Complete Service-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

Winners, Losers, and Reconciliation: An Election Day Sermon Winners hold parties; losers hold meetings. Only finite games divide the winners and losers. From a distance, life is more like an infinite game. The real goal then is to keep the play going. Which requires grace and reconciliation. Drawing on both the tradition of the Election Sermon and ideas of philosopher James Carse, John will try to...

We have Come This Far By Faith The Rev. Darrick Jackson is the Director of Contextual Ministry at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Darrick is involved denominationally as Treasurer of DRUUMM (the UU ministry for people of color) and as co-chair of the UU Ministers Association CENTER Committee and Institute for Ministerial Excellence. He is also the treasurer and Workshop Leader for Healing Mo...

Authoritarians, Then and Now   On the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the United Nations here in the City of St. Francis, some reflections on why, despite the growing strength of the international human rights movement, authoritarian tendencies are again growing ñ and what people of faith should remember in facing them. Rev. John Buehrens, Senior Minister Alex Darr, Worship Associate...

Fine Tuning Your Moral Compass What is the source of your authority to act--in word or deed--in the world? What external influences and what innate origins are there to one's personal sense of right and wrong and for mustering the courage to live by (or close as one can to) one's moral compass? What are the micro-corrections we might make? Rev. JD Benson, Assistant Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Asso...

The (Limited) Authority of Tradition What can we learn from traditions of the Jewish High Holidays? Especially from those associated with Yom Kippur, the solemn Day of Atonement? Martin Buber, who took traditional religion to have only limited authority, said that the purpose of tradition is to teach us “to hallow this life” – to make of its moments days of awe and holy. Rev. John Buehrens, Senior...

Power, Authority, and Spirituality When I was UUA President, I co-led a couple of retreats for Unitarian Universalist CEOs under this title.  To use what power we have (which is often greater than we care to acknowledge) for the common good; to exercise authority with moral responsibility; these are signs of authentic spirituality – at work, at home, and in our common life. Rev. John Bue...

Faith: The Verb We welcome to our pulpit the newly-called Co-Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley. Christian shares the ministry there with his wife, the Rev. Kirstin Schmidt. They are the parents of two boys, ages 4 and 18 months. John Buehren s supervised Christian as an Intern Minister at First Parish in Needham, MA. He was a journalist and UU lay leader in Texas before ent...

Are There Two Types Of Faith? The great Jewish sage Martin Buber once wrote an influential book called Two Types of Faith, suggesting as much. One type emphasizes relationship. In Hebrew, the key word for faith is enumah – meaning trust, or loyalty. The other type he saw typified in the Christian emphasis on what is called in Greek pistis, as in the word epistle, or letter, which leads to literal,...

Faith of the Free We gather for a new church year of learning, caring, and serving at UUSF on the 15th anniversary of September 11, 2001. The following months and years were the best of times and the worst of times. Free people gathered to help one another. Free people also became manipulated by fear-mongering. Developments over the past summer have mirrored that tension. We are all clearly afraid...

What Does It Mean To Have Faith In The Collective Power Of Working People? At a time when the U.S. labor movement is struggling to survive and so many people lack secure employment and living wages, can the fight for justice on the job be source of spiritual strength, as it was for many of our ancestors? Our preacher will be our own Millie Phillips, a long-time labor activist, member of UUSF, rece...

Friendship, Why Bother? A collaborative service of voices from Small Group Ministry, reflecting ways in which we can deepen our relationships; and learn from our differences. Rev. Margot Campbell Gross, Minister Emerita Alessandro Gagliardi, Small Group Ministry Co-ordinator Judith Stoddard, Small Group Ministry   Megan Lehmer, Small Group Ministry Tristan Hembree, Small Group Ministry S...

Be Friend Friendship is difficult to describe, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying. Take Aristotle. He believed that friendship – philia – is a great good, one of the greatest goods. And to be a good friend, you must be a good person; only good people can be friends. Like Aristotle, I believe friendship is a great good, both for the individual and society as a whole. The world could do with few...

The Future of Evil Unitarian Universalism is transitioning into its next theological phase of embracing spirituality and appreciating a higher power. While comforting, can we reach only for the positive and deny the negative? What will be our UU position on evil in our next phase? Rev. Russ Menk, Guest Minister Kat Liu, Worship Associate Nancy Munn, soprano David Jones, piano Gayle Reynolds, Welco...

Accepting Our Demons From where come Temptation, Evil, and Demons?  Recent bestsellers prominently feature devilish beings, pointing us toward the ancient religious study of Demonology. What do Unitarian Universalists have to say about these creatures? How might liberal religion understand them? What do stories about demons have to say about the roles of good, evil, and temptation in our...

Renewing Gratitude A mother and her son were at a local farmers market. They stopped at a stall piled high with beautiful fruit. The vendor smiled at the little boy and handed him an orange. When her son remained silent, she looked at him and asked, ìWhat do you say to the nice man?î The child mulled it over, handed the orange back to the man and said, ìPeel it.î OUCH. He sure missed the gratitude...

The Art of Creative Reframing: Seeing The World With Fresh Eyes Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, “The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” When we encounter difficulties in our relationships it can be easy to entrench into a position of disappointment or frustration. How do we reframe our worldview, as van Gogh does in thi...

Creative Generativity “Any damned fool can be a genitor,” some wise man once said. “It takes creative wisdom and maturity to actually be a good father.” Recognizing how few of us may have been blessed to experience really good parenting, this service will seek to lead us all toward more creative forms of generativity – not so much biological as social. This will be Rev. John’s last Sunday in the p...

Creativity, Hubris, and Babel “Democracy,” said Winston Churchill, “is the worst of all possible systems of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” At the moment, all around the world, democracy seems to be in trouble. Creative demagogues threaten to dominate. What kind of leadership is needed to cut through the babel and to clarify the common good? Rev. John Buehrens,Senior...

On Being Part of The Creative (and Destructive) Process Western free market economist Friedrich Hayek spoke of “creative destruction.” Hindus have a trinity of deities: Brahma, the Oneness; Krishna, the Creator; and Siva, the Destroyer. Buddhists note the transience of all structures. Our Choir will end their year of singing for us before leaving for their fourth triennial trip to Eastern Europe....

The Practice of Care A reflection on what it means to practice a caring orientation to life. How we can cultivate this basic attitude of attentiveness, openness, love even. Margot will particularly focus on why this is difficult, and why it is foundational to caring for others, and for oneself. Rev. Margot Campbell Gross, Minister Emerita Richard Davis, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Ryan...

The Limits of Care We can’t possibly care about everything. “Teach us to care and not to care,” prayed poet T.S. Eliot. The trick is to know when to do each. This is never easy, but essential to real maturity and even to learning the difference between caring and co-dependence. Bike and Walk to Worship Sunday! Rev. John Buehrens,Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Alex Darr, Wors...

Spiritual Care Ministers are often said to have people in their “spiritual care” or to be involved in “the care of souls.” What is that in practical terms? The Rev. László Major, minister of the 350 member Unitarian Church of Dakt in Transylvania has been studying pastoral care this year as the Balázs  Scholar at Starr King School for the Ministry. He will serve as Worship Associate and...

Reciprocal Care Meg  is the daughter of a UU Religious Education Director. She is both a licensed psychotherapist and has served as minister to four UU congregations. She has served as Adjunct Faculty at Starr King School for Ministry and Clinical Supervisor of the Native American Counseling Center. She works with troubled families and with historic and present day trauma, and is a gradu...

Work and Care Much of the world’s work, especially caring work, is unpaid or under-valued. Many crises in the social world result from a scarcity of adequately paid work in our rapidly integrating global economy. The service offers a preview of the conference we will host on June 4 on economic justice issues, under the sponsorship of the  UU Justice Ministry of California . It will also...

Self-Awareness: Coming of Age This Sunday we celebrate our Coming of Age youth with a special worship service. The worship service is the culmination of a year-long faith exploration program for our youth who are in the 8th and 9th grades. Over the past seven months, the youth have examined their religious identity, gaining self-awareness and deepening their connection to our Unitarian Universalis...