George Hermanson

Parades and Crosses

March 28, 2010
St. Paul's - Richmond United Church
Last Sunday in Lent
Palm / Passion Sunday

Luke 19:28-40
Read the Bible passage: Luke 19:28-40, The Message;   or   Luke 19:28-40, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Palm Sunday is one of those ironic and iconic festive events. We enjoy the children coming in waving their palms, singing joyful music. As we watch and participate we often rush from the parade to Easter Sunday. We need to see the parade and its outcome - the cross. Why the cross? 

Feeding Our Spiritual Life

March 7, 2010
St. Paul's - Richmond United Church
Third Sunday in Lent

Luke 13:1-9
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Many commentators have said the Olympics created a new sense of ourselves as Canadians. Some have said it worked as religious function, giving us an identity. Those who study the chemistry of the brain suggest that religion gives us sense of calm and awe. Purpose comes out of that inner sense of wellbeing. It is this sense of creating a shared experience that made the Olympics what it was, a form of civil religion.

This suggests a question. What should we give ourselves over to? Is it life affirming and life transforming? In the religious world of Lent, we are asked to examine our lifestyles and values. In the examination of what we commit ourselves to, as a society and as individuals, we are asked to let go of those things that inhibit our collective wellbeing.

You Have To Sing The Blues To Feel The Joy

February 28, 2010
St. Paul's - Richmond United Church
Second Sunday in Lent

Philippians 3:17--4:1
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Luke 13:31-35
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Lent is the time in the church year when we practice the spiritual gifts of letting go. They are the gifts particular to this season. The spiritual path we walk in Lent is the path of renunciation, the way of emptying, the way of subtraction. Yet the gifts that the discipline of Lent shows us should never be confused with austerity, impoverishment, or mere denial for the sake of self mastery.

An orientation of self-emptying and renunciation is for the sake of the kingdom of God and its gifts. It’s important to remember that the point of renunciation is not for its own sake, but in order to make room for something else.

One of the ways we achieve the self-emptying is through lament. Lament is weeping over the things that stand in our way of a new way of being. Lament is the moment of tears over the loses we have experienced. Lament is a time of feeling that things will never be the same again.

Times of Testing

February 21, 2010
St. Paul's - Richmond United Church
First Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-13
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

If you have been watching or reading about the Olympics, a constant narrative is this is a time of testing. All the preparation leads up to a moment or moments where the athlete is tested. The outcome leads to another level of testing, which is character. This is how one deals with winning or losing. We can identify with those moments because there are moments in our experience where testing is hard and we find a strength we did not know we had. As well in those situations we have discovered we were not alone for we came through because of others. This has been a recurring response from the athletes. They acknowledge their skill and those who helped develop it.

Then is another type of testing. This is testing the water before we jump in. We use our insights, past histories, the wisdom of others to prepare ourselves for a new situation. We test out ideas to find those which will lead us in the future. There is provisional nature to this testing, for more than one option is open, and we test all the options to find the best.

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

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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.

Written On Our Hearts, Year B, Lent 5

March 29, 2009
The United Churches of
Northcote - Haleys - Adamston
Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 12:20-33
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Suzanne E. Sykes (George is away this Sunday)

I am kind of intrigued by our culture’s fascination with piercings and tattoos. When you think of it, it is kind of amazing - the willingness of some people to undergo often painful procedures in order to decorate or brand themselves.

A friend just gave in to her daughter’s wish to get her ears pierced - she’s five. I have to confess that I too have pierced ears - but I was 16 when I did it. That makes some kind of sense - if you’re old enough to drive you should be old enough to get your ears pierced.

And I’ve seen lots of women, and some men, who have multiple holes in their lobes for multiple studs and earrings. And it isn’t just ear lobes that get pierced. That seems pretty tame nowadays.

And then there’s tattoos.

The Light Shines In The Darkness, Year B, Lent 4

March 22, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Fourth Sunday of Lent

Numbers 21:4-9
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 3:14-21
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of the childhood fears is the monsters under the bed or hiding in the closet. Some children need a night light so they can sleep with confidence. Other times a parent comes in to shine a light under the bed. It is not just children who have a primal fear of the dark. All horror movies have scenes of ominous movements in the midnight hour. Leaves move and seem to make loud noises. Shadowy figures are just beyond our light.

One of the most important evolutionary moments was the discovery of fire. At night a fire would be lighted and the community gathered around it.  A sense of security would come. We still have that feeling when we camp, the comfort of the fire in the dark night.

In a vision quest, one of the disciplines is to go out into the woods without light. I have done this and the night gets nosier and stranger. One has to learn to embrace the night and the dread that is there. Metaphorically one has to shine a light on the fear.

Sabbath Time

March 15, 2009
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20:1-17
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 2:13-22
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Thomas Long tells a great story about the Ten Commandments. There is a monument of the Commandments that used to be in the Alabama Supreme Courthouse. It weighs 5,280 pounds. And, as Long points out, that works out to about 500 pounds per Commandment. Pretty weighty. And this hefty boulder gets lugged around from one public appearance to another on a flatbed truck. It is moved on and off the truck with a crane - a 57 foot, yellow, I-beam crane. What caught me in the story was this: the monster crane visibly buckles under the weight of moving this immense piece of engraved rock back and forth, on and off the truck.

Now all of that kind of spoke to me about how the Ten Commandments can feel in our lives - like a rock - a boulder so immense, inert, that we stoop under its weight. The Ten Commandments lie there like an immovable force and make their demands.

It is clear that Moses and God thought that the giving of the Ten Commandments was a momentous, liberating, identity forming, relationship-building event in the life of this new community of newly liberated captives. How were the Ten Commandments seen as life giving, liberating, invigorating?

Entrances

March 16, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Palm Sunday
Sixth Sunday of Lent

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Matthew 21:1-11
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

How we enter a room or a place tells us much about the event.  If we wander in, or there is no grand entrance, we know it is a more casual event.  If we stop and greet before we find our seats, then know we are some kind of community event.  If we come in and bow in prayer, we know there is a preparation for a religious experience.  If there is a great procession we know that it is formal and we expect something to happen.

Entrances have clues built in - an orchestra has an intro - a lighting of the Christ candle focuses the people to experience of God.  The clues focus us to pay attention to the meaning of the shared time.

Affirming Life

March 9, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Fifth Sunday of Lent

Exodus 37:1-4
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

John 11:1-45
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

It seems that one of our societal preoccupation is the aging of the boomers.  For every day we have some comment on their impact on jobs, health care, and pensions.  Going along with these comments are articles about how to extend our life span.  There seems to be some scientist who is promising us some form of immortality.