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Rev. Erin Walter and Rev. Michelle LaGrave
December 15, 2024
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
Join us for a fun and festive service where the congregation will “unwrap” gifts of presence.
Our theme today is the gifts of presence, so we’re unwrapping the gifts of presence. That is a gift for those of you who like puns and a lump of coal for those of you who don’t.
(There are lots of wrapped packages on the stage.
Rev. Erin starts by unwraping the first one.)This one says “Open First” so I’m going to find out. All right, It says “Today we are literally going to unwrap this service.” I’m going to invite volunteers to come up, open a present, and each box or bag will have some part of the service in it. One box has the opening hymn wrapped inside, another has the offertory, and so forth.
We’ll take a moment to breathe together as they come, and even if it means that our opening words happen at the end, or our closing hymn is first, it’s okay. We’re gonna have some fun today, and we’re gonna learn some things from it.
Benediction
MYSTERY OF BEING HERE
by John Donahue.May you awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift
and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence of flame and anxiety
never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
May it be so and Amen.
Reading
MYSTERIES
by Mary OliverTruly we live with mysteries
too marvelous to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of lambs,
how rivers and stones are
forever in allegiance with gravity,
while we ourselves dream of rising,
how two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken,
how people come from delight
or the scars of damage
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance always
from those who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say,
Look and laugh in astonishment
and bow their heads.
Story for all ages
THE SHORTEST DAY
by Susan CooperSo the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Affirming Our Mission
Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.
Sermon
NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.
So a couple of weeks ago Reverend Michelle and I were in the minister’s office commiserating and catching up on the life of the church and that is one of the best things about being on a ministerial team is you’re in it together and just being together in those moments of sharing about our struggles, about our joys, instead of over email or text, but to really be together. And it’s in those luxurious moments when something magical might sneak in. In this case, I said to Well, in seminary, I used to be so creative about worship planning, walking meditations around the sanctuary, dancing. I just don’t have the energy for that kind of creativity these days, and that’s okay. We do what we can do.
We do what we can do is one of my favorite mantras, and I believe it, But of course the universe heard me and sent the unwrapped service through a colleague’s Facebook post. And here we are. A few days later we found ourselves gift wrapping, making a party of it in the minister’s office. Now gifts aren’t really my love language and I’m terrible about waiting until the last minute to shop and I find myself wrapping presents usually alone in my room on Christmas Eve muttering to myself and looking for the tape and feeling resentful mostly toward myself that I did this to myself. So it was with incredible gratitude that Reverend Michelle, her spouse Reverend Micah, Reverend Michelle’s mom Nancy and Kinsey all offered to wrap gifts for this day together. Yes.
It’s hard when a team member leaves, so I want to say a special note of how nice it was to have Kinsey in the room. She wrapped one present and then she said, “Is it okay if I just sit and get some work done while y ‘all are wrapping? Just be here?” And absolutely yes. And we learned in that time that we have a shared favorite song, so we got to dance around a little bit, and now I have that memory. I also want to thank Brent and the musicians and the tech team again for being a part of this unwrapped service, which is a particular curveball for you. Thank you for your talent, your openness, and the clarity of when it really isn’t going to work, to just wing it. Great.
So, friends, you never know what your presence may offer someone, what a gift it may be. And you never know what staying open and present to the mystery of the universe might bring you. In this holiday season, presence and the corresponding word “absence” can be a challenging thing. I find myself often torn, wanting to be a bunch of places at once, which of course I can’t do. And you may find yourself aching over those you have lost, whether to death or family estrangement or simply moving away. Our challenge in the hustle and bustle is to acknowledge those feelings, to not push them away, but to somehow also ground ourselves into being present to the joys and loves around us.
Vietnamese monk and peace activist, Tich Nhat Hanh, known as the father of mindfulness, said this,
“When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there? The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they bloom like flowers.”
Today’s service is intended to give us a chance to not just talk about mindfulness, but to practice it together, to pay attention because we cannot autopilot this one. It gives us a chance to breathe while we wait for the slides or when a hymn is opened out of place, a chance to hear sacred words in new voices, young and old. And while for some of us not Knowing whether and which hymn is coming next, I admit, may be stressful. If we can let go of control even a little and know that whatever is in the box, it’ll be okay. I hope that that knowledge will serve you well during the holiday season and what’s to come in our world in January and beyond.
And this call to live in the moment is not just modern spirituality or self-help but ancient wisdom. The Chinese philosopher Lao Su, born in 571 BC, wrote,
“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
That may be an oversimplification given what we know about the body and chemicals and the brain, but still I think those are wise words. So I hope you’ve been paying attention to where the service might be affecting you and giving yourself a chance to ponder now or later why you might be delighted in some spots or stressed in others and how you might apply that knowledge to your daily life. If you’ve been delighted by something different, something a little silly at times, perhaps seeking more silliness or spontaneity or difference in your daily life would bring you joy.
If you feel frustrated, angry or anxious, I’m sure you’re not alone, and perhaps you could have the kind of conversation with a friend, the way I’m so thankful to be able to have with Reverend Michelle when I need to, and talk about what might be underneath what you might be feeling. We can ask ourselves, how would I like to feel when faced with something different, unusual, or beyond my control. What would my best self be in this situation? These are also good questions, not just for inevitable holiday curveballs that happen at the airport or when family gets together, but for our life in this church. First UU is expected to call a second co-lead minister next year and who knows what kind of creative or theological differences or ways of doing things they might bring. So my prayer for you as your sabbatical minister and someone who loves this congregation so much is that you can meet those unknowns with at the very least calm curiosity or even better a spirit of delight and wonder.
When I told one first UU staffer about this service, they said, “I love it. Bring the chaos.” And I frankly was not expecting that from you, Shannon. I love it. And my favorite song on KUTX right now is a song called “Little Chaos,” and there’s a lyric in the verse that goes, “Is the room in your life for a little chaos.” And the thing is, you have to have some room to be able to welcome change or the unexpected, be it a miracle or an emergency. And so in my life as a parent, my husband and I talk a lot about trying to leave room in the Google Calendar for the unexpected. And I remind that today to myself and to all of us.
Lastly, I can’t talk about presence without sharing a story that’s been on my heart about what it is to be present with each other. Recently I sat with an elder from our congregation who was in the last days of hospice care. She could not open her eyes or speak to me. So I sat with her for a while, gently put my hand on her hands, not knowing how that would feel to her. Sometimes I sang songs quietly, “Amazing Grace,” “The Lord blessed you and keep you”, Spirit of life.” Not sure if she was aware of my presence. I wasn’t sure what to say because I didn’t know her well. But I leaned in and I said, “Your church family loves you so much. We love you, we love you.” And to my surprise, she nodded very clearly, twice, at those words, the only movement in my visit.
The poet Maya Angelou famously said that people will not remember what you say or do, but they will remember how you make them feel. I know from this church member in that experience that your presence matters. The love you bring to each other matters. If this is a challenging season for you, I want you to know your church loves you so much, and we are here for you. May this be a time of great joy in the ways that it can be, and may we be present to each other in everything else.
Blessed be.
Opening Words
FORGED IN THE FIRE OF OUR COMING TOGETHER
by Reverend Gretchen HaleyWhat’s going to happen?
Will everything be okay?
What can I do?
In these days,
we find ourselves too often, stuck with these questions on repeat.
What’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? What can I do?We grasp at signs and markers, articles of news and analysis,
Facebook memes and forwarded emails,
as if the new Zodiac
is capable of forecasting all that life may yet bring our way
as if we could prepare,
as if life had ever made any promises of making
sense, or turning out the way we thought.
As if we are not also actors in this still unfolding storyfor this hour we gather
to surrender to the mystery,
to release ourselves from the needing to know,
the yearning to have it already figured out.
and also the burden of believing we either have all the control or noneHere in our song and our silence
our stories and our sharing
We make space for a new breath a new healing a new possibility
to take root
That is courage
forged in the fire of our coming together
and felt in the Spirit that comes alive in this act of faith.
And that we believe still a new world is possible,
that we are creating it already, here and now.Come, let us worship together.
Thank you for being present to the mystery of the season, the mystery of our very lives and existence and co-creating this service with us. Your presence today has truly been a gift. We saved this box for last because it would be awkward to extinguish the chalice before it was lit. And because we always have our words of blessing ringing in our ears and hearts as we leave this place. I don’t think we lit it. So we’re going to light it, and then we’ll extinguish it, and thank you so much for being a part of this. The first time we ever did an unwrapped service here. Go in peace, go in love, blessed it be.
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.
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