Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

Igniting the Fire of Commitment Sunday, March 1, 10:50 am, 2026 There is so much in the human heart that is both tender and fragile and ferociously enduring. Fire can be like that quality of what can live in the human heart. How do we know enough about these pieces of ourselves—the ones that matter—to nurture them, protect them, and build a world that does the same? Let’s talk about what it takes...

The Excellence of a Horse: A Lunar New Year Celebration Sunday, February 22, 2026 As we welcome the Year of the Horse, we celebrate an animal that has long represented “excellence” in Chinese folklore and around the world—admired for speed, agility, or endurance. In this new year of intentions and resolutions, we might also ask ourselves, what makes a human excellent? Is it our abilities, our acco...

The Case for Hope Sunday, February 15, 2026 Creeping cynicism, or what Forrest Church used to call "Sophisticated Resignation." These are some of the dangers to a soul of our time (maybe all times). Let's unpack what the seeds of these "soul sicknesses" are and how to inoculate ourselves. The case for hope! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mark Caswell, Ministerial Intern; Gregory Stev...

“The Virtue and Pitfalls of Moral Purity” Sunday, February 8, 2026 There has been such a wide swing in recent years between approaches to injustices in our world that ask for unwavering focus that at its extreme bleeds into Cancel Culture, with the I am hearing lately, in various places, to see the strategic need for nuance and changing alliances. Let's talk about the gift and dangers of an attach...

don't despair Sunday, February 1, 2026 Carmen Barsody, Sam Dennison and Mari Magaloni Ramos, preaching If these times call for resilience (and they do), we best not despair, for despair dissipates and distracts. Despair unmoors us and sets us adrift. No! Let us not despair. Let us look simply and solidly upon what is happening here and now. Let us not be swallowed by fretful imaginings. Yes, let u...

“Echoes & Endurance: Notes from Minneapolis” Sunday, January 25, 2026 Come on Sunday as we reflect on what is unfolding in Minneapolis, the echoes through recent history, the danger of amnesia, and the power of stubbornness, courage, and love. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mark Caswell, Ministerial Intern; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Dolores Perez Heilbron; Bruce Neuburger;...

“Leadership From Where You Are” Sunday, January 18, 2026 How are we called to lead, what does leadership ask, how does it shape us, and what forms does it take? We will hear from three members who show up in the world powerfully and differently and ask what leadership—that piece of our lives—can look like. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mark Caswell, Ministerial Intern; Erica Murray,...

“The Parable of the Rainbow: Resisting Change” Sunday, January 11, 2026 What is our relationship to change, especially when we are in multi-generational spaces? We will explore the parable of the rainbow and the metaphors it provides to look at change differently. Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Galen Workman, Moderator, Board of Tr...

“Sustaining Love in the Struggle” Sunday, January 4, 2026 “Resistance is a long, thin, soft noodle covered in pink sauce.”  At least, according to a two-year-old, it is.  Come explore the nourishing possibilities of resistance with Rev. Ranwa Hammamy from Side With Love as we begin the new year.   Rev. Ranwa Hammamy (they/them) serves as the Congregational Justice Organizer on the UUA’s Side With...

“The Art of Waiting” Sunday, December 7, 2025 In Christian liturgy this is the season of waiting and preparation—of Advent. It is perfectly scheduled in the depths of winter, when so much feels like it is waiting, preparing, quietly under snow until the light draws it out again. Times of preparation are important and hard sometimes and are the places where transitions and change are made possible....

"Bread Communion, or Ate, and left no crumbs" Sunday, November 30, 2025 In this moment of vanishing resources, let us practice collective restoration through the ancient ritual of gathering as a community and breaking bread. Who is welcome at our table and in our pews? Mark Caswell, Ministerial Intern; Mari Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Haruka Ota, cellist; Yuki Ota, cellist; Akane Ota, songl...

"The Spiritual Practice of Birding" Sunday, November 23, 2025 Like so many things we love, we are drawn to them because of the worlds they open up to us—outside us and within. In a month when we discuss gratitude, let's journey to how one person's relationship to the hobby, the avocation of birding, is a source of joy and so much more too.   Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Dennis Adam...

"Roots and Wings of Hope: Emergent Wisdom from the Interdependent Web" Sunday, November 16, 2025 adrienne maree brown teaches, “We are part of a natural world that is constantly changing, and we need to learn to adapt together and stay in relationship if we hope to survive as a species.” Emergent strategy is “the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple int...

"Lists of Gratitude" Sunday, November 9, 2025 To nurture gratitude, one has to find ways to be present to the world around them, take stock of what is in their life, and look at the journey they are on. We will actively contemplate these themes and consider what might be on our lists to be thankful for. Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Sam King, Worship Associate; Carl Cade, Bo...

"Presente!" Sunday, November 2, 2025 It has been a fall of memorial services for me, and fall has only just begun. That means a lot of things, as you might imagine: loss, wrestling with legacy, telling stories, making sense, paying attention to how each life pressed itself into the world and into us. Please bring your photo momento for our annual celebration of the time when the veil is thin, when...

"Sacred Guardians of This" Sunday, October 26, 2025, 10:50 am Through history a lot has changed. The building we have met in has changed a few times, how we have explained our theology has changed, how we have worship has changed a bit, what we sing has changed, what our ministers have looked like has gotten more diverse, and how people find us and even access our Sunday morning services has, for...

“Faith In Times of Crisis” Sunday, October 19, 2025 Our forebears in liberal religion here in San Francisco endured crises long before the present one we now face. As we continue to celebrate the 175th Anniversary of UUSF, our former Senior Minister and resident historian will share stories of faith and endurance. The service will include a visit from one of the most colorful characters in our his...

“The Rest of The Story” Sunday, October 12, 2025, 10:50 am We begin the celebration of our 175th anniversary as a congregation with a return visit from the very first woman minister in our history. Diane Miller served UUSF for several years starting in the bicentennial year of 1976. Like onetime radio personality Paul Harvey, who always ended his broadcasts with the tagline, “And that’s the rest o...

“Begrudging Journey to Compassion: Confessions of a Recalcitrant Pastor” Sunday, October 5, 2025, 10:50 am I knew directly after the election when some folks were talking about building bridges and understanding the other side that strategically and spiritually this was the right way to go—or would be. I also knew I couldn’t go there in that moment. But right now, compassion and a different kind o...

“Clearing the Pathway to Belonging” Sunday, September 28, 2025 As we approach roadblocks, stop signs, detours, and potholes on the path to belonging, what spiritual technology can we employ to continue along the path? Who or what stands in the way of naming our belonging in a community? Is internal repair needed to meet the welcoming road ahead? Mark Caswell, Ministerial Intern, Rev. Vanessa Rush...

"Revisiting Stories: The Prodigal Son and Belonging" Sunday, September 14, 2025 We talk about the importance of sacred stories. They come in many forms. The gentle ones whose wisdom goes down sweet and easy and the ones that require a lot more work. In my experience the Prodigal Son, a story told in the Gospel of Luke, is one that a lot of people want to toss aside. It pricks our notions of fairne...

"Raindrops, Rivers, Oceans: An Annual In Gathering to Community" Sunday, September 7, 2025 We will be regathered into community for another year in our annual Water Communion Service this Sunday. Separateness is an illusion. We were meant to meet and merge and make a life together. And so we begin our new year. Bring your waters from your travels, your garden spigot, or the ocean around the corner...

"The Power and Draw of Wonder" Sunday, August 24, 2025 Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology and expert in the study of emotion, has been focusing on the human experience of wonder. What is its power? Where and how do we find it? Why is it worth making room for? His book "Awe" will be our September Minister's Book Group book! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Carmen Barsody, Worship A...

"Crossing the Threshold: A service on death and dying... and a life informed by both." Sunday, August 17, 2025 Our musicians this Sunday have a ministry companioning those through death and dying. So we will sit with what it means to be with those on the journey across the threshold to death. How can music be a part of it? How does our sense of dying inform the way we live in ways that are liberat...

"Love at the Center Part 2" Sunday, August 10, 2025 We will pick up our conversation from July and explore the remaining themes from the book, "Love at the Center." Participants from the class will share their reflections on what they learned about and what they currently believe about love. Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life; Mari Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Anne Diaz, Rik...