George Hermanson

A Surprising Answer

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between July 10 to July 16 Inclusive
July 11, 2010, Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Amos 7:7-17, The Message;   or   Amos 7:7-17, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Read the Bible passage: Luke 10:25-37, The Message;   or   Luke 10:25-37, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 10:25-37.

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

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

In our times of terrorists and wars, where we read about those who seek our ill-will we have this challenging parable of Jesus. On first reading it seems to tell us that we are to love one another as we love ourselves. It seems to be a variation on the golden rule. It goes beyond what is demanded and sets a standard that asks much of us.

It starts out innocently. Luke has Jesus engaged in a advance seminar about the law. A good question is asked about what is the most crucial thing we can do with our life - what is the most basic attitude we must have to have a fulfilled life? Jesus responds with the summary of the what was considered to be the law - Love God. Love self. Love the neighbor.

Into A Far Country

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between July 3 to July 9 Inclusive
July 4, 2010, Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: 2 Kings 5:1-14, The Message;   or   2 Kings 5:1-14, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Read the Bible passage: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, The Message;   or   Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20.  

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

After church we are leaving for a brief trip to visit friends. Suzanne has done her usual due diligence of preparation. Got the Google maps. We figure out what we will need by checking the weather forecasts. Lay out our things. Wonder if we are taking too much or not enough. Worry. Seek for just right information as we go into a far country.

Planning is big on our agenda -for we want to make the best use of our time and we want to arrive without too many distractions. There is an irony to all of this because we live a time a great prosperity, yet with great dissatisfaction. We have genuine shortage of time, and deep shortage of deep spirituality. There is a deficit in meaning and both rich and poor are afflicted by this deficit. To fill the emptiness many turn to consumption which in turn commodifies us. Rather than growing free time for compassion, we are even more closed in - worried, scared. Prosperity has exacted a terrible price from its favourites.

Forgiveness

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between June 12 to June 18 Inclusive
June 13, 2010, Third Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Luke 7:36-8:3, The Message;   or   Luke 7:36-8:3, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 7:36-8:3.  

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

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Let us use our imagination for a moment. You have seen this scene in such TV programs like Rome, or some movie about ancient Rome. Picture the room when the dinner is being held. A group of men is at a table and they are eating in the Roman style. See them on a couch. That means two people on a couch, this is so intimate conversations can happen. Those who get invited are the elite of the village - those who are learned in the Law. High level of conversation. Behind them are the outsiders, who can only approach in supplication.

The first thing to ask is why this Roman style of eating? It tells us much about the context of Luke’s story. This means those there had become captive to the culture of the oppressor.

What's On Your Resume

Year C
Season of Pentecost
Sunday Between June 5 to June 11 Inclusive
June 6, 2010, Second Sunday After Pentecost

Read the Bible passage: Galatians 1:11-24, The Message;   or   Galatians 1:11-24, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Read the Bible passage: Luke 7:11-17, The Message;   or   Luke 7:11-17, The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Luke 7:11-17.  

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

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

In our reading of Galatians there is a travel log. Often when someone tells us of a trip our eyes glaze over. Did your eyes glaze over when you were listening to the letter of Paul to the Galatians? All those towns and places he visited. He talks about his former vocation and now his new mission. Think of it as a resume. He is telling us about what is important to him and what motivates his passion. His resume begins with what is important to how he lives.

As you now know this Sunday is a celebration of the 85th anniversary of the United Church of Canada. The question for our future is what is our business? What is so important we will give our lives to it. In part, we answer that by what is on the resume of the church and how that has informed our personal Christian resume.

All We Need Is Love

Year C
Season of Easter
Pentecost Sunday

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

Faith-provoking, historical insights into the lesson by David Ewart, Acts 2:1-21.  

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

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

In our Acts passage we get the marching orders for the church. We may puzzle over the meaning of the coming of the Spirit. They did then. The watchers ask if the disciples were drunk.

It is called ecstatic speech. We have all some experience of this when we are so excited we cannot get out our words or they tumble over one another. Then there are times the moment of awe is so great we say nothing. There is nothing magical about this experience, and the writer of Acts uses colourful and metaphorical language to tell of a moment when the world changed.

We all have a moment or event in which our world changed. We heard or saw things in new ways, heard or saw things that we had never had before. Our world was changed, we were changed.

All That We Are

November 15, 2009
Richmond United Church
Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Ruth 3:1-5 and 4:13-17
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Mark 12:38-44
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this post.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Next week I have organized an event on Transforming Theology for Church and Society. In reading the material, clearly we must as a church develop a faith that address our world of “I am spiritual but not religious.” We are moving into is the age of Spirit where there is “no standardized theology, no single pattern of governance, no uniform liturgy, and no common accepted Scripture.” It is a time where all our faith statements are our best approximation, based on reason, a critical reading of the bible, and reconstructing our theology. This is a time of both excitement and chaos, of energy and closing down, of jumping into the future or seeking of comfort zones of the past. It is a time to take courage, to be bold in our faith, to claim new understandings of God that will guide us into the unknown future. Research indicates a healthy congregation includes study and worship life. It was found that a deep spirituality and open hospitality were the values that grounded them. This deep spirituality and hospitality was nurtured by the ministers, and lived by the people of the church.

Seeing Jesus - Knowing God

October 25, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Job 42:1-6
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Mark 10:46-52
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this post.

The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

As I prepared, a new book by Harvey Cox caught my eye. It is called, The Future of Faith. He says that there is a “profound change in the elemental nature of religiousness.” His first book, in 1965, was The Secular City. It asked how the church was to be, when the church was being pushed to the margins of life. Not all that he said then turned out to be true. In later works, he prepared us for the saying - “I am spiritual not religious” - as the world the church must respond to.

Attitude of Gratitutde, Year B, Thanksgiving

October 11, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
Thanksgiving Sunday

Psalm 126
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Joel 2:21-27
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Matthew 6:25-33
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

We have dressed the church this morning to remind us of the beauty of the earth, life that is given by soil and care. We dress up to remind ourselves of what is important. When we go out for a special occasion our clothes reflect the meaning of the event.

Our texts reflect giving thanks and rejoicing. I especially like the passage from the prophet Joel. He writes after a period of difficulty and stress. His sense of well-being and thanksgiving is so great that he includes the soil and the animals as well as human beings in the rejoicing. It resonates for us, I think, living as we do where Autumn just bursts with exuberant colour and richness. We can say with Joel that in our coloured leaves and vivid blue skies all of creation gives joyful thanks to the Creator.

Not Being Perfect, Year B, October 4, 2009, Pentecost 18

October 4, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
18th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Hebrews 1:1-4 and 2:5-12
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Mark 10:2-16
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Asking questions is important. We learn by asking questions. We test ideas and actions by asking questions. Yet not all questioning does that. For there is another type of question, where insight is not looked for. It is to challenge the speaker. The challenge comes with a hidden agenda. One of the response I have to such a question is, “What is the statement that you want to make?” For the question comes out of settled worldview, a sense this is how it is and I want to trap you with the question. It is not asked with sincerity but with “I am going to get you.”

Jesus’ encounter about divorce illustrates such a question. He is being tested to see if he is an authentic teacher. There is no sense of, “I want to learn,” in the question. It is clear from how Jesus responded that he understands the question as a trap.

Instructions For The Community, Year B, September 27, 2009, Pentecost 17

September 27, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
17th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Mark 9:38-50
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of the issues we face in a multi-religious world is how to accept others as having insight into the nature of reality. Do other religions have truth? Is often how the question is posed. Then there are other voices that are not religious, do they have some truth? Do those outside the religious community have important insights we ought to pay attention to? Do other religions have something to teach us? Do other voices tell us something important?