22 24 1045 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9073add7a8137211f80237522884aa26.mp3 57aed479e1ff50d7aad2361b2159fd34 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/55610773190b4889fd30ac3be3a70103.pdf 7e3ba49d87605e6082114930d46cdc15 PDF Text Text Religion Made On Earth From the series: Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression Text: Isaiah 44:18; Acts 17:27-28 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 23, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Today and for a few weeks to follow I want to speak to you about religion in order that we might understand more clearly that in which we are engaged as a worshiping community. I want us to consider the nature of this phenomenon of religion which for us is still important and informs us not only in our worship, but also in our way of life. For many people, perhaps, religion is less important, and they have fallen away. And yet, back over the eons of time religion has been endemic to the human situation. As long as there have been those whom we would denominate human, we find traces of religion. The practice of religion is really the attempt of the creature to come into relationship with the Ultimate Reality. Call that Ultimate Reality what you will— God, the mystery, the sacred, the holy. Think of it in terms that are personal or think of it in terms of some life force, whatever that may be, and that Ultimate Mystery has been thought of in all those ways. As a matter of fact, human beings try to figure out what in the world is going on, who we are, where we have come from, and what will be the issue of our being here. Is there any meaning to the practice of religion? Is there any purpose? Is that meaning or purpose intrinsic in the process of itself, or is meaning something we bring to the process and create in the midst of it? All of those options are open. But I believe to be human is to be religious, because to be human is to live in the presence of a Mystery. We didn’t create ourselves. We are here by a grace or a fate, and we live and move and have our being. We live before a Mystery that is beyond us, that cannot be fully grasped but has been experienced— according to the testimony of people down through the ages who have encountered it in some concrete way. That Ultimate Reality breaks through, or bubbles up. In any case, to be human is to come at some point to recognize that life has an ultimate ground and source and to wonder about it. The religions of the world are human phenomena that are the consequences of someone’s experience, the © Grand Valley State University   �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 2   results of which gathered a community or cult that developed a way of worship, liturgy, prayers, hymns, sacraments, and rituals of various kinds. The community, the cult, called those who followed that way to a way of life, an ethics, a morality. Religion is a human phenomenon, and what I want to say this morning in this first message is very simple, but if you really hear me, it’s very radical. You won’t hear it often in church, but I believe that it is simple and it is true: religion is made on earth; it is a human construct. Religion didn’t fall ready-made from heaven. There is no absolute religion with God’s stamp on it as over against all of the other religions practiced by the diversity of humankind. All religion is made on earth and is a human construct. If you could buy that, I wouldn’t have to preach anymore. We would recognize together that what we have is a story, a way of devotion and a way of life which is the consequence of long history. It is the consequence of some who had an encounter with that Mystery, told their story and created what has become for us the Christian tradition, flowing out of the Jewish tradition, and of course, the biblical tradition. One might ask, “Well, isn’t it true?” Is a sunset true? Is a poem true? Of course, it’s true. It is true in the sense that it puts us in communion with God. It satisfies the hunger of our heart. It elicits from us what is noble and best. It gives us a reason for being. It gives us a hope. It enables us to go on to tomorrow. Of course, it’s true. But religion is not true in the sense that a chemical formula is true, not in the sense that the hard stuff of the natural sciences is true. It is not empirical and verifiable. Religion is a judgment call. Religion is a choice. Religion is a response to a story. It is engagement in worship and community; it is the following of a way of life. Religion can be good or less good, but not true or false in a sense in which we deal with true and false in a world marked by the scientific method, empirical investigation. No, religion is a human construct and all of them alike are made on earth. Now if you can receive that, you will have learned a very radical and very important truth this morning. Oh, I suppose you know it and have known it for a long time, or you probably wouldn’t be hanging around here. But nonetheless, I want to underscore it as we begin a series of contemplating the nature and the function and the practice of religion. In the dawning of human consciousness there were those ultimate questions, the questions which arise because we are human, self-conscious and conscious of the other. The great religious traditions of the world are the consequence of communities gathering around a visionary experience, a founding story. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 3   The problem was, and still is, that there is also something intrinsic in our human nature that wants to take that which is valuable and good and helpful and absolutize it. We want to make it the exclusive way, the exclusive truth. We want to assert dogmatically that the visionary experience we have had, our insight, our intuitive grasp of things is the only way, is the only possible understanding, is the only door to eternal life. Monotheism, the idea of one God, was a step forward. To say God by definition is to say that Ultimate Mystery, that ultimate source of things. Finally there could be God and none other. There’s no problem with that. That was an insightful move. The problem is when, as a monotheist who affirms with some understanding that God can only be one, I claim that one is the God of my particular religious vision, rather than recognizing that my image is a groping after the Ultimate Mystery that lies beyond every concrete God image. In Babylon the Jews were in exile and they were losing their grip, and so the prophet, trying to get them to hang on to their God of Israel, writes this taunting, mocking piece in Isaiah 44. It is full of satire. “Look how stupid is this idol worship of the Babylonians. Craftsman takes a tree, cuts it in half, with half the tree he builds a fire, warms himself. He cooks his meal. And from the other half he shapes an image. And then he bows down and worships the image. How stupid can you be?” says the prophet. Not a very nice attitude. Did you catch that? How stupid can you be? The same tree: part of it for a campfire to cook over and to warm him, and the other part of it for an idol, a block of wood shaped and formed, bowed down before. How stupid! Oh, really? If the prophet had been honest and fair, he would have known. I suspect he did know some of the liturgy of the Babylonian cult. They weren’t stupid. They were fully aware that a block of wood shaped into an image was a mediator of the mystery. There are prayers in the Babylonian liturgy that plead for the God of heaven to come down and indwell this image so that God might have a concrete existence in the midst of the people. Hmm. Sounds like the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Maybe they knew what John knew when he said, “No one has ever seen God, but the only Son has made God clear, or revealed God.” The prophet was using satire and ridicule because he had this little rag tag band of exiles, and he was trying to hold them together for Yahweh God. It was harmless. That only becomes dangerous when a group manifests that kind of attitude and spirit and then gets power. If you have power to enforce your monotheism and your exclusive claim, you can become a very dangerous person. Someone once wrote that history is bound to be bloody when it’s made by people © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 4   who barely understand themselves, yet declare that they understand God perfectly. Then they meet other people who think the same, only differently. And then you have the violence and the hostility and the bitterness that fuels so much of the unrest in the human family. This has always been the case and remains so in our day. Religion is a human construct. That doesn’t mean that it is not the mediator of revelation and saving grace. We believe that Moses was encountered by the living God, but the only way that could come to be a religious movement was through human language, human articulation, human formulation, human cult, liturgy, prayer, ritual, commandments, and a way of life. Every religion has those aspects. Every religion has a story, an experience, an encounter, a vision which issues in a mode of worship and in a way of life. But you see, if I would claim that my Christian faith or my Jewish-Christian, biblical tradition is true and true alone and the only truth, I would also be saying that Mohammed was just blowing smoke, that what happened to Moses couldn’t happen to anyone else, that the Buddha in his moment of enlightenment was not dealing with any ultimate truth breakthrough, that all of the founding stories of the great religious traditions were false, and mine is true. Well, we have dealt with that often enough here, but I am still struck with its ignorance and its arrogance. Every religion is made on earth. It doesn’t fall out of heaven. If it is a good religion, it puts earthlings in touch with heaven. If it’s a good religion, it mediates between humans and that Mystery whom no one has ever seen, nor can we know, apart from a gracious unveiling here and there, now and again. But religion is a human business. Religions are not all the same. Some are better than others in terms of the grace they mediate, in terms of the fruit that follows from the observance, and that can be discussed. As a matter of fact, what cannot be denied is that all of us humans who are religious are engaged in a structure of story, worship, and life which is a human construct. So then, how do you judge religion? Well, let me suggest a few things. Good religion opens the mind. It’s easy enough to say, but also indicative of the fact that there has been an awful lot of bad religion, because most religion has not been about opening the mind, but about closing it. It has been about the statement of an absolute deposit of faith beyond which one ought not to think. In other words, it has been about the creation of a box within which one can think all one wants to as long as one doesn’t get out of the box. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 5   But good religion will open the mind. Good religion will open us to the reality of this world. It will give us access to all of the sciences and the explosion of knowledge which is so amazing in our day—amazing breakthroughs in biology, for example, that deal with the human being; the Genome project, the DNA mapping, that kind of thing. We don’t need to be threatened by that. A good religion will say to us, “Go for it! Understand it. Be fascinated by it, and profit from it.” Good religion opens the mind. Good religion will help us to understand our own religion, and to understand the historical conditions of every religion. We’ll begin to see how other religions arose, how they developed, and why they are what they are. Without a kind of absolutism that says mine is true and all the rest are false, I’ll come to Isaiah 44 and say, “Prophet, I understand what you were doing in that context, but I don’t like your attitude. And you were not fair to Babylonian religion.” It will enable me to say to Paul, who comes to Athens and sees all the temples and all the statues and becomes frustrated and disturbed, that the Athenians were simply seeking the same ultimate Mystery he encountered. He was disturbed because he had this amazing vision. He was gripped by a vision. He believed that all of this imagery and all of these gods and goddesses represented in the city of Athens simply didn’t measure up to that which had gripped him and grasped him. He wanted to tell the whole world about the God of Israel who had become incarnate, not in a block of wood, but in a human face. And it is natural, good and right that he should have shared his vision, as long as he didn’t do as the prophet did and denigrate those who were groping after the Mystery. After all, that is what human religion is—groping after the Mystery. Good religion will help us to understand that. Good religion will give us a sense of why things are the way they are. For example, in our house right now, the aroma is marvelous. There’s a pork loin roasting. The clan is coming over. But we didn’t invite our Jewish friends. Because of the dietary laws, I wouldn’t invite my Jewish friends over for a pork loin. Now why did the Jews have a restriction against pork, or any of the dietary laws? They had a hygienic basis. I suppose they thought pigs were full of trichinosis, and they probably were, and it wasn’t healthy. It became a religious thing, but it had a very practical base. Now you tell a pig farmer today that his pork is not the “other white meat” and he will be offended, because those pigs live in palaces now. Well, then, the dietary law is not necessary anymore, is it? Not really. But is it okay still not to eat pork? Of course, it’s okay. But you’re not dealing with something that is part of the ultimate structure of reality. It is a choice. A Jewish person might say, “I belong to a Jewish community and we have dietary laws, so that when I eat, I am reminded of God. When I eat, the very way I eat, the things I © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 6   eat, the things I don’t eat remind me that I am a child of God, the God of Israel is my God.” And that’s good. Or maybe there is something we can identify with a little more: the Sabbath, the Jewish Sabbath. What a wonderful institution! I commend it to you. I commend it to myself, for whom every weekend is shot to heaven. But I heard on the news last night that at Camp David yesterday the conversation between Barak and Arafat was casual. Why? Because it was the Sabbath. Now who knows what they really did in the bushes, but for the face of the world, the Sabbath was observed. Is that good? Sure, it is good. Does it reflect something in the ultimate structure of things? No. The problem is, if everybody was as observant as the Jew and an American Christian who is trying to get an Arab and a Jew together, you’d have the Arab Sabbath on Friday and the Christian Sabbath on Sunday. So you’d have Friday, Saturday and Sunday just written right off and you couldn’t get anything done. On the other hand, if three days were spent by our world leaders in the contemplation of Creation and God, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday might be more profitable. But is it something that is in the ultimate structure of things? No. Is it a fruitful, helpful choice? Absolutely. It is good for all of us to observe Sabbath, not because that is the way reality is, but because that reality constructed by us is a very good way to be. Good religion will help me to understand those things, so that I know that a lot of the things I do are arbitrary. They are judgment calls on my part, and the thing I have to be satisfied with is whether or not it is a means by which I am in communion with, I am in touch with, that Ultimate Mystery. Is it a way that is fruitful in my life? If it is good for me, does it have to be good for you? If something else is good for you, do I have to deny that the something else can be a means of grace for you? No, not at all, because religion is made on earth and it is a human construct. The point is that religion be faithful and fruitful in mediating to us that Ultimate Mystery that embraces us and undergirds us and overshadows us and gives us life as a gift and hope for the future. And then, good religion will lead to compassion. I am reading Karen Armstrong’s Battle for God. Incidentally, I talked to her in London last week and she is going to come here in October of 2001. She stresses again, as she stressed in her History of God, how all the great religious traditions call for compassion. Good religion will warm the heart. It will open the mind and it will warm the heart, and it will result in a compassionate people. A lot of good religion has a pretty bad track record, and we still haven’t been able to master that one. Did you see the ABC Evening News at 6:30 last night? I perked up my ears when they said there was a religious problem somewhere in the country. Well, it happened to be in a suburb of Chicago, Palos Heights. On the news screen was © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Grand Valley State University �Religion Made On Earth Richard A. Rhem Page 7   the story of a Muslim community that has outgrown their facility and they were going to buy a church building which was for sale in Palos Heights. Then the Palos Heights Reformed Church appeared on the screen. (I spoke there a few years ago, but they haven’t asked me back lately.) The Muslim congregation was going to buy that building until there was an uproar in this suburb of Chicago that is filled with many, many Christian people. And so the City Council offered the Muslim community $200,000 to just walk away, and they were going to do it until, bless his heart, the mayor said to his council, “Number 1, you say you’re going to use that for a recreational facility. A year ago you turned it down because it wasn’t large enough. Number 2, we don’t have $200,000 just to pay out. And number 3, the reason you’re doing it is wrong.” That’s right down the lake, folks. It’s not just a religious thing, it’s a human thing. It’s the fear of the other; it’s the threat of that which is different. Good religion will break through to us where we say it cannot be. The world cannot continue in all of the intricacy of the human community to live with that kind of paranoia, that kind of divisiveness, that kind of fear of diversity. Good religion will result in compassion, or it’s not worth anything it claims to be. Good religion will elevate the aesthetic tastes, because there was a day when the Church was the womb of the arts, of magnificent architecture, the beautiful paintings, the lovely music that moves the soul—all of that comes out of the spiritual center that is elevated by the encounter with God. I look around today and see such a terrible loss of the aesthetic sense and the deterioration of religion. Friends, to be ultimately committed to one’s faith and vision does not necessitate the claim that it fell out of heaven. To be totally committed and deeply nurtured in one’s faith vision does not necessitate the denial that it is a human construct flowing out of the human experience of God, winning its way through liturgy, prayers, and an effective way of being human. But to acknowledge that religion is made on earth is to be able to join hands and hearts and arms with all God’s children, for good religion will understand itself and feel compassion for the other. © 2013 Kaufman Interfaith Institute and 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 VII Series Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression Scripture Text Isaiah 44:18, Acts 17:27-28 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-0-20000723 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-07-23 Title A name given to the resource Religion Made On Earth 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 23, 2000 entitled "Religion Made On Earth", as part of the series "Religion: Significant Critique and Fresh Expression", on the occasion of Pentecost VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 44:18, Acts 17:27-28. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Pluralism Religion as a Human Construct https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f6696cb990308efd8cb6c04211602160.mp3 34f6ca74cdce81ee97caac77027df6e1 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2a82130876e534059c54b762d513b913.pdf f670a6e8fe9a3fa222dcffc6eb4cde82 PDF Text Text Prayer Changes People Pentecost V Text: Jeremiah 29:11-14; Psalm 131:1-2; Matthew 6:8-9 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan July 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Some months ago I received a letter from one of our members, a good friend with whom I was going to have lunch, and as a prelude to the lunch, he gave me a series of questions that he thought would be good for discussion. He indicated that he had heard, from me and others who had come this way, the ultra-liberal view of things and he wondered about the old, traditional answers to some of the old, traditional questions, such as Creation and Adam and Eve and the Virgin Birth and Resurrection, Salvation through Christ alone. Then he had a whole paragraph on prayer in which he indicated that he had a Christian surgeon friend who said that in all of his many, many years and many, many procedures he had never known any effect of prayer in the changing of the result. He gave a whole paragraph to prayer and so, while I didn't think I wanted to get back to Adam and Eve or even the Virgin Birth, I thought probably those old questions about prayer continue to come, to rise within us in the variety of our human experience. What does prayer mean? Does prayer change anything? Does it affect reality? Prayer, now, not in its whole spectrum. There is prayer as praise. Prayer as adoration, prayer as confession, prayer as thanksgiving. That's all given. But, prayer as intercession, prayer as petition, prayer that asks God, as it were, to do something. That kind of prayer has always been the source of deep questions within our Christian experience, and so I thought this morning it might be well for us to spend a little time and reflect on prayer because certainly prayer is the very heart and center of the religious life or spiritual life. To be religious or to be spiritual is to pray, and yet, as our understanding of our faith and our experience moves and changes, how do we understand this exercise of prayer, this communion with God, this conversation with God? And does prayer affect or change reality? Those questions are certainly not new and I recognize and I want to say in the beginning that to give a sermon on the subject of prayer requires of one to be very careful and very sensitive. There are devotional habits that we have all developed over the years and it is never my intention to talk anyone out of that which is © Grand Valley State University   �Prayer Changes People Richard A. Rhem Page 2   satisfying and that which works for them in their spiritual pilgrimage and in their Christian life. My correspondent was taking a step back and looking at prayer somewhat objectively, wondering about it from a step removed from real existential engagement, and a sermon necessarily has to do that, too, and all of us can do that on occasion. But, to preach a sermon on prayer is a very risky thing because, in a congregation gathered like this, the whole spectrum of human experience is present, and while there are plenty of you who can take that step back and think with me about it this morning, there are no doubt others of you here in an existential point in your life where you are praying for your life, and I have often found that while many times with many people a conversation about prayer is possible, for others, it creates a great defensiveness and we become very protective and can be easily wounded as one discusses this kind of thing. In the crucible, we tend to react emotionally, not rationally, and in a setting like this this morning I am aware that there may be those of you who are deeply engaged in some existential moment where the wrestling and prayer is where you are, and I hope that you can, nonetheless, for just a few moments, think about this wonderful gift, this wonderful reality that we call prayer. I had set down this topic some weeks ago and was intending fully to treat it as one has to treat it, from a step removed, looking at it as a phenomenon of the spiritual life, and two weeks ago, my sister Lois underwent surgery. The diagnosis was melanoma cancer in all the vital organs and in the brain, and the doctor gave the diagnosis to her in the presence of her family and she is now home under Hospice care, for he said it could be a week or it could be a month, those things are not predictable. And last week a niece of mine – who happens to be the oldest grandchild of my parents, who when she was a little tyke I took care of one whole summer because her mother, my sister, couldn't pick her up, being pregnant once again, another one with whom I am very closely bonded – had a stroke, followed by seizures which have continued through the week, as late as this past Friday. And so, I found myself praying, and a preacher is always thinking about the next sermon, and so for the last two weeks I have been very much aware of what I intuitively sense, of what I emotionally feel, and of what I intellectually understand. I've been preaching this sermon for two weeks in quite another fashion than I intended to when I put down the subject and committed myself to preach on prayer today, and it's been really a good exercise for me because I have been so existentially engaged in the practice of prayer while also reflecting on the praying and on my own engagement in this exercise, and what I have come to see is that my understanding of prayer is really part and parcel of my understanding of God. And my understanding of God, it is no secret to you who have been with me for a while, the image of God has been transformed over the last few years from the classic theism with which I was nurtured and educated and which for most of my ministry I preached, transformed from that classic theism to an understanding of God as part of the reality of our life. The old classic theistic conception of God is that of the supernatural being outside of our reality who dips into our reality now and again to effect this or that, that idea of God as © Grand Valley State University �Prayer Changes People Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Almighty, the sovereign of history, the ruler of the world, the one who shifts the gears of the universe, the one who determines all that happens, that one, in a word, who is in control -that's the God with which most of us have grown up. But, also I think that image of God or the understanding of God has become more difficult for us. As we have come to more and more of an understanding of our world, of our human existence, of reality as such, I think that that old image of God as Almighty, in control, has really created our problems with prayer, because I do believe in all honesty that prayer has been a question and oftentimes an anguishing problem for devout persons. For example, I pray for my child and she is healed. You pray for your child and she dies. Or, droughts and floods and hurricanes and all of those natural disasters that we call in the insurance lingo the "acts of God," a God who is all-powerful and is in control, but does not rule out cancer in a child, or in our own lifetimes that most chilling realization that God's chosen people, the Jews, could be murdered en masse, six million, as occurred in the Holocaust. What does one do with God in control in face of human tragedy and suffering? Well, of course, I know the traditional answers - "God makes no mistakes," we say, feeling we have to say something in the face of tragedy, saying something like that which can really only wound the one who has experienced great loss. Or, "It is the inscrutable will of God and it will be made clear one day." Well, you can't argue with that and it has worked for many people, but in all honesty, it doesn't work for me anymore and I suspect there are many of you who say the same. If God can heal, why is it only one here and there? If God can send the rain or spare it, if God can send the wind or hold it back, then why should life be laced with such ongoing suffering and tragedy, if God is really in control? That is, if God really controls, pulls the levers, the strings, and determines all that happens? In the face of my own existential concern for those I dearly love, I had an opportunity to test the different image of God, not a God in control, but a God a part of the very reality of which we are all a part. If you want an attempt to label it, it is a conception that can be referred to as pan-entheism. Pan is the Greek word for "all," and the preposition en is "in," and theos, of course, is the Greek word for God. Pan-entheism tries to say God in everything and everything in God. God more than everything, but nothing apart from God, nothing exists apart from the presence of God. All of reality shot through with God. God present to all and all embraced in God, so that God is not one who needs to be called into the process. God is not one being, be God supernatural and super-human, human writ large. God is not just another being, a spiritual factor that here and there reflects the course of nature and interrupts the process, but rather, God as the enlivening center of all that is, the creative Spirit that moves it all. God present to all, in all and all in God so that prayer becomes coming to be at one with that mystery that is one with us. © Grand Valley State University �Prayer Changes People Richard A. Rhem Page 4   How, then, does one pray? Did I, do I pray for God to heal my sister's cancer? No, I don't. What, then, do I pray for? I pray for awareness. I pray for an awareness of the presence of the life-giving, loving God in all things that binds us all together. I pray for a sense of the enlivening, life-enhancing, loving, sacred and holy One, bringing me and those I love into sync with that which is God, the deepest and most profound Mystery of all reality. Because when I can come to recognize my part as a part of the whole, when I come to sense that I am laced into this whole amazing and wonderful miracle we call life and reality, when I come to the awareness that God is in me and with me and in and with those I love, then, in that awareness, there comes a certain peace, aware of the totality of things, of life's beauty and its terror, of a flower in a crannied wall and a child with cancer, and knowing that all of it is a part of this reality into which our lives are woven, a reality that is shot through with the holy, a reality to which God is present at all times, in all things, a presence whose awareness can give peace. And so, then I can go to be with my sister, I can go to be with my niece, I can be present to them in solidarity with them in this crisis of their physical being, but present to embody a love and a care and a concern which is the expression of that mystery of love that is God. In our Christian tradition, the word became flesh. In a human face we saw God and not that God was in one human face, period, but that God has become human, God has come into expression in the human. God is expressed in you and in me. We are God-persons to one another, and the presence of God to one another, and the embodiment of compassion and love and the deep bonding of human relationship, and that's beautiful, and that's powerful. No matter what the existential circumstance, to be able to break through to that sense of the presence of a God who is the mystery of life and love - that's powerful. There are a lot of studies being done, currently one underway at Harvard, a huge study on the connection of prayer and healing, and the evidence has come in that there is a therapeutic effect in worship, devotion, a life of prayer. But, I don't want to put it on that basis. I don't want to sell you on prayer; I don't want to sell you on worship, because it's good for you. Whatever happens that is good is a byproduct of the wonder of the experience of God, of being at one with the whole scheme of things which is the scheme of things whose font is God, God that inexhaustible, infinite source and ground of all that is, to be aware that I am embraced, that I am a part of and bound to those I love with a kind of community that is deeper than words can describe. To come to that is to come to amazement, to come to peace, and to know that all, all will be well. Of course, it will, because all together we are in the embrace of that mysterious love coming to expression in a process that is full of beauty and full of terror, but which embraced and experienced in the humanity of the other, in the bonds of love, in the mystery of compassion, enables one to say, "All is well. All is well." Prayer changes people, and I said "Prayer Changes People" because when I wrote that down some weeks ago, it was over against "Prayer Changes Things." But, this © Grand Valley State University �Prayer Changes People Richard A. Rhem Page 5   is the irony -when once I break through to that sense of being secured and that loving mystery I call God, and I am changed. Reality just may change, as well. I looked at my sister on Thursday and two weeks ago she was so terribly sick. Through competent medical care and the loving ministry of the Hospice people getting her taken care of, the morphine patch to relax and to cut the pain, to look at her and see her smile, to know her peace, I could say to her, "You know, you just might be peaceful enough to reverse that whole cancerous process." And it could happen. I don't know how it happens. I don't know what happens when we pray, when we pray in our words and our body language and our presence in the yearning depths of our hearts, I don't know what happens. Who knows what that positive yearning affects since we are all interlaced into a continuous reality, since we are all part of that web of being, who knows what my love and concern and compassion may affect beyond me? Jeremiah was a theist, I think. He wouldn't like my transformed image of God, for the God of Israel was sovereign of history who set the boundaries and determined the destiny of nations, but Jeremiah was simply imagining God in his way. The important thing is not that image; the important thing is that Jeremiah had a basic, fundamental trust in God. In the midst of the darkness of the Exile, he trusted in God, he believed in God, he trusted in light, in love, and the purposes that are endemic to the whole scheme of things. And so, he said, "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." I'll tell you what –I lived my life for several years on that text. You see, the biblical images that are so beautiful and powerful are poetry. They are the poetry of the soul -God's eye is on the sparrow, the very hairs of your head are numbered, your name is engraven in the palm of God's hand. Images, images that point to something profound and deep that you can trust, and if you can trust, you can resign yourself in peace and life becomes a prayer and your presence to one who is suffering is a prayer, and your presence to those who celebrate a child is a prayer. Prayer which arises out of that fundamental trust - that changes people. So, then, pray without ceasing. © 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 V Scripture Text Jeremiah 29:11-14, Psalm 131:1-2, Matthew 6:8-9 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-0-20000709 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-07-09 Title A name given to the resource Prayer Changes People 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 9, 2000 entitled "Prayer Changes People", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jeremiah 29:11-14, Psalm 131:1-2, Matthew 6:8-9. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Divine Presence Panentheism Prayer https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e25a30db1b34a8a59a084b7009741285.mp3 21fb718bb048903228e441c9073d66bb https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d23f80d9ecd499848f6bc44d6c990614.pdf 509431daf74c349553abf87ab170e42e PDF Text Text Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Independence Day Weekend Text: Galatians 5:13 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost IV, July 2, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Not in every worship would such a mellow tenor be able to sing "America" so beautifully. There are liturgical purists in the Church who feel that civil holidays have no place in the celebration and the worship of the people of God, and, of course, there is a point to guard the worship of the Church. It can get ridiculous, you know. I mean, a sermon on celebrating Girl Scout cookies would be stretching it a bit. But, after all, as the people of God, we are also people of a nation and you cannot divorce the experience of your religious existence from your existence as a citizen. We are a part of a nation and of a civilization and our religious vision has shaped that civilization and been shaped by it, as well, and I do believe there is a place, at least with some of the more important civil holidays, to bring a reflection into the experience of worship, to celebrate the blessings that have been ours as a nation. I think it is not at all out of place to recognize the heritage that is ours with gratitude and to place that heritage and that experience in the light of the word of God in order to see how we're doing with it and how responsibly we are exercising the privilege of it. And so, for just a few moments this morning, I want you to think with me about this nation, about our heritage. I want to do it with affirmation and with gratitude, for we do celebrate a very, very great national heritage and civilizational tradition. We are a people of the United States of America; we are people of the West, of western civilization, and we have a heritage that has been richly blessed of God. I don't have to say that certainly it is a flawed vision and we have failed often, not living up to our ideals in great measure and in many respects. Nonetheless, we are a fortunate people and it is good to celebrate that and to remember it. Civil holidays do sometimes stretch the ability of the preacher to find a relevant text because the texts of the scriptures really do not address the kinds of things that we will be reflecting on this morning, and yet I think, for example, in the Prophet Isaiah, the 58th chapter, we do have that which we can bring into our own experience. Before the verses which I read, the people are complaining to God. They're saying, "We're very religious. We do all of our liturgies and sacrifices and rituals and you don't seem to take note of us." And the scripture lesson began with that question, “Is this the fast that I desire, says the Lord?” In other words, © Grand Valley State University   �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 2   do I want all kinds of religious rigamarole? Do I need the smoke of your incense, the fragrance of your sacrifices? Do I need your obeisance and your devotion? Show me your devotion in a life committed to justice and compassion. Unshackle the prisoner and feed the hungry and clothe the naked and give the homeless shelter. Then, then the light will rise upon you. Then you'll call and I'll answer. Then you will be a repairer of ancient foundations, standing in the breach, affecting renewal. Religion has an end in itself. It is not at all what God desires or intends. Religious devotion is to result in fair and compassionate action. Paul in the letter to the Galatians is dealing with what we might say is a theological matter, a matter of grace as over against the performance principle. Specifically in this case, the question of circumcision, the Jewish rite of initiation, but that's not so important. The important thing that Paul is dealing with is the fact that we are set free from that heavy obligation, that onerous task of religious duty, and we don't come to God through all of our clap trap of religious practice and observance, beautiful as it may be in some cases, boring as it is in many cases, but rather, we come to God by the grace of God. We are set free, but we are set free, Paul says, not for self-indulgence, but for commitment to the other, to love. Set free to love. Set free to love in very concrete fashion, to live a life of commitment out of the freedom with which Christ has set us free. So, I think in the biblical perspective, you do have what I want to say this morning about our responsibility as a nation who has been so richly blessed. I want to say that we are called in our freedom to commitment in a global society, a world so far different than the world into which this nation was born, and yet a world that needs so desperately the blessings that we have received and the insights and the understanding and the wisdom that have marked our Western tradition. So, I want to say just a few things about that, and I want to begin simply by affirmation of our Western tradition, of our heritage, our national heritage as the United States of America. What a wonderful tradition it is. What a wonderful heritage it is. What a treasure it is, and how fruitful it has become in our midst, and how richly blessed we are as a people. I think there is every reason for the people of God gathered in worship to give God thanks and to reflect upon and celebrate that tradition, that civilizational track in which we find ourselves having emerged. Human dignity, the rights of the individuals, of liberal capitalism which has given us economic prosperity, human rights, although certainly not spread far enough, broad enough, completely enough to enough of God's children. Nonetheless, we know better. We know the ideal. We have the rule of law, a society under the rule of law; the Elian Gonzalez case tested that. Emotions got in the way and a tragic fiasco resulted, but finally the rule of law. Apart from the rule of law, it's chaos. One can change the law, but one lives under the law. All of those aspects of a national experience have been for us a source of very rich blessing, indeed, and something for which certainly we thank God. We have a national heritage that is a part of the Western civilization that is rooted in Israel, that great prophetic tradition, a little taste of that this © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 3   morning from Isaiah, rooted in Greek philosophical thought, that rich, rich cultural flourishing in those centuries before Christ, and in Rome a model of governance and law. Israel, Greece, Rome flowing into Europe, experiencing the Renaissance, the coming to flower of the human being, the recognition of the human being, the throwing off of all authoritarianism, and the development therefore of critical rationality and the Enlightenment, and all of that opening up the possibility of modernity which has brought us where we are today, not only with our freedom, not only with our prosperity, but with the technological breakthroughs - the Genome Project, the mapping of human DNA, the possibilities that will break forth in the future, in the near future, which will boggle our mind, a globe tied together intimately through the Internet, a world that is absolutely amazing. It is so amazing that people get scared. It is so fast and rapidly changing with so much potential, that a lot of people will run into the shelter of fundamentalist religious trying to stave off tomorrow and turn back the clock. But it is a world that has absolutely flowered out of that Western tradition from Israel and Greece and Rome, through Europe, Renaissance, and the U.S. of A., and we stand today as the guardians and the guarantors of that precious heritage. It is no mean thing. It is a great gift. It has given us so much and it has ongoing potential for the wellbeing and the good of the world. But, having said that, I want to say that, while it is unique, it is not universal. By that I mean that in this global society that has become so small and intimately connected, it ought not occur to us to export our Western civilization globally. There are great civilizational groupings that make up the human family and half a dozen or so, all of them shaped initially, intimately by a religious vision. Again, ours informed by Christianity coming out of the womb of Judaism, Greek philosophy, Roman law, but so with the Asian civilizations, so with the Orthodox countries, the Muslim civilizations - these respective civilizations are so deeply rooted. They are deeply rooted in blood and ethnicity and it far transcends allegiance to an idea or an ideal; it far transcends a national border, a nation state. What we have to recognize today is that the West is not the best for the rest. It is ours, and we ought to celebrate it and we ought to seek its renewal and we ought to preserve it and enhance it in every way we can, but we live in a global situation where our civilization must be understood as unique and not universal. To claim it is universal is simply false. That can be documented. And it is immoral. If we were to export Western civilization globally, it would take military might. It would take enforcement in its institution and in its maintenance. It would take that old imperialism that marked the 19th century when Europe had hegemony over the rest of the globe, or in the 20th century in the dominance of our own particular nation. We could do it for a time through the imposition of power, but it is immoral and it would be dangerous because in the long run it wouldn't work, © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 4   because in the long run, coercion is overthrown by that which is more deeply rooted in the human spirit. And so, we are unique but we are not universal; we ought not to be. Therefore, what we need to do is reject mono-culturalism which would see the globe as marked by just one culture, and also multi-culturalism. Now, that may surprise you because you know me as a bleeding heart liberal, and I have to say that I have been inclined to multi-culturalism because, after all, one ought to respect diversity and respect differences. But one must recognize that our founding fathers saw diversity as a problem, and to meet that problem, they had the little Latin phrase, E pluribus unum, out of many, one. The typical old, classic symbol for that was the melting pot. A New Testament scholar whom I deeply respect, Krister Stendahl, who has been here with us, Bishop Stendahl says that in the melting pot, you have to recognize that the dominant culture wins. You sort of assimilate everything into the dominant culture, and that's true, and I think we have to be very sensitive about that. He suggests rather than a melting pot, we have a salad bowl, where you have the various ingredients maintaining their own identity. But, however you do it, what we have to recognize is that multi-culturalism will deny, and therefore destroy, the uniqueness of Western civilization, which is not universal, which is not for everyone, but which has a heritage, a wisdom, and a fruitful tradition with which we ought not play fast and loose. No mono-culturalism, no multi-culturalism, but a recognition of the uniqueness among the diversities of civilization, and then a mining of that heritage and that tradition for its best. And then recognizing that those qualities and those virtues are biblically rooted in the Hebrew tradition, expressed in the Christian tradition, reinforced by Greece and Rome. We ought to know who we are; we ought to know the pit from which we've been hewn, and we ought to recognize its value and do everything we can to make it better and to make it a part, a gleaming part, one of the facets of the global reality. And then, I would say this, too - because of the position of power that we have, it is absolutely incumbent upon us to bear the burden for the rest of the world. It is incumbent upon us, the U.S. of A., to bear the burden and the cost of implementing a peaceful world. We need to do this by recognizing our uniqueness among the diversity, rejecting the mono-culturalism and the multiculturalism, and then doing what we can in a world such as we see before us to accommodate the respective civilizational groupings. We need to do this through the energy and the resources that are ours, recognizing that it will be incumbent upon us to take the lead, to yield, to compromise, and back down. It's always the responsibility of the one in power to yield and to give way, to be sensitive because in a position of dominance such as we have, if we don't do that, we will incite a backlash which can be read almost anywhere around the globe today. They love the golden arches of McDonald's, the world loves the economic prosperity, the world loves all of the gadgets and the toys and the affluence, but they don't want us dictating their civilizational ways, and we need to recognize that a world which © Grand Valley State University �Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society Richard A. Rhem Page 5   is diverse will always be diverse, and therefore needs accommodation, needs somebody who has the power who will give up the power here and there in order to make the whole thing work. Paul Schroeder, a retired history professor from the University of Illinois, says a peaceful world has resulted when there has been a dominant power that is benign, that is able to use its power in a positive fashion, and the problem of such a world comes when that dominant power is either unable or unwilling to pay the cost. In such a case, there is incited a backlash or the rising of competing ideologies that finally will undermine that status quo, that peace that has been achieved. I hear people grumble about all the billions of dollars that we ship overseas. Of course, we never stop to figure out that the beneficiary of all of that far beyond anyone else is ourselves. You hear Congressmen brag that they've hardly ever been out of this country. Someone of them said they didn't even own a passport. What kind of head-in-the-sand stupidity is that? You hear people thinking that you can turn the clock back, shut down movements like free trade and return to an isolationist kind of position. What kind of ignorance is that? And since we are in a position of such dominance and such power, it is incumbent upon us to be full of grace, full of integrity, to lead with generosity and with sensitivity. There is a good deal in this morning's scriptural passages about the pointing of the finger, the fighting and devouring of one another, added to the hostility and anger. Did you happen to catch the little piece in the news last night about taking down the Confederate flag over the capital of South Carolina, only to raise it on a flagpole in the yard somewhere? You can have whatever position you want on that, but when I saw on the television screen the hatred and the meanness and hostility, I saw the violence of the human animal. I thought to myself, "Dear God, I wish I was preaching this morning where my friend John Richard DeWitt is preaching, within sight of the capital, First Presbyterian, Columbia, South Carolina." I think I could get excited about preaching there this morning. But, you know, it's not a Carolinian problem; it's a human problem, and I have to say to you that, as citizens of the United States of America and as children of God who have been so richly blessed, who have such a marvelous tradition, the tradition of the West - we may not allow meanness, divisiveness, bigotry and hostility to mark us. Where is the Church? Where are the pulpits of America? How can we allow it to go on, when I have to say to you we are blessed, we are affluent, we are full of resources, we have limitless power, and it's time for us to take the lead and giving it away with gentleness and graciousness, not yielding up our power to lead, but yielding up our egotism and our self-indulgence. We are called in a global society in freedom to commitment and only thus will the Spirit of God be able to nudge this whole process along, that creative, enlivening Spirit of God that would move us animals onward toward Spirit in order that there might be peace on earth © 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 IV Scripture Text Galatians 5:13 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-0-20000702 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-07-02 Title A name given to the resource Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society 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 2, 2000 entitled "Freedom and Commitment in a Global Society", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Galatians 5:13. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Diversity Global Community Inclusive https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8c6751e1e19dddb047ed60397bfc5bf4.mp3 2b4158c043b4c57ef7b070d091553d38 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f18249fe9dc72d95801dae723075c1a3.pdf 47cf452e950ee7461b0177a581664366 PDF Text Text Mystery, Manifestation and Community Pentecost III Text: Exodus 3:2; Mark 1:11; Acts 9:3 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 25, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Reflect with me for such a few moments about what we have done here this morning, what we have experienced. In the tradition from which I stem, the church at its worship is to be marked by word and sacrament. That is, word which gives explanation and the sacrament which is a visible demonstration of the meaning of the word. As we reflect on that, we will be doing what the sermon is intending to do - to reflect on the sacramental action in order that we might be reminded again or that we might have clarified for us who we are and what we are to be about. Before I proceed, however, let me remind you that two weeks ago was Pentecost and we celebrated the Festival of the Holy Spirit and we brought to a close that approximately six-month cycle in which we go through those marks of the life of Jesus' birth and life and death and resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And then the Sunday following Pentecost is Trinity Sunday in the calendar of the Church, because at that point we are ready to reflect or to realize, perhaps, as never before the Trinitarian structure of our religious experience, that that Ultimate Mystery not at our disposal, that Ultimate Mystery that we call God, does break in or emanate from, become apparent to the likes of us in the arena of history. The Ultimate Mystery shows itself in some historical manifestation and that historical manifestation becomes the agent by which the mystery is revealed, at least to some extent, and a believer is engaged by the Spirit, for to look at that manifestation, some say "I believe," and others would say there's nothing to it. But, to look at that manifestation ... for example, to look into the face of Jesus and say, "My God," the Church has always recognized is the consequence of the Spirit of God; it is the gift of God. God reveals God's self, and so there is Ultimate Mystery, historical manifestation, and the concrete encounter of the individual, the believer who has the epiphany, who sees, who experiences the illumination. Sometimes that illumination results in a message and a mission whose consequence is a community, a movement, a community of faith. Sometimes even a religion is born. But at this point on the Church calendar, we can see the trinitarian structure, not only of the nature of God, but the trinitarian structure of our own religious experience, an ultimate mystery, a manifestation of history, a © Grand Valley State University   �Mystery, Manifestation and Community Richard A. Rhem Page 2   believing person through the Spirit who may become the nucleus of a community of a whole religious tradition. I selected the scriptures I read in order to demonstrate that that is exactly what was going on with Moses. Moses, brooding in the wilderness, tending sheep. I love Chaim Potok's description of this moment in Moses' life. It's in the insert in your liturgy. Read it this afternoon. It takes a novelist to tell you what the Bible is all about, really, a great writer like Potok. You may say, "Well, he psychologizes that experience of Moses." Yes. How else? How else does it happen? Of course, and Chaim Potok is using his imagination, to be sure, but I think it's so moving, so powerful. There's Moses who has been raised with the knowledge that he is a Jew, but in the court of the Egyptians, lashes out in an heroic act or a dastardly act of murder, and flees from justice. He is in the wilderness tending the sheep with too much time on his hands to rummage it around in his mind – the gods of Egypt, slavery, murder, all of that - must there be some other god? Must there not be some other truth? And then one day a bush is burning and is not consumed and he hears a voice and it becomes a holy place, and Moses becomes the historical referent of that ultimate mystery and from Moses stems the nation Israel and the Torah whose roots are in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and whose consequence is the history of Israel. Ultimate Mystery. Moment of manifestation. Community, religious community flowing therefrom by the Spirit of God. It was no different for Paul. Paul, restless, serious, cantankerous, passionate, urgent, on the way to Damascus to stamp out that Way, maybe unconsciously because he felt it was such a powerful way, this way of Jesus, only to be blinded with light and turned around in his tracks, becoming now not the one who was out to arrest the followers of the Way, but the one who took that way and understood it after three years of meditation in the desert, understood the way of Jesus as Judaism for the Gentiles, who understood the way of Jesus as the universalizing of that which was intrinsic in Judaism, even though Judaism had been particular and local. Yet, Paul could see Yahweh was not a tribal God; Yahweh was the creator of the heavens and the earth. There was no other God. Therefore, in Judaism itself, in its particularity, in its understanding of the one true God, Creator of heaven and earth, was the invitation to the whole world. The grace that Israel knew was for a world, and Paul becomes the great founder of the Church. Of course, it was with Jesus the same way, not really so different. When he joined the Baptist Movement, when he was baptized with John the Baptist, he was joining a revolutionary movement that was looking for the imminent incursion of God. He was looking at the horror of the historical situation, the poverty and the homelessness, the domination and the oppression and, in identifying with John the Baptist through his baptism, Jesus was identifying with that movement of social criticism that believed that somehow or other if God was just, God would have to do something. And he hears a voice and in the hearing of a voice, he gains identity and a mission, and he is driven out into the wilderness forty days and forty nights. "Who am I? Whence the voice? What is this all about?" And from © Grand Valley State University �Mystery, Manifestation and Community Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Jesus comes Paul, comes you and me, the community of faith that moves from that historical encounter with the word made flesh, who had face for the heart of the Eternal. So, you see, that simply is the nature of religious experience. I marvel sometimes at my naiveté. I sort of always knew that there was this trinitarian thing, that God revealed God's self in Jesus and illumined our eyes by the Holy Spirit, binding us to Jesus who bound us to God. I knew that was a gift; I knew that was a revelation. But, I thought that it was the only true revelation and, if it's the only true revelation, you see, then anybody else who had a revelation has to be wrong. Then I came to see that every religion claims a revelation. There's no religion where someone sat down and said, "I think I'll think up a new scheme of things." Mohammed had a vision resulting in the Koran. The Buddha had his pilgrimage and experience and illumination. Moses did. I even had to say in my naiveté that Moses, who was the historical agent of the Jewish faith and the tradition of Israel, wasn't understood by Moses' own people, because they didn't read it through the eyes of Jesus. I had relativized the Old Testament. I even had to claim that the Jewish people didn't understand their own book. Is that arrogance? It certainly was ignorance. Now I can see the trinitarian structure of all religious experience, and I want to say that every community claims its story and every community that develops because of the authenticity of that story, that experience, develops its rituals and its sacraments, and every such community has a mark and that is what we did this morning at the baptismal font in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, baptismal water prayed over for the Spirit's movement, placed on the forehead of infants as a sign that they belong. We've all been baptized and that's what marks us; it is our union card, as it were. And then we came to the table because a community, to be a community, to have an identity, a sense of who it is, needs to commemorate, needs to come back again and again to its founding story, needs to come back to the table of our Lord, a table of Jesus where bread is broken and the cup is poured out as a sign of the violent death that this one experienced because of the way he lived, of the way he was, of the manifestation of God that he was. So we come back to this table in order that we might remember Jesus, in order that we might have fresh in our minds that face that reflects the mystery, the ultimate grace and love of God at the heart of things. The sacramental character of the Church. We could use different symbols, different materials, we could enact it differently, but what we do has long history and deep meaning, and I want to say just two things in closing. One is that that is our way. That is a way. That is not the way. But, because it is not only a way, and our way, it becomes for us the way. Why should I play fast and loose? Why should I treat with nonchalance, why should I accord lack of importance to that baptismal font and that communion table just because it is not the only way? Because it is my way, and if it is my way, it is the way. While I look at another © Grand Valley State University �Mystery, Manifestation and Community Richard A. Rhem Page 4   who walks another way but experiences a similar grace, experiencing that ultimate mystery that is known here in baptism and in table and in preaching and in sacred dance, hear me again - our Christian way symbolized in baptism and table is a way. It is not the only way. But, since it's our way, for us, the way, and it's full of grace and wonder and beauty, and I love it very much. Then, I would say this, although it is not the only way, although it is one way, if it is good and true and beautiful, then it is worth the passion of my life to keep the community that has grown up around it alive and healthy. Then it is worth the engagement of my life to keep a community like this alive and well, with a strong sense of identity, knowing its tradition, loving the life to which it is called. If it is my way, if it is for us the way, then it deserves the passion of our lives. We've had a lot of funerals here lately and just last Sunday in this place we buried Betty Hofstra, 88 years, a beautiful saint of God. She was the fourth generation, the daughters and grandchildren and the great grandchildren. And because it was Sunday and they didn't open the grave, nonetheless, I went to the cemetery with the family and there, particularly the fourth generation, the little ones took yellow roses and stood around the gravestone where Great Grandpa Oscar was marked. It was a beautiful experience with beautiful children remembering their Great Grandma in the presence of the grave of their Great Grandpa, sanctified by prayer. How else do you give sanctity to human life? How else do you celebrate the death of a saint? How else do you give adequate value to a newborn? At the moment of birth at the gift of a child you want to pray, you want to sing, you want to dance, because life is pregnant with the holy if only we have eyes to see, if only we pause long enough, if only some place along the way there is a community of people with whom we can join in order to celebrate birth and death and the commemoration of the heart of our story. It's been quite a weekend. I married a daughter, baptized a grandson whose father I baptized, and as we speak, a sister is being operated on in emergency whose consequence will be serious cancer, I'm sure. Now, how do you do that unless there is a God before whom one can kneel, before whom one can pause and be still, before whom one can know that ultimately all is grace and all will be well? Why in the world, if this is a way, even if it isn't the only way, need I treat it nonchalantly? Should I denigrate it? Why can I not be passionately engaged in it because it's not the only way, but, by God, it's good. It's good. © 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 III, Father's Day Scripture Text Exodus 3:2, Mark 1:11, Acts 9:3 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-0-20000625 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-25 Title A name given to the resource Mystery, Manifestation and 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 June 25, 2000 entitled "Mystery, Manifestation and Community", on the occasion of Pentecost III, Father's Day, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 3:2, Mark 1:11, Acts 9:3. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Inclusive Spirit of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ab0e832950cbf1a7394580bc382ce63b.mp3 8bc41061a35f5e37e14c9525b8640f93 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8fba6ff5fe1e74c43a977489ae9fdc41.pdf fc82fcac7280e82a1946a763619b17c2 PDF Text Text 1+1+1=1 to the Higher Power Trinity Sunday Text: John 1:1,14,18; John 14:9; II Cor. 3:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Father’s Day, June 18, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon As the early Jesus movement moved into the early Catholic Church stage, the experience of Jesus moved out of the context of Israel geographically, but also spiritually, into an alien culture as far as Israel was concerned. It moved into a world dominated by Imperial Rome and marked by Greek culture, Greek thinking, Greek language, Greek philosophical ideas. And so, it was the task of those who were sent out by Jesus Christ to tell their experience, what they had experienced in him, in quite another context, quite another religious, cultural context, and that is always a difficult thing. To translate an experience is difficult, even when you are talking to those in your own language and your own environment. But, now to try to tell someone of a transforming experience in a totally different context to those who have had no share in your background, your spiritually traditioning - that, indeed, was a major task, and that was the task of that early Jesus movement. It was a movement Jewish to the core. The disciples were those who had been nurtured on the central tenet of the creed of Israel, "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one." And now they had experienced in a transforming way that God, in their encounter with Jesus, a human, historical figure with whom they had walked and talked and shared the table of fellowship. In that human, historical figure they had encountered the God of Israel, the God of Moses, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. When they met God in Jesus, they didn't meet some other God. They didn't stop to say, "I wonder about my Judaism. I wonder now if I have to become something other." No, they were fully cognizant of that experience of Jesus being the experience of God, the only God they ever knew, they ever worshiped. The task was how to give expression to that, how to translate that into another context so that it could be understood. In order to do that, we always have to find some common meeting ground; we have to find something in common so that those to whom we are bringing a message or translating an experience can relate to it through some shared knowledge or experience. The Greek civilization, the © Grand Valley State University   �1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power Richard A. Rhem Page 2   ancient world, those to whom they went were not irreligious. They were religious. There were Oriental, mystical religions, there was all the Greek mythology, there was certainly a religious context from which to try to find that which might help communicate their experience. Secondly, there was the whole Greek philosophical tradition. Philosophy was born of the Greeks centuries before. Someone has said all of Western civilization is a series of footnotes to Greek philosophy. So that Greek philosophy conceptually provided the intellectual, rational tools by which they attempted to translate that God experience. But, in the beginning, of course, it was the experience and they stammered and stuttered and tried to give expression to that which had transformed their lives, and we have the raw material of the eventual church dogma in the New Testament. The church dogma says, according to the title of this message, “1 + 1 + 1=1.” (One of my dear friends said to me yesterday, “You restructured religion; now are you starting on math?”) “1 + 1 + 1=1” because these were Jewish people and they could not begin to conceive of God other than one, but they had experienced God in Jesus, a human, historical figure, and once they had experienced God in Jesus, Jesus crucified was alive with them still, a powerful presence still with them in the Spirit. We find this in the documents of the New Testament. Paul was the earliest one to write. I love Second Corinthians 4:6. It has been a text for us. "We've seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That's how Paul said it. In the third chapter of that letter, he was defending his apostleship and he was saying, "Do you think I need letters of recommendation? I don't need letters of recommendation; you are my letters of recommendation; your transformed lives validate my gospel." And then he goes into a paragraph with Moses and the veil of Moses' face. I'm not going to get into all that, but he comes down to the end of the chapter and says, "But we, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the Lord, are transformed by degrees into his likeness by the Spirit." The last paragraph of the third chapter says, "The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is..." One might ask, "Does Lord refer to God? Or does Lord refer here to Jesus?" and one might find different commentators coming up with different answers. Those are a very confusing few statements because Paul is confused, because this great monotheist of the God of Israel is talking about God in a human face, and how does one do that? He says somehow or other by the Spirit in that face the glory of the Lord was shining, and then he talks about that face as the Lord, and he says, "As we gaze on that face, we become like that face, shaped like that one who was the shape of the heart of God," and he says all of this is through the Spirit of God. And so, Paul is trying to give expression to that experience that he had. He never encountered the historical Jesus, we don't believe, but he did have that visionary, mystical experience and this great champion of the God of Israel became the apostle of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the God of Israel. © Grand Valley State University �1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power Richard A. Rhem Page 3   This is what John says, as well. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God." I like to translate that, "In the beginning was the intention, God's intention. In the beginning was the intention of God and in the fullness of time, the intention became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God." No one has ever seen God, but the Son has revealed God and, as John was telling the story of Jesus decades later, Jesus has that discussion with the disciples. Jesus is going to leave them. They know the way and all that, and finally Phillip says to him, "Just show us the Father and we'll stop bugging you," and he says, "Oh, really, Phillip? Have I been with you so long and you still don't get it? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Did Jesus say that? I doubt it. I don't think so. Wouldn't that be a bit off-putting, Jesus going around ringing a bell saying, "Here comes God. Just look at me, here comes God." That doesn't feel right to me. I think what we have in the Gospel of John is precisely the experience of finding God in Jesus. This is faith's affirmation. Jesus simply was that authentic human incarnation of the living God, and those who encountered God in Jesus tried every which way to bring to expression that which they had experienced, that which was the deep conviction of their lives, that Jesus was the intention of God in human flesh so that in order to communicate that, John has this beautiful discussion with the disciples in which Jesus says, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father," which is the same thing that Paul was saying, "We've seen the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The New Testament is not a systematic document. Paul was not a systematic theologian, but all of that raw "stuff" eventually got gathered up because the Jesus movement, which was a Jewish movement, had to somehow or other come to understand its own experience. The God of Israel now, these monotheists had to reckon with, had been enfleshed in a human, historical figure who was crucified and yet present and powerful with them still so that they broke bread and remembered him and experienced him and went out to do his work in the same powerful fashion as when he was in the flesh. How do you figure? Well, eventually, of course, they had to give some account of that. Now, if they had been in India and Jesus had been an Indian and they had been Hindus, they wouldn't have had a problem. Cast the mold for another little image and put it on the shelf, because Hinduism is polytheistic and it believes in numerous historical manifestations of the Divine Mystery. That doesn't work for a Jew, because you can have not only no representation of God, but there is only one true God, Creator of all. But, to touch Jesus was to touch God! To look into Jesus' face was to see into the heart of God! How could it be? So, Jesus is God? But, Jesus is human. That was the problem of the nature of Christ; it consumed a couple of centuries. And if Jesus is God, and God is God, and the Spirit of God makes Jesus present now, now you have 1 + 1 + 1=1. How do you figure? © Grand Valley State University �1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power Richard A. Rhem Page 4   We could ridicule the doctrine of the Trinity because that is what this eventually became, the dogma or the doctrine of the Trinity. We can ridicule it; we can be confused by it; we can be frustrated by it, but we have to know that some of the most brilliant minds, some of the most serious persons in that ancient world wrestled with this experience which they tried to translate into Greek conceptuality, and they knew they were up against a real problem. Augustine wrote a treatise on the Trinity and after it was over, he said, "We say these things not because we would say these things, but because we wouldn't be silent," trying to give some kind of word to experience. Eventually the Church formulated this doctrine of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God blest forever. 1 + 1+1=1. You see, it's not a problem as long as you are in the heat of the experience, the white heat of the experience of God, because the experience is enough to say I can't make logical sense of it, but I know. Then, once the experience gets translated into a formula and it becomes a dogma and then the dogma is used to catechize the next generation and the next generation, now we have a problem because there is no longer that white heat experience. Now it becomes an intellectual conundrum; it becomes a puzzle, and now you have creedal authority and a Church institution enforcing a creedal statement with those who may or may not have had the experience of God. Then you have orthodoxy which can be very, very killing if it lacks the experience. This sermon was born one day when an old veteran of the A.A. movement said to me, grousing about ministers and churches, which is his custom, and I suppose finding a sympathetic ear in me, he said, "I wish I could take all the community pastors down to an A.A. meeting and make them sit there and listen to people who really talk about God!" And I have had enough experience with the A.A. community in the past to feel that would be a very good move. So, I went back and went through some of the A.A. material again. I found reference to Ernest Kurtz who was here a few years ago. Ernest Kurtz wrote the definitive history of the A.A. movement, entitled Not God. This is what the human being has to learn Not God. I am not God. But, God is. That is, there is a Higher Power, and the AA. movement, in its steps, gives one the freedom to understand God in one's own way, not worried about dotting the I's or crossing the T's, but recognizing that God is, coming to an awareness that I am not my own, I have not created this whole phenomenon we call the world, I have not created my own life. All is gift, all is given, I am given and I am a part of that which is given, and there is a mystery that is beyond and beneath and above all that is. And in the A.A. movement, just call it the Higher Power. Call it anything you want to call it. Visualize it any way you want to visualize it. Use any kind of an image that will work. But it is the movement from I am not God to God is, and as the veterans of the A.A. movement say, if one can take that step, in other words, if one can come to an awareness that God is, that Ultimate Mystery of all things, and if one can trust that power to be gracious in the transformation of the human person, then one is on the way to health and healing. Then the doctrine of God may become refined. Then someday someone along that path may discover the © Grand Valley State University �1+1+1= 1 to the Higher Power Richard A. Rhem Page 5   face of Jesus, and in the face of Jesus, may see into the heart of God and all of its wonder and all of its beauty, because Jesus is the face that gives form to the Mystery. And then one may feel some tingle in one's pinkie, and that would be because there is a connection, because it is not the ancient One, period, but the ancient One who is present in the Spirit. After all, that's all that Trinity Sunday is trying to say - that God is, and that God is for us, that God is focused in the face of that gracious one full of mercy and available to us through the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ or the Holy Spirit, or whatever you want to call it, because, you see, finally God is not about giving us a theological exam, and coming to worship is not about a rational discussion of the conceptual framework of the ontological Trinity, thank you very much. We come here in our deep grief and brokenness and our great joy and celebration, when the diagnosis is cancer, when the last week has left us bereft of our most beloved, when we launch our youth, bundle our babies, and experience the deepest dimensions of human experience. It is then that God is that which gives us hope, that is what sustains us and keeps us, that infinite and inexhaustible ground of our being, that overshadowing presence, because you see, it's 1 +1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power. Image it as you will, but I suggest you'll go a long time before you'll find a more beautiful image than that etched in the face of Jesus, and we, beholding as in a mirror that image, we with unveiled face beholding that image, miracle of miracles, are shaped into that image. We begin to take on the likeness. And so, you know, the historical Jesus is no more, but the Spirit who is affecting that transformation is yet still, and though I cannot see his face, I can see your face, and in your face, I see his face which is the picture of the heart of God, God, who is good. That's all Trinity is all about -1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power. © 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 Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II Scripture Text John 1:1, 14, 18, John 14:9, II Corinthians 3:18 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-0-20000618 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-18 Title A name given to the resource 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power 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 18, 2000 entitled "1 + 1 + 1 = 1 to the Higher Power", on the occasion of Trinity Sunday, Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, 18, John 14:9, II Corinthians 3:18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Divine Intention Father's Day Jesus Movement Spirit https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fb70ab5bc8cd906f939f9e541830e8da.mp3 d86112028b3f5677156ec5f8ea1e1400 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/66e3feeb3a07b1e9634bb125bbc37c5a.pdf 85fa03a34f461f6a5851bea5f08d2a0b PDF Text Text Fire From Heaven Pentecost Sunday Scripture: Joel 2:28-32; Acts 19:1-7 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan June 11, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon It was as the past century was about to dawn that there was a significant event in Chicago, just down the lake. On the shores of Lake Michigan, there was created the Columbian Exposition. I was not aware of the tremendous dimension of that event, the Chicago World's Fair, but on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1893 there was created what they called The White City. The great architects of the country vied for the right to design that city. This exposition covered some 644 acres and, as one came from the lake or along Lakeshore in Chicago, one was met by this gleaming, white city: resplendent buildings, a reflecting pool, the triumphal arch - all made sort of like out of material similar to plaster of Paris or papier-maché. There were steel ribbings for the shape, but it was not a lasting kind of creation. It was the sort of thing you do for a fair and exposition, a temporary display. But it was magnificent, it had the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome, and it was the celebration of the coming to this continent of Christopher Columbus. The Columbian Exposition was full of all of the daring and the boldness and the greatness and self-assurance of the American spirit at the end of a century looking forward to the 20th century which would be the American century in which the American spirit would dominate the world, obviously, in the providence of God. There was, to look at it in retrospect, a great deal of hubris, a great deal of human pride, but there was a great vision. The Cosmopolitan magazine of March 1893 had on the cover a bundle of sticks, called a fades, a Roman symbol for authority that the magistrates had paraded before them, a bundle of sticks bound with a cord and an axe, and on each one of the sticks was written the name of a denomination, obviously all being bound into one, and there was a ribbon that tied the bundle which said, "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," and there was an American eagle with his sharp eye guarding it all, which had in its beak a twisted ribbon on which was written, "Intolerance." The centerpiece of the Columbian Exposition was the first World Parliament of Religions, and the planners brought to Chicago religious leaders from all around the globe. There were Hindus and Shinto priests and Catholic priests and Baptist preachers and Buddhist monks - you name it. The ten great religious traditions of the world were represented in this first ever © Grand Valley State University   �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Parliament of Religions which was dedicated not to the snuffing out of the respective religious, but rather, a banding together of all the religions against all irreligious. I don't have time to read to you some of the statements of the opening of that exposition, and particularly its centerpiece, the Parliament of Religions, but there are statements that are filled with idealism, filled with hope, filled with a vibrant spirit that humankind was on the very threshold of realizing the kingdom of God. That was at the beginning of the 20th century. The exposition closed in October. There was an economic downturn, and the condition of those who had served as waiters and cleaners and all kinds of personnel in this great exposition all summer found themselves without work. Many of them became homeless and found in this temporary exposition, now abandoned, a place to find shelter. This spectacular White City in January of 1894, because of those who were finding shelter there and making a fire to keep themselves warm, a fire which got out of control, the whole White City on one night was reduced to dust and ashes. It may have been an omen of what was to come, for all of the hopes and all of the dreams that were gathered together in that exposition and that Parliament of Religions, in a great closing ceremony at which was sung "America" and "The Hallelujah Chorus" by a 500-voice choir, the fusing together of the heavenly city and the earthly city - all of those hopes and all of those dreams which envisioned a future unlimited, were shortly brought to grief as the world entered into the first great World War and then the second great World War, and then the Holocaust and the horror in our own memory of that awful event. Those wonderful dreams of humanity, of oneness, of unity which, of course, were all under the auspices of the American spirit and a kind of benevolent, liberal, white Protestantism, nevertheless came to grief. The journal to which I still subscribe, The Christian Century, was named at this particular period The Christian Century because the 20th century was to be the Christian century, and then it all came to grief. There was a group of theologians in the 60's who became known as the "Death of God theologians," and Professor Harvey Cox from Harvard, who was here recently with us, wrote a book at that time which became a bestseller, The Secular City, asking how one finds God in a culture totally secular, a culture in which the leading scholarly opinion is that God is dead. From that exuberant hope and idealism at the end of the century before to the middle of this past century, the despair. Harvey Cox, who wrote The Secular City, has a more recent book just a couple of years out which he has entitled Fire From Heaven, which documents the great White City and the hopes of the Parliament of Religion, and he says at the same time there was in Los Angeles among the poor in a totally down-and-out district, in an abandoned warehouse, an outbreak of spiritual enthusiasm and power. 1906, among uneducated, many illiterate poor folk under the leadership of a black pastor, a movement that has become known as the Pentecostal movement, the stark contrast between the White City and the Parliament of Religions, the © Grand Valley State University �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 3   aspirations for a unity and oneness for all humankind, sort of under an American, Protestant, Christian banner brought to dust and ashes, and in a few decades coming to expression in the death of God, and this little movement no one noticed from people about whom no one ever heard, called the Pentecostal movement, which is alive and well today at the end of the 20th century and moving into our own present 21st century. Harvey Cox acknowledges that he took the analysis of the death of God theologians too seriously and that, while the hopes of those great leaders at the end of the 19th century have come to nothing, God was doing a work among an obscure people, beginning a movement that encircles the globe today. So, instead of the Secular City of the 69's, Harvey Cox’s latest book is entitled Fire From Heaven because, finally, the present and the future are not left to human ingenuity and human planning, but rather, we wait upon the Spirit of God. It is a fascinating historical retrospective and I would say only this - that it is very easy 100 years later to mock the planners of the World Parliament of Religions and the hopes and the dreams of the White City. It is easy enough at this point to recognize human pride, human naiveté. It is easy enough to put them down for what was, nonetheless, a magnificent dream. It was naive in that, in its speaking of Pentecost, the arrival again of Pentecost, this language in which they spoke, they were really seeing a blossoming of liberal Christianity, and they were naive to think that somehow or other we humankind can plan and shape and determine the landscape of the future. But, let's give them credit - it was a magnificent dream, and what the horrors through which we have passed in the 20th century have taught us is perhaps a touch of humility and then the recognition of a diversity which is not to be put into a blender and homogenized into some kind of bland human formula, but a diversity that is representative of the depth of the human spirit, that is, representative of the diversity of the human creature that is a reflection we would say today of the intention of the Creator. Oh, we can put down those dreamers of yesteryear, but they had a great dream, and what we have had to go through, the horror of war, of Holocaust, and the globalization of our human experience is the recognition of a grand menagerie of human creatures, of a grand rainbow of human personality and human beings. We have come, I think, today to celebrate and to rejoice in the diversity which is not an obstacle to be overcome, but a creative wonder in which to rejoice. As we recognize that diversity, we just may be in a better position to begin to realize the hopes and the dream, acknowledging all of its naiveté and all of its human pride. Nonetheless, the dream of a world that is one and a humanity that is living in peace, giving to each one dignity and acknowledging that God, that deep Mystery Who is the ground of our being and the Source of our life, that God Who is beyond each of our traditions but present in each through God's breathing, God's Spirit, we just may be on the threshold of a new, wonderful age for humankind who have come to give up their dreams of dominance and their fear of the other, © Grand Valley State University �Fire From Heaven Richard A. Rhem Page 4   ready to join hands with all of those who are other, whether through race, religion, ethnicity, education, economic status, sexual orientation, whatever it may be - to look at the other and not be afraid, but to embrace in an unconditional love that recognizes in each one the image of the God Who is beyond us, but on Pentecost came to dwell within us, and finally, to make us one. As you go through the narthex, pick up a little ribbon and wear it as a sign of your solidarity with all who are other, with whom we are one through the Spirit of God. References: Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century. Da Capo Press, 2001. © 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 Scripture Text Joel 2:28-32, Acts 19:1-7 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Harvey Cox. Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century, 2001. 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-0-20000611 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-11 Title A name given to the resource Fire From Heaven 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 11, 2000 entitled "Fire From Heaven", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Joel 2:28-32, Acts 19:1-7. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Inclusive Pentecost Spirit of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b7be61b1d531e27356aa3566d19f3f01.mp3 694f590459d6f60d2cbec393f470ce50 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fc9a1931c55f7ba5134056d3428ef95.pdf 3a6b67ccb6e39ca5ff2b463abb1870f1 PDF Text Text I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or, Did They? Baccalaureate Sunday Text: Romans 8:31,39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Eastertide, June 4, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon This morning I want to speak to you graduates. These remarks are for you, but the congregation is invited to listen in because there may be a thing or two for them, as well. In this year 2000, when you get a diploma, I received a Medicare card, and that may qualify me as a sage. Having lived this long, I have acquired some wisdom, and I thought there were some things I would like to share with you. In fact, they are the things that I wish someone had told me - or, did they? There are some things that I wish that someone had told me as I was growing up, some things that could have saved me some anxiety and some mistakes, some things I wish I had known. I wish someone had told me that - or, did they? Maybe they did, because you don't always listen, nor did I, and sometimes the wisdom that flows just rolls off your back, and later on, maybe, this conversation will come into focus. I have no illusion that just another sermon is going to change your life, but I didn't really think you wanted another sermon, either, so I thought I'd just tell you some things that I wish somebody had told me, or if they did, I wish I had caught on to. At this commencement season, I am aware of the fact that these young people and countless others across the country receive all kinds of encouragement and challenge, in motivational speeches we'll hear from Presidents and Generals and significant people who will address all kinds of graduating classes and all phases of education in these days. We'll get little snippets on the television news and, by and large, they will be words of encouragement; they will be words of motivation to achieve, to pursue your goals, to pursue your dreams and to work hard and to accept the challenge of life, and that's good, because it is true that you will kind of slide through if you can, but you also do respond to challenge when it is significant and meaningful. So, I think all of that is good, but I also had the strong feeling as I contemplated Baccalaureate Sunday that we do put a lot of pressure on our graduates. As parents and as pastors and as teachers, we create a lot of pressure for them and we are not always totally honest with the way life really is. There are some things we don't tell you, and I thought that this morning I would © Grand Valley State University   �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 2   like to tell you some things that I wish that I had understood. It's a little different from the voices you're going to hear at this time of graduation. I hope you get a lot of challenge, a lot of encouragement. I hope you are stirred and motivated, but this is going to be an alternative voice. First of all, what I wish someone had said to me is: Relax a little bit and take time to live, and don't let the pressure squeeze you into a mold, meeting everybody else's expectations, the expectations of all the people in your life who are important and society in general. Take some time to live. Have a bit of humor about your life. Relax a little bit; let up a little bit. I suppose there's not another church in the country that would ever print that poem on the front of its liturgy by Jenny Joseph about wearing purple, but the poet suggests that when she gets old, she's going to wear purple, she's going to do all kinds of outrageous things, all kinds of silly things, all kinds of foolish things. And the only reason that poem sells, the only reason we read it and we smile at it is because in all of us we spend an awful lot of time toeing the mark, living up to expectations, doing the thing that is wise and respectable and responsible and in all of us there's a little something that needs to break out of that once in a while. If the poet is going to wear purple and be outrageous when she's old, she does suggest that maybe she ought to start practicing so it wouldn't be such a shock when she got old, and it occurred to me that we're not always honest with our children and our youth. We push pretty hard and our society creates a lot of pressure on young people. I think they're working very hard. I'm very impressed with what our young people are doing these days and I think it even goes farther than that. There are probably a few Baby Boomer parents that need to hear what I'm going to say this morning, also, and that is that we can get into a mode of drivenness about achieving and succeeding. We are bombarded by the media with the fact that we ought to be consumers, we ought to purchase and possess and acquire, and there is a groundswell in our society, I sense, that it's not easy to live up to, not easy to meet the expectations, and we start with young people like this and we simply try to push them and not say to them, "Once in a while it's okay to wear purple and to dance in the rain and to do something foolish, just for the sake of it, because it's a part of living and, God knows, it's not easy and you're going to have to be responsible and work hard and do all of that which you have been encouraged to do by the many voices that you have heard." That is all good, but hear me this morning: Don't be driven. Learn to relax. Learn to live fully and let that whole beautiful person you are come to blossom. There is another thing I want to say I wish someone had told me: Don't expect that you are going to acquire Truth with a capital T. Don't ever expect that, in whatever field you enter or whatever kind of life you lead, you are going to have Truth, absolute Truth in your possession, because, being human, that is impossible, and I wish someone had told me that because I was trying to nail it down, to get it right, to have all the ducks in line. I thought that I could come to a possession of the Truth and stand in the Truth. I wish somebody had told me that © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 3   is not possible. It is not possible because of the nature of our human experience. We are people in process. We are a part of a cosmic process. We are a part of an evolving process with a new emerging reality all of the time and, for God's sake, it is 15 billion years already and who knows where it's going, and if we are creatures in process, if we are people on the way, as we certainly are, then we do not possess absolute Truth. That means that we ought to live with an open mind for expanding knowledge and humility before the things we don't know. Let me give you an example. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was invited to be a part of the Diversity Day at Grand Haven High School, and it was a stellar event in which some of you were exposed to the diversity of race, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion. It was exactly the kind of thing that you should be exposed to because you are entering a world that is full of diversity and diversity comes closer to home all the time. I mention this as an illustration because in the local newspaper we're carrying on a battle of words about the fact that that should not have been done and, of course, the sticking point is the question of sexual orientation. Some are saying these young people should not be exposed to the fact that sexual orientation is a given of our human nature. The scientists are studying it and all the information is not in. It's certainly obvious to anybody who has an open mind at all that sexual orientation is a part of the constitution of the human being and it is as diverse as are people, and yet you would think by reading the newspaper that you could quote a Bible verse that seems to condemn a same-sex union and that God has spoken and that's all there is to it! That really is not the case at all. The problem, you see, is that this Bible is used for some kind of absolute rulebook that has information in it rather than recognizing that this book is an ancient book, a marvelous book of the story of the spiritual experience of people, the people of Israel and the people who followed Jesus as a record of their experience, their encounter with God, their devotion to God. Instead of recognizing that, it becomes a kind of moral guidance book with rules in it. Now, the Bible says a lot about your sexuality. It says it to all of us, no matter what our orientation may be. It says be faithful and responsible in the exercise of this wonderful gift. But, the questions that we are aware of in our day about sexual orientation weren't even in the purview of this book. It doesn't address it at all! Of course, there were abusive sexual practices then and they were condemned and there is abuse of sexuality today and it should be condemned. That has nothing to do with whether a person is homosexual or heterosexual or somewhere inbetween, and to refuse to know that, to admit that, is simply to close your mind to what is obvious to all of us. So, one would live in ignorance, and one living in ignorance could become arrogant, and when ignorance and arrogance combine, the potential for violence is there. This is not a sermon about sexual orientation. Don't forget my point: You are never going to have absolute Truth with a capital T. I use the other only as an illustration of the disruption and the disharmony and the alienation and the violence that can occur when people think they have the absolute Truth spoken by God rather than recognizing that we are people on the © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 4   way, but that knowledge is expanding and we must be open to new knowledge, and then change our mind where necessary, but always be humble because the capital T Truth is God's, never the possession of the human. Dear God, I wish someone had told me that. There is another thing somewhat related and that is that life isn't neat. It is complex and full of ambiguity. It is not simple to find your way. It is not easy to be human. It is full of questions and if we're honest it is full of struggle and wrestling within, and I use as an example of this my hero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 just before the camp where he was incarcerated was liberated. Bonhoeffer was a pastor and a theologian and he was really in his heart a pacifist. He really believed that to follow Jesus was to be nonviolent. But, he was in that situation of the rise of Hitler and Nazism, and he recognized that if Nazism were to prevail, Western civilization would be lost, and so Bonhoeffer as a pacifist made a decision to join a conspiracy to kill Hitler. Now, do you see the conflict? I'm a pacifist; I don't believe in violence and now I join a conspiracy to kill the head of state, which is treason as well as murder. Can't you see the conflict? Can you not see that this man wrestled within himself and he has this strong conviction about being non-violent and yet he sees what he has to do. He has to act. In the human arena, you are going to have to act and you are not always going to know that it is exactly this or that; you are going to have to act with limited knowledge and limited insight and sometimes you are going to make a mistake and you are going to do something wrong, because life is difficult and life is complex and life is full of ambiguity, and you have to act without knowing everything, and you cannot know everything, but you have to follow your conscience and follow your heart and do what you think you have to do, knowing that it is a judgment call. Read Bonhoeffer's poem in the back of the liturgy, "Who Am I?" This brilliant, deeply spiritual person -was he cock-sure, self-righteous? Not at all. He said, "Who am I?" Those in the prison whose life he lighted up because he led them in prayers and worship, they admired him and respected him. He was a fragrant presence there, but he said, "They think of me that way, but who am I? Am I that, or am I what I feel inside me, with all the struggle and all the distress and all the turmoil in my soul. Am I a hypocrite? Am I one thing one day, one thing another day?" And finally, "Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!" That statement came out of the cauldron, that came out of struggle, because life is not easy. The corners are not neat; loose ends are not all tied up and you are going to have to live with that. That brings me to a final word about God. I put some things in the liturgy, in the insert by St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I wish somebody had told me that God was in everything and present to me in every moment, in every experience. Don't get me wrong - I had a deeply sensitive and devoted home and church and I am grateful for that, but what I am saying is the impression of God I had was like a super-policeman up there keeping records. © Grand Valley State University �I Wish Someone Had Told Me That – Or Did They? Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Even St. Paul said that we come into this world at enmity with God. I felt there was an adversarial relationship with God and that if I didn't keep in the tracks pretty well I would incur guilt and then I'd be alienated from God and it seemed to me that there was an awful lot of that in my nurture, my growing up. I don't know how to tell you something different, except that I don't know how important God is to you right now, but God will become important to you and when that moment comes, I want you to know that it's the God of Hosea, the Hebrew prophet who spoke about Israel and Israel's rebellion and disobedience and all of that, even though God had tenderly nurtured them and cared for them, and in this very human presentation of God, the prophet speaks of God as being angry with them. Then, however, the prophet has this deep, deep insight, for he puts these words in God's mouth: How can I give you up, 0 Israel? How can I give you up? I should give you up, but how should I give you up? I can't give you up because I love you. The cosmic lover. I'll never give you up. I can't give you up. I'll never abandon you. I don't care where your road takes you, what experiences you have, remember Hosea's God, because Hosea got it right in the midst of a lot of other stuff where he spoke of the God who is a lover who will never let you go and is as present to you as your breath is, in some burning bush or flaming sunset or in some human relationship in which you find yourself made whole. In all of that, God is. God is the God that Paul pictures in the 8th chapter of Romans who is for you. If God is for us, who can be against us? And then he gives us that picture which you hadn't ought to literalize, but the picture of Jesus who dies crucified, risen, ascended, and sitting at the throne of God and making intercession for us. In other words, you have an advocate at the throne of power of the universe. That's the picture; that's the image. But the idea of it is that there is something in the heart of things that is for you, for you, on your side, that will never let you go. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I don't care how ambiguous your situation, how poor your judgment, what wrong path you may take, how much you stand in confusion before all of the options that hit you in your life, God is with you, win be with you, will never let you go. I sort of knew that, but God wasn't so user-friendly for me, and I want you to know there is no adversarial relationship between you and the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and so relax a bit, open your mind to truth wherever you find it, act in your life according to your vision and your values, in the midst of the ambiguity in which you don't always know the answers, and love God, love God, because you are loved of God, and that will never change and that's the greatest thing in the world. God bless you. © 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 Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII Scripture Text Romans 8:31, 39 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-0-20000604 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-06-04 Title A name given to the resource I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They? 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 4, 2000 entitled "I Wish Someone Had Told Me That - Or, Did They?", on the occasion of Baccalaureate Sunday, Eastertide VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:31, 39. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Diversity Immanence Inclusive Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b4f2d5998e348e4dee5c1abd28f9874e.mp3 898de4f0a619f4d4f3b5e96044022484 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/673ce979c4bcac903bf35974e4110c41.pdf edb5b06530ab89ee66deac8f8de89fcf PDF Text Text Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells Memorial Day Weekend Text: Psalm 84:2; I Corinthians 5:35-36; John 19:40 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 28, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Memorial Day Weekend, a weekend in which we remember those that we have loved and lost a while. It is a civil holiday and, along with Thanksgiving, perhaps the civil holiday that has the deepest spiritual significance, a time to honor those who paid the supreme sacrifice to preserve our liberty and to keep our freedoms alive, and then from that, the custom generally of remembering those who have gone before us, of visiting cemeteries and adorning graves with flowers, a time to pause, a time to remember, a time to grieve and a time to give thanks. I remember vividly my first visit to a military cemetery. It was in the spring of 1984 in a little Dutch village toward Arnam. It was a British military cemetery and I think the village was Osterbaan. We visited a war museum there, and then we walked across to the cemetery. As I said, it was spring and the shrubs were absolutely splendid, and the cemetery was so obviously kept meticulously, with great care. I had never been struck before in the environment of a cemetery, but here I was deeply moved, I think for the first time existentially, to look across the field of crosses and stars of David, the names of primarily young men, the dates of birth and the dates of death indicating the brevity of life and the horrible cost of war and the price of preserving freedom and beating back the demonic darkness. It was a deeply moving experience; it was a spiritual experience; it was one of those moments along my pilgrimage way that I can remember that I really felt something very deep. In 1995, Nancy and I led some pilgrims over to Europe and there outside Cambridge, England, there is an American military cemetery. Again, one simply cannot come upon that scene without being moved. A field of crosses or stars of David in orderly rows, and name after name after name of the youth of the nation. A beautiful memorial wall, a striking chapel, and once again I felt how we have honored our dead. There has been that tradition; there have been those who have seen to it that those who paid that supreme sacrifice are not forgotten, and the very way in which it is all kept speaks of the dignity of the human spirit. Going to Normandy 50 years after the invasion, stepping on the beaches and looking on the cliffs, seemingly impossible to scale, set with concrete bunkers that © Grand Valley State University   �Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells Richard A. Rhem Page 2   seemed impenetrable with their huge guns facing out to sea, then moving up into the American cemetery there, one again feels the tremendous cost in which that battle was won that turned the tide of the war. Well, those experiences for me, I must admit, were the experiences that imprinted deeply upon my consciousness the importance of the dignified honoring of the dead, and of having an appropriate setting in which to remember, to grieve, and through memory to feel the connections once again, and to let the love of those we have loved and lost well up within us. The year 1984 was a significant year for me; it was the year of sabbatical, the first six months of that year, the first three months of which we spent in Schenectady where I was the theologian-in-residence in this great, old First Church in downtown Schenectady, and it was there that I was introduced for the first time to a Columbarium. Within that grand old building there was a room set aside, chapel-like, with a table and a candle and an open Bible, and one wall in which there were niches in which were the urns of those whose cremains were being kept. A sacred place in which the people of the congregation could come, sit, meditate, pray and remember, and could experience again the connectedness with those they'd loved and lost. In 1984 I came back in the fall to take up the task here once again and one of the things we did as a kind of exercise in renewal was to constitute eleven task forces in all aspects of our community life. One task force, at my instigation, was a task force to study the viability of creating our own columbarium. The conclusion of that task force at that time was not yet, not now. It may have had something to do with the fact that we included the local undertaker on the committee, I don't know. But, columbaria involve cremation, and in 1984 that was not as common as it is now. It is becoming a more common practice, for various reasons, reasons of space, ecology, economic considerations, and more. But, in any case, I think that it is time for us once again to have that option open to those for whom that is an appealing place in which to remember their loved ones. I entitle this message, "Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells," because it is very much my own personal perspective. Burial customs are a part of every culture and every society, and there are those who say that burial customs are the last customs that a people will change, it is so primal. It is written so deeply into our past. In traditional communities, there are ways that this is done that are simply taken for granted, as though that's just the way it is and the way it ought to be. I read that little section in the Gospel of John, the burial of Jesus. Whether the story was intended to be literal or symbolic is beside the point. I read it for that little phrase, "... according to the burial custom of the Jews," because every people have had certain rituals of death, certain burial customs, and this is not a matter of some absolute truth. It is not a matter of right or wrong. It has everything to do with a personal perspective or with a personal inclination. And so, on this Memorial Day Weekend which is a Memorial Day which doesn't have to share place with Pentecost, which happens sometimes, or Baccalaureate, which © Grand Valley State University �Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells Richard A. Rhem Page 3   happens other times, but rather is a weekend which stands alone, I thought it would be the right time for us simply to think together about one more option that is available to us as we deal with death and dying with dignity and with honor. There is, as I said, no right way to do this. When I began in the ministry, I used to conduct a funeral service with an open casket in the front, which I haven't seen for a long, long time. Those customs do gradually change. If we were an Episcopal congregation, the casket would be led in procession by the cross with the clergy reciting resurrection texts, a very nice ritual, actually. We have in this congregation a funeral pall which is a vestment cloth that goes over the casket, which I don't know whether we have used yet, just because when it comes to that moment, we haven't gotten into that kind of rhythm, but it's a very, very good custom because it puts a sameness on every casket, whether it is mahogany or brass or pinewood box, and a beautiful symbol of our leveling before the face of God. Whatever the customs of a particular community may be, if they are done with dignity and meaning and if they communicate that to those who are grieving, then they are good and they are right. But there is one word that I ought to address to this matter of cremation because it is my impression that early on it may have been practiced by those who were intending to deny the resurrection of the body. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. I'm sure that it was true that the Church reacted to cremation, sensing perhaps that it was a denial of the resurrection of the body. Paul's chapter on the resurrection, I Corinthians 15, ought to dispel any problem with the matter of cremation, for in that rather involved and torturous discussion of the 15th chapter, this much is clear - Paul arguing by analogy says that while there is continuity, there is also discontinuity, and that which is buried is not that which comes to life again, and it doesn't make one bit of difference whether the corpse is laid in the ground or the ashes placed in an urn. According to Paul's argument, you don't put a plant in the ground and expect that plant to come back. A plant bears seed, the seed is buried, disintegrates, dies and from it comes a new plant which is resurrection. He talks about a spiritual body, but how can you have a spiritual body? He's stammering, of course, because he's talking about the things about which we really don't know. But, what he was affirming was what he says I think even better in Romans 14, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord, so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." And his resurrection faith and hope was based in his trust in God who is the God of the living, the God who gives life and to whom we go when our breath returns to the one who gave it. So, as far as the manner of dealing with the body, it is a matter of indifference, a matter of personal preference, a matter of choice, and I think we are seeing a movement more and more toward the practice of cremation. © Grand Valley State University �Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Why here? Why in the environment of the Church? During that year, 1984, once again Nancy and I made a little journey northward to Friesland, to the North Sea seaport of Holwerd from which my mother's family immigrated, and in those little villages in Friesland in The Netherlands, and generally in Europe, the skyline is punctuated by grand bell towers. Driving into the village, making one's way to that tower, one comes to the village church and there around the church, mantling it, the old churchyard, was the cemetery which is the burial custom of Europe for years. We made our way through the gilded fence and there almost immediately I saw on the gravestones the names of my maternal grandparents, van der Houde and Posthumas, and it gave me a sense of connectedness. It made me realize how we are all bound together in the chain of the generations, bound together in the bundle of life, bound together in the communion of the saints. The old terminology was the Church militant and the Church triumphant, but, as a matter of fact, all one. It is not at all unusual here in the celebrations of baptisms or marriage or in the solemnity of the funeral service to have three and sometimes even four generations present, rarely five, with deep rootedness in this family of faith, this concrete congregation. With the mobility of people in our day you may say, "Well, there is no longer such a thing as the village church," and yet, I sense with our youth going out and having their children, more and more they are coming back here in their family sanctuary to the baptism of their children. Again, the title of the message, "Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells." This is where my heart dwells. This is where I have lived in community with you all these years. This is where my children have been baptized; this is where my children have been married, made their profession of faith, come back to have their children be baptized. It is here that I have family beyond my family. It is here that I have community, the bonds of love, and it seems to be that one of the finest, if the final, service that the Church can offer is the environment for the remembrance of those we have loved and lost a while. I have some logistics to work out and I know it will create some special circumstances, but I envision having the whole thing happen here - the visitation, service of worship, the gathering following, and for those who so choose, the burial in the Columbarium in the shadow of the Chapel, where one can come at any time to remember, to weep, to laugh and to give God thanks for life enriched by deep bonds of human relationship that death finally cannot break. Joshua said to Israel on one occasion, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord." I would say to you, "Choose that which feels right for you, but as for me and my house, remember us where our heart dwells." © 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 Scripture Text Psalm 84:2, I Corinthians 5:35-36, John 19,40 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-0-20000528 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-05-28 Title A name given to the resource Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells 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 28, 2000 entitled "Remember Me Where My Heart Dwells", on the occasion of Memorial Day Weekend, Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 84:2, I Corinthians 5:35-36, John 19,40. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community of Faith Remembering https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1e6f03fe89a3ae4265982d4550eb2125.mp3 f7b851e1b11ce73d0aecf8da111b8890 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1752ae2ab7ac76de21548984349c5796.pdf cbc9def3307f63343c085d65961ce107 PDF Text Text Rootedness and Belonging Eastertide; Mothers’ Day Philippians 3:8 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan May 14, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon For Mother's Day and for our reflection on the family, I have a dilemma for you. Perhaps a better word would be paradox, and that is that it is in the family that we gain our rootedness which has the positive value of giving us a sense of identity as to who we are and who we are being called to be. It is also in the family that we can be so deeply rooted that we fail to have an appreciation for an openness to the wonderful diversity of creation. That is something of a paradox, and what I want to say to you today is that the family is so terribly important for giving to us a shaping and a formation that will enable us to move through life effectively, but it is such a perilous task because if we don't do it with great care, we can be shut down rather than opened up. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to Grand Haven High School for their Diversity Day. The Diversity Day was a morning in which they brought in someone from the outside, an actor, a psychologist-type, a very effective speaker who addressed half the student body while the other half went to their respective classes. And then they did a switcheroo, and I was one of a number of guests who were brought in to address or to be with the students in their respective classes while half of them were being addressed by the star of the morning. I, of course, represented the field of religion, and I was paired with Rabbi Alan Alpert, my good friend from Muskegon. Bob Kleinheksel was also one of those who engaged with the students. But, Alan Alpert and I, before we opened our mouths, were already a statement to the diversity that exists within the religious community and the fact that that diversity can be overcome with mutual respect and affection, as we were very good friends and we are able to share with the students about our own relationship and the relationship of our respective communities. As I began to address that situation, suddenly I recognized the fact that all of my nurture, all of my training, all of the influences of my home and my church, all of the efforts and the prayers of my parents and my pastors and my teachers were to the end that I might be narrowed down, not opened up. This simply struck me. Obviously it wasn't anything I didn't know all my life, but I never thought about it in this context. I realized before those students that a diversity day like that in old © Grand Valley State University   �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Kalamazoo Central when I was a Maroon Giant would have threatened the pants off me, because I was traditioned, I was nurtured, I was shaped, I was formed, I had rigor mortis of the soul before I was graduated from high school, and it struck me so that all of that which was done for me was to give me tunnel vision, narrow me down, secure me in the truth, and, as I shared with the students, done by tender, loving, well-meaning parents and pastors and teachers with the best of intention and done so tenderly, but it is a fact that it was to close me down. Now I am so far from that today that I can hardly believe that it's still going on, and so, I said to the students, "That doesn't go on anymore, does it?" They said it does, and of course I really knew that it still goes on, because isn't that what home and family are for? Isn't that the function of parents? And then, thinking about it, I recognized how perilous it is to do that job of nurturing and shaping and forming. Now, the positive side of it is obvious. I was rooted, and rootedness is essential for a healthy human being. I knew who I was; I had a sense of identity, a strong sense of identity. I had a sense of God and family and faith and those fundamental values and issues of our human condition. But the peril is that nurture and formation end by creating walls around us, isolating us from the other, and insulating us from the rich diversity of the human experience. I had set aside an article that I came across sometime ago for this particular Sunday prior to my Diversity Day experience. It was written by a fellow named Pico Iyer in Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, and the title of the article is "Citizen Nowhere," an excerpt from a book recently published. This particular author, who is a journalist, was reflecting on the fact that there is a new human being emerging, a human being with a global soul. He represents that group, which certainly is a first-world, affluent phenomenon, nonetheless a growing phenomenon in our world today and a kind of experience that many of us can somewhat identify with, although his situation was certainly in the extreme. He grew up in India and he never knew his father's native tongue nor his mother's native tongue, they all shared British English, and he was born into a home of Hindu faith, raised in Christian schools, and identifies mostly now with Buddhist communities. He spoke about the nature of this phenomenon which is becoming more and more the case in our world where one may not dwell on the continent where one works, or, in his case, have no relatives on the continent where he more or less lives. He told about the thousands and thousands of miles, air miles, that he clocks and said these kind of people are the people that still engage with the rituals of death, perhaps scattering a father's ashes 6000 miles from where one lives, or get up in the morning in Santa Barbara and in the evening be in the broken heart of Manila Or start out in the Big Apple and end up in the dusty streets of Haiti. A world in which we are thrown around and thrown together, exposed to all kinds of experiences, one upon another in rapid fire, ending up with a porous personality that doesn't really know who it is, a porous personality that can become whatever the particular situation and location calls © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 3   for. People who grow up as he did in three different cultures and live somewhere in the cracks, people who are so informed about every facet of every issue and can see so many sides of every question that they have no basis for making a judgment or come to conviction or make any commitment. He talks about being unaffiliated. He says, "Oh, there's a blessing of being unaffiliated - one can continue to have new experiences that bring wonder and awe. But, unaffiliation can also cause lack of responsibility and accountability." And then he spoke about the threat of rootlessness and the fact that the human soul needs rooting, and that in this day, in this phenomenon which is becoming increasingly common, the threat is for a kind of amorphous being to evolve that has no sense of identity when no one else is around, who doesn't know really who one is or what the human condition is all about. So, if it is possible to be so deeply rooted that one is isolated from the diversity of creation, it is also possible to be so exposed to that diversity that one has no sense of who one is and what one is called to be. Interesting juxtaposition and on this day of the family, this Mother's Day, I thought it might be good for us to recognize the paradox of that need for nurture and shaping and formation and that need to so nurture and form that we will be able to transcend all of those givens of our lives, those givens over which we have nothing to say, the color of our skin, our race, our ethnic grouping, our national alignment, our religious tradition, our creedal grouping, our sexual orientation, those things that are simply given to us. Nurture that is positive must root in order to give a sense of identity, and nurture so that there is the ability to transcend all of those natural givens in order that we might find a community in which the other is no longer other, but is embraced in a larger grace and love and community. At the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, there was a breakfast by the Sea of Tiberius, with those going back to Galilee. Peter had said, "I'm going fishing." They said, "We'll go with you." And, however they took up their lives, it was in the picking up of that life in Galilee that they experienced again the presence of the Lord, but they had come to the bonding of community. The classic example has to be Paul, who has gotten a lot of bad press and probably deserves most of it, but that amazing thing about Paul is the degree to which he was able to transcend the traditioning, the formation of his life. He talks about it in that third chapter of Philippians - circumcised the eighth day, born of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, persecuting the church. As far as the righteousness of the Law was concerned, blameless. All of that and what did he do for it? And this is the danger of effective nurture. It made him a violent person, because he was on the road to Damascus, issuing warrants of arrest to those who were of another Jewish sect, the followers of the Way. If nurture is not carefully given, it will imbue in one the idea that one has the truth and, whether taught explicitly or not, © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 4   will imply that is the only truth. It will isolate one from the larger human community and, where things don't go well, it can issue in a violent personality. We see it in our world today which, as Piko Iyer has said, is becoming a global village. A global village sounds secure, but it's a global city and it's threatening, and the rising of nationalisms around the globe are full of peril and danger, and in the religious sphere the upsurge of fundamentalists is a consequence of fear and the insecurity of those who feel threatened in their little respective selves. If we are not careful in the nurturing of children and adults, we'll be creating persons who are threatened by the other and have a potential for violence. But Paul had an experience and it was an experience of Jesus Christ, and talk about transcending, he takes all of that bundle of credentials and says, "I consider it refuse." Another translation says rubbish. That's a little radical, but then Paul was never known for moderation. But he was so imbued with all of that tradition of his Jewish Pharisaical face, that for him to be able to tie it all in a bundle and let it go was nothing less than a miracle of grace. He saw something more. He was the one with some validity; he is credited as being the founder of Christianity. Not Jesus, but Paul, because Paul saw in the Jew Jesus, in the God of Jesus, the God of Israel who was a God of inclusivity - he saw the possibility of a grace of God that embraced the whole world. Paul was the universalizer, taking his cue from Jesus, and he was able to let go. That's a miracle. Do you know how tough that is? He let it all go and created a whole new community, and I want to say that the only reason for the church is to be a community which can give a sense of belonging and be a center for generating inspiration, emerging in conviction and commitment for the transformation of the world through the tearing down of all barriers that separate humankind, to tear down those barriers that separate us from the other who become so threatening because of color of skin, because of ethnic curiosity, because of sexual orientation. Suddenly we de-humanize, we denature, we demean and destroy. This community is a community of inclusion intentionally, respecting no boundaries or barriers that would divide. It's not easy. It is very easy to nurture, deeply rooting. Giving a narrow sense and a tunnel vision builds strong institutions, builds strong congregations. It's quite a risky thing to tell you that we don't possess all the truth. It's quite a risky thing to tell you that there are other places where the grace is just as free, quite a risky business to tell you that you don't have to be here any more than you have to be here in order to be fueled up to get out there and do the job you are called to do. I'm proud of this place; I'm proud that last night at "A Night of 100 Stars," honoring volunteers in this area, 20% or 25% of the volunteers in this Tri-Cities area came from this community. (Three of our people were very instrumental in putting on that event - Trudy Schultz, Kathy Bolthouse, and Gloria Klinger; there may have been some others involved.) I'm not surprised at all. Peter has been leading the charge into this community for a number of years now because the © Grand Valley State University �Rootedness and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 5   purpose of this place is not an end in itself; it's not that this place may exist. It is that this place may exist in order to send people out of here with a sense of breadth and grace and reconciling love that will tear down every barrier and bind together all the people of God, all of the children of God. It's a tricky business, but what a wonderful, freeing thing it is when the fear drops away. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to embrace the other as a brother or a sister, and what a beautiful community this is. We had an Elders' Meeting again this week and I said to the people who came, "I love this community. I'm so proud of it. I believe in it because of the kind of people who are continuing to come to it, all sorts and conditions of humankind. Wonderful." Now, how do you nurture so that you create enough rootedness through a sense of belonging in community that you can go forth, having transcended all peculiarities? That is the task and that is divine. © 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 Mother's Day, Eastertide IV Scripture Text Philippians 3:8 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-0-20000514 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-05-14 Title A name given to the resource Rootedness and Belonging 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 14, 2000 entitled "Rootedness and Belonging", on the occasion of Mother's Day, Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Philippians 3:8. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Community Diversity Inclusive Mother's Day https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4cbaa1aa74bb0e10e45f309d4d993b60.mp3 8157d684f729cc063b4a7fa133a7ab2d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0cbbe6a3d86b44e18868513cedbeb6c8.pdf 0094c72fee3e0a90dc260c1c9870cdcc PDF Text Text Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Eastertide Luke 24:13-35 Text: Luke 24:31 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 30, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon My name is Cleopas, not that it matters a great deal, because I didn't have anything particularly outstanding about me or any reason to be noticed in the Gospel narrative of the appearance story that was read a moment ago, but I was chosen as the example, I suppose, of that which was the experience of so many. I went to the Passover celebration; I was a part of that larger movement that was following Jesus and hoped that something would happen in Jerusalem, hoping that, somehow or other, we didn't know how, but somehow or other, God would move upon that city, would move through that man in whom we had come to trust, believe, and in whom our hopes were placed. I was there when he entered the city with acclamation. I was there when he made his bold statement in the Temple. I was proud of him, the courage, the unflinching courage with which he made his claim and pointed us to the eternal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I was there when they crucified my Lord. The next day, Saturday, was the Jewish Sabbath, of course, but the day after any kind of a trauma becomes a rather formal affair. One just sort of goes through the motions. Thank God there was that ordinary Sabbath day to be observed, something one could just simply plod through without thinking, without feeling, just to get through. But, Sunday dawned like your Monday, and I was beside myself. It's as though the whole world came crashing in around my ears. Oh, there were some rumors. Some women said they'd been to the tomb and that it was empty and they had seen the vision of angels, but no one gave it much credence. Around noon, I said to a friend of mine, "You know, I have to get out of here. I'm going to burst open if I don't get away from Jerusalem and all of the memories and all of the crushed hopes and dreams. I can't stand it; I have to get out of here. Let's go to Emmaus." He said, "Fine. I'll join you." Well, you know how it is; you think you can escape; you think you can get away, leave it all behind you, but you can't, and so we found ourselves on the road, © Grand Valley State University   �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 2   taking apart every aspect of the week, trying to figure out what went wrong, wondering where was God and questioning our own understanding. How could we have gotten so mixed up about who this was and what might have happened through him? It was strange as we – obviously, as deeply in depression as we were as we left the city limits – sensed a presence with us, and sure enough, a stranger came up alongside us and said, "What is this conversation you're having?" Well, I couldn't believe anybody didn't know what had just happened in Jerusalem. But, he said, "No, what things?" And so, I told him, "Jesus of Nazareth, a man mighty with God, a prophet whom we hoped would set Israel free, they killed him. He's dead. And it's over. And frankly, we're just running away." And then, you know, the strangest thing happened. The stranger began to give us a Bible lesson like I've never had in my life. Oh, all the things he mentioned were familiar; I knew them from a child, all those scripture passages to which he referred. But, the case he was making is that we had totally mis-read our own scriptures, that what had just happened, after all, was something that we might have known would happen inevitably if we had understood our own scriptures. He took us into the Torah of Moses and through the Psalms and the prophets, all very familiar to me, but I was hearing it again as for the first time. It was all very familiar to me, but I never understood it before; I never put it together before; I never had a clue before. I knew the Psalmist's cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” I knew the suffering servant's story of Isaiah 53, the Lamb led to the slaughter. I knew the one who without violence does not lift up his voice in the street, but who with gentleness will never break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. I knew all of that, but I never put it together. I guess, as a matter of fact, I was more turned on by, for example, the fiery prophet Elijah. My own expectation, I suppose, was shaped by Malachi who was looking for one to come to judge, to bring fire from heaven. And all of that other stuff in there, it's all there, but somehow or other I never identified it with Jesus. I guess I'd have to say I never recognized who he was at all. It was probably my own agenda I was projecting on to him, thinking about sitting on thrones and judging Israel and being in the top spot for the new regime. It was a Bible lesson like I'll never forget. In retrospect, my friend and I talking about it later realized that while it was going on, our hearts were burning, our hearts were palpitating. There was a blood rushing through our system; something amazing was happening to us. We approached the village and the stranger was going to go on, but we encouraged him to stay with us and we came to the evening meal, and again, a rather strange thing happened - he who was our guest became our host. He took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to us, and we knew it was he. Our eyes were opened; we recognized him. It was Jesus. He was with us. He was alive! Just the moment we began to feel the excitement rise and the joy break over, he was gone. Vanished from our sight. Disappeared. No trace of him. © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, you can imagine we couldn't put all that together, but one thing was certain - even though the day was far spent, we headed right back to Jerusalem and you know what we found there? Well, he'd also appeared to Simon and so there was already a party underway and they were celebrating and we said to one another, "The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen, indeed." And then, there he was again! Strange. Well, that's my story. But, you understand, the version of it that you have in the evangelist's Luke's Gospel is a version of my story some fifty years later, wellhoned. If you read Luke or, for that matter, Matthew or Mark, you'd think it was all settled on Easter Sunday afternoon. Of course, that wasn't the way it was. It was my experience, but it was my experience condensed. It was my experience as example of the experience of that numberless crowd that had put their hopes on Jesus and found their dreams smashed and who eventually came, as I came, to experience him once again alive. Because what the evangelist wanted to do was, in concise a manner as possible, tell the good news, and so, it's all in there, but it's sort of squashed together, that disappointment, that disillusionment, that sadness of heart. Oh, my God, it was awful and it didn't evaporate in a day or a week or a month or, frankly, for a year. We pretty much scattered after that traumatic crucifixion, back to Galilee, into the Judean countryside, sad of heart, with crushed hopes and broken dreams, wondering if there was any meaning to anything, wondering if one could believe anything anymore, wondering if one ever could put one's trust in someone or something, wondering if the noblest ideas and ideals of the human family would amount to anything, ideals of freedom and love and justice, whether grace and mercy, whether any of that would make any difference in the long run. Of course, you don't have an experience as we had with Jesus, even through the trauma of the crucifixion, without continuing to reflect on it, to think about it, and that Bible lesson that he gave us, of course, points to the fact that that is exactly what we did. We went back to our scriptures and we scoured them for some clue as to what in the world we had just experienced, and we did find the Psalm, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?" we did find the Lamb led to the slaughter, we did find all of those pointers that represent the graciousness of God in humility. As we did, we began to share with one another, and as we came together, we told Jesus stories and as we told Jesus stories and as we remembered, now and again, here and there, it was like he was really there. And, of course, for him in the days of his flesh, when he was with us, the meal was always the high point and everybody was welcome and he would take the bread and bless it and break it and give it to us. I remember the first time I gathered with a few friends as we had been talking about our hopes, our dreams, our disillusionments, and our sadness, and someone took the bread, it was like Jesus was there. It was as though his presence was as tangible as the presence of the © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 4   one next to me, and we knew, in that community, breaking bread together, that he was alive. And so, as we began to understand with new eyes, as we looked at old, familiar scriptures and suddenly saw something we'd never seen before, hope began to rise in us and we began more and more to experience the wonder of that presence that was full of grace. And then, we came to the most amazing discovery of all and it was simply this - that Jesus wasn't about Jesus at all. Jesus was about God. That's why he never pointed to himself. That's why he never put himself forward. That's why he was marked by such humility, such gracefulness. That's why he was like one who refused to be the broker of the grace of God but, rather, said God is accessible to you all and grace is for you all. That's why he never set up shop and hung up his shingle because he wasn't about himself. He was about God. He was a God-presence. God was embodied somehow or other in that one, and when we were with him, we sensed the presence of God, and now the amazing thing was that he was dead and we experienced him alive, really just as before. We couldn't reach out and touch him as once we did, but he was there. Was it his spirit? Was it God's Spirit? I don't know. But, this I know - this we came to discover, that Jesus wasn't about Jesus. Jesus was about God and the fact that Jesus was no longer in the flesh was not at all any handicap for our experience of God as we experienced it when he was in the flesh. Can you sense what I am trying to say? I don't know how to say it any differently than that. If s like he wasn't there, but he was there. But, not being there, whatever we experienced when he was there, was the same, just as real. When we looked one another in the eye, when we held the one we loved, when we gathered in community, breaking bread, our eyes would be opened and we would know the presence of God. So, you see, I guess what I want to say to you is, maybe if you could, you would have liked to have been there. But, to have been there then in the days of his flesh would be no advantage to where you are now, because, as a matter of fact, he was the mediator of that mystery of life, that ultimate ground of all being, that creative spirit, that source of all, that guide of all, that goal of all. He simply was the presence of that One living God, whom death can never destroy, and he embodied forgiveness and love and justice and peace which all of the cruelty and violence and ignorance in the world can never put to death. So, you see, that's what the evangelists were trying to tell you when they honed the experience of the whole community over decades. They called it my story, Cleopas, and it was my story, but it wasn't really my story as though it happened just like that. Oh, there was real history there. That's why 2000 years later you're still struggling with it, but I have to admit that I am amazed and somewhat amused at how much you struggle to figure out what really happened. I want to tell you - we couldn't figure out what really happened. But, it was the presence. It was the God-presence. It was the embodiment of grace and community. It was © Grand Valley State University �Emmaus: Now You See Him; Now You Don’t Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the deep assurance that when the powers of darkness had done their worst, light burst forth and the last word was not sadness, but joy, not a broken heart, but a burning heart, not death, but life. © 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 II Scripture Text Luke 24:31 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-0-20000430 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-30 Title A name given to the resource Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't 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 30, 2000 entitled "Emmaus: Now You See Him, Now You Don't", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 24:31. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Epiphany Humility Jesus Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6c6ef22c168ffec99992ab976c765285.mp3 6e3d953f4d2a3063267b496725847956 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b4d0ceb7ec32066d5e4a3efc13c05b48.pdf 992623983168a099772777cb7905d0d3 PDF Text Text The Truth That Will Not Die Easter Sunday Psalm 82; I Corinthians 15:12-29; Matthew 27:50-54 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan April 23, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Have you ever wondered where the idea of resurrection came from, where the thought arose? Actually, I suppose the question which is given classic form in the Hebrew drama of Job says it well: "If one die, will one live again?" That question probably arose in the very dawning beginnings of the human experience, the beginning of consciousness, self-consciousness, consciousness of myself and consciousness of another, and the beginnings of human relationship, and then one day the breath goes out of the other, the spirit leaves and there is death, and the mystery of death would eventually cause a thoughtful, human consciousness to say, "If one dies, will one live again?" What is this mystery of life and of death? But, actually, that endemic, human question has nothing to do, really, with resurrection. Resurrection finds its birth, its advent in Second Temple Judaism, the late centuries just before the birth of Jesus. Actually, the Torah, the five books of Moses, knows nothing of resurrection or deals at all with whatever there may be in life beyond this life. The common phrase is, "And he was gathered to his fathers," which I suppose was an expression of trusting at death as one had trusted God in life. But the situation of the Jewish people in Judah became severe due to the brutality of the Roman occupation and, prior to that, the persecution under the Syrian empire of Antiochus IV. Those awful experiences in the first couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus created a growing conviction that those righteous martyrs who suffered because of their faithfulness to God, who died because of their commitment to the covenant, would surely rise again. It wasn't the Greek immortality of the soul, an ongoing existence of the soul, but it was a bodily resurrection that was conceived of, and it was a bodily resurrection because in the body they had suffered, and the body had been put to death, and those experiencing that brutality, experiencing the loss of the righteous martyrs, began to speak of resurrection, a general resurrection when the righteous martyrs would come forth from the grave, bodily. What gave them the idea? The idea stems from the fact that the God of Israel is a God of justice, and in the face of persecution and suffering and the loss of these faithful ones, the question was asked: If God is just, will they not come forth © Grand Valley State University   �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 2   again, for their life was cut short, their life was cut off? It is in that context that the idea of a bodily resurrection or the resurrection of the dead emerged. And again, it emerged not primarily because of the martyrs, but primarily because of the conception of God. Psalm 82 was read today. It is as though Israel's God holds a council of all the gods of the nations and God charges them with the failure to bring justice to the world, and God dismisses them and says, "Your time is over because you have failed to effect justice on the earth and, consequently, the very foundations of the earth are shaken." It was the Psalmist's conviction, reflecting a deep strain of Jewish faith that justice must prevail and where there is injustice, creation itself is brought into instability, and so the 82nd Psalm dismisses the gods of the nations for their failure and ends with a prayer to the God of Israel, "Come, 0 Lord, and judge the world, judge the nations, bring judgment, bring justice to bear." This was the deep conviction of Israel; it was the character of Israel's God and, consequent upon that, these righteous ones who died for their faith could not simply be left dead. There is a theme in the Hebrew Scriptures which is repeated over and over again. It is the theme of persecution and vindication. It is a very strong theme that one can trace through the Psalms and through the prophets. Persecution, vindication, with vindication taking place in this life, in this world. It was to be a vindication before the enemies. Daniel is thrown into the lions' den for his faithfulness, and God stops the mouth of the lion and saves Daniel. Queen Esther rescues her people from a conspiracy to bring them to annihilation and the adversary. The enemy is judged and brought to ruin. That theme of persecution and vindication ran strong in the Hebrew scriptures because of the conviction that God was God and God was good and God was just, and God was the living God and, consequently, God could not tolerate that kind of situation to go unmarked. There is the origin of the idea of the resurrection of the body. What will we do with it today? You found a piece of it already in Matthew's Gospel that was read. At the death of Jesus, people come out of their tombs. Now, Matthew had a little problem. He's obviously putting a couple of traditions together and it doesn't really make sense, to be honest, because they come out of the tomb at the death of Jesus but they have to sort of sneak around in the bushes until Sunday morning because they can't perceive Jesus. They show themselves at the resurrection, but they come out of the tombs at the crucifixion, and that is a reflection of this idea that's deeply written in those centuries just prior to Jesus' death, that the righteous ones would certainly be vindicated by God. But, what will we do with it? Paul assumed that with Jesus' resurrection the final, general resurrection would follow very soon. Everything seemed to hinge on that for Paul and, of course, as we know, it has not yet come 2000 years later. So, what do we do 2000 years later with this wonderful conception of the justice of God causing the vindication of the righteous dead? © Grand Valley State University �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Well, the world is a lot bigger for us than it was for the writers of the scripture. We know that we are engaged in a cosmic process of some 15 billion years. We know that we are the end products of that 15-billion year unfolding and that we live at the very fraction of the last second of that whole process. We know that we are quite amazing. We are, you know. Here we are on an Easter Sunday morning contemplating together our life, our existence, our death, and if there's anything more. Spirit has emerged and the human has become a spiritual being living in community, and what a wonder is this human existence. What a gift. What a marvel it is to encounter, here and there, the grace of life. There was a moment here last night as the Easter Vigil finished. It was rather chaotic with flowers all over the place, and there was a child barely a year old, Meika, whose mother brought her and sat her right here, on the steps of the chancel. She sat there like a little queen, with a long-stemmed tulip across her lap, and her picture was taken. I suppose that Nancy got that picture, too, and it will be on the bulletin board one of these days. A beautiful child. Have you ever stopped to wonder in the face of a child? Have you ever stopped to wonder in the face of the other in whom love dwells? Do we take time to be aware of the marvel of the human story? What are we going to do with this story that we are living and that we are experiencing? I rather think that in the Christian church what we have done with resurrection is move it from that vindication of the suffering righteous to simply life at another place and another time. I think we have lost that corporate community sense in which the justice of God was called in on behalf of those who died for their faith and we have made it our own personal excursion into some realms beyond and, in so doing, we have lost its footage. In so doing, we have lost the message that it was initially meant to convey. But, what are we going to do with it? What of Job's question, for it's your question and mine, as well: "If a man die, will he live again?" I don't think we can treat it the way the biblical writers did in terms of expecting God, somehow or another, to come in and "fix it." Could we dare hope for that? Expect that, after the Holocaust when the heavens were silent and God unmoved to action? Have we not learned in our human experience that the God of Israel is the God of justice who, in response to our question, "How long, 0 Lord, how long?"says to us, "How long, O people, how long?" Are we not called to the transformation of the world? You see, if we make resurrection just some personal excursion into the realms beyond after death, if we wait somehow or other for God to move the gears of the universe, then another Holocaust could occur. But, if we could only get a sense that the justice of God that came to expression in that Hebrew prophet Jesus is about world transformation and that God looks for us to change our world, then we could live fully. We could be totally engaged; we could love wildly, and we could give ourselves for the transformation of our world and, living fully, trusting © Grand Valley State University �The Truth That Will Not Die Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God, we could die well after a life full of meaning, full of significant engagement. And then, who is to say -after fifteen billion years - are we the climax of it all? Would that not be an arrogant assertion? Fifteen billion years and here we are, in the wonder of life, in the amazement of grace, in the beauty of human community. But, who knows? Who knows what yet may be? Who would say that this is all there is? In the light of the God of Jesus, the Jesus who embodied the God of justice, the God of Israel, I can live with meaning and significance now, and die in peace, full of hope, full of trust... waiting for just one more surprise. © 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 Scripture Text Psalm 82, I Corinthians 15:12-29, Matthew 27:50-54 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-0-20000423 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-23 Title A name given to the resource The Truth That Will Not Die 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 23, 2000 entitled "The Truth That Will Not Die", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 82, I Corinthians 15:12-29, Matthew 27:50-54. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Easter Justice Resurrection Spirit Transformation https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/52ee3c38d495ed197141897eec888655.mp3 19ee68b9059a6fade397bf54a2573e0f 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 John 13:2, 20 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-0-20000420 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-20 Title A name given to the resource A Table of Inclusion 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 20, 2000 entitled "A Table of Inclusion", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 13:2, 20. 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/eada650bceddb281e964444b4b8c6c6f.mp3 99695311691d4d9f5aa397559a533f05 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 Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? 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-0-20000412 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-12 Title A name given to the resource Angry Resentment Poisons the Soul 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, 2000 entitled "Angry Resentment Poisons the Soul", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. 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/6d42da0ec8f7c3c48242fbbbbf609915.mp3 64f61d63258d82e993ef3ea257990410 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0c05ccaa292e88b5959491c7c1806dd2.pdf b6ef9a756768be9a2d3125cc87716e60 PDF Text Text Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Amos 5:21, 24; 7:13; John 11:48 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Lent V, April 9, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The Lenten focus on the human face of God is a focus that intends for us to concentrate on the life of Jesus. Because of what has been done archeologically and in cross-cultural studies of peasant societies of the Roman Mediterranean basin, we know more about the historical circumstances and the social context of the life of Jesus than any generation since that time. The more we learn about the circumstances which Jesus addressed, the more it becomes evident that Jesus dealt in a very concrete way with the contemporary issues of his day and that the kingdom of God of which he spoke was a very down-to-earth kingdom, having to do with social relationships and economic matters and political concerns, that Jesus was in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets, that Jesus addressed the power structures of his day, structures of religion and politics, and that, in that confrontation with established authority, he was publically executed because he was deemed to be a dangerous, prophetic figure. The fact that I concentrate on the life of Jesus in the Lenten season or anytime, you have to know, is a surprise to me, and I do it with a guilty conscience, because I was raised on the conventional wisdom that religion and politics don't mix. I do it with a guilty conscience because it was drilled into me that you don't drag politics into the pulpit. I do it with a bit of foreboding because I hear those voices of my past that say, "Don't read the newspaper to me; tell me about God." That's the way it was said. I believed it. And so, when I deal as I deal in the season of Lent with the life of Jesus, and when I am forced to conclude that he died the way he died because he lived the way he lived, then I am doing about a 180-degree turn from where I came into this business, and one doesn't do that without having the old tapes continue to play. I am telling you things that in an earlier time in my ministry I would have written off as the social gospel of the late 19th century and early 20th century, the social gospel against which I was warned as the gospel of the old liberalism that saw Jesus as a model and an example. I present to you today, according to the best understanding I have, Jesus' dying a martyr's death which, at one time, I would have scorned. He wasn't a martyr; he was, rather, the Lamb of God destined before the foundations of the world to die for the sin of the world. The music we have just heard sung by the choir is lovely, © Grand Valley State University   �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 2   but the theology is poor, and that's where I was. To come to where I have come is quite a radical adjustment. But the adjustment is necessary if I would be honest with you and would be honest to God, because I believe with all my being that Jesus is a heroic, magnificent figure who was filled with the Spirit of God, who was the embodiment of God in human flesh, who incarnated that which was truest of the depths of the heart of God. Being that, he faced what was wrong with this world and, in the name of the God of justice, the God of Israel and on behalf of the people, he confronted the established powers in the hopes that there might be transformation. Jesus, as John before him and Paul after him, I believe, expected that God would intervene very soon, and would right what was wrong. But, in the meantime, he called his people to live as what they were - the children of God, with dignity and honor, even in their oppressed state, and he confronted the powers of religion and politics in the name of the people, in the name of God calling for justice. The adjustment that I have made is an adjustment that I can illustrate to you by pointing you to the most familiar of Christian creeds, the Apostles’ Creed. You remember it? "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried..." Do you note anything? Do you realize, in the light of what I have been saying, that we jumped from his birth to his death? "Born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate." The whole of the life of Jesus lies in that comma. The Church in its creedal tradition and in most of the centuries of its existence has made of Jesus a cultic salvation figure and has failed to face the truth of his life. The most familiar creed of the church dumps it all into one comma, without a word. I do believe that Jesus was in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the tradition of the writing prophets of the 8th century, those great Hebrew prophets, the first of whom was Amos. Date him around 750-760 B.C.E. in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam is king. The country has prospered and expanded; it is affluent and all is well. But there is no compassion for the poor, there is no justice in the structures of society, and Amos is that prophet in the name of God who confronts the establishment with the conditions of the people of God that betray what God is all about. Amos was the first example of that which was true of Israel and made it unique. Do you remember Israel is born on the Exodus; they are brought into the Promised Land; they live for a period of time under the Judges. When there is a crisis, the Spirit of God falls on someone, a Samson or a Gideon, and they rise up and lead the people of God through the crisis and to peace, and then they go back and farm again. God is the king. Israel, in that situation, has a theocracy. But, then the greatest Judge of them all, Samuel, is the minister of the day and the people say, "We're tired of being this way. We want to be like other nations. We © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 3   want a king." Samuel says, "If you get a king, the king will tax you, he will take your sons and daughters, there will be conscripted labor. Think twice before you do it." They say, "We want a king." Saul is anointed, followed by David, followed by Solomon, and, with the rise of the monarchy in Israel, there arose the prophetic voice. The unique thing about Israel, and I suspect the thing that has kept Israel alive through all these millennia, is the fact that established power was always addressed by a prophet in the name of God. Religion and politics could never get away with it in Israel without hearing the word of the Lord. Amos was the first of the writing prophets who confronted that Northern Kingdom in the time of its prosperity and its social disregard and said, "You are going to die." I don't think Amos knew in terms of some predicted prophesy what was going to happen in the next few decades, but, as a matter of fact, in 722 the Assyrian empire came in and removed the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, and we still speak today of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They were removed from their land, never to return. Amos said to them it is because there is no justice in the land. He said, "You have religion a-plenty. But, I despise your feasts; I can't stand your music. Your religion stinks." Well, he didn't quite say that. He said, "Your religion is an offense in the nostrils of God." Amos was tough. Amos was passionate, and Amos confronted the royal court, only to have the royal high priest come out and confront him. So, in the 7th chapter we have that encounter between Amaziah the priest and Amos the prophet, and Amaziah appeals to the king and says, "This man is saying things that cannot be tolerated. This language is unacceptable in the royal court. This is the royal temple; go back to Judah and earn your bread there." Amos said, “Look, I'm not a prophet getting paid for this thing, a professional religionist. I'm no prophet; I'm no prophet's son, but when I was following the flock, the word of God came to me and said, 'You go prophesy to my people Israel. ‘Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord.’” That was old Amos. We have some familiar phrases from Amos. "Woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Prepare to meet your God." And the text of the morning, "Let justice flow down as mighty waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Enough of your religious feasts and festivals and all of your liturgical finery. Give me justice. Don't think you can worship me and at the same time be living in a situation of injustice and oppression." So, the priest says to Amos, "Go away." But, as always happens, royal power coopts religion and, even though the monarchy grew and over against it the prophetic voice, the monarchy knew it couldn't make it without the religious blessing, and so it cultivated the priesthood that would offer it sacrifices, would pray at its presidential inaugurations, would bless the beans at the PTA, the kind of harmless religion that is ceremonial, that functions in order to give a gloss to © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 4   everything and not allow any examination of what is really going on in a society. That kind of religion is paid for by the royal court, and Amaziah was happy to be in the service of the king. But, Amos said, "Hear the word of the Lord," and thus we have the classic confrontation between the prophet and the priest, between religion and politics. In the gospel story that we read a moment ago, Jesus had performed the miracle of the raising of Lazarus and, contrary to Matthew, Mark and Luke, who make the cleansing of the temple the catalytic event, for John it is the raising of Lazarus which causes the people to stand in awe and believe, so they call a council meeting and ask, "What in the world are we going to do? If this goes on, the whole world will follow him and then the Romans will come in and destroy our holy place and our nation." Caiphus, sophisticated, suave, wily, a man about town with a lot of experience, says, "You don't know anything at all. It's better that this one man die than that the nation perish." (And John, being High Priest that year, spoke as a prophet, pointing to Jesus' death as the means of bringing in all the scattered children of God.) But, where would you have been? What side of the table if you had been at that Sanhedrin meeting? I mean, it's not such a simple matter; these were not bad people. In the situation in which Jesus emerged, Roman imperial power held the trump card, but the Sadducee and priestly families were the authority that was the buffer between Rome and the people. They were the ones that could keep the natives quiet and, as far as Rome was concerned, Rome knew how to rule. They had the priestly establishment that would keep the natives quiet while they exploited the countryside. Wonderful. If you were a Sadducee in authority, you were a high priestly person and playing ball with Rome, you would get along pretty well in Jerusalem. Yet, their fears were not unfounded. What they feared actually happened four decades later, because some fanatical, hysterical prophet came to town and aroused the populace and there was some kind of demonstration that brought in, finally, the Roman legions that decimated the town and leveled the temple. And these were responsible people. What would you have done, for example, if you had sat on the Board of Elders at that Jerusalem Council meeting? Where would you have been? Might you have said, "Look, what he's saying is in the tradition of our greatest prophets." Would you have argued on Jesus' behalf that he was reaching back into that old covenant history? Would you have been supportive of him and say, "He's non-violent. He's appealing to the people, to their dignity, to their sense of being the children of God. He's in the line of the prophets. What he is talking about is what we ought to be concerned about as those who are in authority for this people." Is that how you would have argued? Or, would you have said, "Caiphas, the old fox. That's it. I don't like to do it. I think essentially the guy himself is rather harmless, but he's got to go." © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 5   It's not such an easy thing. If you bear responsibility for the well-being of society or church, government, community, if that's your responsibility, then you do have to be careful about any traveling salesman that comes to town who would cause a disruption, that would be bad for the body politic. It's not so easy. But, you see, practicality and expediency demanded that Jesus be publically executed. Why? Because he was a danger to civil life and public order. Because he dared confront the religious, political authority with the devastating condition of the people of his day, and just like Amos in the name of the God of justice, Jesus stood for all of that which reflected the intention of God. The beat goes on. This kind of thing doesn't stop. There is a video about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer which I saw a year or two ago, a video which had footage I had never seen before, the leaders of the German evangelical church giving the Heil Hitler salute, embracing Hitler, affirming Hitler and Hitler them. That's a familiar story to us, but it's rather shocking again when you actually see it happen. And to the credit of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pastor Neimueller and others, they formed the Confessing Church that came out of the evangelical church and, of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer died. He gave his life because that's what happens to people who confront religious, political cooptation. We've just gone through again the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. The assassin, James Earl Ray, has died, but finally through the King family's own pursuits we know now that, what we've suspected all along, there was government complicity, because we don't publically execute people today. We get them assassinated. We have our own way of doing it, and Martin Luther King was a disruptive prophet. It was in the Civil Rights of the 60s which King was leading which was the beginning of my own coming to consciousness of the fact that the church had to be about more than the salvation of souls. I didn't march; I wasn't that awake. But I should have. It was about that time, as well, that Martin Luther King began to speak out on the Vietnam War. There were many protestors, particularly the young. And there were some voices in the church. The church was beginning to see that the very real world needs to be addressed, in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Martin Luther King was slain, assassinated. I remember in the wake of the sixties where I was starting to come awake, and having gone to Europe, came back here in 1971 and a few of us went out to the Institute for Successful Church Leadership in Garden Grove, California. April of 1971. Part of that Institute was a conversation with Bob Schuler in his office, and there were some seminarians there and there was a young professor of New Testament that didn't have enough to know that you don't needle the host. So, now this is 1971, in the wake of all of this "stuff," and he was pushing Bob Schuler because Bob had made some statements about "No controversy in the pulpit." That was something that was a hallmark of Bob Schuler's ministry. He got a little © Grand Valley State University �Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul Richard A. Rhem Page 6   agitated and he condemned those preachers who got out of their pulpits and took up picket signs and walked the streets. I had a little bit of concern for the young professor, and I intervened and said to Bob, "Well, what about Jesus?" He said, after a long pause, "I'm only 44; I don't have all the answers." Word for word quote. It’s not easy to make decisions, draw lines, know when to speak, where to speak, when to stand up. It’s not easy to know how to balance social serenity with public protest. But, I have to tell you, Jesus died because of the way he lived, because he embodied and incarnated the justice of which Amos spoke. Don't you suspect that I would rather come here week after week and be your priest rather than, from time to time, being a prophetic voice? Don't you think it would be more comfortable for me to inspire, encourage, comfort? Don't you think that Jesus as a salvation figure is harmless in terms of any contemporary issue that you are facing in your business or political life? Isn't the fact that the church is swept along with this worship as entertainment which is so noisy and blaring - isn't that because it's reflecting the culture that is noisy and blaring? You can't even go to a ball game without the action stopping and the organ starting. You turn on the TV and the commercials blast you out of the room. You go to a movie, and the previews knock you out of the seat. The culture is noisy; there's no time to be silent and to think, to ponder. Music, worship as entertainment. It's harmless. Or, worship, religion as therapeutic, helping you to be well-adjusted so that survive the pressures and tensions that you face in the world or the community life, giving you wisdom by which to be well-adjusted, well-attuned, to get by without ruffling feathers and causing trouble. Don't you think it would easier for me to peddle here week after week harmless religion, to use Dom Crossan's phrase, Religion as Prozac? There's a lot of it around. It's a lot easier to be a priest, and it's easy for me to be a priest because I love you and I love to pray with you and I love to be there with you and feel your pain and share your darkness. That's very natural for me. It's very natural for all of the people on this team. But, sometimes it's also liberating and freeing to gain one's own soul and to be honest to 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 Lent V Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48 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-0-20000409 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-09 Title A name given to the resource Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul 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 9, 2000 entitled "Harmless Religion: Loss of Soul", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Amos 5:21, 24, 7:13, John 11:48. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Prophetic Voice Transformation; Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/433b783cd6821d0b0adb40fd91a1c9d4.mp3 2a2e49a1c1f0d95c4ce61d23ef7bc561 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 Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Isaiah 57:14-15, Luke 9:46-48 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-0-20000405 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-05 Title A name given to the resource Proud Ambition Comes Up Empty 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 5, 2000 entitled "Proud Ambition Comes Up Empty", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 57:14-15, Luke 9:46-48. 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/693cd033e76448c469ebcd75733f25e6.mp3 fbae997aa6fe3ed67f64785e5cc83e17 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 IV Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Matthew 4:12, 17 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Richard Horsley, Neil Silberman. The Message and the Kingdom: How Jesus and Paul Ignited a Revolution and Transformed the Ancient World, 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-0-20000402 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-04-02 Title A name given to the resource The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society 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 2, 2000 entitled "The Message of the Kingdom: An Alternative Society", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 4:12, 17. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Historical Jesus Jesus Movement Justice https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/759e51153c5d31970bc3de9bbb24a99e.mp3 033339ac5248e6f48137f82205350ec9 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 Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text James 4:11-12, Matthew 7:1-5 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-0-20000329 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-29 Title A name given to the resource Judging and Condemning is Not Our Prerogative 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 29, 2000 entitled "Judging and Condemning is Not Our Prerogative", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: James 4:11-12, Matthew 7:1-5. 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/5cee72a8c1657378d2e1154927845729.mp3 9fdb41bd8560f68bdce9cd00c8fc188b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ffd6b6f8c17f45c7bd2c4424d4b9b84e.pdf d379a9143b9f0469ff3a99c059afb731 PDF Text Text Seeking Justice in a Brutal World From the series: The Human Face of God Text: Matthew 3:2 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 26, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon The subject of the sermon, this week, "Seeking Justice in a Brutal World," is always announced a week ahead of time and it's usually put together many weeks ahead of time, but I like to discipline myself to announce it at least the week ahead of time because it sensitizes me to the things that I encounter in the course of the week. This week it was a couple of pieces on the evening news, on a couple of different evenings: one about a therapist who is working with children through art therapy, trying to get them to bring to expression the fear and the rage and the anger that they feel, children who have witnessed the murder and dismembering of a father or a mother, little tykes, and the therapist saying that, with what they have been through, they have been scarred psychically for the rest of their lives. One bright-looking little fella who is asked, "Can you ever forgive the Russian soldier who killed your mother?" simply says, "No." Think of such a world in which we live where that is a part of the puzzle. Then, on another evening, there was a piece about a Russian town. The scene opened with some old Russian gentlemen sitting on their stools on the ice, icefishing, and I think the cameraman very purposely focused on a fish that had just been caught, still flopping. One sees the fish in the death throes of the dance of death, flexing its body, striving for another breath or swallow, but obviously dying. And then the camera switched to Katja, an attractive young woman who has been driven into prostitution, something she said she would never have thought of, except that she has a two-year-old daughter for whom she must provide and there is no other way for her. You see the night scenes with her along the road with the truckers stopping, negotiating for her services. Then it switches back to the old men on the ice who talk about the young men in the town, none of whom have employment, all of whom have been driven to thievery, to drugs, to alcoholism, and the old men say, "We didn't have it very good, but we had a subsistence. These young men - they don't have any place to go." The camera pans three obsolete, old monster factories, factories that once were productive and gave the people of the town work and at least a subsistence wage, but factories now obsolete, inefficient, outmoded and outdated which have not been able to make it in the most recent revolution in Russia, the revolution to the free © Grand Valley State University   �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 2   market. And so, you have human tragedy of that sort, human beings with no way to support themselves in a situation where, generations before them, people lived and at least were able to negotiate life. But now it seems so dark and so hopeless. I watched that piece and I thought, "Dear God, it's a brutal world." There are so many people that hurt so much and so many that fall through the cracks. In literature, I dislike stream of consciousness pieces; I can never understand them, but you're getting a stream of consciousness sermon this morning, because I went from Chechnya to that Russian town to a night in Boston in the 60s when I saw "Dr. Zhivago," which remains one of my favorite films, and I saw the Czarist Russia with its obscene opulence, its wealth, and its insensitivity to the suffering peasants, the masses, and then the Revolution and the liberators who overthrew the Czarist regime and established their Socialist government. I can remember my disillusionment when I came to realize that the liberators, liberated through violence, became violent oppressors fully as deadly as the regime that they had replaced. It was kind of a coming of age for me when I realized that violence and oppression are not the prerogative of the haves nor the have-nots, but of both. Whoever happens to have power, it seems it eventuates in oppressiveness, domination and violence and human tragedy. I thought how interesting that the Socialist revolution that overthrew the Czarist regime and brought in the Socialist pattern under which those old fishing men had at least subsisted has been replaced by another revolution, one we have applauded, the revolution of the free market, with its competition which has put out of commission the whole town, creating more human tragedy and despair. Now before you budding entrepreneurs who have broken into the Russian market turn me off, and you Left bleeding-heart liberals start applauding, let me plead I'm not making a political statement, nor an economic statement. I am talking about the injustice, about the brutality of the human situation. I'd like to have you join me in trying to feel it somewhat this morning, because this isn't about the free market or about Marxism; this is about the human situation which is so marked by so much pain. That may seem a modest goal, but at least it brings me to deal with the biblical lessons this morning in a way that I never would have done growing up and in my early years. I was brought up, as I'm sure you were, with the wise adage that you never, in polite company, talk about religion or politics. And I was trained and nurtured in the understanding that religion and politics don't mix. Can you imagine my dismay and my amazement when I come to realize that the Hebrew prophets that formed the background of the Christian Gospel and the Christian Gospel whose forerunner was John the Baptist and whose incarnation was Jesus Christ and whose apostle was Paul, that that whole story arose out of political and economic situations marked by brutality and injustice? I guess if you would ask me to mark some of the most significant ways in which my understanding of the Gospel of the Christian tradition has changed, I would have to say probably as much as anything it is that understanding that what John the © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Baptist was about and what Jesus was about was social, political, economic reality that was marked by injustice and brutality, and that growing up, for me the Gospel was something that had to do with the soul, that had to do with the spirituality of life, that had largely to do with my individual relationship with God. It had to do with the way of salvation, it had to do with a way of life here and a faith commitment which would lead to heaven over there. And then I wake up to discover that what John and Jesus were about was about the concrete, earthly reality of politics and economics, about empire and about slavery, about human suffering. That amazes me and that means that I can no longer not mix religion and politics, because my religion has political and economic implications so deeply entwined because it arose out of that matrix. We live in the generation that knows more about the first century than any generation before us, since the first century itself. Through textural studies, through archeological discoveries, through cross-cultural understanding of peasant societies in the time when Rome ruled the world, we have an understanding of that social, political, economic context in which John brought his message as an apocalyptic prophet, in which Jesus pointed to the kingdom of God. And we understand today that what is going on in Russia today was going on in Galilee two thousand years ago. For twelve hundred years in the Galilee, little villages dotted the hilltops and the valleys of the Galilee, and people lived in extended communities, little villages, able to subsist, able to live. Subsistence, not surplus. They made it. They just made it. But, they made it. Twelve hundred years in the Galilee, generation after generation, cultivating a little grass, raising some livestock, they made it. And then came the day of empire, the Roman legions, followed by the Roman tax collectors and the Roman entrepreneurs. Then subsistence was not enough; there had to be surplus, when conscripted labor was necessary for the building of the public works in the new cities that were being built and where taxation got real serious, such that many were put into debt, needing to borrow which would jeopardize their future, making them even more a debtor until finally their land was foreclosed on them and they became landless and homeless and hopeless. It was happening all over the Galilee, and Perea and the environs of Jerusalem. They were an occupied state by an imperial power that ruled rather well, but rule as all empires rule - for their own aggrandizement and, therefore, the people grinding under that system knew increasingly the pain and the brutality of the human situation. They also became ripe for a messenger, a prophet. They also became ripe for a John the Baptist who, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets of Amos and Micah and Isaiah and Jeremiah, cried out for justice, for mercy, for the righteousness of the covenant of the people of God. There was a ready audience for that kind of call and John the Baptist was a fiery prophet who was steeped in his old covenant, who was angry, full of vengeance. © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Who can blame him? He was probably one of those vengeful children of a vengeful God, but who can blame him? Who can see the injustice, the tragedies, the hurt and the pain of the human situation? Who can contemplate it for very long without feeling something inside that rises up and says, "It is wrong and it must be righted." John, reflective of so much of the thinking of his day, felt that because he knew God, the God of Israel, the God of justice, the God of righteousness - because he knew this God, he knew this God could not countenance this thing; he could not let this thing go on. He knew that, somehow or other, the God of Israel would have to make some dramatic move, some direct intervention to right the wrongs and to establish the righteous and to put down the oppressor. There were others who had different voices. There was the Qumran community, the Essenes who went out into the wilderness, fasted and prayed and waited for God to do something. They left society. There were the Zealots, the guerillas who were trying, through guerilla activity, to undercut the Roman authority. But John, a prophet in the mold of the old prophets, brought his protest publicly. He preached his message at the banks of the Jordan; he called people to be baptized for the cleansing of their sin in a ritual act and to go back into Judea and the environs of Jerusalem and to wait for God to act. John was in that Messianic mode and it has continued to crop up now and then through the centuries and we got a little taste of it even at the turn of the millennium, that mode that says God is going to act, God is going to do something. Obviously, the God of justice will intervene. The problem with messianism, the problem with that apocalyptic anticipation of the intervention of God, is that it can always be proven wrong, and for two thousand years it's been proven wrong. Every date that was set, every growing expectation to the present has been disappointed. And so, one wonders about the world; one wonders what does one do? Does one simply reconcile oneself to its brutality? Does one simply accept the fact that that's the way the human situation is and ever will be? I was thinking about Karl Marx and Lenin. They had an idea and that idea spread like wildfire around the globe, once they got it started. They had to start it with violence and they had to keep it going with violence. But, it was an idea of another kind of world. It was an idea of a classless society in which there would be no need, in which everyone according to his ability would offer and everyone would receive, according to his need. It was Utopian and Utopian comes from utopus, no place. This has never existed; it's no place. This idea has no rootage, no home. It’s never landed; it has never become concrete. But the idea that Marx and Lenin had did catch fire. It did involve millions of people in that movement which was strong enough for us to get pretty worried about it. It was strong enough for us to engage in a Cold War over those decades. Thank God we had more muscle, more dollars, more technology, we were able to out-spend them and finally spend them into bankruptcy and we proved that that political, © Grand Valley State University �Seeking Justice in a Brutal World Richard A. Rhem Page 5   economic system doesn't work and the free market economy triumphs. But, what fascinates me is that there was an idea, an idea that took hold. We say we can't do anything. I feel that way. And yet, there was an idea and a vision and, By Golly, it swept the earth. So then, I wonder. Of course it was flawed, of course it was violent, of course it became oppressive, of course it was as brutal as that which it replaced. I'm not arguing, making no apology for it. I'm only saying look what happened when an idea captivated the masses. I wonder if anybody has an idea. You know, the Gospel that we proclaim was a Gospel that came out of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and it was a word to those who were oppressed, to those who were out of sync, to those who were out of luck, to those who didn't have a prayer. That's where the Gospel was born. Now we wear the Roman toga; now we call the shots. What would happen if we had an idea? What would happen if someone had an idea as to how to change the landscape of the world and it could be implemented, because you need power to implement, but without violence? What if somebody here got an idea about how things could be other than they are so there wouldn't be so much brutality, so there wouldn't be so much hurt, so many people would not fall through the cracks, so our structures and our systems, political and economic and social, didn't exclude so many and didn't leave so many driven to all kinds of self-destructive behavior? I don't know, but I wonder about it because I am convinced that what John was about and what Jesus was about was about the concrete reality of everyday life. The kingdom of heaven was to come on earth; it was to be the kingdom of God; it was to be the way human society was organized if God were calling the shots. John was waiting for God to come, but God doesn't come, God doesn't intervene, God isn't going to intervene. It's no use waiting for God; God is waiting for us. I think we give up. I think we just think that's the way it is and we better keep our powder dry and we'd better stay strong, and if anybody comes around with a cockeyed idea that would too radically alter the whole situation, there's always the CIA. I don't know, friends, but I think a lot about it. I know in the meantime there is Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require but that you do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God." And I know here and there, we can do a good thing, and I think all of us here would and we do, but you know, it's the Big Picture, it's the way everything is organized and structured. It's systemic. We could all sell all and give all and we wouldn't alter, ultimately, anything. It's the Big Picture. It's the idea. We'll have to see next week if Jesus had an idea. We'll continue. In the meantime, let it disturb you a bit. © 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 III Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text Matthew 3:2 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-0-20000326 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-26 Title A name given to the resource Seeking Justice in a Brutal World 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 26, 2000 entitled "Seeking Justice in a Brutal World", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 3:2. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Justice Sermon on the Mount https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4f6ac05e79fe568005d203ffdbd29161.mp3 86c2e7df5ad4741f16cf893f0530ce06 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 Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 23:32-38 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-0-20000322 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-22 Title A name given to the resource Grace is the Last Best Word - But Will It Work in the World? 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 22, 2000 entitled "Grace is the Last Best Word - But Will It Work in the World?", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 5:38-48, Luke 23:32-38. 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/0bee87b8d4ec331d7591858de1e4ebb4.mp3 4071cb3457a7a4719519e556d5e99248 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 Lent Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Peter 2:11-21, Luke 1:46-55 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-0-20000315 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-15 Title A name given to the resource The Mind of Christ: Walking in His Steps 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 15, 2000 entitled "The Mind of Christ: Walking in His Steps", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do?", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Peter 2:11-21, Luke 1:46-55. 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/2c97312d3c94f4a18b8a0c23ebb8ed42.mp3 437e55c83555090b336ce2336f236545 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fa23d603720880c9b1fbf874142100b.pdf d584d78702604f6b327f28d2cdf0ecc0 PDF Text Text The Face and the Flesh From the series: The Human Face of God Text: John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 12, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon It is Lent again. If you have been with me over the years, you know that Lent is a very difficult season for me for preaching. It is when I contemplate the meaning of this season that I realize how costly and difficult it is to be a Christian - if not impossible. It is in Lent that I am faced with the fact that Jesus took up the cause of the poor and the oppressed, representing in his life and message the underdog in a world of imperial power and economic crisis. He envisioned and embodied an egalitarian world marked by justice, fairness and compassion. And we who hear his word today are the powerful and the affluent for whom his mission and message is a threat. One Lenten season I kept hammering away on the theme, "He died the way he died because he lived the way he lived," and I still believe that to be the case. As Dom Crossan reminded us a year ago on the first Sunday in Lent, the bread and the cup mean the separation of body and blood and that points to violent death; Jesus did not die in bed of natural causes. Neither did Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Archbishop Romero or thousands of others whose names we know not, but who stood in solidarity with the marginalized masses - the powerless and voiceless ones. And so, here we are again at this uncomfortable moment of the Christian calendar and what will we do with it? I have a good friend who says often to me as we speak of the human situation, the world events, the social scene, "Save your own soul." His advice is not intended as a counsel of withdrawal from the world, of narcissistic self-absorption, or disengagement from life. But, he means, I think, that one needs to be centered in oneself with a bit of detachment from which to understand oneself, the human condition, and the Spirit that is ever seeking to break through and become embodied in the human, in one's own life and in the life of the world. © Grand Valley State University   �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Lent is a season for that - a time to think, to seek to understand, "Who am I? What is my life? To what vision and values am I committed?" Lent is a time to cultivate awareness - to become aware in moments of reflection. "What am I doing? Why am I doing it?' In a word, to face what truth I'm living, or whose truth I'm living. This is easier to recommend than to accomplish because we are constantly bombarded with propaganda that would shape us and mold our actions and attitudes. I've noticed a television ad recently during the evening news. It advocates trade with China, which has become a sharp political issue. I'm not even aware of the motivation of all the players, those who want to trade and those who do not. But, I was struck by how this ad debases those who are against granting the most favored nation status to China. According to the ad, they are Isolationists. So, write your congress persons; tell them to vote for trade with China. If you catch the small print on the screen that appears momentarily, the ad is sponsored by the Business Round Table. Of course, the Business Round Table wants trade with China and they can make a good case for such trade being the best assurance of peaceful co-existence with the world's most populace and future most powerful nation. But, simply to write off those who oppose trade with China as Isolationists is to fail to recognize that there are some who are opposed because of human rights violations, who want to tie trade with movement toward a more democratic society. I am not saying anything about the issue itself - trade with China. I am only using this as an illustration of the twisted nature of the messages that pommel our minds and battle for our attention. Having just gone through the Primary battles, we have only begun to experience the distorted rhetoric of an election year - The object is not to carry on civil and humane dialogue; it is to get elected – and I find it all very disheartening. What to do - not disengagement, flight, cynicism or despair. But, let me suggest that it is wise and well to save one's own soul, cultivate a bit of detachment and then from a state of awareness engage where one can for the vision and values one holds. What I am suggesting for our Lenten journey is that we cultivate the intentional life - that we determine to live with intentionality, and not just any intentionality, but an intentionality shaped by the way, the life, the truth of Jesus. Old hat, you say. Admittedly so. Yet, still compelling and radical. Translation will be necessary; one cannot don a bathrobe and sandals and flee to Galilee's hills. It is here one must determine how Jesus' way can be embodied by the likes of us. We will not all settle on the same mode of incarnating the way of Jesus in our world of 2000, marked by power, affluence, politics and global © Grand Valley State University �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 3   community. But, we can be about seeking to understand our world and what the implications are of following the way of Jesus. That is my hope for our Lenten experience. At the beginning, let me say a word about the theme - The human face of God. I get the phrase from Paul who claimed that God, the Creator, who is the source and ground of all being (Paul's language - The God who said "Let light shine out of darkness") has given us knowledge of the Mystery of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was Paul's claim, it is the claim of the Christian faith that in the face of Jesus we get a clue to the nature of God. For the Jew, God is found in the Torah. Or the Muslim, Allah is revealed in the Quran, and so forth. I do not claim that God can be found only in Jesus, but I do claim, as a Christian, that God is revealed in the face of Jesus. In this Lenten journey, quite unremarkably, we will seek to understand ourselves in the Presence of God, of ultimate Truth and Reality, and our window to God is the face of Jesus. I could have created this meditation all out of the Gospel of John. Let me visit four moments in that Gospel. It begins with God's intention. That is how I would translate the Greek word logos, translated commonly as "word." 1:1 In the beginning was the Intention. 1:14 The Intention became flesh (human). 6:51 My flesh I give for the life of the world. 20:21 As the Father has sent me, so send I you. In the face of Jesus we see God - God has intention. The intention became embodied in the human. The intention embodied in this world is crucified, but cannot finally be killed. You are now the embodiment of the intention. Do you follow me? This, I think, is what at least John's Gospel was saying. What was the eternal intention of the Mystery we call God was, after billions of years of cosmic evolving embodied in the human - in our faith tradition, the human, Jesus of Nazareth. The Divine Intention that came to expression in Jesus of Nazareth was killed by the power arrangements of the world. But, what came to expression in that one's flesh cannot finally be killed; it is now embodied in his Body, that is, in you. That means that God's intention for the world is now in the human and the world will only ever realize God's intention if we manage to realize that intention in our lives and in world community. © Grand Valley State University �The Face and the Flesh Richard A. Rhem Page 4   God will not intervene to rescue us. God is not pacing the floor somewhere beyond our world now and again dipping into the chaos of our human reality to fix things, nor is God awaiting the time to intervene and bring the whole drama to a close as was the apocalyptic hope of many in the time of Jesus and many still today. The Divine Intention has been expressed in the human and its full realization awaits the transformation of human consciousness. I cannot make that happen, nor can you. But, as I become aware of the cosmic drama, the emerging wonder of the natural world, the dawning of consciousness and the human story, I can at least begin to understand what is going on, aware of that process of billions of years and limitless space which has spawned the human which can be understood as the incarnation of the Divine Intention. Contemplating the human face of Jesus, I see the meaning of the human as the image of God and I know the fullest, richest realization of my humanity is to express the Divine image, to embody the Divine Intention. When I see that I am saved, my soul is saved, I know who I am and that for which I want to live. I won't be bullied by political rhetoric or seduced by Madison Avenue or deceived by special interests. I will live out of my own center with detachment, awareness, doing what I can when and where I can to make the world safe for children and a place where the elderly can live with dignity and die in peace. I see it all in the Face which reflects the Divine Intention which has become flesh offered up for the life of the world. There were some who heard the claim and turned away. Jesus said to his disciples, "Do you also wish to go away?" Peter answered, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." Indeed. That is why I take bread and cup in a ritual action in community. I thereby seek the presence of the Spirit through whom the Divine Intention was made flesh and I stand in solidarity with him offering my flesh for the life of the world. © 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 I Series The Human Face of God Scripture Text John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6 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-0-20000312 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-12 Title A name given to the resource The Face and the Flesh 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 12, 2000 entitled "The Face and the Flesh", as part of the series "The Human Face of God", on the occasion of Lent I, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 6:51, II Corinthians 4:6. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Awareness Divine Intention Lent Way of Jesus https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9c472b8063de6e77a4030d430a9d3ff8.mp3 d339015cd9bb01bbcca586c68dee222c 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 Ash Wednesday Series What Wouldn't Jesus Do? Scripture Text Daniel 6:10-13, 19-24, John 12:20-28 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-0-20000308 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-08 Title A name given to the resource If I Should Wake Before I Die 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 8, 2000 entitled "If I Should Wake Before I Die", as part of the series "What Wouldn't Jesus Do? ", on the occasion of Ash Wednesday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Daniel 6:10-13, 19-24, John 12:20-28. 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/c3170370924a7b7d94fe83d67069f0bb.mp3 21bf86846056b14a4408855c095ad461 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/73b721679a30d2e3ddaedc1adb5a7fc0.pdf 8788c992dacd6a9a925d2828dc74e6e5 PDF Text Text The World Is Not Enough From the series: The God Question Text: Ecclesiastes 2:11; I Timothy 6:17; Luke 12:21 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan March 5, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon In this interim between my return from vacation and the beginning of Lent, I have been mulling over with you the question of God, the question of God that will not go away, remarking about the fact that God is alive and well on planet Earth, and rather surprisingly so, because, as I have indicated a time or two, it would have seemed at mid-century that the obituary of God was in order and, indeed, there were those radical theologians who spoke of the death of God. And, in the dark horror of the Nazi prison camps, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had spoken of man come of age, about edging God out of the world, and Harvey Cox wrote his best-selling book, The Secular City, which celebrated secularity and life lived on a horizontal plane, and as a theologian, tried to find traces of God, footprints of God in the secular city. And now here, having entered into the 21st century, we find that there is indication everywhere that religion is strong and vital and the question of God simply will not go away. It is a surprise. Sigmund Freud, to whom I referred last week, who may be the epitome of modernity, modern scientific thinking, was convinced that science and religion were mortal enemies and that religion had to be cleared out in order for the human society to come into its maturity and live by its reason, by its intellect, putting away its wishful thinking and its superstitions, the superstitions that abound in all of the religions and that have been a big part of the origin of religion. But, Freud was wrong. Not that religion had not fought for 300 years a losing intellectual battle, but rather, that the human being can live out of his or her mind alone, that intellect is enough, that if we could only rid ourselves of our religion and our superstitious ways, we could live out of the intellect by reason, and thus come to maturity. That hasn't proven to be the case. The God question just simply doesn't go away because, contrary to what Freud expected, our problem is not knowledge, but it is something far deeper: the intuition of a deeper reality. We have knowledge. We are awash in knowledge, and the super-information highway runs right to our laptop and personal computers at our side. We have a command of knowledge of © Grand Valley State University   �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the modern world, of the universe, of society, and of our own human being far surpassing the possibility of ever taking it in, and it's all right there at our fingertips. But, knowledge in itself is not the answer. Simply to describe what is doesn't deal with its meaning, its significance, those ultimate existential questions about whence have I come and whither am I going, and is this all there is, and what is the meaning of it all? Those are religious questions and they are of another sort than the knowledge that is the consequence of the use of the intellect, the rational processes of our mind. Someone just gave $350 million to MIT for the study of the brain. Wonderful! The brain is a great mystery and there's a tremendous amount of investigative focus on the brain. But, once we have come to be able to describe the brain fully, it's still not synonymous with understanding of that mental activity which is touched with Spirit which probes a deeper layer than that which is available to empirical investigation and research. We have knowledge aplenty. We can know the whole world, but the world is not enough, nor is the world that we can possess. Aren't you somewhat amazed at the wealth that is around today? The wealth that is everywhere, it seems, and even the least of us are among the wealthy of the world, and who of us has to deny ourselves very much in the way of creature comfort or pleasure or toys or globe-trotting to exotic places? We are bombarded, day by day, with the seduction of saying that one more trip or one more toy will make it all right. There was a study out last week that said 16 minutes and 43 seconds of every hour you watch television is given over to consumerism, making of us materialists, acquisitors. Robert Bellah, the American sociologist, wrote something that I jotted down the moment my eye fell on it, something to the effect that to secure happiness by material acquisition is denied by every religion and philosophy known to humankind, and yet it is preached on every American television set. Pleasure. Toys. Adventures. Wasn't that second chapter of Ecclesiastes taken as a script from our own contemporary life? The king who indulged himself without limits, denied himself nothing that his heart set itself upon, who ended up with his famous phrase, "Vanity, all is vanity," which has been translated also "Absurdity, all is absurdity," or emptiness, chasing the wind, because you can have it all and have nothing, because the world is not enough. The writer of the letter to Timothy says the same thing, warning those of us who are rich in this world not to be haughty or to set our hope on uncertain riches, but rather, on God. We find the same point being made in the Gospel lesson where one comes to Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute. Jesus declines and then tells a story about the farmer who prospered so greatly that he tore down his barns and built bigger ones, laying up enough store so he could relax and pursue his pleasure. © Grand Valley State University �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 3   If Jesus had been in Naples this winter, he might have spoken not of barns, but of homes with a view. All along South Gulf Shore Blvd., houses are being torn down in order to build great, palatial residences. Obvious prosperity is everywhere, yet I get the impression we are more driven, more frenzied and under greater stress than ever. My Sony stock took a big hike this week. It's wonderful. I thought of how much more I could give to Christ Community. Twenty-three points, I think, and I wondered why until on the world news last night I noticed that Play Station Two is coming out. I didn't know there was Play Station One. I hadn't gotten beyond my grandchildren's Gameboys, but apparently there was Play Station One and now coming out in Japan is Play Station Two. Thousands of people sat up all night in the bone-chilling cold in Japan in order to be in line to get one of the two million Play Stations available on opening day. Stores had signs that they were sold out before they could open the doors. There was a frenzy of activity, and I watched as the people were playing these things. They were absolutely out of this world, playing with such intensity. This is not just a game. I don't understand it, but it apparently is like having in the palm of your hand a connection to everything you'd ever want to be connected to in the whole world. They interviewed one young lady who had a smile on her face and said, "Oh, I just love it. I couldn't live without it." And all the Play Stations in the world won't fill the hole in the soul or give one a peaceful heart. The question of God won't go away, and in our day we have such possibilities, endless learning, limitless pleasure, toys galore, the whole world to travel, but the scriptures which are ancient sound like they were written yesterday when they remind us that a life not built on God is a life that will ultimately unravel and come apart. It used to be easier to preach about this kind of stuff. I don't do this very much. Probably because it's more difficult now because God isn't some super-human person just above the sky. God isn't some King Almighty who is turning the gears of the universe and pulling the strings of people. God is not that external deity that runs things and rules things. When God was that for me, I knew how to tell you how to please and appease that God. And, with a sermon like this, particularly if you just bought a new lot with a view and planned to tear down the house on it and build a new one, you'd go out of here with guilt so heavy it would probably take you another seven days to recover. The pulpit traditionally in the church has been wonderfully eloquent in the imposition of guilt, crabby about people who have done well, who are successful, who are having a good time in life. That's not the point. I don't quite know how to do it with a conception of God so radically altered, as it is for me, and I think for many of you. It's not to please or appease some external ruler who holds us accountable and is ready to call in our guilt, but, how do we live with a God that is not outside, but inside? How do we live in harmony with a God who is the © Grand Valley State University �The World Is Not Enough Richard A. Rhem Page 4   inexhaustible ground and source of all being, that creative Spirit within the process, this process, this cosmic process of 15 billion years that has been unfolding and developing and emerging, of which we are a part, out of which we have emerged, we who are the outposts of Spirit, as it were, we who have come to consciousness and awareness, who are the containers of Spirit, who allow Spirit voice, who are able to be conscious of the wonder of it all, the amazement of this whole fantastic drama, and we are a part of it? How do we live with a Godconsciousness of the God who is not threatening just beyond the blue, but who is part and parcel of the process itself within us, the Spirit that would come to expression through us? Isn't it a matter of becoming comfortable in our own skin? Isn't it a matter of being at home in the world? Isn't it to find delight in being a part of the whole, wonderful process? Knowledge isn't the problem; it's just not the answer. And wealth isn't the problem, except if we've set our heart on it. But, all things are ours to enjoy if we come to the consciousness of God who is, once again, the inexhaustible ground of all being, that present Spirit that energizes all and enlivens all, that God who calls us to know ourselves, and I wonder, finally, if I would come to know myself, would that be to know God? And I don't know how to tell you to do it; some of you would do it, perhaps, with me, in a class where we'd go at it in an intellectual fever. Some of you could better walk the Labyrinth with Toni. All of us need to pause now and again and hear the questions of our existence which are the questions that are the voice of God, to be still and know that God is God, and if God is God and I live in that awareness, then all will be well. All manner of things will be well. © 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 Epiphany IX Series The God Question Scripture Text Eclesiastes 2:11, I Timothy 6:17, Luke 12:21 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-0-20000305 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-03-05 Title A name given to the resource The World Is Not Enough 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 5, 2000 entitled "The World Is Not Enough", as part of the series "The God Question", on the occasion of Epiphany IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Eclesiastes 2:11, I Timothy 6:17, Luke 12:21. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives All Will Be Well Consciousness Presence of God https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/68158c2d211139fc4b0a00afa0c95a77.mp3 22bd478f84f024654a7c9be2aee2a7fd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0b68f5bbb811ab70d657be9a3e4ceadf.pdf d0da7183cd09ac8c106b294d4f17bd30 PDF Text Text The Challenge of the Modern World From the series: The God Question Text: Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10; Luke 4:18 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan February 27, 2000 Transcription of the spoken sermon Last week I began a brief series on the question of God, the question that will not go away, and this morning I want to say that God has gotten into trouble because of the explosion of knowledge in the modern world. It's not that God is in trouble, but the church has been in trouble, because the church has failed to understand the nature of its own religious life and quest, and has gotten into a futile battle with the advance of scientific knowledge and understanding of this world. The church has been in a futile and tragic, losing, intellectual battle with the march of modern knowledge for the last three hundred years. Even as we speak, the church in its evangelical and orthodox expression has not yet come to terms with acknowledging the place and the function of modern knowledge, that which is available to us through the scientific disciplines, the scientific method, through the empirical quest through verification experience. The church has still not acknowledged the legitimate place of the scientific endeavor and the knowledge that is gained through that method, and it has failed, obviously, also, in understanding what religion is all about and what its business is, for the business of the church or the business of religion is not to give us knowledge of the natural world. It is not to give us a map of the heavens or the anatomical structure of the human creature, or the emerging, developing cosmic drama, or the course of history. Religion is about the experience of God. Religion is about the experience of that other dimension of reality that is beyond time and space and touch and smell. Religion is about human experience of meaning. Religion addresses questions about "Who am I and why am I here and how should I live, and what is of value, and what brings quality to human existence?" The onslaught of knowledge in the modern world over three centuries has put the church in a defensive position, for we have failed in the church to understand that religions arose in response to the human awareness of being creatures, of being alone in this vast universe with all of its wonder and all of its threat. Out of the fear and vulnerability of the human creaturely condition, once the human creature came to awareness, to consciousness, self-consciousness, once the human creature came to a sense of him or herself over against the vast cosmic scheme of things, at that point these deep and profound existential questions © Grand Valley State University   �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 2   arose and the religions, as they took shape and form, were the response to the answers that now and again came to one here or there, some answer that seemed to resonate in others about the meaning of it all or where value lies or where quality can be found, some interpretive word about the Mystery that seems to bear us up and yet is always beyond our grasp and grip. That is the nature of the obtuse paragraph printed in the inside cover of your liturgy by the philosopher Santayana, one of America's great thinkers. In this paragraph (not particularly easy to comprehend; don't try to read it now, it will take about a dozen readings this afternoon, after which you will say, "Why did he have that printed?"), what Santayana was saying in that context was there are poets and philosophers and saints who now and again bring something to expression and we say, "There is divine grace and truth and beauty." And what they said as a human channel is the important thing. The fact that they were historical figures was not critical. In fact, what we do with the historical channels through whom have flowed truth and grace and beauty, like Shakespeare or Jesus, what we do with those historical figures is that we soon wrap them in myth and they become mythical heroes. Did George Washington ever tell a lie? Did he chop down the cherry tree, or was it the outhouse with his father in it, I'm not ever sure? But we have human channels who bring something to expression, something of truth and grace and beauty, and we say, "Aha." The person has had an epiphany, if you will. And through their expression of it, they create an epiphanic experience for others. A Buddha experiences an enlightenment, a Jesus grasps the essence of what the Hebrew prophets were speaking about. And then we wrap those historical figures into mythical wraps and garments because they become symbols of that grace and truth and beauty which came to expression through them. I read from Isaiah where the prophet appeals to the Jews in exile to remember Yahweh their God, the God who says, "Before me every knee will bow and every tongue will confess." Then I went over and read from Philippians 2 where Paul is dealing with a congregation much like you and saying to that congregation, "I so wish you could get together, particularly you ladies. Stop all of that fracas. In fact, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." And then the humility of Jesus, the mind of Christ demonstrated in that descent from the glory of the Father through death and exaltation to the point at which what Isaiah said of God, that every knee will bow and every tongue confess, Paul now says is true of Jesus, the risen, ascended one at the right hand of God. This one, before this one every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to the glory of God. The passage is about an ethical matter. It's about the concrete way to live in a congregation. The illustration is the humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus. Well, of course, we got all wrapped up with christological discussions about who Jesus was, divine, human, pre-existent, present, exaltation, coming again - all of that made great fodder for theological discussion. What was missed was Paul's point and that is that people ought to get along together, following the example of Jesus in his historical, earthly sojourn here. But, what was Paul trying to say? Paul was trying © Grand Valley State University �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 3   to say that what did come to expression in that one was light and grace and truth that was reflective of none other than the eternal creator of all, the eternal God. The historical channel becomes the mythical hero who symbolizes the values and the qualities that are being advocated as the way to live, as the path to follow. That's what religion is all about. And what is dead in religion is religious content that refers to the nature of the world, to the factual description of reality which is the domain of the sciences, and the conflict between science and religion has been the fact that the church has failed to recognize that its domain is a domain of mystery, that what it is concerned about is the human question, "Who am I? What does it all mean? Whither am I going?" Not the date of creation or the nature of how everything has evolved and developed. The nature of religion has not really to do with the philosophical concepts like the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, how history will end, whether Jesus will come again. All of these things that have divided the church, caused people to argue and fight, exclude one another and excommunicate one another. Sigmund Freud, who perhaps I could use as a symbol for modern knowledge, who was certainly one of the giants of human thought, who died earlier in the last century, beginning his work in the previous century, spoke of himself as an aggressive atheist. He would have affirmed the Death of God theologians who, in the sixties, were the subject of the Time magazine discussion about the death of God. Sigmund Freud believed that the sciences and religion were mortal enemies. I re-read again his fascinating little tract, "The Future of an Illusion," where he recognized quite correctly the origin of religion in that human consciousness and awareness of helplessness and aloneness in the vastness of this mysterious and threatening cosmos, and he recognized how the myths and the rituals were created in order to respond to that mystery, in order to come to terms with that reality, in order to be at one or at peace with whatever God may be. But Sigmund Freud, coming at the end of three centuries of the explosion of modern knowledge, was simply convinced that they had to get rid of religion in order to let science emerge and the human race mature. He was quite blunt about it. Well, in the middle of this past century, as I said, the theologians were talking about the death of God, and here we are at the beginning of the third millennium, and God is alive and well. But, God is alive and well still by those who are fighting a rear guard action. The fundamentalist response in the respective religions is an attempt to beat down and defeat the modern knowledge that is as obvious as the hand in front of me. Fundamentalism, with all of its present strength and vitality, cannot possibly have the last word. But what Sigmund Freud didn't understand is that the function of religion and the religious quest and the ubiquity of the spiritual quest is the consequence, not of needing knowledge about the natural world, but coming to some understanding of who we human creatures are in the vast scheme of things. Freud said very clearly we could do away with religion, we could have the human © Grand Valley State University �The Challenge of the Modern Age Richard A. Rhem Page 4   person live out of intellect by reason, and it would bring about liberation and maturity. He was wrong, as subsequent decades have demonstrated. We can think all day long, we can exercise our mental powers, we can acknowledge all of the knowledge that is available from all of the sciences, we can gather all of the data as accurately as possible, and what an explosion of knowledge, and what is available to us in our day, it's absolutely amazing. It's wonderful! But, once we have a handle on all of that and, of course, who can get a handle on all of that, but once we have, there remains the question, "Who am I? And what is the mystery that grounds my existence? What am I called to be? How should I live? Is this all there is? Is there anything more? What is of value? What are the qualities that are important?" Those are religious questions and those questions will not go away in the wake of the explosion of knowledge of the natural world, of the planetary system or the biological makeup of the human creature. Those are questions of meaning and those press in upon us as strongly today as ever they did in the dawning of the first awareness of the creature that we would call human. Your religion isn't "true," nor is it "false." True and false don't apply to religion. Religion is about quality and value. Why we fight about facts, I don't know. We are together on a journey in community before life's ultimate questions in the face of mystery, trying to find our way together. The Buddha has an illumination and that light shines on a vast community. Socrates comes along and says, "Know thyself." Jesus suggests we should love our enemies. Now and again a human channel becomes the conduit for divine grace and beauty and truth, and then we catch it and say, "Ah! There it is! I can live with that. I can rest in that. I can live fully, fully alive with a sense of well-being and peace and harmony with all that is about me and with those who are about me, from what I see about the nature of things in the contours of the face of Jesus." You see, he's our story. He's our window. There's not a lot of factual stuff that makes a great deal of difference. Unfortunately, the Bible is full of superstition and error, the reflection of the writers of the day and the culture in which it arose becomes a battleground for people trying to prove that all of its factual claims of science and history, and so on, are actually true. They are not true. They are simply the garments in which the respective channels gave witness to the truth and grace and beauty that was flowing through them, emanating from that mystery that grounds us all and embraces us all and overshadows us all, and as we make our way together, we share with each other and eventually, hopefully, we find our way to a place of peace, having experienced the mystery that is always beyond us, that is always pressing in upon us, and we rest our case, blessing the scientists and falling to our knees. © 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 Epiphany VIII Series The God Question Scripture Text Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10, Luke 4:18 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-0-20000227 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000-02-27 Title A name given to the resource The Challenge of the Modern World 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 February 27, 2000 entitled "The Challenge of the Modern World", as part of the series "The God Question", on the occasion of Epiphany VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:10, Luke 4:18. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Meaning Mystery Nature of Religion