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David Glasgow: Good morning.

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Audience Member: Morning.

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David Glasgow: Does
it feel kind of weird

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that we're already
halfway through GA?

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Have you slept at all?

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We're going to be
lighting our morning

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chalice in just a few minutes.

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But can we do some
singing together

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to get our spirits and
our bodies a little more

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awake this morning?

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Unitarian minister and social
reformer William Channing

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Gannett wrote our
first term, which

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is a celebration of the
timeless metaphor of optimism

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and transcendence that each
sunrise brings to open minds.

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Would you sing with us?

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[MUSIC - "THE MORNING HANGS A
 SIGNAL"]

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Speaker 1: The anonymous text
of this Spanish language hymn

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gives thanks for the love of
heaven, for the immense ocean,

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and for the singing
of the forest.

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It offers thanks, too, for
the new day we are given,

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and for the love our community
feels for one another.

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[MUSIC - "GRACIAS POR EL AMOR"]

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Speaker 2: English
poet William Blake

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wrote the text for our
next hymn, which assures us

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that however we are feeling
this morning, whatever we are

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experiencing in this place, all
manner of things will be well.

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[MUSIC - "EVERY NIGHT AND EVERY
 MORN"]

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Reverend Sean
Dennison: We gather

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as Unitarian Universalists in
halls hallowed by our presence

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to be reminded of our
shared commitments

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and to strengthen one another.

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Not only for speaking truth
to power in our broader

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communities, but in
facing the struggles that

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are a part of everyday life.

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We support one another
when we falter,

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while still holding
each other accountable

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to our vision of
love and justice.

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That love lives at the
center of all that we do,

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regardless of our
individual beliefs.

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And it stretches us wide
enough to leave room

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for the teaching and learning
that can only happen here.

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Reverend Sofia Betancourt:
That love reaches out.

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It allows us to risk, to
stay present even when

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we are uncomfortable,
and to keep

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our communities open
enough, welcoming enough,

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that all might
find shelter here.

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Love guides our very deeds.

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This is our version of
the beloved community,

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our collective vision that we
hear about from our leaders,

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that so many of us long
for, and that we model time

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and again when we
lean back into love,

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show up as our best selves,
and make the world anew.

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Come, let us risk love, and
let us worship together.

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We light our
chalice this morning

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to call forward our best selves
to the flame of our living

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tradition.

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We light our chalice
as a beacon of truth,

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as a reminder of hope
in hopeless times,

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as a promise to live
into covenant together.

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We are a faithful community
that is grounded in love.

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Love connects us to one another.

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Love holds us when we falter.

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It guides us when we
have lost our way.

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We come together to be
reminded of this love

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and of all that it asks
of us in our living.

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In the words of the Muslim
mystic and poet Hafez,

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we have not come here
to take prisoners,

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but to surrender ever more
deeply to freedom and joy.

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We have not come into
this exquisite world

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to hold ourselves
hostage from love.

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Run, my dear, from
anything that may not

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strengthen your
precious, budding wings.

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May we soar together
as this day unfolds.

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Our first hymn this
morning is adapted

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from 1 Corinthians, Chapter
13, Verses 1 through 13.

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It recalls our connection
to a love ethic

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at the center of our
living tradition.

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Please rise with me in
body and/or in spirit,

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and join us in singing "Though
I May Speak With Gravest Fire."

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[MUSIC - "THOU I MAY SPEAK WITH
 GRAVEST FIRE"]

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Reverend Sean Dennison: To
invoke love is to ask for a hug

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from a thunderstorm,
spill tea in the lap

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of the infinite trickster,
to make the biggest,

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most embarrassing
mistake of your life

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in front of not just love but
the love that never fails.

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To invoke love is to never
know if it will come softly

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with the nuzzle of a beloved
dog comforting a disappointed

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child, or a pounce
right on your chest

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with the strength of
a lioness protecting

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her cub, her pride,
her homeland.

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To invoke love is to take
the risk of inviting chaos,

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to visit the spaces we have
spent so much time making tidy,

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to watch as the breath of life
fills the curtains and scatters

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everything we have only
just folded and put away.

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To invoke love is to
allow for the possibility

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that our words and our actions
might become so empowered

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that we can no longer
believe in apathy

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or take self-righteous paths of
believing that we are impotent

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or that nothing can change.

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To invoke love is to give
up our self-deprecation,

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our false humility,
and consider ourselves

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worthy to be made whole.

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Worthy and willing to speak
those words of bravest fire.

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To be the voice of love and
justice in this wounded world.

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To invoke love is to
turn an ordinary Friday

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morning at General Assembly
into a time and a place

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where we surrender our egos
into the hands of love,

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ready to be transformed,
empowered, and inspired

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to do what only love can do.

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To invoke love is to
guard against assumptions,

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to take care without
words to one another,

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to practice forgiveness,
not as some ethereal ideal,

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but right here in the messy
midst of this gathering, made

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up only of us,
imperfect as we are.

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To invoke love is to
approach ourselves

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and this day and every person
that we encounter with wonder.

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Anticipating loves arrival.

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Is this the moment?

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Is this love's arrival?

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Is this person the
embodiment of love?

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Am I the one?

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To invoke love is to play the
fool, the one more concerned

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with loving than with
appearances or reputation.

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The one who is ready and
willing to be vulnerable,

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to abandon anything
that gets in love's way.

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The one who has
chosen love over fear.

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To invoke love is to be
ready to become love here,

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now, in everything we do.

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Are you ready?

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Audience: Yes.

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Reverend Sean Dennison:
Are you ready?

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Audience: Yes!

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Reverend Sean Dennison:
Come, spirit, come.

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Our hearts control.

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Our spirits long
to be made whole.

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Let inward love
guide every deed.

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By this, we worship
and are freed.

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David Glasgow: I'd like to ask
you to rise once again in body

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or spirit to sing "Filled
With Loving Kindness."

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No, we would not.

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Would you remain standing
and be in meditation with us

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as we reprise that last
hymn that Sean mentioned?

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Just instrumental.

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"Though I May Speak."

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[MUSIC - "THOUGH I MAY SPEAK"]

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David Glasgow: Amen.

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You may be seated.

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Reverend Sofia
Betancourt: To invoke

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love is to open ourselves to
the possibility of a life guided

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by love's spirit.

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This great gift, one
that involves courage,

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vulnerability, and a
willingness to risk

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lies at the very heart of our
inherited religious teachings.

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When we gather together in the
thousands and our hearts spill

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over with the wonder of resting
our spirits among other bearers

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of love and justice, we are
reminded of both the heartache

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and the awe that come of
a life guided by love.

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This week, we are
blessed by opportunities

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to bear witness and
celebrate the many ways

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that, as Unitarian
Universalists,

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we extend our loving
spirits out into the world,

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out across communities,
out, seeking

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to stem the tides of injustice
wherever we might find them.

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Yet we also know that our
reaching out requires,

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requires a love that
sustains us from within.

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And it is this great love that
we nurture by coming together

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in our communities of faith.

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Come, spirit.

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Come, spirit our hearts control.

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Offering our hearts to
the control of the spirit

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is our answer to Paul,
who, in 1 Corinthians,

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challenged that early Christian
community to love, to not think

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of itself as all holy,
as religiously complete

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just because they
could prophesy,

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just because they
had the discipline

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to live an ascetic
lifestyle, or had

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a deep belief in their
religious teachings.

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He challenged them to keep
love at the very center

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that they might live
a balanced life.

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As Unitarian
Universalists, we still

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regularly sing of
our own longings,

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of our desire to
live up to that call,

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to give our hearts to
this way of living that

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is grounded in the
fullness of love.

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This is not as
simple as it sounds.

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Living life as a
Unitarian Universalist

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can be a formidable task.

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Some may write us off
as being undisciplined,

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as having an easy go
of it spiritually as

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we move through the
world unburdened

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by dogmas or by creeds.

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But we have our own covenant
within our communities,

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with each other,
and with ourselves.

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Some of us root that covenant
in our connection to the holy.

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Some of us ground our practice
in our hopes for humanity.

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Some seek knowledge beyond
ourselves in the natural world.

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And some, in the search
for a hidden truth

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that lies at the core
of our own beings.

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Yet there is still
a common commitment

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to love that lives at the
center of our tradition,

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and it orients us
as we strive to live

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our lives in keeping
with our values.

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In 1849, one of our greatest
theologians, Hosea Ballou,

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wrote a short essay
on Universalism,

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working to explain what
made this part, excuse

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me, of our religious heritage
unique among the Christian

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denominations of his day.

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Time and again, he returned
to the Universalist commitment

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to love, to embracing
and understanding

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of our own inherent
goodness that

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flows from all aspects of God,
which themselves find harmony

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in an infinite,
unchangeable love.

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Anything that was
not born of this love

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could not come from God.

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That love became the standard by
which all theological knowledge

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was judged.

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And as a result, Ballou claimed
that a true religious life

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consists in possessing,
living, and acting

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the spirit of that love.

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Ballou's Universalism risks
invoking love's great power.

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It asks us to live out
our faith moment by moment

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by investing and reinvesting
this gift of love

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back into the world.

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Ballou was so
certain of this love

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that he considered even our
moments of failure, even

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those times when fear or
loss, apathy or pride,

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lack of confidence
or an inability

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to accept our own wholeness,
dignity, and worth.

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All of those moments when
we miss the mark as proof

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that we are called
to a greater love.

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In our current language, our
own Reverend Doctor Rebecca

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Ann Parker writes
that she knows love

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to be the gift of
gracious transforming,

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unexpected invitation into a
greater life through increased

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connection and engagement
with others, especially those

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that the dominating
society deems other.

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I have seen this commitment time
and again in our congregations,

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in our classrooms, and
in the ways that we

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take this tradition
out into the streets.

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Reverend Sean and I have
both had the privilege

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of serving in ministry at the
First Unitarian Universalist

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Church of Stockton, California,
and experiencing love woven

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fine through the shared
ministry of that congregation.

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I remember when one
of our older members

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first joined the Church
soon after moving

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into town for the first time.

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Her husband was
dying, and they had

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decided to move her
to the Central Valley

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00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,300
in advance of his
death, so that she

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would have the
best possible start

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to the next chapter of
her life without him.

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I remember her
bravery in seeking out

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a whole new community
when she might have wanted

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to spend whatever time
remained with her beloved.

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I remember how the congregation
rallied around her,

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how they connected
her to burial services

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in town, so that she would
have less of that work

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00:25:52,170 --> 00:25:58,060
to do in the time of intense
grief following his death.

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I remember how they welcomed
her fully into the community,

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so that every time I
reached out to make contact,

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she was with one or another
member of the Church.

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One morning, it was coffee.

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Another, she was playing bridge.

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The next week, she
was out for a walk

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or helping out with
the Women's Alliance.

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We lost her husband just two
short months after her arrival

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at the Church.

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But the love that had poured
out from that community

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held her in her grief
and in her living.

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Our spiritual covenant invites
us to lean into that love.

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The question that
remains is whether we

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are ready to become that
love, to live it in the world.

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This morning, we
will hear from some

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of those who give of themselves
faithfully to keep the loving

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witness of this beloved
community strong.

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They do the day to day,
moment by moment work

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of love on our behalf.

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Let us practice our
living and our loving

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through our gratitude
for all that they do.

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Let us spend this day
risking love together.

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May it be so.

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00:27:25,030 --> 00:27:26,330
Amen.

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00:27:26,330 --> 00:27:27,620
Ashe.

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00:27:27,620 --> 00:27:39,701
And blessed be.

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00:27:39,701 --> 00:27:41,400
Reverend Sean Dennison:
Will you join me

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in a moment of centering in a
spirit of meditation or prayer?

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00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:58,110
Spirit of life and love,
we have gathered here,

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called by love, to respond
in times of brokenness

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00:28:05,870 --> 00:28:11,170
to ask imperfect
questions, knowing

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00:28:11,170 --> 00:28:14,920
they will refuse to
remain unanswered.

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00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:24,120
And instead, dare us to seek
new opportunities to love.

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00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:29,050
In the helplessness of rage,
may we look for the face of God,

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00:28:29,050 --> 00:28:34,410
knowing it will appear
even on our enemy,

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00:28:34,410 --> 00:28:38,520
and will reveal the
barbed wire barriers

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00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,310
we have built in
our fear, trying

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00:28:42,310 --> 00:28:50,570
to constrain the reach of love.

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00:28:50,570 --> 00:28:54,100
In the slow quicksand
of grief, when even

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00:28:54,100 --> 00:28:58,560
our breathing is
unsteady, may we

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00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:03,250
allow holy hands to guide
us to the gentle center

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00:29:03,250 --> 00:29:09,780
of compassion, surrendering
our defenses to the tender

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00:29:09,780 --> 00:29:15,080
touch of love.

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00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,230
In times of boredom
or dizziness,

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relentless ambition,
obsession with perfection,

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00:29:22,460 --> 00:29:28,510
we allow a crying
child, orphan, stranger

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00:29:28,510 --> 00:29:36,370
to break through the layers of
expectation, dissatisfaction,

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00:29:36,370 --> 00:29:43,200
and shame, and bring us,
wide-eyed and open-hearted,

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00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:48,140
back to love.

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00:29:48,140 --> 00:29:50,000
When our days are
full of laughter,

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00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,120
and rain comes and
quenches the dry land

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00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,210
after months of dust and
drought, when hearts are glad

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00:29:57,210 --> 00:30:02,770
again and full of possibility,
may love trouble us

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00:30:02,770 --> 00:30:08,010
and remind us that the gifts
we have been given never

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00:30:08,010 --> 00:30:12,460
belong to us alone,
but are intended

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00:30:12,460 --> 00:30:16,050
to be shared like
loaves and fishes

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00:30:16,050 --> 00:30:21,650
until there is enough for all.

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00:30:21,650 --> 00:30:26,250
Spirit of life, help us
remember that the love we seek

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00:30:26,250 --> 00:30:32,440
and which seeks us is the same
love that will not let us go,

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00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:37,250
the same love that
calls us to respond.

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00:30:37,250 --> 00:30:45,200
Help us hear that call and
be faithful to it this day

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00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,910
and every day.

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00:30:47,910 --> 00:30:50,360
May it be so.

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00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:54,360
May we be the ones
that make it so.

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00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,250
Amen.

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00:30:56,250 --> 00:30:58,200
Ahse.

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00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:02,310
Blessed be.

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00:31:02,310 --> 00:31:07,010
Will you rise once again
in body and/or in spirit

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00:31:07,010 --> 00:31:10,460
to sing "Filled with
Loving Kindness?"

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00:31:10,460 --> 00:31:13,500
This hymn brought to us
from the Metta Sutra,

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00:31:13,500 --> 00:31:17,650
or Buddhist teachings
on loving kindness.

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00:31:17,650 --> 00:31:22,030
Invites us to call
ourselves, our neighbors,

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00:31:22,030 --> 00:31:26,400
and our collective
community into a practice

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00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,130
of embracing love.

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00:31:28,130 --> 00:36:55,567
[MUSIC - "FILLED WITH LOVING
 KINDNESS"]

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00:36:55,567 --> 00:37:02,950
Reverend Sofia Betancourt:
Please be seated.

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00:37:02,950 --> 00:37:07,810
Let us remember the power
of love to create beauty,

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00:37:07,810 --> 00:37:12,820
to inspire kindness, to
welcome the stranger.

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00:37:12,820 --> 00:37:18,220
Let us aspire to reach beyond
ourselves, our communities,

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00:37:18,220 --> 00:37:23,866
and our comfort zones to
take love out into the world.

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00:37:23,866 --> 00:37:26,590
Reverend Sean Dennison: Let
us give ourselves wholly

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00:37:26,590 --> 00:37:33,770
to the enterprise of becoming
love, embodying compassion,

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00:37:33,770 --> 00:37:38,040
justice, and hope
for our communities

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00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,700
and for all the world.

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00:37:40,700 --> 00:37:42,260
Amen.

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00:37:42,260 --> 00:37:43,750
Ashe.

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00:37:43,750 --> 00:38:00,010
And blessed be.

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00:38:00,010 --> 00:38:04,725
[PIANO PLAYING]

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