful church sanctuary may also involve detention visits when and if possible, supporting legal expenses, assisting with day to day errands of life so that folks have less exposure risk, supporting know your rights and legal presentations, and helping to set up safe havens and care for children separated from parents.

And I believe, because these gross violations of human rights are being committed within a grotesque ideology of White Christian Nationalism, we must be willing to publicly counter this by loudly proclaiming this is not religious – this is not Christian.

We have to be willing to know and use scripture from the world’s religions, especially the Christian bible, that demands the just and compassionate treatment of immigrants.

These are just a few examples. We will learn more as we go. We are fortunate to have Peggy from our Inside Amigos church immigration justice group and Austin Sanctuary Network.

Please talk with Peggy to find out how you can get involved and what you can do to help your church be that faithful sanctuary to which we are called.

My Beloveds, for me, this is personal, and it is spiritual. It is a religious calling from the very core of our Unitarian Universalist faith.

I return to where I started this sermon.

Over the years, I have gotten to know Sulma and Alirio and have come to love them both.

I love Sulma’s fieriness and her humor and compassion – her willingness to be that jacaranda tree for others even as she herself was at great personal risk.

I love Alirio’s gentle kindness and the steely strength he harbors within – his willingness to be that jacaranda tree for others even as he himself was at great personal risk.

I cannot truthfully and faithfully live out my own story without recognizing that it is inextricably interwoven with their stories and those of so many others.

And so I must try to live their example and do my best to become that jacaranda tree too – to declare in the name of that fierce love that I call God – “I will not remain silent. I will not hide away within my own privilege. I will do whatever I can to join with my beloveds and replace the injury to God that is being perpetrated by an ideology of spiritual and religious deceit with a faithful sanctuary within which all are loved, welcomed, and supported in their fullest flourishing.

That is the true fulfillment of the divine in our world.

We will close with Valarie Kaur’s closing words:

“We must all become jacarandas.
This is not pretty poetry.
This is a life and death call to risk ourselves for others.
To become that strong.
That rooted.
That powerful.
That beautiful.
To become jacarandas.”

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

Leviticus 19:33-34

“If a foreigner stays with you in your land, do not do them wrong. Rather, treat the foreigner staying with you like the native born among you. You are to love them as yourself.”

May the congregation say amen and blessed be. Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Love’s Call to Risk

June 30, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
June 29, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Join Rev. Carrie as she explores how our UU history and values help us meet the moment we find ourselves in.

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

SISTER OUTSIDER (excerpt)
by Audre Lorde

Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down, and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end. And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because I think Emma Goldman said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” And at last, you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth, and that is not speaking.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

LOVE AND ACTION (excerpt)
by Reverend Dr. Crystal Silva-McCormick.

To live out love and action, we must reject comfort and conformity. We must embrace the controversial and sacrificial way of Jesus. Love and action means refusing to rest until our neighbors, whether down the street or across the globe, have the same rights and opportunities as those with privilege. It demands that we speak hard truths about the systems that exploit and destroy. It requires us to disrupt, to step out of line, and to make people uncomfortable.

This kind of love goes beyond symbolic gestures, beyond yard signs and statements. It takes creativity, moral imagination, and the courage to challenge systems that depend on the suffering of others. We cannot truly practice love and action until we demand from others what we wish for ourselves and those we love. And that will cost us our comfort, resources, perhaps even our relationships. It may look like redirecting our money, pressuring lawmakers, or engaging in civil disobedience. These times and all times have called for this kind of love.

Sermon

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

I believe that Jesus died for us.

Now before you leave or you start to write me a really nasty email, I’m gonna remind you that the sermon is about risk.

That I love you, that I am a trustworthy person, that this is not an elaborate bait or switch, the weirdest long game that there ever was.

And if none of that works for you, just hear me out first and then we’ll talk.

So yes, I believe that Jesus died for us.

And when I say that, I mean, I believe the man that historians believed walked the hills of Galilee 2,000 years ago, teaching to people of all genders died for us.

Not in a metaphysical way, not because you were born evil and needed to be freed by cosmic sacrifice.

NOPE, we’re not going to do that original sin trauma. OK, we’re good. No, that’s not for us. Thank you very much.

The reason I say it is because of what he modeled for us. His message was one of solidarity and compassion and love.

He said, “Blessed are the poor and the meek.”

He taught that the most important thing is to love our neighbor, and then he did this really cool thing by radically challenging us to expand who our neighbor is by the story of The Good Samaritan, a profound message of life affirming solidarity if ever there was one.

His message was an indictment of the empire and the systems of supremacy of his time because he had to speak against their cruelty and repression and violence. He spoke even though it was dangerous to speak. And I don’t believe that he did it because death was the goal, but rather that because there was no other option for him.

What he was experiencing, what he was witnessing compelled him to do it. His faith in his study of the Hebrew scriptures compelled him to speak. And in doing so, he demonstrated what it means to live for one another.
What it looks like to live into the fullness of our values.
What it looks like when we bow not to power, but live for one another.
What it looks like when we show up in love.

This is what I mean when I say he died for us.

And while Jesus is the original for both Unitarians and Universalists, he isn’t our only model.

We have Norbert Chapek, the Unitarian minister who gave us the Flower Communion, who was murdered in Dachau because his message of the beauty of diversity was so terrifying to the Nazis.

We have Reverend James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo, whose commitment to a more just world was seen as a threat by white supremacists who were so threatened that they had to kill them in Selma.

To center love in our actions, in our words, and in our choices, especially when there are powerful forces set against us, that’s inherent to our religion. That is the natural conclusion of our principles and our values because they don’t just live on paper, or at least they shouldn’t.

I know for me, when I am aligned with my values, When I am in solidarity with others, I am in awe of the purpose that I feel in my life. I’m in awe of the life that I’ve been given.

And to be in alignment with our values, it doesn’t always result in death. I just feel like I have to say that, OK? In fact, I would say most of the time it doesn’t, right? Which, you know, being killed by supremacy is a little heavy. So I’m going to give you some other examples of people who didn’t die.

We have Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, who spoke for women’s rights, who funded John Brown, who was seen as a heretic by fellow Unitarians. He risked so much, but he still spoke up.

We have Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a free black woman, who was a household name for abolition in the very dangerous time leading up to the Civil War.

We have Unitarian Minister Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp, who physically helped many people escape Nazi-occupied Europe.

These are just a few people in our religion who have put their values into action. And there are so, so many UUs that we will never know that showed up for abolition and suffrage and civil rights and gay rights and women’s rights and voting rights and disability rights that have and do and will continue to speak up for immigration and immigrants for bodily autonomy for everyone, for voting rights and all of the other things that we need to work for true liberation.

Many many people in this room right now I know have shown up and spoken up, centered love and fought for one another.

That’s our history.
That’s our theology.
And that’s what we do as a religious people.

And today, when we find ourselves in the middle of fascism, our call remains the same.

Yes, things are scary.

Some of us, mostly those of us who identify as white and straight and able-bodied, are experiencing a level of fear that is new and different.

Things are scary. And voices of resistance are needed just as much as they always have been under soul-crushing supremacy. Whether it was the Roman Empire of Jesus’ times or the fascism of our own. Actions of love are needed just as much as they ever have.

Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams, after having a really terrifying run with Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, left that experience with a core question. Does our liberal theology, our liberal church, have enough substance to defeat fascism? It is a pertinent question for us I think. Are our values enough? And are we willilng to live in them in a way that can stand up to Fascism? For me, that answer is yes.

The values that we hold as a religious people, justice, and equity, and interdependence, and pluralism, and generosity, and democracy are the solutions to authoritarianism, to manufactured wars, the dehumanization that is happening at all levels of government. Values and action bred out of love for ourselves and for one another are terrifying to systems of supremacy because they undermine their powers.

In bell hook’s book, All About Love, she writes,

“Fear is the primary force of holding structures of domination. It promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known. When we are taught that safety lies always with sameness, then difference of any kind will appeaar as a threat. When we choose love we choose to move against fear – against alienation and searation. The choice to love is a choice to connect – to find ourselves in the other.”

So when we hold these values, our values, and more importantly when we live them out in our actions like continuously calling out injustice and oppression. By refusing to participate in unjust laws – By finding fun little opportunities to resist wherever we can. When we do those things. And whatever else might come in the months and years ahead, We are living into our liberal religion with substance.

But it’s gonna take some work because, let’s be fair, centering love when times are relatively easy or good is easy. It’s much harder to do this when the stakes are so high and so we must speak as Audre Lorde instructs us. We also have to fall in love with our own vision of what we are creating, of this beloved community that we are creating.

But I think we’re also going to need some tools to do that. First, I think we have to attune ourselves to what is uncomfortable versus what is dangerous. For example, we, this church, have slowly started having more formal conversations and learning opportunities around what’s been happening in Gaza. The ongoing attack through bombing and snipers and starvation of Gazans over the last 629 days.

While I have personally been somewhat vocal, I have been hesitant to take this on because it seems scary. In fact, the rhetoric around what has been happening has been shaped in a way that scares people away from engaging with it in a meaningful way, especially when being against genocide and condemning the actions of a nation-state have been labeled (incorrectly) as anti-semitic.

But that’s just discomfort. I am uncomfortable with the idea that I will falsely be accused of being anti-semitic, that I will offend someone, that someone will say something mean or hurtful to me. That’s really uncomfortable, But it is not danger. I am not in any real danger.

An uncomfortable conversation, or an unfavorable opinion of me, that doesn’t harm me. The two million people living in the 141 square miles of Gaza, those people aren’t danger. That’s real danger. And so I must speak even when I’m afraid and even when my voice shakes and I have to remember that this discomfort is not the same as danger.

I have to put my hands on my heart and remind my body, this body that is so attuned to look for the proverbial tiger – that there is no tiger. This just feels like living into your values. This is what centering love can feel like when the stakes are high.

And then I speak Imperfectly but I do it. And when we do that the hope is that we raise the consciousness of those around us. And with great hope bring about real change. And then we must remember that we cannot isolate ourselves, that we cannot forget that we have one another, and never forget bell hooks told us that domination requires us to be in isolation.

And I feel pretty good about our chances because I believe that the most beautiful part of our religion is our ability to be with and for one another. Because we accomplish beautiful things together. None of us are alone unless we allow fear to keep us isolated. Staying together is one of our strengths. We show up for each other again and again.

As Reverend Julian Soto tells us, “All of us need all of us to make it.” Like the way that our social action team shows up for us and our values again and again.

I just want to take a brief moment to acknowledge the work that they have done. Thank you David Overton. Thank you Peggy Morton. Thank you Elizabeth Gray and Bob and Victoria Hendricks and Leo Collas and Jenny Fredericks and Melanie Cofield and Wendy Erisman and anyone I must have met and must have missed. And of course thank you all of you that have shown up and participated in social action.

I bet if we took time to identify ourselves, most of us would find ourselves raising our hand. And if that’s not you, that’s okay, ’cause there’s gonna be a lot of opportunities ahead. Don’t you worry about that.

And what a life-affirming way to live this one precious life we’ve been given, to be with and to be for one another, to live and to speak up and risk for one another. Isn’t that what we mean when we say “Our Struggle Becomes Our Salvation”.

The struggle we see in the life of Jesus, and in all of those that came before us, who have been guided by their values. All of those who have rejected personal comfort for the life-affirming work of solidarity. To center love in our actions and in our words and in our choices is inherent to our religion, especially when powerful forces are set against us. Being brave and answering love’s call to risk is the natural conclusion of our principles and values. Because they just don’t live on paper, they live in us. They live in our words and in our actions.

May it always be so.

Extinguishing the Chalice

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

Benediction

As we leave this sacred time together, as our lives go back to their normal rhythm with all the distractions that that entails. May you feel connected. May you feel connected to your faith and to one another. And may you be held as equally as you are motivated. May you feel brave in answering love’s call to risk.

Go in love.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Love at the Center

June 24, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Nancy Mohn Bernard
June 22, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

How centering love can help us build bridges during polarizing times.

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

He drew a circle that shut me out,
heretic, a rebel,
a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win.
We drew a circle that took him in.

– Edwin Markham

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

From SACRED NATURE
By Karen Armstrong

The Golden Rule “Do not do to others what you would not have done to you.” was developed independently by all the great religious traditions. It seems deeply rooted in human morality. It requires us to look into our hearts, identify what causes us pain, and then refuse to inflict that on anybody else. What’s more, this benevolence cannot be confined to your own congenial group. It has to be applied to everybody without exception. Compassion is the essence of religion and morality, and it is essential to the survival of humanity. That we constantly fail to put it effectively into practice is perhaps not surprising in that as it runs counter to our engrained selfishness, insisting that we dethrone ourselves from the center of the world. It requires us to regard others as equal to ourselves, refuse to put ourselves into a privileged category, and deem the needs, desires, and ambitions of our fellow human beings to be as valuable as our own.

Sermon

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

A couple of weeks ago I finished my UU internship whereas my fellow seminarians chose to complete internships within the congregation or in social justice contexts like Texas UUJM. I chose to do my internship within the context of pastoral care.

And so for the past nine months I have been a chaplain resident with Seton Ascension. This experience can only be described as intense and I suspect it’s going to take me quite a while to process all the things that I have experienced during this time. In the role of chaplain I’ve been with people at their lowest and at their most vulnerable. I’ve been with the psychotic, the incarcerated, the dying, and the sick. I’ve looked suffering in the face and wrestled with the injustices of the world. I’ve been humbled again and again, humbled by the courage of others, humbled by my own ineptitude, and humbled by the mystery of life, in which there are no easy answers. Needless to say, I am not the same person that I was when I first started this position in August of 2024. My experience has been one of transformation.

Being a hospital and it’s one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I’ve sat with family members after suicides. I’ve comforted parents who have lost young children. And I’ve seen firsthand the damage caused by gunshot wounds, which, by the way, often take multiple surgeries before they can heal. There were times when I felt like quitting and times that I dreaded going to work. But what helped me get through these times and these low points, believe it or not, was our Unitarian Universalist theology. When I felt stretched to my limits, when I felt so burned out that I wanted to quit, I leaned into love.

Indeed, over this past year, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on our article two revisions and I must say the changes have been a touchstone for me throughout my residency. Specifically I often found myself asking what it means to put love at the center both in terms of self-care and in terms of care for others for there were many times throughout the residency in which my ability to love was challenged by patients who are radically different from me and my beliefs. In other words, I’ve had many opportunities to put our theology to the test. And I’ve truly come to believe that centering love is the antidote that we need in today’s challenging world.

For the world in which we live is one of chaos. It’s a world that’s full of rapid changes. In the past five years alone, we have witnessed the advance of technology and AI, extreme geopolitical shifts, a fractured news media, and furthering climate change. And let’s not forget the recent pandemic. Ten years ago, it seemed as if we were moving towards a society that was progressive, open, and tolerant, and now we are seeing these reforms be upended. And those who are not cis-gendered, straight white men in general are being threatened. I’m not overstating things when I say that we live in a world that’s more polarized than ever.

It’s easy to get down about the state of the world, and yet my residency actually gave me hope. Gave me hope that there is power in the centering of love. When we center love, we are actually being subversive. Centering love is exactly what this administration does not want us to do. For when we put love at the center, we are able to build bridges, and building bridges is the only way that polarization will come to an end.

I’d like to begin with a story in which I was able to build such a bridge and put politics aside. During my first unit as CPE, Trump was elected president, and as a super lefty individual, I was angered by the outcome of that election. I was scared for all that his election implied, and I was scared for my friends and my family and my community. Almost immediately, I began to encounter patients with radically different political perspectives. One patient must have clocked me as being liberal the instant I walked through the door. I guess I looked very liberal. After introducing myself, the patient immediately returned his attention to Fox News, which was blaring loudly from his wall-mounted TV. He soon launched into a tirade about the messed-up state of America, explaining how Trump was going to fix all that was wrong. And as he spoke, he kept side-eyeing me as if daring me to challenge him.

And though I’m loath to admit it, I immediately felt the anger spark within. I knew he was trying to give a reaction out of me and to my chagrin it was working. Now I have no poker face at all and my face was actively growing warm and I’m sure turning super red in the moment. How could I possibly be expected to provide spiritual care to someone like this, especially when my emotions were written all over my face. I wanted to turn around and just march right out of the room. But instead I hit pause and I forced myself to take a deep breath or two. And then the many trainings that I had spent training took over the many hours I spent training. Instead of listening to his words, I tried a different tactic. I tried listening for his emotions and for his needs, a technique that I learned from the book Nonviolent Communication.

