29 24 1045 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a70a19c8032dc56d2025f16ea3cb1b92.pdf 37ad02a018d808b5da4ba77c17392f9f PDF Text Text Faith-Full Generations Text: Psalm 78:5-7; II Timothy 1:5 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XV, September 20, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon … which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God … Psalm 78:5-7 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you. II Timothy 1:5 Well, there’s a new Miss America, I think. I was busy last night and didn’t check in but it was supposed to happen. And if that was supposed to happen, then it must be a new church year and time to get church school started. It’s time for that annual sermon on engaging in the life of the community of faith. It’s time for that annual pep rally. One of the things that I don’t want to do, ever, is to make the pulpit a place for a pep rally and the sermon a promotional piece. It’s too important a time, an encounter, to let it become simply a time for banner waving. As I was reflecting on this morning in our life, I know that we are at that point again when the “menu” is before you. The smorgasbord is being spread. But, rather than slipping into the temptation, into which the Church so often slips, of becoming an institution characterized by the tyranny of “the ought, the must and the should” – It is so easy to talk about all of the wonderful things that are out there, to say that you “ought to do this, you really should do that, and you simply must do something else,” I wonder if long-time Christian people generally bend their backs just a little bit as they enter the sanctuary, waiting for one more burden to be laid on them – this morning let me put a little different twist on this day and say, “I celebrate you. I am grateful for you as a congregation. I’m thankful that you show up.” Didn’t the now famous Woody Allen say that 90% of success in life is just showing up? Well, I’m glad that you show up. And you keep coming back. And in the diversity and the multiplicity of the offerings of the life of this community you will be there – some of you here, some of you there, as this community moves © Grand Valley State University   �Faith-Full Generations Richard A. Rhem Page 2   into full gear and I am thankful for you. You are a marvelous congregation, and I say that in all sincerity. I don’t really need to cajole you, to coerce you, to persuade you. I can celebrate you! I think that is a thing that has characterized Christ Community, and at least in part is what has made this an alternative to church as usual. You show up. You find that which strikes fire in your soul and meets the need of your heart, and together we are a community of faith. I’m really grateful for that. A community of faith. A community. There’s a connectedness here. Brothers and sisters. Pilgrims in passage. Together. We’re not alone. We’re not in isolation. We move together toward a shared vision and hope. We support one another, and as we move together we are able to draw strength and encouragement from one another. We are a community. I’m very grateful to be a part of this community, this community of faith, a common faith, a shared confidence that God is, that God is good, that God is gracious. We keep coming back here together to have that reinforced in our lives, to let it wash over us once again. We live together in that faith, in the God who will never abandon us. I celebrate you. A person who lives a long distance from here and is on our mailing list called me last night and congratulated me. He had opened his mail and saw “Joining God’s Agenda,” and he said, “Dick you are doing a wonderful job.” And I had to say, “I have surrounded myself with some wonderful people.” There is a level of creativity and commitment here that is second to none. Colette said to me this week (in the intensity of getting ready for this morning, you’d have to be around here to sense that intensity, the hours day in and day out getting ready for today), “I am surrounded by strong individuals and there is not a follower among them.” You know what it is to be a leader when you don’t have any followers, but a whole host of leaders? Have you ever tried to lead leaders? Well, it’s challenging, and it’s exhilarating. That’s what you are. You are a gifted, creative, committed, talented group of people, and I am grateful for this community and for the privilege that is mine to be in a position of leadership in the midst of you who are so bright and engaged and involved, and strong in your own right. It is a wonderful thing. In the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, which is one of the great churches of the land (I’ve gone there of late when I have been in New York City because of an outstanding preacher, Dr. Morris Boyd, who has been there about five years), I became aware in the last year of some tension that was growing between Dr. Boyd and the leadership of the congregation through my friend, Ernie Campbell, who was close to the situation and had gotten some inside sense of what was going on there. Unfortunately, in the spring of this year, Dr. Boyd resigned. Last Sunday the Interim Pastor was there for the first time in this fine congregation. The announcement was made in the bulletin that there was a copy of the Mission Statement that had just been prepared for those who would like to avail themselves of it. So following the service I made my way to the reception desk and asked for one as though I was interested as a member of that congregation. But really I wanted to take it home, because for the last couple of years we’ve © Grand Valley State University �Faith-Full Generations Richard A. Rhem Page 3   been working on a mission statement, and I thought it would be good to see what this fine congregation has come up with. Quite a document. I thought I’d read it to you this morning! (Laughter as he holds up that document!) But at least this might be important to hear. There will probably never be agreement about the circumstances that led to Dr. Boyd’s resignation and early departure, but all agree that this was a wrenching experience for the entire congregation, “leaving deep wounds and division which cry out for the reconciling presence of Christ our Lord.” And then a paragraph about the different priorities and envisions of action in the congregation, “as the church turns to the task of seeking a new pastor, it must do so with the sobriety and grace of a congregation that has learned that the bonds of trust and mutual connectedness are fragile. That words spoken carelessly or in anger cannot be withdrawn, but can be forgiven. That the certainty in the rightness of one’s own position does not exclude mutual respect. That love and commitment are acts of will rather than fleeting emotions. The congregation must now have the strength to see through its anger and conflict as it recognizes that people of good will can differ yet join together in a common ministry.” That’s quite a candid statement. I apologize to the Session of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church for hanging out their dirty laundry in public. It is a great church, and it has a great tradition. It has just experienced some very painful brokenness. Their statement says to me, number one, I’m very lucky. Number two: let’s never take this community and our relationship with each other for granted. You are a marvelous congregation. Gifted. Creative. Full of leadership. I am constantly amazed when someone else emerges out of the woodwork, of whom I was not aware, bringing tremendous gifts to the community and to our life together. It is a delight. I celebrate you. Today I delight in you. I give thanks for you. And we must never presume upon you or take you for granted. Because as the report says, those bonds of connectedness are fragile and they need always to be nurtured as we live together in this community of faith. But, what are we all about? Well, we are all about “telling a story with a meaning.” That’s the translation of Psalm 78, verse 2. That’s the New English Translation. In the version that I read a moment ago it says, “I will speak in a parable.” The Hebrew word speaks of parable or proverb, but the New English Translation I love. The Psalmist says, “I will tell a story with a meaning,” and that’s really what we are about. We keep telling the story and listening for the nuances of its meaning, meanings that continue to deepen and to take on new color as we move through the pilgrimage of life. We are about “telling a story with a meaning.” That’s what we are engaged in right now. Part of a living tradition of faith that stretches back into Israel, finds centrality in Jesus Christ and has moved on through two thousand years of Christian history. We are a people, a community of faith, who live out of that story, out of that faith vision. And we keep telling that story. © Grand Valley State University �Faith-Full Generations Richard A. Rhem Page 4   I keep connecting what I do on Sunday morning with this storybook. Our children left us, but they have left us in order to hear stories, Bible stories, stories that have a meaning. A meaning that says God is, that God has created all things, that God is good and full of grace, that God will never abandon them because God is unconditional love. That’s what we need constantly to be telling. We tell the stories because they have a meaning and the meaning bespeaks Grace and Love in all of the respective stories of this story of God’s love and grace. In order that as a community of God’s people we may baptize our children here with confidence, and that we may bury our dead here with confidence because there has been laid in the fabric of our lives a deep fundamental trust. Fundamental trust. That’s a kind of a catchword, a slogan, the jargon which the leaders of child and human development have coined to express a posture of life. Not trust in this and that and another thing, but just trust. And we know from child development studies that the most critical thing we can do for the infant is to secure the infant in trust. To surround the infant with the warmth and stability and security that translates in their early days as the foundation on which they can rest. We know from concrete studies that it is so critical that a child learns to trust. Not, again, in terms of trusting that this is true and that is true, and that is true, but being able to trust. There are people and they are human tragedies who have never been able to trust, to let go, to take their hands off the controls, to entrust themselves to another. One nurtured in a safe environment learns to trust, and it is fundamental trust that we are seeking to instill in our children, our adolescents. The Psalmist understood clearly that this was Israel’s way. This is why the Jewish people are still a people four thousand years later, because they have continued to tell the story that had a meaning, the meaning of which was God, the creator of all, is good. That reality can be trusted. God will never abandon God’s children. And so the Psalmist in Psalm 78 recites the history of God’s people, because it is in their concrete history that Israel experienced God with them, for them. He says in the 5th verse, “God established a decree in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our ancestry to teach their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God.” Isn’t that a marvelous text? Isn’t that what we are about? Isn’t that why we go through all of the effort to nurture our children? That, finally, with us they may set their hope in God. But it isn’t always the children. You keep coming back too. You’ve heard so many sermons I couldn’t think up a new one for you. And I’ve been here so long I couldn’t possibly have a new thought. But we don’t come here to get more information. We don’t come here in order to know more things. One of the finest books on preaching that I know of, by a Dutch scholar, speaks about fundamental trust. He points out that preaching really is that weekly occasion in which the people come to be renewed in their fundamental trust. Just © Grand Valley State University �Faith-Full Generations Richard A. Rhem Page 5   to have it wash over us again. You don’t come here really week after week to gain some new insight, some new piece of knowledge. You come here again to be together in the presence of God, and in hymns and prayers and liturgy, and anthems and sound of the organ, and the Word of preaching. Simply to know again in your depths God is. God is good. God is full of grace, and God will never abandon God’s children. God will finally bring us home. Why, my goodness folks, if in your depths that is your confidence, then there is nothing you cannot negotiate in the passages of life. We in the church often know too many things. We get too excited about matters of doctrine or theological correctness. That’s not what it’s all about. We know too much. We know far more than we ought to bother our heads about. What it’s about is Trust - in God - the baptismal font - the Lord’s Table – the candle lighted for our final passage. We are kept in the grip of love by the gracious God who will bring us home. That’s what happened to Timothy. Paul writes to his child in the faith, longing to see him, and then encourages Timothy, reminding him that he stands in the third generation of faith-full living: the faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Paul says, “the faith that lives in you too, Timothy, I am sure.” It wasn’t exactly an ideal situation: Lois and Eunice; I wonder where Timothy’s father was? Maybe he was dead. Maybe he abandoned them. One thing sure, he was alive when Timothy was born because Timothy, the child of a Jewish mother and a Jewish grandmother, was never circumcised. I’ll bet Lois and Eunice had some words. I’ll bet Lois was really upset with Eunice for falling in love with a Gentile. I’ll bet they really scrapped. I’ll bet you could have cut the tension with a fork. But somehow or other they got together, grandmother and mother. Poor Timothy didn’t have a chance. They nurtured him in the faith to the point at which, when Paul came telling the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, Timothy was ready to take on the mantle of ministry himself. Paul says to him, “Timothy, my son, you have not been baptized with the spirit of timidity and fear, but of power and love and self-discipline.” And that’s really what I would pray for all of you. So often religion appeals to the weakness in us. I would hope at Christ Community we might always appeal to your strength, to the center of your being. To call you in your strength, in your giftedness, in your creativity to serve God with all your heart, to follow your bliss, to do that which strikes fire in your soul to be alive. There’s no party line at Christ Community. Once we have laid that foundation of fundamental trust that God is - that God is Good - that God is full of Grace - that God will never abandon us -that God will bring us home…once we’ve affirmed that and constantly renew that, well, you’re on your own. You’re not sheep. You have not a spirit of timidity and fear, but a spirit of love and selfdiscipline. I don’t ever want to hear you say, “Well, at Christ Community we don’t believe that, or at Christ Community we believe that. Christ Community has no party © Grand Valley State University �Faith-Full Generations Richard A. Rhem Page 6   line. I call you to maturity. To be able to stand on your own two feet. To be able to say, “This I believe.” To stand in your own concrete truth, mature in faith. I am not going to urge you to grow. What’s alive grows! And our pilgrimage takes us through so many different experiences - sometimes it’s on the mountaintop and sometimes it’s in the darkness of the deepest valley but, in it all, where we are rooted and grounded in the good and gracious God, we will be able to negotiate the passages. Not alone, but finally being able to say, “This is who I am. This is what I believe, and my belief is being translated into my life.” And we are here to help you to come to that kind of wholeness and maturity and strength and power and love so that finally, whether you are on the left end of the spectrum or the right end of the spectrum, or whether you waffle in the middle somewhere, it doesn’t matter. Whether you dot your i’s and cross your t’s, or whether you spice life with a little heresy, I don’t care. All I want you to be able to do finally is to be able to say with a Paul, “I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.” To say with sobriety and grace, and with power and strength. To be able to say, “I know, I am persuaded, I am alright.” That’s what we are all about. I celebrate you. You are a great community of people. I thank God for 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 Pentecost XV Scripture Text Psalm 78: 5-7, II Timothy 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-0-19920920 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-09-20 Title A name given to the resource Faith-Full Generations Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 20, 1992 entitled "Faith-Full Generations", on the occasion of Pentecost XV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 78: 5-7, II Timothy 1:5. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Bible Community of Faith Meaning Nature of Faith Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d48209a6f8683ca668ed43fa9b6e58a7.mp3 4fd6f1ebc5df1bbdefdecc63a28d8878 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0ba5393081407615a0b05709aee3b03a.pdf a84af30dbf60d8a6c40d08e312ddb825 PDF Text Text All is Grace From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Psalm 130:3-4; Luke 18:13-14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XIII, September 6, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon If you, O Lord, should mark inequities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. Psalm 130:3-4 God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you this man went down to his hour justified … All who humble themselves will be exalted. Luke 18:13-14 I had an interesting week this past week. I received a sweatshirt with a cartoon on the front that had a dog, a Dalmatian, preaching, saying “Bad, Bad, Dog.” The dogs (Dalmatians) were lined in the pews and underneath it said, “Hell, Fire and Dalmatians.” (Laughter) I got a good laugh out of that and some warmth as well! I received some interesting letters, and notes too, very nice ones about last week’s sermon. Thank you for those. I received a pew card too. It raised a question about the mercy of God about which I spoke. The question was about the mercy of God in regard, for example, to a Hitler or to a Saddam Hussein (to update it a little bit). That question always arises when you talk about mercy in God, or sin in us. I would have thought perhaps that the paragraph in the bulletin by Carlyle Marney might have forestalled such a question. If you remember, he said: Man is the most dangerous and savage of the beasts: His bite is poisonous; his hand is a club; his foot is a weapon; knives, clubs, spears are projectiles to bear his hostility. Nothing in nature is so well equipped for hating or hurting. Confuse him and he may lash out at everything. Crowd him and he kills, robs, and destroys, for his crime rate increases in proportion to his crowding. Deprive him and he retaliates. Impoverish him and he burns villas in the night. Enslave him and he revolts. Pamper him and he may poison you. Hire him and he may hate both you and the work. Love him too possessively and he is never weaned. Deny him too early and he never learns to love. Put him in cities and all his animal nature comes out with perversions of every good thing. For greed, acquisitiveness, violence were © Grand Valley State University   �All is Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   so long his tools for jungle survival, that it is only by the hardest [effort] that these can be laid aside as weapons of his continued survival. Now, if we worry about a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein, our first problem is that we haven’t scratched ourselves - you see? Because, if you scratch yourself a little bit, you find most of the stuff there that is operative in Saddam Hussein. That’s a tough word to hear. But it’s true. Did you happen to catch 20 Minutes last week? They aired one of the most gripping segments I have ever seen. A Jewish psychiatrist, 50 years after the Holocaust and the horror of that Nazi Death March of the Jewish people, brought the children of some of Hitler’s henchmen together to talk for the first time since the end of the war. The children of the Nazi leaders, people now in their 60s, 70s were gathered to speak of their feelings and memories – the son, for example, of Martin Boermann and some other persons whose names I didn’t recognize. It was very moving. Martin Boermann’s son was I think a lad of 8 or 9, or maybe 14, when he had to come to terms with the fact that his father was a monster. Well, not a monster, but a human being who could sing hymns as well as organize the Death Camps. The son of Boermann converted to the Catholic faith and became a priest. I suppose he is living out his life as an atonement. There was a woman, I don’t know her name, who was moved to weep as she spoke of her fear that there might be something in her own genetic makeup that would emerge of the awful monstrousness that emerged in her father. Here they were 40-50 years later, human beings like you and me, sensitive human beings, feeling all the weight of that past. It is a tough word to receive that God has mercy even for the Hitler’s and Saddam Hussein’s. Just ask Jonah. Saddam Hussein is not the only person who has persecuted God’s people. There was the King of Nineveh, that gravely wicked city! Next to Nineveh, New York City is the jolly Big Apple. God saw the wickedness in Nineveh. Don’t get me wrong. It is not that there are not terrible, evil deeds