Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

“Are We Normal?” Sunday, September 25, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream What is it about the human condition that is normal? And what is normal anyway? By taking lessons from our time in the pandemic, from my time as a hospital chaplain, and from our collective experiences as humans, we can explore how normal is not a concept to compare ourselves to others, but rather a way to build a shared u...

“The Tasks of Life” Sunday, September 18, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream What is the purpose of a life, of life. It's always been the question religion was tasked to answer. Part of the work of answering that question involves the tasks of life, of each life and even its stages of tasks. As we step into a new church year perhaps we can ask where we think we are in this work so each of us can...

“The River of Life: An Ingathering” Sunday, September 11, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This week is a joyous regathering: virtually and in person we will come back together for our official start to a church year. Children will join us in worship and we will sing and speak in words and ritual of our journeys apart and what we bring back with us. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister;...

“Birthing a New World” Sunday, September 4, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream For our annual Labor Day service, Rev. Millie Phillips celebrates a struggle that ebbs and flows, but has never died; the struggle for economic survival and dignity on the job. Playing off the multiple meanings of the word "labor," do we have the courage to do what it takes to give birth to " a new world from the ashe...

“The Arc of the Universe” Sunday, August 28, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream August 28th is the 59th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Racial Equality. Its keynote address by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. has become the most famous speech in modern history. Echoed in his remarks that day were the paraphrased words of an early Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker; that the arc o...

“Transforming Perfection” Sunday, August 21, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This Sunday, join Guest Preacher Charlotte Cramer exploring the concept of perfection and how it influences our lives and society. Perfection is everywhere in our country, and it has impacted how we treat one another and ourselves. What is the mindset and healing that is needed to work against the strong drive toward...

“Ordinary Days” Sunday, August 14, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream Life is made up of ordinary days. And they are often some of the best days we have. A sermon musing on the ordinariness of a sweet life. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Mari Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; Laurel Sprigg, Soprano; Mark Sumner, Pianist; Richard Fey, Songleader Shulee Ong...

“Retraining the Dragon” Sunday, August 7, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream When threatened some of us fight - even "breathing fire" if provoked, others freeze or retreat. We all know life is better when we are not stressed all the time, but some seem more resilient and able to shake off strife and difficulty than others. Recent brain science points to the limbic system as the place filtering o...

“Good Trouble” Sunday, July 31, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream In March of 2020, the late John Lewis called on everyone to "get into good trouble, necessary trouble and redeem the soul of America" as he spoke from the Edmund Pettis bridge in Selma Alabama commemorating the tragedy of Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. Join us on Sunday July 31st for a special service led by worship associate Mari...

“What am I going to do?” Sunday, July 24, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This is the question we ask ourselves at major pivotal points in our lives: graduation, career choice, retirement. “What am I going to do?” is also the question we ask ourselves when there are decisions to be made about: relationships, medical options, questions of moving and choosing where we will live. I find it usefu...

“Coffee in the Desert” Sunday, July 17, 10:50 am, Worship Service A sermon on welcome -- on the sacred value of welcome. This is a sermon I preached as one of my first five years ago at UUSF and the foundation holds. But there are insights too about what this virtue asks of us, brought to light in the conversations out of the racial reckoning of the last two years or more. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southe...

“The Living Tradition” Sunday, July 10, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream Rev. Mr. Barb reflects on 51 years of practicing Unitarian Universalism. Oh how we have (and have not) changed. Imagine with Barb as he shares his dreams for our next 51 years. Rev. Mr. Barb Greve, Guest Minister; Lucy Smith, Worship Associate; Larry Chinn, Pianist; Richard Fey, Songleader Jonathan Silk, Communications Di...

"The Perfect Body and the Ladder" Sunday, July 3, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream "The Perfect Body and the Ladder" is about the personal and the political uses of the body, timed perfectly to rebroadcast as we prepare to unveil our sweet bodies in the lighter clothes and freedom of summer. It's a lovely service and we invite you to sit with the questions it raises and the invitation to inclu...

