The following was the Call to Worship on August 20, 2023 at First Unitarian Universalist Society Burlington. The first line refers to a hymn we sung, a version of which is at the bottom of this post.

This love: the world didn’t give it to us and the world can’t take it away.

This love: at the center of all. And beneath, behind, beyond all.

This love: abundant, abiding, unrelenting and sometimes befuzzling – yes, this love.

This love: meant to be a force for good in the world, meant to dismantle all the supremacies, meant to lead us not to personal salvation, but collective liberation.

This love: both demanding and gentle; compassionate and justice-affirming.

This love: our universalist heritage that names and proclaims that if there is any god, they are a god of love.

This love: right here, right now, in our midst, among us and through us.

This love: in our breath, in our beating hearts, in our helping hands, in our radically-curious minds.

Yes, this love: stumbling and bumbling, inadvertently harming, seeking amends and accountability, clumsy yet committed.

Yes, this love: at the center of our core values, at the center of our deepest longings, at the center of our highest aspirations.

This love. Yes, this love.