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Rev. Chris Jimmerson and Kelly Stokes
September 4, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
This Sunday is our annual Water Communion service, a special day when we all come back together after the summer, bringing with us water from a place or time that is special to us. We will share with each other why the water we bring is meaningful, and then pour the water into a common bowl where it will mingle and blend, a symbolic act that reminds us of our shared faith coming from many different sources.
Chalice Lighting
This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.
Call to Worship
THE RETURN OF THE RIVERS
Richard BrautiganAll the rivers run into the sea;
yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
It is raining today
in the mountains.
It is a warm green rain
with love
in its pockets
for spring is here,
and does not dream
of death.
Birds happen music
like clocks ticking heaves
in a land
where children love spiders,
and let them sleep
in their hair.
A slow rain sizzles
on the river
like a pan
full of frying flowers,
and with each drop
of rain
the ocean
begins again.
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Meditation Reading
You are not a drop in the ocean,
You are the entire ocean in drops.– Rumi
Sermon
Water Communion brings together three things I love: water, ritual, and this church community.! Now, I’m more accustomed to the classroom than the pulpit, so my first inclination is to say, “okay, who can raise their hands and tell me about the water cycle?”
I thought I understood the water cycle: the rivers flow into the sea, the water evaporates to become clouds, the clouds rain down and turn into rivers . . . wash, rinse, repeat. Right? If I thought about my place in the water cycle it was turning on my faucet and trying not to put pollutants down the drain.
And then along came …. respiratory droplets. I mean, sure, they were always there, but I didn’t think about them. And I know we’d rather not think too much about them right now, so let’s imagine we’re outside. It’s a sunny day, we sip some water, we sweat just a little. We breathe in peace, we breathe out love … and respiratory droplets . . and all those little droplets of water from our skin and our breath go up, up, up into the sky and gather together with their other little water droplet friends to become . . . . Clouds” Water from our bodies turns into clouds”
And not just from our bodies, right, but from dogs, and cats, and armadillos, and those foxes that were living on our church playground, and from live oaks and mountain laurels and from Town Lake and Shoal Creek and Barton Springs.
The water cycle doesn’t exist outside of ourselves. It moves through our physical bodies, connecting us to every other thing that holds water on our planet.
In our seventh UU principle we agree to affirm and promote “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” Nowhere is this interdependence more tangible to me than in our connection to water, and through it, to everything else.
The water that moves through our bodies connects us to glaciers, wetlands, snowpeople, koalas, narwhals, pandas, orchids, ancient redwoods, coral reefs, and, whether I like it or not, fire ants and poison ivy and white supremacists. We are all connected by the water we carry.
Now, all these things carry water, but not like a plastic water pitcher, or even the big pot that Gie Gie carried on her head in our story, containers that you fill up and when you pour it out the water is the same. Instead, we act as a filter, taking what we need from the water, and leaving what we don’t, changing it in the process. Everything in nature does this too.! As the water passes through underground rock, it picks up minerals, which it takes to the river. If the river is polluted, it picks up chemicals, which it carries downstream.
There are other streams passing through us besides water, streams of information and ideas. We act as a filter for this stream too, taking in certain ideas, discarding some, releasing others back into the stream. The ideas we hold onto inform what we believe about ourselves and our world, they impact how we feel and how we speak and how we act. And in this flow of ideas we are just as interconnected as in the water cycle. That means that what we believe and what we share with others doesn’t only impact us, but enriches or pollutes everyone downstream.
So what makes up this filter? Where does the thought filter come from?! I think it might come from our experiences and the way we were taught to interpret those experiences, from the cultures we live in, and from our chosen values.
As a religious educator, I’d love to think that our values make up the biggest part of this mental filter, but unless we are purposefully reflective and conscious about our thinking, it’s really easy to be influenced by our Twitter stream, by old family patterns, by the people at work or school, even the ones we don’t particularly like or agree with, by what we see on TikTok, and, whether I like it or not, by white supremacy culture, which flows through and around all of us.
So how do we cultivate a values-influenced filter? How can we make a conscious choice to be a filter for good, taking in whatever polluted waters of thought and ideas are given to us, filtering them through our sense of justice, our belief in the power of community, and our faith in our ability to be resilient, to make change?
There are lots of ways, right? I’m going to focus on two today.
I believe the first step to tending our mental filter is self care and spiritual care. When we are tired, burned out, traumatized, feeling empty, depleted, alone, anxious, or purposeless it is so hard to tend our filters, or even to care about them, and all too easy to be influenced by whatever feels easiest, to return to default mode. This is normal, and if you’re feeling this way, you are not alone. Don’t be hard on yourself.
But, whether we like it or not, the default systems in our culture are systems of oppression. So, if you’re feeling up to it, tend your filter by taking care of yourself. Tend your spirit. Find your own black muddy river to walk by and find a song of your own to sing.
Another way I think we make sure our filter is serving us, allowing us to hold onto and release into the world thoughts and ideas in line with our values, is to be clear about what our values are.
!Here at First UU, we have a self-guided, video-based curriculum called Parents of Preschoolers that helps families begin the process of faith development at home. In the first session it asks parents and caregivers to identify their personal values and determine the most important values for their family.
I don’t think we should do this only when we’re raising children; it’s a valuable exercise for all of us. Which values are most important to you?
Now, I may not be able to ask you to raise your hands and give me your answers while I’m up here, but hey I’m still a teacher,! so I’m sending you home with a worksheet. I made some copies for you and left them on the table right outside the sanctuary. There’s also a link to the worksheet and the curriculum on the worship page on our website, if you’re interested.
We can’t know if we’re speaking and acting from our values if we don’t know what they are. And not only does this impact those downstream, but how we see ourselves. I might be feeling guilty for not doing a particular thing well, but then I realize that doing that thing well isn’t actually something I value, it’s just an expectation I’ve picked up from white supremacy culture. Identifying our values helps us live our most authentic lives.
So today we’re going to try another way to identify our values, by examining what’s important to us and looking for the values that support it.
Every year we bring our own sacred water, and share it with our church community. This year, we’re going to ask ourselves, What does my sacred water have to teach me about my own values?
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- Maybe you have brought water from your beach vacation. Why is it sacred to you? Is it because when you’re at the beach you feel a connection to nature, perhaps a connection to the divine? Is it because you always meet up with your family at the beach, and that water represents the love you build and rebuild together every year?
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- Maybe you brought water from your kitchen sink, representing your value of expressing gratitude for the gifts of every day life, or your value of staying aware of what you have that others don’t, like access to clean, drinkable water.
- Maybe you brought water in the bottle you carry to the Capitol when you protest the harmful laws being passed in our state, representing your commitment to justice.
Next, please find someone nearby that you didn’t come with and briefly share the story of your water with them and, most importantly, the values this water represents. If you didn’t bring physical water with you, share your story anyway.
We know this may be difficult for people with social anxiety or trouble hearing, especially when people are wearing masks. Feel free to opt out or, if you do share, just do your best, trusting in the process of sharing.
If you’re watching on the livestream, we invite you to share in the comments.
We’re going to give you 6 minutes and will let you know when half the time is up so you can switch. So, where does your water come from and what value does that represent to you?
From the
PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS HANDOUT
What do we value?
Our church is made up of values we hold and rituals we practice. Consider the values listed below. Which ones most resonate with you? Are there values that don’t appear here? If so make a note of them.
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Write down the values that hold the most significance to you. Spend time noticing how they tend to show up in your daily life. When do you find yourself practicing or modeling them?
Links to resources on this topic:
Parents of Preschoolers Curriculum Password: YouGotThis2020
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