Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

Authenticity and the Price of Being Most Fully Human and Yourself (November 10, 2019) Later this month on November 20th it will be Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to remember all those whose lives were lost in anti-transgender violence. It raises the larger question of why? And the struggles of transgender folks, a high number of whom take their own lives too. At heart, though, the struggle...

Preaching from the Housetops (October 27, 2019) The fiddler on the roof is a well-known symbol for the desire to find joy and happiness in very uncertain times such as we are now experiencing. Likewise, a preacher on the housetop is a person who always remembers who sent them and remembers the message to their people. How do Transylvanian Unitarians try to take the challenge and speak out? Rev. El...

Imagine That! (October 20, 2019) I think of church as an Imaginarium, a place devoted to the exploration of the imagination. In the Imaginarium we learn to see and experience things from different angles and discover new perspectives. We open ourselves to new (and sometimes old!) ideas, widen our vision, and gain deeper understanding. Growing our imaginations takes practice, courage, and faith, wh...

Honoring the Ancestors (November 3, 2019) This weekend is the confluence of the celebrations of the Day of the Dead in Mexican and Mexican-American communities and in Catholicism the All Saints and All Souls Days. All of them are about honoring those who have gone before, loved, gone. And so we spend a little time honoring and thinking about what it means to honor our ancestors. Rev. Vanessa Rush...

Honesty and Legacy (October 13, 2019) This Monday will be Columbus Day or, as we better know it now, Indigenous People's Day. That change is a call, part of a movement to tell a whole history, a full and honest history of our nation. It is a call to talk about, not just the ideals, or the retold stories of lore, but of the moments that are not heroic but that are also stamped indelibly on our hist...

The Cost of Turning (October 6, 2019) Yom Kippur and the Days of Awe that precede it ask us turn back to God, or whatever we know and name as holy or as the desired to ground of our being. What does it take to make that turning in our lives? What does it cost us? And what does it make room for? Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Lisanicole Sarkisian, Worship Associate Sharon Weld, Ministe...

A Caring Community (September 29, 2019) Each week we remind ourselves of our covenant to “dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in freedom, and to help one another.” This Sunday we explore the various pastoral ministries of the community, designed to facilitate mutual helping and care. What are some of the ways each of us might be involved in these ministries? How do they contribute to congre...

What Books Changed Your Life? (September 22, 2019) We talk about the "larger library of human wisdom" from which we draw as Unitarian Universalists. That includes, of course, poetry, history, psychology, biography -- all the places learning and insights about life and the living of it surfaces for us. What about books, then, fiction, non-fiction, have most changed us. What is our own personal scri...

What Holds Us? (September 15, 2019) On this day when special music honors a beloved member, Vera Lee, we begin a year of small group ministry and remember that what holds us, grounds us, that where the deepest wisdom and insights so often come is from one another. In family (the one we are born into or choose and make), at work (when it is healthy and good) and in the circles of friends or fellow...

Come on our Opening Sunday. We will bless our students and teachers who are beginning their year of religious education together, and launch our own year of life. Drawing from Cherríe Moraga’s book on her mother, entitled “Native Country of the Heart” we will look at how the cuentista, the story teller, shapes us, and why that is relevant to our lives in community together. Rev. Vanessa Rush South...

Alive with Hope, Despite It All (September 1, 2019) In keeping with the music theme, the sermon will address hopeful signs for economic justice, such as new successful union organizing, new approaches by labor such as bargaining for the common good, the Poor Peoples Campaign, the increasing engagement of youth and young adults in economic justice-related work, and the role of faith communities in...

Biophilia, the Urge to Connect with Life (August 25, 2019) Edward O. Wilson introduced the idea that we humans had the urge to connect with other forms of life in his 1984 book, "Biophilia". What happens when we have that connection, though, is just as important, how it changes us and our relationship to the world; that love may be what saves us! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Christi...

Finding Your Voice (August 18, 2019) Young adulthood is a phase of discovery of one's voice, perspective, morals, values, and more. It's a time when all of one's hopes and dreams seem possible, even as the forces seek to stop them. There is simply no proper way to navigate its trials and tribulations. Alan Alpert, Worship Associate and Song Leader Joe Chapot, Young Adult Coordinator Jamie Docherty...

