I'll Have The Curry.

A Sermon for First Austin, October 3, 2021 By Rev. Carrie Houston   Galatians 3:26-28   One In Christ   We Are One in Jesus Christ” by Soichi Watanabe Who are you? How would you describe yourself?  What adjectives would you use?  What categories would you put yourself in?   Wife.  Mother. Sister. Runner. Athlete. Violinist. Preacher. Texan.  Principled. Disciplined. Afraid of making mistakes. Defensive.    When you think about yourself, you’ll likely use certain classifications to describe yourself. American. Texan. Democrat/Republican. Female/male or non-bianary. Gay or straight. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic. Not one word fully describes who you are completely, but it gives someone an insight into where you belong… or where you are not welcome.    We can also be grouped based on our deeply held beliefs.     Pro-life, Pro-choice Christian, Jew, Muslim Feminist, Nationalist  Pro-Oxford comma or against Aggie or Longhorn   A deeply held belief doesn’t require any proof nor does it requi

       “Blank Slate Thinking” Photo by  Gareth David  on  Unsplash 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 A Sermon by Carrie Houston, given on June 13, 2021 at First Baptist Church of Austin, Texas When you walked into this space this morning, you brought something very unique with you. No, it’s not your characteristic laugh, or your flashy fashion style, or the cup of coffee in your hand. Whether you like it or not, you brought in with you a unique worldview that is specific to who you are as a person and the things you’ve experienced in life.     This collection of attitudes, values, expectations and biases go with you everywhere you go, informing your every move, helping you quickly process new information in front of you.   For example, if you believe humans are fundamentally good, your first thought when meeting someone for the first time, wouldn’t jump to the suspicious, but rather, you’d think the best of the person until they prove you otherwise. On the contrary, when you assume the worst in p

A pastoral prayer written for The First Baptist Church of Austin on the occasion of our first worship service back in person inside our building.  The passage of time is uniquely a human experience.  We experience life in stages marked by milestones like birthdays, school graduations, weddings, job promotions, divorce, and death. We come to expect these events to help mark the special from the mundane of the day to day.   Sometimes they are joyful and other times these markers are the hardest things we will ever have to go through. We never expected to add “pandemic” to the list our list of time markers.   The past year and a half has been one that we all experienced in different ways.  Marked by the passing of friends and relatives, the pain of loneliness, or the fear of the unknown, we enter this space changed people this morning.  We are grieving in a new way.  Grieving those we lost.  Grieving the time that passed between visits to loved ones.   Grieving all we missed out on.  G

  Pastoral Prayer for virtual worship at First Baptist Church Austin January 10, 2021 written by Carrie Houston  Photo by  Josh Hild  on  Unsplash A prayer when we have no words   This week, we saw the best and the worst of our country. Georgia’s first black Senator, a minister at Martin Luther King’s historic church and a Jewish son of an immigrant will join elected office alongside a Catholic president, the first black and Indian FEMALE vice president, and many other people of color, gender and sexuality. At the same time, a bitter mob of domestic terrorists attacked our country’s Capitol building, stoked by fears and lies. The corona virus continues to decimate our communities, with another record number of deaths set this week.    How do we pray in times like these? How do we muster the words when we can’t get past our ever-fluctuating emotions? I believe that God so deeply knows us that God can sort through the longings of our hearts, even without us saying a word. Maybe that’s wh

                                                              Photo by  Gianandrea Villa  on  Unsplash A prayer for a New Year Epiphany 2021 January 3, 2021   God of the stars, of the galaxies and planets near and far, of the infinite and unknowable universe God of every grain of sand, of every speck of dust, every single molecule that makes up life as we know it,    You put a bright star in our path to show us a new way, point us in a new direction. To live into our true selves, to forget the past and focus on the what can be.    Your Christ child reminds us that  We don’t have to be perfect to be accepted. Mistakes are ok. We don’t have to get it right every time to be seen.  It’s ok to step out in faith.  We don’t have to change anything about our bodies to be worthy of love.  We are perfectly made.  We don’t have to stuff our feelings down to be strong. Showing emotions is ok.    You love us all the same.    God of second chances, one who constantly seeks us out, You aren’t calling

Photo by  Yohann Lc  on  Unsplash   A Sermon by Carrie Houston First Baptist Church of Austin December 13, 2020 Third week of Advent                                                             A World full of Yeses! I know you’ve had that dream… you know, the one where you wake up suddenly, sit up and bed, and ask yourself “WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?” Yah, I’ve had that dream.     Many of them, actually… and usually the most outlandish of them all are the ones that stick with me for years. I try to analyze them for some deeper meaning, but all I can usually come up with is that I have an overactive imagination. But I LOVE TO DREAM! I look forward to falling asleep because what awaits me on the other side of my eyelids is an opulent movie created by my deepest joys, fears, and excitements.      My brain gets a break from reality and gets to play without consequences with the most extreme of circumstances.     Dreams are funny like that. Often tied to real life events, past memories, and e