One coming out story

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Rev. Meg Barnhouse
August 15, 2021
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

When you meet a person who is LGBTQ plus, you immediately know that there was a time when they realized they were different. They were decisions that had to be made about whom to tell, how to be in the world, in a world that, until a few years ago, didn’t have a place for them. This is my coming out story.

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

FITTED FOR THIS DAY
By Kimberly Quinn Johnson

We are the ones we have been waiting for.*
We are not perfect, but we are perfectly fitted for this day.
We are not without fault,
but we can be honest to face our past as we chart a new future.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
May we be bold and courageous to chart that new future
May we have faith in a future that is not known
We are the ones we have been waiting for.*

*the words of June Jordan in “Poem for South African Women,” which she presented at the U.N. on August 9, 1978

Affirming Our Mission

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

Learn more about Beloved Community at this link. – The King Center

Meditation Reading

UTTERANCE OF THE TIMELESS WORD
By Angela Herrera

You bring yourself before the sacred,
before the holy,
before what is ultimate and bigger than your lone life
bigger than your worries
bigger than your money problems
bigger than the fight you had with your sister and your aches and pains
bigger, even, than your whole being,
your self who is
part of
and trapped within
and blessed with
a body that does what you want
and doesn’t do what you want
and wants all the wrong things
and wants all the right things…

You stand at the edge of mystery,
at the edge of the deep,
with the light streaming at you,
and you can’t hide anything – not even from yourself,
when you stand there like that,
and then…what?
Maybe you call your pastor and say,
What is this?
What am I looking at?
What do I do?

And your pastor comes and stands at the edge with you and looks over.
She can’t hide anything either, she thinks,
not even the fact that she doesn’t know the answer to your question,
and she wonders if you can tell.
She thinks of all the generations who’ve come there before you
and cast words out toward the source of that light,
wanting to name it.
Somehow, she thinks to herself,
the names stayed tethered to the aging world and got old
while the light remains timeless and burns without dimming.

Meanwhile,
the armful of worries you brought to the edge of mystery
have fluttered to your feet.
Unobscured by these, you shine back, light emanating unto light.
You, with your broken heart and your seeking,
you are the utterance of the timeless word.
The name of the Holy is pronounced
through your being.

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