George Hermanson

Standing Near Greatness

April 26, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:12-19
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Luke 24:36-48
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

We love heroes. There are many tv shows and magazines that sell us heroes, some with clay feet. I remember being in a Blues bar and in walked Dan Achroyd. Heads turned. A buzz went through the crowd. Being a Canadian bar meant nobody rushed up to touch him. However, people continually made a lot of trips by where he was standing. It became a moment and conversation with those we were with. The joke became, "remember when we where at the bar with Dan Achroyd." Some of the dust of his fame drifted over us.

Trust

Second Sunday in Easter
April 19, 2009
St. Paul’s United Church, Richmond

Psalm 133
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 20:19-31
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The Rev. Suzanne E. Sykes

This past Monday, after all the excitement and activities of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, I finally had a chance to catch up with my reading.  Reading the weekend’s newspapers.  As I sat in my  chair, by the living room window, in the sunshine, watching the river run, drinking my coffee, an article in Saturday’s opinion section jumped out at me. It got me thinking.  And it really stuck with me.

Can We Trust God?

April 19, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Second Sunday of Easter

Acts 4:32-35
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 20:19-31
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

This story of Thomas is such a modern story. We hear it in the phrase, "show me the money." In an article by Robert Sibley (Citizen April 11, 2009) he says that trust is the sleeper issue of our time. For the "economic trauma we living through is fundamentally a crisis of trust."

We do not often think about how we got to where we are, how we have become who we are. Our sense of liberal democracy has been based on cooperation, trust based on commonly shared values. Trust is necessary for a healthy, vibrant society. This is the idea of working for the common good, and to do that means trust is needed. However, since the Second World War the sense of community and trust has been slowly disappearing. The last few decades, the trust we have had in institutions, churches, and governments has been lost and some feel it never will be restored in their lifetime. Polls have consistently shown  "a much larger pattern of declining trust in public figures and institutions."

The Rising

April 12, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Easter Sunday

John 20:1-18
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

We have all heard of identity theft. Those who experience it speak of losing their sense of self. They have become a nobody - a sense they no longer exist. They say their self  - their soul has been stolen. They no longer exist, cannot be seen. The Romans used the Cross to achieve this - the one crucified becomes a nobody. Their identity stolen. Their reality is destroyed - it is as if they never existed.

Yet here we are with Mary. The one she loved was crucified. The Romans tried to wipe away any sense of Jesus - to make him a nobody, to wipe away the memory of him.  But for Mary it was not an end. She is still searching. She is looking for meaning.

Parades and Crosses, Year B, Palm-Passion Sunday

April 5, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Sixth Sunday of Lent
Palm / Passion Sunday

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

Mark 14:1-9
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Our passage from Mark begins the Holy Week Journey. We did not read all of Mark’s narrative and so I want to read this from Mark, to join the parade with the outcome of that parade. (Mark 14:1-9)

In many ways we think we know what the narrative means because we hear it every Lent and Easter. Our hymns give us an image of a great parade; yet we forget that old hymn two gates to the city. Mark gave us an narrative about parades that challenged the power of Rome.

Every year, at Passover, the Roman army would come marching in. In the time of Jesus it would be Pilate at the head of the parade. It was a symbol of dominance and oppression. The parade would be full of soldiers and their weapons. It would be full of pomp and circumstance as a warning to the people. Think of those images where the invading army comes in with its might to tell the people they were nobodies. So this parade would not be looked forward to because the people knew it as a warning not to cause trouble during the Passover.