perpetrated by the likes of us and by our brothers and sisters. God doesn’t like it. So sometimes God sends a preacher. He said to Jonah, “Things are rotten in Nineveh - go preach. Tell them to repent. Tell them that I, the Judge of all the earth, demand that they turn around in their tracks.” Nineveh was east. Jonah hopped a boat west. He didn’t want any of that preaching to Nineveh, because Nineveh was the enemy. The King of Nineveh the capital of Assyria, the oppressor of Israel, the decimator of the North Kingdom, the enemy, the adversary on the horizon. Let Nineveh go to hell! Nineveh conjuring up judgment for itself. “Ah-h-h, I can hardly wait,” says Jonah. God says, “Go preach to Nineveh.” Jonah says, “No way. I know you. I’ll preach. They’ll heed. They’ll repent, and you will forgive. No way!” So off to Tarshish he goes, in the direction of Spain. A little Mediterranean cruise, if you please. But, of course, the Lord God was not to be outfoxed by the likes of Jonah, and so God blew (phew) a little bit of wind. The sea turned. A shipwreck was imminent. All the sailors began to pray to their gods. The captain found © Grand Valley State University �All is Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Jonah down in the hold of the ship asleep, drugged on his own anger and hostility. He said, “Hey man, get up and pray, if ever you’ve prayed. The situation is desperate!” And then they cast lots to see who might be the cause of this storm, and sure enough it fell to Jonah and Jonah said, “Yup, it’s me. It’s me. I am running from God.” And they said, “What should we do?” And he said, “Toss me over.” And they did. And the sea calmed - and all was fine. Jonah, going down into the depths, got swallowed in the belly of a whale. And there, amidst the digestion juices of the big fish, he had a little time to contemplate the call of God. Then God, feeling perhaps the prophet had finally gotten the point, God tickled the belly of the fish and he burped Jonah up on dry land, safe and sound, and said, “Would you like to go to Nineveh?” (Laughter) And to Nineveh he went. And he preached. And it was just as he said. They heeded. They repented. God forgave. And Jonah was so angry. God said, “Do you do well to be angry, Jonah?” “Yes, I do well! I knew what would happen. You are so soft. You are just a teddy bear. Just let people give a little inkling that they are turning to you, and you just open up your arms. Yes. And it makes me very angry!” So he went off and found the Pacific Palisades hotel, which overlooked the city. He thought he would see what was going to happen. Perched on a hillside, he built himself a little booth for shelter (it was a hot climate). God looked down and said, “Plant. Grow-big-fast.” The plant towered over the booth with shade. Jonah was happy as a lark. He thought he was poolside. The next morning God says, “Worm, eat the plant.” The plant dies. The sun beats down, mercilessly. Jonah can hardly stand it. God says, “Good morning Jonah. You’re angry. Do you do well to be angry?” “Yes, I’m angry!” says Jonah. God replies, “Jonah, you’re angry because a plant that you didn’t plant, didn’t nurture, grew up overnight and withered in a night. Jonah, how do you think I feel about the hundred and twenty thousand people in Nineveh, to say nothing of the cattle?” Now the parable of Jonah was told in the Post Exilic period after Judah came back from Babylon, came back from its exile experience. It was during this time that the Pharisaic Movement began - the separated ones who began to gather their skirts around them in righteousness. They punctiliously followed the law, the rituals, said their prayers, did everything that they were supposed to do as recorded in the prayer of the Pharisee of last week’s sermon. The righteous ones. The good ones. The serious ones. And as that society developed in a kind of narrow meanness of heart and spirit, somebody told the parable of Jonah. They told it in order to remind Israel, in its exclusiveness and narrowness, its nationalism which translated also into a kind of particularism of religion - God is bigger than that. God has mercy on all people. But Pharisaical particularism had become a dominant view in Jesus’ day, so it was to that group Jesus had to constantly defend himself. It was to that group that he had to vindicate the Gospel he proclaimed, as well as the behavior of his life. It was to the murmurers and the grumblers that Jesus had to constantly defend the fact that he received © Grand Valley State University �All is Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   all sorts of people. In his home synagogue in Nazareth he gave an inaugural sermon. They almost killed him because he indicated that the Grace of God was broader than the limits of Judaism. Jesus reflects that word of God, as shown in the parable of Jonah. It is in that context that he tells a story of a man who owned a vineyard, who went at 6 o’clock in the morning to the labor union office to find who was eligible for the day. He negotiated a contract with a bunch of workers and sent them out into the field. Twelve hours a denarius. “Is it a deal?” “It’s a deal.” Such a deal! Full day’s work full day’s pay. Honest wage for honest work. Everything fair and square. At about 9 o’clock in the morning on the way to coffee he saw a few more standing idle there and he said, “What are you guys doing?” And they said, “Well, we’re available.” “Well,” he said, “get into the field and I’ll make it right with you.” No written contract negotiation, no wage established. Just “I’ll do right by you.” At 12 o’clock the same thing. At 3 o’clock the same thing. At about 5 o’clock he was making his last pass and he saw a few more still standing there and he said, “Where have you guys been?” They said, “Well, the time before when you came we were in the ‘john’.” (Laughter) They didn’t say that, but they probably were, because they really didn’t want to work, they wanted to be able to go home to their wife and say, “There was no work today.” He said, “Get into the field.” So they worked for an hour and, when it came time to dole out the pay for the day, those who worked for an hour got a full day’s wage, and so did those who came at 3 o’clock, 12 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 6 o’clock. And those who were hired at 6 am and had worked a whole day and had worked under the sweat of the noontime heat, when they got the same wage as those who came at 5 pm, they were angry. Wouldn’t you have been angry? Be honest now, wouldn’t you have been angry? Every normal human instinct in you should rise up and say, “That’s not fair. That’s not just.” And that’s true. The owner of the vineyard said, “Look. Did we negotiate? Have I lived up to the contract? “Well, yes but. . .” “Am I not able to do what I wish with what is mine? Do you begrudge me my generosity? The anger that you are feeling is the anger that Jonah felt when wicked Nineveh repented and found Grace.” What is the image of God in this story of Jesus? Let me suggest this to you, that God is a promiscuous Lover. Do you know the word promiscuous? I didn’t say are you? I said do you know the word? (You should have laughed a little bit!) (Laughter) The word is usually identified with those of somewhat less than moral scruples. Do you know what the word means? Its root is in Latin. Miscere which is to mix or mingle. Promiscuous is to mix or mingle indiscriminately. That was the charge against the vineyard owner. That’s what makes people angry about God. God does not discriminate. God is indiscriminate. In the bestowal of God’s gifts, God’s Mercy, God’s Love, God’s Grace flows indiscriminately, mixing and mingling, with those who have some claim upon it, and those who have no claim upon it. God does not distinguish in the way we do, between those who are © Grand Valley State University �All is Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 5   worthy and worthless. Valuable and valueless. Good and evil. Black and white. With God there aren’t good guys and bad guys. God is promiscuous. And this made a Jonah angry. It made the religious leaders in Jesus’ day angry. And it still makes the church today angry. Listen to an interesting twist on the story told by Jesus. This is a true story recorded in the Jerusalem Talmud in about the year 350 A.D. Thus it is later than Jesus’ story, and so probably either working off the same story that perhaps had general circulation, or maybe an actual twisting of the same story of the vineyard owner. A rabbi, aged twenty-eight, died. He died on the day that his son was born. He was a very worthy rabbi. And so the rabbi’s colleagues gathered for his funeral. One of his colleagues gave the funeral oration, in which he told this similar story. Similar but with a twist. He said there was a householder who went out and engaged laborers for the day. As he observed their labor he saw one man that was tremendously industrious, competent, capable and fruitful. And after two hours of work, he went to that man and he said, “Come with me. Let us walk and talk today.” And so for the rest of the day they carried on conversation, walking and enjoying one another. It came the end of the day and the time for the pay, and the man who had walked with the master all day long after working only two hours got the same pay as those who labored all day. Those who had labored said, “Why should he get a full day’s pay, he only worked two hours?” And the householder said, “Because he did more in two hours than the rest of you did all day long.” In the funeral oration the rabbi said, “God took our young brother early because he was more fruitful in his short life than many gray-haired scholars who live a whole lifetime.” Now do you catch the twist? Do you see how the rabbi turned Jesus’ story on its head? In Jesus’ story the ones who went to work at 5 o’clock received a full day’s wage. And there was absolutely no justification for it. It shattered all conception of reason and justice and fairness. When the rabbi told the story about his brother, he had said, “Maybe God took him young, but it was because he was so worthy.” There are only two options, two worlds described in those two stories. In Jesus’ story, it is a world of promiscuous love, grace and mercy on behalf of a God who does not seek to justify such promiscuous ways. In the rabbi’s story there is perfect justification because the reward follows the merit. In the story of Jesus, God is a God of promiscuous mercy, grace and love who refuses to justify these ways, who simply says to those who complain, to those who are angry, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” And if we would be honest we would say, “Yes. Yes, God we begrudge your generosity. We don’t like that about you, and we don’t like a world that is run that way.” © Grand Valley State University �All is Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Let me twist the knife one more time. Jesus told the story to vindicate the Gospel over against the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders of the day. But, by the time the Gospel of Matthew was written, we’ve moved two or three decades down the line, and those Gospel writers wrote and selected their stories for a reason. What they wanted to do was not simply tell this story about something that happened back there. They wanted to speak to the Church to whom they were writing. Now the story in Matthew’s Gospel is addressed not to the Pharisees; it’s addressed to the Church. It’s so easy for us to read our Bibles and say, “Oh those bad Pharisees,” and, “Ah, give it to them Jesus!” Oh no. Jesus had to tell the Pharisees. Matthew had to tell the Church. And I have to tell the church. I’ve got to tell you. If you have heard this story, you don’t like it. If you heard this story you can understand Jonah’s anger. Because this story says that God does not play fair. And the straighter you are, the more righteous you are, the more serious you are, the more industrious you are, the more you will be offended by God’s promiscuity. You simply won’t take it sitting down. This matter is so important because it is our image of God that influences our behavior. It is our image of God that shapes our spirit. And if our image of God is not the image of Jesus, then we are going to be reflecting something quite foreign to the Jesus whom we claim to follow. Shall I make it concrete for you? Let me give a contemporary example. Now I’m not a politician. I could never make it. But if I were a politician, and if I were a Republican, I would be extremely nervous about the inroads that the religious right is making into the Republican Party. Here is a paradox for you. It is fundamentalist Christian people that are influencing a political party and that are making a political party mean-spirited and divisive. It is Christian people. If I were a politician, and if I were a Republican, I would tremble before the prospect of Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan setting the agenda for my party. If I allowed them to set the agenda, to take over, then the party of Abraham Lincoln would be no more. The spirit that they are spewing out is the spirit of Jonah, who gets very angry with all of the sinners out there and wants to draw nice clean lines between those who are worthy and those who are not, those who are right and those who are wrong. They would be terribly offended at a God that could be promiscuously gracious - across the board. Now - I’ve said it. Do you do well to be angry? © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XIII Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Jonah 4:2, 4, 11, Matthew 20: 15-16 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-0-19920906 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-09-06 Title A name given to the resource All is Grace Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 6, 1992 entitled "All is Grace", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost XIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Jonah 4:2, 4, 11, Matthew 20: 15-16. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness God of Grace Jonah Sin Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/86dafa1e6f64f141ac3ecc6123625878.mp3 ef978fbad5dc87cf041d144443e9141e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4b30db162876bbff8328bc60c959fe51.pdf b5ee4e540bcdf19b9ba81ec91a139e75 PDF Text Text God’s Mercy For the Asking From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Psalm 130:3-4; Luke 18:13-14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XII, August 30, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon If you, O Lord, should mark inequities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. Psalm 130: 3-4 God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you this man went down to his hour justified …. All who humble themselves will be exalted. Luke 18:13-14 There is more mercy in God than sin in us! There is more mercy in God than there is sin in us! I think I will have you say it with me: There is more mercy in God than sin in us! End of the sermon. Let’s receive the offering and go home. (Charlie, that was not the time to applaud.) O.K. I’ll say amen . If I could send you home this morning with that thought indelibly written on your psyche, imprinted deep into the depths of your being, it would be worth the offering. It would not be a Sunday morning spent in vain. There is more mercy in God than there is sin in us. I hope that doesn’t disappoint you. That happens to be a favorite statement of one of my favorite preachers. It is true and it is Good News, and it is something that ought to set our feet to dancing. It is something, I’m afraid, that has not come through clearly enough often enough. We talk about Gospel, which means Good News. That is the message of the church. I am sorry that the church has been identified by so many, though perhaps justifiably so, as a place not of good news but a place of bad news, a place of gloom and doom, of a kind of repent or perish syndrome that casts a shroud over the human experience. For as a matter of fact the truth of the Gospel is that there is more mercy in God than sin in us and, therefore, we are invited to place our hope in God - not in our past achievements, not in our future prospects, but in God. Our hope alone can be in God. Psalm 130, a poignant prayer, a scream, a primal scream from the depths: “Lord hear my cry,” is a straightforward statement full of candor about one person’s experience of the human condition. “Oh Lord, if you should track my record, I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.” Or, in more biblical nuance, “Lord, if thou should mark iniquity, Lord, who could stand?” But then we read an expression of © Grand Valley State University   �God’s Mercy For the Asking Richard A. Rhem Page 2   the faith of Israel at its very best: “But with thee there is forgiveness.” Doesn’t that move you? Oh there are many times, I know, when one can hear that and not be moved by it because one’s existential situation at the time has not overwhelmed one with one’s own flawed, frail, human situation, but there are times . . . Aren’t there times? Have you had times when the words of a Psalmist were music to your ears and gave you just the words you needed from the heart to say, “Oh Lord, out of the depths I cry to you. Lord, hear my cry. Oh Lord, if you should mark iniquities who could stand?” But there is forgiveness for you. The Psalmist believed that there was more mercy in God than there was sin in him and, therefore, despairing of himself, he trusted God. But not all in Israel followed in his example and took him as a model. There were those in the days of Jesus who trusted in themselves, believed that they were righteous, and despised others. Those two things often go together. Trust yourself that you are righteous and check yourself. Very often the other side of the coin is the despising of others, a contempt for other humankind. But Jesus, in order to crack that armor, in order to break through to those who trusted in themselves, told this parable, a parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. The parable is very familiar. Just a brief little vignette that makes a powerful point that there are really only two kinds of people in the world - those who go it alone and those who trust in God. So the Pharisee came into the temple and began to pray a prayer of thanksgiving to be sure, but really a prayer of praise of his own virtue, reminding God of all the good things that the Pharisee had done. Now, as I have said in these last two or three weeks, the Pharisees do get a bum rap in the New Testament. They get a bum rap because they were the over/against people. They were the critics of Jesus. They were the established religious authorities who were being threatened by what Jesus was proclaiming, but they were good people. They were the best people in town. I don’t put much stock by their fasting, but I certainly do like the fact that they tithed! Christ Community could use a few Pharisees in its midst! I would put up with your supercilious righteousness if I could get your money! (laughter) They were good people. The things that the Pharisee recited about himself were true things, and he was a good man, and the last thing in the world that I would want you to do would be to go out of here and say, “Thank God, I am not like that Pharisee.” On the other hand there was a Publican. A tax collector. Not such a good person. Religiously, he was unclean because he had dealings with the Gentile Roman authorities. Therefore, he was ceremonially judged unclean. He was despised by his own people because he was a collaborator with the enemy. He sold his soul for a buck. In that cruel and corrupt tax system, he collected the money for the Roman oppressor, oppressing his own flesh and blood. He was not a good person. But the point of the parable, as Jesus juxtaposes the Pharisee and the Publican, is not to say that there are good people and bad people – really, good people and people not quite so good – the point is not to distinguish two kinds of people. The point of the parable is to distinguish two kinds of spirit, two kinds of attitude, two © Grand Valley State University �God’s Mercy For the Asking Richard A. Rhem Page 3   kinds of approach to God. As far as Jesus was concerned, this was not an issue of whether the Pharisee was pretty good and the Publican not so good, but the fact that the Pharisee, in all of his virtue, was running on his own record and finally trusting himself. The performance principle was his game. And the Publican, despairing of himself, cast himself on the mercy of God. Jesus says the Pharisee went out still garbed in his own virtue, and the Publican went out garbed in grace. Now we could well spend some time on these two people, but that’s not the purpose of the messages in this series. Rather, I am treating the stories obliquely because I want to ask the question now: What is the image of God in that story of Jesus? It is probably not as obvious as in some of the stories that Jesus told, but I think that you would agree with me that behind this story was Jesus understanding of God, the God Jesus knew, the God that Jesus proclaimed. Would you agree that the image of God in the story of Jesus is an image of God who likes people? Or, if that’s too bland, a God who loves people as human beings? A God who accepts us in our humanness and affirms that humanness? It seems to me that’s the image of God behind this story told by Jesus. Jesus is not saying there are good people and bad people, and God loves good people and doesn’t like bad people. Jesus was saying, God loves human beings. God loves people. God loves people in all of the contradictoriness of their human existence. And the only thing that God is looking for is an openness to God’s mercy, that resting in God rather than oneself. A preacher had a class of children before him, Ernie Kurtz says in his recent book. He said to the children, “If all bad people were red and all good people were green, what color would you be?” Little Linda Jean thought mightily for a moment and then her face broke into a great smile. She said, “I know! I would be streaky.” An answer far beyond the question. The wisdom of a child who knew that, if she were forced to put herself in the camp of the good or the bad, she couldn’t fit in either place because she was a combination of both. And is that not precisely our human condition? Are we not beast and angel? Are we not light and shadow? Are we not full of turbulence longing for serenity? Torn apart looking for wholeness? In your bulletin there is a paragraph from Carlyle Marney, who describes the human condition vividly and poignantly. It pictures the propensity to evil that rests in us all. I was reminded of this last week when I heard the zookeeper of the Miami Zoo interviewed. They said to him, “We hear there are dangerous animals on the loose in the wake of the hurricane.” And he answered, “Well, they are not dangerous, unless they get cornered or become afraid. Then they are dangerous.” And isn’t that true of us as well? Aren’t we for the most part civil and decent folks? Aren’t we for the most part people who could identify with those wonderful deeds of compassion and kindness that come to expression in a crisis like Hurricane Andrew, where neighbors become neighborly? Is there not the milk of human kindness in us all? But are we not at our best when we are responding to that? Are we not capable of glory and gore? Scare us, get us in a corner, elicit our © Grand Valley State University �God’s Mercy For the Asking Richard A. Rhem Page 4   defensiveness, put us under threat, accuse us, condemn us - the hair bristles on the back of our neck and, if necessary, we will kill. Are we evil? I don’t think so. But we are capable of every evil deed the world has ever known. Are we not a common lot of those who go through life fractured - fragile – afraid? Most of us at our worst are simply scared to death. We are not evil, but we do evil things. We are not destroyers, but we live with self-destructiveness. At heart we are lovers, but we can become lions in the den. Ernie Kurtz, who I mentioned a moment ago, wrote a book whose title is worth the price of the book. It is entitled The Spirituality of Imperfection. The Spirituality of Imperfection. Ernie Kurtz was here last year and will be back here in October. He has written a definitive study of the history of AA and its philosophical and theological roots. And he has done a lot of research into the history of the wisdom literature of the peoples of the world, and has wonderful stories that he has gathered together in this book The Spirituality of Imperfection. The Spirituality of Imperfection is the lesson that the AA community has to teach the Church, just as the Church at one time taught the AA community. In the last few decades with the membership of the church going down, the membership of AA has gone up and that is not because there are so many more people recovering from alcoholism or substance abuse. It is because there are so many more broken human beings out there who have found in that fellowship what they have not found in the church – an acceptance of the fact that they are human. Are you human? You smile, you blush, you say, “Oh, yes, I’m human - all too human.” All too human? No. Just human. To be candid, that’s all we are! And I would suggest to you that’s what God intends us to be. I love Psalm 103. “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.” God remembers our frame. God knows our frame; God remembers that we are dust. God knows us. God knows what we are. And God has mercy upon us. In the wisdom of the Creator we were not created robots on a string. We were not created machines that could be turned with a crank and just go on our way perfectly. We are people full of contradictoriness. Torn apart. You want another good word like murmur? Think of the German word zerissenheit. William James, the philosopher, translated that word as torn-to-pieceshood. Can you identify with that? Have you ever felt torn in a dozen directions? Have you ever felt fractured? Have you ever felt that your whole being was coming apart? Have you ever looked up in despair - to the heavens and said, “I simply don’t have it all together.” Well, join the human race. God made you that way. “But,” you say, “isn’t that a bit too simple?” Well is it really? God loves us as human beings. Struggling. Persons in process. And in our freedom and responsibility we are capable of grandeur and groveling. That’s who we are. And the reason people are finding healing in the AA community is because there they are finding an honest admission, © Grand Valley State University �God’s Mercy For the Asking Richard A. Rhem Page 5   acknowledgement, ownership of the human condition. And that admission means that one needs God, along with all the mercy that God has to give. In his book, Kurtz makes a claim that seems to be my own experience as well that, in response to the modern age of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Church has moved toward perfectionism. Not an acceptance of the contradictions of our being, but a push always to perfection. I was schooled in WORM theology. That is, “such a worm as I.” And I think, probably, to denigrate the human person in that way is as wrong as to exalt the human person as did the Pharisee. My preaching is skewed because I’m screwed up, and so you have to filter everything through that recognition. A person only talks about what they need to talk about for their own survival. That’s why I always talk about Grace and Mercy. I could sum up my impression in the center of my being about what I am about and what God calls me to be in the little poem that was written by my fourth grade teacher in the book of autographs at the end of the school year: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until the good is better and the better is best.” Never enough! We drive ourselves with a compulsion we don’t understand and feel we always come up short because in the Church we’ve not been honest with the ambiguity of the human situation, which is simply the way we are. Created in the image God. Part of the earth and part of God. Well, modern culture in reaction doesn’t help. Some years ago Tom Harris wrote a book, a best seller, I’m O.K. You’re O.K. Remember it? Over against the denigration of the human person on the one hand, that did help to bring some people back to a self-worth and self-esteem, but that’s not true either. I’m not O.K. And you’re not O.K. Forgive me for saying so. I’m not O.K. You’re not O.K., but that’s O.K. God can handle that. If only we can come to the point of acknowledging that. An analyst quoted by Kurtz, named Marian Woodman, says, “Addiction keeps a person in touch with God.” At the very point of vulnerability is where the surrender takes place. That is where God enters. God comes through the wound. The Pharisee was regaled in an armor that mercy could not penetrate - he was going it alone. The Publican had no armor, and the point of vulnerability - his wound - was the crack through which grace could enter. “Out of the depths I cry to thee, Oh Lord. Oh Lord, hear my cry. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, I haven’t got a leg to stand on. But with thee there is forgiveness. God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And God is, thank God. One of the great Christian leaders of this century, a theologian and preacher, Carlyle Marney, wrote the following in his book, The Human Condition: “Man is the most dangerous and savage of the beasts: His bite is poisonous; his hand is a club; his foot is a weapon; knives, clubs, spears are projectiles to bear his hostility. Nothing in nature is so well equipped for hating or hurting. Confuse him and he may lash out at everything. Crowd him and he kills, robs, destroys, for his crime rate increases in proportion to his crowding. Deprive him and he retaliates. Impoverish him © Grand Valley State University �God’s Mercy For the Asking Richard A. Rhem Page 6   and he burns villas in the night. Enslave him and he revolts. Pamper him and he may poison you. Hire him and he may hate both you and the work. Love him too possessively and he is never weaned. Deny him too early and he never learns to love. Put him in cities and all his animal nature comes out with perversions of every good thing. For greed, acquisitiveness, and violence were so long his tools for jungle survival, that it is only by the hardest [effort] that these can be laid aside as weapons of his continued survival.” Reference: Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham. The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning. Bantam, reprint edition, 1993. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XII Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Psalm 130:3-4, Luke 18:13-14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI References Ernest Kurtz, The Spirituality of Imperfection, 1993. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19920830 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-30 Title A name given to the resource God's Mercy for the Asking Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 30, 1992 entitled "God's Mercy for the Asking", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 130:3-4, Luke 18:13-14. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Human Nature Mercy Nature of God Parable Sin https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/05c509aea9fd5dbebf11d8489e6239fc.mp3 4a8c341275569882e9dab07bc8970175 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/61a8ee56aaa113310746704a11002005.pdf 82087c20f5cc7f8dbad4bf3c7d2471de PDF Text Text Nothing to Pay From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Luke 7:42 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost XI, July 23, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Luke 7:42 How does one speak of God? I suggested last week that when Jesus spoke of God, Jesus did not leave us a catechism, but he told us stories - parables. Parables are extended figures of speech. Figures of speech enable us to deal with that which is beyond our experience in terms that are familiar to us. Metaphor comes from two Greek words, meta which means to carry over or beyond or across and pherein to carry, to bear. A metaphor carries us across the gulf of our knowing and enables us to have some sense of that Mystery that is beyond us. We deal with the unknown in terms of that which is familiar. Jesus told us stories. He didn’t leave us a catechism or give us a lecture on the nature of God. Thank God. But that reminded me that in our tradition we have certainly done a good deal of that. I pulled down a copy of the Westminster Confession, one of the great faith documents of our tradition, and the fourth question is “What is God?” Simple little question. The answer: “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” What is God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. Turn you on? Move you? Well, we could talk about all those terms I suppose, but it is interesting in all of the attributes that I referred to there is one glaring omission. Did you catch it? There is no mention of God’s love. Not the simple definition that we have in the first Epistle of John, where John writes simply, “God is love.” I don’t mean to put the catechism down. It is a faithful document coming out of its own historical context that has been used in a significant way. As I was thinking about the current series, “The Images of God in the Stories of Jesus,” and the contrast from the way that Jesus revealed God and the way that © Grand Valley State University   �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 2   we have subsequently dealt with the nature of God or theological matters. In general, we have tended to write catechisms. We have tended to try to define in an intellectual fashion. We have used reasonable discourse in order to probe the mysteries that are beyond us. And, as a matter of fact, you cannot probe a mystery rationally. You can only deal with a mystery through a metaphor. That’s why Jesus told stories. And we pick up the image of God. We get the sense of who God was for Jesus in the way he behaved, in the manner of life, and in the stories that he told. He conveyed the depths of God’s being through the images that come through in his teaching and his ministry. I want to suggest an image from God through Jesus that comes out of the morning lesson. There is a parable within a story. That story itself is very revealing and the story is the necessary context for understanding the parable. And the story itself was told by Jesus as an illustration. I should say the story was recorded in this context by Luke as an illustration of that which he was dealing. It’s the same thing we had last week in the parable of the Prodigal Son. There were those who were grumbling because Jesus opened himself up to tax collectors and sinners. Jesus ran with ordinary people. Jesus had a kind of inclusiveness about him, about his relationships, which ran counter to the exclusivity of the religious leaders of the day--the Pharisees and the scribes. As I said last week, the poor Pharisees were the best people in town and they get poor press in the New Testament. But this is because they are always set over against. They are always in that adversarial position, and in the case of Jesus they took offense because of his openness to all people and his refusal to discriminate against any, to draw lines and draw people out, and so they grumbled about this. He told the story of the Prodigal Son in order to deal with that. In this context, the discussion had been John the Baptist and Jesus, and in the 7th chapter in verses 29 and 30, Luke puts in a parenthesis and he says that the common people, all of the people including the tax collectors, had received John’s baptism, and to have received John’s baptism was to acknowledge that God was present in the life and ministry of John the Baptist. Just as to hear Jesus, Luke is saying, is to acknowledge that God was present in the life and ministry of Jesus. In the 30th verse of this 7th chapter of Luke, Luke tells us, by refusing to be baptized by him, that is John, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves. And Luke is saying similarly that, to refuse Jesus, to reject his message and manner of life was to refuse the purpose of God and then, as though to give an instance of this division between people – the ordinary folk who heard Jesus gladly and the religious elite who rejected him – Luke tells us the story of Simon the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner. And Luke doesn’t tell us that there was anything sinister here, but obviously Simon, one of the religious leaders, was interested to find out for himself who this person was and what he was about, and whether the rumor was true that this one seemed to be a prophet of God. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 3   And so Jesus came to dinner and as he was reclining at the table, as was the custom of the day, in a house that was open, which was also the custom of the day so that people off the street might wander in and wander out, while they were at dinner, a woman who was a sinner (The word probably indicates that she was a prostitute, a street-walker, a woman of the city.) came in and began to weep. Her tears wet the feet of Jesus. She wiped his feet with her hair and she had brought a flask of ointment and she anointed his feet in a display of emotion, which was quite out of line for proper decorum in such a setting. But something within her simply burst forth. This obviously was not the first time she had met Jesus. There had to be a prior occasion when he had looked at her, a prostitute, and communicated to her one way or another - through perhaps a word or a touch, or simply the gentle affirmation of his eyes, that she, a woman of the street, was a child of God, a person of worth to whom Jesus accorded a sense of human dignity. It was too much for her. She experienced full forgiveness, newness, self-worth because she was valued by this one who was a prophet of God, and seeing him again and having intentionally entered in order to be near him, she lost it. Simon obviously was a bit uncomfortable with this rather erotically tinged display of emotion, but at least he seemed satisfied that the purpose of a dinner party was satisfied, for he says to himself, “If this man were a prophet he would know what manner of woman this is, and obviously would not have embraced her and allowed this display of emotion.” So then Jesus, on the basis of Simon’s own criteria of what a prophet is, demonstrates that indeed he is a prophet. He reads his mind; he discerns the thoughts of Simon; he is aware of that turning of the wheels in Simon’s mind and so he says, “Simon, I have something to say to you,” and Simon says, “Speak on, teacher.” And he tells them the parable: Two debtors, one owing a huge sum, another owing a lesser sum, but alike in this: neither had anything to pay. And they were alike in this too: their creditor freely forgave them both. In that parable we have an image of God. In the King James Version, the version of which I memorized the Bible, the phrase, which is the title of the message, will be found. They had “Nothing to Pay.” They had “Nothing to Pay.” And before we get to the image of God, perhaps we should say that there is also an image of humankind. In the presence of God we have “Nothing to Pay.” Some of us have incurred a huge debt. Some of us need only a little bit of credit. We are not all the same. As Mark Twain said, “He was a good man in the worst sense of the word.” God save us from too many people who are too good. They are not fun to be with. But there are good people. And then - there are the rest of us. There is a whole spectrum of righteousness, or morality, or goodness. Jesus is not lumping the whole race in one pit of guilt and sin, but he is saying this, “The human condition is such that we are universally in debt and universally we have © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 4   “Nothing to Pay.” We don’t bring our record to God. George Bush is going to run on his record. But if you try that with God, that’s the very reason you are in trouble. It is a record. We have “Nothing to Pay.” But the parable for our purposes this morning is also an image of God and that is where I want us to put the focus. The one who owed a great deal and the one who owed very little both had “Nothing to Pay,” but the creditor freely forgave them both. The word for cancel the debt or forgive the debt is carisomi. You are familiar with that Greek verb I am sure. I only display my erudition because, if you will listen carefully: carisomi, caris. The root of that verb is caris, and as you well know in this congregation the Greek word caris is grace. There is only one word really, isn’t there? Grace. When neither had anything to pay, the creditor graciously, freely canceled the debt. Now that’s an image of God. The image of God that comes through in that story is very similar, it is exactly the same, as the image of God in the story of the Prodigal Son, which is not a story of a prodigal son but of Prodigal Love. As I said last week, in that simple story that Jesus told there is an image of God who simply waits to receive the child that will return - freely embracing, loving unconditionally. And so I want to take the phrase that refers to the debtors, “Nothing to Pay,” and play with that. Let’s turn it around. Let’s now make it the requirement of God. If we have “Nothing to Pay,” let me suggest that, as far as God is concerned, there is “Nothing to Pay.” Oh, that sets the Gospel on its head in terms of the way you’ve always heard it. Hear me now. This is pure, undiluted heresy in terms of the way you’ve generally heard the Gospel preached, because you’ve generally heard the Gospel preached through the focus of Paul. And we have always used Paul to dampen Jesus. The radicality of these messages is that I am suggesting to you we ought to simply listen to Jesus once, without dragging Paul in, with all his metaphors with Roman law and the Roman court system and the transactions. Now, if I am going to try to make this point in a sermon, I’ll tell you I have to go through the hymn book and really be careful about the hymns I pick because almost every hymn, almost every prayer, almost all the liturgy, the whole tradition of the Christian church conveys the idea that Jesus paid it all! Now, what if there is “Nothing to Pay?” A friend of mine, Ernie Campbell, who used to be the pastor of the Riverside Church in New York, edits a little quarterly newsletter for preachers in order to help us out when we get in a tight spot on Saturday and don’t have an idea. Ernie writes this: A couple of times in the last two months I have heard grace defined as “God’s riches at the expense of Christ.” I have not been able to track this definition to its source. Perhaps one of our readers could help in this regard. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 5   “God’s riches at the expense of Christ.” I find this description of grace deeply troubling. What are we to make of the phrase “at the expense of Christ?” Are we to assume that God would be indifferent to us but for the intervention of Christ? And why the need to reach for a “transaction” metaphor: this for that, as though God were trapped by the accountant’s logic and could credit us only if he could debit Jesus. And are we saying that, because we have received grace through Christ, grace is not available to others under different auspices? Must grace be mediated? Is God not free to directly lavish grace on any or all out of the fullness of the Divine Nature? If grace is to be understood as exclusively Christ-related, how do we explain the lovingkindness of the Lord toward Israel? The definition that most of us learned years ago is still valid. Grace is “the unmerited favor of God.” The unmerited favor of God. Period. Christ did not have to win it or earn it on our behalf. It was always there. Christ did not come to make grace possible but to make grace visible. Richard Niebuhr was right: “Most of our miseries come upon us because we cannot believe that God is as good as Jesus said He is.” “Nothing to Pay.” We have “Nothing to Pay.” And God says there is “Nothing to Pay.” Just open your life to my love that is always there; be valued, given worth. Let your heart be broken by my unconditional love that requires nothing but simple access. Simon had an image of God and lived out his image of God – because we do live out our image of God. Our image of God is probably the most shaping factor in our attitudes and our manner of life. Simon had an image of God and his image of God is revealed when he sees Jesus allowing this woman of the street to have this display of emotion, and receives her and accepts her. Simon’s image of God is this: God withdraws from the likes of that. If this man were a prophet of God he would act as God would act. He would put down a barrier; he would erect a wall; he would separate himself from this ordinary sinful human being. Jesus lived out his image of God, and that was that God never erects a barrier, never builds a wall, never turns the back, but is always simply waiting - longing to do just one thing: to love us, to give us value. God’s love is groundless and infinite. God does not seek value. God’s love creates value. The son in the far country came into a pinch and began to strategize how he might go back and start as a servant and prove himself, prove himself, prove himself. He wasn’t transformed in the far country. He simply had started on the way back home. It was the salty tears of the father, the embrace of the father that changed the boy and got him out of that servant - servile mentality, enabling him again to be a son. The woman in the parable, too, was transformed by an unconditional love. What image of God do we as a community convey? Let me suggest to you that, by and large, the Christian Church in its attitude, spirit, body language and decorations conveys an image of God much closer to Simon’s than to Jesus’. © Grand Valley State University �Nothing to Pay Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Is there not a certain level of morality that is necessary in order to be a part of this community? Is there not a certain expectation, a certain living-up-to, a kind of standard? Is there not some kind of qualification to be considered a people of God? Do we not have barriers and walls, subtly suggested criteria communicated nonverbally by our very body language? And how about you - are you still doing your darnedest to show yourself worthy? Have you ever let down your guard as the woman let down her hair and wept in the face of a love that will never quit and only waits to be experienced? The image of God in this story of Jesus is a God who says to the likes of us, who so love to pay our own way, “There’s nothing to pay.” © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost XI Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Luke 7:42 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-0-19920823 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-23 Title A name given to the resource Nothing to Pay Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 23, 1992 entitled "Nothing to Pay", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost XI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 7:42. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Forgiveness Inclusive Nature of God Parable Transforming Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3956bbade0484bff0099c8c106fe3f23.mp3 3a81f3e74afc2f97995a4635344e45e7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e4010e64105211275e9974398b85a62e.pdf ddb217edffee798b7473eecc87c30e09 PDF Text Text Prodigal Love From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Luke 15:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost X, August 16, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion, and he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:20 It is very important to name things correctly because names give us a preconception of the reality of something. The parable that we just read has been popularly known as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but, actually, that is a misnomer. That is an incorrect naming. To call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son is to put the focus on the son. Now there were two sons. But to name it the Parable of the Prodigal Son is to put the focus on the more exciting son, the one that would put a little raciness into the narrative. But it is not a story about the rascal or the rogue. It is a story about the father. And the father represents God. It is very important for us in this series of messages, in which we will be looking at the Images of God in the Stories of Jesus, to get the title straight. In titling today’s sermon, I’ve saved the word prodigal because I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it can have a positive as well as a negative meaning. Prodigal, in the sense of the prodigal son, means wastefulness, spendthrift, a rascal, using one’s substance on that which is not necessary or important, etc. But if you keep reading you will find that prodigal can also mean abundance, lavish, superabundance, profuse. So, in order to name the parable, I’ll save the word prodigal, but we’ll call it prodigal love. It is important to get that straight because images of God in the stories Jesus told are metaphors. And it is important to get the proper focus of the story in order to be sure we catch the metaphor. A metaphor, you will remember we said last week, is a figure of speech. The word comes from two Greek words - meta, which means behind or over or across, and pherein, which means to carry, to bear. And so a metaphor carries us across the gulf of unknowing in order that we might have some sense of that Mystery that is beyond us. In order that, in terms of things that are familiar to us, we might have © Grand Valley State University   �Prodigal Love Richard A. Rhem Page 2   some sense of the Mystery that is always beyond our comprehension. We can only talk of God in metaphors. We can only understand God and the deepest spiritual Mysteries in terms of poetic expression, and so, in this metaphor, this parable, we have an image of God as Prodigal Love. Jesus didn’t lecture those who were complaining to him and about him. He didn’t write a catechism. He didn’t try to get into a rational argument. He told a story. Jesus always told stories because Jesus knew that was the only way to communicate the depth of the Mystery to which he was pointing. You can only speak of God poetically. You can only get the feel and the sense of the reality of God in an analogy, in a figure of speech, a story, a parable. He told this parable in order to image God as Prodigal Love, because God is Prodigal Love. Isn’t that good news? Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that the news that has set our tongues singing and our feet dancing? “Why, of course,” you say. “Why certainly,” you agree. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you sure? Do you really buy that? Does that really make you feel good, comfortable? Are you at ease with that? God as Prodigal Love. I want to tell you, it will never make it in Houston this week. The Republican Platform Committee would never come out with a platform that had at its heart the theme that God is Prodigal Love. I’ll tell you, neither Bill Clinton nor George Bush could capture the White House this fall, campaigning on a plank of God’s Prodigal Love as the answer to our economic ills. I’ll tell you something more; there’s not a national church assembly meeting this year that would ever have at the center of its mission statement, God’s Prodigal Love. I’ll tell you something more; even in Christ Community we might not rest totally at ease with God’s Prodigal Love. I suppose making a provocative statement like that I ought to support it. I could see you were nodding your head “yes” all too soon and all too easily when I said it’s good news that God is Prodigal Love. Sure. But why did Jesus tell the story? Because the scribes and Pharisees were murmuring about the fact that the tax collectors and the sinners were coming to hear Jesus, and they were put off by the fact that Jesus was receiving them and inviting them to eat with him, which was the sign of hospitality and the acceptance of such a person. Luke sets the story of God’s Prodigal Love in the context of the murmuring of the scribes and Pharisees. And who were the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, they don’t get very good press in the Gospel because they are always set over against Jesus. They are always in the adversarial position, but, as a matter of fact, in all honesty, they were the best people in town. They were the serious people. They were the religious people. They were the pillars of society. They were decent. They were honest. They were hard working. With dogged determination and dedication they kept life going and institutions intact. They were faithful. They were devout. They were seriously good people. They were like the people who are © Grand Valley State University �Prodigal Love Richard A. Rhem Page 3   going to fill Convention Hall in Houston this week. I mean, that describes Republicans, doesn’t it? They murmured, “Who does he think he is? Look with whom he is associating.” Murmur. Does anybody murmur better than good religious people? We the upright and the uptight, don’t we murmur? Aren’t we always grumbling in our beard about how bad the world is and how everything is going to pot, and about our irresponsible neighbor? Folks, the scribes and the Pharisees were the kind of people who come to worship at 10:00 on Sunday morning. Good people. But they murmured. They were offended at Jesus living and acting out what he believed to be true and that is that God is Prodigal Love. Jesus acted out what he believed God to be. Jesus was transparent. He was a picture. He was a metaphor of God. Seeing into the face of Jesus, we see into the heart of God. And what the good folk saw… They. Did. Not. Like. You want another piece of evidence? This is still in Luke’s Gospel. If you go to the fourth chapter where Jesus begins his ministry, he came to his hometown crowd, his local congregation where you would have thought they would have given him a break. Remember? He preached from the Prophet Isaiah. He proclaimed a message of liberation - sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, the lame to walk, the prisoners freed. And his own people were so angry they wanted to throw him over the cliff. They wanted to kill him. And it was his consistent living out of that inaugural text that earned him the wrath of the best people in town. You want one more piece of evidence? How does the story of the Prodigal end? The story ends, not with the salty tears of the father over the son who came home, but with the faithful, obedient, hard working, dedicated, committed son who was always every day out in the back 40 plowing and hoeing and weeding. He comes home one night; he’s tired; he is satisfied, feeling that he has worked hard and put in another good day’s work. But, of course, his satisfaction is really riddled with resentment, because nobody really likes to be that good and that faithful all of the time. I mean if you are that good and that faithful all of the time, then you in all probability have a bit of resentment suppressed somewhere. It will inevitably pop up now and again. He said, “What’s going on?” The servant says, “Your brother’s home.” Dark clouds. The father comes out and says, “Your brother’s home, let’s have a party.” “No way! That no good joust-about, who’s wasted all your living?” he says to his father. Then he colored the story a little bit. He didn’t know for sure what the younger son had been doing, but he knew what he would have done, if he were out there; that’s part of his resentment. He said, “He was wasting your living on harlots and all that other kind of stuff, and you kill a fatted calf for him? I have slaved for you all these years and you never gave me a party.” Jesus is brandishing a vivid point to those to whom he told the story in the first place, to the murmurers. © Grand Valley State University �Prodigal Love Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Now to come back to the question I started with. Does it really sit easy with you that God is a God of Prodigal Love? Just think about the story for a minute. The younger son gets what he can get and scrams. Breaks his father’s heart. Breaks all codes of decency and honor. Enters into a self-destructive pattern of life. Finds himself in a real pinch, scratches his head and realizes the servants in his father’s house are better off than he. He devises a plan. “I will arise and go to my father.” He rehearses this speech: “Father, I am not worthy to be your son. I have sinned against heaven and against you.” I think he meant it. I think he had attained a certain amount of proper humility. But I don’t think he was changed yet. This is still just a strategy. He was going to come home. He was going to give his prepared speech. He was going to try to be one of the hired servants because he still is operating under the old principle. He thinks, “You know if the old man will give me a second chance, and I work hard enough, and I am dedicated long enough, if I follow my elder brother around long enough, maybe I can prove that there is really some good stuff in me after all. Maybe if he’ll give me a second chance I can still prove myself.” So he comes home and the old man is on the rooftop. He’s been up there every day since the kid left. He’s been straining his eyes looking down the road, hardly seeing because he is blinded by the tears he’s been shedding. And then he sees his son and almost leaps off the roof of his house. He gathers his garments around him in a way that would be considered shameful in that culture and in that day, and he begins to run down the street as no male over 30 years of age would run. He throws off proper decorum and proper behavior and doesn’t care who is watching, who is witnessing this kind of shocking display of emotion. He races, the text says, he races to his son and his son gets the first line of his prepared speech out, only to be smothered by the arms of the father, whose salty tears flow over the son as he kisses him effusively in a prodigal manner and restores him to sonship. That is a moving story isn’t it? It is a wonderful story. The trouble is we haven’t dared preach it that way in church, we haven’t let the story just be. We haven’t dared to just tell that story and say, “God is like that.” We’ve always hedged a bit. I am going to quote from a sermon given by a preacher, recognized as outstanding in our tradition. It is from a sermon on this parable: “These parables teach and depict in a pictorial form the basic message of the Bible that God is a God of grace.” (Good so far.) “God forgives sinners by grace. That is, he forgives sins freely and not by merit on the part of the person who has sinned. The word grace means unmerited favor. This, of course, does not mean that God overlooks sin or that he winks at it, or that he excuses it. God forbid. He is able (listen to me now) to forgive us freely because full atonement has been made for our sin in the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on the Cross of Calvary. (I’ll repeat that.) He is able to forgive us freely because full atonement has been made for our sin in © Grand Valley State University �Prodigal Love Richard A. Rhem Page 5   the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on the Cross of Calvary.” [Words in parenthesis spoken by Richard A. Rhem.] This is the way you’ve had the Gospel preached to you almost all your life. The cross of Calvary, the death of the Son of God, the Atonement. Did you really find that in the story? Where did that come from? Now this is a very fine preacher, and this very fine preacher knows full well that when one preaches one is supposed to preach the text. But he dragged the word about Calvary into this story didn’t he? It’s not in there. Jesus told a story about a son who went bad and came home and got loved by his father. He didn’t say anything about parole, or probation, or recrimination, or condemnation, or somebody else taking the rap for all of the grief the father had experienced. Where did it come from? It came from Paul, of course: Paul’s reflection, after the fact, a reflection back on the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. All of Paul is theological reflection. The problem in the Church is that we have never let the images of God in the stories of Jesus be heard in all of their potency, in all of their power. We have not trusted these stories. We have wanted to warn folks like you that what Jesus said in a case like this is not all that there is to say. This preacher was following a principle of interpretation that is taught in our seminaries, and that is that every text of scripture has to be interpreted in light of every other text of scripture. So you preached the text, but always in the context of the whole. Yesterday Nancy was doing some baking. Here she was up to her elbows in flour had the rolling pin out. She starts from scratch, that girl! I mean she’s good! She’s rolling out this crust until it is beautiful and smooth. There’s not a foreign particle anywhere, nor any kind of little lump. It is absolutely flat, uniform, homogeneous. You could take a hunk of that crust any place and you would have the real ticket. That’s what we have done with the Bible in all of its rich diversity, in all of the thousands of years over which it came to expression, and all of the different contexts into which it is spoken. We have taken a rolling pin and we’ve rolled it and rolled it. It reminds me of a soup I used to like when I was trying to lose weight. (I’ve, of course, gotten that weight down now where it is just right!) This was a soup that had all kinds of vegetables and when it was all done you couldn’t identify anything in that bland mush. You threw them into the blender and blended that thing until - well, there were carrots and onions, and celery and tomatoes, and potatoes and all of that. Sometimes I like to take a big bite out of a carrot and taste a carrot, or an onion, or a tomato or a potato. But if you get it all blended together, you can dish it out and it’s got a little bit of everything in it and it doesn’t taste like anything distinctive! And it doesn’t have any pungency or any punch. © Grand Valley State University �Prodigal Love Richard A. Rhem Page 6   And so in the Church we have hedged on the stories of Jesus just so you folks didn’t get the wrong impression. We are afraid you might think, as the preacher said, “God might wink at sin.” Or that God could just forgive us if God willed to forgive us. So we have, thank God, Paul who puts the damper on Jesus. But now just think with me for a minute. You are parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles. Is there a child you love? Can you imagine a child you love with all your heart and soul, that child breaking your heart? A son or daughter going wrong? Can you imagine every time the telephone rang your heart skipping a beat because you hoped it was he or she? Can you imagine going to the mailbox every day just in case there might be some communication from that son or daughter? Can you imagine a son or daughter whom you loved, seeing, clear as a bell, that they were on the road to destruction and not being able to do a thing about that? Loving them. Caring. Longing. Yearning. Weeping. And one day there is a rap on the door and there they are. What would you do? What would you do? Jesus said, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your heavenly father.” I think Jesus would say, “Don’t drag Paul into this story. I am trying to image for you God, who in Prodigal Love simply forgives freely.” It is an image of God who has to let the kid go because he will only love, and has no other plan. God who stands helpless even in the face of his “steadyEddie” elder son who complains, saying to that elder son, “All I have is yours. You are home. Come in to the party,” but can’t drag him by the hair. Jesus images God as Prodigal Love who loves and loves until one finally gets close enough to him to be embraced and to experience and to be lost in the abyss of that love. Jesus paid it all - I feel a little more comfortable - that’s the kind of world I can operate in. Then, Dad, take me back and let me prove myself. That feels better. But it’s not the Gospel, and it’s not the way God does it. The old Dutch painter, Rembrandt, captured the story and the poignancy of the parable in a painting that Peter owns, that he has shown me. It is the parable of the Prodigal Son, which we have renamed now the Prodigal Lover. Peter and I are going to show you the painting. I’ll be God. [laughter heard] Well I’ve got this beard. [Peter responds, “I get the party!”] [Dick embraces Peter and says:] This is the painting. Do you see the salty tears on the father’s cheeks? All God ever wants to do is embrace his children and have them home. You get the picture. Listen to the voice of God. “You are loved. You are home.” © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost X Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Luke 15:20 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-0-19920816 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-16 Title A name given to the resource Prodigal Love Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 16, 1992 entitled "Prodigal Love", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost X, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 15:20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Nature of God Parable Transforming Grace Unconditional Love https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/44f39fc8aebeb20ab20308008e57c0e8.pdf 117fffe01d8ffe2c4dcccbbedfcaa401 PDF Text Text Abba From the series: Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Text: Mark 1:35 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost IX, August 9, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon Images fill and shape the landscape of our lives. More than theoretical or abstract philosophical principles or statements of truth, we are shaped by stories, by pictures, by images, by metaphor. Metaphor is something with which we all live. We make metaphors constantly. Metaphor--the word itself comes from two Greek words. Meta is a preposition, which means across or behind or over. And pherein is a Greek verb, which means to carry or to bear. Thus a metaphor carries one across or over the gulf of unknowing. That which is not accessible to us in our ordinary understanding is made accessible to us through metaphors, which are created out of familiar experiences in terms of which we speak of the mystery beyond us. God is the great Mystery beyond us. The Mystery that confronts us, that embraces us, toward Whom we grope and yearn and long. We speak of familiar things, thereby to relate to the God beyond our experience. We experience God through the knowledge of those common things, analogies that help us to know something of the Mystery of God. Jesus spoke in stories and pictures, images, metaphors. In fact we might say that Jesus was God’s living metaphor, enfleshed. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us,” so that our hands handle him; our ears hear him; our eyes look upon him--the Word of Life. Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Paul said, “We have seen the light of the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God has drawn close to us and drawn away the veil for us in the metaphor that is Jesus. It is the only way we can have true knowledge or experience of God: through an image or a metaphor. And so, in these next weeks, I want us to look at the images of God in the stories of Jesus. But I am not going to begin this morning with a story that Jesus told. I am going to begin with a portrait of Jesus that Mark paints for us - of Jesus before the break of day, in a lonely place--praying to God. As we see Jesus there, we see him embodying for us his knowledge and understanding of his relationship with God, of who he was for him. © Grand Valley State University   �Abba: Images of God Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Have you been to Palestine? Imagine the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus slipping away quietly before dawn. Mark tells us that the previous day had been filled with ministry. In the old King James translation of the Bible, the Gospel of Mark has that word straightway . Straightway he did this and straightway he did that, and straightway he did another thing. In the RSV the word is immediately. Immediately, immediately, immediately. And if you follow long enough in the Gospel of Mark you are almost out of breath, because he takes you on such a torrid pace. And such had been the pace of Jesus that previous day. I’ve had those kinds of days. But after they are over and I am drained, I try to sleep in the next morning! Not Jesus. A great while before dawn he’s off. By himself in a lonely place, he prays to gather his thoughts and let the serenity of the place wash over him. Becoming centered, he opens his life in the presence of the Mystery that is God. He begins his communing with God very simply: “Abba.” It was, in Jesus day an affectionate address for a parent. Daddy. Papa. It was as a child’s word, and in Jesus’ day it was rather common parlance, an affectionate term for a father. What was unique was that Jesus used that simple unaffected word of address to address God. That was not common. It may in fact have been non-existent except for Jesus’ usage. The rabbinical devotion of Jesus’ day gives little indication that anyone in Jewish piety would have thought to address God simply as Papa. But the NT scholar, Edward Schilebeek, says that the whole essence of Jesus’ life and ministry is summed up in that word of address. That simple straight-forward, intimate, unaffected word of address, Abba. And although Abba is transliterated in our New Testament in only three places, (in the Gospels, the Gospel of Mark, and in the Garden of Gethsemanae: “Abba, Father, now is my soul troubled.”); nonetheless, wherever “Father” appears in the Gospel as an address to God, in the words of Jesus or the prayer life of Jesus, the word behind it was Abba. It so impressed the New Testament community that Paul, for example, says in Romans 8 that “the Spirit testifies with us that we are the children of God and we pray, Abba , Father,” and again “in the fullness of time God sent forth his son who has given us his Spirit whereby we cry Abba, Father.” The early church was indelibly marked by that simple, unaffected, straight-forward, intimate, personal address of Jesus to God. The word for Jesus bespoke a conception of God as the solid undergirding of life, the one who secures and guides and counsels, the one who nurtures and provides and sustains. Jesus in using Abba revealed the conviction that was the whole center of his life-that God was like a parent, a good parent who could be trusted. Abba. “Abba in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” “ Abba, now is my soul troubled.” “ Abba. Why have you forsaken me?” “Abba, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” “Abba. Into your hand I commend my Spirit.” Jesus’ understanding and relationship to God can be summed up in that simple word of address. His was a confident resting in the goodness, the compassion, the grace of God, related to as a loving, faithful, trustworthy parent. © Grand Valley State University �Abba: Images of God Richard A. Rhem Page 3   In his day Jesus was unique in using Abba, but he could point to a long, Scriptural tradition when he prayed thus, prayed intimately to God in that personal manner. Psalm 103 is one of the most beautiful expressions of such intimate relationship in the Old Testament. In verses 13 and 14 we read, “as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.” God doesn’t expect us to be more than we are. God knows what we are. To be human is enough. God loves us. The compassion of God is ours as a father has compassion on his children. The word compassion in the Hebrew is rechem and that word has a root that means “womb.” The description of God as a compassionate father is really a maternal image that comes from the idea of womb – the womb, that place that is warm and secure and life-sustaining. God’s compassion, God’s mercy is compared to the warmth and nurture of the womb. The 8th verse speaks of God as being merciful and gracious, the word gracious is also in the Hebrew a maternal word. Samuel Terrien, an Old Testament scholar, speaks of being in those biblical lands and talking to a sheik who was herding camels. He heard the yearning cries of camels off in the distance and he asked, “What is that cry?” The sheik answered that those particular camels had recently borne young and the young had forcibly been removed in order to wean them. The cries of those mother camels conveyed their yearning for their young. The word “gracious” used of God in Psalm 103, verse 8, is the same word as that used for the maternal longing for young that have been forcibly separated. The womb. The maternal longing. This is the imagery of the compassionate father who has mercy on his children. The Old Testament is really saturated with the intimate and personal images of fatherhood and motherhood--beautiful images. In Isaiah 49:15, for example, Zion has said, “The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me.” To which the response is, “Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” A mother nursing a child whom she has borne, how could she forget? But, if she could forget, yet I will never forget. And in Isaiah 66, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. You shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Images of a good trustworthy parent. Mother love. Father love. The nurturing, sustaining, life sustaining, guiding, counseling love and grace of a good parent is used as a metaphor to help us understand the nature of God. So in that quiet place, alone with God, Jesus says, “Abba.” Although taking privileges no pious Jew dare take, Jesus trusts the more ancient sense, and reflects in that word, the deep, rich Hebrew tradition of faith in the God of steadfast love -trustworthy, covenant keeping, full of grace. © Grand Valley State University �Abba: Images of God Richard A. Rhem Page 4   Another image, perhaps the most beautiful and familiar image is the image of the Good Shepherd. It is interesting to note that that image has transcended its locale of origin. How many of you have seen a shepherd? Well maybe you have; perhaps you have been to Palestine, and seen a shepherd out on the hills with a flock of sheep, guiding them to pasture, protecting, keeping. David, purportedly the author of the 23rd Psalm, records his powerful metaphorical insight, “The Lord is my shepherd.” He was using that which was most familiar to him out of his daily experience, and therein conjured up this beautiful image that still today moves us and will move future generations as well, thanks to Colette’s Worship Center, the fundamental image of which is the Good Shepherd. Rather interesting though, isn’t it? In a scientific day, technological society, a day of computers, computer chips, and space travel we can be moved by “The Lord is my shepherd.” A hundred years ago when I was in Sunday School they used to pass out Sunday School papers, and I remember the picture of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, with the lamb in the crook of his arm. I wonder if that is what causes me to feel warm when I think about the Good Shepherd? Whatever it is, that image, that metaphor has been able to transcend its time and its place of origin, and it continues to speak to us. To that extent it is a valuable metaphor, still a meaningful image. God isn’t a shepherd, of course, God isn’t a father, God isn’t a mother. But the imagery conveys God to us, in terms of the familiar that we know, communicates to us the Mystery beyond our ability fully to comprehend. We need to continue to find those metaphors and images that will move us. We could take all the metaphors and images of the Bible and scrap them--shepherd-father--mother--king--prince--refiner’s fire. We could scrap them all and we wouldn’t dishonor God. We wouldn’t detract one bit from God. We wouldn’t touch God. Because God is not the metaphor; the metaphor is only a figure of speech to help us to reach after and hopefully get in touch with God. But we could by rewriting the metaphors. And probably we should be about that--calling on new metaphors, out of our own experience, our own world. I wonder . . . I wonder if the masses have left the church because there’s a musty sound and smell, the language of Zion, all of it from another world, and another time. There is a minister in the United Reformed Church of Great Britain, Brian Wren, who believes the church can be transformed by poetry. God knows it can’t be transformed by theological debate. All we do is choose up sides and then shoot one another. You can’t argue rationally the truth of God. But images, stories they can change us. That is why Brian Wren says poetry can transform the church. And he’s done his best. We have printed a couple of his poems in the bulletin. We are going to sing one in a moment, and we have sung another one on occasion. On the cover of the bulletin you will find, “Are You the Friendly God?” I love it. Look at the second line, the image there: “Spirit of brooding …” At the baptismal font I spoke of the spirit that brooded over the waters of creation, and Brian Wren picks up that biblical image. But he brings it into our own experience. “Hovering wings,” again a beautiful, ancient biblical image, yet with a freshness that speaks to us. © Grand Valley State University �Abba: Images of God Richard A. Rhem Page 5   And the second line, “Are you the gambler-God…?” Now that should shock you! “… spinning the wheel of creation.” Can’t you see it? Wheel of Fortune! God spinning the wheel of creation. Giving it randomness. Do you recognize that word randomness? Do you read any of the esoteric physics, the cosmology of our day, the physicists who are probing the basic stuff of the universe? They speak about randomness, the randomness of atoms and electrons. Our cosmos is not a machine grinding on its way. There is a certain randomness to life, the physicists tell us. And don’t we know it? Don’t we know it in our own experience? Life isn’t all neat and cut and dried, predetermined. What will happen tomorrow? What decisions will you make? Do you have some freedom to go this way or that? You surely do! Randomness. The image immediately turns me on. This is someone who is talking about the God that is more like my present experience than even the shepherd to be honest with you. God willing to be surprised! “… taking a million chances …” But then the third stanza comes back again and reminds us of our deep covenant faith in a faithful God, a God of steadfast love. And how about line two of that stanza, “... quilting our histories.” Come to the Geneva Room on Tuesdays and watch the quilters making their beautiful patterns and see that metaphor enfleshed. “…patching our sins with grace.” Don’t you love that? And the final line, “… all of our ends are wrapped in love’s beginning.” The creator will be the consummator. All of the promises of God will come to fruition. On the next page, “Name Unnamed.” We’ve sung that one and you know I love it! The second stanza was last week’s sermon, “Spinner of Chaos, pulling and twisting, freeing the fibers of pattern and form . . .” Can’t you see God, as weaver? Don’t you see the tapestry under way? “Nudging Discomforter”--just when we thought we had all the answers, God raises another question. “Straight-Talking lover . . .” “Midwife of Changes . . .” “Dare-devil Gambler . . .” “giving us freedom to shatter your dreams . . .” Has God given us power to shatter God’s dreams? God knows we are able! “Life-giving Loser . . .” In a world that only worships winners, Jesus was willing to come and to be true to God--to lose his life. “…wounded and weeping . . . But not staying there . . . dancing and leaping . . .” in Resurrection’s power; “. . . sharing and caring that heals and redeems.” Ah, there are some images right out of today and this world. I suppose that one of the images that has been instrumental in transforming more lives in the last century than any other is an image that isn’t really very warm and vivid, but nonetheless it works - the Higher Power. And in the Twelve Step community, AA in its wisdom has refused to put flesh and blood on the Higher Power. It leaves it for people to flesh out individually--people--people like us all, although not all of us know it, but people who have said in all honesty, “my life is out of control.” We then speak of the Higher Power in concrete tangible form--metaphor--speak of the ways it has come to us. Perhaps through the gentle, open acceptance of a child, or in the sound of lapping waves, which seem to connect us with the heartbeat of One larger than ourselves. A metaphor of a © Grand Valley State University �Abba: Images of God Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Higher Power as friend, or captain of our Earth Ship, or director of our pluralistic choir. A Higher Power. The point is not the metaphor, it is the power of God, the experience of God. It is God touching our lives. That’s what we need. Never argue for a metaphor. Metaphors come and go. They are negotiable. They are transient. They are only good as long as they move us. I don’t think we are ever going to be able to reach back and rejuvenate, retrieve Abba. When we prayed it together, at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus would have, it (Abba) doesn’t do it for us, does it? It did it for Jesus. But it doesn’t really do it for us in the same way. What will do it for you? What do you need God to be? God is --and a whole lot more. Find that image, that metaphor of God, in which you can rest and taste grace. © 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 IX Series Images of God in the Stories of Jesus Scripture Text Psalm 103:1-22, Gal. 4:6, Mark 1:35 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-0-19920809 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-09 Title A name given to the resource Abba Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 9, 1992 entitled "Abba", as part of the series "Images of God in the Stories of Jesus", on the occasion of Pentecost IX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 103:1-22, Gal. 4:6, Mark 1:35. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Compassion Mystery Nature of God Parable Trust https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ec41cbab3348fd9afa6de6e45f63bcf5.mp3 073037add5ad4c12340284b6b1948c03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VIII Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Isaiah 43: 18-19 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19920802 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-08-02 Title A name given to the resource Spinner of Chaos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 2, 1992 entitled "Spinner of Chaos", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost VIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 43: 18-19. 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/7a01b6d7ec74d938529d4fe54d65516b.mp3 f221c3386adbd29284d9aef5ad26dfe4 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 The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Isaiah 65:25, Ephesians 3:9-10 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-0-19920726 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-07-26 Title A name given to the resource The Church: Sign of the Kingdom: Community of Shalom 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 July 26, 1992 entitled "The Church: Sign of the Kingdom: Community of Shalom", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost VII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 65:25, Ephesians 3:9-10. 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/dbe36d1c42c3340e1b4fdb0bcc32a5ac.mp3 0de8f44af70f1f599749585a5301089e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/993a0284743ca0a1602d753c2b69aca6.pdf 0740458f6bebd4bafcc47a5dc71499e2 PDF Text Text Observing Sabbath: Celebrating Grace and Freedom From the series: The Sacramental Character of the Church Text: Deuteronomy 5:15; Colossians 2:20 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost VI, July 19, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon Remember that you were a slave ... and the Lord your God brought you out ... Deuteronomy 5:15 If with Christ you died ... why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Colossians 2:20 The call to Israel to observe the Sabbath is contained within what we call the Ten Commandments: the Law. Sometimes the first five books of the Old Testament are called the Law. But that translation, “Law,” is really inaccurate in terms of conveying how Israel received that teaching. Torah was the word. The first five books were the Torah. Torah means “a way of life,” and Israel received that word as a gracious gift of God, an invitation to fullness of life, a way in which life could be lived most richly, and human potential realized most fully. But because the call to observe Sabbath is in what we call the Ten Commandments, the Law, there has always been that tendency among us to legalize that command as though it had a kind of compelling compulsion about it that forced us into a ritual of servants and we often failed, I think, to sense the gracious gift that was the Sabbath. The original Ten Commandments, is in the book of Exodus, the 20th chapter. There, as we noted last week, Israel was called to observe Sabbath in order to recall week by week the creative act of God, in order to be reminded one day in seven, in order to have their being permeated with the realization that the whole world was alive with the life of God, to understand that the whole reality was to be viewed as a sacrament, as a source of knowledge and a cause for worship, that the world, what we call nature, the cosmic expanse, was to be received as a means of grace. It is only in the last couple of hundred years, in the wake of the Enlightenment, that we have spoken about nature as something over against us and as a kind of self-contained reality that could exist on its own. The breakthroughs in scientific understanding and technological advance have tended to reduce nature to a realm out there, as though it had independent status and was a self-contained © Grand Valley State University   �Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 2   existence. How many hours haven’t we argued fruitlessly about whether or not there is such a thing as a miracle? Have you ever been in a heated discussion about whether or not “prayer changes things?” I think that those very questions are the wrong questions. They propose a model in which there is the whole realm of nature, with God out there somewhere, having to break in. We speak of intervention, breaking in, as though all of this kind of exists on its own and now and then, on occasion, here and there, God drops in but, if God would be involved, would impact, would influence, God must come as permeating, as breathing in, as the life of the cosmos being the consequence of the breath of God. “You breathe and give them life,” said the psalmist. The last couple of hundred years in modern culture we have lost that sense of the world as Sacramental. Israel was called to pause at the end of every week, to