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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
October 1, 2023
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
Our commitment to supporting this church and its mission are making real differences in our lives and in our world. We will look back on some of those differences this religious community has made and re-commit our time, treasure, and talent toward nourishing souls, transforming lives, and doing justice to build the Beloved 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
Stewardship is this crazy idea that we should treat other people’s stuff better than our own. To me, stewardship is the act of taking care of something you were given whether or not you could acquire it for yourself in the first place. It’s less of an environmental idea and more of a common courtesy, which is exactly what stewardship should be, common.
– Eli Sowry
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Reading
Every act of kindness, generosity, or love overflows its original bounds. Our acts of kindness, generosity, and love multiply. Stewardship is a call to transformation.
Stewardship is an invitation to do new things in relationship with people in this community and beyond our walls. Generously giving of our time, talents, and treasure to this church community is a radical act of hope that has ripple effects that continue to multiply in people’s lives and in the world. We give because we are invested in the creation of a truly Beloved Community for all.
– Tina DeYoe
Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration
Unitarian Church of Los Alamos, NM
Sermon
Research shows that two of the things people dislike talking about the very most are money and commitment.
Welcome to Commitment Sunday – when we talk about church members committing to how much money they will pledge to support this church and its mission next year!
So let’s just start by getting THAT out there.
People most often dislike talking about commitment because we’re afraid that something might happen that will make us unable to live up to our commitments.
That’s OK, we know such things can happen, and we adjust if needed.
We often dislike talking about money out of fear of transgressing cultural taboos -like for those of us who grew up oh-so-white protestant, where talking about money was considered gauche.
Like talking about politics at the dinner table. Or religion.
We will probably talk about both of those this morning too though.
So, let’s try to set these fears aside and engage in the spiritual practice of embracing commitment to our religious values and mission.
So, how about we get the money part out of the way first? Unitarian Universalist Churches are mainly funded by the pledges of our members. We do not receive support from a larger denominational body or the like.
For our stewardship campaign this time, we will need to secure $825,000 in pledges to support a 2024 budget of just under 1.3 million dollars.
That’s not an extravagant budget. It does not add anything to our church operational infrastructure. It keeps everything, including staffing levels the same.
That $825,000 is about the same as was pledged last time.
The good news is some wonderful folks in the church have already pledged about $175,000 toward 2024 already.
So, that’s enough about the money part, let’s talk about commitment, because I want you to know- what your commitment has already made possible for this religious community and the lives it touches.
During the previous stewardship campaign, the members of this church committed the greatest amount of support in the church’s history.
Your pledges to support the church, especially given all that we had recently been through – the church closure because of the pandemic; the retirement of a much loved minister; the loss of a longterm, also greatly loved staff member to cancer – your commitment and resilience after all of that and more was and is simply amazing.
Our stewardship theme is “Rebuild, Renew, Rise Up”, and we truly have done that – and continue to do so!
I remember that around this time last year, we were talking about how coming out of the pandemic, there was this real hunger for spirituality and greater meaning out there.
After so much isolation, people were also feeling a real need for community.
And in Austin, TX, because of your commitment, this church was there for over 75 folks who have found community and a spiritual home here since then.
And that is unusual. Very few churches are growing and thriving coming out of those pandemic isolation times.
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is growing and thriving.
Because of your commitment and that of our wonderful religious education (RE) staff, our RE program is also one of the only such programs across the country that is growing and vibrant.
We have added numerous adult RE offerings. Kelly, our Director ofRE, has reimagined the program in ways that have kept it robust.
We trained facilitators from across this country on how to offer Our Whole Lives, the age appropriate sexuality education program that enhances and perhaps even saves lives.
We offered a summer camp for children, steeped in Unitarian Universalist history and theology to help deepen their growing spirituality and faith.
This religious community exudes an energy, a vitality that is rare these days and worth celebrating.
If you are one of the folks who have joined us relatively recently, thank you for your commitment. Thank you for being here.
Thank you for belonging within this community of faithful vitality. Because this church committed to its stewardship needs, we have also been able to offer so many ministries to all who cross our threshold either physically or virtually.
