http://www.austinuu.org/wp At First UU Church of Austin, we gather in community to nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice. Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:05:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 As an inclusive religious and spiritual community, we support each individual's search for meaning and purpose, and join together to help create a world filled with compassion and love. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin webmaster@austinuu.org webmaster@austinuu.org (First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin) 2000-2009 At First UU Church of Austin, we gather in community to nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice. http://www.austinuu.org/wp/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.austinuu.org/wp/category/sermons/former-ministers/hannah-wells/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2009/02/what-defines-greatness/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2009/02/what-defines-greatness/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:56:12 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/wp/?p=2510 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2009/02/what-defines-greatness/feed/ 0 Jim Checkley  February 22, 2009  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - Is a Bold Hamster "Great" or Just What is "Greatness"? Jim Checkley  February 22, 2009  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. Is a Bold Hamster "Great" or Just What is "Greatness"? Sometimes things just work out. Take this sermon, for instance. When I was asked to do this service, I quickly decided to talk about a topic that I have been fascinated with for a long time: what does it mean to be great? I was on the phone with Sally Scott and she asked me if I could do this date or that date, and we settled on February 22nd. I thought nothing special about it at the time. However, forty-five years ago I would have instantly made the connection between February 22nd and George Washington's birthday, because his birthday was a school holiday. In fact, back in those days we also got February 12th off from school because it was Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Of course, as it turns out, Charles Darwin's birthday is also February 12th, and the same year as Lincoln. But while they named a city after Darwin in Australia, there's no way in America - except maybe for a few isolated Royal Blue areas - that we'd get Darwin's birthday off from school. We just marked the 200th anniversary of both Lincoln's and Darwin's birthdays. Washington would have been 277 today - a number of no special significance since it doesn't have any "zeros" in it. Nonetheless, there is an interesting mathematical fact about Washington's birth year of 1732. Put a decimal after the "1" and you have the square root of three - 1.732. Really. See, you never know what you are going to learn at a Unitarian church. I don't know if this numeric coincidence portended greatness for Washington - perhaps a numerologist could tell us - but he certainly demonstrated greatness during his lifetime. As did both Darwin and Lincoln. Like I said, sometimes things just work out. The word great, like the words love and God, is subject to many meanings and often fierce debate. I'm beginning to believe I am an intellectual masochist because I keep picking sermon topics that are impossible to fully discuss in a 20 - okay 25 - minute sermon. So let's narrow our theme today. When I'm talking about greatness, I do not in any way mean famous. Famous and greatness are two totally different concepts and the cult of celebrity often worships people who are decidedly not very great, but whom we hoist onto pedestals made of fluff, and which are either unsteady and fragile or else we - and I mean American society - are shallow and fickle. But really, what are the odds of that being true about America? And I don't have the time to explore the really wonderful topic of the "greatness" of villains, for example Lord Voldemort, who J. K Rowling tells us over and over in her Harry Potter books, has done great things - terrible to be sure - but great nonetheless. So for purposes of my sermon, I assume that we would all agree that Lord Voldemort - and the real characters of history like him - do not deserve to be judged as having greatness. And based on her many interviews and pod casts, I think J. K. herself would approve. Instead, I am going to use William Shakespeare's famous quote about greatness from his play Twelfth Night as a template to discuss what it means to be great and how we judge greatness. And although there are many who could serve as examples, including many women, African-Americans, and others, because the powers that be handed it to me on a silver platter, I am going to be a bit of a Taoist and go with the flow by talking about each element of Shakespeare's quote using Washington, Darwin, and Lincoln as examples. In Twelfth Night the comedic plot begins when Malvolio, Countess Olivia's priggish steward, comes upon a letter that the merrymakers in the play have left for him to find. The letter is a fake anonymous love letter that Malvolio believes is from Olivia. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2006/06/inspiring-tales-of-failure/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2006/06/inspiring-tales-of-failure/#comments Sun, 04 Jun 2006 20:53:17 +0000 andi http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=77 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2006/06/inspiring-tales-of-failure/feed/ 0 © Hannah Wells June 4, 2006 First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - PRAYER Let us pray for some measure of comfort and peace for those who mourn significant... © Hannah Wells June 4, 2006 First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. PRAYER Let us pray for some measure of comfort and peace for those who mourn sig... First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/07/who-is-on-the-inside/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/07/who-is-on-the-inside/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2004 21:52:01 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=1795 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/07/who-is-on-the-inside/feed/ 0 Hannah Wells July 4, 2004 - The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. Hannah Wells July 4, 2004 The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/06/behind-the-scenes-2/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/06/behind-the-scenes-2/#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2004 21:47:48 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=1792 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/06/behind-the-scenes-2/feed/ 0 Dr. Davidson Loehr and Hannah Wells June 20, 2004 - The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. Dr. Davidson Loehr and Hannah Wells June 20, 2004 The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/thank-you-for-your-service/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/thank-you-for-your-service/#comments Sun, 30 May 2004 21:25:11 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=828 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/thank-you-for-your-service/feed/ 0 © Hannah Wells May 30, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - PRAYER: - For the soldiers who are working so hard as we speak, © Hannah Wells May 30, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. PRAYER: For the soldiers who are working so hard as we speak, and for the soldiers who have already given their lives, may our thoughts be with them, especially this Memorial Day. May we wake up to the reality that we are not as separate from them as we think, just as we are not as separate from anyone else; may we understand how deeply connected we all are. May we remember how connected we are to generations past and to the soldiers who gave their lives many decades ago; they are standing close behind us and we give our deepest thanks. May we come to understand that war is a part of who we are regardless of how noble the cause. Our kind has been dying prematurely of wars and disease since the beginning of our time. May we always take time to remember those who left us too soon. And may we extend our deepest warmth and support to those families who are left behind, whose long lives stand before them; young mothers and young children. May we be aware of their sacrifice and pray for their strength. May we pray for the leadership of our beloved country, and pray for an end to the chaos in Iraq so our troops can come home. May we be patient, may creative solutions be found to an unprecedented struggle, and may our support for our troops hold steadfast regardless. May we let there be time for the most difficult emotions to unfold surrounding this war and more recent wars. Dear spirit of life, please help us, as one nation, to take responsibility for our mistakes, to acknowledge the harm we inflict upon others and upon ourselves. Let us be that brave. Amen. SERMON: On "Washington Week In Review" on the TV PBS station early Friday evening, the anchor woman ended the program by saying, "and for those of you who are fighting in these wars that we only talk about, thank you for your service." When she said that, on the one hand I was struck by the honesty of her statement, but on the other hand it seemed kind of cheap. Every Memorial Day I'm aware of some kind of uneasiness that I can't quite name, but this year I've gotten closer to putting a name on it, and I think it's shame. Since Jr. High when I became a tune to the context of United States history, every Memorial Day I've had the vague awareness that there's a debt I'll never be able to repay. Around Memorial Day there's a bit of a time warp, or perhaps several wrinkles in time that closely juxtapose every major war of this country - the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI, WW2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and now the Iraq War. All these wars come to mind because we know in our hearts that several of these wars were worth fighting. And we wonder how the world would be different if the good wars hadn't been won. I know my life is what it is because the right side won those good wars. Reflecting on this is the stuff of a healthy kind of patriotism - this gratitude and humility - knowing I could never return the favor, so to speak. It's this reverence for a kind of dedication and courage and violence that I'll never have to experience. And maybe that's where the vague feeling of shame comes from - that cheapness of "thank you for your service" seems to belie a sense of entitlement. A sense of entitlement to a service that not only equals the loss of human life, but some things that are worse than death. Some of the men who came back from Vietnam would have preferred to come home in a box because their lives had been ruined. Losing your soul and your sanity can be worse than death. Discovering humanity's capacity for evil with your own hands can be enough to ruin a life, even if the events took place in minutes. I bring this up because I think the country is still reverberating from the pictures of torture by our own soldiers' hands. And yet it seems like a silent reverberation. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/yruu-bridging-ceremonies/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/yruu-bridging-ceremonies/#comments Sun, 16 May 2004 22:48:12 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=1812 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/yruu-bridging-ceremonies/feed/ 0 Hannah Wells May 16, 2004 - Coming of Age Credos Emily Withers, Coralee Trigger, Patrick McVeety-Mill - YRUU Reflections Ian Reed, Will Boney - The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. Hannah Wells May 16, 2004 Coming of Age Credos Emily Withers, Coralee Trigger, Patrick McVeety-Mill YRUU Reflections Ian Reed, Will Boney The text of this sermon is unavailable but you can listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/transcendentalism-for-today/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/transcendentalism-for-today/#comments Sun, 02 May 2004 21:58:53 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=851 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/05/transcendentalism-for-today/feed/ 0 © Hanna Wells May 2, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: - Don Smith I remember well the first time I announced to a group of p... © Hanna Wells May 2, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Don Smith I remember well the first time I announced to a g... First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/easter-2004/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/easter-2004/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2004 22:04:00 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=856 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/easter-2004/feed/ 0 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/where-do-we-find-absolution/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/where-do-we-find-absolution/#comments Sun, 04 Apr 2004 22:09:41 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=860 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/04/where-do-we-find-absolution/feed/ 0 © Hannah Wells 4 April 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Bill Reid My name is Bill Reid. © Hannah Wells 4 April 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Bill Reid My name is Bill Reid. I have been a member of th... First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/03/one-is-silver-and-the-others-gold/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/03/one-is-silver-and-the-others-gold/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2004 22:29:51 +0000 tom http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=874 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2004/03/one-is-silver-and-the-others-gold/feed/ 0 © Hannah Wells March 14, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - Two Poems By Herman Nelson: Hold to that Breed (Kyrielle) - For all who hiked life's rug... © Hannah Wells March 14, 2004 First UU Church of Austin 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756 www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. Two Poems By Herman Nelson: Hold to that Breed (Kyrielle) For all who hiked life's rugged trail to find new paths, triumph or fail. A search for Truth, their only creed. Hold firmly to that precious breed. To those who bartered all to teach, and sow their Truths in hope to reach some mind to nourish fertile seed. Hold firmly to that precious breed. Those friends whom you can count in strife, remain steadfast throughout your life, such loyalty is rare indeed! Hold firmly to such precious breed. Our 49th "Till death us do part!" When young, in love, those are only words. It is not until they act, you learn their meaning. This 49th anniversary of our wedding day, without you, I ruminate this knowledge. I chew it up unable to spit it out. It is bittersweet with the joy of you in memory, the despair of living on and on without your light to guide me. I find solace in our children. We mingle in their blood – ever – and the blood of their children and their children's children to the end of all eternity. Sleep, now, my love, my lover, and do not dream, for dreams, spawn pain, however pleasant. You are eternal as atoms. Wait for me. Let us ride the stars together. PRAYER: The Ides of March are upon us, "beware the Ides of March!" What have we to fear? May we seek the wisdom of confronting our fears within ourselves, and not without. May we see that the fear we give permission to, can be asked to leave. May we not betray ourselves. May we see that we can change our minds. That, even our most prized notions of integrity and self-reliance may in fact be the enemies of pride and separation, disguised. May we know who our true friends are. May we know that humility and gratitude for life can be embodied in reaching out to these friends in our times of need. May we see that the power to nurture what we choose to is in our own hands. We can nurture our fears, or we can nurture health and wholeness through actions, through initiative, through allowing ourselves to be known. And may we see that it is in our power to ensure what is most important of all: that we do not have to be alone, that there are friends to make in unlikely places. In a world that demands our attention, that demands our allegiance to icons that can seem hollow and distant, may we put our faith in what is in us and among us, and is most easily seen and touched: Our intimacy and affection for each other - may we give it more freely, and when we are given it, may we receive it. Amen. SERMON: When I was very depressed at the beginning of last summer, I decided to go see a psychic who had been referred to me by a friend with very high recommendations. When you're depressed enough, you'll try anything! I thought she might be able to provide me with some hope and direction for the future - I figured even if she was a crackpot, I could still use the placebo effect! I went to her house and we sat in her garden. She began by asking me questions "to get a feel for me," she said. She asked me who were the dead people hanging around me, and I said I didn't know, perhaps my grandmother. Already I eyed her suspiciously. She asked me why I was carrying so much pain in my body and I explained about the surgery on my left shoulder, and the slipped disk in my lower back. Then she asked me a question that absolutely knocked the breath out of me. She asked, "who sees you?" Three simple words. It took my breath away because it got right down to the bottom of my loneliness. Who sees me? Meaning, who understands me? Who sees the REAL me? Not the me who tries to look good in front of others, or tries to please whoever I think needs pleasing, but sees me inside and out, all my passions, all my secret fears, all the bare, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no