stop, to look, to listen and to delight in creation as the gracious work of the good and gracious God; to rest, to let go, to cease their ceaseless striving and struggle, their desire to control and to manipulate; to give them a sense that they were not after all indispensable for the sustaining of all things. God is quite able to keep the planet in motion and the stars in the sky. God is beyond us; God is in us, with us and in all things so that all things must become a Sacrament that points us to God. To stop on Sabbath and smell the roses and luxuriate in the prodigal goodness of God who made the world, whose intention is for us to live in the world as if it were a Garden of Eden, a place of delight - that is the call of Sabbath. In a wonderful essay entitled “On Common Prayer,” Catherine Madsen makes the point that there is a holiness there - there! It is a given. She makes the point that holiness, that otherness, is in us intimately, permeating every atom of our body. God can’t abandon us. God is with us, in us, permeating the whole of reality, holding all things together. And then she goes on to make this wonderful connection to that sense of God that haunts us whether we name God or not. That presence of God that permeates us whether we are conscious or not is that which gives rise to unrest and the dream of redemption. She writes that “there is something that loves you in the world. ...there is something that loves you in the world.” A voice that speaks to you within, in the worst despair, is not different than the voice that called the world into being. What makes your body give off heat? It is the same fire that sleeps in the rocks and is changed from light into matter by the plants. The fire that lights the sun and the other stars. Holiness is there and there is “something out there in the world that loves you,” and the world is a means of grace if we would pause to take it in, to give heed, to pay attention with a kind of regular, rhythmic discipline. Observance of the Sabbath – resting, pausing long enough to dream another dream, and to allow our imagination to connect us with that which is not simply beyond us but is woven into the very fabric of our being. But that raises a question for us. There is something that loves you out there in the world - how would one name that love? God created the heavens and the © Grand Valley State University �Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 3   earth, and so nature is not some independent existence but is in-breathed by the breath of God. But God is not only the God of our space, but the God of our time. Israel was called to observe Sabbath in Exodus 20 to be reminded of the spatial dimension of its home in God. But in the second giving of the Law, in the book of Deuteronomy in the 5th chapter, the verses we read a moment ago, Israel is called to observe Sabbath - not to remember creation, but to remember its liberation from Egyptian slavery. There God calls Israel to remember the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath in order to be reminded one day in seven that they were slaves one time and God set them free. The God of creation is the God of covenant faithfulness. The God of creation is the God of redemption. The something that loves you out there in the world – that which is intrinsic in the very fabric of reality – has a name and a face. It is a God who is for us, who would always liberate and set us free, the God who is gracious and who is on the side of God’s people. And so Israel was called every seventh day to stop, to rest and to worship. And in that pause, in that oasis at the end of the week, to have its perspective shaped once again. To know that it lives in the environment, the spatial expanse brought forth by the Word of God, and that it lived as a people graced by the God that would set all humankind free. The God of Creation. The God of Redemption. And we can see how Israel annually in its Passover Feast celebrated that release from bondage, from the slavery in Egypt – but not only annually in the Passover Feast, but every Sabbath. Every week in the rhythm of labor and liturgy, in the rhythm of work and worship it was called to remember and to hope. God is not only the God of creation, but the God of history, the God of our time. So Israel was called always to remember that the God of its past would be the God of its future, and Israel was the one who gave to the world a whole sense of history - of movement. The ancient Eastern cultures lived in the eternal cycle of the coming and return. Israel gave to the world the idea of a beginning, and an end, and a meantime, and in its festival celebrations, it remembered and it hoped. It had already received and it had a promise of more to come, and it lived always in that remembering and hoping. Christian worship is patterned obviously on that as well, for we are a people who come together weekly. We celebrate one great central event, when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. We celebrate on the first day of the week because on the first day of the week God raised Jesus from the dead. We call the first day of the week the Lord’s Day. And we come together, not only on Easter Sunday to celebrate the Resurrection, but we come together Sunday by Sunday by Sunday, because every Sunday is a little Easter. Even the Sundays in the season of Lent are not Lenten days, they are Sundays in Lent, because in the inside of the church it was recognized that, after Easter, you cannot keep Lent on Sunday. You know I see how difficult it is for churches to make changes, but twenty years ago we changed our name to Christ Community Church. For twenty years pastors © Grand Valley State University �Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 4   have contacted me to ask, “How in the world did you do that? We had a “Name the Church contest and everybody got offended and we lost the whole thing.” I don’t know how we did it, but we did. But most of the time churches can’t do anything. Most of the time you can’t change anything in the church because it is all absolutized and made sacred as though it is God’s way once it’s done. And it seems the greatest blasphemy to violate the principle “we have always done it that way.” I would have liked to have been there in the early church when they moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Can you imagine the discussions around the table as they were breaking bread and pouring the cup? For centuries, for generations, it’s in the Bible, the seventh day. When I was a kid there was an old man in the north end of Kalamazoo who had a stake truck with big sides. It looked like that house over on Jackson in Grand Haven, where it’s written all over you know - verses, and you can read the news by going by the house. (Laughter) This truck was plastered with writing. I remember as a little kid that he offered so much money to the person that could prove that the church should move from the seventh day to the first day of worship. I always wanted to take up that challenge, but the prize wasn’t enough to validate the work. But I will never forget that, and I wondered about that as a kid. But now I wonder about how they were ever able to do it. Can you imagine? Moving from Saturday to Sunday? And, obviously in doing that, they were moving to the first day of the week as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead because they knew now that the center of their life was in Christ. “Your life is hid with Christ in God, if then you will be raised with Christ.” Their whole life was in Christ. The whole ball game was the new life, the new creation in Jesus Christ. And so they moved from that Sabbath observance to the observance of Sabbath on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, Little Easter, in order, week by week, by week, to remember. It wasn’t enough once in the springtime to come together in a great press of people in the resurrection. Once every week, the first day of the week. Every time we gather here it is because God raised Christ from the dead. And because he lives, you too live! Every week we come here in order to have confirmed again in the depths of our being “that there is someone out there that loves us,” that the God that we serve is the God of grace and liberation and freedom, who would break the shackles of every form of human bondage and servitude. The God whom we worship is a God for us, the God who brings us joy and springs forth from us - doxology and praise and hallelujah. The whole worship of the Church is celebration of Easter, and that was so overwhelming that they were able to break with that deeply imbedded tradition. Something written in the Word of God to observe the seventh day - moved to the first day, which shows that they were liberated. They were freed from religion. © Grand Valley State University �Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 5   Oh, to be free from religion. Religion binds and cripples. Jesus was so angry at the religious leaders who piled legalism upon legalism, regulation upon regulation. He said, “You make these people seven times more the children of hell than when you began with them.” Paul writes after the resurrection and after Easter to those who were disturbing the Easter at Colossi. And he said to the believers, “Don’t let anybody upset you and deceive you with philosophies about don’t handle and don’t touch, and don’t taste. Don’t let anybody lay on you some kind of ironclad rule that says you’ve got to do this on Sunday or Saturday or on Monday or Tuesday. Are you not free? Have you not died with Christ and been raised again? If then you be with Christ, set your mind on the things that are above, while your life is hid in Christ with God. You are free by God’s grace, and don’t forget it.” The only way not to forget it is to observe Sabbath, to pause in the regular rhythm of one’s life. Instead of six and one it becomes one and six. And it is the same principle. It is that we might never doubt that there is a great, gracious life force permeating into the whole of reality and every molecule and atom of our body that could never abandon us. “Something out there loves you in the world,” and that love has a name and a face, and it has appeared in our midst as Jesus Christ our Lord, who was raised from the dead. As I was thinking about this I realized how important it is. I confessed to you last week and said that being raised as a kid amid the heavy legalism of Sabbath observance, I was tempted to kick the habit. Going into this profession that was difficult, but I did everything possible to convince myself that I wasn’t really still bound in that kind of legalism. Then I began to see that the observance of Sabbath was such a great gift and grace, and that the only way that the people of God have continued through the generations is that they have been a people who have never forgotten because they have always been called to remember. And unless there is a discipline and a routine and a rhythm in our lives, we will soon forget. It is easy to forget. God will not cease loving you, but you will cease being conscious of it. And what is it to be loved and not be conscious of it. And so we are called to take heed, to pay attention. So I grumble a bit about ugly Sundays, but as a kid I did know that there was a special day, and as a kid I did know who I was and to whom I belonged. The only problem is, I think in the western tradition of the Christian church, we somehow or other got our focus off Resurrection and Easter, and moved it to the cross and Good Friday and our sin and our guilt. You say, “Well isn’t that what the Bible says?” No. Not the only thing the Bible says. You say, “Well isn’t that Christian?” No. It’s western, medieval, Catholic Christianity that permeates our Reformed Protestantism as well. The focus of the Western Church – Roman, medieval, filtering into Reformation, Protestant – has its center in the cross. Its fascination is with sin and guilt as the major problem, and the atonement. © Grand Valley State University �Observing Sabbath; Celebrating Grace Richard A. Rhem Page 6   Now if you were raised in the Eastern Orthodox Church in Istanbul, if you were a child of the Eastern Rite, you wouldn’t know all about that cross and heavy sin and guilt, and strong emphasis on atonement. You would come into this church and it would be foggy. You could hardly see me - and that might be a means of grace. (Laughter) But the reason that you wouldn’t be able to see me clearly is because there would be these clouds of incense. If you went to San Sofia in Istanbul in this marvelous, marvelous place you would see an old mosaic of the victorious Pentocrater, the triumphant Christ. And from the altar there would be billows of smoke going heavenward and there would be priests everywhere in all kinds of flowing garb. There would be all of the warmth and sensuousness of that which is human, poised and praising in Doxology the Creator who had raised Jesus from the dead. A totally different feel. A different focus. A different center. Which is right? Well, you need a little of both. But I would have to vote with the Eastern Rite because and this is my basis for saying that – in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with its focus on Easter, on Resurrection, on a risen Christ and Doxology as worship and praise, you still experience the original intention of moving off Saturday to Sunday, rather than moving off Saturday to Good Friday. Now I have never read that anywhere and I can’t swear it is true, but I wonder. Isn’t that interesting? In the instance of the infant Christian community, they did not make their sacred day Friday, they made it Sunday because the central thing is not sin and our guilt and the cross, it is the life-giving gracious God who raises Jesus from the dead and permeates us with life, who promised “because I live, you too shall live.” So Sunday is a celebration. It is a day for Doxology. It is a day for incense. It is a day for pulling out all the stops. For dancing and singing. (From the congregation “Amen.”) All right - I have been waiting twenty-five years for that. (Laughter and applause.) I’ll bet you I am right. I bet I’m right. And I’ll bet you church going wouldn’t be just a heavy obligation, a legalistic demand, if it were such that one came just one day in seven into this place and was lost in wonder, love and grace and praise, knowing that the whole world is resplendent and shot through with God’s life, that the something out there that loves one is the Creator and the Liberator, the God revealed in the face of Jesus. Then Sabbath observance would become the gift and the joy that I suspect that God always intended it to be. Paul said, “Don’t let anybody lay a lot of legalistic clap-trap on you, but don’t forget to remember.” As I said, I grumble a bit about all those ugly Sundays. They nearly killed me as a kid. But I’ll tell you what, parents and grandparents. You bring your kids here regularly Sunday after Sunday, bring them to the Eucharist Sunday after Sunday, kneel with them. Let them hear you sing and watch you pray, and they’ll be as hopelessly addicted as I am. The center of Christian worship is Doxology, and the central act is Eucharist, which is a Greek word for thanksgiving. And on Easter this past year I celebrated the bread and the wine as Eucharist for the first time in my life - I took Holy Communion on Easter and suddenly understood its true heart: the presence of the risen, living Lord. That that’s worship. That’s good, huh? I like it. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost VI Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Deuteronomy 5:15, Colossians 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-0-19920719 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-07-19 Title A name given to the resource Observing Sabbath, Celebrating Grace and Freedom 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 19, 1992 entitled "Observing Sabbath, Celebrating Grace and Freedom", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Deuteronomy 5:15, Colossians 2:20. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Creation Easter Immanence Love Sabbath Sacrament Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f8482a748187fcad933e7d2ad28aa6c1.mp3 e13095ec398e64df661d6469ec49c7b6 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 Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Exodus 20:8, Hebrews 4:9-10 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-0-19920712 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-07-12 Title A name given to the resource Observing Sabbath: Sanctifying Creation 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 July 12, 1992 entitled "Observing Sabbath: Sanctifying Creation", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 20:8, Hebrews 4:9-10. 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/a4d08ed47709b920422d603b42a49b2a.mp3 97e2fe9c0ad4ae9393a5c97361b5432d https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ed46a79024a8494fad683cd667526f25.pdf 830f890b2c7f8b0d2fd0c46e451c8958 PDF Text Text The Word: A Means of Grace; Story as Sacrament From the series: The Sacramental Character of the Church Text: Isaiah 55:11; Acts 10:44 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost IV, July 5, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon ...so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose... Isaiah 55:11 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. Acts 10:44 If you have any important summer events for which the weather is important, don’t talk to me. This is a day of the Rhem Reunion - thundershowers predicted at noon - just when the grill is getting really hot. (Laughter) But, it’s a pleasure to have so many of my family here: aunts, sisters, brothers-in law, nieces and nephews, and the lower generation. Nancy and I are especially grateful this morning that we have six kids in church. Pretty good, huh? Good introduction for a sermon on population control, of course. But we didn’t know what the other was doing for a long time - I mean, before we met. (Laughter) I had better get to preaching. As a matter of fact the sermon does have something to do with population control. Population control is really only one dimension, but the planet earth is in trouble. There is a crisis in the world, a crisis in the universe. And it is being recognized on many fronts. Last month there was a world-class summit, the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro where the leaders of the nations gathered to discuss the whole situation of the environment, of the state of the planet. The United Nations sponsored the conference on the environment and development but that’s where the rub is. The resources of the earth are being used up and consumed at a greater rate than the earth in its own natural cycle can replenish itself. The human race has done great damage to ecology from time immemorial, but it was rather localized and the population was not that great. But today, for the first time, population being what it is and technology being what it is, we are as a matter of fact outstripping the resources of the earth. There is a crisis on planet Earth and it is serious, and it is a matter of universal human concern, and it is a matter of concern to biblical Christians, to biblical people. © Grand Valley State University   �The Word, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   Now sometimes issues like this tend to become trendy and band wagon issues, and there are those nuts on the lunatic fringe that tend to turn us off and to offend us. Apart from them, of course, our attention would not be grasped. But sometimes they also enable us to write the issue off and to say, “Well, that’s just a matter of a few nuts, and it doesn’t really concern us.” Well, I want to say this morning that it does really concern us, and the situation is serious. The conference was held in Rio de Janeiro last month, but last year in Cambera, Australia at an assembly of the World Council of Churches there was a major focus on justice and peace, and the integrity of creation. The integrity of creation has become one of those catch words in our day as the Church has come to recognize the serious dimensions of the environmental crisis. Justice and peace, and the integrity of creation are major foci of the Church’s thinking and reflection today, and well they should be. I suppose that there are some of you here who really get turned off with all of the claptrap about the environment as though it were a non-issue. You would probably like to spit at a spotted owl, or what was that silly fish that held up the building of the dam in Tennessee? Maybe it is still held up, I don’t know. Satire can make a laughing matter of such environmental concerns. However, we cannot simply sidestep this issue. I felt that our own president lost an opportunity for world leadership in Rio at that conference. I heard his rationale for our foot-dragging. He said, “After all, the United States has done more than any other nation on these issues.” True. He said, “The United States has spent more billions of dollars than any other nation on these issues.” True. And he said, “We don’t have a lot of money for these issues.” True, I suppose. But, let’s be honest folks. This perspective was given to me by my friend Ernie Campbell, who is a fellow pastor and writes some notes quarterly, who said, “You know it is rather difficult to make an impact on the world when you are the powerful and the affluent of the world.” For example, he says, it is a shame that the rain forests in the Amazon basin are being decimated. But how impressive is it when we sent our lecture down to the Amazon basis from our four, five and six bedroom houses with three, four and six bathrooms all nicely sided with cedar shakes? And how much will we be believed as we lecture the world on the virtues of riding a bicycle as we step out of our Mercedes or Chevrolets, as the case may be? And, will we really be heard when