{"id":133345,"date":"2019-06-10T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?p=133345"},"modified":"2019-06-10T15:00:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T21:00:12","slug":"beauty-amongst-the-thorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/beauty-amongst-the-thorns\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty amongst the thorns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3279\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-133345-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3\">http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?powerpress_pinw=133345-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2019-06-09_Beauty_amongst_the_thorns.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p align=\"center\">Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Rev. Chris Jimmerson<br \/>\nJune 9, 2019<br \/>\nFirst UU Church of Austin<br \/>\n4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756<br \/>\nwww.austinuu.org<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><i>Even in life&#8217;s challenging and difficult times, we may still experience beauty; sometimes when it is least expected. And that, in turn, can help us through such times.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"4\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Call to Worship<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><i>By Rev. Mary Katherine Morn<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty does more than awaken us.<br \/>\nIt also admonishes us.<br \/>\nIt demands something&#8230;<br \/>\nWe are here, in religious community, not to hide from the anguished cries or the tender lullabies.<br \/>\nWe are here, in religious community, not to protect our hearts from breaking.<br \/>\nWe are here together to borrow courage for the task of coming alive.<br \/>\nWe are here so that together we might heed the admonitions of beauty.<br \/>\nAnswer its call to create; protect; and preserve.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Reading<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><i>John O&#8217;Donohue<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">It&#8217;s the question of beauty &#8230; there are individuals holding out on front lines, holding the humane tissue alive in areas of ultimate barbarity,where things are visible that the human eye should never see. And they&#8217;re able to sustain it, because there is, in them, some kind of sense of beauty that knows the horizon that we are really ca!led to in some way. I love Pascal&#8217;s phrase, that you should always keep something beautiful in your mind. And I have often &#8211; like in times when it&#8217;s been really difficult for me, if you can keep some kind of little contour that you can glimpse sideways at, now and again, you can endure great bleakness.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Sermon<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;Where beauty is apparent, we are to enjoy it.<br \/>\nWhere there is beauty hidden, we are to unveil it.<br \/>\nWhere there is beauty defaced, we are to restore it.<br \/>\nWhere there is no beauty at all, we are to create it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">I loved that quote from the late minister, theologian and social justice activist Robert McAfee Brown.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I love it, because I think it captures so well the complex and profound ways in which we are called to interact with beauty in our world.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty is the monthly theme we are exploring in our religious education classes and activities this June, so let&#8217;s take a bit of time to explore beauty together in worship this morning also.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Research has even begun to show that attentiveness to beauty may be beneficial us to psychologically and physically. Most of the studies have been based upon experiences of beauty in nature; however, now the research has begun to expand to such experiences through the arts and music.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Here are just some of the potential benefits that have been found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Emotional well being.<\/li>\n<li>Pro-sociality &#8211; having concern for others.<\/li>\n<li>Greater life satisfaction.<\/li>\n<li>Reduced stress.<\/li>\n<li>Lower heart rate and blood pressure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\">Here is how philosopher, futurist and social media and television personality, Jason Silva says that &#8220;Beauty Can Heal Us&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><i>Silva video<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;Beauty can shake us out of our jadedness &#8230; Let the music make you cry &#8230; gaze upon the fading sunset.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">So, first, &#8220;where beauty is apparent, we are to enjoy it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">That seems simple enough, yet how often do we allow ourselves to pay attention to and enjoy that which we find beautiful? How often to we explicitly set aside time for it in our daily lives?<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I know for me, as some of you have heard me share before, one of my spiritual practices, one of the things that keeps me grounded and relieves stress, is to go on a meditative hike in one of our many local nature areas &#8211; to allow myself to just get absorbed in observing the beauty of nature.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">And yet, in the times that are challenging and difficult, the times when I need it most, I am also most likely to put off this practice that so soothes and relaxes me. I have to remind myself to make the time to experience the beauty that will help me through such difficulties.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;Beauty can shake us out of our jadedness &#8230; Let the music make you cry &#8230; gaze upon the fading sunset&#8221;, Chris.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">It is so hard to practice what I preach sometimes, I&#8217;ll tell you!<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Next, &#8220;where there is beauty hidden, we are to unveil it.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">It is easier, I think, for us to find beauty in the places that have been more traditionally associated with it &#8211; nature, the mountains, the oceanside, a spectacular sunset, those we love, the music that moves us, the work of art that takes our breath away, a stunning moment in a play or movie or dance performance, as just a few examples.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">It can be harder to see the beauty in what we might otherwise consider unattractive or mundane. And yet, if we look for it, the beauty is likely always there in these places too.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">When I was in seminary, they had us do an exercise called a beauty walk that was based on a Native American tradition. They had us go to an area we would not normally associate with beauty and walk through it slowly, being attentive to the potential for beauty we might have missed before, bringing a camera to take pictures of what we found.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I went to a warehouse\/industrial area and was surprised to discover that it was teaming with life and elements of beauty.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ants dwelling in the cracks in the sidewalk.<\/li>\n<li>Flowers finding places to bloom even amongst all the metal and concrete.<\/li>\n<li>Birds dwelling everywhere they could find.<\/li>\n<li>The interplay between the bright colors with which people had painted some of the buildings.<\/li>\n<li>Landscaping people had created to surround themselves with beauty when they sat at their outside lunch table.<\/li>\n<li>Vegetable gardens people had grown in plots they had created outside the warehouses in which they worked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\">My beloveds, beauty surrounds us, both in the classical ways in which we have conceptualized it and in places we might least expect it, as well as within so many of the seemingly mundane moments of our every day lives.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I invite you to try the beauty walk exercise and see what hidden beauty you may unveil.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Here is a short video that I think captures this idea that beauty is to be found in the sublime, as well as in the more mundane.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><i>Video<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Finally, &#8220;Where there is beauty defaced, we are to restore it. Where there is no beauty at all, we are to create it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I think this is at least partially what our call to worship you all read with Mary Jane earlier is expressing.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Our Unitarian Universalist minister, Rev. Sean Dennison, says it like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The ability to see beauty is the beginning of our moral sensibility. What we believe is beautiful we will not wantonly destroy. With this, we are reminded that beauty does more than soothe and heal. It demands. It creates commitment. It doesn&#8217;t just say, &#8216;Love and appreciate me.&#8217; It says, &#8216;Protect me! Fight for me!'&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">So yes, beauty is there for us to experience it with awe and joy. Beauty is there to comfort us and sustain us in our struggles.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">And, our experiences of beauty also call us to create more of it &#8211; to restore it when it has been defaced and to create it where it has not yet existed.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty calls us to love and justice. It calls us to leave our world more beautiful than the one into which we were born.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">And with all of the ugliness, all of the beauty defaced in our world today, I know, for me, it can sometimes be hard to hold on to a vision of that more beautiful world, that world toward which beauty beckons us.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">For me, what would be beautiful, what beauty calls us to create, is a world in which children coming to the U.S. after fleeing persecution with their parents are welcomed with loving open arms rather than being torn away from their parents and locked in cages.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful would be a world in which we have answered the call to abolish immigrant concentration camps and prisons, and children no longer die while under the custody of our government.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful will be when Alirio, who has taken sanctuary here in our church, and Hilda and her son Ivan at St. Andrews, are all free and no longer fear for their lives.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Better yet, what would be beautiful, what beauty calls us to envision is a world in which we have helped to create conditions in people&#8217;s homelands that are safe, secure and prosperous.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty beckons us to create a world in which our own children can attend schools that provide safety, equity, a caring loving environment. Schools where our 5 and 6 year olds and on up no longer have to live in fear and participate in mass shooter drills.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful will be when we have put into place a federal administration and state governments that all stand up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexed folks rather than encouraging discrimination against us by making it legal.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty calls us to build a world in which transgender and all queer folks are able to live out loud as a our true and beautiful selves without fearing violence or even death at hands of hatred and bigotry.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty will happen when women and all people capable of bearing a child have control over their own bodies in all states and regions of our country. Beauty calls us the cast the patriarchy upon the ash heap of history.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful will be a time when black mothers and fathers no longer have to feel terror over the prospect of their children and loved ones being shot by the very law enforcement that is supposed to protect and serve.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">A criminal justice system that actually is just &#8211; that would be beautiful, and beauty is begging us to create it.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful would be Muslims in the U.S. and ALL people of faith living without fear and coexisting in peace.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Each of us living our own religious beliefs without trying to force them upon others. How beautiful would that be?<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful would be saving our planet, bringing democracy to our work places, restoring our institutions of representative democracy to their proper balances of power.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beautiful would be eliminating poverty and homelessness, wiping out economic and wealth inequality, dismantling white supremacy culture.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Beauty calls us, it lures us to these and all forms of love and justice.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">OK, now just go do all of that, and I&#8217;ll see you next week.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I think one of the places beauty is too often hidden and must be unveiled is our inability sometimes to recognize our own beauty.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">We must know our own beauty to be fully able to experience the beauty in our world, restore that which has been lost and create that beauty which has not yet become.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">To build the beloved community, to create that world about which we dream, we must overcome the many messages that we receive telling us we are not enough, not beautiful as we are.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Certainly, our cultural standards for physical beauty, especially for women, exclude all but a small segment of the white European descendent population.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Even more so though, we are discouraged from expressing the beautiful unique wholeness that is each of us.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Here is a poem by Maya Angelou that I think expresses this idea so well.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">PHENOMENAL WOMAN<br \/>\n<i>by Maya Angelou<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m not cute or built to suit a fashion model&#8217;s size<br \/>\nBut when I start to tell them,<br \/>\nThey think I&#8217;m telling lies.<br \/>\nI say,<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s in the reach of my arms,<br \/>\nThe span of my hips,<br \/>\nThe stride of my step,<br \/>\nThe curl of my lips.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m a woman<br \/>\nPhenomenally.<br \/>\nPhenomenal woman,<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I walk into a room<br \/>\nJust as cool as you please,<br \/>\nAnd to a man,<br \/>\nThe fellows stand or<br \/>\nFall down on their knees.<br \/>\nThen they swarm around me,<br \/>\nA hive of honey bees.<br \/>\nI say,<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s the fire in my eyes,<br \/>\nAnd the flash of my teeth,<br \/>\nThe swing in my waist,<br \/>\nAnd the joy in my feet.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m a woman<br \/>\nPhenomenally.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Phenomenal woman,<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Men themselves have wondered<br \/>\nWhat they see in me.<br \/>\nThey try so much<br \/>\nBut they can&#8217;t touch<br \/>\nMy inner mystery.<br \/>\nWhen I try to show them,<br \/>\nThey say they still can&#8217;t see.<br \/>\nI say,<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s in the arch of my back,<br \/>\nThe sun of my smile,<br \/>\nThe ride of my breasts,<br \/>\nThe grace of my style.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m a woman<br \/>\nPhenomenally.<br \/>\nPhenomenal woman,<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Now you understand<br \/>\nJust why my head&#8217;s not bowed.<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t shout or jump about<br \/>\nOr have to talk real loud.<br \/>\nWhen you see me passing,<br \/>\nIt ought to make you proud.<br \/>\nI say,<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s in the click of my heels,<br \/>\nThe bend of my hair,<br \/>\nthe palm of my hand,<br \/>\nThe need for my care.<br \/>\n&#8216;Cause I&#8217;m a woman<br \/>\nPhenomenally.<br \/>\nPhenomenal woman,<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">My beloveds, you are beautiful.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">You are phenomenal.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">You hold within you your own unique spark of the divine. You have your own unique set of gifts that only you can bring into our world.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">And as a religious community, as a religious faith, we may combine together each of our unique sparks of the divine, blend together our unique gifts to answer the call of beauty.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Together, may we radiate the divine our into our world, restoring beauty where it has been defaced, creating beauty where it has yet to become.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Amen.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"4\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p align=\"left\">Most sermons during the past 19 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link below 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.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/category\/sermons\/indexes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>SERMON INDEX<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link below or copying and pasting this link. https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/first-unitarian-universalist\/id372427776<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/first-unitarian-universalist\/id372427776\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>PODCASTS<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above. Rev. Chris Jimmerson June 9, 2019 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Even in life&#8217;s challenging and difficult times, we may still experience beauty; sometimes when it is least expected. And that, in turn, can help us through such&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19,27,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-available","category-chris-jimmerson","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133346,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133345\/revisions\/133346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}