And suddenly I heard something very different from this man. I heard someone who was angry and I heard someone who felt forgotten, unheard, and unseen. In the instant I identified these emotions, a funny thing happened. My anger began to dissipate, and my heart began to feel with empathy. For I too have often felt unseen and unheard. I too know what it’s like to feel invisible, and how that can lead to anger.

When he finally took a pause from talking, I decided to do a perception check with him and asked about the feelings of anger and abandonment that I was hearing. Naming those emotions had this strange effect of silencing him, and to my surprise he suddenly grew tearful. Next thing I know, the conversation shifted, and he began to tell me about his loneliness and lack of support. He felt abandoned in the hospital, and he was scared for the outcomes of his health. We went on to have a deep and meaningful conversation. Our differences had disappeared. We were no longer conservative or liberal, but rather two human beings moving through life with all of its pain and beauty.

In this moment, I suddenly understood what it meant to put love at the center, at least in my specific pastoral care context. To center love is to look for the commonality, the humanity, and the vulnerabilities that we share with others. It means acknowledging that we are more alike than not, that we are interdependent, and it asks that we lead with this assumption. When we center love at the heart of our experiences and interactions, the other seven values, justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, and generosity, they are the natural offshoots.

Love Flower Graphic

Indeed, I most often thought of archaeology during the first six months of residency, which I spent at Shoal Creek, the now closed psychiatric hospital for Seaton Ascension. It was there that I began to understand the Article Two revisions on a deeper level. It was at Shoal Creek that I learned how the aforementioned values are twined with the centering of love. It was at Shoal Creek that I witnessed firsthand the power of our theology in building bridges.

From the first day I walked through the doors, I fell in love with Shoal Creek. As a teaching hospital, it was staffed by doctors, residents, nurses, and social workers, all of whom were passionate about their jobs and strove to provide equitable and just care to a radically diverse group of people.

As mentioned, Shoal Creek was part of the Ascension Seed and System, which is Catholic and non-profit. And as such, Shoal Creek was charitable and did not turn away the uninsured. The resulting patient population was diverse from an array of backgrounds.

While many of the patients were experiencing homelessness, there were also wealthy private pay patients who didn’t want the stigma of a psychiatric hospitalization on their medical record. At a quick glance, it may seem unreasonable to expect these two populations to form a loving and supportive community. But being hospitalized, particularly in a psych ward, is the great equalizer, especially when half the people are wearing disposable blue paper pajamas.

Such hospitalizations strip away the trappings of society that mark our differences. With such trappings stripped away, the patients were able to see the humanity and the suffering in each other. And when one is able to share in the suffering of another, empathy occurs and a beautiful thing happens. Time and time again, despite their socioeconomic differences, I witnessed patients becoming friends and forming communities of care and support. The dispossessed and the wealthy, the young and the old, all found solace in each other’s company and wisdom. Despite the restrictions, despite the lockdowns, these patients somehow managed to discover something that eludes so many of us. At their lowest point, these patients saw themselves in the faces of their peers, a realization that led to empathy in the centering of love. They discovered that despite appearances, we are more alike than not. Everyone suffers. Everyone despairs. And everyone is in need of human connection.

Indeed, I heard again and again from patients there that there was something just magical about Shoal Creek. Now many of them had experienced multiple hospitalizations, and many of them had been to facilities much nicer than Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek indeed, some said, were the worst facilities by far. But nonetheless, it was still their favorite place. It was their favorite place because of the love and the care that they received from the staff. Such love and care allowed them to kind of relax a little bit and to connect and share done with each other.

The closing of Shoal Creek is arguably a social justice issue. They’re about to demolish the building itself sometime this summer, I believe. The psych population is one that is both marginalized and othered. Many psych patients are unemployed and therefore uninsured, and Shoal Creek is the only psychiatric hospital that would accept an unlimited number of uninsured patients. Unfortunately, this meant that the hospital operated at a significant and unsustainable budget and it has been forced to close its doors. Now much of this population will fall through the cracks. And while most hospitals do have a few available beds for the uninsured, most of those available beds can be counted on one hand.

The situation frustrates me. I know it’s unreasonable and unsustainable for systems to operate at such a deficit, and I’m grateful to see it in Ascension for allowing Shoal Creek to do so for so many years. But the truth is that the system is broken. We live in a capitalistic society that centers money and not love. We value the individual, and not the interdependent web of existence, of which we are all apart.

As many of our greatest minds have pointed out, we can judge a society by how its weakest members are treated. In this country, we choose to ignore our humanity when we choose to ignore the dispossessed. But when we center love, we become generous individuals. We are generous with our tolerance, generous with our judgments, and generous with our ability to see the commonality in humanity and others, even those who differ from us politically. It is generosity that truly fuels my care, and it is generosity that we need now more than ever in this world, for we must be generous with love and how we define it.

To truly put love at the center, we must find a way to build bridges, to focus not on our differences, but on our shared experiences of humanity. I saw suffering psychiatric patients do what many of us cannot, put politics aside, center love, and come together.

Now I won’t lie, placing love at the center is incredibly hard to do and I haven’t always been successful at this. When someone makes threatening or disparaging remarks towards the oppressed, my friends and family or my community, I get angry and not so nice words have been known to leave my mouth. And I wonder how are we supposed to love those who have no interest in trying to love us. How do we hear past the hateful rhetoric? Bridge-building sounds all well and nice, but how do we love those who are so determined to hate?

I admittedly don’t have all the answers to these questions, but I believe that a good starting point is Marshall B. Rosenberg’s book on Nonviolent Communication, which I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon. When we are faced with a vitriol of others, it can be helpful to try to listen to the emotions behind the words. So often people just want their emotions to be validated. So often they just want to be seen and to be heard.

To truly center love means approaching people with openness and curiosity, which admittedly is hard, especially when those very same people are doing their best to make us feel angry and defensive. But again, to do so is an act of subversion. It is choosing to not give in to the hate, for that is exactly what they want. When we give in to the hate and anger, we are feeding into a polarized culture, giving it sustenance. When we give in to the hate and anger, we allow the extreme rhetoric and hate to win.

Now, centering love and trying to find our shared humanity doesn’t mean that we agree with the haters. Indeed, once upon a time in this country, we knew how to have differences of opinion and still respect one another. We knew how to engage in discourse, to listen to one another even when we don’t share the same opinions. I am asking us to lean into our theology of centering love, because it’s the only way that we will be able to engage in such discourse again. I’m asking us to try and find the commonality to find a way to bridge this gap of polarization. For we must try, because digging into our differences is not working. It is only making the divisions wider and As these divisions grow finding a solution becomes an increasingly impossible task.

So as we leave here today I ask you to consider what putting love at the center looks like in your own lives. How can we hear past the anger, to build bridges and not walls. How do we lead by example and model the change that we hope to see?

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

BLESSINGS SHALL FOLLOW US
by Rev Dr. Rebecca A. Savage

As we end our time together today in spiritual community, may we depart this sacred space, knowing that blessings shall follow us all the days of our lives, if we live in and return to right relationships, if we extend grace and forgiveness to ourselves and others, if We behold mercy as a spiritual superpower, if we emanate the greater love that holds us close. May our lives radiate the blessings that we have been given, may kindness and compassion fall gently from us, and may there be peace in the world, and may it begin again with us.

Blessed be.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Something Larger than Ourselves

June 16, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
June 15, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

For individuals, feeling a part of something larger than oneself can increase happiness, enhance well-being, create a greater sense of purpose and meaning in life, give us a sense of belonging, and improve mental health in a variety of areas. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is a part of our larger UU faith and an even larger effort to build Beloved Community. Might fully engaging this larger belonging confer these same benefits to us a religious community?

Chalice Lighting

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

Call to Worship

SOMETHING A BIT LARGER

Scientists estimate that there are at least a septillion stars out there. That’s a one, followed by 24 zeros. Imagine then, how much star dust there may be. I am but one tiny configuration of star dust. That’s so infinitesimal. Any yet, I am an integral part of something much greater than a septillion! And that’s immeasurable! What a difference I might make.

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

BELONGING
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

And if it’s true we are alone,
we are alone together,
the way blades of grass
are alone, but exist as a field.
Sometimes I feel it,
the green fuse that ignites us,
the wild thrum that unites us,
an inner hum that reminds us
of our shared humanity.

Just as thirty-five trillion
red blood cells join in one body
to become one blood.
Just as one hundred thirty-six thousand
notes make up one symphony.
Alone as we are, our small voices
weave into the one big conversation.
Our actions are essential
to the one infinite story of what it is
to be alive.

When we feel alone,
we belong to the grand communion
of those who sometimes feel alone –
we are the dust, the dust that hopes,
a rising of dust, a thrill of dust,
the dust that dances in the light
with all other dust, the dust
that makes the world.

Sermon

At the turn of the 19th century, 23 year old Joseph Tuckerman was asked to be the minister of what would become the Unitarian church in the town of Chelsea Massachusetts.

He had recently graduated from from Harvard (you know, that place that is under attack by the taco tyrant all of these years later), where one of his classmates was another aspiring minister, William Ellery Channing, who would go on to give a famous sermon he titled, “Unitarian Christianity” that would catalyze the formalization of Unitarian religion in the United States and lead to Channing and others forming the American Unitarian Association six years later.

Tuckerman, though, struggled at Harvard. It’s said Channing had even told him, “You should study harder.”

But Tuckerman felt something was missing from his studies. He didn’t want to just read books all the time. He felt like he could also learn from talking with other people.

Something was incomplete. He need more to be feel whole.

He did graduate though and went on to serve that church in Chelsea for 25 years, preaching twice on Sundays and serving the spiritual needs of the people in his congregation.

Still, he continued to feel something was missing – a dissatisfaction. That his ministry and calling were not entirely complete.

And so he began to also serve the greater community in Chelsea, where many sailors and their families lived.

The sailors were often away for months and years, so their families often faced periods where they had little money.

Tuckerman would help them with food, clothing or whatever else they might need.

In 1826, still feeling a need to connect with something larger and facing ill health, Tuckerman resigned from his church.

He went to Boston, where he immersed himself among the sailors and others who lived with financial challenges, as well as difficulties like alcoholism.

Tuckerman listened to their stories about how they had come to face these challenges and what their needs were. He studied his bible and concluded that Jesus had called us to love everyone and to assist the poor, the hungry, the sick, including the illness of addiction. And there he found his greater calling.

He worked with his college classmate’s American Unitarian Association to create an organization that coordinated with each of the Unitarian churches throughout the Boston area to provide support and assistance to help meet the needs of folks in their neighborhoods and communities.

Joseph Tuckerman had found his purpose and now felt complete, and in doing so, he founded what we have come to know as “community ministry” – ministers who primarily serve the needs of communities beyond our church walls.

Tuckerman found his purpose in life by connecting with something much larger than himself and what had traditionally been the role of a minister.

Author and scholar of mythology and religion, Joseph Campbell said, “A hero is someone who has given their life to something bigger than oneself.”

And I suppose by that definition he means we all have the capacity to be heroes in on our own way.

He believed we all have a purpose – a calling from and toward something larger than ourselves that when followed will bring us bliss.

He said, “Follow your bliss.”

Our religious education manager, Sol, spoke eloquently of this last Sunday when they talked about the sense of calling they have found through Sol’s wonderful work with our children.

And, there is evidence that, like our Unitarian ancestor Joseph Tuckerman, we all need that sense of being a part of something greater to feel complete and fulfilled.

Studies have found that having a sense of being a part of something larger benefits us in a variety of ways, especially when that sense is that though we may be a tiny part of that something larger, we are also an integral part it.

So, embrace humility and hero potential all at the same time! Now, some of those potential benefits of doing so seem to be:

positive psychological effects, such as reduced stress and anxiety, less depression, and a greater sense of wholeness, happiness and life-fulfillment.
a bigger sense of connection and belonging, moving us toward greater compassion, empathy and prosocial behavior.
it can make us more resilient in the face of life challenges.
provide us with greater meaning and purpose in our lives, and when shared with other folks can deepen our emotional bonds.

And that’s just to name a few!

Now, it’s important to note that feeling we are a part of something larger can take many different forms.

That “something larger” could be a belief in a deity or a sense of transcendent or divine forces at play in our universe.

But, it can also take so many other forms:

Joining a church can feel like connecting with something larger.
Playing a piano duet such that the combined talent produces something of even greater beauty!
Prayer, meditation, and other forms of religious or spiritual experiences whether or not they involve a supernatural belief system.
It can be dedication to a cause or working for justice
It could be a vocation that fulfills us, but it could also be the volunteer work we do during our time off.
It could be an art, music, a sport or athletic endeavor, connecting with nature, a science, learning, reading, gardening, our family and loved ones, a community or some combination of all of these and more!

Whatever gives us this profound sense of vast interconnectedness and belonging, can be the something larger through which we find that sense of purpose in life.

It is this feeling of interconnectedness and belonging so immense it is beyond words, regardless of the specific sources that drive it within us, that has the potential to transform us.

There is currently a lot of research showing the potential benefits of psychedelics such as ketamine, psilocybin (the active agent in magic mushrooms), LSD and the like as treatments for conditions such as depression, addiction, grief and trauma.

A theory behind why these compounds may have such benefits is that they almost universally bring about this sense of vast interconnectedness.

Well, I was amused recently to read that a study in London found that people treated with psilocybin tended to switch from a highly individualistic, materialistic, every person for themself personal and political philosophy, to a more altruistic, communal, we’re all in this together mindset.

I thought, “Maybe we should create magic mushrooms for MAGA spiritual retreats.

Speaking of spiritual gatherings, this coming week, several us from First Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church of Austin will be attending our annual UU General Assembly.

General Assembly or GA is where UUs from across the country and indeed the world gather to learn together, do the business of our association of UU Congregations and organizations, and to build communal power for doing justice.

Interestingly enough, this year GA will be in Baltimore, the city where William Ellery Channing preached the sermon I mentioned earlier that launched American Unitarianism and is often referred to as the “Baltimore sermon”.

And so we return to the birthplace of something greater than us as individual congregations but of which we are still an integral part to immerse ourselves in our larger faith movement.

I can still remember the first GA I ever attended. It was at the Salt Lake City convention center right next to the Mormon Tabernacle and complex, so you had UUs and Mormons intermingling on those Salt lake city sidewalks, which made for some interesting juxtapositions.

We UUs tended to sport many more tattoos, body piercings, slogan buttons, and practical if not very attractive footwear.

We were, though, almost as white.

I remember feeling awestruck when I first joined with those thousands of other UU s at that GA, somewhat humbled by the realization that our church and we are not nearly as unique as we may sometimes think, but also feeling so empowered to discover that we are not alone.

We are not isolated, but instead a part of a much larger religious movement that is in turn interconnected in solidarity with many other faith traditions and social movements dedicated to building the Beloved Community on a national and even global level.

And my beloveds, we, as a religious community need this connection with something larger than ourselves now more than ever.

With what had been happening in Los Angeles and across our country:

the use of the military against our own citizens,
the threats and even violence against government officials with whom the Trump administration disagrees, and now even assassinations,
the demonization of LTBTQ+ folks,
spending millions on a military parade for the taco tyrant while he pushes through policies to make the wealthy and powerful even more powerful at the. expense of everyone else – dismantling things like medicaid, medicare, social security, health research and care, FEMA, and so much more.
the use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not to protect anyone or anything, but to intimidate – instill terror into anyone who would resist this racist, misogynistic, white Christian Nationalist, authoritarian agenda.

With these and so many other threats to justice and equity, with the absolute disregard and disdain for checks and balances and the fundamental structures and norms required for functional democracy, both nationally and here in our state, we, as one church, no matter how wonderful and engaged we may be, cannot be a lone hero.

We need our connection with our fellow UU churches, locally, throughout the state through our Texas UU Justice Ministry, and more broadly through our UU Southern region offices and our national Unitarian Universalist Association.

We need the solidarity they bring with other faiths and secular organizations that share our values and our commitment to building the Beloved Community even up against these threats to it we are currently witnessing.

Just like with individuals, as a religious community, we can benefit from being a part of something larger than ourselves: greater social and political power; increased resiliency in this time of such great difficulty in our state and our country.

And who here when witnessing the news these days can easily fall prey to anxiety, or even despair and depression?

Me!

Connecting to our greater faith movement as a religious community can help alleviate these stressors for us, as both the community as a whole and as individuals.

It can further increase our sense of belonging, give us support and encouragement and remind us of our shared mission to nourish souls, transform lives and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Something larger.

Hope. Meaning. Purpose.

In the months to come, your ministers, along with your board of trustees, your church staff and volunteers, and with each of you who want to participate will be exploring ways of becoming even more a part of our larger UU faith and the larger movement for justice that is rising up across our country and our world.

I encourage each of you individually to explore how you can connect with our greater faith also. You can find several ways to get started by going to austinuu.org, and I would be happy to set up a time to talk with you about it also if you would like.

And, allow me to bear witness and give testimony.

I am so lucky, so blessed to get serve as your minister within this greater UU faith of ours.

Along with a fierce love, it is such a source of what gives me that sense of being a part of something greater.

Hope. Meaning. Purpose.

I wish the very same for each of you and for this religious community as a whole.

Joseph Campbell was right. I have no doubt there is a hero within each of you – a calling from something immense and powerful from both within and beyond. Keep answering that call. As Campbell said, “follow your bliss.”

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

“We are the dust,
the dust that hopes,
a rising of dust, a thrill of dust,
the dust that dances in the light
with all other dust, the dust
that makes the world.”

Let us go out now and make and remake our world.
May the congregation say, “Amen”, and “Blessed be”.
Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS

Soul Freedom

June 9, 2025 by tom Posted in Audio available, Chris Jimmerson, Sermons

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Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson & Chalice Camp Youth
June 8 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We often think of freedom as an individualistic act of escaping that which limits us. And that may be a part of the whole. What if a more complete understanding of freedom involves a communal embrace of our interdependence and the choices we make in order to live love?

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

There is something in the very nature of my freedom that inclines me to love, to do good, to dedicate myself to others. I have an instinct that tells me I am less free when I am living for myself alone. The reason for this is that I cannot be completely independent. Since I am not self-sufficient, I depend on someone else for my fulfillment. My freedom is not fully free when left to itself. It becomes so when it is brought into the right relation with freedom of another.

– Thomas Merton

Affirming Our Mission

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

Reading

I am learning that getting well in community is liberation. We are interdependent. When one of us attains freedom, it elicits/rekindles that longing in each of us. When we learn to feel, when we learn to stand with each other in feeling, when we learn to tune into the wisdom of our bodies, to love ourselves, to love each other, we are doing the unthinkable, we are creating new worlds of possibility… We must love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

– adrienne marie brown

Sermon

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

Rosie:

In Chalice Camp this week, we learned our camp creed and learned about a different line of it each day. It goes,

“It’s a Blessing we were born.
It matters what we do.
It matters what we do together.
What we know about God as a piece of the truth.
We don’t have to do it alone.”

I think maybe adults should be learning this creed too. A lot of people forget these things or never learn them in the first place. We all deserve the freedom to search for our truth, to know we are born worthy and to connect with the people around us. I hope maybe we can remind you.

Sol Cornell:

Thank you Rosie.

Hello. My names are Sol and Shanti. I am a small white human with short blue hair and I’m also the manager of religious education here at First UU Austin.

Over The past week, I got to plan, direct, and run our chalice camp, a week-long summer day camp for kids in kindergarten through sixth with counselors from seventh through twelfth. It focuses on introducing the beginnings of spiritual development, practicing presence and grounding, and asking some really big questions in between crafts, games, and various levels of joyful chaos.

Let me tell you, this has possibly been the most intensive, demanding and exhausting project I have ever taken on, and I am so, so glad that I did. I’ve wanted to work with kids for a long time, but I hadn’t considered working with them in this particular capacity, helping them explore spirit and meaning and self until pretty recently. And I’m finding it to be a calling that fills my soul beyond any work that I’ve done before.

There’s something sacred about the way that kids move through the world. They’re honest. They’ll tell you exactly what they think and feel. Sometimes while sitting quietly in communal reverence and sometimes while running in circles, demolishing a bag of cheez-its.

Kids ask fantastic questions, Some big and some small. I heard a broad array over the past week from, “How old is that Eye of the tiger song?” All the way up to “How is God real, but also not real?” I learned some of the most interesting facts from Googling a curiosity that someone had, and I sat with some of the deepest questions that Google simply can’t answer.

At one point, a camper asked me, “Why do you like working with kids? They’re really loud.” She’s not wrong, but I answered honestly and I said, “I think it’s the coolest thing in the world to watch you all become who you are.” Working with kids gifts me a sense of joy, curiosity, and peace.

Children are unburdened by the spiritual baggage that many of us carry and they invite us to put some of it down just for a little bit. It’s an honor to teach our newest humans about something so big and personal as spirituality. And in doing so, they teach me too.

In the midst of all the chaos, the paint and the pipe cleaners and the occasional bout of tears, I found something quietly blooming in my soul, a deep sense of freedom, the freedom that comes from having a passion instead of just a job, the freedom that comes from doing something that feels right, that fits, that brings me home to myself. I get to wake up every day and do something that truly fills my heart and soul. I never knew I could have this life.