we suggest to the peoples of the world that it is necessary to conserve energy when we sit here in air conditioned comfort in the coolest church in town? (Laughter) You see it is awfully easy to be self righteous. As Ernie Campbell said, “It reminds me of the time when I was a kid and we used to play King on a Hill,” and he said, “when I got to the top after clawing my way up I wanted to say ‘Stop the game. Freeze the position. Now that we are at the top, let’s everybody act responsibly.’” I hope there will be some technological breakthrough, some way in which we will expand the resources of the earth beyond our fondest dream. And that’s really © Grand Valley State University �The Word, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   what has been the story of human development. They were up there in space long enough recently to maybe have brought back a crop of tomatoes. Who knows what potential there is in the cosmos for the meeting of human needs to make life sustainable on the planet? But in the meantime, the crisis is there. It is our responsibility and it is up to us either to pay the tab or to wind down our consumption and simplify our lives. It simply won’t wash to lecture the Third World on environmental preservation and conservation while we go blithely on our way, the greatest consumers that the world has ever known. But you know, the issue is greater than a matter of human survival. The real issue is that we have not valued and cared for God’s good creation. God created the heavens and the earth, and God looked it all over and God said, “It’s very good.” And God rested on the seventh day and luxuriated in the wonder of the worlds to which he had given birth. Creation is God’s and we are called to value it, and to bless it, and to bless the Creator in the blessing of creation. It is not ours. It is really a relatively recent thing that the human race has raped the earth and treated it as an object at our disposal. You can trace it back to the 18th century, to the Enlightenment. The same kind of philosophical thinking and experimentation that has led to such fruitfulness in the natural sciences has also led us to view the whole planet and the cosmic reality as that over against which we can have dominion, and we can manipulate, and we can use and abuse, that we can exploit for our own purposes. It is almost as though we have in mind that the earth and the plants, and the animals, and the sky and the sea exist for us, for the satisfaction of our wants and our desires, for our pleasure. We have failed to see our connectedness with all that is alive. We have failed to see ourselves in the continuum of creative reality and through the Industrial Revolution, in our consumer society, we have raped the earth; we have abused creation; we are outstripping the resources presently available to us. And it is high time that we question the whole modern approach to the world that has made it a “thing” to be used. It is high time that we get off our highhorse, anthropocentrically looking at reality as though it is there for us and failing to see ourselves as a part of the linkage of life. We have to get back to a biblical understanding of things. God created the heavens and the earth, and God blessed creation. Maybe you say to me, “But doesn’t it say in Genesis 1, at the end of the chapter, that God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over creation?” It does. And there may have been a day when that was God’s word, but that word dominion dare not be used today because that word dominion, which could mean to rule as a servant, has come to mean to dominate and to have dominion over, and to exploit. The dominion model won’t work today. Most who look at these things and who study these things biblically have moved to a stewardship model. God has made us stewards of the earth. We are the trustees of creation. We are called to preserve, to conserve, to care for the created order. © Grand Valley State University �The Word, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   But there are some who are saying we need to go even farther than that, that stewardship, although it calls to mind human dignity and the agency of the human person in the whole creation of things and their operation and accords a certain dignity to the human person created in the image of the person of God; nonetheless, stewardship in our day, in the light of the crisis, even gives us still too much of that over-againstness. It is being suggested by some today – and it comes out of a rich, ancient Christian church heritage in the Eastern tradition – it is being suggested today that we think in terms, not of dominion, not even of stewardship, but of a sacramental model. That we begin to see creation as that stuff of reality that becomes for us alive with God, that creation becomes the material tangibly that conveys to us the knowledge of God and the grace of God, that we see the whole of creation as alive with the life of God. So that, just as bread and cup and water have become vehicles of grace, tangible material things, outward signs of inward and spiritual reality, so we begin to look at our world that way. A sacramental model of reality would see the world as a pointer to the Creator and all of creation, drawing forth from us praise and doxology. That we develop “Epiphany Eyes” in order to see through created reality and to recognize as the Psalmist said, “That all life is alive with the breath of God.” Apart from the breath of God there is no life. “You breathe and give them life,” he says. And so the whole created order needs to be recognized more and more as alive with divinity. I love to sit on the bluff and listen to the surf. When it is a gentle surf, the constant lapping of the waves in rhythmic regularity reminds me of a cosmic breathing. Breathing in and breathing out. Breath, spirit, the cosmos pulsating with the life that is the life of God and, therefore, the whole of created reality, a pointer to the creator, drawing forth worship and praise. How will we ever be able to develop such a sense? Is it not by observing Sabbath? Is it not by heeding the biblical word, the call to observe Sabbath in the Old Testament where the law, (and incidentally we speak of the Ten Commandments or the Law, but the better word is the Torah, which meant to the Hebrew a way of life), the way of life in Exodus 20, and the way of life in Deuteronomy 5 both called Israel, both call us, to observe Sabbath. But in the case of Deuteronomy it was to observe Sabbath to remember the redemption from Egypt. In Exodus 20 the call to remember Sabbath is to remember creation, for the writer says, “Six days God created and rested on the seventh day.” Israel was called in that rhythm of worship and work: life and liturgy - to remember in ever reoccurring cycles that all of reality was a gift of God through the observance of Sabbath. Sabbath means rest, and that to which God called God’s people was to cease, to stop, to look, to listen. That to which God called God’s people was simply to let go, to take one’s hands off the controls. Simply to be. Now when I get home, I am glad that I will be surrounded by about fifty strong family, otherwise Nancy would take me aside and lecture me severely and say, “Preacher, heal yourself.” Being a Dutch Calvinist who grew up believing that © Grand Valley State University �The Word, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   salvation was through suffering and one’s labor, it is very hard for me to cease from my labor. Sabbath calls us to stop. There is that in us which struggles and strives and seeks to achieve. There is that indispensability complex that forgets that the world will get on jolly well with us or without us. There is that in us that gives ourselves far too much credit and too much responsibility for the ongoing movement of things. God said to Israel, “Stop. Look. Listen. And in your pause let me whisper to you that it is I that keeps the planets in orbit, and the fields green, and the rivers flowing, and the rain falling. It is I, in that greater grace of life that embraces you, that sustains you and keeps you in existence.” Sabbath. Stop. Look. Listen. Luxuriate - after the example of God. Why did God rest after the sixth day? Was God exhausted? I don’t really think so. Was God bored? Probably not. Did God need refueling in order to go back to work the next day? Hardly so. Why did God stop? Did not God stop simply to delight in that which God made? And is not to observe Sabbath an invitation to delight in the wonder of the world? To take a moment to revel in joy at birds and bees, and creepy crawly things, turtles and rosebuds, and starry nights and a fresh breeze that wafts across one on a summer’s eve. Sunrise and sunset, the succession of the seasons: Springtime and harvest, Summer and winter. Sun, moon and stars in their courses above. All of it if we just stop - and look - and listen. Inviting us to move beyond it all to the one who upholds it all by the word of power, whose grace embraces all, who calls us to delight. Matthew Fox, the Catholic theologian in trouble with the Vatican, suggests that the Church has been so hung up with original sin that it has forgotten original blessing. Before Genesis 3 is Genesis 2, the creation of a garden named Eden, which means delight. And the whole covenant of grace and the whole salvation thing is simply an emergency means to the restoration and realization of God’s grander scheme of the creation of the heavens and the earth. The breath that you breath, that pulsates within you, is the same life that is in the rose and its source is the same good and gracious God. Oh, I remember Sundays as a kid - they were to be endured. As someone has said, “Ugly Sundays.” Another part of my Dutch Reformed pietism, Sundays were marked by all the things I couldn’t do. That oppressive legalism has created a lot of dysfunction in our lives. It has taken me a long time to get over my rebellion against that suppression of delight to the point at which I realize that the invitation to observe Sabbath is an invitation of the good and gracious God who formed my well being and says “Delight. Just sit there and delight. Don’t do anything. Simply be and let grace wash over you.” The writer to the Hebrews says, “Today if you hear my voice, harden not your heart. Enter into the joy of the delight of God’s wonderful world.” Thank God. © Grand Valley State University � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost IV Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Isaiah 55:11, Acts 10:44 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-0-19920705 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-07-05 Title A name given to the resource The Word: A Means of Grace: Story as Sacrament 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 5, 1992 entitled "The Word: A Means of Grace: Story as Sacrament", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 55:11, Acts 10:44. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Creation Panentheism Sacramental Model of Reality Wonder https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3aeb1da99a1b23368086d8f1980c0b97.mp3 eaf1999e48b447d216d28e09f18a0868 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e832f434b13602fb3edfeec7c26aa640.pdf 07ce538fb677fdfcd2d487f3bd88711d PDF Text Text Eucharist: A Means of Grace, A Sign of Presence From the series: The Sacramental Character of the Church Text: Exodus 13:8; Mark 14:23-24 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost III, June 28, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon You shall tell your child on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. Exodus 13:8 ... This is my body. ...This is my blood... Mark 14:23-34 Jesus knew now that inevitably he would die. It must have filled him with all kinds of questions. We know that he left the supper and went into the garden and was stricken with grief - his soul full of anguish. We know on the cross he cried out in dereliction, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus was not a marionette on a string, simply going through the motions as though he was some invader from outer space, some extraterrestrial visitor who was sent down by God to execute a certain plan and then return again. Jesus walked this way, slugged it out in the genuineness of his human existence, fully faithful to the vision, to the calling he understood himself to be called to. And now inevitably he was going to die. Everything that he had claimed was seemingly crashing in around his head. The New Testament scholar Edward Scheelebeeks says that at least in this supper, at least in this moment, Jesus just had begun to appropriate his death into whatever God was doing in him and through him. He must have known now that, unless he had totally gotten his signals crossed, unless his life would come to futility, somehow or other what God was doing, inaugurating God’s rule would have to be comprehended in this inevitable death that loomed before him. It was Passover and as a faithful Jew, Jesus would keep Passover with his disciples. As he gathered with them, feeling already the weight of the morrow, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them and said, “This is my body.” And when they completed the meal, he poured another cup and said to them, “This is the covenant in my blood. And when you eat this bread and drink this cup know that I am with you. Remember me.” It must have been in reflecting on Jesus’ death and his resurrection and the amazement of the encounter with the living Lord after Easter that the Church © Grand Valley State University   �Eucharist, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 2   began to formalize that meal. It was obviously in the pattern of the Old Testament - God delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt. Moses said to Israel, each year on the anniversary of this deliverance celebrate this meal, this Passover feast. And so they remembered and experienced again the deliverance of God from the bondage of Egypt, and on the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus at Passover time, gathered with his disciples around the table and gave that Passover feast this twist that now it would be a remembrance of him, of his death and of his life. And through two thousand years the Church, as its central act of worship, gathered at the table, broke bread, poured the cup and remembered Jesus. Remembering is an important part of our human experience. This week as a nation we will pause and remember the birth of this nation. For us the 4th of July has lost some of its luster, I suppose. We don’t know tyranny and oppression, by and large. Some of those who have just emerged from it will tell you how deeply moved they are at the celebrations that remind them of their roots and their past, able now again in the freedom that they know, to celebrate them with joy. But we will pause and we will remember, and yet what we will do on the 4th of July is really nothing compared to what Israel was called to do by Moses. The understanding of that ritual, that celebration, in their experience, in the categories of their thought, in their language, was to call them not simply to remember an ancient event but, remembering, to bring it present, to represent it, so that they could with each succeeding generation enter into that experience. The youngest child had a part to play. We’ve celebrated Passover suppers here at Christ Community during Holy Week, and the youngest child has a part to play because that youngest child is to be incorporated into the experience. Not just ancient history, but the present experience of being a people of God’s grace, separately claimed. Each generation was to enter into the experience personally to appropriate that which was celebrated with joy centuries before. Maybe the closest we come to it is the spiritual, “Were You There When They Crucified Our Lord? Were you there when he rose up from the grave?” Not simply to remember something past, but, as it were, to bring it into the present - to experience its power even here and now. That, I think, was the Hebrew experience of Passover and is to this day. And that was the model on which Jesus, when he gathered with his disciples at the table, was saying to them, I suspect: “I don’t know what in the world God is doing but, somehow or other in my presence with you, God is present to you and in this cup of fellowship, in this bread, we are one, and in whatever future God has in store, I will be with you there as well. So take bread, remember me. Take the cup. Know my presence.” One of a former century wrote these words which I think are rich with imagery, trying to grasp what it is that happens when we taken these elements. The blood that we must drink or have no life in us, that precious blood of Christ is not the blood of his poor crucified body. But it is of that body of © Grand Valley State University �Eucharist, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 3   which he is the head and we are the members. It is the life’s blood that flows from his heart of hearts into the veins of us his spiritual members. It is the blood that is the very life of him who living by the Father drinks the very wine of God and of heaven, and which becomes in us the very life of God. Sounds mystical. I don’t know quite how to understand that, but the intention should be clear. Jesus gave us something that, like the Passover feast down through generations, would incorporate each new child of covenant grace into the experience of God’s grace. The Church is a place where the means of grace are regularly offered. We speak of baptism and the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper - those two sacraments. There are more I think. And we speak of the preached word as the means of grace: a channel, a vehicle, a way by which somehow or other God’s grace becomes tangible in our experience – a way beyond the idea and the truth of it to the experience of it. A means of grace. In the Church we have the baptismal font with its water, by which we are initiated and have that sign of belonging. And we have this table set with bread and cup by which we come to remember, but, in remembering, to experience the presence of our Living Lord, who binds us together as brothers and sisters and sends us out forgiven and renewed again, energized, enlivened with the life of God flowing through us to be God’s people in the world. The Sacramental Character of the Church: How can I preach? How can I use words that might enable you to experience? I said last week, I come to doubt preaching, preachers, and sermons when I see the distortion. Oh dear friends, the distortion in the Church of the Word of God. When I hear sermons that twist the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder if it is not a time in the Church when we need a moratorium on preaching? Perhaps we ought simply to come here and baptize our young and those who come to faith and break bread, and drink the cup and hear the words, “I love you. This is my body. This is my blood. You are forgiven, renewed, embraced by grace. You, for all the world, for all time, just come here for a while without words.” Our Reformation tradition was a reaction, of course, a necessary reaction, and corrective at the time. And we claimed that we kept pulpit and table on the same level, but we didn’t at all. The pulpit has loomed so large; the table has almost faded into oblivion. I am so conditioned by that. The shelves of my library are a parable: Last night I walked around them to my dismay. Although I knew it already, I actually got up from my desk and looked. On the shelves are yards and yards of books on preaching. Hardly six inches of books on the sacraments. I was so frustrated - I could preach to you for a solid year on the Eucharist and not mine the riches of its truth. I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t even know how to do it. I am feeling - probing after something - the sacramental character of the church! Our worship has been so anemic, so impoverished, and so noisy with © Grand Valley State University �Eucharist, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 4   words. We have never learned to worship! And I find myself almost at a loss to lead you into a fuller experience of grace. How can I enable you somehow or other to taste and handle things on the scene? How do you experience God? How does grace reach you? What setting? Some of you would tell me that grace reaches you around the table of an AA meeting. Some of you might say simply to come into this place, to hear the music begin, to see the candles flicker, to have the table set. Some of you, simply feeling the body of the one next to you, reminding you that you are not alone and you are part of a community. I don’t know how to tell you. But I do know that there is in the experience of the Eucharist a level of experience that does not come filtered through the head, but is able to move down through the head and into the heart and into the gut. We are so intellectually oriented, so word oriented, so impoverished in our worship. How can I help you, maybe even this morning, to have some fresh experience of grace made tangible? I am moving in my own experience, to the frustration of some of you. It was said not so long ago by a very fine member of this congregation, “By now Dick Rhem ought to have his mind made up and know what he believes.” Not so. Oh, I know in whom I believe, but there’s so much more. We have been so impoverished in our experience, and as I said, I try myself to reach after it and find that it needs to be more than a head-trip. There needs to be those means - those vehicles of grace that can grasp us somewhere here so that grace become tangible. Would you open your life to some new possibility? You have been so conditioned to come here and hear a sermon. You have been so conditioned to be a spectator in worship, to have something done to you and for you. Would you think that there might be a richer experience of worship than you have ever yet experienced? Could I invite you on a pilgrimage of opening your life to something more than the noise of words, that just perchance there might be some touch of grace? I understand the elders in Geneva in the 16th century. The Eucharistic celebration had become encrusted with custom and superstition, and magic, and abuse. I understand their reaction. I understand the elders of Geneva who said that Eucharist would be celebrated only four times a year, and then it will be special; then it will be exalted. I understand. But a great tragedy has stemmed from that. For I feel the feast has not become so very special. The greater consequence is that we lost our appetite for it. So many of us, born and bred on sermons, could even do without it. I believe the Church is on a shaky foundation if it lives by words alone. It is this water. It is that bread and that cup that keep us right at the heart of it all: the grace of God incarnate in Jesus Christ our Lord, who loved us and gave himself for us. I remember, over fifty years ago, a Lord’s Day as though it were yesterday. I must have been in kindergarten. I had gone to morning worship with my father and my three sisters. It was Communion Sunday. We came home and my mother was preparing dinner and my sisters were helping, and my father, as he often did, sat in the rattan rocker on the huge screened-in porch that spanned the front of the © Grand Valley State University �Eucharist, a Means of Grace… Richard A. Rhem Page 5   huge, huge old house we lived in, and child-like I bounced up to him and said, “Daddy, when can I have that bread?” A child’s question moved him to tears and he looked up at me and said, “I pray for the day you have bread.” And I heard him tell that story time and time again. And I feel impoverished because I could not, as my grandchildren can here, sit between my father and mother and take the bread and take the cup. If only he could have taken me next Lord’s Day. If only I could have knelt with my father and received the bread and heard the pastor say, “Jesus loves you.” It would have been an impression more lasting even than that front porch scene. I am so thankful that we are learning to take bread and cup, opening our lives to a dimension of the grace of God that comes in another way. I invite you to put away your resistance, to short-circuit your presuppositions, to let go of all your former experience and today for the first time take the bread, and take the cup and ask God to make Jesus alive to you. I invite 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 Pentecost III Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Exodus 13:8, Mark 14:23-24 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19920628 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-06-28 Title A name given to the resource Eucharist: A Means of Grace, A Sign of Presence 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 28, 1992 entitled "Eucharist: A Means of Grace, A Sign of Presence", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Exodus 13:8, Mark 14:23-24. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Eucharist Grace Jesus' Death Passover Sacrament Worship https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/12684cd51680ffa776222dcbb8c20270.mp3 1ff68b14a8494bc4c70b22735b461e75 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8a6124f79dcdf032cee653daad323743.pdf 907def2f2ee5c775a3e886ef5d2cb208 PDF Text Text Baptism: A Means of Grace: A Sign of Belonging From the series: The Sacramental Character of the Church Genesis 17:11; Acts 2:38-39 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan Pentecost II, June 21, 1992 Transcription of the spoken sermon You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant... Genesis 17:11 Repent, and be baptized every one of you ... For the promise is for you, for your children... Acts 2:38-39 The conception of the Covenant Community that had characterized Israel all its days was reaffirmed on that first Pentecost in a most beautiful way. The Covenant Community, instituted first in Abraham and Sarah and the birth of Isaac, was to be a special people called by God. That community was given a sign of belonging, a right of initiation. It was the sign of circumcision, and in that Old Testament community, Abraham received the sign at 99 years, Ishmael at 13 years (Yes, parents there is even hope for adolescents), and if we would go to chapter 21, we see little Isaac at 8 days, all receiving the same sign, with the same meaning: a means of grace, a sign of belonging. This special people marked their flesh and were set apart by God for a special purpose: to be God’s people in the world, to bear witness to the light and the salvation that God’s grace would create and was creating a people by which God would finally realize God’s eternal purposes of love for the world. On the day of Pentecost, Peter pointed to Jesus, the crucified one who was now exalted by God and present in the power of the Spirit. He said, “This Jesus, whom you crucified, God has raised up.” And they said, “Well, what should we do?” Peter said, “Repent. Change your mind. Revolutionize your thinking. Recognize that you have to turn around 180 degrees and recognize that this one that was crucified was indeed God’s special envoy, the Word of God incarnate in your midst. Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. For the promise is to you and to your children, and all who are afar off to the extent of the world the universalizing grace of God now through the Gospel. The promise is to you.” What promise? The covenant promise. The promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah. “I will be a God to you and to your seed after you.” The heart of the © Grand Valley State University   �Baptism: Sign of Grace and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 2   covenant promise is the Word of God, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” And in that Old Testament community the sign of circumcision functioned as a mark in their flesh of special relationship to God, for special work in the world. And in the New Testament time, at that hinge point in the life of the people of God, Peter stood up and said, “It’s the same promise, and it means the same thing, and so change your minds and be washed in waters of baptism. For the promise is yours as well - and your children’s.” Baptism - a means of grace, a sign of belonging. I want to begin this morning to reflect with you for a week or two or three or four on the Sacramental Character of the Church. I could do little more than introduce the idea this morning, and probably I can do that best by giving you a bit of a personal narrative of how I have moved through the years of my ministry to an ever-deepening appreciation and experience of the meaningfulness of the sacramental life of the Church. Now, as Pam said, “I am an incurable preacher.” I can’t really help myself - that’s all I can do and I just keep on doing it and would probably wither up and die if I couldn’t preach any more. I am reflective of the Reformed tradition in which I have been nurtured and shaped, and educated in the centrality of the Word of God, the centrality of the proclamation of the Word of God, the centrality of preaching. In the Reformed tradition we have said that table and pulpit are equally important on the same level but, as a matter of fact, the pulpit has far ascended or moved to the ascendancy. We are a people of the Word. We have been shaped by preaching. We have continued to baptize adults and infants and, in our tradition, quarterly to come to this Eucharist table. But really, the sermon has been the thing. I always believed in the power of preaching. I never experienced in my earlier years a great impact of the sacraments - in our case, the celebration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The Roman Catholic tradition has seven sacraments. It doesn’t really matter. It is foolish to argue about those things, but in our tradition, in Protestantism at large: baptism and Lord’s Supper. And we’ve continued to do that, but I have to admit that I was leery of baptism in my earlier years. If you would go back in the archives of the Church Herald, the house organ of the Reformed Church in American, back in about 1961-1962 when I was at this congregation right out of seminary (really should have been put in a cage for a few years), but they let me loose on this congregation. A great sign of grace is that after being gone for seven years, they even asked me back. In those early years I wrote an article that appeared in the Church Herald entitled, “Covenant Children Must Be Converted.” What was I worried about? I was worried about too much reliance on covenant relationship. I was worried about too much reliance on the sacrament of baptism, as creating a genuine and authentic relationship to God. I wanted to say, “You’ve got to be converted.” Oh, I used to burn up the aisles, pound the pulpit, really get excited in my youth. © Grand Valley State University �Baptism: Sign of Grace and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 3   Now, in the springtime of my senility, (Laughter) I have come to see the sermon as a very shaky business. The more preachers I get to know, and the more sermons that I hear as I flip through the dial and watch the television tube, the more distrust I have of preachers and their preaching. There is all too much freedom given to preachers. Too much arbitrary word going out - going out with such pomp and circumstance - with such dogmatic assurance, knowing things that one wonders if even God knows. I don’t trust the sermon any more. I still believe in preaching. (We are not going to take a vote on that in this congregation this morning. (Laughter.) I’ve got a few vocational years to fulfill yet, so I want us to take that vote in another ten years or so.) But, I want to say to you that I am more impressed today with this baptismal font (reaching into the font) and the water that runs down the beautiful little noses of lovely little children. Not as a cutesy little ceremony, but as a sign of grace. As a sign of grace. The sermon was given vivid and eloquent expression this morning before the sermon began. The message was in the infant in arms. The infant presented. The infant signed. The recipient of grace. And as that child grows, that child has been marked. In our practice as we continue to deepen that experience, we present the candle so that it might be an annual celebration, that the child might learn to know “I have been baptized. I have been graced. I am claimed. I belong to Jesus.” That such children will have imprinted upon their minds and in the very fabric of their beings that they belong to God through Jesus Christ. And that a day will come – as we had two or three weeks ago, when this whole rail was lined up with wonderful young people – when they can say in their own person, “Yes. I belong to Jesus. My decision. My choice.” And then we bring them here and give them a fatter candle from this same fire and say to them, “Now, no longer need your parents to light that candle on the anniversary of your baptism. Now you will light that candle when you need to know the light of Jesus in the darkness of your adolescence, in the struggles of your youth, into your adulthood.” The story is told of Luther who had this vivid sense of the reality of the devil that may be apocryphal, I don’t know, but you know he threw the ink well at the devil. And whenever he got severely tempted, Luther could say, “I have been baptized. I have been baptized. I have been claimed. I have been owned. I am undergirded. I am overshadowed. I am embraced.” Baptism - a means of grace. In the early years of my ministry I trusted the sermon - my ability to convince, to persuade, to demonstrate. Now I know that if you put a paper bag over my head, and put a string around my neck I would be dead in a short time because all that proceeds from my mouth is gas - deadly gas. It has no power except when God breathes (phew) through the word. In the early days of my ministry I was worried that children baptized might count too much on it and, therefore, I called on them to conversion. Now I want to say to our little ones until I am blue in the face, “You belong to Jesus. You belong to Jesus. You belong to Jesus.” Until as a rose quietly, gently opening before the warming rays of the sun, they simply open © Grand Valley State University �Baptism: Sign of Grace and Belonging Richard A. Rhem Page 4   up their lives to the God who created them and has loved them from everlasting to everlasting. I don’t know why in the early years of my own experience I didn’t trust my own experience, which was filled with such nurture; I had such a home, such a church, so that I never knew a moment in which I did not know that I belonged to God. But now at least before it is too late for all of us here, we can come to see in baptismal waters, in the application of the water to the child, pure grace. All is grace. All is grace. Not in our coming forward, not in our affirmations, not in our rigorous execution of duty. Not in our morality. Not in our status. Not in our works. Nothing in us! All in God. All in grace. The sign of it - the infant marked and receiving passively a sign that says, “All is God’s. All is grace. You are not your own, but you belong to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” That promise. This water. (Pouring water through his hand.) Bread. Cup. Touch. We are bodies after all and grace is experienced when we touch - and taste - and hug - and partake - and experience the water of regeneration. All of God. All is of grace. Thank God we have been baptized, signed as belonging. Graced. Graced. Graced. All is grace. Isn’t that good! Thanks be 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 Pentecost II Series The Sacramental Character of the Church Scripture Text Genesis 17:11, Acts 2:38-39 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-0-19920621 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-06-21 Title A name given to the resource A Means of Grace, A Sign of 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 June 21, 1992 entitled "A Means of Grace, A Sign of Belonging", as part of the series "The Sacramental Character of the Church", on the occasion of Pentecost II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 17:11, Acts 2:38-39. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives Baptism Community of Faith Sacrament Universal Grace https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5abeff5984fa3024b0890230f65687c8.mp3 e221828cec22f875f83757f10f8b56a2 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 Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text John 20:21-22, Rev. 5:6, Rev. 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-0-19920614 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-06-14 Title A name given to the resource Doxology 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 June 14, 1992 entitled "Doxology", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Trinity Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 20:21-22, Rev. 5:6, Rev. 5:13. 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/14be3d9e5b4c9698d4bdc0e712eca31e.mp3 002aeb70912b8192aaeeae02a41a59a1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Pentecost Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text Gen. 1:2, Rom. 8:26-27, John 14:2-3, 12 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-0-19920607 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-06-07 Title A name given to the resource The Wind Beneath Your Wings 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 June 7, 1992 entitled "The Wind Beneath Your Wings", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Gen. 1:2, Rom. 8:26-27, John 14:2-3, 12. 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/ca8b289123b413da5cd224dfc6771ce7.mp3 1e37f1194d0267d0903952b30622977c 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 EastertideVII Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text Romans 8:31-34 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19920531 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-31 Title A name given to the resource Someone To Watch Over You 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 May 31, 1992 entitled "Someone To Watch Over You", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of EastertideVII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 8:31-34. 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/d8206bcbcb1cb1cec72054fce8c5b7eb.mp3 da0d31db8734f2119beab0c57e767530 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 VI Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text John 20:17, Col. 1:19-20 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-0-19920524 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-24 Title A name given to the resource Out of This World - Dwelling In You 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 May 24, 1992 entitled "Out of This World - Dwelling In You", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 20:17, Col. 1:19-20. 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/709f0a710b0885c5cc776d9d2c2bf4a1.mp3 10ea8f3a2f61af23b77646acbed6a056 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 V Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text John 1:1, 14, Hebrews 1:3, 5:8-9 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-0-19920517 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-17 Title A name given to the resource Truly Human and Truly God? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 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 May 17, 1992 entitled "Truly Human and Truly God?", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Eastertide V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 1:1, 14, Hebrews 1:3, 5:8-9. 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/45570c902290f382d7c6769d630b9555.mp3 73fae8d19d2d674533215086c43d3867 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 IV Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text Acts 3:19-22, Phil. 2:6-7, 9-11 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19920510 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-10 Title A name given to the resource E.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 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 May 10, 1992 entitled "E.T.?", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Eastertide IV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 3:19-22, Phil. 2:6-7, 9-11. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64deff7cbad49527a22572392a375641.mp3 a8c94f05197360b0f6e433ba73d737e3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Eastertide III Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text Mark 16:8, Acts 2:36 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-0-19920503 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-05-03 Title A name given to the resource Awestruck and Stammering 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 May 3, 1992 entitled "Awestruck and Stammering", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Eastertide III, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 16:8, Acts 2:36. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/405f89cc66c27699b050cda79bbac090.mp3 12fcf77a372401661a039506248e70ee 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 Series From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed Scripture Text Romans 1:1-17, John 20:24-31 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-0-19920426 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-04-26 Title A name given to the resource How a Man Became God Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 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 26, 1992 entitled "How a Man Became God", as part of the series "From Proclaimer To the One Proclaimed", on the occasion of Eastertide II, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Romans 1:1-17, John 20:24-31. 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/6cf1a51a24ea0823491cac34497b48f4.mp3 820d11848ad4016f1f3be1f0ed2e3aae 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 Ps. 16:11, Matt. 28:7, Col. 1:19-20 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-0-19920419 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-04-19 Title A name given to the resource The Dawn of a New 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 April 19, 1992 entitled "The Dawn of a New World", on the occasion of Easter Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Ps. 16:11, Matt. 28:7, Col. 1:19-20. 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/0986b950aeca9f5ff7151ad3708fbe23.mp3 3458391faa0cdeaef7c24d74d4e212ad 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. Series Following Jesus, Scripture Text John 13:30 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-0-19920416 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-04-16 Title A name given to the resource Night 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 16, 1992 entitled "Night", as part of the series "Following Jesus,", on the occasion of Maundy Thursday., at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: John 13:30. 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/8859185a9a2a3ff269dc1a84ba25eae1.mp3 7fa2f75c6d046297addb423847584c39 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Palm Sunday Series Following Jesus, Scripture Text Matthew 27:46 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-0-19920412 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1992-04-12 Title A name given to the resource Forsaken 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, 1992 entitled "Forsaken", as part of the series "Following Jesus,", on the occasion of Palm Sunday, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Matthew 27:46. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives