Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

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

Kensington UU Choir

Kate Offer,soloist

Ariel Andrew,soloist

Hsuanwei Fan,soloist

Asher Davison,soloist

Wm. Garcia Ganz, piano

Gayle Reynolds, Trustee

Eric Shackelford, Livestream Camera Operator

Scott Miller, Livestream Technical Support

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Livestream, Videos

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 hard to see and name — the water we swim in, the culture that forms us and we reinforce unless we are careful, the power and privilege and protected class of whiteness.

Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister

Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister

Sam King, Worship Associate

Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director

Reiko Oda Lane, Organist

Alan Alpert, tenor

Wm. Garcia Ganz, piano

Gayle Reynolds, Trustee

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS

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 imperfect humanity?"

Millie Phillips, Guest Preacher

Jim Barnett, Humanists & Non-Theists

Lucy Smith, Worship Associate

Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director

Reiko Oda Lane, Organist

Bill Ganz, piano

Rochelle Fortier Nwadibia, Vice Moderator

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS

Antwann Horace, sound

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 idea) and how does our experience of home shape us, and what does it require of us? Come home!

Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister

Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister

Daniel Jackoway, Worship Associate

Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director

Reiko Oda Lane, Organist

Bill Ganz, piano

Shannon Warto, soprano

Betsy Darr, EJWG

Amy Kelly, Trustee

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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, Senior Minister

Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate

Jennifer Peringer, piano

Ariel Andrew, song leader

Carrie Steere-Salazar, Moderator

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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, Senior Minister

Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister

Sam King, Worship Associate

Dr. Mark Sumner, Music Director

Reiko Oda Lane, organ

David Jones, tenor

Peter Gross, Trustee

Susan Anthony & Julia Wald, auction

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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, useful for us mere mortals? ?Ideals that might guide us out of the mess we are in? Is there an ideal story that can show us a way forward? Today's service we will explore some of the central ideas about ideals (Plato anyone?) and why they matter, now more than ever.

Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister

Phil Marshall, Worship Associate

Asher Davison, song leader

Larry Chinn, piano

Scott Benbow, Treasurer

Linda Harris, UUSC

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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 improve ourselves comes the freedom to no longer need to prove that we are already good, already perfect. Our liberal tradition teaches that we are already saved from perfection. Let's start there.

Shari Halliday-Quan, Ministerial Intern

Lisanicole Sarkasian, Worship Associate

David Jones, song leader

Andrés Vera, cello

My-Hoa Steger, piano

Rochelle Fortier Nwadibia, Vice Moderator

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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, organ

Mark Kapner, piano, guitar and vocals

Carrie Steere-Salazar, Moderator

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

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-til-you-drop madness of the next three weeks? Rare, perhaps, but the truth is that you and I need to know how to do advent times in our life. Life is full of them. And religion has found a way to help us be in them and get through them. Come Sunday. You deserve the break.

Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister

Richard Davis-Lowell, Worship Associate

Dr. Mark Sumner, Music Director

Alexander Rameses Taite, soloist

UC Alumni and Men's and Women's Chorale

Wm. Garcia Ganz, piano

René Minneboo, soloist

Amy Kelly, Trustee

Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound