George Hermanson

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.  

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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.

The Rising

April 4, 2010
St. Paul's - Richmond United Church
Season of Easter
Easter Sunday

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

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of the warnings we get is be careful with your personal information because there are people out to steal our identity. Identity theft is with us and it has always been with us. 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 sense of self - their soul has been stolen. They no longer exist, cannot be seen. In the past, though, it was much more violent. 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. Crucifixion destroyed identity.

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 all memory of him. But for Mary it was not an end. She is still searching. She is looking for meaning. We, too, gather this Easter morning to celebrate the memory of a crucified one - Jesus.

And Now A Good Word For The Innkeeper

December 24, 2009
Richmond United Church
Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-7, (8-20)
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

There we are, my brother and I, in the backseat, and the motels with their no vacancy signs. The tension is rising as we drive on and on. It was getting dark so my father decides he will go to the Banff Springs Hotel. It is beyond our price range but maybe they might have a room. No, but we can put you up in the staff house - a tent on a cold night. But the innkeeper had taken pity on us.

There we are, in Jamaica and the rooms are not there because the innkeeper did not make the family move because of death. Steve and I phone around and no rooms. Then one place says we have rooms in part of the hotel under renovations. The innkeeper had taken pity on us.

There they are, Mary and Joseph looking for shelter against the storm. And words we use every Christmas, “No room in the inn.” We have had generations of sermons that have emphasized the surface meaning of the story. We have been called upon to open our closed hearts, to prepare room for the heart of love. We have been asked to birth a generous spirit. Of course, there is truth to this metaphor. It is true that at this time of the year our hearts are touched and we do become more inclusive and welcoming of the stranger. All good stuff from those famous lines.

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
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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) 

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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
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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
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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
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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?

Seeking Wisdom, Year B, Pentecost, September 13, 2009

September 13, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
15th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

Proverbs 1:20-33
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

James 3:1-12
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Mark 8:27-38
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Every day we are faced with some decision. Information about this and that surround us: issues about family life, ethical concerns, political questions rain down on us daily. We have to decide how to respond and often, because the information is contradictory or confusing, we don't know what to do or say or act. Wisdom is scarce.

The passage from Proverbs could have been written in our time. We could easily have read it in Maclean's or the newspaper. Wisdom cries out in the street. She raises her voice in the town squares, she calls out at the busiest corners. She looks for those who heed her voice and follow her ways but she finds none. Calamity and disaster prevail. Fear and terror. Death and injury and hurt. It could be written about Iraq or Afghanistan; Israel or Lebanon.

Pushing The Boundaries, Year B, Pentecost, September 6, 2009

September 6, 2009
St. Paul's United Church, Richmond, ON
14th Sunday After Pentecost 2009

James 2:1-10
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Mark 7:24-31
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I love Jazz. It takes rhythm, melody and beat to rework tunes that are familiar. The boundaries of the familiar are pushed and we are lifted into new intensity, harmony and beauty. We feel the music in a new way. Our senses are expanded. All music shares this, for you can hear Beethoven or Bach in new ways. This happens when the musicians give a performance that push the boundaries of what went before and makes us hear the piece in a new way. There is a risk taken and the boundaries pushed.