Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

"Enough is Enough: The Inflation of Satisfied and the Risks" (September 26, 2021) Worship Service In the stories of people I know, their children's stories, in what I see in the world, with dire consequences to the planet and to our mental health, I see the inflation of "enough" and I don't just mean in material terms. I mean in all kinds of ways. Let me give examples and let's look at what that m...

"Ganesh Chaturthi and the Need to Remove Obstacles" (September 19, 2021) Worship Service Each year in India there is a ten or eleven-day festival to celebrate Ganesh, the Elephant-headed god who is playful but who also is famous for a particular kind of power, one we all always seem in need of summoning into our lives. Join me for some stories, images, and reflections on the power of ritual. Rev....

"New Eyes and Not Afraid" (September 12, 2021) Worship Service This Sunday is this confluence of holidays and holidays and anniversaries raising the question not just of how we begin in the midst of ongoing challenges, but how people have always done so; even we ourselves did 20 years ago. We frame that exploration with music, special music, for the occasion. Come join us. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southe...

"In Our Hands Is Placed a Power" (September 5, 2021) Worship Service Welcome to our annual Labor Day service, where we celebrate the contributions to social justice by the labor movement both currently and historically. As has been true for several years now, we will be joined by members of San Francisco's labor union choir Rockin' Solidarity. Hard times have always been here for the vast majority...

"The Power of Focus" (August 29, 2021) Worship Service Steve Jobs is famous for his message on focus, the power of focus. In a different way, the same message has power for our spiritual and moral lives. After all, have you noticed how what we look for in the world in part determines what we find? Or how consciously deciding what we want to make happen also requires us to surrender to not making o...

"I Know Nothing" (August 22, 2021) Worship Service In the millions of acres of trees, in the dark and light, the shadows, the dappled light along canyon walls and rivers, there is real knowing. What is it, to surrender, to let go of having to know, to do, and to let it be enough that the elements sing? Rev. J.D. Benson, Guest Minister; Mari Magaloni Ramos, Worship Associate; Asher Davison, bass-ba...

"Deep Time: Stories We Tell the Children, and the Work of Repair" (August 15, 2021) Worship Service A personal story about the journey to be a good ancestor. Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Guest Minister; Carmen Barsody, Worship Associate; Alex Taite, tenor; My-Hoa Steger, accompanist; Brielle Marina Nielson, songleader Eric Shackelford, camera; Shulee Ong, camera; Jonathan Silk, OOS Design & sound; Joe...

"Sinking In To Ordinary Time" (August 8, 2021) Worship Service In both the Christian and Jewish traditions, there is the idea of “ordinary time” - the time between holy days - an extended period of time that invites contemplation, a chance to sink in to the deeper rhythms that surround us like the flow of a river or the turning of the tides. Living in ordinary time means sinking in and slowing dow...

"Dare to Love Again" (August 1, 2021) Worship Service Do I dare to love again? Many of us have asked that question at one time or another. I know I have. Whether after death, disappointment or betrayal, life is always asking us to give love another chance. But do we dare? And how? Rev. Dr. Robert M. Hardies, Guest Minister; Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Sam King, Worship Associate;...

"Summer Musings" (July 25, 2021) Worship Service If we are lucky summer affords us some of the spaciousness it did as children. Time to wander in body and spirit and let things bubble up, fall away, clarify. Let's make space for such musing this Sunday. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate; The Harmony People: Anjalisa Aitken, Gary Garrett; Asher Davison,...

Sunday, July 18, 10:50 AM, Worship Service "Crisscrossing Humanity" Meg McGuire and Carmen Barsody, preaching From Cathedral Hill to the Tenderloin, from one side of the city to the other, the many moments where our paths cross are invitations to discover and re-discover our common humanity. Bringing in lessons from the vision and work of the Faithful Fools Meg McGuire and Carmen Barsody reflect o...

"Relinquishment" (July 11, 2021) Worship Service As many of you know, John was Senior Minister at UUSF from 2014 until his retirement in 2017. He had earlier been President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 1993-2001, among other posts in religious leadership. He first began pondering relinquishment as he gave up thousands of books before moving the West Coast. He was hel...

"Time to Slow Down" (July 4, 2021) Worship Service These are urgent times. They long have been. And yet, there are powerful voices, many at the center of justice work, urging us to slow down. We’ll engage this paradox and the spiritual and practical lessons it might offer to us. Meg McGuire, Ministerial Intern Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate Larry Chinn, jazz piano Ben Rudiak-Gould, tenor Mark...

