Category Archives: Musings
Pastor Dan Hermanson – May 2025
Thank you for giving me the privilege of being your servant these past five years, the last years before my retirement. It was a privilege because of what the Apostle Peter wrote: “...you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God’s own people...” (1 Peter 2:9). I hope you will keep these two passage in mind as you enter into what is an important, exciting time in the life of a congregation: preparing to call your next pastor.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Feb 2025
Luther flaunts it rather than hides it: The Christian way of life leads to repentance and promises resurrection every day. Life on these terms is rigorous and demanding. It consumes the resources of faith at an astonish-ing rate. It is not surprising, then, that weariness, doubt, and unfaithfulness are familiar companions to Christians.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Dec 2024
Most catechisms in Luther’s day began with the Creed, the Lord’s prayer and then the Ten Commandments. The Creed represented “mere faith” that was insufficient for salvation. Such faith needed to be formed by works of love into saving faith. Prayer, including the Lord’s prayer was a method to further this process.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Nov 2024
While the confirmation students are still working through the Ten Commandments, we are going to jump ahead to the Apostle’s Creed, as we continue to work our way through Luther’s Small Catechism. If the Commandments reveal we do not have life in ourselves, the Apostle Creed tells us where life comes from as God makes himself known to us, raising up the you who can say “I believe.”
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Oct 2024
Luther never had a problem with Christians doing good works or striving to keep God’s Commandments. He had a problem with our attempting to use our impotent efforts to keep the law as something we can use to justify ourselves.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Sept 2024
As we approach this year’s confirmation class, I'm reminded of Martin Luther’s enduring wisdom: we never outgrow our need to study the basics of our faith.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – August 2024
In the Northern Hemisphere it’s summer: a time of vacation, rest, and renewal, but not necessarily for all of us. The word is out. Americans take less time off and enjoy fewer days of vacation than any other industrialized nation in the West.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – June-July 2024
The thin layer of soil which surrounds the earth forms a bridge between life and death, food and famine, the present and the future. Wherever such issues are involved, God is sure to be there. This newsletter summaries four elements of that involvement.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – May 2024
Today just happens to be Earth Day, a day to “PRAISE GOD ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW.” This second line of the doxology professes the message of Psalm 96.
Continue readingPastor Dan Hermanson – Mar 2024
Simple familiar words spoken: “The body of Christ, given for you.” “The blood of Christ, shed for you.” In these small acts and few words, Christians return to the heart of our faith, joining ourselves together with every other believer, not just across the world, but in an age old continuity reaching back to Jesus himself.
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