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/guest-speakers/swuu-district-conference-2008/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/salvation-davidson-loehr-and-david-bumbaugh/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/salvation-davidson-loehr-and-david-bumbaugh/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:35:14 +0000 andi http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=118 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/salvation-davidson-loehr-and-david-bumbaugh/feed/ 0 © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  27 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - STORY: Once there was a girl who had an amazing dream. © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  27 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. STORY: Once there was a girl who had an amazing dream. She dreamed that she could see a house in the next village, see into its back yard, and see a big tree there. And she knew - she just knew that buried beneath the tree there was great treasure! The village was separated from hers by a river, so it wasn't a great walk there, but still she had never visited the village in her life.And yet she saw this house so clearly, and felt that she knew just where it was - and then the tree and the buried treasure. It was a very odd dream, she told herself the next day - she'd never had anything like that before! But the next night, she had it again - the same exact dream! Same house, same tree, same treasure. This time she could see a little more of the village, a little more of where the house was. The next night, she had the same dream, and the night afterwards. She dreamed that same dream for five nights in a row - nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Monday through Friday, every night, the same dream of buried treasure. On Saturday when she got up, she was determined to go see that house. She took a shovel with her. She crossed over the bridge, and had seen so much of the village in her dream, she felt she knew just where the house would be - and it was! She even looked around the side into the back yard, and sure enough, there was that same big tree she had dreamed about. Now you can't just go digging a really big hole in somebody"s back yard without their seeing you do it, so she decided to be honest. She knocked on the door, and when a woman answered, she explained about the dreams she had had for five nights, and how she wondered if it would be all right if she dug up the treasure, and split it with the woman. The woman was very kind to her."Oh my dear," she said," I'm afraid there is no treasure buried here! But this is so very strange, because my son had exactly the same dream for the last five nights! Except he dreamed that his treasure was buried in the village across the river, behind a red garage. He left to walk over there this morning." "My gosh," the girl thought, "that sounds like my house!" The girl thanked the woman, took her shovel and headed for home. In the meantime, the boy had found her house. He had also taken a shovel, and also decided that he might as well just tell the truth, because he's surely get caught digging a big treasure hole behind their garage. So he went to the door, and when the woman answered, he told her his story. Again, the woman was surprised, and said, "Oh, my boy, I'm afraid there is no buried treasure here, but my daughter had the same dream, and went off to find a house across the river." She wished him a good walk back home. But it made the boy mad. "How foolish I feel!" he muttered. There must be some kind of silly epidemic going around, where kids are all dreaming these ridiculous dreams! How foolish!" He went home, was tired and felt foolish, didn't talk to his mother about it (he said he couldn't find any such house), went to bed, read a Batman comic book, went to sleep, and by morning he had forgotten most of the story about his dreams. Within a few weeks he'd forgotten it all together. But the girl thought about it in bed that night, and thought about it all the next day, too. Maybe the boy didn't have buried treasure - though she wasn't sure of this - but that didn't mean there wasn't real treasure behind her garage, where he had seen it! The more she thought about it, the more certain she was, until finally she talked with her parents about it. After some arguing, they agreed to let her dig, on the condition that she would have to fill in the hole when she was done. It was a lot of digging! She dug and dug, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/the-ancient-roots-of-the-liberal-spirit/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/the-ancient-roots-of-the-liberal-spirit/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:26:59 +0000 andi http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=117 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/the-ancient-roots-of-the-liberal-spirit/feed/ 0 © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  26 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - PRAYER: (Adapted from "Prayer Before Birth" by Louis ... © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  26 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. PRAYER: (Adapted from "Prayer Before