Deep Time (August 11, 2019) Author Robert Macfarlane writes about the intersections of human and natural realms.  In Underland:  A Deep Time Journey he writes, " To think in deep time can be a means of not escaping our troubled present, but rather of re-imagining it; countermanding its quick greeds and furies with older, slower stories of making and remaking. Set down your smar...

At Least a Thousand More (August 4, 2019) According to the Sufi poet Rumi, "there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground." but even in the 13th Century, that was a conservative number. In her last sermon as Assistant Minister at UUSF, Rev. Mary Ganz reprises a theme from one of her first here as an intern minister 15 years ago, considering the meaning of "prayer" for Unitarian Universali...

No Going Back (July 28, 2019) They say there is wisdom to be found as we get older. How do we make our way to it, through thickets of diminishing memory or physical strength? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Carmen Barsody, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Mark Sumner, piano Mark Kapner, piano Jiun-Chyi Yew, soprano Asher Davison, song leader Reece Hart, Welcome Carrie Steere-Sal...

In Memoriam (July 21, 2019) Years ago when the losses of US soldiers reached over 1000, a member of the church I served set up a meeting to say how horrified and saddened she was that we ceased to notice the losses -- all happening in our names. So, we witnessed to it one week soon after, and then in one ritual for every week that followed until the war was officially declared over. We vowed not t...

Hope in an Age of Climate Despair (July 14, 2019) On this warming piece of rock that is our home, what can we hang our hopes on? Can we find a path between denial and despair? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate Martha Rodriguez-Salazar, flute and vocals Sharon Wayne, vocals and guitar David Jones, piano Mark Sumner, song leader Amy Kelly, Welcome Be...

Poetry and Life Distilled (July 7, 2019) Following on the theme of spaciousness and invitations to sit with life and go deep, we will spend a Sunday hour sitting with the wisdom source and texts of a few arresting, delightful works of poetry. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Sam King, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Christine Tulis, harp and vocals Asher Davison, song leader Eri...

Inside/Out (June 30, 2019) It’s Pride Sunday, our city is throwing a party to celebrate Queer culture in all its many marvelous manifestations. Before heading to the parade, join us for worship. We’ll explore the idea of culture care, how to create generative environments that help communities and individuals thrive and grow, openly, honestly and with boundless joy. Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Mi...

Releasing on Urgency.... A Sermon for Summer (June 23, 2019) We all know what gets done when we are highly efficient and focused -- just how much we can accomplish and just how much there is that needs accomplishing. What is lost, though, in a world enamored of urgency? How can summer be a way into reminding ourselves of what that other space makes possible? From Dismantling White Supremacy to sta...

A Little Better than Before (June 16, 2019) Sidney Poitier, the great actor and director once said, "I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life." The influence of our fathers (their presence or absence) shapes us. Reflecting on their lives, their influence, their legacy is a big piece of what it means to wrestle with our own lives. We reflect o...

What Deserves Our Ultimate Trust? (June 9, 2019) The first challenge to a child’s emotional development, said Erik Erikson, is trust vs. mistrust. James Baldwin said that what he learned in church is “do our first works over.” In a society and time that has come to distrust information, institutions, and almost all else, let’s talk about trust. On a Sunday when Rev. Southern will be in New York fo...

You Know That I Love You (June 2, 2019) Here at First Unitarian Universalist SF, we try as best as possible to draw the circle ever wider and be an inclusive and loving community. We all have limited time and energy, of course, and so both individually and collectively, we often fail to achieve this goal perfectly. No surprise there since perfection is impossible, but perhaps we can inch just a li...

Two Bodies, One Heart (May 19, 2019) Ralph Waldo Emerson told us, "Friendship demands a religious treatment.” In this sermon guest minister the Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen will offer of a spirituality of friendship that draws upon Unitarian Universalism Transcendentalist roots. Dr. Bossen currently serves as the interim senior minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. He is in San...