George Hermanson

Doing The Right Thing

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between September 18 and September 24 Inclusive
September 19, 2010, Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, The Message;   or   Jeremiah 8:18-9:1, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Read the Bible passage: Luke 16:1-13, The Message;   or   Luke 16:1-13, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 16:1-13.

Click here: George Hermanson's sermon, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this sermon.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Note: This sermon was preached on September 23, 2007 at Edwards (Knox) United.

All of us live in a taken for granted universe. We see this in our speech, in folk sayings, the so called common sense ideas that we operate out of, and never think about. It is a kind of, "this is how it is, this is the way things are." They are the ways we get through the day without thinking, for there is work to be done, food to prepare, sleep to catch up on, and fun to squeeze in. Most of us never think about or question this taken for grantedness. We assume this is how the world is. Our acting becomes habitual based on these concepts.

We run on automatic pilot and, often this is a good thing, and it can be dangerous. Once and while events catch us short. Some idea or event calls into question this taken for grantedness. Some dramatic happening confronts us and we wonder what is it all about? In the moment when things seem to be not how we assumed life would be, we fall back on some habit of the heart. We revert to some adage to carry us through the difficulty or joy. We don’t question the adages and when we don’t they can be dangerous.

Finding the Lost

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between September 11 and September 17 Inclusive
September 12, 2010, Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Luke 15:1-10, The Message;   or   Luke 15:1-10, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 15:1-10.

Click here: George Hermanson's sermon, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this sermon.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Note: This sermon was first preached on September 16, 2007 at Edwards (Knox) United.

We all love stories. We go to movies, watch TV, read books, and tell family stories. All are literary forms. We seek to find ourselves in those stories - seek the meaning of literature. Literature is an artistic presentation in words of some aspect of human experience. The purpose of literature is to provide enjoyment and vicarious experiences that can deepen and enrich our lives. Yet all literature cries out for understanding.

This is because not all stories are self evident. Some are dangerous to how we think. Others scare us.

Some are a puzzle. Parables are a particular form of story. There are transformational - they question the common sense views of the world. They reverse expectations. They puzzle us. They also puzzled writers like Luke. In telling them Jesus hoped that it would create an open space in one's consciousness, so much so that in the hearing one could actually feel the sense of God within the world and self.

Note: This sermon was first preached on September 16, 2007 at Edwards (Knox) United.

We all love stories. We go to movies, watch TV, read books, and tell family stories. All are literary forms. We seek to find ourselves in those stories - seek the meaning of literature. Literature is an artistic presentation in words of some aspect of human experience. The purpose of literature is to provide enjoyment and vicarious experiences that can deepen and enrich our lives. Yet all literature cries out for understanding.

This is because not all stories are self evident. Some are dangerous to how we think. Others scare us.

Some are a puzzle. Parables are a particular form of story. There are transformational - they question the common sense views of the world. They reverse expectations. They puzzle us. They also puzzled writers like Luke. In telling them Jesus hoped that it would create an open space in one's consciousness, so much so that in the hearing one could actually feel the sense of God within the world and self.

Passion

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between September 4 and September 10 Inclusive
September 5, 2010, Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Luke 14:25-33, The Message;   or   Luke 14:25-33, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 14:25-33.

Click here: George Hermanson's sermon, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this sermon.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Note: The following sermon was preached on September 9, 2007 at Edwards (Knox) United Church.

Astonishing words of Jesus. Hate your family. Hate your mother. Hate your father. Hate your children. Not friendly words in a family centered culture. What is going on? Jesus goes on to say “If you don’t say good-bye to everything that belongs to you, you’re no disciple of mine.”

These are not the words you would have as the main article in a parenting magazine. What to make of them? They were also tough words for Luke. The early community struggled with them, so Luke turns them into advice about planning. Now that does resonate with us for we know planning for the future is crucial - wait till next January and February and all those ads for RRSPs. It works with us because urban planning, rural planning, church planning and personal planning are the currency of our day.

Still those words hang there despite all of our rationalizations - even the good ones. Pretty radical stuff.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between August 28 and September 3 Inclusive
August 29, 2010, Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Jeremiah 2:4-13, The Message;   or   Jeremiah 2:4-13, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Read the Bible passage: Luke 14:1, 7-14, The Message;   or   Luke 14:1, 7-14, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Click here: George Hermanson's sermon, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this sermon.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of rock songs chez plays continuously is “Rules, Rules, Everywhere Rules.” I checked Goggle to get the words for rules and found Goggle has over 3 million sites referring to rules, everywhere rules. So life has more than its share of rules We just can't seem to get away from them.  Some of the rules protect and some are used to repress.