"Raising Hope" (June 20, 2021) Worship Service For Father’s Day, we’ll take a deeper dive into what it means to be hopeful. Tom Wyman, author of Infinitely Full of Hope: Fatherhood and the Future in an Age of Crisis and Disaster, and soon to be a first time father, believes that – despite the despair – now is not the time to give up on hope. Rather, we need to cultivate it and keep it alive. Rev....

"Saying Yes" (June 13, 2021) Worship Service “Teach us all you can by saying yes,” Nancy Shaffer writes in a poem titled “Calling.” Rather than coming from some booming voice on high, the sort of calling that Shaffer describes is marked by the subtle work of learning to listen- and being willing to respond. Preaching for the last time as our ministerial intern (but not her last time in our pulpit)...

"Dismantling Perfectionism: Bring it on!" (June 6, 2021) Worship Service There is a whole set of things that Tema Okun argues are part of White Supremacy Culture in her classic article, "White Supremacy Culture". One of them is perfectionism. Ever since I read that article I've thought most of where and how perfectionism shows up. It was one of the ones that didn't make obvious and immediate sense...

"We Shall Not Sleep, Though Poppies Grow" (May 30, 2021) Worship Service From an 1865 gathering at the Charleston race track through two World Wars to modern day, collectively remembering our dead remains an important ritual for the living. On the 50th national observance of Memorial Day, what have we learned about communal grief in times of war and peace? Rev. Mr. Barb Greve, Guest Minister Meg M...

"Marge and Barb Have Class" (May 23, 2021) Worship Service The title of the sermon is a set of words my cousin and I saw spray painted on the side of a falling down old shed on a country road one day in Upstate New York. A good place to leap into a conversation on our obsession, perhaps, with the whole wild notion of "class". Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate...

"Holding Ourselves Accountable: The 8th Principle and the Future of Our Faith" (May 16, 2021) Worship Service Paula Cole Jones, a Lay Leader who has been a member of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. for decades, was also one of the two authors of the 8th Principle and leaders of the effort to broaden and deepen when we fundamentally hold ourselves accountable for in our Principles.&n...

"Arms Wide Open: Parenting as a Spiritual Path" (May 9, 2021) Worship Service I am a year and a few months from an empty nest, and halfway into a process of pulling together an anthology of writings on the place of children in our wisdom-making living. The book is a project that started as an excuse to go looking for all the gorgeous stories we don't think to tell in the midst of the work and the...

"Religious Imagination: What it Means to be a Teaching Congregation" (May 2, 2021) Worship Service This Sunday marks the final class for our Sunday School program.  Our classes have been virtual – like our worship services – for the whole year. We will take time to celebrate our achievements and honor our Lead Teachers. It’s also a good time to reflect upon the importance of religious ed...

"Close Enough for Awe: An Earth Day Sermon" (April 25, 2021) Worship Service It's spring, it's Earth Day. It's a time when it is easy to fall in love with the world. So, let's do that. With a lover's eyes, let's see what beauty, what amazement is right in front of us. And tumble into its spell. And for good reason. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Sam King, Worship Associate Allen Biggs...

"Becoming Together" (April 18, 2021) Worship Service Becoming ourselves is a lifelong process. And this practice of continual growth, of waking up to who we are, is one that cannot be done alone. Join Ministerial Intern Meg McGuire, Young Adult Coordinator Joe Chapot, members of the UU Theologies for Young Adults class, and friends, for a service exploring how we grow into ourselves, and how we gr...

"Living Purposefooly" (April 11, 2021) Worship Service Drawing the Fool in the Tarot cards represents new beginnings. We step out into the world with faith in the future, though we don’t know what to expect. The journey requires improvisation and trust, and a willingness to be shaped along the way. It is an invitation to walk purposefooly toward an as-yet unknown destination, also known as coddiwo...

"Easter Sunday: Hope is a......." (April 4, 2021) Worship Service Easter, of course, is about resurrection -- life from places of loss, hope from despair, second chances for the makers of even the gravest of mistakes. And it is about Hope. Hope as a four-letter word, textured, gritty, gorgeous and feather-light. Time to unpack hope. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Meg McGuire, Minister...