20 24 1045 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ab42243744de7aa4f102bba6fe6b338b.mp3 13ef245f26e5f15100586c57c285823c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e8b3c3ff971664ecf669c672f4e3c0c0.pdf 19daf1656f938ab3ecd7e3fe8ed54474 PDF Text Text The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Pentecost XXI Scripture: Luke 19:45-20:8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 21, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon A Reading From the Present: The God of a Diverse People, Alan Wolfe: The war now going on between Americans and forces of Osama bin Laden is not between belief and non-belief. It is, instead, about two different ways of believing, only one of which allows for individual conscience and freedom. The refusal of the other to make that allowance is what makes terrorism against non-believers possible. We live in interesting times, to say the least, and the situation facing our world, human society, is complex, indeed. You can analyze it from a variety of angles. There are so many factors that play into the situation through which we are now living as a human family, and I certainly am not competent to analyze all of those or pull them apart and disentangle them. Economic factors, Middle East oil, the Gulf War, support for Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli-Arab conflict in the larger context, Cold War carryovers, political ideology, and of course, the religious factor. You can turn on your television any hour of the day and find talking heads trying to decipher what is going on from one angle or another, and you didn't come here this morning to hear my less than competent discussion about all of that, but there is one thing that I think as a faith community we must be clear about - it is that religious factor, because I do believe there is a religious war going on. Martin Luther said that you can be engaged with a whole lot of things across the whole spectrum of the Christian faith that you profess, but if you're not dealing with that issue where the battle rages, you are not being faithful to Christ. It seems to me in this present situation, the one thing that should be clarified is the nature of religion, its function, and how it holds the potential for the demonic, and that also, in the present situation with the vulnerability to which we are all exposed at this point, it is religion that can bring healing and meaning and some comfort. © Grand Valley State University �The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Richard A. Rhem Page 2 There are two kinds of religion and there is a religious war going on. That is what I want to seek to clarify or to address this morning - that religious war, two kinds of belief, two kinds of religious commitment. The one is the traditional, the traditional kind of religious experience that is the consequence of a sacred text and a sacred tradition and an institution, a community of people gathered around a certain set of beliefs, a certain set of practices, a certain set of requirements. This has been religion traditionally: some founding vision, some story taking shape, gathering a community, building a tradition. And religion is a very powerful force. The reason that it is a part of the situation of our world today is not that the issue is whether the world is going to become Islamic or Christian or Jewish. It is not a battle of the religions. But, it is a religious war about two kinds of religion. The respective religions are all vulnerable to either kind of religious faith and experience. The traditional is most common; it is what we take for granted. It is an institution, a community, it is a set of beliefs, and that which marks the one kind of religion is an authoritarianism that claims absolute truth and demands absolute obedience to its moral dictates and defines a way of life. That authoritarian aspect of religion is what has marked religion for the most part, because in religion we are dealing with ultimate questions. We're dealing with deep existential issues. We're wondering about the meaning of life. We ask questions about God, the immortality of the soul, the possibility of eternal life. We ask the deep philosophical questions - "Why is there something rather than nothing," and all of these questions which are the deepest questions, which are part and parcel of being human in those moments of deep reflection, and those moments when we are confronted with the mystery of life, and those moments when we receive the terminal diagnosis or a loved one is taken from us, or some crisis in the midst of our day disrupts the whole plan of our life. In moments like that, we inevitably ask these questions of the meaning, and there is no answer. There is no verifiable answer. There is no answer that can come at the end of a mathematical formula or no answer that can be mixed together in a chemistry lab. We deal with those ultimate mysteries, and to be human means to be in history and it means to live without absolutes, to live without answers. Now, twenty or twenty-five years ago, if I had heard a preacher say that, I probably would have gotten up and walked out. Just hold your seats. I'll try to be honest with you this morning. The things that you and I deal with together, the whole religious thing, deals with questions for which there are not verifiable answers. We simply don't know. The best we can do is follow our intuitions, probe our insights. But, you see, for the mass of humankind, that is an exercise too difficult, too trying, too heavy, and so what religion has been historically has been a vision that has made sense, that has resonated in the minds and hearts of people. A story has been written, the tradition has been formed, the community forms an institution that finally refines and defines itself with carefully crafted © Grand Valley State University �The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Richard A. Rhem Page 3 creeds and confessional statements, a clear word about moral and ethical issues, and, to the extent that the institution becomes powerful, the demand for submission to the intellectual statement and obedience to the moral way. Religion has been marked by authoritarianism. It is understandable because we deal with issues for which it is impossible to have clearly defined, verifiable answers. Now, we're in the stream of history. We move in the river of history. And we simply can't get out of the river and get up and survey the whole thing. There are people who have claimed precisely that. While they may not have claimed that they get out of the river, they have claimed that God has illumined them to the extent that what they have seen, what they understand becomes for them the word of God, and that word of God, to the extent that it can find resonance in others, becomes the founding vision, and then you have a religion. You have a story, a text, a tradition, and so forth. But, it is an authoritarian system because it is based on unverifiable claims. You believe it? Good. You don't believe it? Well, I may be able to write you out of the community, but I can't force you to believe it. You see it? Wonderful. You don't see it? You may be dull or obstinate or just a bit slow, but I can't do anything about that. This is the nature of religion and religious community. It has that authoritarian aspect, and it lives by people adhering to this vision, endorsing this vision, buying this vision, supporting this vision, believing its creeds, practicing its way of life. It s not all bad. In fact, it has been pretty good most of the time, for it has given people a sense of orientation. It has given them a vision by which to live, it has given them a map, and all of that. So, there's a positive aspect to that. But, I want you to see that it is based on an authoritarian claim and that goes for about 95% or maybe it is 98 and 44/100% of religion. Some religious groups push it hard, and some are soft around the edges. But finally, even those who are soft around the edges, if you say, "On what basis do you have this community, on what basis do you gather, on what basis will you preach?" They will say, "Well, we have this word from the Lord." And no matter how far the critical rationality has entered into the tradition, nonetheless, whether it be the Catholic Church with its infallible teaching office, or whether it be the Protestant Church with its infallible Bible, even an infallible Bible that has been examined critically, nonetheless, finally, still has an authoritarian claim, pushed either with great energy or rather apologetically. Do you see that? One kind of religion. That's one kind of religion. And it covers a huge spectrum of religion, but it finally makes its claim on having a word from God which is absolute. Now, there's another kind of religion. It's almost non-existent. It probably exists in those who are no longer a part of the church, in what Bishop Spong would call "The Church Alumni Association." It is a religious faith and experience that is grounded in one's own personal vision and personal conviction. © Grand Valley State University �The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Richard A. Rhem Page 4 It is, as I said a couple of weeks ago, not that one starts out with a blank slate. Of course, one is already, from the womb, shaped and nurtured. Nonetheless, this other kind of religion is not a tribute to a text, to a tradition, to an institution, an ultimate kind of authority. It is an authority that will be received conditionally, critically, on the basis of one's own struggle and wrestling with the issues and the questions in order to come to a place to stand which may very well be within a community, but a community that allows for diversity of opinion, a community that has no party line, a community that encourages conversation and discussion. That is a different kind of religion and it is almost non-existent in our world in terms of any institutional manifestation. Now, you might say to me, "Richard Rhem, you are an arrogant..., for you are calling in question the absolute authority of the Bible which is your storybook, the Christian Church and its tradition which is your people, your community. You are arrogant in that you are saying you will not believe what you cannot inwardly affirm in your own mind and heart, what you cannot be passionately engaged with," and I'll have to plead guilty. And I want to say it just that bluntly so that you don't miss it, because if there's one thing the pulpit is very good at, it is fudging so that everybody goes out thinking they heard what they wanted to hear. Well, you probably won't really want to hear what I am saying today because I am saying to you there is no authoritarian claim on you that should be greater than your own inward conviction, your own intellectual commitment, your own passionate involvement, that which has gone through the filters of your mind and your heart, giving you a place to stay. You may say, "Well, the Church has been around for two thousand years and what you are saying makes institutional existence questionable. Don't you worry about that?" Yes and no. It is true that what I am saying does not make for strong, vibrant institutions. But, what I am suggesting is not without precedent. Have you ever heard of Jesus? Have you ever heard of Jesus who came to Jerusalem and started overturning the furniture of the temple? Think about it now. The temple is the symbolic, geographical, concrete center of the Jewish nation. The temple with its sacrificial system, with its priesthood, with its worship - all of that, the very heart and center of the Jewish nation, and Jesus took it on. Jesus took it on because Jesus was convinced in his context and history, where he saw imperial Rome occupying a land in which the people were being driven off their land, driven into hopelessness, despair and poverty, saw the collaboration of the whole temple system, saw the temple system as putting everybody in its place, saw the temple system as having become so institutionally honed that it had lost its heart and soul and was disconnected from the actual human experience of the people for whom the temple was to exist. And Jesus took it on. Jesus had the audacity, Jesus had the arrogance to say, "This which is the very heart and center of this nation is wrong!" © Grand Valley State University �The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Richard A. Rhem Page 5 And his action was a prophetic action that spoke about the destruction of the very center of that nation. Thereby he was in good standing with the prophet Jeremiah, who said, "Say not the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Or, Isaiah, who said "You've made this temple of mine, this house which is to be a house of prayer for all people, into a den of thieves." But, Jesus, in his prophetic action was actually speaking about the destruction of that which was the center of the religious life of his people. Now, you can say, "Well, of course, he was the son of God. Who are you? The son of Effie.” And if you want to get away with it that way, if you want to say, "Well, Jesus could do that, but you can't do that, Dick Rhem," go ahead. But I want to suggest to you that the watershed of history which was fomented by Jesus was no more serious than the watershed through which we are walking, and what has happened is that traditionally conceived religious establishment has to be exposed for what it is, and its potential for the demonic, because finally, once again, one has to make one's choice. There is a great gulf fixed between those two kinds of religion, those two kinds of faith. Now, if you'd been on the Board of Trustees of the temple, what would you have done? You are a responsible person, you love the tradition, you love your neighbor, you love your people, you love the temple, you love the priesthood, you love the smell of incense, and now this itinerant preacher, this prophet comes to town and throws all the furniture around, what are you going to do? You're going to call a meeting, of course. And you're going to begin to strategize because you are good people, reasonable people, respectable people, you have risen to the top of your community. You're a member of the Sanhedrin, perhaps, or a member of the priesthood, or whatever, and you begin to say, "What are we going to do?" Because what this man has said, what this man has done undercuts the possibility of a future for this institution as it is, and so you begin to figure the inevitable. What they were doing was not wrong. They had scripture for every practice of the temple that Jesus challenged. They had long, historical tradition for all of the practices that were still taking place. They were the authentic embodiment of that whole Hebrew faith and, being responsible people, they had to figure out how to react. So, what is the question? Well, the question is the question we have been talking about this morning. They came to Jesus and said, "By what authority do you do this?" They knew they were in trouble. The people were hanging on his words. You see, the people outside the institution always know first, because it makes sense to them. People out there all over the world outside of the churches know that the institution's claim of authority is only as strong as it is compelling to those who hear its message; there is no possibility to verify what is claimed. And so, they will put Jesus on the spot - by what authority do you call in question the very heart and center of our tradition? © Grand Valley State University �The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Richard A. Rhem Page 6 Responding with a question of his own, Jesus asks them about John the Baptist, a recent prophet who also ruffled official feathers, "Was John's authority from heaven or from men?" Now the temple authorities were on the spot because if they answered that John's preaching was from God, Jesus would counter, "Then why did you not believe him?" But, if they accorded him only human authority, the people would stone them because in the eyes of the people, John was a prophet from God. They are stuck; they cannot answer without betraying themselves. They simply decline to answer. And Jesus declines to answer, as well. Why do you think he was not going to tell them? Was he playing a little cat and mouse game? Was this just one-upmanship? I don't think so. I think Jesus was simply saying, "Look, this is a matter of authority and you either see it or you don't. You want to know my authority? You either feel it or you don't. Do you think I want to say this has nothing to do with God? You're crazy. Obviously, this is the word of God. This is the word of God filtered through me. My whole life is hinged on this vision, this passionate commitment. But, can I verify that? Can I prove that? Of course, I can't. Either you see it or you don't. Either you understand it or you don't. Either the Spirit of God causes lights to go on and bells to ring, or you can just sit there and stew and get angry, and there's not a thing I can do about it." You see, there are two kinds of religion, and I hope this present moment of history will help us to see that, for all the potential good that religion traditionally conceived has done, it also has that awful potential for the demonic, for someone with charisma to say, "God said," and pound the book, point to the tradition, show the temple in all its glory and cause people en masse to come mindlessly on to execute the wrath of God according to me. That's been the story. It is the story, and the only religion that has the possibility of giving a human future is that weak religion which is the word of God according to me, and you, and you, and us together as we wrestle together, struggle together, think together, open our hearts and minds together, and move together into a humane future. There's a religious war going on, friends and, if you would believe what I said today and join me, you would be in an extreme minority position, but then, just think what a pinch of salt or a bit of yeast can do. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XX Scripture Text Luke 19:45-20:8 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20011021 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-10-21 Title A name given to the resource The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 21, 2001 entitled "The Religious War: Where the Battle Rages", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 19:45-20:8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5eb9b0fa7c6ba8002a49326269a86b41.mp3 fb4bbb3ec677e23fa0e3aea37482623d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f8d685736345e2b2db97ceb7e421de8d.pdf 97e1274374ec94db2d53740ee7be3dae PDF Text Text Who Needs a Good-For-Nothing Church? Pentecost XX Mark 2:13-17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 14, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon In an article in The New York Times Magazine of last week, Andrew Sullivan, an excellent writer, makes a point of the fact that it is fine that we have been cautioned against targeting Islam as a religion responsible for what has happened in the world, and that is laudable, he says. But he writes, “The only problem with this otherwise laudable effort is that it doesn't hold up under inspection. The religious dimension of the conflict is central to its meaning. The words of Osama bin Laden are saturated with religious argument and theological language. Whatever the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is, it is fanatically religious." He goes on to say, "In that sense, this surely is a religious war, but not of Islam versus Christianity and Judaism. Rather, it is a war of fundamentalism against faiths of all kinds that are at peace with freedom and modernity. This war even has far gentler versions in America's own religious conflicts between newer, more virulent strands of Christian fundamentalism and mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism. These conflicts have ancient roots, but they seem to be gaining new force as modernity spreads and deepens. They are our new wars of religion and their victims are, in all likelihood, going to mount with each passing year." And one more sentence from Sullivan: "It seems almost as if there is something inherent in religious monotheism that lends itself to this kind of terrorist temptation, and our bland attempts to ignore this, to speak of this violence as if it did not have religious roots, is some kind of denial. We don't want to denigrate religions as such, and so we deny that religion is at the heart of this. But we would understand this conflict better, perhaps, if we first acknowledge that religion is responsible in some way, and then figure how and why." This is a religious war, and religion is at the heart of it, and until we understand that, our world will continue reeling from one disaster to another, for religion gives people a sense of identity and it creates community, and we learn from such scholars as Karen Armstrong and others who have analyzed the present situation that in a world that is disoriented, full of confusion for so many people who have © Grand Valley State University   �Who Needs a Good-for-Nothing Church? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   their old ways disrupted and who have moved off their lands, there is a tremendous appeal by a fundamentalist-type faith that has an absolute faith structure. It has a sacred text that is infallible, and it has a way of life to which absolute obedience is demanded. This has a certain allure, and it has worked in our world and in our day to an amazing extent so that what we have is not the problem of Islam, per se, but we have the problem of fundamentalists religion that purports to have absolute truth and demands absolute obedience. It denies the function of reason, the mind, and the intellect, and it denies human freedom and the possibility of a maturing of the human being. That is the struggle today, and that was the struggle in the time of Jesus. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus never intended to start a new religion. Everything that Jesus was and taught was in the compass of his Judaism, and yet, what he counseled and how he acted and what he embodied contradicted some of the things that were intrinsic in his Jewish faith. The insights that he had, the way of life that he lived, eventuated in another world religion because the old containers couldn't hold it, and so while it was not his intention to move from his own native Judaism and be the founder of a Christian church, what he saw was so dynamic, was so electric, was so powerful that it shattered the forms and structures of that old covenant faith. And that is where we are today. That is precisely where we are today. There is a continuum from Osama bin Laden and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and at the other softer end, mainline Protestantism and Catholicism. There is no radical division between the most bland and placid Protestantism in this country and the extreme of Falwell and the terrorism of bin Laden. Any point along that continuum that you stop is an arbitrary stopping place. The problem is religion. The problem is absolutistic religion that denies critical thinking and hinders the maturing of the human personality into one that can make critical judgments and find the way to celebrate life in this world in all of the light of the knowledge that we have of the emerging, evolving drama of the cosmos of which we are a part. As Andrew Sullivan says, we don't want to denigrate religion, and we don't want to target a particular religion, and so we dance around the issue. But, I want to tell you, and we have acknowledged that here for some time past, religion is powerful. Religion is dangerous. Religion is volatile. It becomes an instrument in the hand of the unscrupulous or the unaware for the creation of hell on earth. Who needs a good for nothing church? That is, a church that has no axe to grind, a church that has no institutional ulterior motives, a church that is committed not to the binding down of the soul and the hindering of the maturing of the individual, but a church, a congregation, a community of faith that would seek to lead its people into human maturity, that refuses to promise a comfort it cannot deliver, and refuses to claim that it has the absolute word of God which it does not, apart from some human understanding and interpretation. Who needs that kind of church? © Grand Valley State University �Who Needs a Good-for-Nothing Church? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   By God, the world needs that kind of church. And until the world finds that kind of church, religion will continue to be a dangerous and disruptive and hellcreating power on earth. It is time we call a spade a spade and recognize the volatility of religion and its demonic potential, and recognize that until we get honest and acknowledge our humanity, the limitedness and the tentativeness and the provisionalness of being human, of the fact that to be human is to be in history, to be in history is to be denied absolutes, to be in history is a call to compassion, to walk together and to find our way together into a better future marked by peace. Jesus shattered the structures of Judaism, not because he took off against his covenant faith, but because what he saw, what he experienced, what he could not and would not deny was so electric and so full of dynamite that he transformed the face of the earth. And we're there again. Who needs a good for nothing church? The world does, by God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Harvest Festival, Pentecost XIX Scripture Text Mark 2:13-17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20011014 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-10-14 Title A name given to the resource Who Needs a Good-For-Nothing Church? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 14, 2001 entitled "Who Needs a Good-For-Nothing Church?", on the occasion of Harvest Festival, Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 2:13-17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d51e4f2b4b153f47a488060c8f8329ee.mp3 684b504445396bca339aeb3faa2b8b4d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/394081598d41757cb00f28d74032dacf.pdf 81d3858856c86603e4df8f927dc28a52 PDF Text Text This is the Time and This is the Place Pentecost XIX Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16; 43-48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan October 7, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon From a textbook that we are using on Wednesday evenings in our class, Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of the World Order, I read this paragraph, Every civilization sees itself as the center of the world and writes its history as the central drama of human history. This has been perhaps even more true of the West than of other cultures. Such mono-civilizational viewpoints, however, have decreasing relevance and usefulness in a multicivilizational world. Scholars of civilizations have long recognized this truism. In 1918, Spangler denounced the myopic view of history prevailing in the West with its neat division into ancient, medieval and modern phases relevant only to the West. It is necessary, he said, to replace this Ptolemaic approach to history with a Copernican one, and to substitute for the empty figment of one linear history the drama of a number of mighty cultures. A few decades later, Toynbee castigated the parochialism and impertinence of the West manifested in the egocentric illusions that the world revolved around it, that there was an unchanging East and that progress was inevitable. The illusions and prejudices of which these scholars warn, however, live on, and in the late twentieth century have blossomed forth into the widespread and parochial conceit that the European civilization of the West is now the universal civilization of the world. And, at the bottom of that page which concludes chapter two, I penned, "And then September 11,2001." I wonder, as I am sure you do as well, whether or not the tragedy of September 11 will significantly alter our human consciousness, whether the revelation of our vulnerability will affect the way we live, think, worship, believe. I wonder if there is a dawning consciousness that will enable us to recognize the illusions, the © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 2 myths with which we live, about the centrality of our own perspective and point of view, whether or not some progress in the human story may be possible because finally the dullness of our spirits has been penetrated. When I read the paragraph from Samuel P. Huntington that I cited just a moment ago, what leapt off the page at me was his suggestion that the historians need to experience a Copernican revolution, shorthand for a total restructuring of thought and understanding. Copernicus, you will remember, was a bishop of the Church who, in the 16th, maybe 15* century, through some primitive calculations determined that the earth was not the center of the universe, but rather circled around the sun. That was revolutionary thinking, and somehow or other Copernicus kept it under cover. But his disciple, Galileo, did further calculations and with a primitive instrument established beyond a shadow of a doubt that, indeed, Copernicus was right, the earth was not the center of the universe. The earth orbited the sun, as did several other planets, and we were a middlin' star in this universe that was visible, accessible at that time. Well, of course, the moment that was proclaimed, it not only demoted the earth from its central place and humanity from its center place before the face of God, but it also was contrary to the scriptures that spoke in poetic fashion, to be sure, but of the earth as the center. And so, you know the story. Galileo was put on trial, his life was threatened, except if he recant, which he did mumbling, we're told, under his breath, “but it's still true,” put under house arrest. But, in the good time and the good grace of the Church, of course, as is always true of the Church, the Church comes around. It took only from the 16th century until 1991, December 28, when the Vatican said Galileo was right. But, what struck me was Huntington's use of that Copernican revolution as an analogy for what has to happen in our understanding of history, and he quotes Spangler in his great work, The Decline of the West (1918), Spangler saying that is what we need in our thinking about history. We need a Copernican revolution. He cites Toynbee, the great scholar of civilization, talking about our parochialism. And then Samuel Huntington concludes the chapter by saying, "These scholars have been talking this way for a long time, but still our illusions and our myths live on. Well, Huntington published in 1996, and I read the book at the end of 1999. I even preached on The Clash of Civilizations and the healing of the nations under the theme, "A Millennial Vision," January 23, 2000. I thought it was important, and I thought it was important enough to bring to your attention. But I have to admit, after September 11, it's like the whole thing comes alive in a new dimension, and suddenly I read Spangler's statement about the need of a Copernican revolution and I read Huntington's saying the illusions and the myths just seem to go on in spite of the fact that there are intelligent voices saying otherwise, and then I switch from the dullness of the historian to the even greater dullness of the religionist. © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 3 This morning I am not interested in dealing with that with which Huntington deals, that is, the new historical perspective after the Cold War of the civilizational groupings that make up our reality. I simply begin there to see how interesting it is to take an analogy from the fields of the sciences and apply it to history, and I want to apply it to religion, because I want to say to you this morning that, in the light of September 11, it is absolutely imperative that those who are observant religious people around the world come to a deeper and new appreciation of the nature of religion, and the fact that, just as we write history from our own point of view, so we write our religion from our own point of view, as do the respective religions of the world, all seeing themselves in the center as the holder of the truth. Within the Eastern faiths it is not so serious, because they're happy to invite another point of view because they are not exclusive. But, particularly within Christianity and to a certain extent Islam, it is written into the very charter of what our story tells us, that our Christian faith, for example, is true, absolutely true, exclusively true, and the missionary mandate of the Christian Church is to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and the whole structure and biblical scheme is that, when Christ has been brought to the whole world, the end will come. That is part and parcel of the very heart of our understanding as Christian people. Now in this congregation we have moved off from that exclusivism. We have moved from exclusivism to a posture of pluralism. We have come to recognize that the great religious traditions are traditions that, along with our tradition, are recipients of the truth of God, the revelation of God, and the experiences of the grace of God. We have made that move, which is no small move, and which came with no little wrenching and at considerable cost. But we at Christ Community Church affirm that, while Jesus is our window to God, others have other windows which are also valid for the experience of communion with God and the experience of the grace of God. I find that it is rather easy to sit back and relax and pat ourselves on the back and say, "You know, what a sophisticated and enlightened people we are. Now we can just get on with our lives." I want to say after September 11, we have to recognize how imperative it is that that posture that we have been invited into be witnessed to and offered and, if need be, defended. I want us to realize this morning, in the light of September 11, that, if it was necessary at one point for those who studied astronomy to go through a mind-wrenching revolution, if it is necessary for those who study history to get released from their parochialism and their myopic vision, then, dear friends, how much more it is for the religious people of the world to open their minds to the threat and the danger of exclusivism and absolutism, and to recognize that our religious experience is the source of that spiritual insight and comfort for us, but it is our story, a valid story, but not the only story. © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 4 You might think that September 11 would change the picture, but I have a letter here from Pat Robertson. "Dear Richard Rhem." (They're good. If I get on his list, everybody's on his list. The only mistake he made is Christ Community Reformed Church. That figures.) But, it's a letter that talks about the crisis at present and you know how Falwell and Robertson backed off from their insensitive remarks immediately after the crisis. But I'll tell you what - they've not changed their mind one whit. "Throughout our history our true protection has not come from armed forces, our police, our intelligence. Our protection has been the covering hand of a gracious God. Modern day America has repudiated that," and so on and so forth. "Has our conduct caused a loving God to lift his hand of protection from us, and if it has, what can His people do?" Well, of course, there are kits and books and all kinds of things, and a contribution request. Yesterday's Grand Rapids Press, on the same page in which there was a little story about Bishop Spong's visit here, and a little synopsis of his calling us to maturity and to grow up and to recognize that that cozy, parental God does not exist, there is an advertisement for the fall conference of the Seventh Reformed Church, and it is entitled, "The Other Side of the Good News: The Challenge of Universalism," and Friday night you could hear a survey of contemporary universalisms. We might come in for mention. Saturday morning early, a defense of the doctrine of everlasting punishment. Now, how would you like to be in the position of creating the defense for the doctrine of eternal damnation? I mention that only because I want you to know that September 11, in many cases, hasn't changed anything. There is still that very conservative and orthodox and fundamentalist element within the Christian Church that is pushing exclusivism, Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and the condemnation of all those who share another point of view. The Seventh Reformed Church, you may remember, was pastored by my dear friend, John Richard deWitt, whose recent letter to me closed by saying, "I love you very much." Now, that, too, is a mystery. But here we are at opposite ends, opposite poles, and yet at Duba's table we were able, Tuesday after Tuesday, to carry on wonderful civil dialogue, and if you think it was good before, can you imagine what Duba's is about after September 11? Now the group has been reconstituted because Dick is in South Carolina, Duncan is still there, who celebrated with Nancy on Thursday his 89th birthday. Lester DeKoster is still there, in his mid-80s, hale and hearty. But, we've added a little support on my side. I brought Howard VanTill to the table, so we have an enlightened scientist. And my dear friend, Bud Ridder, of many, many years. And Clarence Boomsma, a respected and sensitive and intelligent pastor of the Christian Reformed Church for many years. I run with these guys in their 80s, it makes me feel young. Last Tuesday I think it was Howard who said something about revelation just doesn't fall out of heaven so that you have a book, and my dear friend Lester said, "That's exactly what you have. If you don't have that, you don't have anything." © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 5 Now, Lester has a philosophically trained mind of brilliant capacity with a debater's skills. Of course, he was not only debating, but baiting a bit. So, when asked, "All right, I have the absolute word of God, divinely inspired in every word, and my Muslim brother has the Koran, claiming even a higher level of inspiration for his book, what do we have here? An impasse?" Lester said, "No, it depends on who was the author." "Well, who was the author of this book?" (The Bible) "The eternal God." "Who was the author of this book?" (The Koran) "Satan." Now, Lester with his lovely wife Ruth, will be listening to this sermon. They have Christ Community preaching for breakfast on Tuesday morning, so that he can always make some relative comment on Tuesday noon, and of course, with his incisive thinking and his acuity, he is always right on. He knows exactly where I have deviated from the faith. Lester knew what he was doing. He was setting us up. If you hold that this (the Bible) is the word of God, every word, then every other book has to be a false book. It has to be the witness of a lie. So, Lester proceeded, "If you don't have that, what do you have?" And I was so delighted with my friend, Bud Ridder, who swallowed hard, pushing away every inclination and every instruction and every bit of knowledge he had in his whole life, saying, "My authority is in myself." Of course, that's exactly what Lester was trying to point out. When you give up the authority of the book or, if you were a Roman Catholic, the authority of the Church, or if you were in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the authority of the tradition, then you are out at sea. Then you are your own authority. And you can go across the spectrum of the Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox churches today and you will find, when you press the issue, that there will be fudging all along the line. But, at Duba's table, one never gets away with fudging. And so, my friend, Bud Ridder, had to say, "I am my own authority," and I cheered. Because that's precisely where we are. We have made the move into pluralism, dear friends. But, I want to take you a cut below that. Not only have we become pluralists because well, nice folks like us, after all, should be pluralists. We're nice people. We like to get along with other people. Who wants to say to somebody else, "You're lost," or "You're damned," or "You're on the wrong track?" We're decent people, civil and good neighbors. We're just plain congenial folks. Shouldn't we be pluralists? No. It's not enough. We ought to be pluralists on the basis of our deepest insight and that insight is this - that finally we are the creators of our own vision and our own place to stand. © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 6 Now, don't hear me say that you begin life with a virgin mind and a blank tablet and you start creating this thing from scratch. Of course not. Grace Elizabeth and Allie, who were baptized today, are immersed in a story. They are surrounded with the love of those who tell the story. They are part of the community of faith, a particular tradition whose window on God is that beautiful face of Jesus. They are being shaped and, beyond that, they have a storybook in which they are being nurtured in this community and in their homes. And beyond that, they are growing into a world of experience, a fascinating world of expanding experience and broadening horizons. And so, from a tradition, from a sacred story, from a family and a community, and in the gaining of experience, finally they make up their mind through the use of their mind, through critical rationality, which is the particular gift and fruit of the Western tradition. That is the thing that is being terrorized today. That is the greatest threat to us, to lose our gift and our capacity to think with our minds and make up our minds and sift the evidence and the experience before us with our critical rationality. So, it is not as though everyone is on his or her own, starting out fresh and having to come to some kind of major conclusions, no. We are shaped, we are guided, we are nurtured. Finally, in the end, it is not this book. It is not the authority of Mother Church. It is not 2000 years of tradition. It is not the word of some pastor or counselor. Finally, until you can stand on your own and say, "This I believe, for these reasons, in light of this experience," until you come to that point, you have not crossed the Rubicon. Crossing the Rubicon is a matter of determining the source of authority. Once you cross the Rubicon, you are free to think. You are free to think about religion; you are free to think about theological questions; you are free to think about social, ethical issues. You are able to take the witness of science over against the question of sexual orientation. You are able to carry on a conversation about the question of abortion. You are able to discuss Planned Parenthood. You are able to think about all of those issues that are right at the nub of our present existential situation. You are free; you are free to think. You can gather the data. You can get the best information possible. You could become aware of your own biases and prejudices. You can lay it all on the table, and then you can make up your mind and you can be committed and dedicated to a point of view which you cannot do when you say, "Therefore, I have absolute truth. Therefore, my religious understanding is synonymous with the truth. Therefore, my decision on social, ethical questions is the only possibility for a thinking religious and pious person." What I am saying to you, I am saying as clearly and simply as I can, and I want you to know it is a very radical point of view. Last Sunday evening, after a very busy and significant weekend, Christine Spong called and said, "Dick, Jack and I are tired. We would like simply to come over and sit on the bluff with you and Nancy and watch the sunset and eat leftovers." And we did. Jack Spong had been exposed to you in large assembly and various © Grand Valley State University �This is the Time and This is the Place Richard A. Rhem Page 7 small groups, he met with the Trustees, encountered many of you one-on-one, and immediately sitting down, he said, "Dick, I want you to know that Christ Community is a very special place. I want you to know that in all of my world travels, in all of my involvement with the church, out of all of my experience over the years, what you have there is rare. That community of people is rare. Theologically, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally mature." And he said, "You know, I'm a disincarnate bishop at this point, and I need concrete laboratories. I see Christ Community as a place that has the possibility because of where it has come to move into the next phase of what the religious community must be." He even offered to come back and be with us for a month and help us, suggested that we gather some other similar people, maybe bring in a Muslim imam, a Buddhist monk. Let us begin to live concretely what we say we believe, bringing our gift to the table and learning, as well, from the wisdom and the insight of others. My sermon title is "This is the Time and This is the Place." Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." Light doesn't go out and wage warfare, but light is what it is, and it illumines. He said, "You are the salt of the earth." The whole world doesn't need to be a salt block, but the world needs the light sprinkling of salt in order that it may bring forth all of its richness and flavor. Jesus said, "Love your enemies. Be like God. The sun shines on the good and the evil. The rain falls on the gardens of all people. You be like that." The word in the old, traditional translation is "Be ye perfect, as God is perfect," but that too easily takes on a moralistic tone. The word really in the Greek original means complete, whole, fulfilling its purpose and its end. Be therefore mature, complete, as God is mature and complete. I don't know the implications of what it means to move into the next form of existence of the Church. But, I do know that we have made a significant move. We know why we have made it, and a thoughtful analysis and critical understanding will demonstrate that the only authority, finally, is the conviction of our own faith and our own vision which we share in community and support one another. I don't know the implications of this, but I know this -I have time and I have the energy, if you are willing to find out the next orbit. This is the time, folks, and this is the place. References: Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of the World Order. Touchstone, 1997. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XVIII Scripture Text Matthew 5:13-16, 43-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of the World Order. Touchstone, 1997. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20011007 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-10-07 Title A name given to the resource This Is the Time and This Is the Place Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 7, 2001 entitled "This Is the Time and This Is the Place", on the occasion of Pentecost XVIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 5:13-16, 43-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Exclusivism Nature of Religion Pentecost Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7e5639d4dc0828d98ba8d256e7261c0b.mp3 1599aac6f3e77fe5cf41cf530ce136fc https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c5726a1267dde26127011397078ac73e.pdf 368617780d8ff32c1711d5452b16e063 PDF Text Text Religion: Its Use and Abuse Pentecost XVII Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 25:31-46 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 23, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon An area in my own life where there has been a great transformation of understanding has been in the area of religion. I began by worrying that religion might not be around long enough for me to fulfill my career. But then I realized that was just a narrow little idea of religion that I had within severe parochial limits. More and more, I came to see that religion was something that was endemic in the human person, that it is a universal human phenomenon, that it is simply that response that we make with our consciousness to the mystery of our existence, to the fragility of our existence, our vulnerability, the response that we make to the mystery that is our source and our ground. Religion deals with meaning and ultimate questions, and I became aware of the fact that it was a universal phenomena and that it would always be here as long as humans are humans. As I came to realize that, I came to see that the respective religions were really human, imaginative constructs, a founding vision, a ritual and a cult that formed a community, and that the respective religions were really all fingers pointing beyond themselves to that ultimate mystery that is ineffable, incomprehensible, beyond our capacity to analyze or to define. It was a liberating moment for me when I could say my own religion is an authentic response to God or to the sacred or to the holy. For me, the window is Jesus and the way of Jesus is the way of life. But, a little over a year ago, that gracious and gentle scholarly presence of Huston Smith embodied in our midst that kind of breadth of understanding and experience that witnessed to the fact that all of the great religious traditions really were speaking of a presence of that which is holy and of that which is sacred, leading to a particular response of life. In your insert, there is a citation from Huston Smith's book, Beyond the PostModem Mind, in which he speaks of sitting with the Dali Lama and Thomas Merton and a Native American and two or three others of other traditions, all of which he has entered, having experienced exactly the same thing, and then his comment, "How could God possibly (as once I thought, and I suppose as once he thought), how could God possibly have waited for thousands of years to reveal © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Its Use and Abuse Richard A. Rhem Page 2 God's self, leaving generation after generation in hopelessness and darkness, and finally to a little rivulet of humanity reveal the truth? Would that not," he says, "be contrary to the very nature of God, that nature of goodness and mercy that we believe constitutes God's nature?" This is old hat for you, I know, but I am simply reminding you of the way that we have come. We come here to respect the respective religious traditions, and to realize that we also point beyond our particular structures and our particular confessional statements to that one who transcends all of our particular religions, which are simply the structures and the forms by which we give expression to that deep yearning within to be in touch with God, with the holy one, with that which is sacred. As I have come to see the nature of religion more and more in its universality, I also have come to see its power, tremendous power. Religion is one of the most powerful forces on earth, and I began to realize that it was a power for good or for ill, that religion could be used or it could be abused. That is what I want to have you think with me for a few moments about this morning - the use and the abuse of that which is common to us here in a community of faith, our religion and religion in general. Let me begin with the abuse of religion. I am doing this, of course, in light of the present circumstances and that which we have gone through so recently, where religion has played a part and has drawn forth all kinds of commentary from religious leaders. I want to say the first abuse of religion is the use of God as an agent of manipulation and control of people, an idea of God as a God in control who sits in the circle of the heavens and now and again intervenes, zapping this one or that one. I mentioned last week my dismay at the insensitivity and inappropriateness of Jerry Falwell's comments about those who were partially responsible for our tragedy - Civil Libertarians, the feminists, gay and lesbian people, those who are pro-abortion, that God has judged America and that this attack is part of the judgment of God because of our moral decay. Oh, to be sure, in this past week he has apologized, recognizing the inappropriateness of it, but he did say that the secular press and media failed to understand his "theologically nuanced" statement. Well, it is his theologically nuanced statement which I would protest. It is that conception of a God that has died, if we think critically about it at all, that kind of a God is a God that is used by religious leaders and religious institutions to manipulate people, to threaten people, and to control people, because that is a God of control and those religious leaders who have been speaking out recently amaze me at the confidence with which they purport to know the mind of God and what God is doing. If Falwell backed off, James Dobson of "Focus on the Family" did not. He said very clearly without retort, This is God's punishment on this nation for its moral decay, for taking God out of the schools, for forcing children to learn of © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Its Use and Abuse Richard A. Rhem Page 3 homosexuality, for sexual immorality in government," and so forth, on television. The punishment of this nation because of its moral decay. I want you to think for just a moment about what kind of a God that is. That is a God who sits up and contemplates the world and who looks at the United States of America and says, "You know, things have gone just about far enough. I think it's time to zap them." And so, the punishment of the nation because of moral decay. But, if you think about it a little further, couldn't God have targeted the victims a little better? I mean, if God is God, then why do the innocent suffer? If God is God, and allpowerful and manipulative and in control, then couldn't God aim the thunderbolts? Tell that story to the widows and the orphans and the parents who have lost children. Tell that story to those firemen who have lost their comrades. What kind of a God would that be? A capricious monster, if you think about it long enough and critically enough. That God in control, that God has got to go. That God has died, as a matter of fact. In the National Cathedral service last week, there was dear Billy Graham. His presence there would have been enough, just to have been there. I don't know of anyone in the religious field who has achieved such fame and who has earned it with a greater dignity and humility than Billy Graham. I think the world of him. But, in his attempt to speak to this situation, didn't you feel for him? The stumbling and the confusion about how God in control can allow things like this to happen and yet, wanting to say, God is merciful and God is kind and God is good. You see, it just doesn't make sense. You just can't fit it together. Or, those who say there is evil in the world but that is because God created human freedom, but God will bring good out of evil. Well, if God can bring good out of evil, in other words, if God can call the final shot, then wouldn't it be merciful if God could call the shot a bit earlier? Then should we have to go through these tens of hundreds of thousands of years of human suffering and tragedy and darkness in order that eventually some good could come out of evil? Now, it is time we simply call a spade a spade and recognize that that conception of God makes no reasonable sense, and you can claim mystery all you want to, but it is mystery fraught with tragedy and human horror, and really, it won't work, particularly if you are at the end of the suffering as its victim. God in control? You can't have it both ways, friends. Either God has turned human history over to us and put it in our hands so that we possibly might be able to bring good out of evil, but not God "up there" contemplating what to do next. That mean, capricious, and small deity has no place in the Christian Church or community. It is an abuse of religion. Falwell, Robertson, James Dobson - they are not alone. In an article yesterday in the Grand Rapids Press, the President of the Southern Baptist Church was reported to have said that this is Satan's handiwork and that this certainly shows once again that the only hope is to bring people to God through Jesus Christ alone. What has that got to do with it, I wonder? And if, somehow, finally we are © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Its Use and Abuse Richard A. Rhem Page 4 all encouraged to bring our neighbors to the knowledge of the son of God, what has that got to do with it, really? Don't we know that that conception of God creates such horrible problems that we ought, rather, to be ashamed of speaking about that kind of God in control. That is a petty and capricious deity that will no longer work for us who have some knowledge of our world, some understanding of the development of human history, some sense of the nature of the human being in human society. We don't have to call in a savior nor God. This is a human problem; it is our problem, and to use God that way is an abuse of religion. As a corollary to that, to use God to fuel, to use religion to fuel human passion leading to violence, is an abuse of religion. I made the mistake of walking into the bedroom last night while Nancy was watching A & E Biography, bin Laden's story. Perhaps you saw it. A fascinating tale of one who in the varied life experiences finally came to a deep religious commitment which has now spawned all kinds of violence, wanting to drive out the West from those holy lands of Islam, and being the agent to recruit and to propel so many who have nothing to lose into this kind of violent action whose reward is heaven. But, it is not a problem of Islam, for if we go to Orthodox Judaism, there are Rabbis in Jerusalem that were teaching such that a young man one day took a gun to Prime Minister Rabin and there was a Jewish settler who entered the mosque in Hebron and opened fire on Muslims at prayer. And don't we really know, don't Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson know that, while they would separate themselves from violence and they would abhor violence, don't they know that when a religious leader uses a certain rhetoric and a certain tone with a certain passion, that those who receive it uncritically will be fueled into violence? Don't we know that, within our own Protestant Christian Right, there have been those who have been propelled into killing abortion clinic doctors and bombing Planned Parenthood units, and terrible hate crimes? Matthew Shepherd's name comes to mind. Don't we realize, dear friends, that religion is thereby abused when a manipulative and mean God who controls is used to fuel the passions of those who in turn are driven to violence that create the hell on earth that we have experienced so recently? It is an abuse of religion and it is time the word is spoken and that the issue is joined. If that is its abuse, then what is its use? Let me say maybe radically, maybe to your surprise, maybe to your objection, let me say that religion is not to make us right. It is to make us good. Religion is not to make us right. It is to make us good. Read Karen Armstrong's comments in your insert this afternoon where she speaks about mythos and logos, for in her study of fundamentalism, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim, she comes back again and again to the fact that what the © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Its Use and Abuse Richard A. Rhem Page 5 fundamentalists do is to make religion a matter of logos rather than mythos. To make it a matter of logos is to make it literally true, historically true in every detail, and in its confessional statements and its dogmas to be literally true, to use human reason and intelligence, to structure an image of God, a conception of God, a conception of religious faith, and to demand that that is true and there is no other truth, that is logos. Logos is our human reason, it is our intelligence. It is what we use if we want to know about the possibility of stem cells. It is what we use if we want to know about the treatment of disease or a heart transplant. It is what we use if we want to know how best to grow our crops on the agricultural scene. Our human logos is how we fly airplanes and study the stars. The logos is how we live. It is the empirical method of investigation. Logos is wonderful; it is a great human gift, but logos is not the source or the determinant of religion. Religions are not in that sense true or false. They are mythos. They have to do with stories that convey meaning, that speak about the values and the meaning of life. Religion is not true or false. Is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony true? Are Van Gogh's Sunflowers true? Is Michelangelo's David true? Of course not But, as human beings with consciousness and intuitive sense and esthetic appreciation, we stand there and know we are in the presence of greatness; it is not a matter of whether it is true or false. That is the wrong question. It is whether or not there is value communicated. And so, our religious experience is not that which is a consequence of rational investigation and the building of dogmas and doctrines and structures. It is the experience, the intuitive sense of that sacredness and that holiness that now and again, here and there, overwhelms us. When we love one another, when there is a creative interchange between human beings, there God is. John says God is love and the one who dwells in love dwells in God and God dwells in that one. Where there is eye-to-eye contact and understanding, where soul meets soul, or when one stands in wonder before the starry heavens or the magnificence of a sunset, where one sees a child, where one hugs a lover, there God is. Religion is not to make us right. I could really get excited and a bit upset about all of the division and all of the exclusion, all of those truth claims and those condemnations of other visions and understandings: what a silly thing it is and what a costly thing it is, and how wrong it is. It has nothing to do with good religion which is to speak to us of meaning, of beauty, of wonder and of love, and that’s why we need this community. That is why we need each other. That is why we need to keep hugging each other and supporting each other and being kind, one to another. Isaiah said, "All you religious, you're so religious, I can't stand you. But God says that's not the fast I want. Be kind. Be compassionate. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless." And Jesus who said it's as simple as doing good to the one who crosses your path. That is the use of religion. That is the © Grand Valley State University �Religion: Its Use and Abuse Richard A. Rhem Page 6 purpose of the faith community, to motivate us, inspire us, and move us to be good, to be good for God's sake, and to find comfort that there is, at the core of things, that which is meaningful and good. Henry Nelson Wieman, a great theologian of a former generation, speaking about the idea of God, told the story of his little daughter. When she was little and she would fall down and skin her knee, he would pick her up in his arms. She'd be crying away, and he'd say, "Well, well, well." And he did it time after time, comforting her, soothing her. One day she fell down and skinned her knee and she was crying and he picked her up, but he didn't say anything. She stopped crying immediately and said, "Say, 'Well, well, well.'" Did you feel it? Isn't that what it is? Isn't it that kind of emotional undergirding, isn't it that deep, deep assurance when the bottom falls out and the roof caves in, that there still is that sacred and the holy that comes through to us as to a little child, comforting, "Well, well, well." That is why we say, “ All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.” Not in the denial of the darkness, but in the face of the sacred that is love experienced as we love one another. References: Karen Armstrong. A History of God. The Random House Publishing Group, 1993. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XVI Scripture Text Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 25:31-46 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Karen Armstrong. A History of God. Random House Publishing Group, 1993. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010923 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-09-23 Title A name given to the resource Religion: Its Use and Abuse Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 23, 2001 entitled "Religion: Its Use and Abuse", on the occasion of Pentecost XVI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 25:31-46. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Nature of Religion PostModern https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4fd1af0029a540177eab5147df4fdfdc.mp3 0ef7fb8819cb54b7acf7df98094910f3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1ce834ef0a96085368bd7d4f3c563bfb.pdf c63925665e3f00b70f05ff28ce113808 PDF Text Text Don’t Do It For God’s Sake A Response to 9-11 Jeremiah 29:4-13; Ephesians 3:14-21 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 16, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. W. H. Auden I am aware that this week, while I was away, good things were happening in this community. I always tell Peter Theune that when I am not here, it's up to him, and he with the team, has had created for this community and the broader community a significant week. Part of the celebration were the four candles behind me that were symbols of those sites of devastation, and this morning we lighted, as well, the paschal candle as a sign of our remembrance of those who moved from life through death into eternal life. I want to express my appreciation to the team for the fine way that all of you in significant numbers have been here. The lines of W. H. Auden's poem that so powerfully catch the mood and spirit of our day were written September 1, 1939. Auden attended the theater and I believe the Yorktown section of New York City that was heavily populated with German people. He attended the theater and, in the midst of the showing, as was the custom at that time, there was a newsreel that showed the Nazi invasion of Poland, and when that news came on, the theater erupted in shouts of triumph and applause. W. H. Auden left the theater thoroughly shaken at what he had just experienced, that eruption of emotion and elation at the forthcoming devastation that was wreaked by Hitler and his troops on the European © Grand Valley State University   �Don’t Do It For God’s Sake Richard A. Rhem Page 2   continent. It so shook him concerning human nature, that he began a spiritual pilgrimage that led him eventually to Christian faith. Indeed. We, too, are in a time when suddenly we become aware of that potential for evil that is part and parcel of our human condition. The sermon subject this morning is titled, "Don't Do It For God's Sake." It was intended to be a word spoken particularly to parents and to this community about being serious about the nurture and the traditioning of our children, for this is opening Sunday and I am well aware of the fact that parents today face tremendous tensions and pressures. There is such a competition for the time and the energy of our children and our youth. So many good things to do, so many difficult choices to make, and the sermon was going to be,"Don't do it for God's sake," for God doesn't need our children to be nurtured, but do it for our sake. Do it for the sake of our children and our youth, and for the sake of their future. I was going to put in a good word, not in the typical fashion of church where it is for God's honor and God's glory and God's demand and God's requirement -I was simply going to say to you, "Don't do it for God's sake. Do it for your sake. And for the sake of your children." And then, of course, everything changed and I was in touch with the office throughout the week and we made obviously some liturgical alterations, but I thought that title can stand, with a bit of a different twist. I would still speak to you this morning for just a few moments under the title, "Don't Do It For God's Sake." Don't do what for God's sake? Don't build human community for God's sake. Do it for our sake and for the sake of the future of humanity. Don't be serious about religious faith and vision that moves toward love and peace for God's sake, but for our own sake, for the sake of the world, for the sake of the possibility of a human and humane future. Were you shocked at the darkness that erupted this week? Really, on reflection, you ought not to have been. For if we are traditioned in the biblical story which arises out of Israel's faith and finds expression in the faith through Jesus Christ our Lord, then you would know that what has happened is that which is always possible and always potentially on the horizon of the human situation. Whether you take the story in Genesis 3 of the Fall, or whether, as I have suggested, we write some new story that is more consistent with our knowledge of the human situation, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter the story we tell. It is the fact, the message, the reality to which the biblical story points, and our human experience has confirmed. The great church father and theologian, St. Augustine, created the doctrine of Original Sin, and Original Sin was simply an attempt to express that which is commonly true, that all of us are tainted with that inward corruption that makes us always potentially on the threshold of some fresh expression of the darkness. This is not a problem of a particular ethnic group or racial group or religious tradition. This is the human condition. We are © Grand Valley State University �Don’t Do It For God’s Sake Richard A. Rhem Page 3   born in sin, says the Psalmist, the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, says the prophet. And in those early stories of Genesis, God repents that he's ever created this human creature, given the darkness that emerges from his behavior. No, we need not be shocked at what we have experienced, nor can we separate ourselves from it, for it is the universal human condition. You may say, "Ah, but this was something special. This was something different," and I would say, "Dear friends, just look at our own history." I have not time this morning to document it all for you, but let me simply remind you of Crusades in which Christian forces put the Muslim to the sword until the blood ran thick in the streets of Jerusalem. I have only to mention the word Inquisition to remind you of that demand to deny one's native faith in order to confess Jesus or to be burned at the stake. I have only to remind you that in the experience of some of us who are older here, in our own lifetime, this world has seen the annihilation of six million Jews perpetrated by a darkness that emerged amidst a people most cultured, most educated and most Christianized in Western civilization. It is not a matter of Islam. It is not a matter of Christianity or Judaism. It is a human manifestation of darkness that is ever hovering in the wings the moment there are those who become so obsessed with hate, anger, that they are willing to perpetrate the holocaust of devastation. We might ask the question, "What drives people to that kind of hatred?" I think we have to distinguish here between the leadership of those who follow and are recruited into this cruel business, leaders with calculating brilliance and full resource, implementing this attack with devastating efficiency. Those who realize a potential within all of us to become evil incarnate, and then they, in their wake, gathering others who have nothing to lose, who need a cause, who need some call to nobility with some promise of eternal reward, and wherever there is a world where there are masses of such people, there is a potential for demonic leadership to manipulate them and to move them to the kind of darkness that we have experienced in this week past. It ought not to shock us, but it ought to cause us to raise the question - What is there in our world that would create the context for that kind of hatred, anger, and violence? I could play for you the tape of the sermon of July 1 of this past summer, "Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed," in which I suggested at that time that it was not really wise for us to be seeking to build a missile defense system against some nuclear bomb of a rogue nation, but that we might better sit down with those rogue nations and ask them, "What are your fears? What are your hopes and your dreams? How can we, the world's one super power, with seemingly limitless resource and giftedness, what can we do in order to bring you into a global community in which we can dwell together in peace and harmony? © Grand Valley State University �Don’t Do It For God’s Sake Richard A. Rhem Page 4   It is incumbent upon us at a time like this to search our own souls and not miss the symbolic value of the targets that were struck. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the symbols of our wealth and of our military might by which in self-serving interest, we perpetuate a world in which we can continue to enjoy the ascendency. Those are the questions that we need to ask ourselves. And how are we to respond? With great care. We are not different than any other people. We stand in solidarity with the world's darkness; we carry within us in our own hearts the seeds of potential violence, but we have been nurtured in a tradition that has taught us that the only hope of the world is the breaking of the cycle of violence. Hate begets hate. Violence begets violence. And if we haven't learned the lesson by now, then certainly it is time for us to think again. We have heard calls for retaliation and revenge. We all, being human, feel the anger. We experience the emotion of needing to respond. Not so long ago, I saw the film, Pearl Harbor, and reliving that day of infamy, I remembered as I saw the Japanese pilots climbing into their Zero planes on the aircraft carrier, I remembered as a child at school how with our doodling we would make pictures, war pictures, tanks and planes, how the P-38s and our Mustangs would shoot down those Japanese Zeroes, and as I saw in the film and relived again the emotion I felt as a child, I hated the Japs! The enemy was demonized. And even now, we can so easily fall into that trap, the consequence of which would simply escalate the cycle of violence one more time. And in this world, with the technology and the weaponry that is available in this world, if we don't break the cycle of violence, we will destroy ourselves. The rhetoric has to cease. Tell me how a Christian television evangelist named Jerry Falwell, speaking on the TV evangelist program of Pat Robertson, can point the finger at liberal civil rights groups and abortionists and gay and lesbian people and say that all such are partially responsible for this devastation? Don't they know that it was the anti-Semitic, hateful, anti-Jewish rhetoric of a Martin Luther, no less, that flowered into the Holocaust? Don't we realize, at least in the Christian Church that, unless we are touched by the gospel and the grace of God so that we do not react naturally, we will become the instruments and the agents of that movement that will cut out the possibility of a human and humane future? Don't we know, don't we really know that it is finally, only in the acknowledgment of our own involvement in the human situation and the responsible response to that situation by which the world can be changed? A friend called me last evening, and I said to him, "If you were preaching tomorrow, what would you preach?" He said, "I'd preach on anger." And then he said to me, "I am just amazed at how little the gospel has really sunk into us." And he spoke of a friend with whom he enjoys a conversation, cultured, educated, Christian, intelligent, who said, "We should round all the Islamic people up and © Grand Valley State University �Don’t Do It For God’s Sake Richard A. Rhem Page 5   ship them out," reminding me of what we did during the wake of Pearl Harbor when we incarcerated Japanese Americans, doing a terrible injustice. Dear friends, we do not have the luxury of responding according to our own animal nature. The cycle of violence must stop here. Not that we do not take responsible action to root out that which threatens not only this nation, but the whole of civilization. But, it is the function of good religion to enable us to transcend those native responses and that is why we need a community like this. That really is what our struggle has been all about. That is why we need to do it, not for God's sake, but for our own sake. We cannot bring shalom to the earth, we cannot bring in the kingdom of God universal, but this we can do - we can love one another. We can act with compassion. We can seek justice. We can love mercy, and we can walk humbly with God, arm in arm together. That is why we need each other. That is why we need a faith community that will lift us, enable us, who are part and parcel of the human scene, who in solidarity with all of those across the globe would enable us to transcend our anger, and to be spared the violence that will simply keep the trauma moving toward the darkness and final doom. One of the great things about the biblical tradition is the prophetic voice that called upon the people of Israel to be self-critical. The prophets called Israel to awareness of sin and corruption in their society. They were relentless in their critique of the self-satisfied religious and political institutions. Jeremiah's famous temple sermon in the seventh chapter condemned the presumption of a hollow religious practice that failed to do justice and love mercy. At the Temple, he cried out, Do not trust in these deceptive words, "This is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord." Jeremiah excoriated the people of Judah for their lack of compassion and mercy and justice, and the judgment that he promised came sure as his word, and Babylon moved in and Jerusalem was devastated and the exiles were moved off into Babylon and there there were voices of unrest. There were other voices there counseling the exiles not to settle down, for surely they would soon be delivered. But, Jeremiah wrote a letter saying, do not listen to these voices. You will be there for a long time. Settle in. Build houses, plant gardens, and pray for Babylon's welfare. And then, beautifully, this prophet whose stern warning had been unheeded but whose word had become reality gave this wonderful word of hope and comfort: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans of good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah's God was the Lord of history who moved the nations in direct, determining fashion. I no longer can conceive of God as the one who controls the movement of history in such direct fashion, but I do believe that the grain of the © Grand Valley State University �Don’t Do It For God’s Sake Richard A. Rhem Page 6   universe moved by the Creator Spirit beckons to life and a hopeful future realized in loving community. It is to that beckoning Spirit that I point you, to respond to the lure of love believing God's intention is to give us a future and a hope. Television coverage this past week has been full of stories of heroism, of kindness and gentleness, of the compassion of so many who have given of themselves and some giving their lives in their effort to save others. Such dark times reveal not only the worst, but the best of the human spirit. And in those stories we see the hope and possibility of a future of human well-being. We cannot effect the kingdom of God nor the condition of universal shalom by ourselves. But, we can ensure that its small beginning is tasted here concretely ,in this loving community as we embrace one another, care one for another, and together create here a free and gracious place for all who would abide in love and peace. We do it not for God's sake, but for our own sake, and the sake of a human and humane future - surely the Divine intention. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event After 9-11, Pentecost XV Scripture Text Jeremiah 29:4-13, Ephesians 3:14-21 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010916 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-09-16 Title A name given to the resource Don't Do It For God's Sake Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 16, 2001 entitled "Don't Do It For God's Sake", on the occasion of After 9-11, Pentecost XV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 29:4-13, Ephesians 3:14-21. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Human community Non-violence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/dc35bd2dad1d50bcd97d74fce79cd9b3.mp3 b894fd7f6586dd05b576240465ef03f1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/58576bf55689509de0f96a8d4bc3ca33.pdf f5b4e87aaaec8924aad3d60eda211d74 PDF Text Text The Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Pentecost XIII I Kings 19:1-14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 26, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Gary Eberle, in The Geography of Nowhere, commenting on the passing of the age of faith, uses a marvelous poem by Philip Larkin, an English poet. Eberle comments, In "Church Going," Larkin imagines that someday Christian churches will fall into disuse and ruin as had Stonehenge and the Acropolis. Perhaps scholars will come with their notepads, or the superstitious will come at night to perform half-remembered magic. He sees the old church becoming: A shape less recognisable each week, A purpose more obscure. I wonder who Will be the last, the very last, to seek This place for what it was... And yet, he notes one thing about this place will not pass away - the inner spiritual need and hunger of the beings who built it in the first place. A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blest air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies. And that much never can be obsolete. Since someone will forever be surprising A hunger in himself to be more serious. And gravitating with it to this ground, Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in. If only that so many dead lie round. Sometimes it happens as it happened to Elijah. It's no accident that chapter 19 follows chapter 18 and the story of Israel's history recorded in I Kings. Chapter 18 is that story of the duel between Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, and the prophets © Grand Valley State University �Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Richard A. Rhem Page 2 of Baal, introduced by Queen Jezebel, the foreign royalty who had brought another worship and cult into the very heart of Israel. Do you remember that story of the prophets of Baal in a contest with Elijah? They pray for their gods to consume the sacrifice and the heavens are brass and there is no response. Then, Elijah, as the sacrifice is drowned in water, calls upon the name of the God of Israel, and fire consumes the sacrifice. What a mountaintop experience, literally. As is often the case after such spiritual exhilaration, there set in upon Elijah a deep depression, for he was struggling in a very difficult time in the life of Israel. It was not an easy time to be a prophet of God, and he fled to Mount Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of Moses and the encounter of God with Israel in the Exodus experience. God is not altogether sympathetic with this prophet. He says, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And Elijah pours out his self-pity as though he and he alone is left faithful to God. And then, God says, "Stand in the mouth of the cave," after which Elijah experiences dramatic effects in nature, an earthquake, wind and fire. But, God is not in any of these dramatic displays, but rather, in the sound of sheer silence. Richard Elliott Friedman, commenting on that passage, notes that that is the point of transition in Israel's experience of God. That experience is the last time it is recorded, "And God said ..." Early on in the scripture story of Israel, God is speaking all the time and acting all the time, but now the sound of sheer silence is a signal that theophany is over and, along with that, is increasing responsibility on the part of humanity to carry on the story. There was a shift, and the writers who put the story together were obviously signaling that shift and that juxtaposition of Carmel and Sinai and silence. The scriptures signal those cultural shifts in the understanding of God and of reality and of all things that pertain to our human experience, and we know those cultural shifts, as well. In our own Christian tradition, there was a move in those early centuries from classical Greek and Roman culture to a culture that, over a few centuries, became totally shaped by the Christian vision, finding its apex in that high Medieval period, only to be shifted in the Renaissance to a focus from heaven to earth. And after the detour of the 16th century Reformation, there was the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment and the whole Modern period, and that Modern period, of which we are the heirs, saw the rise of secularism and, to large extent, the questioning of God and the undercutting of that faith tradition which had built cathedrals. Gary Eberle, speaking about our own present Post-Modem situation, points to the cathedral as the symbol of the Modern period, and, as a matter of fact, how the cathedrals of Europe particularly have become more tourist stations than places of worship. Those of you who have gone on tour with me know that they are always ABC tours, "another bloody cathedral." So, I have been guilty of turning them into tourist places, but not simply tourist places, for we have often stopped and © Grand Valley State University �Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Richard A. Rhem Page 3 worshiped in those holy places. Nancy will never forgive me for one Sunday when the two of us were alone in Rome and we spent five hours in St. Peter's, if you can believe it. It is not as though that holy space does not continue to speak, but there is no question that the cathedral is a monument to the faith of an earlier age and, in modernity, the faith that built the cathedrals has been seriously challenged and in many ways undercut. For the thing that marks the modern age is the rise of critical thinking and the rejection of all forms of authoritarianism, whether it be the authoritarian claim of the Church as institution, or of the tradition as in Eastern Orthodoxy, or of the Bible, as in Protestantism. The thing that marked modernity was that rise of critical thinking, the scientific method, the empirical method of investigation, no longer taking some word from prelate or scriptures or tradition as authoritative, but rather going out and looking at the world, experimenting, probing, investigating, accepting nothing on some authoritative word, but with critical rationality evaluating the evidence. That is what has marked modernity. In large measure, the Modern movement has been a movement very, very seriously weakening the Christian Church. I sat a couple of weeks ago with the New Testament professor that I studied under in Leiden back in the 60s. He was in the area and called, and I picked him up and we shared a breakfast together, and we talked about the European situation today. For example, in England just 6% of the people go to worship in that land that has these magnificent cathedrals and this grand Anglican tradition. We talked about the Netherlands where he still lives and where I had so many wonderful experiences. I looked across the table and I said to him, "How long can it last?" He said, "Jesus came, in my understanding, not to build the church, but to proclaim the kingdom." I like that, because what he was saying is what the poet Larkin is saying, that institutions, forms and structures may flourish and flounder. They may rise and pass away. But, somehow or other, there is that within the depths of the human being that will seek out a place like this, a serious place, on serious ground, because no matter how secular, no matter how lacking in any kind of observance, there will now and again, here and there, rise up that which will surprise that hunger and that yearning for the presence of God, for that which is sacred and holy, for that dimension that always accompanies our ordinary human experience, suggesting something more, not a supernatural being "out there" that runs the universe. I came across the other day a sermon of a year ago when, out in front of our house, a child was drowned in the waves of Lake Michigan, and I remember preaching that Sunday on the pitiless universe. God does not interrupt the rip tide or the raging surf, and God plays no favorites. That understanding of God, if we would be honest, has been undercut by everything that we know, thanks to the natural sciences and the investigation of all of those respective disciplines of © Grand Valley State University �Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Richard A. Rhem Page 4 human learning. But, does that mean, because that image of God that has marked our tradition in the past, does that mean, then, that God is dead? Richard Elliott Friedman, who comments on the Isaiah experience in his book, The Hidden Face of God, uses Nietzsche as the prophetic voice of the modern, Nietzsche who said, "God is dead." Nietzsche said it with not any sense of triumphalism. Nietzsche said it in anguish because he said, "God is dead and we have killed God." The modern with all of the wonder and all of the amazement, and all of the fruitfulness that has come to us, to the exercise of critical rationality and the empirical method - all of the wonders of mathematical formulas that have tied our earth into a network of communication creating the possibility of a global community - all of that, all of that without the sense of the presence of God becomes empty and hollow and now and again, here and there, we will be surprised by a hunger because we have been created with a God-shaped hole in our soul. And so, we have entered into a period of time which is called the Post-Modem period. The Post-Modem period into which we have entered and the periodization of cultural shifts is very untidy, but basically this 20th century has come to see the limitations of human rationality. And so, when medievalism broke apart and authoritarianism was undercut, we entered into the Modern period, and there was a sharp break. When modernity comes to understand its limits, we have called it Post-Modernity, which means it is after the modern. It is not a rejection of the modern, for we had better never reject all of the fruitfulness that has come from critical thinking, from critical rationality, from the use of intelligence, from the mind that probes and investigates. We cannot go back to some authoritarian claim that hears voices from heaven. The exercise of critical intelligence is a continuing and ongoing dimension of the Post-Modem period. But, Post-Modernism has come to be a time in which it is more and more being recognized that intelligence, thinking which we value so highly here, is not enough. Intelligence and attention, or I could call it awareness. Or, I could call it simply an openness to that which is beyond the limits of our minds to grapple and grasp, an openness to that which is sacred and holy and which permeates the whole of reality so that I would speak of God not as some supernatural being "out there," beyond creation, intervening and tinkering and arranging here and there, arbitrarily and capriciously, but rather the God of whom I would speak naturally as the Soul of the universe, as the creative Spirit that now and again rises into our conscious attention or awareness, taking the time consciously and intentionally to open our lives to that dimension that cannot finally be captured in a syllogism or a mathematical formula or a test-tube, to that dimension that demands a poem or a painting, a sunset or a starry heaven, a gathering with friends in a common search for the touch of God of which Peter spoke earlier, brushed with angels' wings, washed by grace. How? © Grand Valley State University �Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Richard A. Rhem Page 5 Who can tell? When? Who could predict? But awareness that, as I live my ordinary days, what I can see and touch and handle is permeated with something that is always beyond my grasp, that alwayspresent to the soul that seeks and searches and is open, the presence of God. Not in spite of my mind, my intelligence, my probing, my serious thinking, but, when all of that is done, an attention to a reality that once was so beautifully expressed in the stone of a cathedral, but continues here and now to be expressed in a variety of ways. Mies van derRohe, one of the great architects of the 20th century, who with Frank Lloyd Wright and a couple of others, were the pioneers of the clean lines and objectivity and efficiency of architectural form, was asked shortly before he died, "If you could build what you have never been able to build, what would you build?" (I should note here that post-modernism came to expression first in architecture.) This leading modem architect of form and structure that has marked the city and the skyscraper, this one said shortly before he died, "If I could build what I have never been able to build, I would build a cathedral." Indeed. References: Richard Elliott Friedman. The Hidden Face of God. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995. “Church Going,” by Philip Larkin, in The Geography of Nowhere: Finding Oneself in the Postmodern World. Sheed and Ward, 1995. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIII Scripture Text I Kings 19:1-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Elliott Friedman. The Hidden Face of God. HarperCollins Publishers, 1995. "Church Going," by Philip Larkin, in The Geography of Nowhere: Finding Oneself in the Postmodern World. Sheed and Ward, 1995. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010826 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-08-26 Title A name given to the resource The Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 26, 2001 entitled "The Presence of God: Intelligence and Attention", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: I Kings 19:1-14. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Critical Thinking Open Mind PostModern Sacred Dimension of reality https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/290e39ec51549b128fa2657094e73be4.mp3 01b99e647818523b524929332afd5483 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XII Scripture Text Ezekiel 1:26, 2:1, Revelation 4:1-11 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010819 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-08-19 Title A name given to the resource God Naturally Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 19, 2001 entitled "God Naturally", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ezekiel 1:26, 2:1, Revelation 4:1-11. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c24690df83d4f9b5c82cfdb37b555f53.mp3 b83824cd6f03f562c0fde5715aaed3e8 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ed4e7b3731eb7d8b6476db8fe6655557.pdf 2d3307c16813d8b2dcd0105d121b1794 PDF Text Text Signs of Community Pentecost XI Deuteronomy 6:4-12, 20-25; March 14:22-25 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 12, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Reflect with me for just a few moments what we have experienced together in this community of faith where we have celebrated the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. If you were raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, you would expect that there would be seven sacraments, but it doesn't really matter how we name these particular rites and ceremonies and rituals. In our Protestant tradition, it has been Baptism and the Lord's Supper that have been designated as the sacraments of the Church, sacraments which we have understood to be visible signs of invisible grace. Or, we have spoken of them as means of grace, conveyors of grace, the grace of God, through the participation in the sacraments. Someone has called the sacrament the visible Word and, if we were true to our tradition, we would have pulpit and table at every service, for the Word explicates the action, and the action embodies and symbolizes the Word. We do it backwards here; we really should have the reflection first, so that when you came to participate, you would know what you were doing. But, now you are going to have to hear what you just did and then go home and think about it, you see. That is liturgically incorrect, but we do it this way so that the children can be a part of it, as well. It is important for us, on occasion, to think about the sacraments of the Church, which I like to call the signs of community. I intentionally named Baptism in the liturgy the Rite of Initiation, because that is what it is. It is the marking, the signing of a child as belonging to the community. We only baptize once. You can only come into the community once, and once you are in that community, signed and sealed by the Spirit of God, you are marked forever. This rite of the Table is a rite of commemoration, and we do it again and again in order that we may go back and be reminded of our founding story, of that font from which our tradition has arisen. We go back to the table and we remember Jesus, we think about his life and his death and his resurrection, and we remember what has constituted us as a people. We remember and we find hope, and in the experience, we do sense that presence, that grace. © Grand Valley State University �Signs of Community Richard A. Rhem Page 2 I find in this congregation, and it may be true generally, that Baptism is so very strong. Someone suggested one time that when we do baptisms here, there really ought to be Kleenex in the hymnal rack. We have before us a beautiful child, and there are parents full of awe and wonder, feeling the gift and also the responsibility. There is the extended family, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, as well as the extended community, and we all take responsibility for these little ones. I find that the celebration of Baptism here is deeply appreciated and is strongly observed. I find the Eucharist that we have just celebrated is less so. If you were raised in the Catholic tradition or the Anglican tradition, you would be hungry for the sacrament. In the 16th century, at the time of the Reformation, in order to rescue the sacrament of the Lord's Supper from some abuses, the Reformers decided to celebrate it only four times a year, and then to celebrate it with great solemnity and to have a service of preparation beforehand. Actually, what happened was, rather than elevating and lifting the sacrament in its importance and centrality, what really happened to those of us who grew up on quarterly communion was that we lost the appetite for it. At the 8:30 service, two-thirds of the people leave every week instead of participating at the rail. They are not hungry or thirsty and that is not any criticism, it’s just a fact. The sacrament, for them, is not such that mediates a grace that makes them want to come every week to the rail. So, we are all conditioned and determined much by our experience and our practice and our observance. But, nonetheless, one way or another, we celebrate Baptism in great joy, and some of us are very hungry for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and others less-so; it's still enough to do it maybe a half a dozen times a year. These are signs of community, the marks of belonging, the coming-in, initiation. And then the remembrance, the repetition, the re-presentation, so that we remember that past act, that hopefully becomes for us a present moment of experience, instilling hope in our hearts. We are not a sacramentarian church. A sacramentarian communion, such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican Church or high Lutheran, invests the sacrament with far more power or mystery than we do. For example, the panic about getting a baby baptized in a sacramentarian tradition is that, if a child is not baptized, the original sin is not removed, and so there is that immediacy about it, and there is a fear lest the sacrament should fail to be celebrated, because in a sacramentarian tradition, the grace is attached to the act. No act, no grace. In the Lord's Supper, the priest has an indelible gift through ordination by which the transformation of bread and cup into body and blood, that miracle of the mass, can be transacted. Now, I don't have any such power. But, in the sacramentarian tradition, that bread and cup become body and blood, and Christ is received in the sacrament. If you weren't raised in those traditions, I doubt that you can ever fully appreciate what someone who was nurtured in that tradition © Grand Valley State University �Signs of Community Richard A. Rhem Page 3 experiences at the communion rail. That is the central act of worship for a good Roman Catholic in their worship observance. It is to receive bread and cup, thus receiving Christ, literally. Our understanding of it is more difficult to explain. We don't want to say they are just empty signs, and yet, how do you find that in-between that says one communes spiritually on these physical elements? That is what we try to say. But, in any case, we are not sacramentarian in seeing the grace attached to the action. We pray over the action for the Spirit to make that which is symbolized in the act spiritually present to us. I think sometimes it works, and certainly sometimes it doesn't. But, for us, these are signs of community. There is no magic here; there is no superstition connected with it. Last week I suggested that religion was that search for meaning, a very natural and normal, human activity, universal human activity before the Mystery of Life. What does it mean? Who am I? From whence have I come and whither am I going - these are the religious questions that we wrestle with. Our respective religions are the human imaginative constructs that we have put together. Someone had a vision, someone had a story, a founding story that found resonance in the lives of a community of people who formed a tradition so that here we are, two thousand years after the table experience, the death and resurrection of Jesus, still telling that story. We are a community that has a sign reminding us of our founding. And we continue to observe this, even though we don't believe that it fell out of heaven. The early community came finally to this practice and then the institutional Church, as it took shape and form, formalized those practices. We are not a sacramentarian church that believes somehow or other that the act and the grace are synonymous. We recognize that, in the birth and maturing of the Church, these ritual actions became significant as the identity of the community is that which helps us to understand who we are, as signs that keep us going, keep us being reminded, keep us encouraged and inspired and giving us hope. These are signs of community. They could be other than they are, and certainly they are going to have to be understood differently than when they were first initiated, because the whole religious, cultural, historical situation of this community is so far different from that original community. The whole life experience is so strikingly different. And yet, what was really needed there, that mystery, that experience of the holy and the sacred, it is for that same experience that we long. That is why we come; that is why we have gathered. And so, we could change these sacraments, but it would take a long, long time for another action to be invested with all of the emotional binding of our present stories and our present sacraments. We don't baptize out of some panicky feeling that if the child were not baptized, the child would be lost We baptize because we believe the child is born into a covenant of faith and a family of faith. It is a community sign. © Grand Valley State University �Signs of Community Richard A. Rhem Page 4 So, we have taken the bread, the cup and we have remembered, but we have not had some kind of mystical experience with the literal body and blood, but these signs are that which bind us together as a community and give us that sense of identity that makes us one family gathered around Jesus, around the story of Jesus' life, around his death. When body and blood are separated, there is violence, there is death. We remember that Jesus died the way he died because he lived the way he lived, and in his death he set us free from that bondage to the darkness. And so, we have been reminded of our story, that which is the center of our life together. Signs of community are those mediators of grace, vehicles by which the presence of the holy and the sacred become tangible, bringing into our experience that dimension of the sacred or of God. Certainly that is why we continue in a community of faith to celebrate rites of passage, surrounding them with holy moments. How can you celebrate a birth without standing in awe before the fountain of life? How can you speak vows to each other for life without the sense of the presence of the Other? How can you possibly bury one whom you have dearly loved without that sense that God is there? And so, as a community of faith, we have signs of community that bind us together, that help us to understand who we are and to bring to us those moments which are simply holy. This past week I performed perhaps the most unusual ceremony of my life on a beautiful sailboat out in the middle of Lake Michigan. The groom, one whom I have known for a long time, the bride Russian. As we went out on the sail, the bride's daughter, seventeen years old, multi-lingual, able to go from Russian to English, dialed her grandparents, the parents of the bride, in Russia, and somewhere in the middle of Russia, the parents of the bride tuned in to the ceremony which was translated by their granddaughter so that they could enter into the celebration with us. So, when I spoke about the two rosebuds that represented those Russian parents, they were told. And when I mentioned the ring which was gold melted from a bracelet that the father had given the mother on the day that the bride was born, they could remember. And when the vows were spoken, I gave the English translation to the daughter who read the vows in Russian so that the bride could respond in Russian, and her parents listening all the while. And when I spoke the meditation from I Corinthians 13, because we were literally bridging two worlds, I spoke of love that transcends all differences and all distance, and the granddaughter preached my little sermon. And when I concluded the declaration – knowing that they were Eastern Orthodox for whom the Trinity is important – in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I doubt that there were not tears in Russia for what was being transacted in the middle of Lake Michigan. Why do we do such things? Why do we go through all that fuss? They are no more married than if they had gone to the Justice of the Peace. They are no more married, than if they had gone to City Hall in Red Square, Moscow. We do it because we know that we are meaning-seeking animals, aware of what we are © Grand Valley State University �Signs of Community Richard A. Rhem Page 5 doing, conscious of our actions and our decisions, and knowing that there is a Mystery before which or before Whom we live which we cannot fathom, which will never be dissected rationally or set forth in intellectual discourse, but which can be felt now and again, when grace brushes us and the dimension of the sacred encompasses us, and all we can say is, "My God! © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XI Scripture Text Deuteronomy 6:4-12, 12:20-25, Mark 14:22-25 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010812 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-08-12 Title A name given to the resource Signs of Community Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 12, 2001 entitled "Signs of Community", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Deuteronomy 6:4-12, 12:20-25, Mark 14:22-25. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Baptism Community of Faith Experience of Sacred Lord's Supper Sacraments https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc46957a7be27b2d07ed9dfa2a8288f5.mp3 bff179546d0d46f649e51e58d90163d1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/abefcbee4b4e18dd729a4024b03a14a4.pdf acc79a074858906f63ca675e4dffb6cd PDF Text Text The Religious Question Pentecost X Micah 6:6-8; Luke 10:25-37 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan August 5, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon The religious question continues to fascinate me and to absorb my time and energy. Some of you, perhaps, have not had the misfortune I have had, and that is to have to go through a total revolution of one's understanding of what the religious question is all about. For me, religion had been packaged very neatly in a confessional statement, in a creedal form, in a community whose identity was created by a very definite set of beliefs and mores and ethical insights. The whole nature of religion in my growing up and maturing and even in my early ministry was so far from that which I understand it now to be. Some years ago someone said, “You know, as old as he is, you'd think he would have gotten some answers by now." But, for me, the pilgrimage was not from questions to answers, but rather, from answers to questions. And so, I want to think with you this morning and throughout this month of August a little bit about religion, the nature of it, the function of it, and the origin of it – and this morning, the religious question, the whole matter of this phenomenon in which we are fellow passengers and journey mates, the religious adventure, the religious life, the religious community. A lawyer came to Jesus one day and said, "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" In the paragraph from the prophet Micah, we have the question raised, "With what shall I come before the Lord then, with what shall I bow down before the most high?" That sounds like a serious question. The lawyer's question may well have been an intellectual game, an attempt to trip up Jesus and expose him as something less than a significant rabbi. But, there was a night in Philippi when the earth shook and the jail was opened, and the prisoners set free, when the jailer cried out to Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" And there was a rich young man recorded in Mark's gospel – in fact, the text perhaps I should better have chosen than the one from Luke – in which the same question as the lawyer's is raised, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus suggested the Commandments, to which the young man said, "I have kept these from my youth up." And then Jesus said, "Sell all you have and give to the poor," and he went away grieved because he had great possessions. That, obviously, was a serious question. © Grand Valley State University �The Religious Question Richard A. Rhem Page 2 There are those questions, and religion, as a matter of fact, is a human response to those kinds of questions. For me, earlier on, it was a question of how one might live and die and find union with God in another time and place, in another sphere or dimension of reality. But, more and more for me, religion becomes the question of how to live here and now and what is the meaning of life. What is the meaning of human existence? We are the only animals, as far as we know, that have the gift of self-consciousness and awareness that causes us to wrestle with questions like that, for we become bonded to another and then we lose the other and there is grief and pain and separation and we wonder - what is life and what is death? And as we look about us, the record of human history is a record of very great suffering and tragedy, and we experience that in our own individual lives and the lives of those we love. There is pain and there is loss. There is confusion. There is so much ambiguity in our human situation. It is difficult to sort it all out. Finally, life is a question. Or, life presents us with a question. Maybe the ultimate philosophical question would be, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" It was very easy for me at one time to answer those questions because there was a revelation that came directly from God, a revelation that found expression through the prophets, culminated in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ recorded in the scriptures, which were inspired by God and therefore inerrant and infallible and, consequently, religion was a matter of having the answers in a book to the mysteries of life. But, life has a way of overturning those certainties and of putting the lie to much that seems so taken for granted. Human experience is very messy. It cannot be crammed into a system with all of the loose ends tied up. And the longer one lives, the more one lives with openness and reflection and thoughtfulness and attention and awareness, the more one recognizes that ultimately there are questions before which we live, and more and more I come to see religion as that attempt on the part of humankind to deal with those ultimate questions. For, as a matter of fact, what is your life, as James wrote. What must you do to inherit eternal life? What must you do to be saved? What does it even mean to be saved? What's it all about, this human existence we live day by day? That is the religious quest. I suppose the first thing that strikes me, as I think about it, is how I see the religious quest as so very normal and so very natural. I didn't always think so. At one time, I thought that the religious ones were a slim minority and that the foundations of even that which remained were eroding. And now, I realize that the only things that change are the forms of that religious expression, the institutional forms. I remember when I was in Europe in the 60s, the tumultuous 60s, there was a phrase, “Will the Church be alive in '85?” Well, the year is 2001 and the Church is still alive. And yet, if you look at the big picture, what is happening to the institutional forms of religion? I have come to see one really doesn't have to © Grand Valley State University �The Religious Question Richard A. Rhem Page 3 worry about that. I used to worry about it. I wondered if there would be a church in which I could continue to feed my habit. And now I know, whatever form it may be, to be human is to be engaged in that religious quest. Oh, I know one like me is a warped individual because I live it and eat it and sleep it. It is my profession. It is what I do, thinking about these things. And I know the rest of you have to make a living, and you really don't have the luxury I do of thinking and thinking and thinking some more. But as a matter of fact that is a luxury, because it does stop one in one's tracks, for one becomes aware of how life can just pass through our hands like sands through our fingertips, and how much we can live without stopping consciously to evaluate what we are doing and where we are going and why we are caught up in the frantic pace which marks so much of our days. I see it symbolically, for example, in television. Let me just point to the Today Show. Nancy always wants to see what the weather is going to be. But, you know, the poor weather forecaster hardly has time to give you the weather forecast. It is shoved in between all of the life-changing messages that come from all of the corporate sponsors. And so, finally, one is exposed to about ten minutes of commercials in order to get about 90 seconds of what the weather will be, and then it's wrong. But, the point is this - more and more of life is in your face, and less and less are we called apart simply to be and to contemplate and reflect on the meaning of it all. Such reflection and contemplation is really what religion is all about, and it is a normal and a natural and an inevitable human activity. However it may find expression, however it may work itself out in our lives, there is that religious dimension. I think we're made that way. I think we're created with a hole in our soul that longs to be filled with the sacred, the holy, with a sense of meaning and purpose, with understanding. So, religion isn't going to go out of business. We are going to be religious to the extent that we are human and the only question is what form or shape will that religious quest take. I learned that that quest takes place in all of the great major faith traditions. For me, that was also revolutionary. It is not revolutionary for me to say that here in this place, because we have dealt with it often enough. So, it becomes almost commonplace for us. But, if you were raised and trained like I was, you know that it is not commonplace at all. And if you were in most places of worship this morning, you would know that it wouldn't be commonplace at all. But to come to understand religion for what it is, that deep quest of the human spirit for meaning and for understanding, moves one to a place where one can move from exclusivism – as though we have the last and final word and the absolute truth – to a place of pluralism where we recognize that all those major faith traditions are doing exactly the same thing that we are doing. In all of those particular forms of religious expression, in all of those great traditions, there are these same questions that are moving it, motivating it, energizing the quest. © Grand Valley State University �The Religious Question Richard A. Rhem Page 4 The practice of religion, in all of its variety and forms, is finally an attempt to understand who we are, what does it mean, what do I do to inherit eternal life, what must I do to be saved, or to be human or whole, or at least on the way toward wholeness. We have come to understand here that all of those particular religions are human, creative, imaginative constructs. We build our religions. We create our religions. As someone has written, all of our present religions are the ossified remains of past ecstatic or prophetic visions: Moses at the burning bush, or Mohammed, or Jesus, or the Buddha and the experience of enlightenment. And from those momentary epiphanies or moments of revelation, that luminosity that opens up heaven and suddenly gives some sense and expression, there is a resonance which creates a community which then is bound together around that particular vision. Religion is a human endeavor. It is a creative, imaginative, human construct. So, all of this foolishness about my religion is better than yours, or my God is better than yours, or my religion is true and all of the rest are false is simply quite ridiculous. Every once in a while in my Tuesday noon luncheons at Duba's, my good friend, Duncan Littlefair, will look across the table at me and say, “How could you have stayed there so long?” And I say, “I wonder the same thing.” When once one sees the nature of the religious quest, and sees the respective religions as so many human attempts to engage in that quest, then it must be arrogance to say that I have it and you don't. I remember moments, don't you, moments in the past when it did flit through my head that that was hardly a reasonable assumption. And yet, how we in our respective religions are trained to look inward, are encouraged to build those walls and to affirm and assert the absoluteness of our positions. You know, when a pastor does what I do to you, you are going to go out there and get slaughtered out in main street because every other church in town is telling their people this is it. This is true. You have it, everything else is wrong. Stand for it. Fight for it. Witness to it. And you're going to go out there and say, "Well, on the one hand, and on the other, and in the meantime..." You don't have a chance. A nice, civil, humane discussion like this disallows you to get out there and win the battle of the religious wars. But once we see that our religion, as well as all the others, is a human response to the Divine, we realize that, even if a revelation has come from beyond, it can only find expression in human language, human thought forms. It can only take shape in human community. There is no other way. And once you see that you're drained of your absolutism. You must be done with your exclusivism, and arrogance is simply impossible. So, religion is a very normal, natural part of being human and the respective religions of the world are so many creative and imaginative constructs that seek to respond to that religious question. Someone suggested the image of a landscape that has many wells dug and some wells are just very simple and some © Grand Valley State University �The Religious Question Richard A. Rhem Page 5 are very elaborate, but all of the wells tap in to that great underground river of life. And so it is with the religions. Now, you may say, "Well, if all religions are the same..." (I didn't say that. I said all religions are attempting to do the same thing.)"... are true, then they are probably all false, and so why would anyone commit oneself to that which is not absolute and final?" Because it is only in that total commitment of oneself to the practice and the observance of one's own faith story that one will come to that spiritual peace, insight, and healing which is salvation. You can't run on many roads at once. You can't ride all horses at the same time. And we've all been given a story anyway. Our story is a beautiful, magnificent story. We stand as recipients of a grand tradition. Our Judeo-Christian heritage reflected in the scriptures, having shaped Western civilization - what a grand tradition that is. And it is our story. It is an unusual person who can move over into another story and there experience the holy and the sacred. Some rare individuals have been able to do that, but not many of us. Most of us have been given a story and it is our story and it denigrates not in the least to say that it is our story, our authentic story, although it's not the only story. It is not the only well in the landscape. But, for us, it is the source of the water of life and that, not simply as an intellectual articulation of what is true, but rather, the experience in community of that which is reflective of the vision of our faith story. With what shall I bow down before the most high? Shall I bring ten thousand offerings? Shall I bring the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? What shall I do? And the prophet, speaking the word of God, says, "I told you what you should do. Do justice. Love mercy. And walk humbly with your God." God is experienced, not in some mystical flight, some esoteric vision in splendid isolation, but God is experienced in our story in the doing of justice and in the loving of mercy and in the humility before the Mystery that is God. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, "What is the summary of the law, but to love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself?" Love. When the lawyer wanted to push Jesus a little further, he said, "Who is my neighbor?" bringing it down to earth, so to speak. And then, very interestingly, what did Jesus say? "Your neighbor is the one you encounter in need. Your neighbor is not the one who lives in proximity to you or the one who shares community with you. Your neighbor is the one who crosses your path who is in need." And so, he tells the familiar, beautiful story of the Samaritan who reached © Grand Valley State University �The Religious Question Richard A. Rhem Page 6 out to one who was of another kind, in his need, showing mercy and love and care. What must I do to be saved? I used to know a whole bunch of scripture verses which I could tell you about what you have to believe, what words you should use, how to be saved. I found a little tract the other day again. Someone placed a tract in a very convenient place in the Men's Room, kind of like having a captive audience. Once again, it was very simple, just one, two, three, and bingo, salvation. Nonsense. Salvation is in human encounter marked by justice, mercy and love. And the irony is that when Jesus would talk about gaining eternal life, or we could say encounter with God or experiencing the holy, Jesus didn't talk about anything this way at all. That’s the marvel of it. That’s the irony of it. God is experienced in the acts of justice and mercy and kindness and love to a concrete individual, human being. God is experienced in the horizontal relationships of life. God is experienced in human community. Compassion is the final test of every theology and of every religious expression. If religion is making us kind and true and loving and compassionate, it's good and it's true. If it leads to separation, hostility, judgment and damnation, it is false, according to Jesus. Now, that's our story. So, what must you do to be saved, to inherit eternal life, to fulfill your human being? What do you make of it all? And how are you doing? It is not really such a mystery. Good religion warms the heart, opens the mind, and enables us to embrace our neighbor. The religious question is quite a bit simpler and more difficult than I ever dreamed. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost X Scripture Text Micah 6:6-8, Luke 10:25-37 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010805 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-08-05 Title A name given to the resource The Religious Question Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 5, 2001 entitled "The Religious Question", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Micah 6:6-8, Luke 10:25-37. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Nature of Religionm Spiritual Quest Pluralism https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66689638c038fb05a52b2e36d75c1817.mp3 0bd179ec5d0198bc427eae15caf5f41d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ed37bf385612b275fd264f70df0ff75.pdf d68adf7d0542ab08d569b7996888c2fd PDF Text Text The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace Text: Luke 15 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost VIII, July 22, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Life is a gift. The Psalmist knew that. The old, familiar 100th Psalm says we are the creatures of God's hand, God has made us, not we ourselves. Life is given. We are the recipients of that miracle, and a miracle it is, really. A sperm and an ovum unite and there potentially is a human being. The human genome project is mapping out the genetic mysteries of the human being and it is far beyond my understanding, but, in any case, when we think of life, when we think of birth, we say it is a miracle, and it is a miracle in the best sense of the word, for miracle is not some event that goes contrary to the processes of nature, but rather, it is that wonderful, awesome consequence of nature itself when it is functioning according to its intention. Life is a gift and life is a miracle. It is almost impossible these days for a pastor to make a hospital call on a new mother, but it used to be one of my favorite calls to make. Today, by the time we hear of the birth, the mother is out of the hospital, hopefully with a baby in tow. But, formerly, there were a few days of grace and it was always marvelous to make that call. There were tears and there was joy, such a wonderful experience. My favorite text was Psalm 34, verse three, which must have been in Mary's mind when she sang The Magnificat, "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt God's name together," because in the face of the gift of life, in the face of a birth, we know we are in the face of a wonderful miracle. I think that when my own children were born, I was somewhat in a fog, not fully aware, lacking wisdom and experience to stand in adequate awe. I wonder if it may be that God gives us children before we are wise enough and have experience enough fully to appreciate the awesomeness of it. Perhaps when we get that experience and wisdom, we'd be so scared, we wouldn't have them in the first place. As grandparents, at least we have a second chance to enter into that with our own children if God is gracious to us. I can remember as though it were yesterday four years ago this past Friday. Nancy was entertaining some of her friends on our deck. They were having a luncheon, as I remember, and she received a call from her son-in-law that our daughter was on her way to the delivery room, and with uncharacteristic irresponsibility, she left her guests at lunch. They could continue to eat if they © Grand Valley State University   �The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   would. They could clean up if they were helpful, but she wouldn't care. She was on her way to the hospital. And so it is - the gift of life. Life is a gift, and when we stand in its presence, we know miracle. It would be wonderful, we often say, if we could only keep them little. Not really, of course. And yet, they do grow up, and in order to become adults, they have to go through adolescence and then there comes that moment when we have to let go, when we have done all we can do, when we have prayed for them and nurtured them and shaped them and formed them as best we can, given as much wise counsel as we can. But, with fear and trepidation, there comes that moment when we have to let go. Then it is that life becomes a choice. It becomes a choice for them. What will they do with this miracle of life that is offered as gift? In the story that Jesus told which is called the Story of the Prodigal Son, it could well be called the story of a father's unrelenting love. But, interestingly, in the very beginning of the story we learn that when the young son came and asked for his inheritance, lacking all propriety and wisdom, the father let him go. There was wisdom in that. All of us, I suppose, at one time or another have cajoled, we have pled, we have bribed, perhaps. But, we know that there is a limit. There is a time to let go. Then the choice belongs to those who have grown up under our sheltering wings, for it is time for them to try their own wings. The younger son wanted his inheritance and he took off, and Jesus said he squandered his property on dissolute living. Just what the details of that were is totally unimportant. The fact is that he just thought it would be a party forever. He didn't realize that there could be a turndown in the stock market. Suddenly he found himself in dire straits. Well, you know the story well. A significant little phrase has it that "he came to himself." He came to himself. He had made a choice and it was a rather disastrous choice. But, all of us have the privilege of one or two of those. Thank God he came to himself, and he began to calculate a bit and then he said, "I will arise and go to my father," because what he really wanted was a bunk and breakfast. Or, maybe a bunk and three square meals. We get to the bottom of the heap sometimes and we get desperate and we need the common, ordinary things. He was remembering the parents' home, its civility and its dignity and its adequate provision, and so he arose and went to his father without any sense at all that there was not a day since he had left that the father's heart had not been wrenched and that the father had not looked longingly down the road if perchance he might see some indication of a returning boy. Well, he wasn't home yet. He wasn't even totally changed and transformed at this point. He was still calculating a bit He was still figuring how he could make it on his own with a little help. And so, he had a well-crafted speech that he was going to give to his father. He had memorized that speech and said it over and over all © Grand Valley State University �The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   the way from the far country, only to be interrupted by the father's running to him, embracing him, kissing him, the father's heart breaking over him, and the father's love breaking his heart And then, finally, he was home, for he had had an experience of an overwhelming grace. No more calculation. No more selfjustification. No more rationalization. Just home in the father's arms. Rembrandt has captured it magnificently in oil on canvas, 'The Return of the Prodigal." He was home. Grace transformed him. But, it isn't only the far country that beckons those who come to years of responsibility and have to choose. There are those who dwell in the far country, even though it's only the back forty, those who never leave home, but have never been home. Those who are responsible and faithful and dependable who never kick over the traces or kick up their heels. Those who are righteous to a fault. In the parable, the elder brother who was such a person, coming in from the fields, hears the music and dancing and catches a whiff of the fatted calf roasting on the spit, and like the eruption of Mt Etna, all of his anger and resentment and hostility break forth. He had been faithful and responsible every day of his life, and he had hated every minute of it. He had not followed his younger brother's example, maybe because he lacked imagination or courage or whatever. But the reason that we cannot applaud him for his faithfulness and his righteousness is his self-righteousness, and the fact that there was no joy or spontaneity in his life. What he did, he did as onerous duty and heavy responsibility, and the resentment continued to build up until the moment of the party, of the joy, of the spontaneous bursting forth of life watered richly with grace. And then, in total alienation, he left the home, the home of which he had never really been a part. Life is a gift, and then becomes a choice. We have to remember why Jesus told this story. Luke tells us in the opening of the 15th chapter that it was because he was receiving criticism because of his table fellowship, because of the people with whom he consorted, because he was open to ail sorts and conditions of humankind, because he didn't make distinctions between clean and unclean, righteous and unrighteous, godly and godless. And he didn't do that because Jesus saw more deeply into the human soul than most of us. Jesus saw the turmoil there; Jesus saw the hurt and the pain, he saw the fear and the wonder there, and he knew that all of the negativity sometimes takes over a human soul, a reaction, a very clear response to a multitude of life experiences. But Jesus never lost sight of the fact, as he looked into the depths of every human being, that there was a child of God, and so, with open arms, with an open invitation to the table, with an embrace, with a spirit and an attitude that was totally opposite of any kind of exclusion or ruling out, Jesus was able, as the father in the parable, to transform human beings, to give them an image of God as the God full of grace who creates every new possibility. Here we are this morning, gathered in community in worship. What an interesting story it would be if all of our tales could be told. Some of us have been © Grand Valley State University �The Gift of Life; The Life of Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   here forever and some of us have returned somewhat recently. Some of us are full of grace and some of us are still not sure, and the message this morning is that grace creates the possibility for new beginnings, for new possibilities. There is always the opportunity to choose again and to be born and to be born again, for finally, the only thing that God desires for us is that we come home and that we rest in the grace symbolized in the arms of the father as we are washed with tears and made clean. If only we would come home, we would learn to sing, to sing a simple song. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Scripture Text Luke 15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010722 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-07-22 Title A name given to the resource The Gift of Life, The Life of Grace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 22, 2001 entitled "The Gift of Life, The Life of Grace", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII. Scripture references: Luke 15. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Inclusive Life Miracle Pentecost Prodigal Love Transforming Grace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d9377009a2d8f113feac321a91f3ddc5.mp3 502606dc0e7c9d2550fbc88be14e3309 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09ef6059d68b37c6db634e4c1aa19272.pdf fea165154707bc31dbc4e418e02f504f PDF Text Text The Freedom to Embrace Pentecost VI Hosea 11:1-9; Romans 11:25-36; Luke 23:32-34 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 8, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon Some two or three years ago, more or less, on a broadcast by Paul Harvey, he read an "Impatient Letter From God." I shared it with you a while back, but it says so well with some humor what I want to say this morning that I'm going to share a few paragraphs again: From: God To: My Children on Earth Re: Idiotic Religious Rivalries My Dear Children (and believe me, that’s all of you), I consider myself a pretty patient guy. I mean, look at the Grand Canyon. It took millions of years to get it right. And about evolution? Boy, nothing is slower than designing that whole Darwinian thing to take place, cell by cell, and gene by gene. I've been patient through your fashions, civilizations, wars and schemes, and the countless ways you take Me for granted until you get yourselves into big trouble again and again. But, I want to let you know about some of the things that are starting to tick Me off. First of all, your religious rivalries are driving Me up a wall. Enough already! Let’s get one thing straight These are Your religions, not Mine. I'm the whole enchilada; I'm beyond them all. Every one of your religions claims there's only one of Me (which, by the way, is absolutely true). But in the very next breath, each religion claims it's My favorite one. And each claims its bible was written personally by Me, and that all the other bibles are man-made. Oh, Me. How do I even begin to put a stop to such complicated nonsense? Okay, listen up now. I'm your Father AND Mother, and I don't play favorites among My children. Also, I hate to break it to you, but I don't write. My longhand is awful, and I've always been more of a "doer" © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 2 anyway. So ALL of your books, including those bibles, were written by men and women. They were inspired, remarkable people, but they also made mistakes here and there. I made sure of that, so that you would never trust a written word more than your own living heart. You see, one human being to ME — even a bum on the street — is worth more than all the Holy books in the world. That's just the kind of guy I am. My Spirit is not a historical thing; it’s alive right here, right now, as fresh as your next breath. Holy books and religious rites are sacred and powerful, but not more so than the least of you. They were only meant to steer you in the right direction, not to keep you arguing with each other, and certainly not to keep you from trusting your own personal connection with Me. Which brings Me to My next point about your nonsense. You act like I need you and your religions to stick up for Me or "win souls" for My sake. Please don't do Me any favors. I can stand quite well on My own, thank you. I don't need you to defend Me, and I don't need constant credit. I just want you to be good to each other. And another thing: I don't get all worked up over money or politics, so stop dragging My name into your dramas. For example, I swear to Me that I never threatened Oral Roberts. I never rode in any of Rajneesh's Rolls Royces. I never told Pat Robertson to run for president, and I've never EVER had a conversation with Jim Baker, Jerry Falwell, or Jimmy Swaggart! Of course, come Judgment Day, I certainly intend to ... The thing is, I want you to stop thinking of religion as some sort of loyalty pledge to Me. The true purpose of your religions is so that YOU can become more aware of ME, not the other way around. Believe Me, I know you already. I know what’s in each of your hearts, and I love you with no strings attached. Lighten up and enjoy Me. That’s what religion is best for. It was on a spring-like Lenten Wednesday evening this past season that the meditation which I offered seemed to connect with a number of people, because in that meditation I explained how I had become such a flaming liberal and arch heretic, that it was really a process over many, many years. There were a number of people who said to me, “You know, you really ought to do that on Sunday morning.” I don't generally do that kind of thing and yet, when it continued to surface now and then, I thought finally, “Okay, let’s do that.” Last week we talked about the freedom of the nation and the privilege we enjoy as a free people, but today I want to talk about that which personally has given me the greatest freedom of my life: the freedom to embrace the other without qualms, without feeling awkward or clumsy, without defensiveness or tentativeness or distancing or alienation, just simply to open my heart and my © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 3 arms to embrace the other. And it didn't come easily because I was nurtured in a very strong tradition, the Protestant tradition, the Reformed tradition, Calvinism as expressed in Dutch Reformed piety that had a pinch of mysticism about it, deeply traditioned in that old Reformed faith that had a very great gulf built between those who were the children of God and those who were not, those who were saved and those who were lost, those who were chosen by God and those who were damned by God. The eternal election of grace is something that I grew up with. After seven years of pastoral experience, the first four which were right here, my little system was showing signs of wear; it was beginning to crack, because you know the human situation isn't always clean and neat. It's often very messy. It doesn't fit all the categories. There is not always a rule or a prescription for every human situation. Suddenly we are confronted with something that, "Where do we go to find the answer to this?" After seven years of pastoral experience, I really needed a new beginning. I needed to look again. My European experience of four years was an existential quest much more than an academic quest. It was for me to find a Gospel I could preach honestly with authenticity, because I was running into some walls that I couldn't get over. So, I went to Europe and there met my dear Professor Berkhof who had invited me to visit him when I came and see whether or not we might work out something. I went to see him, and on his drape was pinned that little scrap of paper that had the words of Tennyson, "Our little systems have their day, they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken light of Thee, and Thou, O Lord, art more than they." I said to myself, "I think I've found my man." This was exactly what I needed because, if there's anything I had, it was a little system. If you didn't grow up as I did in Dutch Reformed piety and theology, you're not even going to be able to understand what I'm going to talk about now, because you have to have been born with this thing to have any comprehension of it at all, to take it in at all. But I grew up on that national Dutch flower, the tulip. Now, most of the world, in order to trace its heritage, seeks its roots. Dutch people seek their bulbs, and the bulb blossoms into a tulip, and the five petals of the tulip are five propositions of Christian faith understanding as it was given to me: TULIP, an acrostic for five significant points of doctrine. The T stands for total depravity, which simply means that being human, you're a dirty rotter. Being human, you're guilty as sin. Being human, you're a fallen creature. Being human, you're lost. So, what is God going to do about it? God is going to unconditionally choose or elect some. Not all. And it’s unconditional. This is something deep in God, deep in eternity. It has nothing to do with a person's righteousness or lack thereof, a person's response or lack thereof. It is an unconditional election. A part of the © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 4 human race, only a part. Some are saved, some are lost. The U stands for unconditional election. Those who are totally depraved and unconditionally elected, it is for them that Christ died. Limited atonement, the L. Well, there's a sense in which Christ died for the world, but not seriously; Christ died for the elect. Limited atonement. And, of course, being totally depraved as you are, and unconditionally elected as you are, and having had Christ die for you, then you will be irresistibly drawn by grace. There's no way you can get out of it. You can kick and scream and howl, but God will get you. Irrestible grace, the I in TULIP. And you who are totally depraved and unconditionally elected for whom Christ died as a limited atonement, who have been irresistibly drawn by God's grace, will be preserved unto all eternity. The preservation of the saints, the P. There you have it Once you get in the little scheme, you can't get out of it. It is totally, logically coherent. If you start it, you have to end up where it ends up. TULIP. "Our little systems have their day, they have their day and cease to be..." My little system was running on fumes. In my study, I began to probe the nature of God's grace, really the nature of God and the extent of that grace. I was nervous about the fact that some people from the foundations of the world were chosen in Christ, and other people simply were damned. They were the reprobates. They didn't have a chance. Of course, we made our own choice to fall in Adam. You were there, weren't you? But, having made that choice in Adam, there was no way to get out of it, and if we were not chosen by God, curtains. That was not sitting easily with me and so, as I came back here in 1971 and in subsequent years, I was dancing all around those subjects. I was probing, testing, preaching and teaching in a time of experimentation, to which most of you were subjected and about which you were very gracious, indeed. Then in 1985, the church constituted a theological journal and I was invited to be on the Board of Editors and, becoming one of the editors, I had to begin to write. For me, that was a great opportunity, because I had to begin to put down clearly some of the stuff I had been thinking about. You know, in preaching one can be fuzzy. Old Dr. Harry Jellema years ago came one summer Sunday and, as he left, he winked at me. He always would say something in Dutch to me and light up his pipe. But this time he winked at me and said, “Studied ambiguity is the secret of success.” He knew where I was fussing around. Most people didn't. They just sang, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and went out of here happy as a bird. © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 5 But, now I had to begin to write, and that’s in black and white and that’s public. The Board of Editors said to me, because we were talking about these things together, “Why don't you write on the extent of grace, the covenant of grace?” I said I would and I began to do some research for that, and one of the great aids that came to me was from that wonderful house organ of the Christian Reformed Church known for its piety and its orthodoxy and its ecclesiastical, political analysis, The Banner, in a guest editorial which is entitled, “Who is Saved?” I said, “Ah, this is it. Now I’ll know. Who is saved?” The writer is a brilliant mind who writes exceedingly well and, with great lucidity, he set forth the wonders of a universal grace - all saved. He made it so appealing, but then he said, but it won't wash. No, he said, God must decide who is saved and God must save them. In Calvinist orthodoxy, God wants to save everybody: I Timothy 2:4, "And God can save everybody." God arranged for the death of Christ to radiate sufficient power for the salvation of all. God also orders the Gospel preached to all. But, at the end of the day, God abandons some. God wants everybody saved, but never intends to save all. God wants everybody saved, but doesn't plan on it. The reprobate are heartbreakingly, finally, disastrously lost. God could save them, but he doesn't, and nobody knows why. Probably none of us needs reminding that this is a painful scheme. The awfulness of it comes home to us when we look at the spiritual rebellion of a son or daughter. Could it possibly be that God has never intended to save this precious person? Well, I put the magazine down and read no further, because that was a scheme painful, indeed. It was too painful for me. It was one of those moments, one of those transforming moments when suddenly you see everything. You see something differently. You know. You know that that is not true. You know that system has a terrible distortion in it, and so suddenly it is like shackles fall off and one begins to think again. Now, imagine it. This is a very lucid, clear, unambiguous presentation of Reformed Calvinism, and if you are consistent with that system, you might have a son or a daughter who’s kicking over the traces, sowing their wild oats in a state of rebellion, turning their back on you, heedless of your pleas, and you would have to contemplate the possibility that God never intended to save them. I had to say I don't believe that. I cannot believe that. That is not any God that I could worship. Of course, being deeply imbedded in the tradition which claimed to find its source in the scriptures, I had to go back to the scriptures. It's really interesting. It is the same old book, but when one puts on different glasses, one sees things one never saw before. For example, that beautiful passage in Hosea, chapter 11, where God talks about how tenderly he tended to Israel as a child and Israel rebelled, and God says, “Okay. My wrath is on you. You're going to be destroyed.” And then God says, “How can I give you up? My compassion warms within me. I © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 6 will not destroy Ephnam, for I am God, not human.” That God, you see, a God of passionate, fierce love and grace and mercy that would not give up. Or, Paul struggling with that question of Israel, “Why, Why did Israel reject Jesus?” Paul had seen it – Paul, this Jewish Pharisee, this blue blood rabbi – he saw in Jesus this one whose grace had broken the bounds of Israel and flown to the whole world and he wanted to take it to the whole world, but his own brothers and sisters didn't see it. He said, “I would that I could be accursed if only they would see it. They have a zeal for God, but not according to righteousness. What’s going on?” Well, I [Paul] think what's going on is that Israel's rejection is so that the Gospel goes to the Gentiles. And then eventually the Gentiles, receiving the grace of God, will cause envy in Israel and then – then all of Israel will be saved. God has consigned all to disobedience according that God may have mercy on all. Hosea 11:32. I said, “Oh, Paul? You're getting close to a universal conception of grace. Or a conception of universal grace.” And, of course, it has to do with the nature of God, and where do we see the nature of God more clearly than in the face of Jesus? And when you see him on the cross, the victim of the violence and the bigotry and the prejudice, the hatred of the human family, what does he do? Does he respond in kind? No. He says, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." He sees through, he penetrates through their ignorance, through their defensiveness, through their hostility; he sees through them to something deeper. He says, “Father, forgive them. They just don't understand.” That's a picture of God, that kind of grace, that kind of mercy. Now, you see, God didn't drop those words out of heaven, but this was the deepest intuition of Hosea's heart, this is what Hosea sensed God must be like. This is Paul's insight. He was wrong about the timetable of God's redemptive scheme. He was wrong about a lot of things, but he saw something about the grace of God and that to which he witnessed. This word of Jesus - there wasn't any court recorder there. There wasn't any microphone on the cross. What Jesus had been, what he had embodied, how he had impacted them caused them to write this word, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," because that is reflective of who Jesus was. And Jesus is reflective of who God is. So, little by little, I became more and more certain. I knew, not only that that theological system was broken and that I had to free myself of it while continuing to listen to it and respect it, but I knew that the news was better than ever I had dreamed and I found a freedom within, a freedom to embrace. I found a new joy. I found that I could open up to people. I found that I wasn't awkward anymore. My body language didn't reflect the fact that I had to keep you at arm's length until you step over this line and become one with me. I didn't have to get anybody to step over any line. All I had to do was to be the embodiment and the witness of © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 7 a grace of God that embraces us before ever anyone heard our borning cry. What a relief. What a freedom. What a joy. As I was preparing that Lenten message, there was on my desk an article from Sports Illustrated which I never read, but somebody had found an article that they thought was probably good for me to read, and I thought to myself I don't have time to read this today. It's a long article. But, I made the mistake to read the first page, and then it was page two and three and four, and this amazing story of a black basketball coach who was a Catholic, in Berlin, Ohio, in the very midst of this Mennonite Amish country. The Amish are the conservative ones; they have horse and buggy. The Mennonites are the liberal ones; they have trucks. But, they're all very much of a piece. Wonderful people, strong community. Into that community comes a black Catholic basketball coach. I can't go into the whole story, but they resisted; he turned the other cheek. His presence was transforming. It's a wonderful, amazing story of how one individual, embodying a marvelous kind of grace and charisma, became a transforming angel in the midst of a whole community. Best of all, he brought trophies and big championships to Berlin, Ohio. Then, at age 48, a malignant brain tumor was found, and he died. In his death vigil they came, surrounding his bed day and night. They came, past alumni who had gone across the country; the whole community was there day and night at his side. The whole community was thrown into a terrible grief at its loss. This black Catholic in Mennonite country was buried in St. Peter's Catholic Church in Millersburg, a few miles away, because, of course, there were no Catholic churches in Mennonite country, just like there are no black people. No Catholics, no blacks. A black Catholic now is being buried in a village far away and everybody goes, former players, present players, Mennonites, Amish, black Baptists who were his relatives, white Catholics who were part of his congregation - the whole congregation was full for his funeral. The article concludes that at the funeral, just before Communion, Father Ron Aubrey gazed across St. Peter's, Coach's Catholic church. The priest knew that what he wanted to do wasn't allowed and that he could get into trouble. But, he knew Coach, too, so he did it. Invited everyone to come up to receive the holy wafer. Steve Mullet glanced at his wife in her simple clothing and veil. "Why not?" she whispered. After all, the service wasn't the bizarre ritual they had been led to believe it was. Wasn't all that different from their own. Still, Steve hesitated. He glanced at Willy Mast. "Would Coach want us to?" "You got it, Bubs," said Willy. So, they rose and joined all the black Baptists and white Catholics pouring toward the altar. All the basketball players, all the Mennonites, young and old, busting laws left and right, busting straight into the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that wonderful? I know about that. I know about that freedom to embrace, no longer having to worry that it’s up to me to do God's work. Just to be able to witness to an amazing grace that is broad enough to cover the whole human © Grand Valley State University �The Freedom to Embrace Richard A. Rhem Page 8 family and that will finally bring us all home. Ah, that's really to live - by grace, by George. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VI Scripture Text Hosea 11:1-9, Romans 11:25-36, Luke 23:32-34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010708 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-07-08 Title A name given to the resource The Freedom to Embrace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 8, 2001 entitled "The Freedom to Embrace", on the occasion of Pentecost VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hosea 11:1-9, Romans 11:25-36, Luke 23:32-34. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Exclusivism Nature of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/399363ae2404cd7828c457618c3b4b22.mp3 21cdd946ab3ab078b9706cc54a6babb3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c61e97f5ba0f734293f7fd82bbf26929.pdf fb6ed5a498c67bbe37fc3f0181c4b108 PDF Text Text Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V Readings from our Past: Psalm 33:10-17; Matthew 5:38-48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 1, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon About eighteen months ago, at the turn of the millennium, I pointed to a book that had impressed me with its insight about our present human situation in terms of the international global situation. Samuel T. Huntington with a lot of experience in international affairs had written a book, The Clash of Civilizations, which concludes with this paragraph: In the 1950s, Lester Pearson warned that humans were moving into an age when different civilizations will have to learn to live side by side in peaceful interchange, learning from each other, studying each other's history and ideals and art and culture, mutually enriching each other's lives. The alternative in this over crowded little world is misunderstanding, tension, clash and catastrophe. The futures of both peace and civilization depend upon understanding and cooperation among the political, spiritual, and intellectual leaders of the world's major civilizations. In the clash of civilizations, Europe and America will hang together or hang separately. In the greater clash, the global real clash between civilization and barbarism, the world's great civilizations with their rich accomplishments in religion, art, literature, philosophy, science, technology, morality and compassion, will also hang together or hang separately. In the emerging era, clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war. The human story is a fascinating story and, as in this week once again we celebrate the independence of our nation, I thought it might be well for us to think of our nation and our Western civilization in terms of its unique values which have come to us at great cost and great sacrifice. We have, I think, a growing awareness or raised consciousness of the sacrifice and the cost of that which we enjoy together and so easily take for granted. Nancy and I, two or three weeks ago, went to see the film, Pearl Harbor, which is justifiably criticized for making a big buck on a love story and perhaps trivializing © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 2 the event itself, according to those who were there. It seems to me that is probably a justified criticism and yet, once again, that film calls to mind that Day of Infamy, and the terrible cost that has been paid even in the last century for the freedoms and the liberties that we enjoy. Perhaps the anchor of NBC, Tom Brokaw, in his book, The Greatest Generation, in his continuing effort to bring those voices forward, has also given us a certain new awareness of that which it has cost in the past in order to preserve and to protect that which we have as a people. And so it seems to me that it is good for us, on an occasion like this, to reflect on where we are in the world, who we are in the world, and that which is incumbent upon us in order to preserve and to perpetuate the values that have been so richly enjoyed by us as a people. In his book, The Clash of Civilizations. Huntington tells the story of the past century and those great wars that were waged. There was the First World War, for example, and President Wilson committed us to that war with a suggestion that it would be a war to end all wars, and, of course, it was not, but rather it birthed Fascism and Communism and the retreat of Democracy which had been gaining ground in the century past. And then there was the Second World War and, toward its close and the close of his life, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began to speak of the United Nations and the creation of an organization of peace loving nations that would come together in the universal organization, and that would ensure a structure of permanent peace. And, of course, after the euphoria died down, we recognized before long that we were engaged in a Cold War which for decades had us teetering on the edge of disaster in a balance of terror. I remember well the euphoria that came in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There we thought finally we had won the battle. There was a State Department official, Francis Fukayama, who wrote a very widely discussed essay entitled, “The End of History," in which he suggested that the West had won, that the values of freedom and democracy and free enterprise and all of that which marks our life had finally been demonstrated to be superior and that it was just a matter of time before the whole world embraced those particular values and marks of Western civilization. Fukayama went so far as to suggest that the future of history would be boring. And we know what happened to the euphoria of the fall of the Berlin Wall, for it opened up ancient wounds, the Balkans, ethnic cleansing, that terrible slaughter and massacre that went on, brought to us once again with greater clarity through the turning over of Milosevic to the world court to be tried on crimes against humanity. In the last decade plus we have seen the rise of militant fundamentalisms and religion, creating violence and horror. We have seen massacres and racial genocide, and we have recognized that the global body politic is wounded, indeed. Then President Bush had spoken of a new world order, but it was not to be, and so here we are. © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 3 Samuel Huntington suggests that it was a foolish optimism that ever believed that there could be a universal civilization, that what we are faced with and what we have to recognize is rather a diversity of civilizations, perhaps seven or eight civilizational groupings which are tied by blood and language and religion, which have a deep identity that transcends national boundaries, that represent ancient bonding of human families. It is Huntington's contention that the only way to security and to peace in this global world of ours is through the acceptance of that diversity, the recognition of it, even the celebration of it, simply to come to the realization that it will not be the West and the rest, or the West as the best, but rather, in the respective civilizational groupings, each having its own integrity, there will have to be a way of coming to understanding, of mutual respect, of the investigation of the history, the culture, the art, the philosophy, and the religious faith of the respective groups in order that there might be a living together in human community with that diversity acknowledged and recognized and celebrated. This seems to me to make a lot of sense and the other point that he makes (apropos for us on this week in which we celebrate our independence) is that we ought to renew those values that have made us what we are, that we ought to renew and recommit ourselves to that which is uniquely Western, that which was born in Europe and has been lived out and embodied here in such a fruitful way individual liberty, political democracy, human rights, the rule of law, that pluralism and that Christian rootage which has flowered in Western civilization. Certainly we don't want our civilization to be closed against others but, according to Huntington, there has been a naiveté about the possibility of multi-culturalism within a given civilization. Multi-culturalism within a civilization attempts to make that civilization the world, and it is not. Just as a mono-culturalism would attempt to make the whole world like one's own civilization, and that brings conflict, and that won't work, either. To recognize the diversity of civilization, but to recommit oneself to one's own values, to recognize anew that which has given us birth, that which is at the foundation of that freedom and liberty and humane existence, the civility that has marked our civilization at its best would seem to be the path of wisdom. As I think about the biblical story, we read Psalm 33 and its insight is that we will not live and survive by military might. That has been practiced and that has been our practice and, as the most powerful nation on earth, we have often been told that we must continue to be strong in order to preserve peace. There have been instances in the past where, thank God, we had the strength to turn away the aggressor and the tyrant. But we ought to recognize the wisdom of that Old Testament poet in that finally what we are all after, global security and peace, will not be secured by superior military might. A king is not saved by his armies, said the Psalmist, and the war horse is a vain hope for victory. Finally, you cannot arm yourself, you cannot have strength enough to repel every enemy and to remove every danger. We have to find it in some other way. Peace does not lie through military power, and if I move to that famous and disturbing Sermon on the © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 4 Mount, I hear Jesus talking about the law of retaliation, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and I recognize that there was a time when an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was a code of justice. What it says is that the penalty ought to meet the crime. An eye for an eye, not a life for an eye. It's a tooth for a tooth, not a life for a tooth. That was a step forward in human understanding. But, Jesus goes beyond that. In the very, very disturbing moral imperative, Jesus suggests turning the other cheek, going the extra mile. And then, in the most radical of all suggestions, to love our enemies, for he says if you like the people who like you, big deal. If you love the people who love you, big deal. Everybody does that. It's natural to do that. It is human to do that. But, to love your enemies? That’s divine. For he points to the God whose sun shines on the just and the unjust and the God whose rain waters the gardens of the good and the evil. The God of Jesus was a God of non-discrimination and humanity, in Jesus' image of things, is rooted in God, so that there is a common ground of humanity. God is the eternal ground and source and, therefore, because of that common ground and source, there is a common humanity and, consequently, all humanity deserves to be treated humanely and it is incumbent upon human beings to be humane, one to another without discrimination and without exclusion. Well, I don't know what to do with Jesus' words. Some in the history of interpretation have said that's not for now, that's for when Jesus comes again and establishes a kingdom on earth. That’s a future ethic. Well, nice going, but it won't work. In all honesty, whether you want to take Jesus seriously or not, whether you think he was on to something or not, what we can't do is say he was talking about some future age in the Sermon on the Mount. That was immediate. That is here and now. Others have said that's fine on an individual basis, but you can't do it in the corporate. Well, maybe it won't work, but I think that's what Jesus intended. I think that is what he was saying. I don't quite know what to do with it. I think it would be helpful if, before we argued with it, we listened to it. If, before we reject it out of hand as some ridiculous kind of counsel, we let it seep into the pores of our being. We let that ethic simply be with us for a bit because, if it would saturate our being and seep into the pores of our nature, it would have to have some kind of effect on our spirit and on our attitude. And finally, the human problem is a problem of attitude and spirit, and Jesus was suggesting that there is a common humanity that demands a universal humaneness and acceptance. Positively, we have to accept the civilizational diversity and even celebrate it. We should renew our own values and recognize the roots from which they have sprung, and celebrate them and preserve them, as well. And then, we ought to find those areas where the civilizational groupings overlap in common values, common, shared human values for justice and for © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 5 truth and compassion, rejecting murder, deceit, tyranny, torture and oppression, because if one takes those civilizational groupings at their best there is a shared value, there is a shared morality, a shared ethical sense which can be distilled and which each respective civilizational group committing itself to would make for the kind of security and peace and well-being that is necessary for our world that has come to a crossroads because of the tremendous power, because of the tremendous technological capacity, because of the fact that we have everything at hand to destroy the whole human experiment if we don't learn to live with justice and peace, one with another. Certainly, the Christian church has not been a good example. I was just rereading again the book that I'll be using in July by Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God, the conflict in the 4th century in trying to establish the orthodox Christological formulation. After a century and more of bloody conflict, an edict of the Roman Empire established orthodox Nicene Christology and, when that was established, a group of Christians began to burn synagogues and pagan temples and massacre people, and the emperor as a responsible ruler demanded that they make restitution and that the leaders be punished, and the great and highly esteemed Bishop Ambrose of Milan said to the emperor, "Why should God's people be punished for destroying the heretics and the pagans? If you don't rescind your rule to punish, I will not serve you Holy Communion," and the emperor relented. I suppose I tell you that little story because I started out where Ambrose was – not quite so violent, thank God – but with that kind of exclusionary attitude that ignorantly and arrogantly said, "This is it and this is true and only this is true." And then, by the miracle of grace and the Holy Spirit, those blinders began to fall off and I began to see the light and the grace in others and, rather than closing myself off and rejecting, began to open up and embrace and found a vitality and a joy and a celebration of life such as I never knew in that cramped and crimped orthodoxy that was wringing all of the joy of life out of me. I suggest that has happened to this community, as well, where we have learned the broadness of God's mercy, we have learned the freedom of throwing open our arms and embracing all and excluding none, and we have learned that breaking down the barriers that divide is the way to humanity, to grace and joy and blessing. So I would suggest that, as a civilizational group, as a nation, there is possibility for us. There is possibility for the world. It may yet be a long way off. We'll have a good many battles yet to wage. But, finally, with an attitude and a spirit that has at least heard the word of Jesus, has recognized how it cuts against the grain of the human animal, but is indeed the voice of the Spirit, little by little we might move toward that day when we will not exclude the other, but rather, find ourselves celebrating that family of which we are a part, in harmony with the other families of the globe, and there would be peace on earth. © Grand Valley State University �Beyond Nation, Ethnicity and Creed Richard A. Rhem Page 6 References: Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone, 1997. Richard E. Rubenstein. When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome. Harcourt Inc., 1999. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V Scripture Text Psalm 33:10-17, Matthew 5:38-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone, 1997. Richard E. Rubenstein. When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome. Harcourt,Inc., 1999. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010701 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-07-01 Title A name given to the resource Beyond National, Ethnicity and Creed Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 1, 2001 entitled "Beyond National, Ethnicity and Creed", on the occasion of Independence Day Weekend, Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:10-17, Matthew 5:38-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Global Community Inclusivism Non-violence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/30db5f5527bdf39d8c4e7c5abd7b969d.mp3 f7a34b77f95ef5abee11133a048ff316 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0dbd9535eb61558d01e66b856fbef738.pdf 51edce6bc5c270f126da16f207518762 PDF Text Text God: The Feeling That Remains Where the Concept Fails From the series: Credo A Celebration of the Music of the Church and Thirty Years of John G. Bryson As Director of Music and Fine Arts Isaiah 6:1; Revelation 1:17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Trinity Sunday, June 10, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon It was a number of months ago that I chose this Sunday on which to celebrate the life and the ministry of John Gregory Bryson and to share together in community the finale of his tenure with us. I did it intentionally because this, on the church calendar, is Trinity Sunday, and we have gone 'round the cycle once again, moving from Advent through Christmas to Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Eastertide, Ascension, Pentecost, and then this Lord's Day which is celebrated in the larger Church as Trinity Sunday, a Sunday in which we celebrate that God who is the deep Mystery, the Guide and Ground, the Source of all that is, from which all flows, that Mystery that is God revealed to us in the incarnation of the Word in the face of Jesus Christ, present to us and with us and in us in the Holy Spirit - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit - one God blessed forever. That is the theme and the focus of this day, Trinity Sunday. It is a proper day in which to focus on the worship of the Church, and this community, the life that we have shared together for over a quarter of a century, almost three decades, as a worshiping community in word, in sacrament, in music and artistic expression, worshiping that deep Mystery of our lives revealed to us in Jesus, present to us in the Spirit. I chose Trinity Sunday because our Director of Music and Fine Arts, whose final appearance in that position is today, has been drunk with God from a child. God has been the passion of his life. It was my privilege some years ago to visit his boyhood home. He wasn't there and so his mother let me in on all the secrets. She took me from the basement to the attic, and in the basement there, undisturbed, like the room of a deceased mate in which nothing is touched, there was still the little pulpit and the dossal cloth and the school desks that were the pews, and the little organ. Some children play ball. Some children play school, but Greg played church. And, fortunately, he found playmates that would sit obediently in the pews as he led worship. Now, you see, I tell you the truth - he has been intoxicated with God and God has been the passion of his life from the very early years, and thus it is Trinity Sunday in © Grand Valley State University �The Feeling that Remains Where the Concept Fails Richard A. Rhem Page 2 which our worship, moving through the drama of redemption as we have it in its historic story and the scriptures, comes to its culmination, this God who is the one whom we worship and acknowledge as the Source and the Ground, the Guide and the Goal of all that is. Greg's passion for God, coupled with natural endowments of artistic giftedness, found expression in artistic expression. It is the aesthetic dimension of life in which that passion finds its fascination and its beautiful expression. Thus, throughout all of his life, he has been drawn to worship very naturally, because of who he is, because of the giftedness with which he was graced, because of that passion that could find expression only in the worship of that ultimate mystery, indeed, the eternal God. In the early years when Greg was with me, I didn't fully appreciate that aesthetic dimension which is so critical for worship that elevates the soul and the spirit. I, too, was a child warped from the womb. I just about matched him in oddness, for as a child I would bring a little notebook to church and I would note in that small notebook the text of the sermon and the three points, for in my childhood experience, the sermon always had three points. I think it's probably an adolescent rebellion that I am always certain that my sermons have no point at all. But, I would come home and at Sunday dinner, to the great pleasure of my father, would recite the text and the three points, my three older sisters, never being able to match me at that point. But, you see, as a child it was likewise, an intoxication with God, for me, not in aesthetic expression but, rather, in rational understanding. I shudder to think of the times that, even as an adolescent, I wrestled with questions of predestination and free will, reading the facts and mysteries of the Christian Faith by one of the fine theologians of our tradition, always trying to understand, always trying to figure it out, for I was steeped in that Reformed tradition of Dutch pietism which sought always rationally to explicate the faith. Mine was an intellectual quest, even as a child, a quest for understanding. And that which was sought so diligently was the literal and absolute truth. And then there was a moment in my experience when a light went on. I was at a seminar at McCormick Seminary in Chicago in the mid-70s and it was a seminar at this Presbyterian school on the Apostles' Creed, and they invited a Lutheran theologian, a great old scholar, Joseph Sittler, and in his address on one of the aspects of the creed, he made a statement as an aside, but for me, it was not an aside, it became luminous, flooding my whole being with light, for he said, "You know, you Presbyterians, you always come at it through the head, whereas the Catholic tradition comes at it through pageantry, through color, through touch and smell, through all of the fabric of that rich worship experience of the Catholic tradition." In that moment I knew that I had been on one track, it was the track I learned from the Heidelberg catechism. There is a question and answer in that catechism which says, "Why will not God have God's people taught by pictures and images?" And the answer is, "Because God will have God's people taught by © Grand Valley State University �The Feeling that Remains Where the Concept Fails Richard A. Rhem Page 3 the lively preaching of the word." And that had been my whole tradition. That had been my whole experience. There had been none of the aesthetic, none of the artistic. It had been a word-centered, rationally, intellectually delivered systematic presentation of the faith, whereas, as Sittler spoke of the richness of the Catholic mass, entering a cathedral, a Catholic church is like entering a warm womb, and suddenly I saw that there was no need to choose between the lively preaching or the richness of the pageantry, the symbolic artistic expression of the faith, and it was from that moment on that I began consciously working intentionally with Mr. Bryson in the creation of a tapestry of worship that used all of the artistic expression available while not discounting the articulation of faith in preaching. That's been the story of over a quarter of a century of worship at Christ Community. But, I had to learn that my intellectual quest was not enough. I had to learn the statement which I quote as the title of this meditation from a German theologian, Rudolf Otto, who says in another throwaway line, "The feeling that remains where the concept fails." The feeling that remains where the concept fails. So much of my earlier experience was in terms of concepts, seeking to bring understanding, rational understanding, seeking intellectually to grapple with God, and I had to come to understand that God will not be intellectually managed. It is impossible to come to the fullness of the experience of the mystery of the sacred and the holy in rational categories. Finally the concept fails. Finally one hits a brick wall. Finally one hits the ceiling. There is nothing more to say. There is nothing more to think. But, when the concept fails, there is a feeling, there is a sense. It is the sense of a presence. It is the experience of the sacred. It is the recognition of a mystery that transcends us and undergirds us, overshadows us and calls us to awe and to wonder. The feeling that remains where the concept fails. In the pulpit ministry and in my preaching, I can bring you only to a certain threshold and then it has been our gift over all these many years to have another God-intoxicated, passionate minister who has been able to lift us and to elevate us into the very presence of the Holy. Not to downgrade in any regard that intellectual quest, only to recognize its limits and to recognize, as well, that it is in the community of worship that the concept fails and the feeling comes to us in that numinous awareness of the otherness of God. The mystery of God manifest in the face of Jesus, present to us and within us in the breathing, the wind, the spirit of God - it is that tapestry of articulation woven into the fabric of aesthetic appreciation, artistic expression that has brought us, week after week, into the experience of the Holy so that, leaving, the concept fades, but the feeling remains and we know we have been in the presence of God, to do so in community, in community where we come together to be reminded of who we are. Friday evening the choir and pastors gathered with the Bryson family for a toast and a roast, and the Parlour was beautiful and we had a wonderful evening and I was so deeply moved at the memories of all these many years, and I realized © Grand Valley State University �The Feeling that Remains Where the Concept Fails Richard A. Rhem Page 4 again the gift it is to be part of community, to have those long, deep bonding relationships, to belong to a family, to a community that is bound together in those ultimate commitments that have been melded into one, in-depth experiences of exhilaration and ecstasy, the community where we celebrate life and we have done it again so recently with so many tears. Mother's Day, a grandmother, fighting cancer, seeing her granddaughters kneel here affirming their faith. Confirmation, young people kneeling here with pastors' and parents' hands upon them, launching them into their life journey. Baccalaureate with the graduates receiving a rose and knowing that they have here a place, a home, always, again being launched into the grand adventure of life. Moments to remember. Moments that move us deeply so that when the concept fails, the feeling remains. You see, the concept is not unimportant, but it is so very limited. Someone gave me a statement the other day, "All of our religions are but the ossified remains of former prophetic and ecstatic visions." That is true, for our religions, in all of their structures and all of their systems, are but human constructions which are stammering attempts to give expression to that ultimate Mystery that will always defy the concept, but a Mystery present to us as we gather so that as we disperse, a feeling remains and we know we have been in the presence of God. So, we gather as a community to remember who we are and whose we are, to celebrate our common life together and to be challenged to go out into this world to humanize it in the name of the God whose mystery was revealed to us in the humanness of Jesus. Ah, dear friends, we have been a gifted people, richly blessed, blessed in that the concept in all of its limitedness has been lifted beyond the intellectual appropriation to the existential experience, and there has been no one so responsible for that as my partner and my dear friend, your Director of Music and Fine Arts, John Gregory Bryson. To him, thank you. And to God be the glory. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Celebration of 30 years of John Bryson as Director of Music and Fine Arts, Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II Series Credo Scripture Text Isaiah 6:1, Revelation 1:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010610 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-06-10 Title A name given to the resource God: The Feeling That Remains Where the Concept Fails Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 10, 2001 entitled "God: The Feeling That Remains Where the Concept Fails", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Celebration of 30 years of John Bryson as Director of Music and Fine Arts, Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 6:1, Revelation 1:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Experience of the sacred Liturgy Trinity Sunday https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/804d5784ce4832dc35b9b065627365b0.mp3 3d3e09307a76a88ce6dfa63e8468d1bc https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/885ec2dd43d0a4f02b6a3446723d8822.pdf c4f46a25e2a3df2c2bb3fe3aa641e832 PDF Text Text As Intimate As Breathing From the series: Credo Acts 2:1-4; John 14:15-20 Text: John 14:17 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost, June 3, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon On this Pentecost, I want to say that God is as intimate as your breathing; that is, God is in you and you are in God, and that is good news. You don't have to look elsewhere, "out there," "up there," you don't have to wonder. You can be assured God is in you and God will be with you always. I don't watch television. I should, because it is a good connector to contemporary culture and one who preaches as I do ought to get his nose out of the theology books once in a while and see what people are thinking about. But, I understand that the dramatic series, "West Wing," in its finale, had some serious theology about it. Or, so the reporter in the Grand Rapids Press said in yesterday's edition, and, as I read that, I recognized that I probably had missed something to which I should have been attuned. The "West Wing" drama series is a fictionalized White House setting with a President, Jed Bartlett, who is apparently a very religious, deeply Christian man, and he is having one of those days, one of those days which we all have once in a while, although for a President, I suppose there are a few more dimensions to it. Hostages have been taken at the embassy in Haiti, a tropical storm is bearing down on Washington D.C., he's on his way to the funeral of his secretary who was killed in an accident, hit by a drunken driver, he has just revealed that he has Multiple Sclerosis after eight years of denying it. It's just not a good day for the President. He goes to the National Cathedral for the funeral and after the funeral, he asks that the doors be sealed because this man who was seriously Christian has some things to say to God. He becomes very much like one of those Old Testament prophets who rails against heaven. He cries out against God. All of these actions that are going on, he says to God, "Are those the actions of a caring God? Of a just God? Of a benevolent God? A wise God? Well, to hell with your punishments! I've served you, I've proclaimed your word and done your work and now to hell with your punishments, to hell with you!" He curses God. Because it is the season's finale and that is not a nice way to end a season, the secretary who has been killed appears in angelic form to say to him, "Come now. © Grand Valley State University �As Intimate as Breathing Richard A. Rhem Page 2 You know God doesn't cause cars to crash." And he begins to remember all the work there is yet to be done and, like the Old Testament prophets, he gets up and gets back at it. The journalist calls it "Serious Theology on Prime Time TV." Well, true. The railing against God - as I said, that has good, particularly Old Testament precedent. The shaking of the fist at heaven, the outpouring of an anguished heart or an angry heart - who has not been there? Who has not done it? And God can take it, as it were. I mean, it is not a problem with God, but it is a way that we humans react in the midst of our misery and our tragedy. There seems to be something almost endemic in us that, in the midst of that kind of crisis, causes us to cry out, shake our fist at heaven, to plead, cajole, whatever. And yet, that is an image of God that really won't wash anymore. Our knowledge and our human experience today tell us that that ancient conception of a God "out there" who is running the universe won't work anymore. I think the emotional response probably written into our genetic code – probably out of the early dawn of what it was to be human, confronted with the mysteries and the tragedies that are a part of the human scene – still find utterance in that kind of call and prime time TV 2001. And yet, I have to say that presentation on "West Wing" is very much of the biblical view, isn't it? It is a supernaturalistic view of things. There is this realm, this world, this universe, and there is another where God dwells. There is the ongoing drama of nature and there is one above nature who controls nature and intrudes into nature. On this Pentecost Sunday we would have to say in the Gospel of John, Jesus is the word made flesh who comes from the father and who returns to the father and who promises, "I will not leave you orphaned, I will come to you, I will send another advocate or spirit to be with you." So, "West Wing" is not only consonant with something that is intuitive in the human being, but also reflected in the biblical story. Too bad we can't believe it anymore. Because it is really counter to everything we know about the way things work, about our world, the cosmic drama, about the human being. There was something comforting about it, something "up there" in control. Somebody pulling the strings, working the gears, interrupting the process on occasion. But, I suppose the angel visitant at the end of the drama on "West Wing" which not only gave the season finale a softer touch and a bit of hope, a little sentimentalism and a little romanticism (don't we all love angels?) was also an admission, once we think about it, we know better. God doesn't cause cars to crash. We're on our own. There was a time, because I was nurtured in that biblical story, as were all of you, when I thought in terms of a natural realm and a supernatural realm, but I know now that that just doesn't work, that the God, whatever God may be, will be experienced and known in that total phenomenon of which we are a part called nature. And in terms of that ancient cosmology, I now must move to that which © Grand Valley State University �As Intimate as Breathing Richard A. Rhem Page 3 we understand, and that is that there was a moment, some 15 billion years ago when all of matter and energy was concentrated into one infinitely small point. I can't understand that. I'm only telling you what I have heard. But, I think that is the best scientific understanding of things today, that everything that is, this total universal system, all of the galaxies, all of the stars and the planets, the earth, the trees, the oceans, the mountains, and you and I are all the consequence of that which was all in a point in a moment. And that explosion in that infinite time past is still expanding so that this drama of which we are a part is underway. Someone has said if you would compress those 15 billion years into one year, the appearance of the human being would be in the last minute or two. I can't take that in. But, when I think about God in cosmos, God and human being, then it seems to me that that scientific picture is a picture which would indicate that the whole of reality must somehow or other be permeated by that divine presence, that sacred, that holy, call it God if you will. Not out beyond it somewhere, but within it. God as intimate as breathing. Even though the Bible is solidly supernatural and the day of Pentecost is an invasion from beyond, nonetheless, there are little hints in the biblical story itself. For the word becomes flesh and dwells among us so that God is in the human celebrated at Christmas. And Pentecost is a celebration of the presence of the Spirit of God and the breath of God within us, and John's Gospel you well know, "I am in the father and the father in me, and you in me." How do you intellectually understand that mysterious language? Isn't it a stammering attempt to hint at the fact that God is not "out there," but in here? You know, Graduates, if I were in your spot, if I had your youthful energy, your razor- sharp minds and all of your years, you know what I'd do? I wouldn't go to seminary. There is hardly a seminary alive that isn't still teaching that old biblical, supernaturalistic understanding of God. If I were you and I wanted to pursue God passionately, I would become an astronomer, a physicist. I'd study cosmology, because for years I have known and always said I should write a dissertation on the fact, which can be traced, of a shift in cosmological understanding, the nature of the universe. A shift there is reflected eventually in a shift in theological understanding. It can be traced down through the eons of the Christian story - change the conception of the universe, of the cosmos, of nature, and eventually, well, it takes the Church a long time, but eventually what we come to know impacts how we image what we believe. And so, let me tell you the good news - God is not against you. And to be spiritual is not to swim against the tide. But, rather, it is to move with the grain of the universe, for what is coming to expression, what is emerging in this drama of billions of years is Spirit. Think of it. An explosion 15 billion years ago, the cooling of that soupy chaos, the coming into formation of the stars and galaxies, eventually life, conscious life, conscious life that - here we are, reflecting on it all! It's amazing! How many generations before us could have some vista of 15 billion years of a drama that is still occurring as we speak, and within us? © Grand Valley State University �As Intimate as Breathing Richard A. Rhem Page 4 And then, this conscious life developing a spiritual dimension, a dimension of spirit, breath, which is the enlivening of the whole by the God who is not "out there" somewhere grinding the gears of the universe, but the God who is to be sensed in the stillness, in our very breathing. God present to us, in us. Thank God. Someone has said it so beautifully, speaking of you, "Offspring of the stars, children of earth, we are great mothering nature's soul-space. Her heart and vocal cords, and her willingness if we consent to it, to be spirited, to be the vessel of the holy one." God is not "out there." God is in here, and you are a vessel of the holy one, full of spirit and our task together is to make this world civil, decent, full of love and grace. God, as intimate as breathing. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost Series Credo Scripture Text John 14:17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010603 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-06-03 Title A name given to the resource As Intimate As Breathing Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 3, 2001 entitled "As Intimate As Breathing", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 14:17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Presence Grain of the Universe Immanence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aff6c726f136e2037728519bf982c190.pdf 9d7378dde17fa39019450ecd075b79f9 PDF Text Text Crucified Violence in History Memorial Day Weekend Psalm 33:12; John 11:49 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 27, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon This past week, we had to bury Nancy's brother, Larry Dornbos. On Monday, as we gathered at the Presbyterian Church in Grand Haven in the lounge to receive friends, there was more than one collage, there were other mementos that were very sensitively arranged, which represented the life of Larry. Two things were very prominent; one was, of course, Larry was a fisherman loving the outdoors, but the other was a reminder that he was a World War II veteran. Being 76 years of age, he was at that prime time for that great war. And, as I looked over the collage and saw his picture, I was reminded of today being Memorial Day, thinking about this service of worship in which we would remember those who served their country, and indeed paid that supreme sacrifice. Thinking about that, memories came to my mind, and then I had another realization and that is that the memories that come to my mind will not come to the minds of people who are much younger than I am. I experienced the second world war as a child, but old enough to feel something of what the nation was going through. I was six years old, and going to a Sunday evening service in Kalamazoo on December 7, 1941, when the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle of which is being celebrated in what's supposed to be a blockbuster film this weekend, was announced. I was nine years old, and remember celebrating V-E Day and V-J Day. I had two brothers-in-law who served in the European theatre. As I was thinking about that, I thought how many are there out there who will remember if I say that my brothers-in-law were in the Battle of the Bulge, that terrible, terrible European experience. My sisters were part of that spirit of the nation and, against the wise counsel of my father, they foolishly married boys that were going off to service. And wouldn't a parent say, "Is that wise to do? Couldn't you wait?" Of course, they couldn't wait. I was thinking about some of the names of battles and some of the famous places, and remembering my old grandmother reading the newspaper and saying, "They've got Rommel on the run." I can remember the tension. I felt some of the fear because we had loved ones over there. I remember the flag with the stars hanging in the sanctuary of my home church in Kalamazoo, and the stars that © Grand Valley State University �Crucified! Violence in History Richard A. Rhem Page 2 hung in the windows of the neighborhood. I can remember it was a time of genuine threat. It was also, I suppose, ironically, one of the best times in terms of the nation and its spirit, and its unity. Sir Kenneth Clark – who has done a wonderful video series on civilization some years ago now for the BBC, also printed in a book – makes a statement which I looked for but couldn't find quickly. He's almost hesitant to say that times of war, as you trace the history of civilization, have been times when the best and the noblest have been elicited from the human spirit, ironic though that is. But, at Larry's funeral before those collages, I began to think about all those memories, and then as I said began to realize there are a few with white hair and a few of us without any hair, who are the only ones who probably can be triggered by that type of thing. A good friend of mine gave me the book, Flags of Our Fathers. It's the story of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, the six marines that finally got to the top of the mountain and raised that flag. There was a photograph which captured that event. It's maybe the most famous photograph in the world. If you go to Washington, D.C., you'll see a monument with that re-enacted. One of the six died in the 90s, and his son wrote a story, Flags of Our Fathers, and he tells the story about how he never heard from his father anything about that event. Even though his father was a war hero who had been one of those six captured on film, the picture never hung in their home. He told how people would call for interviews and his father would always say, "Tell them I'm on a fishing trip." He would never speak of that event. His son would probe him on occasion, as would other children of the family, but he wouldn't talk. All he would say is, “The real heroes were the ones that didn't come back.” Even though he had been thus honored, he couldn't speak of it. When he died in, I think, 1993 they found in a closet hidden in an office, three cardboard boxes with mementos, in which they learned that their father had received the Navy Cross which I think is the second highest badge of honor one can receive. The family never knew it and, out of the mementos, his son found letters which caused him to begin to trace the story of the other six. Three died in action, two others died of broken hearts and alcoholism. His father was the only one of the six that survived to live a relatively normal life. Anyway, James Bradley tells the story of his father, John. As I read that, I realized that those who have experienced war in its depth and in its horror do not speak of it. I have a person that I know speaks of his World War II experience continually. He never got out of the country, but the ones that were there have been so deeply impacted by it, that they don't speak easily of it. Just recently there's been the story, the uncovering of the incident of Vietnam with former Senator Bob Kerry. Somebody, I suppose, a journalist, a writer, who knows - digging into this stuff, causing Senator Kerry to speak after all these years of that Navy Seal operation. Evidence again of the horror of war, of its insanity, of its dehumanizing, of its destruction of the human soul and spirit. © Grand Valley State University �Crucified! Violence in History Richard A. Rhem Page 3 Well, what got all this going was a photograph in the collage of Larry, a handsome young man, which he sent home from Burma where he served as a kid. There he was in this photo, and I looked at him and I've known this, we've all known this, but it just struck me - he was a child. He was a beautiful young boy. And what I suppose impacted me doubly was the fact that he was the age of my oldest grandchild. I thought to myself, dear God, we send our children to fight our wars. We send our children into that insanity. We expose our children to that horror, to that human devastation. The book Flags of Our Fathers was dedicated to the father of John Bradley, and to the mothers who gave their sons. In that dedicatory page, there's a statement from, I suppose, a Japanese woman: "Mothers should negotiate between nations." The mothers of the fighting countries would agree. Stop this killing now. Stop it now. Indeed, we should send the mothers to the negotiating table because I cannot believe, in spite of the fact that I can remember, I cannot believe that we send our children off to war. So, as I was thinking about that and thinking about today, I remembered that two or three weeks ago when the President suggested that the whole world situation has changed, and that the old kinds of defenses won't work any more, that it's no use having all of our missiles aimed at Russia or China, but that the real threat to our world today are those few rogue nations, and that what we need is a missile defense system in space, I remember in the sermon suggesting that maybe rather than finding a more sophisticated defense system, that this might be the time, seeing that we are overwhelmingly powerful on the world scene today, for our President and our Secretary of State to go to the rogue nations and to sit down with them and to say, "What do you need?" "What are your dreams?" "What drives you?" And, "Can we help you to become a part of a human community?" I said that, admitting that it was a silly idea. Admitting that I don't understand international politics. Admitting that it's a very complex situation. But, I said it out of my own intuition, out of my own deep human spirit. I said, "Why can't we change the feel of the global situation? Why can't we initiate and inaugurate something that might have a positive effect on the lives of the human family?" Well you know several of you went out the door and suggested that it was a good idea. I get all kinds of stuff at the door, "Wonderful sermon." "You were marvelous this morning." "I was deeply moved ." "I could have just as well slept in this morning." "You had nothing to say, what a preposterous idea." All of that, then sometimes you know, when you really nice people want to say something but there's nothing nice to say, you just sort of stand there and stammer. But, there are times when I say something, and I know that it registered, that you have said, too, "You know, that's true. Why can't we do something like that?" I know that that is highly impractical, that it is idealistic, and I suppose hopelessly romantic. You don't vote for a president that would do that kind of © Grand Valley State University �Crucified! Violence in History Richard A. Rhem Page 4 thing. You don't vote for some one like me for president. I don't know if I would vote for me. It's scary. It's scary, isn't it? You vote for people like Caiaphas. Caiaphas, the high priest. Two people went down in infamy at the time of Jesus' crucifixion. Pontius Pilate actually made it into our most popular creed - "suffered under Pontius Pilate." But, Caiaphas, not making it into the creed nonetheless has a name that is identified with infamy, for he was the High Priest at the time when Jesus was crucified. Caiaphas was a wily politician. In that situation, the religious and political leaders, were all wrapped up into one person, and Caiaphas was it. Obviously, Judah was an occupied nation. The Roman legions were at the ready. The best they could hope for was to collaborate with the Roman power in such a way that they could carry on some modicum of their Jewish life. Caiaphas was a leader, the high priest, leader of the Sanhedrin. The Sadducean party was the ruling party. I think Caiaphas would have been a fellow you would enjoy having at a dinner conversation. He was pragmatic. He was a realist. Jesus was causing quite a stir. And that final miracle had really caused a ripple of anxiety in the ruling circles. There was a bit of panic. They were frenzied. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Caiaphas demonstrated why he was a high priest, not only in a priestly family; leadership rises to the top often. This man, fulfilling the role that was expected of him said, "Look, this is a no brainer. It's better that one man die than that the nation perish. If we let this go on, the Romans are going to come in here and they're going to destroy our holy place, our temple, and they're going to destroy the nation. If we let this man go on, the Romans are going to come in here and there's going to be a lot of blood that's going to flow in the streets. Obviously, you have to do away with him." In history, that's the way it is. And pragmatic politicians who are responsible and reasonable have to do things that are often unsavory, things that they don't want to do, things they can't put their heart into; it's never a clean-cut situation. On the one hand there is the nation, there is the temple, there's this grand tradition. On the other hand, I'm also the high priest and I've got it fairly well right now. I would rather not have the Romans here, but the Romans being here, I'm still getting along quite well, thank you very much, in my collaborative role. I'm just reminded of a lady I roomed with in the Netherlands, an older lady who told me that, when the Netherlands was liberated in the Hague, the neighbors went and got the collaborators - the ones who had worked with the Nazis - shaved their heads, and marched them down the middle of the street. Collaborators are not well liked, but what do you do if you are a leader like Caiaphas? You call it the Caiaphas principle, I suppose. It's a principle in which real politic continues to take place. It's a kind of reasoning that leads to spending billions of dollars for a missile defense system. What are we to do? What are we to do? I do realize the depth of darkness and evil that is present in the world. I do realize that human nature is such that it's going © Grand Valley State University �Crucified! Violence in History Richard A. Rhem Page 5 to be a long, long time before there's something like the peaceable kingdom. But I wonder if we aren't at a point in history where we have to say, we can't any longer do business as usual. I wonder if we don't have to call into question reasonable and responsible people who want to lead us in ways that are business as usual. I wonder if the globe hasn't become so small that the world has become a neighborhood, if we are not too tightly bound with one another, if it isn't time for us to think of some other way. How would we think? Well wouldn't we think of Jesus? The church calendar on Thursday was Ascension Day, forty days after Easter. We run from the darkness of Good Friday, the crucifixion, to Easter Sunday and the brightness, because we would prefer resurrection, of course. Then, forty days later to see him ascended at the throne of power of the universe to know that King Jesus is on the throne ruling. Of course, in that early story as they understood it, as they communicated it, they expected his imminent return in power and great glory, to judge the nations. Those who followed King Jesus, even though they had seen him crucified, believed that, somehow or other, ultimately there would be the triumph, there would be the kingdom and the power and the glory! It's been 2,000 years, and I don't think that King Jesus is going to come back and make it all right. I don't see any evidence that God has ever done something that intrusive way. It seems to me that God has done all that God can do, and that is to put into our midst a flesh and blood model. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and he spoke of the compassion and the goodness of God. He lived for justice. He reached out to the lame and the leper, and he challenged the Caiaphas principle. He challenged all the institutional forms of structures that make society possible, but become ends in themselves and become oppressive. And, in thus challenging them, he became a threat to them and he spoke his truth, and held his ground, and didn't flinch, knowing surely that his end would be violent death. I don't think that God can do more than God has done. And I don't think we ought to live with that illusion that, somehow or other, when it all gets really dark on earth, the heavens will open and the Son of Man will come and the nations will be judged. The nations will be judged, they'll be judged by the righteousness and the justice with which they live. And what, concretely, does Jesus embody? I see it nowhere more eloquently spoken than that word at the cross when he is being crucified when he says, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing." They knew what they were doing. They knew good and well what they were doing. They were perpetuating the status quo. They were preserving what was, even though it wasn't ideal. They were holding on to their world, to their privilege, to their position. They were keeping the wolves at bay. They were trying to hold on, to preserve, to perpetuate power and privilege. They knew what they were doing. © Grand Valley State University �Crucified! Violence in History Richard A. Rhem Page 6 But, they didn't know what they were doing, because what they were doing was futile. There's only one thing that will finally work and make a difference, and that is when humankind learns to say, "Dear God, forgive them. Dear God, awaken them. Dear God, through my own self-sacrifice, raise some beacon of love and grace that will turn hostility and hatred and violence into embrace and inclusion and community." The Psalmist knew it long ago: an army cannot save, a war horse is a vain hope for victory. Isn't it ironic that as we speak the Caiaphas principle is operative in Israel once again? What will happen there? Will Sharon finally have enough? Will the old warrior in him rise up and say, "Destroy them." But, you can't destroy them. In 1976, I saw immigrant camps filled with those who hadn't been there in 1948, but were born subsequently and were already refugees at the point of their birth. Now there's another whole generation, so what if you wipe out a million or two? Look at the Balkans where they still feud over some battle back in the 13th century. Animals remember and lust for revenge. There's only one thing - only one thing – that changes them and that is the love and the grace lived out by Jesus. It's a scary business. It's a scary business, and it's our only hope. God help us. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Memorial Day Weekend, Eastertide VI Series Credo Scripture Text Psalm 33:5-17, John 11:45-53, Luke 23:32-34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010527 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-05-27 Title A name given to the resource Crucified! Violence in History Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 27, 2001 entitled "Crucified! Violence in History", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Memorial Day Weekend, Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 33:5-17, John 11:45-53, Luke 23:32-34. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Global Community Non-violence https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cf9cd3376e11e88fef005f28f7993ac2.mp3 3c800e4bd579ac9d7447a5a96c97f313 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/91f33c033bbde245f69a8e32e7ebc109.pdf 4d9eab9a9ffc5707f575daa5b84f0b8c PDF Text Text Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? From the Eastertide series: Credo Text Luke 1:35; Mark 3:21; Acts 1:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 13, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon On this Mothers' Day, a day in which we celebrate the Christian family, the human family, I thought it would be well to tie the two together with the Eastertide series on "Credo, I Believe." I tried to say last week that the mystery of the Christian story, the Christian revelation is that, when God is revealed supremely, God is revealed in the human, and that the human becomes the container or the agent of the divine. Not that we are human; we are only on the way to being human. We are beckoned by the Spirit to transcend that which we've yet known. But, in our midst, there was this one about whom they said, "Now, that's it," and we are beckoned to fulfill our humanity because to be human thus would be to be divine. The Apostles’ Creed, the most common creed that we share, is very clear about the fact that the Christian drama is rooted in history: “…conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, buried." The drama that we celebrate in the Christian tradition is rooted solidly in history, and of course, that word that became flesh had a mother and, in order to get at what I want to deal with this morning, I raise the question of Mary - was she mother of God, or a Jewish mother? The Church, of course, defined her as the mother of God in the development of the creedal tradition. The Council of Ephesus, in 431 CE, declared Mary to be Theotokos, a Greek word meaning God bearer. From that point it was the orthodox Christian teaching about Mary who was the mother of God. There was a great debate and controversy, much conflict over those early centuries. It was not until 451 in the Council of Chalcedon that we had the phrase, "true God, true man," and then not much was done with that. That was about where it remained until the 19th century when critical studies began to look at those Christian origins. If Jesus was human, the Church claimed, Jesus was also God, and so that made Mary a God bearer, or the mother of God. It is interesting that, in Roman Catholic piety to this day, Mary is the center of much devotion. It was 1864 when the Pope decreed that Mary was immaculately conceived herself, thus she was a perfect instrument for bringing forth this word made flesh. It was as recent as 1950 that another papal decree declared Mary had been bodily © Grand Valley State University �Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? Richard A. Rhem Page 2 assumed into heaven. As some have said, Mary has been defined as the ideal woman. Now, the feminist movement has challenged that because that ideal woman was defined by males, by an all-male Church, and the Mary, in that ethereal image created by the Church, is submissive, obedient, chaste, hardly a Jewish mother. But, when you read the scriptures, you get another picture. Oh, to be sure, she is visited by an angel in Luke's story, and in Matthew, as well. Scholars generally feel that those birth narratives have been added to the beginning of both Gospels. But, in any case, what they were trying to say is what other ancient peoples said about other ancient heroes, that this one was special, that this one was from God. I don't know if they thought about it literally or not. Certainly, symbolically it was true. But, if they did think about it literally, then one wonders about this passage in the third chapter of Mark's Gospel. Jesus is about his ministry and the word on the street is that he comes home and is out of his mind, he is mad. His mother and his brothers go out to bring him home because of the rumors that are being spread about him. As I read the Gospel accounts of Mary, I choose to see her as a Jewish mother. I want you to know that I called Rabbi Alan Alpert in order to ask him about whether or not it was okay to talk about a Jewish mother because it is a stereotype, of course. Fortunately, Alan wasn't home, but I talked to Anna, his lovely wife, who is a Jewish mother, and she gave me permission to talk about a Jewish mother. She said, as long as you intend it honorably, and I assured her I intend it honorably. I see Mary as a model, as a Jewish mother, as a human mother, as a parent who yearned for her child. I see her in all of her humanness which gives us encouragement and can make her a model for our devotion – not some ethereal image of a bloodless feminine, but rather, this woman who bore this child for whom she cared, and she nurtured him, followed him, pursued him, and was hurt by him. Mary, a Jewish mother, on Mothers' Day, a mother who was an example of that bonding, that wonderful, beautiful, human bonding of parent and child. I like Mary as a model because she tells me that, with all of the potential beauty and wonder of the human family, of human ties that bind, of the bonding in family community, that human community in the family is not always easy. It is potentially also painful and brings with it potential brokenness. Now, wouldn't it be wonderful if we all had perfect families? If there were perfect parents raising perfect children? But, it simply isn't so. If we could have twoparent families raising the children, a recent University of Chicago study says, all would be better. Well, of course, it would. But, thank God, we are not left in hopelessness or despair. We have the picture of a Mary and it wasn't easy for Mary to raise Jesus. We have those little signals in the Gospel, the song of Simeon, for example, taking the baby in his arms at the circumcision of Jesus, and saying to Mary, "A sword will go © Grand Valley State University �Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? Richard A. Rhem Page 3 through your heart." Well, what parent is there that doesn't know, now and again, a sword piercing their heart? Or, the second chapter where Luke tells us that story of Jesus left behind in Jerusalem where he says, "Don't you know I have to be about my father's business?" And Mary, hurt, confused, pondering these things in her heart. One wonders, if Gabriel had really stood on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, why she didn't just smile at all of this. No, she was a Jewish mother who went through it just like you go through it, and following this one was not an easy task. She stood at the foot of his cross. She saw him in anguish crucified. And the pieta is an image that is imprinted upon our minds as this mother holds her crucified son. I like Mary as a model because she tells me that, whatever the ideal may be, whatever sociological studies they tell us, whatever the Church may advocate, the human situation is messy. It can be very painful. There is woundedness and we have to make do oftentimes with less than ideal situations and relationships. And so, we see Mary as a sign of hope because she also tells us that to raise a child is to fight cultural conformity. The word on the street was that Jesus was out of his mind. She yielded to the pressure. She went after him. She wanted to bring him home. It's not easy to raise a creative, free spirit. There is such community pressure. There is such cultural conformity demanded of us. Do your kids play soccer? Do they march in the band? Do they play sports at school? Do they sing in the choir? Do they do a hundred and one other things that are organized for them to do? Are you choosing what your children do? Are you making the decisions, or are you going along with what everybody else is doing? Are you signing up your kids for some things that really in your heart you feel you hadn't ought to sign them up for so that you give them some time just to be kids? But then, what if they fall behind the neighborhood kids? I mean, it’s not easy, folks, is it? Raising children is not easy. There is a tremendous pressure in the community and in the culture and parents need to stand apart and ask, "Am I simply being swept along with the tide, or am I deciding, am I determining how my child will be shaped and that with which my child will be shaped?" It's not easy. Mary felt the pressure. She wanted to bring him home. It is not easy to raise a free spirit and let it go. I read the little passage from Acts because, after the resurrection and the ascension, Luke tells us there that the disciples gathered in the upper room with some of the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, and his brothers. That tells me that, even where there is brokenness and woundedness and confusion and misunderstanding, there is always the potential, the possibility for reconciliation. Mary was able to pray with that early community that was the consequence of this one, her son, who had embarrassed her and who had hurt her. She was able to pray with James, his brother, who became the pillar of that Jerusalem Church. © Grand Valley State University �Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? Richard A. Rhem Page 4 That is another whole sermon, but how interesting it is that James became the pillar of the conservative Jerusalem Church. It took a Paul to have a vision, a grander vision of bringing this ministry to the whole world. Maybe James could not grow to be able to break out of his Jewishness, but he grew enough to see in his brother somebody special, and he became a leader of that movement in the home community. I like the fact that, in this story we have also a pointer to that larger community that transcends the blood family. Honor and thanksgiving to God for the blood ties that bind us. But, Jesus had to say to his mother, or said to the crowd that kept his mother from him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters? Those that do the will of God." Thereby Jesus was saying that there is something thicker than blood. It is that faith vision that binds a community together. It is that larger community that calls us, that enables us to fly, to soar, that inspires us and calls the best out of us, the transcending of the family in a larger human community. But, thank God for those who are able, within the family, the intimate ties of family, together to experience that larger community of faith. This congregation has been blessed this morning. At the 8:30 service, two granddaughters of Marv and Thelma Bottema came to affirm their faith, Thelma diagnosed with cancer. They have always been a beautiful family, Marv and Thelma, with five children always in and out of that house at Leonard and Pruin. There's a lot of living in that house. And then the next generation comes along. Then Thelma is diagnosed with a very serious cancer, and what happens? I see the intensity of the bonding. I see children dropping in all the time, and I see the grandchildren coming around. I see Julie and Susan saying, "For Mothers' Day, we would like to affirm our faith and we're going to try to get Grandma there." And she was here this morning. I see the granddaughters coming at 8:30 and kneeling here at the rail with Marv and Thelma, Gramps and Grandma. Thelma knelt with her granddaughters at this table, from the kitchen table to the Lord's table. I'll tell you what, that's powerful and that's beautiful and that's just so moving. I have been with the Stille family, too, in all kinds of situations. Hattie, whom we baptize today, is named after one by whose grave I stood as the family shoveled in the dirt in that earthy acknowledgment of the reality of death. I've been there marriages, baptisms, and housewarmings, and I know them as models of the deepest and the best of that bonding in family that is celebrated in the larger family, and I want to tell you, it doesn't get any better than that. We are invited in our families to the deepest, most meaningful human experience, and we come here in ritual and rite to celebrate it in the larger community. I want you to know that, as the human drama was wrought out in human flesh, the drama of salvation, God is in the human, God is in-between us, and the experience of love, one for the other, is the experience of God. © Grand Valley State University �Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? Richard A. Rhem Page 5 A young couple stood here yesterday and wrote their own vows and spoke them to each other, and in deep emotion expressed their love in discovery, and I could say to them, "You don't know anything yet, for having fallen in love and now beginning to work at being in love, you will discover between you the love of God." For if we don't know the love of God in the other, we'll know not the love of God at all. In my favorite Broadway musical, "Les Miserables," Cozette sings to the dying Jean Valjean, "To love another person is to see the face of God." © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Mothers' Day, Eastertide IV Series Credo Scripture Text Luke 1:35, Mark 3:21, Acts 1:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010513 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-05-13 Title A name given to the resource Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 13, 2001 entitled "Mary: Mother of God or Jewish Mother?", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Mothers' Day, Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 1:35, Mark 3:21, Acts 1:14. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Mothers' Day https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/49d0e80abcfa7c811db222e4b44009ea.mp3 1b2ac37108e45b7254ad9bb2196c19c8 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/402cc7b8ccdea3c44aca8e2697c62413.pdf 1aa40eae3aa44c6fe01e02686bcd952c PDF Text Text The Human Face of God From the Eastertide series: Credo Text: John 1:18; Colossians 1:19 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 6, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon The only explanation for the existence of the Christian Church, the Christian religious tradition, is the conviction that the one who was crucified lives. It didn't happen all at once, but gradually. Those who were intimately connected with Jesus were convinced that he was alive still and they experienced his ongoing presence. Jesus was a Jew. Those who followed him were Jews. The earliest Jesus movement was Jewish. The thing that eventually caused the break off and the formation of a new, of another, religious tradition was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The conviction that this one, who had embodied God in their estimation, this one in whose face they had seen the heart of God, this one of whom they spoke in terms of incarnation – they were convinced, ultimately, that such a life, that such a human existence could not simply be violently ended, entombed and forgotten. And so, eventually, out of that conviction about Easter, about the ongoing presence of Jesus in the Spirit, the Christian community was formed. They gave witness to that in various ways and we have those in the New Testament. We have Paul, for example, the earliest written witness to the ongoing life of Jesus through his visionary experience. Luke tells us that delightful story about the two on the road to Emmaus who were joined by a third whom they did not recognize until, as their host at table, he broke bread and their eyes were opened, they saw him. Luke goes on in the next paragraph to add that, discussing those things on Easter eve, suddenly Jesus was in the midst of them and they were terrified and afraid. He said, "Please, just give me something to eat and calm down." There were various ways in which that reality was witnessed to. There is a great diversity. But, through it all, there is this conviction that the crucified lived and was present with them still, in conversation, in community, in the breaking of bread. It took a long time before that Jesus movement became a Christian movement and gave itself a clear, creedal definition. Before it did that, it had moved from that environment, that context of Israel into the culture and the language of the © Grand Valley State University �The Human Face of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2 Greek world, the empire. When eventually that faith was carefully defined and refined as it found expression, for example, in the Nicene Creed, 325 CE, and the creed from Chalcedon, 451 CE, what came to creedal expression was reflective of the biblical statements, but more so. John had said, "In the beginning was the word," or the divine intention, and that intention became enfleshed, took on human form in our midst, and no one has ever seen God, but this one reflected God as a son reflects a father. In the Letter to the Colossians written by Paul, perhaps, or a Pauline school, there is that claim that in Jesus all of the fullness of God dwells bodily. The creeds, Nicene and Chalcedon, did not say a lot more than that, but they said that philosophically. They said that very clearly, and the picture was that there was one who came from another realm into our realm, embodying in human form God from another realm, from outside, who, after doing his work, returned to that other realm, so that we live, as it were, in an alien realm. Not only are we alienated, but we are in a natural realm which is not the realm of the Spirit, God existing outside of this order. One of the great Church fathers, Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, who carried on a furious controversy over the natures of Christ, affirming the deity of Christ, put it this way: Jesus became human, or God became human that we humans might become divine. God became human that we humans might become divine. With all due respect to this great bishop of the Church, let me suggest another angle. What if God became human in order that we might become human? What if to be human is divine? What if this Jesus around which all this centers, what if this Jesus did not come in from the outside, but emerged in the process? What if this process of billions of years eventuated in a creature that began to be human, that began to be conscious until, in the fullness of time at the right time, there was this one Jesus upon whom they looked and said, "My God ! That's it!" What if the incarnation which we point to in Jesus did not really hinge on Jesus, but on the human? What if the revelation was that God is in the human? What if to be human is to be divine? You young people on your way - what if what God is really about for you is not to make you divine, not to make you some bloodless, blameless, flawless paragon of divinity, but flesh and blood human beings? This preposterous statement in the first chapter of Colossians, that all of the fullness of the Godhead was crammed into him bodily, what does that mean? Doesn't it mean that humanity is a container for divinity? And wouldn't it be possible if what God is about for us is not to make us divine, but to make us human, not to rescue us from this natural order, but to make us at home in this natural order? To be human. Oh, we are not human, you know. Now and again we are human, humane. Now and again we glimpse it. We have moments, but for the most part, the old animal nature takes over, that long clawing out of the jungle. Just put me in a corner, just raise my fear level and my humanity is drained away in a moment. I wonder if the © Grand Valley State University �The Human Face of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3 divine intent in the revelation in Jesus was not to say to us God is calling us to be human, and to be human - would that not be divine? Now, it may sound a little convoluted, but I am on to something. Do you hear me? Might not the divine intention for us be, not that we become divine as the old Church father contended, but rather that we become human? Ah, if we can become human we could revel in a spring day like this, we could take in the blossoms, we could listen to the cantata of the birds, we could look into the face of a child, we could touch each other with love and melt. That is to be human. On a larger scale, I was thinking this week, there was a proposal that our defenses ought to be altered and, of course, our defenses will need to be altered in a different kind of a world, a world no longer determined by the Cold War when the East and the West had certain kinds of defenses; and the administration is saying that that has to be updated, and certainly that is a valid point. But, as I listened to the discussion about this missile defense system from outer space, the claim is that the technology really isn't there yet. And then, some of my cynicism arose a bit and I thought, "But, it will be good for the defense industry." Then I had another thought. It's a silly thought. It gives witness to my impossible naiveté, but I thought, because I am thinking about God's intention for us to be human, what if this great nation of ours with all of its resources and all of its power should go to these rogue nations? Now that the whole game is changed around and we don't have this impasse of East and West, we have these rogue nations here and there that could well launch a missile. What if we went to them with all of our power and all of our resources and said to them, "What is it that you really need? What is it that you really desire? What is it about us that is so offensive? And what could we do to help you realize your dreams?" Ah, now you know I have entered senility. But, I think about it and I think why wouldn't that be worth a try? I know there are evil people in the world, a Saddam Hussein, a Gaddafi, the Taliban, I know that. But, what makes people ugly? What brings out the worst in people? And are not those, our "enemies," demonized in our minds? What would happen? I was thinking, we change our defense system now, we aim at these rogue nations, we find a way to keep the world at bay, we find a way to keep our thumb on the world. But, what would happen if we, with all of our power and all of our strength, should try to create a different kind of feel in the world? What if we really went and said to people, "Tell us your dreams and let us see if we can help you realize them." The billions of dollars that we will be using to put a missile defense system in place over the next decade just possibly could be invested in human community that might not necessitate a new defense system. Now, that is really stupid: But, I wonder if the call of God is not to become divine, but to become human. And if we could become human, would that not be divine, for in him all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, and why not in you? Take bread and cup as a sign of your solidarity with the one who calls you not to be © Grand Valley State University �The Human Face of God Richard A. Rhem Page 4 blameless and flawless, but to be real, to be human. That would cause one to cry, "My God!" © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide III Series Credo Scripture Text John 1:18, Colossians 1:19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010506 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-05-06 Title A name given to the resource The Human Face of God Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 6, 2001 entitled "The Human Face of God", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:18, Colossians 1:19. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Incarnation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d14dc85e456c6a400ad46fef4e0e964.mp3 0cacdcb75f985cace882993f76aac345 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5fae365219acf9e96959d3ac9b07171a.pdf 626e817bd13d079dd8a54305f0448edd PDF Text Text Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden From the Eastertide series: Credo Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5, 31; John 1:1-5 Text: Genesis 1:1, 31; John 1:3 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Earth Day, April 29, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon In the wake of Easter, the disciples found that the crucified was with them still and the overwhelming sense of the presence of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus, convinced them that what he stood for, what he embodied, what he was, could never die, could never be destroyed, and so in the wake of Easter, it is that the Christian tradition arose. Credo, I believe. Credo, in the Greek and Latin language, the verb and the subject being expressed in that particular form, I believe. Not that I believe this, that and the other thing, but I believe in God. I believe in that which was embodied in Jesus. I believe in that which I experienced in Jesus as being ultimately true. Credo. I believe in God. What God? Well, the God of Israel, of course, the one eternal and true God, the God who created heaven and earth. What God? Well, the God we have seen in the face of Jesus, the God with a nature and character that came to expression in Jesus, the word made flesh. What God? Well, the God that we sense present with us still, present in the spirit, the spirit of Jesus, the God who gives us the burning heart still in conversation, in community, in the breaking of bread. Credo. I believe, I trust. Not I believe a lot of things, but I trust in that God as the bedrock of my life, the source and ground of all being, believe, in the original sense of that word and its old English meaning, to belove, to cast one's heart upon. I trust in God. The fundamental posture of my life is one of confident trust in God. © Grand Valley State University �Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Richard A. Rhem Page 2 Thus, Christian faith was born in the wake of the crucified and risen one, and the ongoing experience of his presence with those who became his immediate followers. That Christian tradition which was born at Easter, was a tradition that stood in continuity with that Jewish womb from which it emerged. That continuity with the face of Israel meant, of course, that the God embodied in Jesus was the God of creation. There was an intentional purpose to connect the God of Jesus with the God of Israel, for as the Hebrew scriptures began, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," so in the Gospel of John, as one example, we have "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God," trying to say, as a matter of fact, we don't believe in some other God. We believe in the God of our forebears, we believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We believe in the creator of the heavens and the earth. This God we believe is revealed, embodied in the flesh of Jesus, for the word that was in the beginning in the fullness of time became flesh and dwelt among us, this God embodied in Jesus, present with us still. What God? God the Creator. What God? The God revealed in the face of Jesus. What God? The God ... don't you experience the burning heart even as we speak? Thus, we have the Trinitarian format of the Apostles Creed, for example. "I believe in God the father, I believe in Jesus Christ his only son, I believe in the Holy Spirit." The Trinitarian form of the Apostles Creed is simply the setting forth of the experience that they had of God, of God revealed in Jesus, of God experienced in the Holy Spirit. Gradually, little by little, things came into focus. Three hundred and twenty-five years after Jesus, the Council of Nicea met, and the Nicene Creed is still used in the Church. Credo. I believe. The Apostles Creed coming together in its form as we know it some centuries later, but still, these are very early beginnings. Credo. I believe in God. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This morning is Earth Day and what a glorious Earth Day it is, and on this Earth Day as we continue our series, "Credo," I believe, I want to think about creation, for the God whom we confess, the God whom we have experienced in Jesus, the God who is present with us in the Spirit, is the God, we say, who created the heavens and the earth. In that Genesis account we have Israel's testimony of faith that creation, the cosmos, the physical reality of which we are a part, the tapestry into which we are woven, is not just an accident. It is not just a chance unraveling © Grand Valley State University �Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Richard A. Rhem Page 3 of whatever, but is the result of an intention that God created the heavens and the earth, and that creation at the end of the account, and the verse that I failed to read, verse 31, says, "God looked at all that was made and behold, it was very good." An affirmation of creation. An affirmation of the natural world. That is not an insignificant fact, for there are great spiritual traditions that do not understand the natural world, the physical world in that positive sense. There are great spiritual traditions with great spiritual insights that see, rather, matter as evil. They see a dualism of life in darkness and the darkness and the evil being carried in matter, and salvation for such a tradition is not the resurrection of the body, but it is, rather, the deliverance from the prison house of the body. It is a spiritual kind of existence, to be set free from the body, to be set free from matter. So, when the Genesis creation account says that God said it was very good, it is not insignificant, and the implications of that are great. I'm not going to draw them out this morning. That is not my intention. But, I want to say that the faith of Israel that saw creation as the creation of God in a very positive light has impacted us in a very positive sense in terms of our understanding of the body and nature. Of course, as you go on in that first chapter of Genesis, we have, as well, this word to the human pair, the human person that was created, "Be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth." That word was also a word intended very positively. It is a word of human dignity, calling the human being into co-creatorship with God, to become an agent in the unfolding of creation. But, that biblical word that comes at the end of the creation story has been a word that has been criticized rather severely in recent years in terms of the environmental crisis and the ecological crisis that we are experiencing in our world today. I can remember when I first read a critique of Genesis 1 as one of the sources of the environmental crisis. This goes back a good number of years, and I still remember it was in a book review, and the book took the Jewish scriptures and Christian scriptures to task for that mandate at the end of chapter one that said “subdue the earth,” and it said that that created a domination model that gave license to the human creature to exploit the earth. I can remember when I read that and I remember my resistance to it. I was resistant to it because it went contrary to everything I had ever been taught or my whole understanding of that first chapter of Genesis. I had understood that first chapter of Genesis was lifting up the human being, as I said, as some agent of creation and as a matter of fact, saying here it is. Develop it. Not exploit it, to be sure, but develop it. Utilize it, use its resources, become a co-creator with God. And when I first read that as a criticism, I was not at all ready to receive it. I was not really fully cognizant of the crisis into which our physical universe and our planet had come. I wasn't really terribly concerned about it because, after all, I was a minister of the Gospel and I was concerned about the souls of my people and I didn't have a lot of time to worry about the © Grand Valley State University �Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Richard A. Rhem Page 4 earth. That was the day of my rather conservative past when I would have thought to celebrate Earth Day on a Sunday would have been sacrilege, in which I would have gone out and gotten those young people out cleaning up the environment and brought them into church! Good grief! You don't let them get away from hearing a good sermon by cleaning up papers and bottles out in the environment! Liberals would do that. Let the godless do that. We worship because we're concerned about spiritual things. I can remember this old article from Newsweek, which says, "In the major religions of the West, the world of nature from planets to plankton has little theological significance. As peoples of the Book, Jews, Christians, Muslims, look primarily to sacred text for God's revelation. The enveloping universe may offer evidence of divine wisdom and power, but it plays no part in the essential drama of mankind's sin and salvation. What matters is human redemption, not divine creation." Amen and amen. That is what I was about. I was about getting people saved. I was about getting people spiritually right with God. I had very little concern, very little understanding of any kind of spiritual obligation to be worried about the good earth. Of course, God created it. Of course, God said it was good, so let's use it. And then let's get on with this matter of sin and salvation. I am confessing to you that that is where I was. I honestly can remember when I first saw that critique, I wasn't ready to receive it. But I recognize now that the critique is legitimate. It is not that you cannot interpret the first chapter of Genesis in a positive sense, and the word that probably puts the best face on it is the word stewardship, and there has been a good deal made in recent years to put a positive spin on the biblical revelation to say that we are called to be stewards of the earth, shepherds of the earth, to care for the earth. I do believe that is a legitimate interpretation of "be fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth." But, the fact remains that "subdue the earth" created a domination model which did give license for the development of the created order by the human creature which very easily slides into the exploitation of the good earth by the ingenious and clever human creature. So here we are today celebrating an Earth Day in our worship, acknowledging that our environment is in crisis and our planet is in crisis, and that it becomes a spiritual concern, a concern to find a better model than the biblical model. Perhaps instead of a domination model in the words of "subdue the earth," would it not be better for us to think in terms of a sacramental model? Sacraments in the Church are the use of physical, material means for the conveying of spiritual meaning of the sacred. In the first service, we conclude with the breaking of bread and pouring of the cup, and the fruit of the vine and the grain of the field into a loaf become the mediators, the vehicle by which we receive the grace of God. In the waters of baptism, that natural element becomes a vehicle of grace. We use the physical. The physical, we know, can be the agent of conveying the spiritual, © Grand Valley State University �Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Richard A. Rhem Page 5 and I would suggest that a conception of the universe in sacramental terms would remind us that permeating the structure of reality is the Creator Spirit, and that the creation itself, when we have eyes to see it, can become the vehicle of the holy and the sacred. Rather than an exploitation or a domination model, a sacramental model will enable us to behold the wonders of our world and to say, "Oh, my God!" That, I think, would be a great step forward from where we have been traditionally and I must confess that it is for me a relatively new and fresh understanding. Yet, as I have come to see that there is something much bigger and broader than sin and salvation, as I have come to see the whole of creation with eyes of wonder as the mediator of the sacred, that world has become far more precious to me. I know it can happen. Because of the constant harassment of one of my children, I began again this week to walk, and I feel rather good about that. People say to me, "Don't you feel good when you're done?" and I say, "No, I don't. I feel tired." But, you know, one does what one ought to do, and so I was walking yesterday on one of my favorite treks south of where we live and there is this ancient, gnarled tree. Its trunk is huge, and it has these huge branches low down so that a child can catch them and climb up through that trunk system, and it soars in the sky. Yesterday, as I was coming back, the sun caught the buds about to burst into leaf, and I looked at that gnarled, old trunk that has seen so many seasons and I said to myself, "You old devil, you're going to do it again, aren't you?" The next time through there will be a leafy canopy that will give shade from the sun's rays and that tree will be regaled again in all of its wonder and all of its glory. Coming in this morning, I checked as I always do, Little Pigeon Creek, and Mrs. Beautiful White Swan is faithfully on her nest, as Mr. Swan glides about as most irresponsible males do. As I look at that, I see wonder. It is beautiful. It is exhilarating. Then I think of the tragedy it would be to lose the awesomeness of the earth. What we have to do is recognize that we have come to a point of development with our great capabilities as human creatures, with our scientific knowledge and our technological breakthroughs, where we can move beyond sustainable development, which seems to me is some kind of an ideal. We have come to a point where we can develop such that the resources of nature are outstripped without the time or the ability for nature to regenerate itself. We have come to such a degree of insight and knowledge and control that we can actually alter significant natural cycles. Ancient, primitive peoples lived in the rhythm of nature. In the First Axial Period, one of the most significant periods in the history of humankind, 800 to 200 before Christ, all the great religions of the world that we know today were formed. It was a time of the self-consciousness of the human being, the moving out of that tribal identity and that moving away from the cycles of nature, the cycles of the earth, the fertility cycles, and all of the development that we know, particularly in the West, is the consequence of that movement, back a few centuries before Jesus Christ. In the rise of that consciousness that allowed us to step out of nature and © Grand Valley State University �Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Richard A. Rhem Page 6 to become an agent over against nature, the one thing that we did lose, for all that we have gained, is that sense of connectedness in the web of being, in the chain of being, and, if there is one thing that is incumbent upon us to recapture, it is that sense of being woven into this awesome creation. You see, the biblical writer had no sense of 15 billion years of evolutionary bio-historical development. But, here we are, and we can see it, we can test it, we know about it. Tragically, in issues like this, there become frenzied prophets who with great panic make claims that cannot be verified, and then on the other side there are vested interests that want to hear nothing about it, whether there be hell to pay or not. And so, we get this impasse of opposing views. It is so necessary for us to get beyond that rhetoric to decent, civil, human conversation in order that we may preserve this good earth and realize the divine intention. I was thinking last evening about what it might take for the whole human family to become aware and aroused to tend the garden of the earth. I was remembering as a lad the Second World War. We were just ordinary people. I remember our old '41 Oldsmobile had on the right- hand corner a card that was an "A" card. That meant three gallons of gas a week. That meant we could go to the evening service, the morning service, midweek service, and get groceries on Saturday, and that was it. The rest of the time that car sat there. We didn't have any gas. We didn't have a lot of meat, either, because it took red tokens and I still don't like oleomargarine because it is what I had to use instead of butter. I remember as a lad the Second World War and those rather severe limitations. And yet, you know, there was no question about it, no sacrifice was too great. There was no grumbling about it. We were concerned only for those who were serving their country in the war zones. We were concerned only for the preservation of our freedom. We were concerned only for the dignity and the honor of this nation, for democracy, liberty, freedom, and all of those values that had made us a great people. No sacrifice was too great. I was thinking that as a lad I grew up near the bank of the Kalamazoo River. My father was a superintendent of Hercules Powder Company which used to be Papermakers Chemical. There were a lot of chemicals, folks. I used to go over there as a little brat and bother the maintenance person who used to have to take carloads of what they called "satin white." We took them way out into the back property and dumped them on the banks of the Kalamazoo River. As a child growing up next to the river, the river held no fascination for me. It was a stinking mud hole. I wonder now why it took so long to come to awareness of the wonder of a tree, of the majesty of a river, of the marvel of God's creation. I wonder. What will it take? Now, for sure, I want whoever does anything to do it such that it won't impinge on my pension funds. That's probably the issue, isn't it? But, what will it take before we have eyes again to see this good earth, God's gift? Let us tend the garden. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Earth Day, Eastertide II Series Credo Scripture Text Genesis 1:1, 31, John 1:3 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010429 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-29 Title A name given to the resource Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 29, 2001 entitled "Creation Emerging: Tending the Garden", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Earth Day, Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:1, 31, John 1:3. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Earth Day Trinitarian Nature of Religion https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c062828c05461539cdb9dafe3b5074e3.mp3 507fa4a7ea2e4a365802043d5cfab969 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d43757fdd130d16af9258f78f7247004.pdf 3237d13538c0d3afcc7853f603ad2d59 PDF Text Text The Rise of Easter Faith From the series: Credo Text: I Corinthians 15:8; Acts 26:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 22, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon For some reason or other (I suppose it is my age), I am beginning to reflect back over the way that I have come, and Easter brings me back to my European experience. I was very, very fortunate that, after seven years of pastoral ministry, I was able to take four years for study and reflection in the European setting. I had come here in 1960 and I had all the answers, and after seven years of pastoral experience, I began to learn what the questions were, and for the first time in my life I wanted really to know, I wanted to understand as best I could, wherever it might lead me or leave me. That European experience was precious, and it has continued to bear fruit in my life ever since. When I got there in the late 60s, the theme was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everybody was talking about it; the scholarly world was abuzz with talk about the resurrection. There had not been much talk of resurrection for over one hundred years. The leadership of theological investigation was pretty much centered in Germany, Holland, England, and the Continent, and the impact of the Enlightenment had sent shockwaves through the Church and its academic establishment– that Enlightenment of the 18th century, the birth of critical thinking when our knowledge of the world exploded, when we entered what has been called the Age of Reason. One could do one of two things if one was a believing person in the light of that Enlightenment - one could either run for shelter in orthodox creed, batten down the hatches, build the walls high and refuse to allow the critical thinking and the knowledge that was coming to light to have any bearing on one's faith, or one could try to take it in and then see what kind of adjustment to faith or what kind of new understanding of Christian tradition might be forthcoming. I grew up and was nurtured in a tradition which shut itself against critical thinking, critical rationality. There was a great liberal establishment that sought to come to terms with the new knowledge that was coming to the fore, trying to understand the Gospel in light of that new knowledge. That liberal establishment, in my experience was the enemy, very threatening. They had given up on God and the Gospel. But, when I got to Europe, there was a point of sufficient maturity © Grand Valley State University �The Rise of Easter Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 2 whereby I began to see that those who were trying to interpret the Gospel in light of emerging knowledge, were not enemies of the faith but, rather, were trying desperately to give testimony to the faith in an entirely new world situation, an entirely new world view. I came to see that, as a matter of fact, that is what every generation must do, because the world keeps changing, the situation changes, and so new knowledge coming to light calls for a new translation or a revisioning of the faith in light of the reality which everybody is living. There was a phrase I learned at that time, the climate of opinion, and I came to understand for the first time how every period and every epoch has a climate of opinion. It is that overwhelming sense of what is; it is that unquestioned view of reality which is conscious or unconscious, but shared generally, and I came to see that the great liberal attempt to articulate the Gospel was really an heroic attempt to speak the grace of God in a totally changed situation, and that these people were not to be scorned but to be respected and listened to, and valued for that attempt to move the Gospel into another key. It was not that in the rise of critical rationality we were becoming more intelligent than our forebears or those who formulated the early creeds or wrote the Gospels. I was thinking about that last evening. We still go back and read Plato and Aristotle. We still converse with Socrates and the Golden Age of Greek philosophical development. Five hundred years before Jesus Christ the Greeks were wrestling with ultimate human questions about the meaning of life and the human experience, and we still study them today. We still read with profit those discussions. I got a depressing thought when I realized that 500 years from now, no one is going to be looking at my sermons. So, you get my point. It is not that suddenly we have become so brilliant in contrast to those earlier generations who were benighted. We probably have lost a dimension of depth which they possessed. But, as a matter of fact, the world has changed. Just the knowledge of the world in which we live has changed, the nature of our human experience has changed, the nature of the human person comes to light, the whole of reality breaks open in a new and fresh way, and now what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? Such discussions had been going on in Europe. There was a great New Testament scholar, Rudolf Bultmann, who had a project of demythologizing the Gospels. He said if you turn a switch and the light goes on, if you turn a dial and you hear voices from the ether waves (and what would he say about the Internet), that experience of modernity demands of us some fresh understanding of the meaning of the Gospel, and so he suggested a program of demythologizing the stories of the Gospel. At the time I arrived, his students were around, as well as the students of Karl Barth, and about that time they were investigating again the centrality of the resurrection to the Gospel story, and it was becoming evident that you couldn't understand the New Testament witness without the resurrection. It was absolutely central. It was the resurrection that had created everything else, and so, there were attempts to explain and to understand the meaning of resurrection in those New Testament documents, particularly in the Gospels, and it was quite an enterprise. Understand that I was going over to © Grand Valley State University �The Rise of Easter Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 3 Europe ready to learn but still scared to death I would go home with nothing to preach. There was a contention at the time that Easter was the rise of faith in the hearts and minds of the disciples. Jesus didn't arise in terms of a body coming out of a tomb, but Jesus arose in the understanding of the disciples. That was rather threatening to me; I was trying to find somebody who was looking for at least a faint footprint of God's action in the sands of time. Have you ever been there? Have you ever said to God, "If You'd just give me something tangible to hold unto?" I desperately wanted to believe. I desperately wanted to preach good news, but I didn't know if I could, and that possibility of resurrection being the rise of faith in the minds and hearts of the disciples looked like a possibility, although it wasn't quite enough for me. But, I think I heard myself last Sunday on Easter Sunday suggest that very thing - that Easter was the rise of faith in the minds and hearts of that intimate circle around Jesus who were crushed in his crucifixion, but who came to realize in their community together that what he was could never die, and so they shouted, The Lord has risen!" Now, what happened, I don't know. I did read I Corinthians 15 in which Paul deals not with a corpse coming out of a tomb, but with a vision of the living Christ. I even went to my Greek Bible and I made sure that the word he used in that second paragraph of I Corinthians 15 is the same word throughout. He says that "Jesus appeared to Peter, to Cephas, he appeared unto James, he appeared to the twelve, he appeared to 500 at one time and many of whom are still alive, and finally, as one born at the wrong time, he appeared also to me." That is the clue, of course. "He appeared also to me," and the same word is used, the same seeming substance as to the appearance to Peter and James and to the twelve and to the 500. We know when he appeared to Paul, according to Paul's own testimony. In the Book of Acts going on the way to Damascus to rub out any sign of the followers of the Way, he is confronted with a light and a voice and he's knocked off his horse and his life is transformed, inwardly transformed, turned around, according to his own expression. And so, apparently, it wasn't necessary to have an Easter experience. It wasn't necessary to have an Easter experience by touching a corpse revived. It could happen inwardly in the imagination, in the mind, in the heart, in the being. It could happen in a visionary manner of one sort or another. In fact, if you would go on in that 15th chapter, you would find Paul trying so hard to figure out what in the world was going on. He talks about the physical body and then he talks about the spiritual body. Well, what is a spiritual body? Whatever it is, Paul contrasts the physical body, the flesh, with that spiritual body, and he goes on in another place in that same chapter to say, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." Obviously, he was saying it is not Jesus come back in flesh and blood that is present, that is appearing, that is experienced. © Grand Valley State University �The Rise of Easter Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 4 Probably my favorite Easter story is the story of the Emmaus Road: two companions making their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and another joins them along the way. They don't recognize him and, to make a long story short, they invite him to come because it is nearing eventide, to break bread with them and he comes into their home and instead of being their guest, he acts as the host. He blesses the bread, breaks it and gives it to them, and they say, "My God!" and he is gone. What kind of an experience is that? It is an experience of a presence, of a spirit, of a reality, experienced in conversation, in communion, at table, breaking bread. It is the experience of a presence, so they speak of a burning heart and suddenly their eyes are opened and, of course, when their eyes are opened to recognize him, he's not there because that is not the point. Now, if you go on to the next paragraph, Luke is a bit nervous about the fact that we might get the impression that that is all there is and that is enough, and so he has them coming to the disciples that same night and he sits down with them and they look at him horrified and he says, "What's the matter? I'm not a ghost. Anybody got a boiled fish?" Well, that really runs counter to that earlier experience. I am sure Luke, the Gospel writer, is trying to say, "Look, this wasn't an hallucination. This was not just an illusory, momentary experience. This thing is real. Jesus lives. The God-presence that was present with us in Jesus is present with us still. He can still create a burning heart. Across the table, bread broken, something happens between us." In various ways, some contradictory, those gospel writers are trying to say that the one who was crucified is still present in conversation, in community, in the breaking of bread, God with us, Spirit with us, that which was present when we were with Jesus did not die, crucified though he was, for we are still the community of the burning heart, for we experience the reality in the presence from God. What was the result? Credo. In Latin and Greek, it means "I believe." Credo, the first word of the Apostles Creed, the first word of the Nicene Creed. Credo. Credo in God. I believe in God. That was the consequence of the Easter experience, of the Easter faith. The Church went on to confess its faith. It did it in its own conceptuality, in its own world and life view, it did it in the only language and understanding available to it. But, it was trying to say there was something real here. I believe in God. What God? God the Creator. What God? The God of whom Jesus spoke. What God? © Grand Valley State University �The Rise of Easter Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 5 The God whose Spirit is here in the midst of us. They said, "I believe." For us, belief has become a difficult thing because we think post-Enlightenment, post-scientific method, post-empiricism. We think that belief has to do with the things that we can verify scientifically, and there is a lot that we cannot verify scientifically, and so belief comes into trouble. But, in its origin, initially, in the study of "to believe," it was "to love." In German, Beleven. The beloved. The creed also originally meant not that which I believe intellectually, but that which I give my heart to, that in which my heart rests. This is the trust of my life. I believe. I rest. I trust beyond anything that I intellectually can take apart or empirically verify. It is the tone quality of my life. It is who I am. I believe because I have experienced that which is beyond fathoming, and I continue to experience it now and again with another in conversation, in community, in the breaking of bread, with a companion along the way, the one who comes to dinner. Last Tuesday night, Rabbi Sandy Sasso was here and I had the privilege of being at the table with her and breaking bread with her. She is the author of those marvelous children's books, and she was the guest of our Worship Center and some other supporting groups. A lovely person, a wonderful human being, this woman Jewish Rabbi who writes children's books about God. Nancy and I, after her wonderful lecture, bought one hundred dollars' worth of books for all the grandchildren. On the next morning, I took those up to my loft and I read them and I cried. One of them entitled, In Between, tells about a village where there are no streets, with rocks and weeds, and most of the houses have no windows. Only two houses have windows, and the man and the woman who have each a window in their house, are commissioned by this village, stumbling around, stammering, to go out and to search whether or not there is a God. And so, she goes and climbs the highest mountain and reaches for the clouds and searches in the depths of the ocean. He goes across the desert, around the world. Each of them in search of God finally come back together. Neither of them has found God. She touches his sunburned arm and he wraps his blanket around her, and they return to the village where everything is the same, except they begin to build windows in all of the houses. The villagers say to them, "Did you find God in the desert?" "No." In the mountains?" "No." "In the ocean?" "No." © Grand Valley State University �The Rise of Easter Faith Richard A. Rhem Page 6 "See? We told you there is not God." "Oh," they said, "we found God." "Where, then, is God?" They looked at each other and they said, "God is in-between." Now, if you can't cry at that, then you need to pray for eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand, because, my God, I believe. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide I Series Credo Scripture Text Luke 24:31, I Cor. 15:8, Acts 26:13 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010422 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-22 Title A name given to the resource The Rise of Easter Faith Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 22, 2001 entitled "The Rise of Easter Faith", as part of the series "Credo", on the occasion of Eastertide I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:31, I Cor. 15:8, Acts 26:13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Nature of God Resurrection Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8d290e3065969f639e0e25345392efa3.mp3 ef8e482e89dfb86b40b915451cc940c7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/107627a179fd06af9600318274593c77.pdf 2a9dfd7335104df8006013a6b49c9f7f PDF Text Text An Invitation to Life From the series: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Story Scripture: Psalm 16:5-11; I Peter 1:3-9,19-29; John 5:1-9 Text: John 5:24 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon There is a lot available to you today and tonight on Easter and Jesus - television specials and programs, one dealing with the face of Christ. Apparently there is an archeologist that has studied Jewish skulls going back through all the diggings, a couple of thousand of them, and then a medical artist whose specialty is putting flesh to bone, and now there is another head of Jesus to compete with Salman's "Head of Christ," which is so famous in our experience. Last year the National Catholic Reporter had a contest for the image of Jesus for the Third Millennium, and the winner was a woman by the name of Janet MacKenzie who painted an African American woman, and, of course, that caused a little bit of stir among the faithful. But her point, of course, was Jesus as the liberator in that image, and what was being conveyed was that there are still those who need to be freed, liberated. So, there is going to be this long special about images of Christ tonight. There is another one, 'The Face of Christ in Art," and in all of these it is interesting that we should be concerned about it, if we are, because as I reflected on it in terms of Easter this morning, I was struck by the fact that the important thing is not what Jesus looked like, but that he was, indeed, human. That is the critical matter. I say that in the light of our understanding of the reality of which we are a part. A cosmic process that they tell us has been going on for some 15 billion years, perhaps, and that that cosmic process with all of the complexity and all of the fascination of that development should issue in creatures like us, human beings, human beings who are conscious and aware, who give the universe a voice, creatures who are able to reflect on that whole process, and to wonder at it, that among those human beings there should have been one Jesus, the Christ. Now, that is amazing. If you want to speak of miracle, that is a miracle, that this process has eventuated in the human and that, among the humans, there should have been one Jesus. That is the wonder of it all and that is the critical matter, © Grand Valley State University �An Invitation to Life Richard A. Rhem Page 2 not what he looked like, but that he was genuinely bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. You might have already seen this weekend another television special that is created by the Coral Ridge Ministries. I have made reference to it an earlier time when I saw it, perhaps around the Christmas season, about who is this real Jesus. This is produced by D. James Kennedy, and if you would catch that you will see that the concern about what Jesus looked like is not evident at all. There is no concern. But there is a concern and that is the factuality of the resurrection, that Jesus who was crucified, as a matter of fact, walked out of the tomb. This word “fact” comes through often. The point is, of course, in this evangelical understanding of the Easter miracle, that it was Jesus who died as the sin-bearer for the world, who was raised by God as an indication that that sin offering was accepted, and, if you would watch that video, it will conclude with the Sinner's Prayer where you will acknowledge that you are a sinner, that you believe that Christ died for your sin, and that you ask for forgiveness and claim the promise, then, of heaven. That, of course, is the old, traditional conception of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. So, you can see that tonight, too, and that still speaks to millions and millions of people. I was reminded of the fact that when I went to Europe in 1967 the resurrection was the hot topic. There had been 100 years of European scholarship in which no one hardly dared speak about the resurrection. There was still the impact of the Enlightenment and miracle was not one of the possibilities, and so certainly no one dared speak about the resurrection of Jesus. But, about the time I got there, there was a whole class of students who were the students of the great Barth and Bultmann, and they were beginning to think again and speak again about the resurrection, and that the New Testament really could not be understood apart from the resurrection, and their emphasis, what they had hold of, was not like the Coral Ridge video– Jesus dying for sin and being raised again– but rather, Jesus being raised in the midst of history as the illuminator of history, and I can remember how powerful that was at the time. A theologian named Moltmann spoke about the theology of hope, and there was this whole emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus as the sign of the future consummation and all of the promises of God would be realized, and the kingdom of God would come fully into view. That was an important moment for me, frankly, personally, that resurrection in the midst of history. In fact, I came back to this congregation in 1971 under false pretenses. They thought I was the same one that left in 1964 but, anyway, the one thing that I did say to them early on was "Give me Jesus and the resurrection, and the rest is negotiable." As I have been thinking about Easter 2001 and this morning, I realize that my conception of things continues to grow, my sense of God, my appreciation for Jesus, and my sense of what the whole cosmic drama is about, so that it is not that sin offering and it is not even the fact that in the midst of history there is a sign of history's ultimate culmination. As I thought about it, the important thing © Grand Valley State University �An Invitation to Life Richard A. Rhem Page 3 for me is that life of Jesus, as I said a moment ago, that in the course of this cosmic process, out of this tapestry of swirling energy there should have arisen, not only a human being, but one like Jesus. And as I thought about it, I realized that Easter at one time for me meant the solution to the problem of death, and the resurrection of Jesus was to be celebrated because it signed the conquering of death. But, that isn't nearly so important for me today. What is really important is that life, that life that was lived in the midst of our history, that life that confronted power with truth, that spoke truth to power, that spoke against all systems of domination and oppression, that life that revealed the heart of God full of mercy and compassion, that spoke for justice and equity. Jesus, that magnificent life - that is the important thing: that he died trusting God, of course, but that he lived out a vision, the vision of what he believed was the divine intention. That is the amazing thing to me today. And then, as I thought about that, the question came: "Well, then, what is Easter?" Easter is what happened when his followers had the same experience I did. After the disappointment of his death, the fear and their fading into the woodwork, they began to come together again, and they said, "My God! He's still with us. He's alive. He's alive with God, and he is present with us." What they began to see was that what he was is what God is, and they knew that what he was, which is what God is, can never finally be defeated, can never finally be executed, can never finally be rubbed out. For one way or another, in one form or another, what Jesus was was a reflection of the divine intention. It was a reflection of that love and that mystery at the heart of things, and you can crucify it, you can execute it, you can try to put it away, you can stamp it out only so long, and it rises again. What he was is what God is, the divine Lover, the divine Intention, the Sacred at the center of things that will not be defeated, that will not finally be overcome. That is why we live with an indomitable hope. That is why we have this annual celebration, this affirmation of faith that all the wonder and the beauty and the truth, the integrity and the magnificence of that one life can never be overcome, never be defeated, never finally be put out, for the light will shine in the darkness and continue to shine, and finally, no matter how dark the abyss, life will return and Jesus is an invitation to life. You can get all of the images in the scripture, you can get the Coral Ridge image, you can get the Hope and History image, and even in John's gospel there is that paragraph back to back, the word of Jesus that gives life to the dead, some of them the living dead. And in the next paragraph, the dead in the tomb. It is all there, all of the images are there, all of the scenarios are there. But, for me, on this Easter, I celebrate Easter because of the life of Jesus and what he was is what God is, and that is why I follow him. Not because he died, but because he lived, and when I come to this table, I take bread and cup in order that I may be in solidarity with him and, taking bread and cup, I receive that promise that, to the end of the age, he will be with me. The lure of love at the heart of things came to expression in one Jesus. Now, there's a life and an invitation to true living. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Easter Sunday Series A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story, Scripture Text John 5:24 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010415 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-15 Title A name given to the resource An Invitation to Life Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 15, 2001 entitled "An Invitation to Life", as part of the series "A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story, ", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 5:24. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Love Resurrection Sacred https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/71b83f6eaeb1ae8301e6c7b77fdb9748.mp3 11f3bf19630c10fe0a38a71de3bef9a6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Maundy Thursday Scripture Text Mark 14: 22-25, 32-36 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010412 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-12 Title A name given to the resource The Moment of Truth Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 12, 2001 entitled "The Moment of Truth", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday. Scripture references: Mark 14: 22-25, 32-36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/def162161fe27a1dc681145cc8dafb92.mp3 cde503a930ecf9232eba43d0bd7408c1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/971a257de3fb3c1912de448ea945dd5a.pdf b0ece7d82e0d947660870ee98501eb3f PDF Text Text Will We Ever Learn? From the series: A Fresh Look At An Ancient Story Text: Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 33:10-22; Luke 19:28-48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Palm Sunday, April 8, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon This is my thirty-first consecutive Palm Sunday in this pulpit. It has been interesting to leaf through my past Palm Sunday sermon themes and texts. Luke 19, beginning with verse 41, has been my favorite. It occurred to me that you could trace my own evolution, my own emerging understanding of Jesus simply by tracing the Palm Sunday themes and texts over the years. Starting out in the early 1970s, there was the emphasis on Palm Sunday of the parade and the party. There was a subject, for example, “The Exhilaration of Celebration.” There was the emphasis on Jesus as the king, the rightful king coming to his rightful place, the agonizing king, the king who came in judgment, wet with tears. I remember that there was also just a little bit of “Schuleresque” in those early Palm Sundays, where we had learned that worship is celebration, that Palm Sunday was a great day to pull out all the stops, and it was fun. Looking back I also saw where that began to change for me in the early 1980s. I began to see Jesus more in terms of his humanity, more in terms of his prophetic role. I began to appreciate the magnificence of the life and the ministry of Jesus as he spoke truth to power, as he addressed the political, social, and economic movers and shakers on behalf of the poor and the marginalized ones. I began to see how strong, how true he was. Then I preached in 1984 “Jesus, You’re Really Somebody.” I continued to probe the theme of grace, the breadth of God’s grace, and I began to see that the idea of the atoning death of Jesus was not something that I could really adhere to any longer. If Jesus came from outer space into our space to die for our sin and to open up heaven for us, then Jesus, indeed, was the only way for salvation. But as I began to see that God’s revealing and God’s grace was of greater extent than just the Christian family, then I began to wonder about that centrality of the atonement. I knew that the atonement necessitated an exclusive gospel. But, if not a savior who died for our sins to make us suitable for heaven, what was Jesus about? I really had to find a whole new paradigm in which to understand him. © Grand Valley State University   �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   It wasn’t until 1993 that I braved the elements and expressed myself clearly: Jesus did not die for our sins, but because of our sins. It was the established, entrenched, worldly powers in all of their forms that conspired to bring him to death violently. And it has been that way ever since as we have continued to probe Jesus in his full humanity. He spoke truth to power, bringing upon himself the wrath of the best and the brightest, the establishment of church and state bringing him to death violently. As a little side note, it is also true that during those days of Palm Sunday celebration in the 1970s, our growth was going off the charts. When I began to sober up a bit and to see some of the superficiality of that and some of the other dimensions of Jesus, our growth leveled off. And when I began to see Jesus as I see him today, everything went downhill. I suspect if you give me another decade I could preach this place empty. But here we are again, another Palm Sunday, another entrance into Holy Week, another serious engagement with Jesus. We have one more time to remember, to reflect and to try to understand what it means to follow Jesus and what he was about, what brought him to death. I found myself over the years often addressing the current events of the day—the Balkan War, the Gulf War, one or another political, international crisis. It always seemed there was something for Palm Sunday that made Jesus’ life and ministry relevant to the current situation. I find it the same today. Let’s just for a few moments imagine Jesus parading into Washington, D.C. Let’s just imagine that Jesus comes up Pennsylvania Avenue, stops at the White House before going on to Congress. What do you think Jesus would have to say today? After all, to celebrate Palm Sunday is to remember the past, but only in order that it may impact the present, in order that we might be more faithful disciples of the one whose name we bear. And so, let’s just imagine for a little bit: Jesus in Washington D.C. All week long I could not help but think about Jesus and the United States and China in their standoff. What would Jesus say? What would Jesus counsel about how to end that standoff and to bring the people home and to move on? What do you think? Well, as I was conscious of this all week, I have been conscious of my reactions. I was conscious of every television newscast, because the media shapes our opinions and whether it is our media or their media, let us not be naive here. I am not talking about Americans or Chinese; I am talking about human beings. And media does shape what we think. I began to consider that international problem in terms of Hung and Elsie Liang, who are here this morning. I think if there was a vote on the loveliest, most gracious, loving, beautiful people in our community, Elsie and Hung Liang would © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   win, hands down. They’re Chinese. Now I know they left China before the Red Plague, but they’re Chinese. So I began to think about this international problem in terms of two concrete people, trying to personalize it rather than allowing the media to demonize the other side. Why would we fear this nation if it has people in it like Hung and Elsie? What do they really think over there, anyway? I went to Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. He is a Harvard expert in international affairs, and this book is highly respected. I remembered that he was saying that in the future, in our global situation, the conflict will be between civilizational groups; the West, the Orthodox, the Chinese, the Muslims, and so on. He has about nine of them. So I went back and I picked up the book again and looked at the little discussion on China. I found that in the late 1980s and 1990s, the relationship between the U.S. and China deteriorated. An inter-governmental document, a Chinese document, said, “We should point out that since becoming the sole superpower, the U.S. has been grasping wildly for a new hegemonism and power politics, and also that its strength is in relative decline and that there are limits to what it can do.” In 1995 the president of China spoke about Western hostility. “Western hostile forces have not for a moment abandoned their plot to westernize and to divide our country.” Also in 1995 there was a broad consensus among Chinese scholars and leaders that the U.S. was trying to divide China territorially, subvert it politically, contain it strategically, and frustrate it economically. Samuel Huntington says, “... and there is good evidence for all of those claims.” So, might decent Chinese people in leadership be scared to death, or irritated at surveillance flights? Have they not a right to be concerned about our supposed negotiations with Taiwan about advanced weaponry? This is an international game and it is a dangerous game, and we’re one of the players. In fact, I saw the young Chinese who were interviewed on the street, and who I think really are very open to America. So many of them want to come here and do come here. But they said the U.S. is such a bully; it throws its weight around. Another said, “Why can’t the United States see us as a friend instead of a competitor? Why the hostility?” I know the situation is complex. I know there are good people doing their best to end this standoff. I know I am naive and uninformed, but I also know that I am a human being with a moral intuitive sense, and some common sense, and I want to know why such a standoff has to be marked by such diplomatic duplicity on both sides, the demonizing of the other side. Is it so difficult to say, “This whole world of which we are a part has a shadow side to it, and we play into it, and we are strategically trying to contain you because we’re number one and any time you are number one, you are threatened to death about who is going to come on your tail”? © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   You can live in a gated community and you can get your security forces out, but when you are on top of the heap, you don’t sleep well. Would it be so difficult to say to the Chinese, “We’re in this thing together and it’s not good, and we’re sorry”? I suppose that is naive, but it is just a suggestion from a simple preacher, and I think the thing could be over. Jesus in Washington. He might stop by the White House and he might say to President Bush, “Why did you just scrap the Kyoto Treaty?” A special in Time magazine dated April 9 says, “Except for nuclear war or a collision with an asteroid, no force has more potential to damage our planet’s web of life than global warming. It’s a serious issue, the White House admits, but nonetheless, George W. Bush has decided to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Treaty to combat climate change, an agreement the U.S. signed but the new President believes is fatally flawed. His dismissal last week of almost nine years of international negotiations sparked protests around the world and a face-to-face disagreement with German Chancellor Schroeder.” This special Time report studies this whole issue, and in the course of the discussion about global warming, says ten years ago the data was fuzzy. We had no hard proof of global warming. But at the present time, the data is pretty certain that there is such a phenomenon as global warming and that it will have deleterious effects unless it is curbed. Why isn’t anything done about it? This paragraph reveals the reasons: Members of both major political parties recognize that global warming is a longterm problem that carries little short-term political risk. In other words, if in the year 2050, disaster strikes, it’s not going to impact anybody presently in Congress. By the time their inaction causes big trouble, many decades from now, they will be long gone. But, if they foul up the economy, they will be sent home next election day. When it comes to the environment in general, the president must answer charges that his campaign sales pitch was little more than bait and switch. Almost immediately upon taking office, the soothing candidate who made it a point to sound so many green themes on the stump began to govern much more like the oil patch president Conservatives hoped he would be.” That is from Time magazine. In the same issue, the Congress is detailed. Campaign financing: will it work, will it make any difference, will it do any good? The question is this: if the bill becomes law, will it truly disinfect our politics? The end of Clinton’s presidency and the launch of Bush’s were a parable for reformers, between the pardons for Democratic fat cats and the environmental policy clout of big business. But like a virus, political money has a way of mutating so that it spreads in any environment. © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   If Jesus came to Washington today, I suppose he might have something to say about this planet, this creation, and the fact that we are playing fast and loose and political people are bowing to the pressure of power and wealth and entrenched, established corporate leadership. Corporate leadership. What would Jesus say about that? Michael Harrington is kind of a gadfly, prophetic type, and he is a bit on the left, and yet he got attacked from the left. Now if you’re attacked from the right and the left, you must be doing something right. He was worried about the growing collectivism of our economic systems. The Communist system, of course, is state planned collectivism, but it’s not only the state that can plan the economy. He suggests that the trend under modern capitalism was toward a top-down command model, bureaucratic collectivism in which huge oligopolies administered prices, controlled the politics of investment, bought off the political system, and defined cultural taste and values while obtaining protection and support from the state. Harrington says it is not a good thing that under modern capitalism, effective control over investment, credit, and social planning is increasingly vested in the hands of un-elected elites who hold their own class interest and who valorize their own class-determined notions of the public good. Then there is this Catholic nun—you always have to doubt Catholic nuns. They’re usually bleeding heart liberals and they’re very, very idealistic and of no practical good, really. But Joan Chittister is a rather thoughtful one who talks about the 25 largest multi-national corporations that have annual GNPs that exceed the annual GNP of the United States and Western Europe combined. She asks, concerned about the environment, “What is good for the company? What promotes profit? What enhances technology? Stirs us? Drives us, blinds us? Whatever it takes to double the dollar—the squalor of the people, the loss of the rainforest, the weight of the smog, the clogging of waterways and the appropriation of resources—we leave to the generations to follow with never even a grace to blush. It is patriarchy waged in mortal battle for power, profit, and personal supremacy. It is a global male game of ruthless proportions called having dominion and survival of the fittest.” Well, that’s what you’d expect from such a source. If Jesus came to Washington, or if he came to Wall Street, or if he came to the Church in Greece, an Orthodox country where one of the Greek clerics says there will be bloodshed if the pope comes to visit, don’t you think Jesus might have something to say? So Church, corporate America, Congress, the presidency—I have enough in this sermon to offend everybody. If I didn’t get your favorite, just stay tuned. My point is this, dear friends. It was addressing these kinds of things that brought Jesus to violent death. If Jesus had died as a savior of the world for the © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   forgiveness of our sins and we could have pursued that in a personal piety, no one would care. If Jesus had simply said, “Look, I’m dying as a savior figure for sin, and Jerusalem, you can stay just as you are. Rome stay just as you are,” he would not have been killed. He would have died in his bed. But you see, on Palm Sunday he entered the city and confronted power with truth, prophetic truth, because he knew what we know, and that is that society becomes structured, develops structures. It needs them. We cannot live without social structures. We need political structures and economic structures; we need institutional forms. That is the only way we can operate with one another. A society needs order, it needs law, it needs custom. But what happens is that a society is organized like a pyramid, and over time, power comes to the top and that power is usually in terms of wealth. Wealth controls the political leaders, and what is bought and paid for is the maintenance of the status quo, which is good for business and which keeps everything on an even keel. It was true in Jesus’ day. Imperial Rome was an occupying power. The leaders of the Jewish people were collaborating for their own prestige and position and also trying to protect their holy place. Let us not fail to see that there was some genuine concern on the part of Caiaphas. But the system was wrong. There were people, masses of people who were being cast off their land, who didn’t have enough to eat, who were poor and suffering. It was a domination system and Jesus knew that it was contrary to that covenant understanding from the Hebrew scriptures, the tradition that was his. He spoke in the name of that tradition. He spoke where it made a difference. And they killed him. But the situation was not unique. That is the way it always is. It is true today. It is a pyramid, and our political system is bought and paid for. Campaign finance? My goodness, there are all kinds of senators who voted for it who really didn’t want it, because how does it operate other than through money? Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in his cynicism, tried to get an amendment passed which would make it unconstitutional so the courts could throw it away, and it is still not passed. It has to go to the House where it may be killed so it never comes to the floor, because our politicians don’t want campaign finance, because that is the way they have gotten where they are. That is the system. Would Jesus have anything to say about that? He’d have something to say about how we’re dealing with the poor and the disenfranchised. He would have something to say about health care and he would have something to say about the fact that an inheritance tax is not a death tax, and probably if you have that much money, you don’t have to keep it anyway. Jesus would follow the money and he would speak a word, and it is the way society always is organized. Sometimes a poet comes along and sees it and sings it, but you can ignore poets. You can ignore Joan Chittister; she’s just a Catholic nun, a kind of a rebel. And then a prophet sees it and a prophet declares it and finds the problem. So you kill the prophet. © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 7   Do you think that Jesus didn’t know what he was up against? This isn’t a bad Palm Sunday text, either: Woe you Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites, you leaders of the people, for you build tombs to the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous and you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets.” Thus you testify against yourself that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore, I send you prophets, sages and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town so that upon you may come all the righteous bloodshed from Abel to the blood of Zechariah, Son of Berachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you all this will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not, and your house is left to you desolate. I don’t know who it would be, but somebody in Washington would see that this prophet, and this poet, would be done away with. It might be the Pentagon. Maybe the National Security Office. Maybe the Congress itself. It could be a conspiracy cooked up in Wall Street. Who knows. But somebody would do away with him in our world today. Because nothing has changed. There is still a concentration of wealth and power, prestige and position. The only difficulty with that is, when you get there, you really have to build gates high and engage security forces, because you are going to be looking over your shoulder, because you are not at ease. You cannot rest. It is like the U.S. seeing China coming on its tail. I think that Jesus, when he said those words in Matthew which I just quoted, was angry. But ultimately, Jesus was not angry. It was anguish, because he was a son of Israel and he knew the Psalmist who said the war-horse is a vain hope for victory. The king is not saved by his army. Power finally will not do it. He knew Zechariah. He knew the vision of the prophets about the day that a peaceable king would come and do away with all the weapons of war. And if he had come into Washington today, he would have known one of the great crises of our world today, of the whole globe, is a question of global warming, and he would know about the concentration of wealth and power, and he would have to say something about it. He would probably say something about the pyramid shape of our society, and he would be worried about those lower layers. Jesus wept. Anger begets anger. Hostility begets hostility. But compassion and anguish sometimes call people up short. Dear God, what a Palm Sunday it would © Grand Valley State University �Will We Ever Learn? Richard A. Rhem Page 8   be if some of you movers and shakers, you who are the elite of the earth, would say, “What in the world can we do to follow Jesus?” I began Lent by saying, “What’s the matter with us?” I followed up with the question, “Do we need God to be good?” There is a little twist that is different this Palm Sunday, because in the light of where I have been moving, I thought one time that somehow or other that messianic dream of shalom would be affected by God coming in and making it all right. The more I think about it, the more I think God has said, “It’s in your hands. What are you going to do about it? I have sent you my son. You have a paradigm; you have a model. You know. You know.” Jesus weeps while we procrastinate and our world is in jeopardy. That is really what Palm Sunday is all about. A people wanted a parade. Parades are good. Celebrations are exhilarating. But if Jesus walked into Washington today, he wouldn’t have much more than a week to live. So, my question is: Will we ever learn? © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday Series A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story, Scripture Text Zechariah 9:9-10, Psalm 33:10-22, Luke 19:28-48 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010408 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-04-08 Title A name given to the resource Will We Ever Learn? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on April 8, 2001 entitled "Will We Ever Learn?", as part of the series "A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story,", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Zechariah 9:9-10, Psalm 33:10-22, Luke 19:28-48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Non-violence Prophetic Voice Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d1d6c8ca5069cc3da2af762098c60f85.mp3 5b7bf376fa1e80c5526ed5aa9116670b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Midweek Lenten Service Series Stations on the Way to Freedom Scripture Text Hebrews 5:7, John 12:27 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010328 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-03-28 Title A name given to the resource Courage Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 28, 2001 entitled "Courage", as part of the series "Stations on the Way to Freedom", on the occasion of Midweek Lenten Service, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Hebrews 5:7, John 12:27. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4e45c9d6cf729d16a94f74af77b517d3.mp3 570a3740a4ca052156a500a0d1e57219 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ee5f744a69a6ec13217c7e1b4c9a68e3.pdf 18c0328ed1ab9b89b32528e38cef1602 PDF Text Text Why Jesus? From the series: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Story Text: II Corinthians 4:6; John 1:15 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 25, 2001 Transcription of the spoken sermon My exposure to people of other faiths is minimal. Of those I have had, the relationships with the Jewish community have been the most meaningful, and I have been enriched through the work of the West Shore Committee for JewishChristian Dialogue. I have found Rabbi Alpert in Muskegon a princely man; Rabbi David Hartman from Jerusalem, who has been with us several times, so intoxicated with God, so full of the Spirit; Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, again a gentle scholar, devout and genuine. I have known fewer Muslim folk, but there, too, far from the TV image of the Islamic terrorists, I found sincerity and a deep hunger for God. I’ve never really known Buddhists, but in our world today you can’t help but be exposed to that in the media or through reading—a wonderful transformation of the human being through the path of dying to self and living in another consciousness. Those experiences with people of other faiths have been enriching to me in recent years, whereas once they would have been very threatening. I was already open for them, I suppose, through the recognition of that universality of God’s grace, and I was beginning to see how God revealed God’s self and offered grace, not only through my own religious tradition, but through other traditions that were authentic ways and experiences of God. In 1990 I sat in the magnificent cathedral in Chartres, outside of Paris. There was an Englishman who had lived there for many, many years and gave lectures. Malcolm Miller was his name, and he knew every nook and cranny, every stone. He pointed out something that I had not been aware of before, that the cathedral once was like the community library. People didn’t read; they didn’t have the printed page. But those stained glass windows told stories, and they became the means of teaching through which people learned and were moved by the biblical story. You can go through the cathedral and follow the biblical story from Creation to Consummation in stained glass. © Grand Valley State University   �Why Jesus? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   As I sat in the Chartres cathedral, I could not help notice how the stained glass windows were diverse in the stories they told. And as I thought about it, I came to realize a parable of sorts. Suppose you came to church every Sunday and picked the same pew. You would only see one set of windows and only part of the story. So perhaps this cathedral is a parable of the respective religious traditions. What if the Christians were gathered in the nave, and they saw the light streaming through the windows there, while the Muslims were in the transept and looked at another set of windows. The Jewish people in the choir would be looking through that magnificent rose window, and the Buddhists off in the other transept would see something else. You get the picture. It struck me that what made all of the windows luminous with teaching and meaning was a common source of light. Such a simple idea! But for me it was a parable, and it became a means by which I could move easily into that pluralism in which I live and move and have my being; that pluralism that recognizes in the great religious traditions of the world, the one eternal God manifest in light and conveying grace. For me this idea was so liberating, so freeing. Of course, I’ve met a lot of other people for whom this is a very threatening idea. If their truth is not the only truth, somehow or another their truth is diminished. I don’t understand that. For me it was the most liberating idea, because I could look at the other, the one who is different from me, and not see them as alien, not see them as a candidate for conversion or worse, a child of hell. I could see a fellow pilgrim, someone whose own pilgrimage could enrich mine through the nuances of that spirituality, and I, as well, might be able to be a means of grace to another. For me it was a liberating idea. But if that is indeed the case, and I do believe it is, then the question this morning is, “Why Jesus?” Why all the fuss about Jesus? Why do I want Jesus to walk with me? Why, in this Lenten season, do we rehearse again the stories of the passion as we move toward Holy Week? Why Jesus? Why in our prayers and our hymns and our liturgies, why is there such a concentration on Jesus? Why Jesus? Well, let me suggest why Jesus this morning. The apostle Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians, that second letter, makes a beautiful, concise statement, for he says: “We preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus’ sake, for the God who said let light shine out of darkness.” In other words, the Creator God has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Why Jesus? Because we believe God is revealed there. We have seen, as I like to say, in the face of Jesus into the heart of God. Jesus is the embodiment of God. What we see there is reflective of the nature of God. So why Jesus? Because that Mystery that is God must somehow or other come into sharp focus for us, must come into some tangibility, and Paul says that to look into the face of Jesus is to get a clue as to the heart of God. © Grand Valley State University �Why Jesus? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   John, I think even more profoundly in the first chapter of his Gospel, says much the same thing. Paul was the first to write in the fifteen or twenty years or so after Jesus, but John wrote near the end of the century. The Gospel of John is a more philosophical, more thoughtful portrait of Jesus, because Jesus didn’t come, you know. The kingdom didn’t come, the heavens weren’t opened, everything didn’t come to consummation. The preaching of John the Baptist was not realized, and that apocalyptic hope seemed to come to nothing. And so, if it didn’t happen the way they were anticipating it would happen, what did this Jesus encounter mean, after all? I love the way John’s Gospel has it. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only son of the father.” Oh, the law came through Moses, to be sure, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. There was, in other words, as Paul said, an unveiling, a revealing. But even more, there was that embodiment, there was that flesh; the Mystery took on human form and dimension. John says that which was in the beginning took human shape before our eyes. I like the translation of that first verse, “In the beginning was the divine intention.” The Greek word can bear that meaning. In the beginning was the divine intention, and that divine intention eventuated in a human being, so that the profound revelation of God is seen in the human. John, the writer of that Gospel, was operating with his own cosmology, but what he said translates so beautifully into what we know about our universe: fifteen billion years ago a Big Bang; a cooling of the elements; the planetary system; the emergence of life; eventually conscious life; and a self-conscious human being. Then 2000 years ago there came a human being that made people say, “That’s it! There it is. That’s a clue to what God is. That is an indication of what we are called to be.” John’s testimony was that divine intention from the beginning. Whether for John that was 4,000 years prior, whether for him there was the three-decker universe with heaven above and hell below, it doesn’t matter. His cosmology was incidental. What he was saying is that in the beginning there was an intention, an intention that unfolded, a dramatic cosmic story that eventuated in the human and in a human, Jesus. For John that was the realization, the manifestation, the human statement of the divine intention. The scientists in our day love to discuss and argue whether or not the universe was made for humankind. There are those who describe the anthropic principle which says that all of the fine balances, all of the things that have happened over these fifteen billion years eventuated in just the right setting, environment, © Grand Valley State University �Why Jesus? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   possibility toward life and for human life. And there are others who say it was willy-nilly, just an accident. Well, you can make your choice; pay your money and make your choice. It doesn’t matter, really, because here we are and we are looking to Jesus as the highest and the best, the realization of the intention of God. But I like to think of that divine intention being pervaded throughout by that serendipitous creativity of the Creator God. I like to think that all of the emerging, evolving biological, historical development, all of that, is the consequence of the lure of love, the Spirit that knows no coercion, but only persuasion, that beckons this process on to the point at which there was a human being. And in the midst of humanity there was a certain Jesus and they said, “My God, that’s it!” This understanding of Jesus is different than the understanding with which I began my life and my ministry. For me, Jesus in the tradition was that one who was with God in the life of the Trinity, who as the second person of the Trinity, came from outside and assumed our human nature, died for our sin, was resurrected and left again. He was a divine intruder, if you will, one who came as the gift of God to be the sin-bearer of the world in order that there might be forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s not how I understand Jesus, obviously, in what I have been saying to you this morning. I understand Jesus not as one who has come from the outside, from another realm. I understand Jesus as one who emerged in the process through the Creator Spirit, who became the embodiment of the divine intention, and whose life is the clue to God’s purpose and meaning for human life as a whole. How do I make that shift? Certainly that old conception comes from the New Testament, there’s no question about that. How do I make that shift from an outsider divine coming in, bearing our sin and moving out again? I make it by understanding Jesus in the historical context in which he lived. This is where all of the historical Jesus research is so fruitful, because it shows us a concrete human being in his historical, social, political, and economic context. It shows us a human being who responded to his context, one who looked at the society of his day and saw the exploitation of imperial Rome and the collaboration of his own leadership of his people. Jesus saw the destitution, the hurt, the pain, the poverty, the despair, the powerlessness, and the voicelessness of the multitudes. He looked at them and saw them as sheep without a shepherd, harassed and tossed about. And somehow or other Jesus was able to communicate to them their dignity as the children of God, to remind them of the covenant of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Jesus was able to call forth their humanity once again. Jesus also saw the power structures, the power brokers of his day. It was clear to him how the people were being used and abused, how the leaders kept forgetting that they were the servants of the people, not the masters of the people, not the © Grand Valley State University �Why Jesus? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   exploiters of the people. Jesus spoke truth to power. He went to the very center of the nation; the Temple of Jerusalem, and brought his word, his good news about another kingdom, an alternative way of being, and they killed him violently. And there, in that life, in that one, I see the realization of God’s intention. A couple of weeks ago I raised the question, “What’s wrong with us?” What’s wrong with us? We live by animal instincts, that old survival instinct that we took with us from the jungle. And I then asked, “Do we need God to be good?” Can’t we see it? Can’t we understand how we destroy ourselves, destroy our planet, destroy society? Can’t we see it? We’re responsible, we have knowledge, we have relative freedom. Do we need God as some threat beyond us, some lawgiver from beyond? Don’t we see it in our own lives and in our society and our day? What’s wrong with us? It is that we are not like Jesus? And what I see in Jesus is the only hope for the transformation of the world. Am I a dreamer? Of course, I’m a dreamer. What do I see in Jesus? I see peaceful non-resistance. I see righteousness incarnate. I see the truth spoken with integrity. I see self-sacrifice. I see a willingness to stand in one’s truth, even at the cost of death. I see one (and here I believe he is the incarnation of God) who meets evil with forgiveness and with grace. I see one who meets hatred with love. “Love your enemies,” he said. I see one who gives us an impossible ethic in the Sermon on the Mount, concluding in Luke’s version: “Be ye therefore compassionate as your father in heaven is compassionate.” I see Jesus. Why Jesus? Because Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. No one will come to the experience of communion in the father’s bosom without that spirit of © Grand Valley State University �Why Jesus? Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Jesus, that grace of Jesus, that truth of Jesus, that integrity of Jesus, that fearlessness of Jesus, that freedom of Jesus, that magnificence of Jesus. It was April 15, 1984, Palm Sunday in this place. The title of the sermon was, “Jesus, You Are Really Somebody.” I had come through my own torturous journey to see Jesus in all of his humanity rather than that second person of the Trinity, that divine savior, that one who came, as the true God, the true man, two natures with all of that Christological structure. I had begun to see Jesus in all of his humanity and I was so impressed. It struck me that all along I really had seen a Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for example, as far more impressive than Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer moved me. The story of his martyrdom moved me. Why didn’t Jesus move me? Because Jesus was from the outside; Jesus lacked full humanity. Then, when I began to see Jesus in his humanity, I had to say, “Jesus, you are really somebody!” I had to begin to translate all of the symbolism, because all of our prayers and liturgical forms, our hymns, our anthems are full of the Jesus in that other conceptuality. I still must do that. I understand it as poetry, but when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, I see there a place of violence, where one who died gave expression to the divine intention from all eternity. I want Jesus to walk with me. And when I see that cross and contemplate that life, then I know that such love, such strength, such grandeur of person reflective of the heart of the eternal God demands my soul, my life, my all. It’s the only hope we have. Lord, I want to be like Jesus. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent VI Series A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story Scripture Text II Corinthians 4:6, John 1:15 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-20010325 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-03-25 Title A name given to the resource Why Jesus? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 25, 2001 entitled "Why Jesus?", as part of the series "A Fresh Look At an Ancient Story", on the occasion of Lent VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 4:6, John 1:15. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Inclusiveness Way of Jesus