Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

Good Enough Mother (May 12, 2019) On this Mother’s Day, when we celebrate our mother’s let’s talk about cutting ourselves some slack. Perfection is overrated for one. But also, giving it up — illusion that it is — might just be the best gift we give our kids. Goodbye Paragons of Virtue. Hello Goddesses of Good Enough! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Ministe...

Growing a Soul (May 5, 2019) UU Minister A. Powell Davies, whose All Souls Church in Washington D.C. was a leader in challenging segregation in the nation’s capital during his ministry, once said that the purpose of life was, “to grow a soul.” There are so many ways we grow a soul. This Sunday we’ll honor a couple of those and just hold up the venture itself, remind ourselves of what it takes, mos...

Liberation (April 28, 2019) “The goal,”Rabbi Irving Greenberg once wrote of Passover, “is to go back thousands of years and to experience, first, the crushing bitterness and despair of slavery and, next, the wild, exhilarating release of freedom.” And then to ask, what do I need to be liberated from; what liberating work is left to do, remembering what that work might look and feel like. Let's acc...

Miracles (April 21, 2019) Part of the Easter story is the most horrific cruelty and loss that precedes it, and then the most magnificent miracle that wakes us Easter morning. How do we rational, scientific folks make sense of miracle stories, and of this one in particular? Let's re-frame Easter for our ears and lose none of the beauty of it in so doing! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister...

Stepping Stones: Rites of Passage Class (April 14, 2019) We have four bright, young thinkers in this year’s class, each has posed their Big Life Question, now it's time for the ministers to answer! Rites of Passage Class 2019 (Zoe, Erik, Calder, Oriana) Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Shari Halliday-Quan,...

The Way - The Fools Way (April 7, 2019) "The Camino is Life!" Along the Camino de Santiago, these words are often heard, called by one pilgrim to another, or seen, scribbled on a wall or a rock -- words that challenge and inspire, adding the energy necessary for the climb up another hill. How was life on the Camino similar to life walking in the Tenderloin as a Faithful Fool? What energy and focus...

Threshold Living (March 31, 2019) Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Shari Halliday-Quan, Ministerial Intern Trudy Lionel, Reflection: Why I Give Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate Jordan Kersten, soprano Reiko Oda Lane, organ Dr. Mark Sumner, piano Ariel Andrew, song leader Gayle Reynolds, Trustee Kelli Murray, AOF Co-Chair Donald Shearer, video camera Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Liv...

Time of the Month (March 24, 2019) Women's History Month invites us to explore the ways extraordinary women and everyday communities have cast off the oppressive limitations placed on them by wider society based on their gender. This liberation work takes many forms today as we collectively pursue gender justice, and this week we explore how grounding ourselves in historical celebrations of transc...

An Understanding Mind (March 17, 2019) In the famous wisdom tales of King Solomon, it’s said that God appeared to him in a dream saying, “Tell me what I should give you?  Solomon asks for an understanding mind in order to serve his people. Some scholars interpret an understanding mind to mean a hearing heart. Wisdom – the gathering of knowledge, understanding, insight and perception – is...

Boldness! (March 10, 2019) This Sunday our Annual Operating Fund Campaign begins! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Shari Halliday-Quan, Ministerial Intern Kelli Murray and Laurence Pulgram, AOF 2019 Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director Reiko Oda Lane, organ and bell choir director Millie Phillips, soprano Diane Allen, Vision/Mission, Chair Eric Shackelfo...

Gift Culture: the Gift Experiment (March 3, 2019) What does it mean not to think of life as ownership? Other people have had this idea. How does it change us? We will kick off this experiment on Sunday. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Dennis Adams, Worship Associate Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director Reiko Oda Lane, Organist Bill Lowell, Membership Ke...

Seeing Whiteness? (February 24, 2019) Our Board said an overarching goal at this summer’s Board Retreat — to seek and serve “wholeness” among us. It is a particularly important goal to keep in mind as we look, in our just-beginning strategic planning process, at the future of who we wish to be and what it will mean to get there. Part of that work has meant for many of us to begin to unpack what is...

