3/28/21 The Road Ahead by Rev. Eric Meter

Welcome:
We gather together this morning as best we can to restore both our sense of commitment as we face the world as it is and the courage to dream of better days for all. We are more when we are together: wiser, more resilient and more able. Finding inspiration in the struggles of the past and courage for what lies ahead.

Prelude: Eliyahu by John Williams, et al, Charlene Melzer, violin, Lynn Orlando, piano

 

Chalice Lighting:
Spirit of Life and Love,
we live in a fragmented world that temps us to despair.
We would put it back together, piece by piece, if it were ours to choose.
But sometimes the fragments are enough.
In a world of cruelty,
there is still power in every act of kindness.
In a time of doubt,
there is still power in every act of hope.
In an age of division,
there is still power in every act of unity.
May we remember that sometimes the fragments of meaning we make are just the right size to hold in our hands.
Come, let us worship, together.
Our chalice is lit.

 

Hymn: Spirit of Life OBUUC Choir

 

Gesture of Friendship:

 

Message For All Ages:

 

Children’s Blessing:

 

Centering Words Pandemic by Lynn Ungar
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath – the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful. (You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love –
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

 

Time of Stillness and Reflection

 

Reading:
UUA President on COVID-19, our Values, and Plans for Regathering from Unitarian Universalist Assoc. on Vimeo.

 

Reflection: The Road Ahead by Rev. Eric Meter

 

Offering:

 

Offertory:

 

Benediction: by Alice Blair Wesley
We pledge to walk together
in the ways of truth and affection,
as best we know they now
or may learn them in days to come,
that we and our children may be fulfilled
and that we may speak to the world
in words and actions
of peace and goodwill.

 

Postlude: Spring Song by Felix Mendelssohn, Charlene Melzer, violin, Lynn Orlando, piano