Birth" ... First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/what-the-world-needs-from-liberal-religion-rev-david-e-bumbaugh/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/what-the-world-needs-from-liberal-religion-rev-david-e-bumbaugh/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:49:56 +0000 andi http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=114 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/what-the-world-needs-from-liberal-religion-rev-david-e-bumbaugh/feed/ 0 KEYNOTE ADDRESS - SWUU DISTRICT ANNUAL MEETING AUSTIN, TEXAS - David Bumbaugh APRIL 26, 2008 - "What the world needs from Liberal Religion." That is a sweeping topic and one that is daunting to say the least. KEYNOTE ADDRESS - SWUU DISTRICT ANNUAL MEETING AUSTIN, TEXAS David Bumbaugh APRIL 26, 2008 "What the world needs from Liberal Religion." That is a sweeping topic and one that is daunting to say the least. Who among us is qualified to speak fo... First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/who-are-we/ http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/who-are-we/#comments Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:21:24 +0000 andi http://www.austinuu.org/sermon/?p=116 http://www.austinuu.org/wp/2008/04/who-are-we/feed/ 0 © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  Friday 25 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org - Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. - READING: Who are you? © Davidson Loehr  SWUUD Spring Conference  Friday 25 April 2008  First UU Church of Austin  4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756  www.austinuu.org Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button. READING: Who are you? A woman in a coma was dying. She suddenly had a feeling that she was taken up to heaven and stood before the Judgment Seat. "Who are you?" a Voice said to her. "I'm the wife of the mayor," she replied. "I did not ask whose wife you are but who you are." "I'm the mother of four children." "I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are." "I'm a schoolteacher." "I did not ask what your profession is but who you are." And so it went. No matter what she replied, she did not seem to give a satisfactory answer to the question, "Who are you?" "I'm a Christian." "I did not ask what your religion is but who you are." "I'm the one who went to church every day and always helped the poor and needy." "I did not ask what you did but who you are." She evidently failed the examination, for she was sent back to life. When she recovered from her illness, she was determined to find out who she was. And that made all the difference. (Anthony de Mello, Taking Flight, p. 140) PRAYER We pray not to something, but from something, to which we must give voice; not to escape from our life, but to focus it; not to relinquish our mind, but to replenish our soul. We pray that we may live with honesty: that we can accept who we are, and admit who we are not; that we don't become so deafened by pride and fear that we ignore the still small voices within us, that could lead us out of darkness. We pray that we can live with trust and openness: to those people, those experiences, and those transformations that can save us from narrowness and despair. And we pray on behalf of these hopes with an open heart, an honest soul, and a grateful reverence for the life which has been given to us. Amen. HOMILY: Who Are We? That parable about the woman who didn't know who she was beyond all the secondary identities she'd worn raises the most basic question of liberal religion, perhaps the most basic question of all religion: who are you, beyond the hand-me-down identity of your sex, race, social and economic class and political biases? These are add-ons. Who is inside? Who are you? This is an especially good question for us, because you know that most people have heard of us - if they've heard of us at all - through Garrison Keillor's jokes about us. Before I was called to Austin in 2000, I served a year as the interim minister at Unity-Unitarian Church in St. Paul, about five blocks from Garrison Keillor's mansion, and I heard a slew of those jokes from church members, some of whom knew him. It seems a shame to start a conference like with without some humor, so I'll share two of those with you. The first was when I heard him tell of the Unitarian missionaries of the 1960s and 1970s, who came to Minnesota and tried to convert the Ojibway Indians through interpretive dance. The second one is by far the better known, and is my very favorite. It's the one about what you get when you cross a Unitarian with a Jehovah's Witness. You get someone who knocks on your door for no apparent reason. The reason the jokes work is because it isn't easy saying who we are, or what we believe that has the depth and power to be a gift either to our people or to the world around us, beyond our second-hand identities of social class and political biases - or, on a much more local scale, the Seven Principles, also known as the Seven Dwarfs or the Seven Banalities. Some of you may know the history of how these came to be born, but I suspect many of you don't know the history. The first church I served played a part in that history, so it's a story I was made aware of as soon as I entered the ministry in 1986 - the year after those Principles were adopted at General Assembly. In the late 1970s, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin no