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Welcome

Welcome to the Rev. Dr. George Hermanson's web home.

Check here for sermons and news of events at the Madawaska Institute.

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Sermons are indexed by the liturgical year: Year A, Year B, or Year C;  and the season: Advent-Christmas, Epiphany, Lent-Holy Week, Easter, or Pentecost. And for Pentecost, also by the month: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. They are also indexed by the Biblical text used. So if you are searching for a specific Sunday's text, trying using one of the "Index" links in the righthand side bar to narrow your search: Scripture Index of Posts, or Lectionary Index of Posts.

The content is all George. The hosting and posting is by David Ewart, which is why there are links to David's other sites.

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May 30, 2009

Who Has Seen The Wind, Year B, Pentecost Sunday Sermon

May 31, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Pentecost Sunday

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Acts 2:1-21
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

My mother, having grown up on the Prairies, hated the sound of the wind. If you have read, Who Has Seen The Wind, you will identify with that experience. For my mother the wind brought dust storms and the stronger the wind the worst the experience.

Our relationship with the wind is always full of ambiguity. We know the fresh breeze that removes the pollutants from the air. The gentle breeze that moves the sail boat. Then there is the destructive force that destroys a city. Yet the wind is a strong metaphor for the activity of God, blowing a new reality into being.

Continue reading "Who Has Seen The Wind, Year B, Pentecost Sunday Sermon" »

May 27, 2009

Discernment, Year B, Easter 7, Sermon

May 24, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:1-11
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Luke 24:44-53
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Every day we are faced with some decision about what we have read in the newspaper, or seen on the TV news. Are we to believe what we hear or see? How should we respond in creative ways? We ask, "Will our decision make a difference to how we plan the day?"

Other times it is a minor decision. What we are to have for breakfast? It can be on another level, about how we shall relate to others? A family member comes to us and asks if they, or we, should do this?

In a world of competing images, it is hard to know what we should do.

Continue reading "Discernment, Year B, Easter 7, Sermon" »

May 16, 2009

Friendship, Year B, Easter 6

May 17, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 10:44-48
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 15:9-17
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

We see things out of what are called worldviews. They are like a pair of glasses, lens through which we see. Those of us who we wear glasses forget that until we take them off and the world is fuzzy. Worldviews are like that, for we don't notice our assumed perspective, that we see reality through social constructed ideas.

We have been watching Elvis Costello's Spectacle. He interviews musicians. Two common questions are: How has music influenced you; and one in the area of spirituality. Last week he interviewed Bill Clinton. Clinton said that music helps us notice things we would otherwise over look. In essence, artistic views are essential to how we are as humans.

Continue reading "Friendship, Year B, Easter 6" »

May 14, 2009

Philip Clayton, Ottawa, November 10-11, 2009

The Madawaska Institute has just arranged for a visit from Philip Clayton, Ph.D. This will be November 10 and 11. Topics are to be arranged but you can check his web site for work he has done, and see below.

The event will cost $100.

It will take place in Ottawa, and we are working on a location but most like it will be Dominion-Chalmers United Church.

Philip Clayton, Ph.D. is currently Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the Claremont Graduate University.

Clayton is author of: The Problem of God in Modern Thought; God and Contemporary Science; and Explanation from Physics to Theology: An Essay in Rationality and Religion, along with a number of edited volumes.

His specializations are in philosophical theology, the interface between science and religion, and the history of modern metaphysics; he also publishes in the philosophy of science, systematic theology, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion.

He won the Templeton Prize for Outstanding Books in Science and Religion and the first annual Templeton Grant for Research and Writing on the Constructive Interaction of the 
Sciences and Religion. 

Philip Clayton is a philosopher and theologian specializing in the entire range of issues that arise at 
the intersection between science and religion. Over the last several decades he has published and lectured extensively on all branches of this debate, including the history of modern philosophy, philosophy of science, comparative religions, and constructive theology.

Clayton received the PhD jointly from the Philosophy and Religious Studies departments at Yale University and is currently Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University and Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology. In addition to a variety of named lectureships, he has held visiting professorships at the University of Cambridge, the University of Munich, and Harvard University.

Above all, Clayton’s books and articles address the cultural battle currently raging between science and religion. Rejecting the scientism of Dawkins and friends, he argues, does not open the door to fundamentalism. Instead, a variety of complex and interesting positions are being obscured by the warring factions whose fight to the death is attracting such intense attention today.

Clayton has drawn on the resources of the sciences, philosophy, theology, and comparative religious thought to develop constructive partnerships between these two great cultural powers. As a public intellectual he seeks to address the burning ethical and political issues at the intersection of science, ethics, religion, and spirituality (e.g., the stem cell debate, euthanasia, the environmental crisis, interreligious warfare).

As a philosopher he works to show the compatibility of science with religious belief across the fields where the two may be integrated (emergence theory, evolution and religion, evolutionary psychology, neuroscience and consciousness).

May 07, 2009

The Seeker, Year B, Easter 5, Sermon

May 10, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Mother's Day

Acts 8:26-40
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 15:1-8
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

In Acts, Philip asks if the Eunuch understands what he is reading. He replies that he needs a guide. What an important metaphor for mother's day. An important reminder of the role of the church.

One afternoon a friend of mine, when we were teenagers, dropped in to see me. I was not there. Only my mother was there. Jack sat down with her and began to ask questions. My mother listened. Finally, as it was getting dark, my mother said, "Maybe we need to turn on some lights." What is so important to me is that the conversation went on and on, questions asked and responded to. There was no hurry. For Jack, he had been listened to, taken seriously. It was for him a life changing experience, for when my mother died, he flew out for her memorial service.

Questions are the stuff of life.

Continue reading "The Seeker, Year B, Easter 5, Sermon" »