And I want to be clear. That kind of freedom, that kind of joy, isn’t just for me. We all deserve it. You deserve it. And sure, maybe it won’t come in the form of directing a children’s camp but there’s something out there that will make your heart sing. I promise you. Seek it, find it, grab it with both hands, and pull it from the ether if you have to. Because when we do that, when we find and bring the whole of ourselves into community, we create something powerful. Not just a group or a congregation, but a living, breathing, deeply human kind of togetherness.

So thank you for being part of that. Thank you for letting me be a part of it too and for trusting me with something so important. Let’s keep chasing the things that fill us up. Let’s keep asking the big questions. And let’s remember that we’re all still growing as long as we live and that that’s a beautiful thing. As the Camp Creed tells us, “We don’t have to do it alone.”

Blessed be and amen.

Chris Jimmerson:

I think I’ll grant myself the freedom this morning to not sermonize a lot about the taco tyrant in the White House and his enablers, nor the Texas tyrants in control of our state government.

French philosopher and author Albert Camus said that,

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

I think Camus is expressing there what I call “soul freedom,” a sense of deep internal freedom that can’t be taken from us and that we need to sustain ourselves to persevere when we must rebel against tyrants who would rob us of our societal freedom.

Indeed, this soul freedom is what allows us to flourish, to live our lives most fully and fearlessly. It is what has empowered people throughout the ages to thrive, even when forced to endure the harshest of repressive conditions, concentration camps, slavery, colonization, racism, ongoing systemic oppression.

Our children at Camp UU this past week, as you’ve heard, have been learning about our Unitarian Universalist Theological Heritage and Identity, an identity that is deeply rooted in this soul freedom from the early Unitarians that claim the freedom to reject religious dogma and to form their own personal relationship with the God of their understanding to our universalist forebearers that freed us from fearing a judgmental and punishing God centered us instead in liberatory universal and communal love now.

One of the things that we you use have discovered along the way is that there is a potential paradox in developing soul freedom a tension between individualism and communalism. Communities can sometimes stifle our personal freedom, the expression of our true selves, can’t they?

And yet, as both of our readings highlighted this morning, we are interdependent. We need one another. We need love and support to fully become who we are meant to be, to find the sense of fierce love and belonging that sets our hearts and souls free.

So we have to form communities that accept and support each of our individual whole and fully creative selves, while at the same time each of us as individuals must choose to accept constraints, obligations that actually free us to contribute toward the love relationships and communal belonging we so desire.

Here’s another seeming paradox. Soul freedom requires surrendering. Surrendering to the fact that we are only the co-authors of our life stories, that much of the plot involves events that are well beyond our control. Our freedom lies in creating the narrative about how we interpret and respond to these events, Surrendering all that isn’t really important to us so that we are left with only the needs and boundaries that really matter to us, and this again frees us to then fiercely and fearlessly immerse ourselves in love and belonging.

So what we surrender is really only that which we have been telling ourselves mattered to us that really didn’t. And so often these things are things we absorbed and internalized from misguided, repressive societal norms that subjected our true selves in the first place.

Author Virginia Woof once put it:

“The eyes of others are prisons, their thoughts, our cages.”

Here’s a part of my own personal narrative that I think might illustrate much of all of this.

When I was seven, my dad developed severe depression that required repeated hospitalizations. By the time I was 12, he had divorced my mom. And because of all this, I became a sort of child parent to my younger siblings, a sort of child co-head of household with my struggling single mom. I had to learn to give love, to help, support, nurture, parent, protect. And some of that has become a valuable part of who I am. It’s a big part of what led me to become an activist for justice, to work in social support organizations, eventually to become a minister.

What it didn’t allow me to see as a part of my story nearly as much, though, is that I also need to be nurtured, helped, supported, protected to let myself want, accept, and ask for these things to enjoy and recognize being loved. Add to that a small-town culture in which I grew up that derided males for admitting a need for things like help and protection, and the eyes of others became a prison of sorts.

Flash forward to last year when my spouse of 33 years died. I grieved the loss of me loving him. I even felt gratitude for having loved him all those years.

But somehow I was still stuck. I was having trouble moving forward. I was just going through the motions of life without the joy that it used to bring me, unable to even entertain the idea of romantic love again.

It was only after several months of reexamining that self-story I had learned as that seven-year-old with lots of counseling and lots of support from loved ones, that I realized I was stuck because I hadn’t been able to let myself grieve the love, support, nurturing, and protection he had given me.

It was only then after I began to surrender that nearly lifelong self-narrative to allow for a more full, whole self-image that accepts being loved and nurtured, that I found the freedom To open myself to new love and to life again.

My beloveds, we will all sometimes fall into the traps that life can put in front of us.

Our soul freedom comes from allowing ourselves love and belonging accepting our interdependence because that, that is what helps us to rewrite our narrative and steer our story in a new direction more of our own choosing.

And sometimes we have to allow ourselves some time, some freedom to learn, And to unlearn some of those cages, the thoughts of others and/or our own, have trapped us within. The learned habits that can be so very hard to surrender.

I leave you with a poem by singer, songwriter, actress and author, Portia Nelson that I think illustrates this last idea in a kind of fun way. It’s called:

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS.
Chapter 1
I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am hopeless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place, but it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there. I still fall in. It’s a habit, but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my responsibility. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4
I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5
I walk down a different street.
The end.

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

Go now into daily life free, not only of that which holds you back, but also free to choose that which ignites your mind, body, and soul.

Choose to revel in our interdependence.

Choose community. Choose to love fiercely, fearlessly.

This is our revolution. This is our journey toward freedom.

May the congregation say amen and blessed be.
Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

PODCASTS