What is Fatherhood? Sunday, June 19, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream How can you form an opinion on it if you don’t know what it is? Fatherhood is essentially an elegant idea. You can’t buy it, hold it in your hands or taste it. It is a no-thing. Please come and explore this elegant idea in community on Father’s Day. Rev. Fred Rabidoux, Guest Minister; Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate;...

"I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together" Sunday, June 12, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream Join us for a joyous good-bye celebration for Rev. Alyson Jacks who is retiring this June. We'll share stories, salutations and some surprises too. There will be wonderful music by our church and bell choir, percussionist Allen Biggs, pianist Lucas Keeley, and our organist Reiko Lane. Let's celebrate and...

"Finding Out Who We Are" Sunday, June 5, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This is a service of stories and songs for these times -- drawn from graduation speeches, spiritual reflections on place and community, hymns -- a reminder of who we are. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; Nancy Hardies & Judith Stoddard...

"Remembering the Future" Sunday, May 29, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream War continues to rage in the Ukraine and elsewhere, and, on top of everything else we are facing, nuclear Armageddon increasingly feels like a realistic fear. Memorial Day was started as Decoration Day to honor Union soldiers who died in the Civil War, through drawing upon memorial traditions in both the North and South....

“The Nike Solution” Sunday, May 22, 10:50 am, Worship Service Lately I feel like what we need most is what we have the hardest time doing. It's a rough place to be. And on a Sunday when we celebrate the incredible work of our Small Group Ministry program over so many years, and this last year, it fits perfectly into the story of now. And how to step into the choices and life activities that will h...

"A Time of Transition, part II: The Place In Between" Sunday, May 15, 2022 10:50 am Livestream Worship Service William Bridges, when he wrote about transitions, didn't just talk about the Endings, though he did name that first stage and all it required. And he didn't talk about the New Beginnings though that also was tender and vital. He talked about this rarely named space in between those two. A...

"The Loving and the Letting Go" Sunday, May 8, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream What it means to parent a 17-year-old is what it means to parent at any age, just more obviously so. The piece about how love is always about letting go and trusting the universe. And all the other hard -- annoyingly wise but hard -- lessons we learn in journeys of love. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister;...

"A Time of Transition" Sunday, May 1, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream This Sunday we will celebrate our children, youth, and teachers as we wrap up this year’s Sunday School program. We’ll have a special tribute to our incredible volunteers, and our amazing Lead Teachers, Sarah Beth Chionsini, Christine Patch-Lindsay, Marigold Birch, Hilary Buffum and Audrey McDougal. We are also beginning to...

"Elephant Company: an Earth Day service" Sunday, April 24, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream On Earth Day I think our goal is always to connect to the miracle and the mystery and the awesome power and our love for the earth, in part so that we remember in our hearts that we are anchored to the commitment to save earth and care for Her. I have also been thinking of that phrase lately of how the...

“Never What You Imagined” Easter Sunday, April 17, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister, preaching This year is one when Passover and Easter land in the same stretch of time and Spring also is claiming the stage. Holding these stories, the rituals of remembering, one thing that strikes me is the fullness of this moment in all the stories of the season. H...

"An Especially Big and Important Music Service" Sunday, April 10, Worship Service Livestream This Sunday, April 10th - after a 25-month delay - and in a follow up to our tribute to Walt Whitman in early December, several choirs return in larger numbers to perform the Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. In addition to having the UC Alumni Chorus join our church choir, we welcome students fr...

"Word After A Word After A Word Is Power" Sunday, April 3, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream Poetry has the ability to awaken the mind with a single word or to give a gulp of water to the heart one didn’t know was thirsty. It can boldly tell undeniable truths to ourselves, and to Kings and Queens. It can make a crowd stir as well as call a profound silence in a filled auditorium. It is simple a...