{"id":137867,"date":"2023-07-05T08:37:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T14:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?p=137867"},"modified":"2023-07-05T08:37:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T14:37:03","slug":"joy-and-justice-amen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/joy-and-justice-amen\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy and Justice, Amen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_9643\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-137867-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3\">http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?powerpress_pinw=137867-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austinuuav.org\/audio\/2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2023-07-02_Joy_and_Justice.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Rev. Julicia Hermann de la Fuente<br \/>July 2, 2023<br \/>First UU Church of Austin<br \/>4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756<br \/>www.austinuu.org<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">There are so many things vying for our attention and energy. How do we manage it all? How do we find joy and satisfaction? How do we fit our commitment to justice among the many other things that need doing? Let&#8217;s explore the possibility of sustainable and joyful liberation and transformation, in our lives and our communities.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"4\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Chalice Lighting<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Call to Worship<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">By no means are we Unitarian Universalists perfect. We often fail as much as we succeed. Yet even when we have broken our vows a thousand times we return to this essential work of justice and liberation for all. We do the work best when we remember what the church is and what it is not.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Church is not a place to hide. It is not the place to get away from the world. It is not place shere we get to pretend that the lives we live and our particular situations are not terribly complex, often confusing, and sometimes depressing.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Church is the place where we stand with one another, look the world in the eye, attempt to see clearly, and gather strength to face what we see with courage and yes, with joy. Come, let us worship together.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8211; Rosemary McKnight<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Affirming Our Mission <\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>Reading<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\">V&#8217;AHAVTA<br \/>by Aurora Levins Morales<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Say these words <br \/>when you lie down and <br \/>when you rise up, <br \/>when you go out and <br \/>when you return, <br \/>in times of mourning and <br \/>times of joy.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Inscribe them on your doorposts, <br \/>embroider them on your garments, <br \/>tattoo them on your shoulder, <br \/>teach them to your children, <br \/>your neighbors, <br \/>your enemies.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Recite them in your streets. <br \/>Here, in the cruel shadow of empire.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Another world is possible.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Thus spoke the prophet Roque Dalton: <br \/>All together they have more death than we, <br \/>but all together, we have more life than they. <br \/>There is more bloody death in their hands <br \/>than we could ever wield, unless <br \/>we lay down our souls to become them, <br \/>and then we will lose everything. <br \/>So instead,<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">imagine winning. This is your <br \/>sacred task. <br \/>This is your power. Imagine <br \/>every detail of winning, the exact smell <br \/>of the summer streets <br \/>in which no one has been shot, the <br \/>muscles you have never <br \/>unclenched from worry, gone soft as <br \/>newborn skin, <br \/>the sparkling taste of food when we know <br \/>that no one on earth is hungry, that the <br \/>beggars are fed, <br \/>that the old man under the bridge and <br \/>the woman wrapping herself in thin sheets in the <br \/>back seat of a car, <br \/>and the children who suck on stones, <br \/>nest under a flock of roofs that keep <br \/>multiplying their shelter. <br \/>Lean with all your being towards that day <br \/>when the poor of the world shake down a <br \/>rain of good fortune out of the heavy clouds, and justice <br \/>rolls down like waters. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Defend the world in which we win as if <br \/>it were your child. <br \/>It is your child. <br \/>Defend it as if it were your lover. <br \/>It is your lover.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">When you inhale and when you exhale <br \/>breathe the possibility of another world <br \/>into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body<br \/>until it shines with hope. <br \/>Then imagine more.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Imagine rape is unimaginable. Imagine <br \/>war is a scarcely credible rumor <br \/>That the crimes of our age, the <br \/>grotesque inhumanities of greed, <br \/>the sheer and astounding shamelessness <br \/>of it, the vast fortunes <br \/>made by stealing lives, the horrible <br \/>normalcy it came to have, <br \/>is unimaginable to our heirs, the <br \/>generations of the free.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Don&#8217;t waver. Don&#8217;t let despair sink its <br \/>sharp teeth <br \/>Into the throat with which you <br \/>sing. Escalate your dreams. <br \/>Make them burn <br \/>so fiercely that you can <br \/>follow them down <br \/>any dark alleyway of history and not <br \/>lose your way. <br \/>Make them burn clear as a starry <br \/>drinking gourd <br \/>Over the grim fog of exhaustion, and <br \/>keep walking.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining. <br \/>So that we, and the children of our <br \/>children&#8217;s children may live<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\"><b>Sermon<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Text of this sermon is not yet available.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"4\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/category\/sermons\/indexes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>SERMON INDEX<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">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.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/first-unitarian-universalist\/id372427776\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>PODCASTS<\/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 above or copying and pasting this link. https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/podcast\/first-unitarian-universalist\/id372427776<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above. Rev. Julicia Hermann de la FuenteJuly 2, 2023First UU Church of Austin4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756www.austinuu.org There are so many things vying for our attention and energy. How do we manage it all? How do we find joy and satisfaction? How do we fit&#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":[19,18,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-available","category-guest-speakers","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137867","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=137867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137868,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137867\/revisions\/137868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}