First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on March 12, 2023. We human beings have real limits that can make us vulnerable. Accepting what we can't do allows us to ask for help and connect more deeply in community. Difficult idea, but let's have fun with it.

Rev Jonalu Johnstone and Rev Erin Walter's sermon delivered on March 5, 2023. Spring has almost sprung, but first we take time for the spiritual practice of lamentation. Our interim ministers will co-lead this service on grief and healing.

Rev Chris Jimmerson and Genie Martin's sermon delivered on February 26, 2023. Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote the web of all existence of which we are a part. Many cultures view not just the human world but that web of all existence as part of a sort of extended family. Certainly, we are called to build the Beloved Community with and among our fellow humans. Perhaps from this point of v...

Guest Minister Rev Addae Kraba's sermon delivered on February 19, 2023. Since time immemorial love has been the topic of conversations. We are endowed with a boundless capacity to love, but when we are filled with emotions like fear and anger we shield love's pulsating rays. - Addae Kraba

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on February 12, 2023. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called love the greatest force. But is love really a force? Is it really that strong? We'll see what a few religious traditions have to say about it, and share some love.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on February 5, 2023. Love is fundamental for fulfillment in our lives and central to our theology as Unitarian Universalists. Love brings us great joy, comfort and so many other wonderful feelings. And to love will mean to experience loss. Love is not just an emotion but also involves behavior in which we must engage to keep it alive. Love calls us toward our...

Guest Minister Rev Chris Long's sermon delivered on January 29, 2023. Please join Rev Chris Long, The Minister of Congregational Life at Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge, LA. He will explore the Soul Matters theme of the month in a Sermon titled, Finding Our Center - Building a New Way.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on January 22, 2023. We bring our pets for our annual pet parade and animal blessing. We explore how our animal companions so often bless us by helping us find our center.

Rev Erin Walter's sermon delivered on January 15, 2023. Join us for a worship service that honors the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy and also affirms how transgender rights and inclusion are part of the greater work of Beloved Community. Rev. Erin Walter will be joined by Alex Kapitan, co-founder of the Transforming Hearts Collective.

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on January 8, 2023. The past has shaped us. We rest in the present. We look forward to the future. How do they interact together to help us find our center?

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on January 1, 2023. For New Year's Day, we will hold our annual burning bowl service. We contemplate what we would like to let go so that we may more easily find our center. Then we whisper that which we would like to let go into pieces of flash paper, toss them into a fire and watch them burn away.

Lay Led service delivered on December 25, 2022. We join together for our Christmas day worship service of Lessons and Carols. We read from the Christian texts, the story of Rabbi Jesus' heralded birth.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on December 18, 2022. We join together for the awe and wonder of our Annual Christmas Pageant as we hear and perform the famous story and sing beautiful carols.

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on December 11, 2022. Don't we all love Christmas? And Advent? And music? Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll hear the wonder of music as we consider the season and its mixed history and present.

Rev. Erin Walter's sermon delivered on December 4, 2022. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says "to be spiritual is to be amazed," and research shows cultivating our sense of wonder and awe can stave off narcissism, spark joy, and promote connection. Rev. Erin Walter reflects with us on our December theme of Wonder.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on November 27, 2022. We have been experiencing a great deal of change and uncertainty in our lives and even within the church. Change and uncertainty are inevitable in life - sometimes even desirable. What sustains us though, what do we hold onto during times of greater than usual uncertainty?

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on November 20, 2022. Our faith proclaims that reproductive justice is a vital component of and inextricably intertwined with our anti-racism and anti-oppression efforts to build the Beloved Community. Some of our fellow church participants will share their stories of how it (or the lack of it) influenced their lives, and the lives of their loved ones.

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on November 13, 2022. Octavia Butler writes in "The Parable of the Sower" that the only lasting truth is change. In this week after the election, we'll consider change and its impact in our political system and in our lives. All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change Changes you.

Rev. Erin Walter's sermon delivered on November 6, 2022. What do grief and elections have in common? They are unusual places to look for beauty. In the season of All Souls and with election day looming, Rev. Erin Walter will reflect with us on our spiritual commitment to democracy and on finding beauty in challenging times.

Rev Chris Jimmerson's sermon delivered on October 30, 2022. At Halloween, we assume other identities by putting on costumes and masks. Metaphically though, we may sometimes wear masks throughout our lives. How do these masks protect us? How might they be holding us back? Might they even be a part of our personal and spiritual development sometimes?

Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on October 23, 2022. We are living in In-between, or liminal, times - in this church and in the world. In between pandemic and virus eradication, in the midst of changing climate, in between senior ministers. We need courage because in liminal times, we are uncertain. Unpredictability can bring danger, confusion, pain and general messiness. In short, crisis....

Rev Chris Jimmerson, Rev Erin Walter and Rev Jonalu Johnstone's sermon delivered on October 16, 2022. Revs. Chris, Erin and Jonalu come together in person for the first time to explore how we do church at First UU of Austin and as Unitarian Universalists.

Guest Minister Rev. Anthony Jenkin's sermon delivered on October 9, 2022. In this season of atonement - reuniting darkness and light (Fall Equinox) and souls with their wholeness (Yom Kippur) - Anthony Jenkins will invite us to contemplate the concept of tough love. Together we'll consider how doing love's shadow-work can help shine the light of balance into our families, friendships, and relation...

Rev. Erin Walter's sermon delivered on October 2, 2022. We celebrate the differences we make in our world together, and the joy that comes from being a part of this religious community.

Rev. John Buehrens' sermon delivered on September 25, 2022. G.K. Chesterton once called America "the nation with the soul of a church. " Sadly, there is now a gaping in hole in our national soul. Our Consulting Minister for Leadership Transitions returns to our pulpit, to suggest both the depth of the problem and to suggest how a congregation like ours can be part of the remedy.