First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on October 10, 2021. It's a Great Big Celebration Sunday. Each year we mark this day as the beginning of the Stewardship season as we make our pledges for the year to support First UU and its mission. This year, though, it's an even bigger celebration as we come back together for the first time in 19 months as well as celebrating Rev. Meg's 10th anniversary wi...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on October 3, 2021. The 3rd UU Principle states "Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations". How do we grow our spirits and encourage one another in doing the same? What fruits do we reap from our spiritual growth?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on September 26, 2021. Teacher Eric Kolvig says you can sum up this aspect of the path by saying "Try to do your practice, but don't try too hard, and never give up." This week's element of the eightfold path is "Right Effort".

Rev. Meg Barnhouse & Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on September 19, 2021. Revs Meg and Chris will talk together about resilience. What helps them be resilient? What helps you?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on September 12, 2021. How do we live into the second UU principle and practice justice, equity, and compassion in human relations? What does it look like to incorporate the vast variety of prayerful practices into our lives?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on September 5, 2021. How does what you do for a living help the world?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on August 29, 2021. What does it mean to treat other people as if they have worth and dignity? Does everyone have it? Is there a way to lose it? Do they have worth because of the divine within, or do they have worth in their humanity alone? How do we behave differently when we remember that we have dignity and worth?

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on August 22, 2021. Even in relatively good times, it can be hard to envision the possibilities that lie before us. We can get caught in routines and set ways of thinking. In difficult or tragic circumstances, it can feel like our possibilities have been taken away from us. Yet, even in such times, new possibilities often emerge. How do we...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on August 15, 2021. 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.

Senior High Youth service delivered on August 8, 2021. Join our senior youth group as they lead worship and explore the theme of Nature v Nurture and we celebrate their lives in our annual bridging ceremony.

Sage Hirschfeld and Bear W. Qolezcua's sermon delivered on July 25, 2021. In a world where trusting others feels harder each day, remembering lessons of trust and letting them guide us is an act of revolution. Join our RE Intern, Sage Hirschfeld, and Director of Communications, Bear Qolezcua, as they explore the topic of trusting in others and ourselves.

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on July 18, 2021. We live in a culture that often encourages us to project an air of invincibility. Yet research by Brene Brown and others in the social sciences indicates that the opposite may be the key to living whole-heartedly. Being willing to embrace and express our vulnerability may be the source of authenticity, human connection, a...

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on July 4, 2021. For over a year and a half, we have all been on an often challenging journey together, but we are still here as a religious community. As we contemplate an upcoming return to in-person church activities, our journey will change course again. What might we need to consider to smooth the potential bumps and avoid potential r...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on June 27, 2021. So much of our experience of life is influenced by things we can't control. Weather, illness, coworkers, friends, family. They say we can control how we respond to things, but that does not always feel true. Mostly, Buddhism teaches, we control what we do. Our actions are what we own in the end.

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on June 20, 2021. Getting through challenging times like this, working for justice, building the Beloved Community all require serious contemplation, hard work and allowing ourselves to feel the painful emotions that may come up. We must remember also that play, fun, and humor are necessary to sustain us. We must allow ourselves moments of...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on June 13, 2021. The third strand of the eightfold path is right speech. How do we become mindful of our speech? How do we practice telling the truth, being kind, knowing when to speak and knowing when not to speak?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on June 6, 2021. The second in our series on the Noble Eightfold Path. In order to reach peace of mind, we understand how the mind and spirit work, and we make powerful intentions to keep impermanence in mind, to hold onto joy lightly, and to remember that everyone dies in the end. Does this turn out to be cheering or depressing, or both?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on May 30, 2021. Facing Texas' anti-Trans legislation, what does our faith tell us about our responsibility to respond?

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on May 23, 2021. Conspiracy theories have always been with us. People like to make sense of the events happening in their world. How do you know what's true. Who falls for conspiracy theories, and why.

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on May 16, 2021. The stories we tell ourselves both as individuals and as a culture have powerful effects on how we live our lives, make meaning of our world and treat one another. Might some of them be retold in ways that would improve our lives and our world!

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on May 9, 2021. This Sunday we begin revisiting the Buddhist 8 fold path. I am not a Buddhist, but I am fascinated by what I've read and heard. This Sunday we will talk about the way things are, according to Buddhist thought, and why abandoning hope and fear might not be a bad thing.

Guest Speaker Rev. Bill Sinkford's sermon delivered on May 2, 2021. Rev. Sinkford is a past president the UUA and currently serves First Unitarian Portland. When the justice system is bent against black lives, those black lives lose faith in justice until there is proof it is served. They hold their breath, bated and unsure, waiting to finally exhale when justice rings true. We have all been chang...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon originally delivered on February 10, 2019. Wynton Marsalis, in his book "To A Young Jazz Musician: Letters From The Road", talks about the philosophy of the Blues, how it both expressed and healed the lives of black people as they lived in a society which was structured to marginalize them. How do we learn from the Blues to express suffering, to face it, and to build an...

Assistant Minister Rev. Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on April 18, 2021. We, and all that is, are changing, at least ever so slightly, in every moment. We are always becoming something new. Our ever-unfolding, ever-changing nature is inevitable. Our agency lies in the choices we make as to what direction, what path, our becoming will follow. We'll explore the creative, life-giving, life-savin...

Rev. Meg Barnhouse's sermon delivered on April 11, 2021. It appears that our brains are wired to simplify the world for our intake. We assign heroes and villains and we forget to be curious, to ask questions, to get the rest of the story.