Ministries that provide ways to find and explore that hunger for spirituality – that longing for community.
We offer so many that I cannot possibly mention them all here, but I do want to mention a few that we either newly began or that we revitalized over the past several months.
A recently revitalized First UU Pagan Alliance group is going strong.
A wonderful bunch of folks, several of them Unitarian Universalist seminarians, offered an alternative, Vespers, worship service one Tuesday evening per month. The group is looking at possibly expanding these in this church year.
We have a wealth of spiritual direction, spirituality, and spiritual practices groups that are going strong, some of them also newly formed.
Some great folks have rekindled our healthy relations team to support us in fulfilling our covenantal promises that bind us together in the ways of love.
Our wonderful First UU Cares team has done so much to expand a culture of caring within the church – to make sure we are there to support one another and feel comfortable reaching out for support.
Our memorial services team has expanded their support for folks going through one of life’s most difficult times – the loss of a loved one.
At one point this year, this team and our staff provided four memorial services in one week.
I cannot tell you how many people have told me that this team and this church have helped them make it through when they were afraid they might not.
We also began a peer grief support group in the church.
Fun, fellowship and the arts are also key to our sense of spirituality and community, and your commitment has allowed our terrific fellowship team to thrive, our Sharon and Brian Moore Gallery to provide some truly outstanding exhibitions, and our amazing director of music, Brent Baldwin, to launch a new concert series.
And speaking of music, our music program and choir are just beyond first rate. They truly do nourish our souls.
Your commitment also allowed us to bring in a diverse group of guest worship leaders so that we could benefit from experiencing a wide range of life-perspectives and styles.
I can’t tell you how complimentary our guests were of this church’s staff- how the staff’s professionalism made appearing at our church such a pleasure for these guests.
We have what has to be one of the finest church staffs anywhere, made possible by the financial support of the religious community.
Well, I could go on and on about the wonderful things this church is doing, and I have not even come close to covering all of them.
I’ll wrap up though by talking about how your commitment to this community has allowed us to live out our values.
Folks have formed a new Vegan group.
The Earthkeepers group is helping us be in right relationship with our land.
Our social action council now has well over 100 members and a brilliant group of social justice pillars doing great work to bring our mission into the world – Reproductive Justice, Racial Justice, Environmental Justice, LGBTQ+ Rights, Democracy, Immigrant Rights – we continue to play an active role with Austin Sanctuary Network, which we helped found.
Our fantastic reproductive rights group just issued an impressive report on their much needed work.
Did you know we are partnering with a non-profit organization to be a distribution site for reproductive health kits?
Our environmental action folks were a part of efforts that stopped radioactive waste from being brought to West Texas by rail and dumped there.
We’ve engaged in trans inclusion work and are hosting support workshops for trans and other gender diverse folks and their loved ones.
This church brought a huge presence to the recent session of the Texas Legislature, speaking out on a number of issues, especially some involving the rights and dignity of LGBTQ folks.
We were there to show we care. We were there to follow the lead of those most affected. We showed up to proclaim our religious values in the public arena.
We put the denizens of our Texas State Capital on notice that the struggle for human rights, dignity and justice is far from over.
We will show up for love and justice over and over and over again. OK, I made it most of the way without talking about politics!
A church member recently told me that given the meanness of spirit in our state politics, not to mention our ever hotter Austin summers, this church is what makes it possible for them to keep living here.
I think that is true for me too.
So, though the research says we don’t like talking about money and commitment, research has also found that committing to generosity can benefit our mental and physical well-being.
It can even lower our blood pressure.
So this Commitment Sunday, let’s all lower our blood pressure and commit or recommit to this church.
- Commit to nourishing souls.
- Commit to transforming lives.
- Commit to justice.
- Commit to the Beloved Community.
- Commit to building new ways that within our midst and in our world, bring that Beloved Community alive.
Amen.
I invite you to reflect upon the commitment you may wish to make to the values, mission, and ministries of this church.
Please consider what might be meaningful and spiritually nourishing for you.
Most sermons during the past 23 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.
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