Exploring Our Humanist Source: A Living Faith in Human Connection (February 17, 2019) Let's explore our fifth source: "Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit." What does it mean to live faithfully without reliance on the supernatural, to place our deepest trust in the abilities of our own...

Come Home! (February 10, 2019) This month we begin our 31st year of providing home for 70 men in our city who otherwise would sleep on the streets. With others we will provide breakfast and dinners and shelter from the elements. We will also reflect on our connection to the planet we call home, all of which raises the notion of what is “home” and what is our relationship to this place (or is it an...

Unafraid of the Dark (February 3, 2019) Who’s afraid of the dark? English-speaking, American culture is riddled with links between darkness and fear, but what else is there to discover in the darkness. Rich, fertile possibilities await us when we stretch ourselves just a little bit and expand our metaphorical and moral imagination. Shari Halliday-Quan, Ministerial Intern Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern...

Wrestling with Time (January 27, 2019) One of our UU Saints, Charles Darwin, wrote: "A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” We are all destined to wrestle with time, it's passage, its limits, what it can be and what it can devolves into, and the refrain of the modernity since it began: how to be in a world of "speeded up.” Let's look this morning at at wha...

The Myth of Inevitability (January 20, 2019) Sometimes in the telling of history backwards, everything looks as if it was leading to the place we arrived at -- a kind of foreordained destiny. But it is rarely so in people's lived experience. On this MLK Sunday we will look back at some of the stories and chapters of the American Civil Right's struggle and this myth of inevitability, as we prepare...

Healthy Lives, Healthy Institutions: Love and the Limits of Kindness (January 13, 2019) I have been reading and thinking a lot about “kindness” as a virtue — when it is the thing that knits the world back together and how it is a balm for all the storms of daily life, and where it’s benefits stop. Where love and health require a tougher way of being to serve the good. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, S...

In An Ideal World (January 6, 2019) Let's be real, living up to our ideals isn't easy, sometimes it's downright dangerous. When we think of the ideal, often, we picture perfection, the ultimate, the unattainable. Why bother? But in today's reality, particularly political reality, we harken for something better - something more ideal. Are there examples of the ideal that are attainable, inspiring,...

Saved from Perfection (December 30, 2018) You are enough. I am enough. I could do a little better. We can do a little better together. Our American Unitarian fore-bearers split from our Puritan roots over a number of theological differences, including the controversial idea that human beings have the power to both do good and do better. Along with this doggedly hopeful belief about our ability to...

Holy Families (December 23, 2018) We'll gather the day after this to tell the ancient story of love made real in a particular infant, and yet as Unitarian religious educator Sophia Lyon Fahs taught, "Each night a child is born is a holy night." We might even say that every child, every person, every family is a miracle. In this multi-generational Sunday morning service, we celebrate families of ma...

Joy! (December 16, 2018) You know, of all the spiritual practices, there is fasting and study and prayer, why not joy? What does it look like to put joy at the center? Fun to try! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Lucy Smith, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane, organ Wm. García Ganz, guest conductor   Asher Davidson, soloist Alan Alpert, soloist Ariel Andrew, soloist Gayle Reynol...

The Gaudy Curtain (December 9, 2018) Just as we string lights against the darkness at Solstice time, we construct of our lives a "gaudy curtain" that covers over the Abyss, toward which we all inexorably travel. If we cultivate an honest awareness of our inevitable death, what gifts might we find for our living? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Sam King, Worship Associate Reiko Oda Lane...

The Season of Waiting? (December 2, 2018) Sunday, December 2nd begins what in the Christian tradition is known as the season of Advent. It is a season of waiting, watchfulness, preparation. The preparation period probably feels appropriate, but how distinct is the waiting and watchfulness -- the quiet, still, attentive quality -- from flurry of Black-Friday-though-Monday, Giving Tuesday, and shop-...

What is True? (November 25, 2018) How can we know what, and who, to believe? With so much fake news—not to mention lies— from public figures, including some politicians and religious leaders, many people have to ask themselves, “How can I know what to believe?” Our focus will be what is truth in the spiritual dimension. Scientists tell us that everything is matter, there is no Transcendental Reali...