George Hermanson

Worry?

May 25, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Second Sunday After Pentecost

Matthew 6:24-34
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Faith-provoking historical insights by David Ewart on his blog, Holy Textures, Matthew 6:24-34.

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

Everyday we hear on the news, or read in the paper new things to be worried about. It is the economy.  It is crime.  It is terror.  It is the environment.  It is about the health of the church. It is about families. There is so much confronting us that some have given up watching the news or reading the papers.  Yet, the worries slide in.  The anxieties are there.

Anxiety can freeze us- make us fearful about the world around us.  This fear creates a climate of threat, of seeking vengeance.  Our anxiety is made more real when we realize we cannot control the future. Yet there are all sorts of gurus who offer us quick solutions to our fear, bromides that feel good in the moment but never solve the existential anxiety we carry around in our bodies.

Creativity

May 18, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Matthew 28:16-20
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

In both Genesis and the Psalm we have beautiful poetry that affirm that God is the Creator.  God’s power is ultimately defined as creative.  And it is good power.  It is persuasive power.  It gives life. It transforms chaos into order, and it brings new life of death.  It is the power of novelty.  God’s power is the source of entirely new possibilities.

Baptized Into Paradise

May 11, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Pentecost Sunday (and Mother's Day)

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

John 7:37-39
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

The image of Paradise has informed our imagination from the beginning of recorded religious history.  It has been an iconic image in our secular world, witness the song, "we have to get back to the Garden."  Another Joni Mitchell song included the lines, "so they paved over paradise," as a warning about our misuse of the environment. Her latest is full of images of this world as paradise and the danger that we will not honor it.

Witnessing - Testimony

May 4, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Seventh Sunday of Easter

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

Luke 24:44-53
Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson

One of the ideas we explored on our study leave is how the church is in continuous experimentation.  The church has gone through and is going through questions of how shall we live our faith?  What does it mean to witness and give testimony? If you check out Wondercafe.ca you will find both lament and hope over where are we as a church.  A typical comment of lament is this:

Maybe church, as we know it, is a thing of the past and 100 years from now on a "then and now" thread someone will post "Do you remember Churches? Do you remember God?"